A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1) (29 page)

“What do you mean, ‘We’re letting him go’?” Connor’s voice sounded that even
only when he exerted extreme effort to control his rage.

After their full debriefing of the Innerstellar Technologies mission,
General Mace and T36 had questioned Nathan Blank.

He hadn’t given them anything new, and he’d insisted that he be allowed to
speak with the Secretary of Defense.

General Mace had had no choice but to brief the Assistant to the Chief of
Staff of the Air Force, who in turn had briefed the Joint Chiefs. They had
likely spoken with the Secretary of Defense as well. The general had just
received the return call, informing him of the Joint Chiefs’ decision regarding
Nathan Blank.

“I’m sorry.” General Mace’s jaw was tight. “The DoD is going to sanction him
themselves. Officially, he’s a national traitor, a business owner convicted of
industrial espionage, and a man sentenced to prison for life. However, the DoD
thinks he’s too valuable, so they’re putting him into witness protection and
rehiring him.”

Liv listened with half an ear while her thoughts raced. Nathan couldn’t be
allowed to continue his research, and especially couldn’t be free in the
multiverse. He had proved to be a psychopath who’d only try again to further
his interests at the expense—and possible death—of Home World.

Why would the Joint Chiefs decide to let him go?

“Sir, this is ridiculous!” Gin cried. “He nearly killed a whole block-full
of people when his building came down, and he didn’t even care!”

“Actually, Ms. Karelli, it was you and your team who brought down the
building.”

“Because he forced us to!” Jordan said. “He brought demons to Home World and
gave them technology to help kill our allies and raid their worlds. That
smuggled technology almost helped the demons kill
us
! When they invaded Home World, they would have been armed with
our own weapons!”

“I’m aware,” General Mace said heavily. “However, this decision is out of my
hands. We’re to release him immediately.”

“I’ll do it, General,” Trent said without looking at anyone else.

Liv came to the only conclusion that made sense. “Sir, wait.”

The general’s eyebrows lifted in question.

“What if Nathan could be kept from Traveling?”

General Mace raised his eyebrows, his only sign of interest.

“Sir, the only reason they’re letting him go is that they can’t hold him
anyway. But what if they could?”

“I think you’re correct,” General Mace said. “They can’t keep him under
twenty-four hour lockdown with a Traveler present to make sure he stays here. It’s
not
constitutional
. But I thought
your brain ray was out of commission until the lab can make you more
cartridges.”

Jordan smiled. “Elachai.”

“Do you think he would help us?” Gin asked.

Jordan shrugged. “We saved his family. If we could find him, I bet we could
convince him to help.”

“How would we find him?” General Mace asked.

Gin’s expression was furtive. “Um, I may have something that could help. When
his family was being held by the Wolf, I may have, um, inadvertently…dropped
something into the clothing of his wife.”

“Let me guess,” Connor said. “Something sticky and radio-transmitting.”

“Good guess!” Gin said brightly.

“And then,” Connor said, “let me further guess, it recorded data to tell you
what world he lives in.”

“Something like that,” Gin smiled.

Trent looked impressed. “Wow, Gin, nice work!”

General Mace glowered at Gin. “Where did you get this piece of technology?”

“I made it myself,” she said defensively. “From parts I bought.”

“But he could be anywhere in that world,” Liv protested.

“But he’s not. I know exactly where he is.”

General Mace’s eyes lit up. Liv knew that at present, he was just going
through the motions of being their military commander. “While I can’t control
what you do on your own time, I would seriously discourage you from tracking
known threats alone.”

Ben raised his hand as if they were at school. “She wasn’t exactly alone,
sir…”

General Mace shook his head. “I should have known.”

“You two kept that quiet!” Trent said.

Ben shrugged. “We were going to bring it up as a future possible mission. Explore
Paradise.”

“In any case,” General Mace said. “Regarding Nathan Blank, we have our
orders. We’re to release him immediately.”

“It’ll only be slightly longer than that, sir,” Ben said. “We know exactly
where Elachai lives, and I can have us there and back in twenty minutes. If I
can have an SM.”

The general gave a sharp nod and stood. “You have your orders.”

Ben and Gin jumped to their feet and sped out of the room.

Connor yelled, “Wait!” and followed them out.

*
         
*
         
*

Less than half an hour later, Elachai entered the base.

He and the team grouped outside of the holding cell where Nathan Blank had
been held for the last day and a half.

When Gin had explained to Elachai what Nathan had done, he had been furious.

He entered the cell and bowed slightly to Major Ellicott, the current guard.

Connor called, “It’s all right, Major. You can step back.”

Elachai stepped forward, until he stood directly in front of Nathan. His
words had the weight of an incantation, hypnotizing. “Nathan Blank. You are
forthwith banned from Travel with the intent to harm, or for any purpose that
could result in the harm of any person or thing. You will not Travel for
personal gain, other than gain of knowledge and experience, and you will not
Travel to help others steal from or cause harm to any person or thing.”

With that, he turned and exited the room.

“What is this?” Nathan said, his scoffing tone not quite hiding the fear
underneath.

“That’s it?” Connor asked.

“Yes,” Elachai said. “He will never again be able to Travel except for pure
reasons.”

“You couldn’t just take it away altogether, like you did with Jordan?”

Elachai shook his head. “It is not right to remove any chance he may have at
rehabilitation. If he Travels for no evil purpose, then I cannot bring myself
to imprison him in this world.”

“Thank you very much for your help, Elachai,” Liv said as they shook hands.

“Thank you very much for my family’s safety,” Elachai replied.

