Life as a New Hire Ch. 34

"Yes?" I attempted communication. By the way, this thing looked as if was furious with me. Its 'not' being a ghost was yet another misfortunate tiding. The creature didn't respond, so after fifteen seconds, I mounted up and rode away.

"What was it?" Pamela asked.

"I...I haven't a clue," I replied. "It...her...not a ghost. It is almost like...not really, but kind of like Dot Ishara. The thing is, I can't see Dot unless I'm concussed."

"Is that a quiet plea that you want me to brain you?" Pamela teased. What else could she do?

"Why don't I just ram us into a building - spare you the guilt?" I bantered back.

"Oh, don't trouble yourself. I don't feel one smidge of guilt about hitting you as long as there is hot body at the other end of your stream of consciousness," Pamela kept joking.

"Tell me again ... Why does Daphne think you are a nice person?" I chuckled.

"I give her candy," Pamela enlightened me. "You should try it some time."

Lest I forget, Pamela and I had non-specific agreement that I'd knock up her two granddaughters. You would have thought that by now, she knew me well enough to have changed her mind. She hadn't, suggesting that she was probably as irresponsible as me. I was cool with that. We ditched the bike where it was sure to be stolen by someone else.

Two blocks later, we flagged down a taxi driver who wasn't intimidated by our two ~37 kg duffels. He was a young man with a Ukrainian father and a Romani mother, and thus was universally despised and distrusted by everybody in town, or so he claimed. Pamela countered with her belief that he was actually pure Romani, but he didn't want us to think he was a thief and that he was fishing for a sympathy tip.

He was good-natured about the whole exchange, so he got his tip; except he earned it by getting us to the hotel toot-sweet, not for his unfortunate imaginary parentage. One look at Delilah's face told me I wasn't in hot water over my escapades yesterday. To be fair to me, they'd known I was taking a risk meeting with the Vizsla. Delilah made a quick call, said three words then hung up.

"Hey Cáel," my Brit minder greeted me. "Pamela, were you followed?" Why couldn't she have asked me that? I'd spotted the hot looking number in a deep brown micro-mini two blocks away.

"No, not in the usual way. Cáel's been seeing some supernatural creature," Pamela stated in all seriousness. "I haven't glimpsed it yet, but I agree that there is something out there stalking us."

"Wonder-fucking-ful," Delilah shook her head. "Don't get comfortable. We are ready to go. We are taking the 200 train in thirty-six minutes to Teiuş where we transfer to the 300 to Braşov and then the 400 to Miercurea Ciuc," she laid out our itinerary...in case we got separated, I guessed.

"Why are we going to Miercurea Ciuc?" I asked.

"Your Dot gave you some useful advice," Delilah teased. "Ildiko referenced your martial motto to a family graveyard in Miercurea Ciuc. It seems an archeological dig there turned up evidence dating back to the Dacians that was linked by iconography to some of the same graves in the cemetery - a half-Sun."

"That's handy," Pamela winked at me. "Maybe they are all dead."

"Woot," I winked back. My freakazoid companion had returned with a vengeance. I recoiled from her glower, making Delilah and Pamela glance that way. They still couldn't see it.

"Can you hear me?" I inquired at the apparently empty (to everyone else) space.

It began mouthing things to me...then tried again...then again - Sumerian. We had a winner. [Sumerian] "Can - you - hear - me?" I said. More thunderous anger. In fact, a deep, rolling peel of thunder rocked the city. Not Good! "Would it kill you to just say 'yes'?" She didn't answer with her lips. She answered with her eyes.

Virginia came around the hallway corner from where their rooms must have been located in the lead of a group. She was scanning about for threats like all good FBI agents should when they hang out with me. Chaz came next, quickly followed by Alkonyka who was holding someone I assumed was her sister, Angyalka. The creature's gaze snapped to the Lovasz sisters. I'm an idiot.

"Don't," I cautioned as I raised my voice to the monster no one else could see. I even interposed myself - reference me being an idiot. Everyone stopped moving...except Odette.

"CÁEL!" she squealed. I barely had time to turn around before she flung herself at me. Odette's legs wrapped around my waist, her arms around my neck and some serious lip/tongue action.

An unknown male voice interrupted my surprise.

[Romanian] "Is that Mr. Nyilas and who was he talking to?"

"Yes, that is the man in question and I haven't a clue who he shouted at," Riki informed him. For me it was 'mum, mum, mum, mum' as Odette tickled my tonsils. I had to repay the favor.

