“Successfully?” Sly asked.

Indi nodded and she turned back to open the now accessible files. She picked a random folder and random file.

A face she recognised popped up in the corner of her screen. It was surrounded by text. It looked like a legal document of some kind, a lease or right to occupy or something like that. It had obviously been photocopied with the photo on top. Smiling back at her from the screen was Lily’s father.

“Hey! I know him,” Sly remarked as he stepped up behind her to have a look.

Indi turned to look at him in surprise. “You know him?!”

“Yeah, well not personally, but I know of him. He’s a politician in Mercy. Lost his wife and daughter in a car accident a few months back. It was in the paper.”

“In Mercy?”

“Yeah, isn’t that what I just said?”

“Necromancy’s illegal there.”

Sly frowned. “Necromancy’s illegal in most places.”

“Yeah but it’s like extra illegal there.” Indi licked her lips in thought and then she turned to Sly and explained. “The last job I worked on. This guy, he was there. He had this facility. He was leasing it by the looks of it.” She turned back to the computer and skimmed some of the rest of the document and noted the other name on the agreement. “Do you know an Argo Mortimer?”

Sly nodded. He peered over her shoulder. “He’s another politician I believe. I don’t think they’re in the same department though.”

“The same department?” Indi had very little knowledge about the government in Mercy operated. All she knew was that it was very different to how things were done here in the Greenstone Valley. Mercy was one of the largest and most modern cities on the continent. Only a few days drive from the Greenstone Valley if you wanted to avoid teleportation but a whole world away in terms of culture and governance. Indi had visited once when she was very young. All she remembered was that it had been so big and full of more people than one could ever imagine. And all the tech, even back then, had been cutting edge. She’d always wanted to go back.

Sly nodded. “Mercy has independent departments, each with their own set of concerns, like education, security, the environment, finance, diplomatic relations, et cetera. Each department has it’s own independent elections but they also have a hierarchy, sub departments, head departments, and agreements which require a certain amount of cooperation between different departments. Certain departments outrank others, and then there are departments of departments.”

Indi narrowed her eyes at him, not sure if he was messing with her or not.

Sly smiled. “You think that sounds crazy, I think at one point they even had a department of meetings to set regulations around how many meetings other departments could have and who had to be at each meeting. And a timekeeping department, a parliamentary bathroom usage department, even a toy poodle department.”

“Now I know you’re messing with me.”

Sly shook his head. He laughed but it was his standard laugh, not his teasing laugh. “No, I’m serious, although the poodle department was pretty low down. They handled regulations for dog shows and stuff. People in Mercy love their dog shows. Anyway,”—he nodded at the screen—“what does this Cornelius fella have to do with necromancy.”

Indi gave him a serious look. “Because he tried to bring back his kid and wife.”

“No kidding?” Sly studied Indi’s expression a moment and then he frowned. “Doesn’t that require blood sacrifices?”

Indi nodded. “And we were supposed to be it. Us and a whole bunch of others who weren’t so lucky.”

Sly’s expression darkened and for a moment Indi could feel his emotions chill the room. Then he regained his control and the heaviness lifted. The look on his face did not.

“This was one of Coal’s jobs?” he asked.

Indi nodded and rapidly spoke. “But as you can see, I’m perfectly fine. We all are, our group at least, well, except for the small thing where we now have his necromancied kid and the father, Cornelius, is nowhere to be seen.”

Sly stared at Indi speechless for a a full four seconds. “Indi! People have been hung for less than offenses than hiding potential zombies.”

“We don’t know if she’s going to turn.”

“When was she resurrected? Because if you tell me it was in the last few weeks... Indi, I remember what date that car accident happened. There’s no way the guy pulled off a lasting necromancy that long after a death.”

“The cops do it all the time, sometimes even for victims who are decades old.”

“Temporarily, not permanently, and usually by professionals, sorcerers in most cases. Indi, that sort of thing is very hard to do. I tried it once. Getting information out of a corpse is like... well like getting information out of a corpse.”

Indi frowned. “You tried it once?”

Sly ignored her question. “For a regular necro to pull off...”

“He didn’t have a regular necro.”

“If you’re trying to tell me that a politician from Mercy, an aristocrat, and a sorcerer were all working together, I’m going to go and buy shares in the snail fighting business because that sounds like the start of a bad joke.”

“He didn’t have a sorcerer.”

Sly stared at her in silence.