Liv smiled. “Anytime.”

“Please feel free to visit my world, if you wish.”

“Thank you,” Connor said. “We will.”

Ben clapped Elachai on the shoulder. “I suppose we should get you back
home.”

“Yes, please.”

“Anyone want to come for the ride?” Ben asked.

The team mumbled excuses:

“I’m going to go let the general know he can tell the Chief of Staff it’s
safe to prosecute their prisoner now.”

Liv appraised Jordan admiringly. “Good idea!” She shook her head at Ben’s
look. “Sorry, I’ve got to get back to the brain ray data.”

Gin said, “I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on. My ‘warning’ and all.”

Trent hurried off with a wave. “Sorry, I have to help R & D with the
wildfyre.”

Connor apparently couldn’t think of an excuse. “Oh all right, I’ll keep you
company.”

“Thanks, Frogman!”

“Don’t mention it, Flyboy.”

*
         
*
         
*

“Did you see the paper?”

Liv looked up to find Jordan in her office doorway. “No, why?”

“Nathan Blank was implicated in the collapse of the Innerstellar
Technologies building early Saturday morning.”

“Really?”

“Mmmhmm. Nathan Blank, traitorous seller of top-secret defense research, was
attacked by the very men he was supplying, and is implicated in the collapse of
his building last night. He faces twenty-something counts of treason against
the US government.”

“Good. I’m glad he’s finally going to pay for the crimes he’s been
committing for years.”

“So, are we still on for tonight? Dinner?”

“At a real restaurant,” Liv warned. That meant Vegas, since The Little
A’Le’Inn didn’t quite offer the type of atmosphere she wanted, and the only
other thing around was the base and a gas station.

“You got it,” Jordan said with a smile. “I’ve got something great all set
up.”

*
         
*
         
*

Liv was just putting the finishing touches on her makeup when the base
intercom squawked. “T36 to the briefing room. Repeat, T36 to the briefing
room.”

“Now what?”

She was already wearing her dress, the black slinky one with the slit up the
side. She looked down at her four-inch heels and decided she wasn’t changing
yet. Maybe it was just an update or something they could handle remotely.

She clicked her way to the elevator and then to the briefing room on three. Everyone
else was already in the briefing room, and when she walked in, dead silence
fell.

Then she got three wolf whistles and applause. That was Ben, of course.

Jordan just stood there and stared.

She flashed him a smile. “What?”

He cleared his throat. “I thought my heart had stopped.”

Her heart melted into a puddle in her chest, but she forced a laugh.

General Mace walked in and did a double take. “What are you wearing, Dr.
Greenwood?”

“A dress. I have a date.”

“Not anymore. I need you to make a run to R-397Q. They’ve discovered some
kind of monolith, and they can’t make heads or tails of the language.”

“Well, that explains why you need Jordan, but why the rest of us?” Connor
asked.

“There’s also some kind of weird energy reading, and T47 thinks there’s some
sort of manual interface, but they can’t make it work.”

“Nice!” Gin said.

“And now they’re in a bit of a situation with the locals, who think the team
is trying to desecrate their god’s work, so they need backup. You leave
immediately.”

“Just another day on the job,” Ben said.

Liv sighed. “I’ll go change.”

Jordan caught her in the hall. “You look amazing.”

“Thanks. Too bad it was for nothing.”

“Not for nothing; at least I got to see you in it. It’ll fuel my fantasies
for months.” When she didn’t smile, he frowned. “Really, Liv, no worries. Rain
check.”

She glanced at him. “I just didn’t want to wait any longer.”

He smiled. “Me neither, but duty calls.”

She frowned.

“Don’t worry, we’ll plan dinner soon. Maybe on a better night. I said I love
you and I meant it. I’m not going anywhere.”

She smiled, and everything inside loosened. “I love you too, Jordan. And I’m
not going anywhere either.”

He kissed her as he walked at her side. With her shoes, they were
practically the same height. “Now go get ready to back me up while I talk the
natives down from the ledge and figure out a new form of writing while we try
to break the computer code of a heretofore unknown and lost advanced
civilization in another world!”

She laughed. She had to admit, there must be worse ways to spend your first
date. Still smiling, she kissed him again. “You got it.”

Nathan Blank sat silent, watching the bare wall through the bars of his
cell, and beating his brain against another set of bars.

Travel! Why can’t I Travel? Travel,
now!

All this takes is will. You can’t get
through the door? Find another way.

He forced himself to remember exactly what that freak with the blue streaks
in his hair had said to him.
“You will
not Travel for personal gain, other than gain of knowledge and experience, and
you will not Travel to help others steal from or cause harm to any person or
thing.”

He turned the puzzle over in his mind, again and again, looking at it from
every angle.

A smirk spread across his face.

A second later, he swirled into a whirlwind of color and vanished.

The End of Book One

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If you liked this story, check
out others by Cassy Campbell:

Blood Moon Mansion: Short Tale of a
Witch Hunt

Pandemonium
Rain: A Short Accounting of the Zombie Apocalypse

Darkwalk

A Plague in
Paradise: Travelers Book 2—coming soon!

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Cassy Campbell grew up in the frozen tundra of the Far North. Perhaps not
surprisingly, the long dark winters encouraged her love affair with stories
from an early age, and one of her favorite things is still curling up under a
blanket with a book. Once she realized that she loved to write stories as much
as read them, she realized the world was hers (at least the ones in her books).
She wrote a book, and the rest is history. She currently lives in the much balmier
climate of the Not As Far North where she is, at this moment, likely
daydreaming her way through her next story.

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