Four figures, three female and one male, sat in the back corner of a coffee shop. Given the beauty and general attractiveness of each of them, it would have been easy to mistake the group for being models or actors. Or even to believe that one observing them had fallen through a dimensional rift into the world of film or television where such stunning features could be found randomly wherever they went.
Four ridiculously attractive figures. Four Seosten. Sariel, Jophiel, and Larees were the females. The male was Mercury. He was the one who spoke first, after taking a sip of coffee with his eyes on the nearby window. “I guess it’s almost like old times, huh?”
“For some of you,” Larees pointed out before taking a gulp of her own cup. It was only about half-coffee, while she had filled the rest of it from her trusty flask. Swallowing hard, the spikey-haired woman added, “Some of us weren’t actually on that spiffy ship of yours.”
“It’s too bad,” Jophiel noted, her own expression somewhat distracted. “We probably could’ve used another one of your… people.” She nodded slightly toward the younger Seosten’s face, where the blue-green phoenix tattoo normally was. It had been magically hidden for the moment to avoid drawing even more attention. “Could’ve been useful to have you around.”
“Another?” Larees asked with a raised eyebrow. Her hand snapped out to catch hold of a biscotti from the middle of the table before popping it directly into her mouth.
“Esconeas,” Sariel replied. “He was another from your group. His partner was a Laevok.” That was a creature about the size of a large moose, with an armored, tank-like shell fashioned similarly to an armadillo that covered a body that was very similar to one of Earth’s predator cats. It was a tiger with an armored shell it could retract or expand at will. Often it would use that by capturing its prey with the shell down, then raise it to trap the target inside the shell to be eaten.
Larees nodded with a smirk. “That’s Esconeas alright. Never met the guy, he was before my time. But I’ve seen the holos. Pretty fierce fighter, from what I saw, and what others said.”
“Sounds like Esconeas to me,” Mercury confirmed. He shifted in his seat, his attention clearly focused somewhere off in the past. “Big guy, big temper. But useful to have around. Had some good jokes too. He was fun.” Heaving a sigh, he added, “Gonna suck if we have to fight him.”
Jophiel spoke up, her gaze laser focused on the table in front of them. “I don’t care who we have to fight. If it turns out our people actually are the ones behind taking Elisabet, I will destroy all of them.” Her voice was dark, yet also very slightly hesitant through part of that before she pushed on. She really wasn’t accustomed to talking about her true feelings for her host/partner in front of others. Sariel had convinced her that they needed help if they were going to actually find out what happened to Elisabet, so she had agreed to bring in Mercury and Larees. But it was still a new thing, and she had made it very clear what she would do to them if the story got out.
“Right, guess that’s us back on track,” Larees noted. “How’s our guy doing?” She was looking at the window once more, toward a tall office building across the street with various people in suits moving in and out of it now and then. There was a sign on the front near the doors denoting it as ‘Lannery Towers’ along with a list of the companies who kept offices inside the building.
Sariel wasn’t looking at the building. She had a small hand mirror out, with which she was watching the view through the Lannery Towers’ security cameras that had been enchanted earlier that day. “Still in his meeting,” she murmured. “Looks like it’s about to wrap up, though.”
“Time to move out, then,” Mercury announced while pushing himself up. “We’re all clear on how this goes? No one needs to check the notes again? Nobody has to pee? Cuz this operation is going to fall completely apart if someone has to pee in the middle of it.”
Unamused, Jophiel grunted, “Just do your job and don’t screw it up. Understand?”
He gave her a brief salute, before turning on his heel to head out. Larees was just behind him, while Sariel stayed back a bit, her attention on Jophiel. “I know this is hard. But–”
“Is there a reason you didn’t involve Lucif–Apollo?” Jophiel cut her off, looking that way. “Or did you ask him, and he turned you down? Because I can’t see you not involving him. Though I suppose you did let him go off without you for a pretty long time.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the woman winced. “I mean…” She sighed then, looking uncomfortable. “Right, I’m sorry to put it like that. I am curious about why he’s not here, but I didn’t mean to make it… confrontational. And I didn’t mean to imply that you were–”
“I understand,” Sariel informed her quickly, “And he’s busy, as you know.”
Jophiel gave a slight nod. “Of course. But we could have timed this to take place either before or after that little… mission. The distraction is not absolutely necessary. Which makes me wonder if you wanted it to take place now so that he would have an excuse to not participate in this one.”
