FIVE

The Money Men

The two security guards at the desk stared at us the way I stare at a burger when I finish a hunt and haven’t eaten for two days. The part about that glazed look in their eyes that bothered me was that to them, we actually could be dinner. Capital Investments employs ghouls at their security desk, because Capital Investments is run by vampires. It’s not enough to suck people dry literally, they also do it metaphorically by taking all your money and “investing it”.

Their eyes cleared up when they noticed Big John, however. While Shed does have his katana strapped to his back, it’s legitimately hard not to notice John’s bulky gear and the fact that he’s got a reputation as a one man army. The ghoul guards could call the rest of their security force down to the first floor, but that wouldn’t make it a fair fight - John would slaughter them all.

“Whaddya want” the fat one asked, trying and failing to look bored. The other’s eyes flicked between us rapidly.

“We’re looking for a girl” I began.

“Me too, heh” fatty responded, interrupting me. I stopped a moment and stared at him, giving him the opportunity to keep talking while conveying that he was wasting both our time by interrupting me. He leaned back in his chair and waited for me to continue.

“Fiery red hair, probably arrived in a huff about half an hour ago, wore a grey skirt” I finished.

They stared at us. “I dunno Bill, you see a broad like that tonight?”

“No Frank, I ain’t seen no tart in a skirt.”

It was going to be like this, then. So be it. “Have you met my friend, Big John?”. John smiled, and the two guards probably would have paled if they weren’t naturally so. Everybody has heard of Big John. When he smiles this way, it’s because he’s imagining all the various ways he can kill you right now. It’s unsettling, for most people.

“Here’s what’s going to happen” I said, to get their attention again. “You’re going to tell me where to find the girl I mentioned. I can tell by your attitude that you know exactly who I’m talking about. In exchange, Big John is not going to feed your entrails to whatever is crawling around in the alley out back”.

I learned early on in the flipside that you have to own everything you do. You walk the walk, you talk the talk, and you expect people to fall in line. They don’t always, but if that isn’t your base line you’re not going to make it very far. Think about the biggest jerk of a CEO you’ve ever read about. That’s like Level 01, if the flipside were a game. It starts with that mentality, that expectation, and only goes up from there.

Unfortunately, working at Capital Investments and carrying a gun seemed to have made an impact on Frank and Bill, because Frank responded by reaching under the desk and pressing a button. A series of clicks echoed through the lobby as the front doors bolted shut.

John’s smile grew wider as Bill - the thinner and probably faster of the two, rose and drew his pistol. None of us moved as he pointed it in our general direction, unsure of who to hold his aim on. I put my hands in my pockets and affected a yawn.

“You’d better keep that aimed at me, Billy-boy” I said, feeling the adrenaline ready to launch my body into action.

“Keep it trained on the big guy, Bill. I got these two snots” Frank said, bringing a shotgun out from under the table and heaving himself up onto his feet.

“Tsk tsk tsk” Shed said, shaking his head sadly.

“Billy, pal, if you don’t point that pistol at me, I’m going to kill you” I said. The runes on my arm began to glow, their brightness just peeking out from the cuffs of my shirt. I never said they only glowed when there was danger to me. That got Bill’s attention, and he turned his gun on me.

“Dammit Bill I sa-” Frank’s admonition was cut short with a bang, as John and quick-drawn Victoria and placed a bullet between Frank’s eyes.

I sighed. “Now the whole building knows we’re here, man”.

“It’s not like it’ll kill him, takes more than that for these freaks” he replied with a sneer. I had a sneaking suspicion he was pleased the rest of the building would have time to prepare for us. I turned back to Bill.

“Frank was stupid, Billiam. You’re doing a good job keeping that pointed at me, though, so for that I’ll extend the courtesy of asking again: Where is the girl?”

The guard looked at his partner on the floor. The desk was in the way so we couldn’t see him, but I was sure the blood had already stopped seeping out of him.

“He’ll be right as rain by morning Bilbo, don’t you worry your ugly face. Now, the girl?”

Bill licked his lips nervously, and opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately, his nerves got the better of him and he also pulled the trigger. I felt a motion on my left arm and looked down to find the sleeve of my shirt ripped, the bullet having grazed me. Blood started to soak into the fabric.

“Aw Billbur, man, this shirt was like sixty dollars!”

“Where the hell did you pay sixty dollars for a shirt? And why?” John asked, his voice raised in disbelief. The guard moved his gun to focus shakily on Big John., but John paid it no mind, looking instead at me like I was crazy. Shed simply watched Bill.

