“Looks like a power transformer. Maybe a capacitor unit.”
She gave Dorian side eye. “No, I mean where did it come from? How the hell did it fall perfectly aimed to hit him.”
The sense of a weak spirit manifested in the dust cloud. She cringed at the confirmation Trev died, as if a thirty-foot wide blood spatter didn’t already tell her.
Dorian pointed upward.
She followed his finger to a hole in the underside of the city plate—and locked eyes with Dacre peering down at her. As soon as he realized she’d spotted him, he backed out of sight.
Kirsten sighed.
“Don’t have to worry about feeling guilty.” Dorian smiled at her. “After all, the man did say he would be hunting the one who controlled him.”
“He’s dead.” Kirsten shook her head. “I didn’t want to kill him.”
“You didn’t kill him. The dead have their own rules. The laws of mortals are as impermanent as cobwebs.”
Kirsten opened her mouth to make a sarcastic remark about his poetic dismissal of her concerns of someone being splatter killed right in front of her but froze at a sudden upwelling of dread in the air.
Three Harbingers emerged from the ground nearby, flying as streaks of billowing shadow after Trev’s disoriented spirit. She winced as they pounced, sinking their vaporous claws into his ethereal form. In seconds, Trev’s screaming ghost sank beneath the dirt under a mass of darkness.
“Seems they decided to hang around and wait.” Dorian folded his arms. “Wonder if they knew he was going to die.”
She exhaled out her nose. “Probably.”
“He deserved it and you didn’t do it.” Dorian patted her shoulder. “And, you know for sure he deserved it. They wouldn’t have gone after him otherwise.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill him.” She sank into a squat, cradling her head in both hands. Exhausted, heart racing, head throbbing, body shaking from excess adrenaline, she lacked the mental fortitude to do anything other than take a breather.
Dorian pointed upward. “You didn’t. Something like this would have happened to him, eventually. If not Dacre, another. Trev left a long trail of angry spirits.”
“True.”
“Unless you’re carrying a sponge, it’s going to be difficult to bring his remains back to process.”
She gagged, pulling her NetMini from its belt clip. “I at least need to document the scene.”
33
New Record
The blare of an alarm clock slapped Kirsten out of a dreamless sleep.
Groaning, she rolled on her side to reach the infernal device and silence it. A few breaths later, she dragged herself out of bed. Only the hopeful relief things ought to be quiet for a while gave her the strength to keep moving. The warm autoshower almost turned her sore muscles to jelly. She daydreamed about Sam massaging her as the water jets worked their magic. Her idle fantasy morphed into an embarrassing idea of asking him to do it for real. Of course, she’d have to make some arrangements for Evan to spend the night at Nila’s first.
After the hot air cycle ended, she dragged herself out of the tube, elbow bumped the white box on the wall so it spat out a plastic-wrapped pair of clean panties, and staggered into her bedroom. Once dressed, she went to the kitchen. Since she didn’t see Evan in his room or the hall bathroom, she approached the tall cabinet beside the fridge and opened it.
Evan stood inside it, naked, eyes closed, left arm up over his head, rubbing his hand up and down his side as if scrubbing himself in the shower.
She tapped him on the shoulder. “Morning, sweetie. You’re in the closet. Not the shower.”
“Oops. I stayed up too late.” He backed out and yawned.
Kirsten kissed him on top of the head. “I know. I was with you.”
“Oh yeah.” He laughed dazedly.
The precognitive vision of Kirsten blowing up at the hatch had freaked him out. Kirsten spent most of last night sitting with him on the sofa while they watched Monwyn episode reruns. The day would come when he got too old to like it when she ‘got squeezy,’ but for now, she’d adore every second of it.
While he plodded off to the hall bathroom to take a real shower, she whipped up a breakfast of egg burritos. They both ran a little late, but these, they could eat on the way to the PAC. Soon, Evan returned to the kitchen, dressed and ready for school. She handed him his breakfast, took hers, and hurried out of the apartment to the elevator.
* * *
Kirsten grinned like an idiot as she walked down the corridor toward the squad room.