“That’s not it,” Sariel assured her. “He helped with some planning, and he would have come in to help. But I told him not to, because the time and effort for this is… a lot. He needed to focus on the plan to save Sean and the other prisoners.” She shrugged then. “We don’t know what might happen on either our mission or theirs. Security might be raised, so better to do this before they change too much from what you know about. Doing all this at the same time is the right call, and Apollo is exactly where he needs to be to get Sean out.”
For a moment, the two Seosten women stared at one another, before Jophiel quietly noted, “If there was a way for Elisabet and I to have gotten the boy out without blowing our cover… I believe we would have, even if simply for the points it would have gained us in the eyes of our students. Not that our cover seems to have done us much good in this situation.”
“We don’t know what happened yet,” Sariel reminded the woman, putting a hand out to rest on her arm. “Have you actually spoken to Metatron, or anyone else in command?”
Jophiel gave a slight nod. “There was a message from him in one of the drop points. It said to report to an address in Chicago to give an explanation of what happened to my host. I was supposed to be there two days ago. I sent a messenger that I have the situation under control, but can’t report in yet. I’m sure he’s not happy about it, but I’m not leaving before I find Elisabet and get to the bottom of just what happened.”
“And it could have been a trap,” Sariel noted, getting a nod from the woman. “He’ll probably start sending people after you. They won’t just let another of us defect. Especially one of your level.”
“Let him send whoever he wants to.” The words came with a gaze that had turned hard. “I might be able to get answers out of them about how much the old man knows. Or suspects.”
With a brief look of understanding between the two, they moved out. Sariel took a moment to drop a twenty dollar tip in the jar for the time they had taken, before they emerged from the coffee shop to the street where Larees and Mercury were already waiting. The four stood facing the office building across from them, while cars and people passed steadily by.
“Well,” Mercury started in a low, somewhat drawling voice, “what are we waiting for?
“Let’s do this.”
*******
Larees
The pale woman with short, spiky hair that was black with blue tips strode through the alley. “Hey!” she called out, holding up an outstretched hand with cash in it. “Hey buddy!”
With a snort and a cough, the homeless man laying on his side jolted awake. He blinked blearily at her, frowning. “I didn’t fucking do nothing,” he grumbled, “just tryin’ sleep. Ain’t you got no–”
“Look, shut up,” Larees interrupted impatiently. “I don’t have time for it. You want this?” She held her hand up in front of his face, showing him five one hundred dollar bills. When he went to snatch the cash, she brought it out of his reach. “Not yet. I need to borrow you first.”
The homeless man squinted at that, his eyes still a bit bleary and bloodshot. “Borrow? The hell is this, some kinda day labor thing? Cuz if it’s prostitution, I’m–” He burped, loudly. “I’m pretty sure you’re confused about how that whole thing is supposed to go.”
With a soft sigh, Larees shook her head. “It’s not prostitution. Kind of day labor. I just need to borrow your body for a few minutes.”
Her words earned a squint from the dirty, drunk man. “Sounds a lot like prostitution to me. But whatever floats your boat, princess.” He reached down to start undoing his pants right there in the alley, in broad daylight. “Just gimme a second to get m’self up to the task, and we’ll start–”
That was as far as the man got before Larees sighed and grabbed his arm. A second later, she had disappeared, possessing him. His body jerked once, falling back against the wall before she took control of it.
Wha–what the fuck?! the man blurted inside his own head.
Don’t worry, Larees assured him. I’d explain it, but you wouldn’t remember anyway. Here, short version. I need to pilot your body for a few minutes. You won’t be in too much danger and I’ll eject from you if anything happens. You also won’t remember any of this afterward. You’ll wake up after that with the money I offered you and no memory of how you got it. Say no right now and I’ll find someone else to help. Say yes and I’ll put you into a… let’s call it a dream. The next thing you know, you’ll be five hundred dollars richer. Choose now.
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Ahh, body snatcher lady, the man hesitantly replied, if’n this is actually real, then five hundred bucks is five hundred bucks. But I want something else too.
This had better not have anything to do with prostitution, Larees warned him sharply.
Nah, nah, nothing like that, he assured her, having adjusted remarkably quickly to the whole situation. It’s just, I dunno if I’m dreaming or if you’re really in my head. But if this is real, I figure you can do more than five hundred. Not more money, a ahhh, help getting a job. You help me get cleaned up and get a job, and you can drive me around any time you want.
Larees paused for a moment. She hesitated, then poked through the man’s subconscious for just a moment, to see how serious he was. It was an invasion, but she tried not to look too far. In the end, she simply replied, Deal, it might not be immediately, but I’ll see what I can do.
Well then, pretty lady, the man replied, you said something about me going into a dream? Could I make a request?
