God Hammer: A novel of the Demon Accords (21 page)

“We should go looking for him,” Tanya said for the third time.

“Let’s give him a half hour more,” I replied.  She gave me the
you’re dead wrong
stare and my phone buzzed.

I looked down, then back up, unable to keep the triumphant look off my face.  “It’s Declan.  Says he’s on his way back.  Got caught in a storm and didn’t dare pull his phone out to check his messages,” I told the two vampires in front of me.

“Storm?  I didn’t see any rain predicted for this afternoon or evening?” Lydia asked.

“So the weather people were wrong—that’s never happened before,” I said back to her.

“Oh the sass!  And doesn’t he have one of those waterproof cases?” Lydia pressed.

“What are you, the phone Gestapo?  The fact that the message didn’t show as delivered backs him, oh cynical one,” I said.

“Enough.  This pseudo-sibling bickering was cute once upon a time, but that was long ago.  Declan responded, he says he’s on his way back, and we’ve stuff to organize,” Tanya said.

“Grouchy. So you really want to let all those interns loose in Plasma?” Lydia asked.

“Yeah, they’ve been working hard and Plasma is controlled, protected territory,” Tanya said.  “How much trouble could they get into?”

A couple hours later provided the answer: a lot.

Most of the interns were under twenty-one, but a number of them were foreign and legal to drink in their own countries.  And a handful were older—seniors and grad students.  Tanya hadn’t felt it necessary to forbid the older ones from drinking; it was supposed to be a night out, after all.  But I don’t think she understood the older ones would supply the younger ones, who were only too happy to let loose in one of the most exclusive nightclubs anywhere on the globe.  If Plasma had been popular before the events in Washington, it was off the charts now.

So we had a bunch of excited college kids, let loose in a dark nightclub with legal-age friends whose VIP wristbands provided free alcohol.

“So this is what New Yorkers do for fun?” Declan asked me as he half-dragged a partially passed out intern upright on the sofa in our sitting area.

“I think this is what people in almost every city on the planet do for fun,” Lydia answered, handing a bottle of water to another intern.  “What, you don’t see the attraction?” she asked him.

“I’m a witch.  Alcohol is not really a great idea for us.  Actually, any drug is a bad idea. Never can tell how they’re going to react with our body chemistry.  Plus, who wants a drunk witch?” he asked, turning to watch some of the dancers out on the floor.

“Yeah, no shit.  People would be turning into frogs everywhere,” she said.

“Damn right,” he agreed, still watching the dancers.  Grace was out there with her roommates and from the looks of it, all three had found a friendly source for cocktails.  A second later, said source showed up in the form of a weaving Simon, who casually draped his arms around Aleesha and Grace, leaning in to whisper in first one girl’s ear and then the other’s, making them both giggle.

“Although some people should probably spend time as frogs just on general principles,” Declan said, watching Simon.

“Could you do it?” Lydia asked.

He turned to look at her, maybe to see if she was serious.  She was.  He shrugged.

“Sorrow has a spell for it.  All his other spells have worked. I’d need some DNA from both the victim and the frog.”

“But it could be trying to trick you?” she asked.

“There is that, but really, what would be the trick?  You’re talking about transforming someone into an amphibian,” he said.

“Maybe the spell is permanent?” Lydia pointed out.

“And you’re saying that’s bad?” he asked.

“Uh-oh, we gotta watch this one… he’s going over to the dark side,” Lydia said to me.

“Well—they have cookies,” he said with a sigh as he pulled the drunk back upright for the third time.

A swirl of jasmine and lilac announced my vampire’s arrival.  “Looks like this worked a little too well,” Tanya noted. She wasn’t happy.  Having grown up as a vampire had left her sheltered from the antics of today’s kids.  I think she was honestly surprised and disappointed in them.  None of the rest of us were all that shocked.

“Wanna shut it down?” I asked.

“What I want to do is sober them all up,” she said.

“You could put a teeny bit of blood into a cocktail and then pour them all shots,” Lydia suggested.

“And then they would all feel awesome with absolutely no repercussions,” Tanya said, shaking her head.

“Sorrow’s got a potion that would do it,” Declan suggested.  “It flushes all the alcohol and toxins out all at once.  He’s suggesting that it’s unpleasant but quick.”