Indi glanced at the floor and bit her lip. “He didn’t use a necromancer at all.”

She heard Sly laugh. When she glanced up at him, he was giving her a sympathetic look.

“Indi...”

“He had a lot of sacrifices.”

That reply didn’t seem to appease Sly. He was giving her more of a concerned look by the minute.

“She’s not a zombie yet. What would you have us do, just kill her?” Indi’s voice rose in pitch.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Sly shook his head. “You should hand her over to the authorities.”

“They’re useless.” Indi rolled her eyes.

“I don’t mean Little Rock authorities, or even the Emerald city. I mean, call in someone from Mercy or Myst. They have protocols for this kind of thing.”

“You don’t think they’d kill her?” Indi asked, genuinely unsure of the answer. The others hadn’t suggested it and she figured that had been for a good reason but maybe it hadn’t, maybe they just hadn’t thought of it.

Sly started to shake his head and opened his mouth to reply but then he hesitated. His eyes looked past her at the computer screen. He nodded at it. “What else is in the data you decoded?”

Indi and Sly spent the next couple of hours going through the files.

“So what exactly was the job you were hired to do?” Sly asked after stifling a yawn. He was seated on the couch now, his own laptop open on his lap and a copy of the decrypted files on it.

Indi spun her computer chair to face him. “Coal said, ‘play along with what they want and figure out what they are doing.’ He wasn’t very specific, other than that they had some creature on the loose. He often isn’t. But, I mean, that’s clients in general right? Like the other day, I had this one guy, he wanted a shopping trolley feature added to his website, which is fine, except I asked him what what sort of things he was planning on selling and he said he didn’t know, he just thought it would be a useful feature to have. He owns a cafe, which, I suppose there are things which one could sell online but he-”

“So Coal didn’t know? What Cornelius was doing.”

“I don’t think so. We told him most of what we found, but not that we have the girl.”

Sly was quiet for a moment. “He had to know who Cornelius was.”

“Maybe.”

Sly shook his head. “There’s no way he wouldn’t. He’s an aristocrat. His lifestyle and probably his life depends on knowing that sort of thing.”

“You said the guy was in a less important department?”

“Mmm, but not poodles. Transport I think, teleportation regulation. He’s been in the news a bit lately. People have been getting a bit antsy over some proposed policy. Don’t you follow the news?”

Indi shook her head. “The news is depressing, inaccurate, and it’s mostly just the same stuff recycled over and over. Falco tells me if anything important is actually happening.” She shrugged. “I have some sites I check occasionally but they don’t really report on stuff that’s happening in Mercy. Also there’s this one local paper that pretty much just reports on happy stories. I skim that occasionally and their crosswords are fun.”

“Hmm.” Sly’s gaze shifted toward their kitchen table which was piled high with an array of newspapers and other assorted magazines and paperwork. “Do you guys ever use your kitchen table.”

Indi followed his gaze. “We mostly eat at the island.”

“Mmm.” Sly stifled another yawn.

Indi glanced at the time. “Oh Gods! It’s late. I should show you where you’re sleeping and give you a quick tour.”

Sly nodded as he yawned again. He held up a finger. “Just one thing. Maybe I was wrong before, about contacting Mercy or bringing the sorcerers into this.”

“Why?”

“Well, you have a mid-level politician from Mercy purchasing fodder from an aristocrat, to be used in a necromancy ritual, without a necromancer, in a hidden research facility in neutral territory. That’s a lot of dirty work for a clean politician.”

Indi frowned. "A clean politician?"

"Yeah, but that's Mercy's whole image ain't it. The city without sin."

Indi looked at him doubtfully.

“Don’t get me wrong, there’s corruption there, not to mention few other issues with that city depending on one’s preferences, but relatively speaking, Mercy has one of the lowest rates of corruption of anywhere on this continent. Compare it to the Greenstone Valley where deals between the aristocrats and the local councils are basically a standard part of government. They don’t even hide it, or Myst where magic might makes right.”

Indi shifted uncomfortably. She hated too much political talk. “We should do what Myst does but for intelligence instead of magic.”

“Mmm, if only intelligence guaranteed kindness.” Sly retorted. “And in a way, Myst does do that. Entry requirements for sorcerers do involve intelligence tests. One could say the same for aristocrats. Even with the hefty dose of nepotism and inheritance, stupid aristocrats don’t often survive into adulthood. Unfortunately there’s a heavy selection toward ruthlessness there too. Thing is, Mercy does a good job, generally speaking, of not letting their elite get away with shit like this and everyone knows he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. It was all over the news, so how did he think he was going to explain them suddenly turning up alive again?”