“Express for Men out at Valley West Mall” I answered with a sniff, not ashamed of my choices. One should always look their best. John rolled his eyes. I took the opportunity and dashed forward and around the desk while Bill stood stunned by our conversational back and forth, and slammed my fist into his face.

He crumpled into an unconscious heap next to Fat Frank. He wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. Having metal twisting through your bones means punches pack a… well, a punch. Shut up.

I nudged Bill’s body out of the way with my foot and clicked the space bar on Frank’s keyboard to wake up the monitor sitting on their desk. A password prompt appeared.

“Damn”. I pulled out my phone and dialed Tresch. He didn’t say anything when he picked up, but I heard the keys of a keyboard clicking furiously in the background and knew he was there.

“Hey, don’t suppose you can hack Capital Investment’s security desk can you? I need the security footage” I asked.

A moment passed, but the typing continued. “Busy at the moment. More to the job than I told you about. Can’t spare the time, trying to hold him back”.

“Who?”

“No time”. The phone went dead and I frowned.

I typed “cheeseburger” into the prompt, because it’s obvious Frank has inhaled an awful lot of those in his life. It was rejected, but it amused me to try.

“Two tries left” I mumbled.

Shed had opened the side drawer, and pulled out a sticky note. He slapped it to the monitor. It read: g00dp455w0rd

“You’ve gotta be kidding me”. I typed it in and tapped the enter button. “I can’t even…” I stated as I watched the login credentials authorize me and display eighteen live camera feeds.

I grabbed the mouse and clicked the image of the lobby where I could see the three of us standing with guards bodies at our feet, and maximized it. Once fullscreen, I was able to access the time-bar and drag it back to view previous footage. About forty minutes prior, the girl I was looking for burst through the doors. She’d slowed down to a fast walk, but made her way past Frank and Bill without a glance.

I took a look around the room. She probably made a b-line for the elevator, so I closed out of the camera pointed at us and found one pointed at the elevator. Sure enough, after dragging it back to the same time, Shed and I watched her enter the frame and hit the elevator. The resolution was awful and I couldn’t make out the numbers above the elevator - but it did catch the glow move from number to number as it moved from the upper floors to the lobby.

I sped forward a few seconds, so we could watch how many times the glow moved before stopping: fifteen times.

“Fifteenth floor” I said. Shed was already walking toward the directory next to the elevator, scanning it for which company took up that level.

“You gonna erase the footage of us and the guards?” John asked hesitantly.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“No”

“Oh, good” he smiled, relieved. I rolled my eyes and we moved to follow Shed.

“Radu & Basarab Interim Term Mutual Fund” Shed read to us.

“Oh good, a corporate Mutual Fund company. This should be fun” I responded sarcastically. Shed and John looked about as excited as I was. I pressed the up button, and we waited until the ding told us our ride was there.

“Is that… Is that Enya?” I asked as we rode the elevator. John was not bobbing his head.

“Whatever it is, I hate it” he said.

“It’s like they’re trying to lull you to sleep, or at least prep you to doze off while they go on and on about their corporate investment strategies”. The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened - level with the floor, just like they’re supposed to. At least their landlord kept maintenance up to par on their building.

“Can I help you, gentlemen?” asked a man going grey at the temples, wearing an equally gray but well tailored suit and brogues. He paused before calling us gentlemen, likely having heard the gunfire below a few minutes prior.

“We’re looking for one of your employees, girl with fiery red hair?” I asked, confident that Shed had already scanned the room for all available ambush points, and John had already worked out how to kill every single person in every single cubicle he could see. We wouldn’t be doing that, of course. Probably. Always best to be prepared, though.

“Did you have anything to do with the shots we heard earlier?” he asked, pointedly looking at Big John’s armaments.

“Yes. Capital Investment’s guards drew on us. It was self defense, or y’know. Something like that, I suppose. The security footage will show they pulled weapons on us first, anyway. In any event, they’re merely unconscious, you know how hard ghouls are to kill. So, the girl?”

He smiled politely, though it was obviously forced. “Lucy, come here please!” he called over his shoulder.

I watched a head of red pop up over a cubicle wall, about sixteen deep as she made her way through the office maze to us. She looked at him curiously, but immediately lowered her eyes to the floor when she noticed we were there.

“Yes, Mr. Price?” she asked meekly.