“How do we know if it’s safe?” Lydia asked.

“Easy. I try it first,” he said, his eyes flicking up as he listened to his passenger’s response.  He nodded after a second.  “He says it’ll be slightly unpleasant for me, but for the kids who’ve been drinking, it will leave them sober and it will be more uncomfortable.  Then about an hour later, they should all be fine.  But I’ll need some stuff from my bag.”

He was seldom without his messenger bag lately, which was understandable seeing as we had him warding and writing runes everywhere.

Tanya set the staff to rounding up the interns while Declan mixed a big batch of something slightly greenish with the help of the bartender.  I wondered over to watch.

“It’s actually mostly water, with a goodly slug of bitters as the base.  Then some herbs and some abracadabra, and shazam… instant alcohol cure,” he said.

“What kind of herbs?” Lydia asked.

“A little willow, some primrose oil, milk thistle, fennel, and a few others,” he said.

“What others, ‘cause I smell something a bit nasty?” she pressed.

“A teeny bit of charcoal and just a hint of wolfsbane,” he admitted.

“Aconite?  That’s poisonous,” she said, glancing at me with a
what the hell
look.

“Yes it is—as it goes in.  But I change it when I apply earth magic to the whole mixture.  It’s an alkaloid, it speeds up the cleansing process, and it’s part of what makes the experience unpleasant.”

“And you’re about to feed it to these kids, some of whom you don’t like?” she asked, starting to really press him.

He frowned at her, poured a shot glass full of his mixture, then drank it down, keeping his eyes locked on hers.

Putting the glass down, he raised both eyebrows in a
so there
moment.  A second later, he shuddered hard and pressed both hands on the bar top to stay upright.  Then he shook himself and straightened up. 

“Oh, they’re not going to like that,” he said, grimacing. He helped himself to a plastic cup of cola from the bar dispenser and slugged it down.

“A sugary chaser is probably a good idea,” he said, turning to me.

“Nasty?” Lydia asked, eyeing him with a hint of respect.

“Yeah, and I haven’t been drinking.  That was just the normal toxins you pick up on a modern diet,” he said.

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, smiling wide enough to show the points of her little fangs.

“My Grandma… what big teeth you have,” Stacia said, arriving behind us.  “What’s got you baring your fangs?”

“She thinks I’m going to poison all the interns with the sobering-up potion I just made.  Most of them got drunk and Tanya seems pissed.  So Sorrow offered this little mix and Lydia thinks I’ve gone over to the bad side because it has wolfsbane in it,” Declan explained.

“Wolfsbane?  Keep that stuff away from me,” Stacia said with a grimace.

“Shit, we give it to the weres at school from time to time and it’s no biggie,” he said. “Ya just gotta treat it first.”  He held up one hand and let a blue spark pop between his thumb and index finger.  “I’ll throw this out,” he said, hefting the blender full of potion.

“No you won’t,” Tanya said, suddenly behind the bar.  “You drank it just fine.  I
want
it to be unpleasant,” she said, taking the pitcher from him.  She nodded to the regular bartender, a vampire named Mandy who had been watching the whole thing with minor disbelief.  Mandy started laying out shot glasses and Tanya filled them one after another.

Meanwhile, the vampire staff was herding the drunk kids over our way, leaving the few sober ones out of the mix.

“Alright team Demidova, grab a glass and bottoms up,” Tanya said, taking a glass and leading them in the shot.

“Eww, that’s nasty,” she said to Declan.  “Perfect.” 

The ring of fourteen interns put down their glasses, most looking uncomfortable if not outright distressed, and some looked like they might fall over.  The staff grabbed the really wobbly ones and either walked them or carried them to chairs.  From their expressions, I was sure at least half of them were going to be violently ill, but no one threw up.  Sweated profusely and sucked down the glasses of soda that were sitting in front of them, but no vomiting.

Within ten minutes, most were sobering up and while they still looked miserable, I think it was due as much to Tanya’s obvious anger as Declan’s foul drink.