"Oh," I heard Rachel mumble behind me, which indicated she'd come from outside. "Just carry her with you and come along." Hey, when I was being smart, I listened to the chief of my bodyguard detail. Rachel steered me into a waiting mini-bus - courtesy of the Romanian government.

At the train station, Odette finally let me come up for air. I was proud of her. Timothy and I had suggested a workout routine and she'd apparently kept at it.

"I missed you so much," Odette panted. "Selena came without you and I overheard her talking about where she'd left you and the way she looked..."

I looked over to Selena. The right side of her face looked...tenderized. I had no wish to see what the other guy(s) looked like. When she looked my way, I was happy to see the left side of her face was sporting one small cut.

"Thank you," I huffed. Selena gave me an odd look. It was her professionalism.

"Good job," Pamela gave a slight nod to Selena. "I wasn't sure you could deliver in that short a time table." Selena's tiny slip of a grin was very different. The Black Hand killer certainly thought she was at the top of her profession. She also thought that Pamela was the better assassin, so her praise meant far more to Selena.

Pamela had also codified her accolade. She never implied that she didn't have faith that Selena could get the job done, only that the time constraint was the chief difficulty to overcome. I had so much more to learn if I was going to be saving lives more than risking them with the tasks I was foisting on myself.

Our Romanian watchdog, Flaviu Molnar of the Serviciul de Informații Externe (SIE) (aka the Romanian CIA), cleared out one of the train's passenger cars for us, then we got to work. Odette wanted attention. So did the world and it looked like the world was going to fuck me harder. Hana was doing good in the world ... and making far too many people in dark places take notice of her.

Speaking of which -

"The Ghost Tigers have been in touch. It will be € 150,000 for two weeks' work," Selena relayed their response to my earlier request.

"They've promised to protect Hana? When we talked, you mentioned that they didn't normally do that kind of work," I questioned.

"They never have before," Selena studied me. "It seems they appreciate your efforts with the Seven Families - six now, I imagine." The Seven Families were the Ninja. Not enough appreciation to make it free, still... Now, how was I going to pay for that?

"I'll contact Katrina," Rachel spoke up.

I had to ease Odette away from the center of this storm. She was unhappy, yet forgiving. Virginia and Vincent (our FBI people) stopped by long enough to welcome my return, then backed off. Delilah represented the UK. Riki stood in for the United States, Flaviu snooped for his nation, Rachel stayed at my side and Selena stayed on as the 9 Clans rep.

Chaz, the British elite, and Tiger Lily casually guarded the front of the car. Vincent and Charlotte took up a similar stance at the back. That left Virginia, Wiesława, Mona and Sakuniyas to rest easy, as was the Amazon way - always keep a portion of your force at ease so they could be alert for later duty. It was somewhat amazing to see FBI-girl and Saku already falling into that pattern.

So Hana had elevated me in the eyes of too many people ... and put herself at risk to boot. I was becoming a 'person of interest' to the United Nation's Security Council. I wondered if Bolingbrook would erect a statue of me, once I was gone: 'their most notorious alumni'. Even more onerous, the Russians had gone after Hana.

Okay, that wasn't the horrible part of the news. It was the cast of characters at that luncheon that made me wish Ajax had simply used a pistol on me. It wasn't even a group of ex-girlfriends. No, this gathering's participants had been a good portion of my current roster of love interests. Dwelling on that dilemma almost made me miss the info-dump by Riki, courtesy of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

The NRO was part of the US Defense Department, in case you didn't know. I could only reference the agency by way of comments made by one of my more conspiracy-theory conscious babes. Anyway, I was staring at a map of a portion of Northeastern Asia by the grace of Hana, Dot Ishara, Vladimir Putin and Temujin (note to self: nut-kick the bastards, should I ever meet them).

Oh yeah, Temujin could bend over backwards for Hana. For poor Cáel; he pimp-slapped me with a useless title and thrust me into the frigging limelight, Starlight and gun-sights. So, I was looking at the information on Riki's laptop and getting the feeling that people were expecting me to do something. I toggled stuff. A key came up.

Oh...I was looking at military units. Red...those were the Chinese, so that made the Gold -

Khanate and the Blue were Russians. There seemed to be a lot of Russians. There were a shitload more Chinese. Comparatively, the Gold Khanate forces looked spread so thin it had to be dangerous. There didn't seem to be any instruction page...as in what was I supposed to be doing.