“These gentlemen are here looking for you, Lucy. I believe they may have some - questions, was it?” he asked, turning back to look at me.

“I didn’t say, but yes, questions” I replied. Turning to the girl, I asked “Earlier when you bumped into me. It seems you left me a present”. I held up my hand, showing the arrow-like T rune symbol.

Lucy looked between Price and I before returning her eyes to the floor. “I was paid to deliver the rune. Bumping into you was the only way I could think of to give it to you without you rejecting it. I don’t know if it’s a curse or not and I don’t know who hired me, they just paid me and I did it and I’m not sorry, I have bills to pay”. Her speech had sped up toward the end, as if she was trying to hurriedly get to the justification of her actions.

“Lucy,” Price said in an admonishing tone. “You’ve accepted payment for outside work?” Lucy seemed to shrink before him.

“Did you register an OBA with HR? Any odd jobs you take outside the company require registering Outside Business Activities. I’m going to have to write you up, Lucy” he continued, shaking his head in disappointment.

John snorted, but whether it was amusement or annoyance I wasn’t sure.

“Lucy, I’m afraid this can’t be a dead end for me, there’s too much at stake. I need to know who paid you to give me this rune. It’s likely linked to a case we’re working that will impact your business”. I didn’t elaborate on how it would impact it, but surely the stock market would be affected negatively by hundreds of thousands of souls suddenly pouring over into reality and the world figuring out that everything they ever attributed to myths and legends is real.

Price focused his attention back on me in an instant, his face moving from Lucy’s to mine faster than humanly possible. More vampires, then. His eyes held a piercing intensity, making it obvious he’d like more information on how they would be impacted.

“Suffice to say you’re going to have a lot fewer potential investors in a few days if I don’t deliver on a contract, and Lucy here is my only lead”.

“Very well” he nodded. He slapped his palm above Lucy’s eyes and her head snapped back leaving her staring slack-jawed at the ceiling. Color left her pupils as here eyes turned milky white. Price kept his palm against her forehead and muttered under his breath, as if finding his way through her memories.

She began to shake as her body fought against his invasion of her mind. Shed looked on curiously at the developments, but John and I had seen it before. When I’d taken him to New Orleans, it was to wipe out a vampire coven that was rebelling against the House that had contracted me to eliminate them and return a memory card they’d stolen.

With a snarl Price pulled his hand away from Lucy’s head as if he were burned, and she swayed slightly on her feet as her vision returned. “I have a headache” she mumbled, disoriented.

“Return to your seat and rest, Lucy. We’ll discuss your reprimand later”. She turned and shuffled off back into the cubicle maze. “Gentlemen, please come with me” Price said distastefully, his fangs slightly longer than they had been before. I lifted my right cuff as he turned, but my tattoos remained dormant. Shrugging to John and Shed, we followed after him.

Describing the office as a cubicle maze turned out to be a pretty good descriptor, as I felt a bit turned around by the time we reached the back office Price had been leading us toward. CEO was printed on a glass plaque next to the door. Price knocked, and we entered.

As our host went over to the CEO to whisper in his ear, I took in the office. Smaller than mine, but these vampires obviously had money the likes of which I could only dream of. The decor was stuck in the 1800s, but that really only meant all of the wood was incredibly solid and well polished, probably of some rare or extinct type. An actual zebra skin rug took up the middle of the office floor, and various heads - two of which were human - were mounted high up on the walls between bookshelves with what looked like legitimately ancient tomes on them. A large painting hung above and behind the CEO’s chair, depicting a field of pikes, bodies impaled on all of them. Price cleared his throat.

“Please, close the door” he instructed. John ignored him and walked up to plop himself down into one of the two leather chairs in front of the CEOs desk. He propped his feet up on the edge of the desk while I closed the door. Price’s eyes went wide and the CEO glared at him, but John just smiled.

Shed took the other seat more politely, sitting with his back straight and at attention. I stood between the two, and leaned on the wingback extension of John’s chair. The CEO, while dressed in a modern cut, custom suit, had the air of someone ancient despite his sixty some odd years appearance.

He took a breath, a conscious effort making it obvious he hadn’t actually spoken in awhile - vampires only breath to speak, after all, and addressed us.

“Mr. Price has filled me in on all that has transpired, gentlemen”. He nodded to John and Shed in turn, then focused his attention on me. “Your friend here” nodding in my direction, “has been gifted a curse, it would seem”. He spoke with a heavy Slavic accent.