Don’t worry, I can read your mind, Larees assured him. And I think you’ll enjoy this. With those words, she shifted the man’s consciousness over to the dream scenario she had built up for him, before focusing on the mission at hand. Lannery Towers was across the street and down a short distance. Reaching down to grab the nearby bottle, she made the man take a swig of it before heading out. Through the magical Seosten connection the four of them had set up, she reported, Got him. On my way to position.
*******
Sariel
Striding toward the main entrance of the office building, Sariel carefully timed her approach to coincide with that of a man in a crisp, dark blue suit carrying a briefcase in one hand. Seeing her near the doors, the man slowed, tugging one open before standing aside with an easy smile.
She returned it gratefully, quietly thanking him while stepping into the doorway. Her hand brushed across his arm faintly.
And then she was gone, possessing him. Yet she didn’t take control. She didn’t read his memory, didn’t do anything aside from sit in the back of his mind. The man, stopping short as the woman in front of him disappeared, gave a soft gasp of confusion. Then that was gone too, as the Bystander Effect removed the memory of her disappearing. To the man’s recollection, she had simply passed through and kept going. He shrugged to himself, wondering which office the pretty woman had business in, before dismissing her entirely in the span of a couple of seconds as he stepped through the door and let it close behind him.
There were locked gates with ID readers about halfway through the spacious lobby, with security guards at a desk nearby. One of the guards looked up as Sariel’s ride walked by, greeting him by name with a slight wave, which the man himself returned. His card found its way to his hand, and he flashed it in front of the scanner, which beeped as the gate opened for him. He passed through and headed for the bank of elevators at the end of the room with a few others. Together, the small group waited for the next lift to appear before stepping onto it.
Five people were in the elevator. Then six, as Sariel simply stepped out of the man she had possessed to get through security. The appearance of her glowing form resolving into her solid self drew a few startled gasps as everyone’s attention spun to her before just as quickly disappearing entirely as they too forgot what they had seen. To them, she had always been there. One of the men gave her a brief nod before turning his attention to the doors as they opened. He and one of the other men got out, while Sariel and the others continued on.
Eventually, the rest of the people, including the man she had used to get past security, stepped off, leaving Sariel alone on the elevator as it reached the floor she wanted. Once there, she waited for the doors to open, then held them while glancing at her magic mirror. Through the security cameras, she could see the meeting had indeed broken up. Her target was heading for the elevators now, flanked by no less than three bodyguards and two assistants. All six were Heretics. The man Sariel had been watching was one of the Committee’s top aides, here at Lannery Towers in his guise as an ordinary businessman to keep real, tangible money flowing.
Each of the six Heretics wore glasses of some kind, the bodyguards sunglasses and the others normal ones. Except not normal. Because the glasses were the reason Sariel and the others had to do this whole runaround, subtle thing to begin with. The glasses were linked to the security room in the Committee’s headquarters, allowing people there to monitor everything they saw. Lately, every time someone linked so closely to the Committee went out in public like this where they could be vulnerable, they and everyone connected to them wore the glasses. It meant that not only could Sariel and the others not depend on the Bystander Effect to erase the memories of the Heretics watching their targets if they happened to see, but even actively possessing and erasing their memories wouldn’t work, because they couldn’t do anything about the people sitting in the security office at the Committee headquarters watching everything.
They had to be subtle. Hence, this plan. Sariel waited until the group were approaching, then held the door and glanced out as if just noticing them. “Going down?” she asked pleasantly.
The men barely gave her a passing glance, enough to ensure (to their senses) that she wasn’t a Stranger or a threat. One by one, they stepped onto the elevator. As planned, given the routine the Seosten had noticed, the Committee’s aide held a large cup of coffee with a lid, and a tiny hole to sip it through. He took a sip then, after giving her a nod before turning to face the doors. The men, as a whole, dismissed her, though she had no doubt that their senses would pick up any actual threatening moves.
So, she made none. Instead, Sariel linked her hands behind her head and leaned back against the wall. One of the men glanced her way, saw what she was doing, and turned back once more, wary for any trouble.
With two fingers, Sariel produced a tiny, barely visible pill. She glanced up toward the corner of the elevator opposite her, then to the wall next to it, and finally to her target. With the tiniest, imperceptible flick of her wrist, she threw the pill toward that corner. It bounced from there to the wall, rebounded backward, and fell, completely unnoticed, through the tiny sipping hole in the cup. There, it would immediately dissolve, entirely tasteless.
Without noticing a thing, the Heretic took another couple sips of his coffee while the elevator continued. By the first floor, however, he called for a stop, saying he needed to use the restroom. The group piled off, and they all, sans Sariel, headed that way.