I steadied my 'cool', then took a sedate look at my companions. Nobody had a clue. Rachel was smart and militant, but her experience was with small unit tactics. Delilah was a Captain of something, but I didn't think it was the Defense Staff of the British Army.

"Captain Faircloth (Delilah), what are you a captain of?" I decided to find out.

"Royal Air Force. I flew Harrier II GR9's, Tornado GR4's and the Puma HC2 helicopter - because I rock. Why do you ask?" Delilah kept it friendly.

"Can you look at some planes and tell me what they do?" I asked.

"Sure," Delilah settled in beside me. "What kind of strategic template are we looking at?"

My facial expression showed my incomprehension of that terminology.

"What part of the...oh hell," she chortled. "I'll tell you everything I know." I liked that. I didn't like the freak appearing next to Chaz. He was in tune enough to see that I was concerned about his person, though the cause escaped him.

"There is a supernatural creature at your nine, Colour Sergeant. Think - that freaky chic from the Ring," I informed him. He nodded.

"Intension?" he requested in his serious, competent style.

"Hold on," I told him. [Sumerian] "Talking to me yet?" I was at my saturation point for her bullshit. That bill came due when she 'flowed' across the car and lunged at me.

I stood up, whipped out my knife and thrust the small blade as Pamela taught me. If anyone thought I was deranged, the computer's electron spasm made then double-think that. My blade did nothing but her hands...her fingers didn't end in fingers and nails...no, the tanned skin whitened down into silverish talons and they slammed me back in my seat. My nerves exploded in shear agony.

It felt like twin stun guns to either side of my neck.

"Lilītu!" Saku exclaimed with a battle-howl. That was Assyrian for she-demon. Her sword was drawn. In the few steps it took her to get to me, she twisted her grip so that she came at me with an upward sweep of her blade, swinging at a being she felt, yet could not see.

I wasn't sure if the creature responding was a good thing, or a bad thing. Its left hand caught the blade before it could connect with her body. Saku shifted and flexed her thighs, trying to power through the resistance she could not perceive. My attacker twisted the blade, flipping Saku down the aisle, though the former Queen kept her sword. I slashed again - no effect. It looked back at me and...I knew that look. It was angry, just not angry with me.

It was frustrated, close to the point of exhaustion and was definitely a she. A she-what, I had no idea. I began putting things together. It couldn't communicate with me because of the 'gift' I had requested from Dot Ishara. By the Goddess's will, she couldn't read my mind. It was silly to think she'd denied herself the use of an ability. No, she'd rendered me immune to telepathy.

Much easier. That was also now biting me, and this creature, in the ass - communicatively. It dove back out the carriage window and was lost into the countryside we were traveling through. Saku's blade, like her bow, arrows and armor, came with her from the Netherworld, thus its ability to interact with the creature.

"Fuck," Delilah hissed. She was tapping away at the computer, trying to salvage the data the creature's interaction with the device had scrambled. Saku rolled over twice then regained her feet.

[Akkadian] "Where is it? I don't hear the Veil tearing anymore," Saku growled to me. Well, that told us what alerted the 'back from the dead' Amazon anyway.

[Akkadian] "It..." I started then realized 'Oh, that's what was going on. It was trying to push through the Veil and...drag me back across...oh, so we could talk'. "It left." Why would it do that?

"What was that?" Riki. "What's that smell?"

[Romanian] "What is going on here?" our SIE guy gave us all furtive looks.

"You're bleeding," Rachel pointed out to me and the rest. "Mona." Mona hurried to my side, then led me across the aisle so she could work uninterrupted. The weird just kept coming. My ballistic vest was untouched, as was my shirt. I had ten dagger-like wounds in my shoulders and upper arms. Why wasn't I gushing blood? Mona leaned forward and sniffed each side.

"Your wounds have been partially cauterized," she observed.

"Funny," I snorted. "I don't remember catching fire." I'd been electrocuted.

"You didn't. These are electrical burns," Mona corrected me. "I take it these are the result of gunshot trauma?" she indicated my bruises courtesy of Ajax's team.

"I found the guy shooting at me," I replied; Mona nodded approvingly. "Riki and Flaviu, to answer your question, there is some supernatural entity tracking this mission. It is not a God, or Goddess in the traditional sense. Beyond that, I think there has been a fundamental misunderstanding between the two of us. It has been trying to communicate with me, but I can't hear it. The smell is ozone."

"That makes no sense," Flaviu shook his head.

"It..." I turned and looked to the Lovasz sisters. "I'm an idiot."