John snorted again. “How can a curse be gifted? A gift is like, something good you give someone, right?”

“Unless your girlfriend calls after breaking up with you to tell you she left you a gift, and to get yourself checked out” Shed replied with a smirk, making air quotes around the last two words as he said them. John turned his lip up in distaste at the thought and looked away.

“A curse can be a gift, because a curse can be good and bad at the same time, Mr…”

“Big John” Price filled in.

“Mr. Big John. Never heard of you” the CEO responded. I raised an eyebrow, but he ignored me. “You have the mark of Tyr on you. This indicates you’re likely descended of Tyr, one of Odin’s sons”.

“I thought Thor was Odin’s son?” John interjected before I could really react to the CEO’s claim.

“Where did you come to the conclusion that Tyr isn’t also a son?” Mr. Price asked him. The CEO flicked his gaze over to John.

“Those Thor movies” John replied. “It’s Thor and Loki, though Loki isn’t really a natural son I guess”.

Shed and I joined the CEO and Price in a collective sigh. I shook my head. “Read a book, bro”.

The CEO turned his eyes back to me. His head and body hadn’t really moved this whole time, and despite my having known about vampires for a few years now, it was still very strange. Uncanny valley, I think is what they call the feeling.

“It’s likely that you will grow in power, or come into some kind of ability the rune will unlock in your blood. However, I suggest you read all you can on Tyr, and what he did for the world. The fact that only one hand is marked, is telling, and the mutt is loose”.

We waited, but it looked like he may not be giving us much more to go on than that.

“The CEO is very busy, gentlemen” Price stated, clearly indicating that it was time to go.

“We’ve overstayed our welcome” I said to John, placing a hand on his shoulder as he was about to argue with Price. It was enough information now, another lead to follow. Obviously researching Tyr would tell me something, if I left myself open to the information. That, and I was starting to get the impression that this CEO was much older than I initially thought. Where had I seen the names Radu and Basarab before?

“But we haven’t killed anyone yet” John grumbled, getting to his feet. “Not that you guys deserve killing or anything, being polite and all” he added, looking at Price and the CEO. They just stared at him, waiting for us to leave.

“Feel free to take out your frustrations on Lucy, she caused this for you after all” Price said as we exited the CEOs office room.

Shed looked at me, but John spoke up first. “She was just a delivery girl, we’re not monsters” he said, stressing the last word as he looked over his shoulder at Price to make a smoochy face. The vampire just smiled coldly. While Big John was well known for causing mayhem with all kinds of jobs, he’d gotten his start as a Vampire Hunter and I could tell that Price knew his name.

“Probably best to head for the Library. How the hell do we get out of here?” I asked no one in particular, looking out at the sea of cubicles and seeing no direct path to the elevator at the far end.

“You!” John said, drawing Pedro and pointing it at a wiry young and pale kid whose badge indicated he was an intern. “Show us the way to the elevator”. The kid bared his fangs and hissed, clearly unaware of who he was standing up to and unafraid of Pedro.

“Kyle, show them the way please” Mr. Price said from the CEO’s doorway, clearly annoyed at the scene, though it was unclear if he was annoyed the way we were acting, or Kyle. Manners are a particular concern of vampires the older they get, but their idea of what constitutes good manners were often odd.

“Yes sir” the kid said, closing his mouth and taking the lead. We followed, and I felt depressed looking at all the dead faces (no pun intended) carrying out their monotonous duties at their computers. I wanted to get back to the street and back to the task at hand. Corporate offices drain the energy right out of me.

The elevator let us back out into the lobby, and John made a point of walking over to Fat Frank’s body to kick it a few times for good measure.

“Asshole” John muttered, taking a few quick strides to catch up to us at the door.

“Oh, right” he said with a snort as I tried to push the door open and found it still bolted shut. John jogged back over to the computer, spent a moment fiddling with the mouse, and then smiled as he walked back over to us. A few loud clicks later, and the doors swung open to freedom once more. Cool, fresh air revitalized me as I breathed it in, stepping out into the crisp, dark night. The streetlight out front continued to flicker as it had when we arrived, as if it would go out at any moment and plunge us into darkness but never delivering on the threat.

“Alright” I nodded once confidently. “To the library”. Shed followed a step behind as usual, but John picked up the pace. The Library here on the flipside was dangerous, and that meant he may find some fun there. A wolf howled in the distance, but we paid it no mind. The flipside is full of all kinds of monsters.

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