It may not have ended the way she hoped, but Trev would no longer pose a threat to anyone. Captain Eze would be thrilled to report up the chain of command, especially when she told him an additional reason a situation like this wouldn’t work out long term. Eventually, pissed off ghosts would have their revenge. The threat of another psionic able to force ghosts to act against their will, despite being quite unlikely, would inevitably backfire on the person. Perhaps Trev’s reasons for living in the Beneath came from fear of his former spirit victims rather than the police. Up top, ghosts had thousands of ways to kill someone from a distance if they wanted to, mostly thanks to advert bots or delivery bots whizzing around everywhere. Some of them had the size and mass to kill a person in a crash.
The lab rats would, undoubtedly, be annoyed at not being able to study Trev’s brain to research how he’d managed to mind-control ghosts. She had a sarcastic ‘well, grab a sponge and follow me’ ready for them if they demanded she recover the body. They did, however, have a few computers he’d been using. The devices no doubt contained at least some records of the various contract jobs people or companies hired him for. While no court in the UCF would prosecute a corporation or individual for ‘hiring a ghostly mercenary,’ they might ignore the details and treat it the same way as any shady entity paying off a fixer to arrange violence or criminal activities. Division 1 sent a bomb squad to deal with the trapped hatch at least. One thing Kirsten didn’t have to do herself.
Johanna Beck would be relieved no more undead mercenaries would threaten her family. Whether or not living ones might be a threat, Kirsten couldn’t say—and had no jurisdiction over. True to her soft-hearted nature, Kirsten brought the WellTech doll up out of the Beneath. She couldn’t leave it there since it acted too much like an abandoned child. Nicole thought her cute and took her home.
Also, with Marley happily adjusted to life knowing she had psionic talents, there wouldn’t be a constant surge of hauntings. Kirsten crossed her fingers she’d have at least a few days of relative peace and quiet.
The woman who always seemed nervous, sad, or exhausted walking around the Division 0 wing wearing a massive smile drew strange looks from everyone—except Nicole who merely beamed back at her, excessive happy being her normal.
Kirsten eased herself into her chair, adoring the idea she’d be able to spend the whole day here in the office.
“Coffee?” asked Nicole.
“Absolutely,” said Kirsten.
“Yes,” replied Morelli.
“Peach green tea here.” Kurosawa raised a hand.
Montez also waved at her. “Triple espresso and a caramel latte.”
Nicole bounced out of her chair. “What’cha want, K?”
“Can’t decide between mocha or the strawberry one. You pick.”
“Okay.”
Kirsten unlocked her terminal. A screen popped up showing three pages of Inquests, all flashing yellow warning icons at her for having reports overdue.
“Aaaaaaugh! Noooo!” Kirsten threw her head back, wailing like she’d found a dear friend dead.
Everyone stared at her.
“They nagging you about range certification again?” asked Kurosawa.
“Ooh, sounds like someone’s been naughty.” Nicole laughed. “That’s the scream of a whole bunch of reports needing attention.”
Kirsten groaned.
“Thirty?”
Kirsten groaned again.
&nbs
p; “More?” Nicole blinked.
Kirsten groaned louder. “Forty-three.”
“Wow, I think you set a record. I’m gonna get you both flavors. You’re going to need two coffees today.” Nicole wagged her eyebrows and hurried off to meet the delivery bot at the garage.
Groaning again, Kirsten folded her arms on the desk and beat her forehead into them a few times.
“Look at it this way,” said Dorian from his desk behind her. “No one’s getting hurt and you have a nice quiet few days here in the squad room.”
She lifted her face off her arms. “Here’s hoping.” She exhaled hard, glowering at the flashing yellow dots. Forty-three Inquests, each with a thirteen-page report form attached. “Going to start with Trev’s first… Captain Eze will need it to talk to the brass.”
The Monwyn theme played from her NetMini.
Dorian whistled. “I sincerely hope filling out those reports isn’t a threat to your life.”
Nervous, Kirsten plucked the device off her belt and answered. “Hey, kiddo.”
His face appeared on the screen, beaming. “Mom! Mom! Guess what!?”
Whew. He doesn’t look freaked out. Guess reports don’t kill. “Umm, the school decided to ban homework?”
He laughed. “Naw, I wish. I’m done with cit points! They forgave the last 150 for bein’ good and gettin’ a bunch of hundreds on tests.”