“Hide them away somewhere?” Indi suggested.

Sly shook his head then he shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s not ideal. Why did he ask an aristocrat for help? And why just for sacrifices? Why not for a necromancer? Most of these names here,”—Sly pointed at his computer—“the other sacrifices, they have criminal records in Mercy. That’s not unusual, prisoner trading is common there, but if he’d already bought this many, why branch out to the Greenstone Valley?”

“Wolf said, the more powerful the sacrifice the better the spell works. People in Mercy aren’t as powerful and the sorcerers would never go for something like this.”

“Mmm, okay, but why not a necromancer?”

Indi shrugged. “He couldn’t find one?”

Sly shook his head. “Any aristocrat worth half his salt can find a necromancer for the right price.”

“Maybe it was too expensive?”

“Possible, but I think he went to an aristocrat for another reason. Maybe he was looking for a scapegoat, a way to disappear with his family, someone to blame. Who knows? Anyway,”—Sly stretched his arms up—“I’d suggest you don’t go mentioning this stuff to anyone else until you know what the guy’s plans were. It’s the sort of thing that could cause trouble between regions. Especially considering the other experiments detailed in these documents. This sort of information could destabilise the government in Mercy.”

“If the government’s got corruption in it maybe a little destabilising wouldn’t be so bad for them?”

Sly shook his head. “A lot of the freedom we have in the Greenstone valley depends on the continued existence and balance of those three groups. The sorcerers, the aristocrats, and the politicians. As long as there are three powers, two of them can always join together to keep the stronger one in check, but if any one of them should ever fall, there’s much less motivation to work together on things or to cater to the desires of the people within their regions. And Mercy’s been in a delicate state lately. The blood protests are occurring even in her streets. It’s not so bad in the Greenstone Valley, occasional chaos and differing opinions define us, but in Mercy it’s really not a good sign. Permanent peace is a big part of what they sell that city on.”

Indi yawned but not because she was tired. She was bored of political discussion. She wanted to get back to reading about the research they’d been doing at the facility before Cornelius had taken it over. Some of it was truly horrific. Horrific but fascinating.

Sly didn’t miss a thing. As Indi yawned, he glanced at his watch again. “Right, well I’m sure I’ve bored you enough for one night.”

“You’re not boring me.”

“Uh huh.” Sly returned her an amused smile.

“I’ll um, show you to your room. Got you a bed and everything. Quick tour first though.”

Sly nodded. He stretched, then he followed Indi toward the hallway. “A bed sounds grand. I slept in the car last night. Had to bail on a really nice hotel room last minute. They gave me some credit though. Hotel Grush if you’re ever in Mercy and looking for somewhere to stay. Just give them my name, tell em you’re my sister.”

She gave him a quick tour of the upstairs, then led him downstairs. The guest room was directly beneath the living room.

“So what happened between you and Sara?” Indi asked as they crossed the garage toward the downstairs rooms. Her car was still at Cat’s.

“Oh that, well.” Sly ran one hand through his hair, messing up its tidiness. “I cheated on her.”

“You what?” Indi stopped walking at tuned to face him.

Sly now looked more tired than he had all night.

“Just the once?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter.”

Indi continued leading him toward the guest room. “With who?”

“An old flame, someone you don’t know.”

“Did you try apologizing?”

At the look on Sly’s face when she glanced back she added, “Did you get a boom box and play it outside her window? Something romantic like ‘I Can’t Live Without You.’”

“That only works in the movies Indi.”

“Oh... well...”

“Where’s your car?”

“Um... it’s at the garage.”

“What for?”

“Cracked window.” Indi paused at the entrance to the guest room and turned back to gesture him in first.

He was eyeing her closely.

She made her eyes big and wide and forced herself to think of anything but that trip to the blood bank.

“Hmm.” Sly was frowning.

“So this is your room.” Indi turned away and gestured to it, speaking before he could get any more questions in. “And the bathroom’s just down there.” She pointed further along the hallway toward a room under the stairs. “Help yourself to anything.”

“Thanks Indi.”

They hugged each other good night and then Indi returned upstairs. It might be late for Sly but Indi still had time for a little more research.