“So, my objective was to treat you to an experience in the city that’s hard to replicate.  Getting into Plasma is much sought after and difficult to do.  Most New Yorkers don’t get a chance to do it.  I thought you all deserved it.  I
did not
think that those of legal age would be feeding alcohol to those underage and by underage, I mean by US law, not your home country.  Shame on me.  I was naïve.  You all took advantage.  Shame on you.  But we’ve corrected that situation and from the looks on your faces, it wasn’t pleasant.  Good.  Having my trust abused wasn’t pleasant for me.  We can forget this happened, if… it doesn’t happen again. Next time I find Demidova employees breaking the drinking laws on my property, they’ll be fired.  You can stay and make something of the experience or head back to your quarters.  There are shuttles waiting outside.  Up to you,” she said, then turned and walked away to greet a table of celebrities near the dance floor.

Most of the kids looked at least a bit ashamed.  Some looked pissed off, like Simon and a few of his cronies, and by the glances they were shooting Declan, they blamed him. 

“You know that this will just leave him more alone?” Stacia asked from next to me.

“He volunteered the mix,” I said.

“Because he’s trying to help.  He’s always trying to help,” she said.  “Even if it completely isolates him from the other kids.”

“You don’t think being a witch among normal kids is isolating enough?  It would be like…” I tried to think of a suitable analogy.

“Like being the only werewolf on a team of all vampires?” she offered, getting up and heading over to talk to Declan.

I hadn’t thought about it like that but now that she pointed it out, their experience was very similar.  In fact, he had much more in common with the blonde werewolf than any of the comp sci kids in the room.

I suppose the field trip to Plasma wasn’t a complete bust, At least the interns got to party inside the tightest club in the City.  Who am I kidding?  It was a bust, and most of the interns acted either pissed off or scared they were about to be fired, or both.

Almost all of them avoided me, including Grace and her girls.  Probably just as well.

Still, I won’t say it didn’t sting the next day when Chet was taking me into the special project section and I got the cold shoulder. 

Grace, Aleesha, and Joni were all working on something together when we walked by.  Grace and Aleesha both ignored me completely, despite making brief eye contact with me while Joni gave me the evil eye.  Ah well.  Gonna be a long summer.  Maybe Caeco would be in town for a few days?  Hmm, that was probably a bad idea as well.  Still…

“So Declan, what do you know about quantum computing?” Chet asked as he ushered me into a secure section at the back of the floor.  The steel door required voice and face recognition as well as Chet’s ID card.  Our cell phones and his watch went into the basket outside the door.

“Well, I know the absolute basics.  That standard computing is done with binary bits, 1’s and 0’s.  A memory cell in a computer can be either 1 or 0.  With quantum, because of entanglement and superposition, you have more options.  It would use qubits to achieve more computational possibilities at the same time.”

“Essentially correct.  By manipulating the qubits with quantum logic gates and quantum algorithms, the computer can, in theory, solve problems much faster than a digital computer,” Chet said.  “In essence, the quantum computer tests for solutions all at the same time while a standard computer follows a linear path to problem solving. The problem is maintaining the qubits.   Achieving the superposition and entanglement for each qubit is the problem, as well as isolating the qubit from outside noise pollution,” he said.

“And you think my magic could help with those problems?” I asked.

“I absolutely think it’s possible,” Chet said. 

A bald man in a white dress shirt and dark slacks beelined toward us, his eyes flicking over me and locking onto Chet.

“Ah, Susskins.  I brought that intern I was telling you about to check out the lab,” Chet said.  Susskins just looked at him for a moment, oddly creepy. He had almost jet black eyes and no eyebrows. Agent Gellan wore his baldhead like a badass, while this guy would make Uncle Fester feel uncomfortable.  He studied Chet for a moment longer than was normal or comfortable, his expression almost hostile.

“Don’t we have enough interns?” he finally asked, pointing toward a corner of the room without taking his eyes off Chet.  I looked where he pointed—Simon was looking at us over the top of a monitor and when Chet looked back at Susskins, Simon gave me the one-finger salute. 

“We don’t have anyone like Declan,” Chet said. “Dr. Susskins heads up our quantum computing project,” Chet said to me.

“Yeah?” Susskins asked, filling the one word with contemptuous disbelief.  “The twit in the corner is top of his class.  Still having difficulty coming up to speed with the math.  This one is what?  Twelve years old?  What’s he going to add?  Cream to my coffee?”