“Awesome!” Kirsten smiled. “I think this calls for a few hours at the big Monwyn VR Saturday.”
“Yay!” Evan cheered. “Okay, Mom. I gotta go. In class. Just had to tell you. Bye!”
He hung up.
“That boy’s happy enough to take the pain out of having to do forty-three reports.”
“Yeah.” Kirsten put the NetMini back into its holder, cracked her knuckles, and poked the screen, bringing up the Inquest for Trev. “Maybe if I figure out the true name of the report, I can kill it.”
“Reports aren’t elder demons,” said Dorian past a chuckle.
“No, but they were made by one.” Kirsten narrowed her eyes. “Time for battle.”
* * *
fin
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading The Shadow Fixer!
Kirsten’s adventures will continue in book 7.
Additional thanks to Lee Hargrove for editing and Alexandria Thompson for the cover and interior artwork!
About the Author
Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place. Along with being an editor at Curiosity Quills press, he has worked in IT and technical support.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom RPG systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Visit me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mscox
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/matthewcox10420/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
Email: mcox2112@gmail.com
Other books by Matthew S. Cox
Divergent Fates Universe Novels
Division Zero series
Division Zero
Lex De Mortuis
Thrall
Guardian
Harbinger
The Shadow Fixer
The Awakened series
Prophet of the Badlands
Archon’s Queen
Grey Ronin
Daughter of Ash
Zero Rogue
Angel Descended
Daughter of Mars series
The Hand of Raziel
Ghost Black
Virtual Immortality series
Virtual Immortality
The Harmony Paradox
Prophet of the Badlands Series
Prophet’s Journey
Divergent Fates Anthology
* * *
(Fiction Novels - Adult)
The Roadhouse Chronicles Series
One More Run
The Redeemed
Dead Man’s Number
Faded Skies series
Heir Ascendant
Ascendant Unrest
Ascendant Revolution
Temporal Armistice Series
Nascent Shadow
The Shadow Collector
The Gate to Oblivion
The Queen of Discord
Vampire Innocent series
A Nighttime of Forever
A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs
The Artist of Ruin
The Last Family Road Trip
The Phantom Oracle
How Not to Summon Demons
Ordinary Problems of a College Vampire
A Vampire’s Guide to Surviving Holidays
An Introduction to Paranormal Diplomacy
Standalones
Wayfarer: AV494
Axillon99
Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle
The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run
Sophie’s Light
The Far Side of Promise anthology
Operation: Chimera (with Tony Healey)
The Dysfunctional Conspiracy (with Christopher Veltmann)
Of Myth and Shadow
The Girl Who Found the Sun
Winter Solstice series (with J.R. Rain)
Convergence
Containment
Catalyst
Alexis Silver series (with J.R. Rain)
Silver Light
Deep Silver
Silver Quarrel
Samantha Moon Origins series (with J.R. Rain)
New Moon Rising
Vampire For Hire series (with J.R. Rain)
Moon Master
Dead Moon
Lost Moon
Maddy Wimsey series (with J.R. Rain)
The Devil’s Eye
The Drifting Gloom
Dark Mercy
Samantha Moon Case Files series (with J.R. Rain)
Blood Moon
Immortal Operative series (with J.R. Rain)
Broken Ice
Four Elements series (with J.R. Rain)
The Elementalist
The Black Rose
The Wakefield Curse
* * *
Young Adult Novels
The Eldritch Heart Series
The Eldritch Heart
The Cursed Crown
Evergreen Series
Evergreen
The World That Remains
The Lucky Ones
Nuclear Summer
Standalones
Caller 107
The Summer the World Ended
Nine Candles of Deepest Black
The Forest Beyond the Earth
Out of Sight
* * *
Middle Grade Novels
The Adventures of Ubergirl series
My Dad is a Mad Scientist
Aliens Ate My Homework
The End of all Halloweens
Tales of Widowswood series
Emma and the Banderwigh
Emma and the Silk Thieves
Emma and the Silverbell Faeries
Emma and the Elixir of Madness
Emma and the Weeping Spirit
Standalones
Citadel: The Concordant Sequence
The Cursed Codex
The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey
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