Coming your way, Mercury, she sent through their communication connection. Hope you’re ready.
*******
Mercury
Possessing a man to get through the ordinary security wasn’t hard. Mercury simply waited for someone to be going in, hitched a ride, then directed him to the restroom before stepping out once he was there. Nodding to the man who had unknowingly taken him into the building, he stepped into a nearby stall and waited.
Before too long, the report from Sariel came, and Mercury moved. His hand touched a spell he had drawn on the nearby wall, activating it to turn himself invisible to pretty much any sense so long as he remained relatively still or moved slowly. A second later, two of the Heretic bodyguards entered. They held up an orb, activating the spell on it. Mercury felt it tingle against him. The spell would immediately disable any stealth abilities or magic being used to hide someone, revealing them.
Well, for most people it would immediately disable them. Mercury’s Olympian power allowed him to extend, delay, or quicken effects like that. He delayed it, forcing the effect not to take place just yet. The men glanced through the room, made a thorough check, then left. Their boss, clearly wanting privacy, came in then and made a beeline for the nearest stall.
Mercury let the man do his business. It was only polite. As he heard his target finishing up, he slowly eased himself down to the floor. His stealth spell was about to run out, and he carefully reached out. The man in the other stall stood up, and opened the door just as Mercury’s hand found his foot. His stealth spell ran out, but by that point, he was already possessing the man.
He didn’t take control just then. Not yet. Instead, he sat in the back of the man’s mind, letting him walk them back out of the restroom to meet up with the rest of his entourage as they returned to the elevators and descended the rest of the way to the parking garage.
*******
Jophiel
Waiting outside the building, near the entrance into the parking garage, Jophiel watched the street. Her eyes scanned the approaching cars before she saw the one in question. Spending so much time as part of the Committee, she knew all the vehicles that belonged to them. There, she sent to Larees, the dark green Range Rover.
She watched then, as Larees, in the form of the homeless man she had possessed, approached that side of the street. The vehicle in question slowed to avoid running over ‘him’, and she directed her host to hurriedly go up to the windshield to start cleaning it with her rag and the spray bottle of cleanser she had picked up. Jophiel walked past, hearing the homeless man’s voice rambling apologies and promising to do a good job, a great job, at cleaning up the car while the lone driver repeatedly said that it wasn’t necessary.
What he didn’t see, of course, was Larees using one hand to attach a small metal disc to the vehicle that would silently disable all of the security sensors on it. As soon as that was done, Jophiel reversed course, walking toward the vehicle while activating the spell on her jacket that would turn her invisible, immediately removing her from the memories of any nearby Bystanders.
By that point, the Heretic was getting out of the Range Rover. He pulled a couple twenty dollar bills from his pocket, handing them to Larees’ host while politely but firmly telling him to step away from the car. Not needing or wanting to push things, Larees did so, stepping back just as Jophiel reached the man. He seemed to feel something behind him, turning right when Jophiel put a hand on his back.
She was possessing him then, immediately taking over while shunting the Heretic’s consciousness into dreamland. There wasn’t time to be gentle or polite about it. “Get in,” she ordered Larees, before stepping back to the driver’s seat.
The driver wasn’t wearing the glasses connecting him to the Committee security room, so there was less need for subtlety. So, Larees simply stepped out of her host. She put a handful of more cash into his hands, thanked the thoroughly confused-looking man, and stepped into the back of the car, settling herself into one of the seats. Jophiel waited just long enough for the man to notice how much money he was holding and give a startled, yet shocked yip of surprise before pulling away to guide the vehicle through the entrance and down into the garage. There, she parked near the entrance. A moment later, the door opened and Sariel stepped down into the seat beside her.
The call from Mercury came a moment later, prompting Sariel and Larees to activate their own invisibility spells, just as the Heretics emerged. One of the bodyguards stopped by the door, asking, “All that’s good?”
It was a passphrase. Reading her host’s mind, Jophiel gave the positive return code. “Sparkles as gold.”
That was enough. The doors opened and the men began to get in. Of course, two of those seats were occupied by invisible Seosten. But Sariel and Larees simply waited for the Heretics to almost sit on them, then reached up to touch their backs, possessing the figures in the midst of sitting down.
Mercury was possessing the Committee’s aide, Jophiel their driver, and Sariel and Larees two of the bodyguards. Together, the four exchanged brief glances, while the people around them remained blissfully unaware. Then Jophiel shifted the car into drive, pulled away from the curb, and headed out of the garage.
It was time to get into the Committee’s offices and find out exactly what happened to Elisabet.