Wow.  I was blown away by the size of the guy’s ego and his utter contempt for virtually everyone, Chet included.

“How about it, champ?  How are you with probabilistic algorithms and eigenvalues?” he asked me.

“Not great.  Did you know the temperature of that D-Wave annealer is rising like a rocket?” I asked.

Susskins looked at me with black eyes for a split second, then strode to the machine in question.  He looked at it for a second before snapping out orders to the other technicians and scientists in the room.

“You know about D-Wave?” Chet asked as we both watched.

“A little bit. We’ve touched on them in class.  But to be honest, it says D-Wave right on the casing. I
do
know you need to cryogenically cool these things down.  But I
felt
the internal systems alarm trying to warn about the temperature issue.  I think someone turned it down or closed the monitor on it or something,” I said. 

Over by the D-Wave, there was much scurrying and frantic action but finally Susskins straightened up from the monitor, apparently satisfied with the situation.  Then he looked my way, his creepy serial killer eyes locked onto me.

“How did you know it was heating up?” he asked as soon as he got over to us.

“I told you.  Declan can add all kinds of value to this program.  I’m thinking especially with decoherence,” Chet said.

“What do you mean?”

“First of all, he
heard
what your diagnostics program was trying to tell you.  From across the room, with his mind,” Chet said, pausing to let that sink in.  “Second, he can directly effect the environment around him, particularly with regard to temperature and particle activity.”

“Impossible,” Susskins stated.

“Really? 
That
word coming out of
your
mouth?” Chet asked.  “How then did he know what your system was trying to tell your people?  How do you think we were able to secure this company’s mainframe and satellites?  With his help and his abilities, that’s how.”

“You’re honestly going to press this ridiculous argument that he’s a real… what?  Wizard?  Harry Potter come to America?” Susskins asked.

“Born in America,” I said.

Chet smiled and turned to me.  “Show him.”

So far, half of my internship seemed to be performing parlor tricks to impress nonbelievers.  I looked around.

It was almost a clean room, devoid of any coffee cups, water bottles, or other handy items.  There were pens, though.  Across the room, Simon was holding a pen that he had just used to make a notation of some type.   I reached across and telekinetically grabbed it, pulling it to me.  It traveled in a smooth line across the room, coming to an unwavering stop directly in front of Dr. Susskins, who watched it with unreadable eyes.

I applied a little heat to it and then bent it, without physical touch, forming it into an almost perfect circle, the gel tip actually melted into the plastic top, like a snake trying to disappear up its own ass.  I thought it was pretty symbolic as I mentally set it into Susskins’ shirt pocket.

Shove that up your… “Impressive right?” Chet said, interrupting my train of thought.

Susskins pulled it from his pocket, studying it with flat eyes.  I glanced over at Simon, who was staring until he met my gaze, then jerked back to his monitor.

The bald doctor still hadn’t spoken, but you could almost hear the gears clicking and whirring inside the stretched-skin-covered cranium as he looked at the useless pen.

Experimentally, he pulled on each side of the ring pen, trying to pull it apart, but the plastic didn’t give.  Finally, he looked up and met my eyes, his creepy stare unnerving.  Without breaking eye contact, he spoke aside to Chet.  “I need to give this some thought.”  Then he turned and walked away, as if we were never there.  No goodbye, no dismissal, just clicked off from us and onto whatever task he was now berating his people over.

“He, uh, takes some getting used to,” Chet said.

“He’s a megalomaniac asshole with negative social skills,” I said. “How can you work with him?”

“It can be difficult.  But he’s brilliant and top of his field.”

“And sociopathic.  How can you trust him?  How do Tanya and Chris trust him?” I asked.

“We keep tight controls on this floor and we have Nika scan everyone on a regular basis.”

“That’s not foolproof. 
I
can block Nika.  How do you know he can’t, too?”

“Because she says she has no problem getting his thoughts.  Apparently, they make her uneasy.”

“And she’s a vampire.  Think about
that
,” I said as we headed back out of the room.  The door snicked shut like an airlock behind us.

Grace’s group glanced at us before turning their backs to me.

“Okay, okay.  Duly noted.  But we keep our eyes on him,” Chet said.  “It’s okay.  We got it handled.”

Famous last words.