"You don't say," Rachel mumbled.

"No, it has to be Illuyankamunus," I tried, and failed, to smack my forehead. Mona had stopped me.

"It - she looks freaky in her human form. Earlier today, I caught glimpses of something much bigger tracking Pamela and me as we traveled to Arad," I said.

"If you can communicate with your Goddess, why hasn't that entity interfered?" Riki inquired.

"If A, then B, then C," I muttered. "Okay, I think that these entities have to be very careful when interfering with reality. If they do interfere, bad things happen. A direct confrontation would most likely suck, so I'm guessing my Matron is going to have to wait until Illuyankamunus leaves me alone, or finishes with me. That still has me wondering why it tried so hard to get at me.

It is interested in you two, Alkonyka and Angyalka, which makes me believe it is your matron goddess," I added.

"The thunderclap as we prepared to leave the hotel?" Alkonyka's brow furrowed.

"Yeah," I nodded. "She was in the lobby and very pissed."

"Tell me, what is the Illuyankamunus?" Flaviu requested.

"The Primordial Dragon," Saku spoke up. "Before there were any deities - even before the world had formed, this being and beings like it existed. Somewhere in their minds exists a desire to return all existence to that cosmic soup."

"Romania has had good luck with dragons," the agent reasoned. Mona began applying the Amazon super-secret healing goop (I suspected it was cottage cheese, cinnamon and aloe).

"I think I can restore everything," Delilah sighed at the computer, "but it is going to take a while."

"You should lie down and allow the unguent to soak into your wounds," Mona 'advised'.

"I'll stand guard over him. The rest of you...don't," Rachel glared at the assembly. Riki and Flaviu were confused about this turn of events. To them, Rachel seemed a fair-faced guardian drone and they didn't attribute much initiative to her. They both knew that she was the head of my Security detachment, yet they didn't equate that to authority over me.

The two sisters were still trying to keep their heads above water. Vincent and Chaz understood our relationship due to their previous experience with us, but that didn't require them to see as much personal interaction. Odette, Virginia and Delilah knew the score and knew how strongly I appreciated Rachel's council. Rachel set me down in a window seat, pushed my seat back and then did the same for herself.

"Cáel," Rachel took a deep breath, "I wanted to tell you that you are doing better." That caught me off-guard. "Your combat instincts are strong and getting stronger."

"This would be a bad time to tell you I took a long, private walk with my Grandfather then, wouldn't it?" I was suitably worried about her temper.

Rachel's head came down on my chest, forehead to sternum. After a few seconds, I put an arm around her and patted her back.

"I gained valuable intelligence for the Host," I tried to comfort her.

"Of course you did," she mumbled onto my skin. "You can't simply do something stupid for stupid's sake. You always have to find a way to make it worthwhile."

"Are you going to come after me on the Great Hunt?" I referred to my post-internship group festivity that would have my being stalked by an as-of-yet to be determined group of my sisters.

"Why wouldn't I?" she murmured. "I finally get to hit you, knock you down and tie you up. Aaahhh," she sighed. "It's a dream of mine."

"It's good to know you find me inspirational," I cooed to her softly.

"Don't force me make some pre-emptive adjustments to your anatomy," she whispered back. I awkwardly twisted my neck so that I could kiss the top of her head. That got Odette's attention. Thankfully she was smart enough to leave Rachel alone so she could de-stress.

(The Legacy of the Dragon)

It turned out we didn't need to go the cemetery. The modern work on our gravesites had been very thoroughly explored by a Serbian Professor of Eastern European Studies, Dr. Arsenije Loma. It also turned out we didn't have to go to Serbia to find him. He'd moved to Miercurea Ciuc five years ago with his entire family. Apparently they had a nice spread west of the town, too.

This was not happenchance. This was both the personal history of Alkonyka and the product of her intuitive internet search. The link should have been tenuous, except it was a rising/setting Sun. The Sun Goddess was Arinniti. Added to that were a worm's bonanza-buffet of Nyilases just down the road. There were definitely other Nyilases still alive, but not in this area. And Nyilas was a rather utilitarian name - Hungarian for 'archer'.

As for the sisters; there were other Lovaszes in the county, but none were close relations. Their family's name tree was pruned four generations back going through a lone boy and a quartet of great-great aunts. That information left me deeply confused. The Dragon-Lady wasn't trying to bum-rush me anymore. She merely hovered around expectantly, as if there was something important for me to figure out.