Chapter 21

Silence descended on that question.

Jayden looked genuinely remorseful and not just because of the confession. “Tamara?”

“No.” She glared at Daniel, annoyance on her face. “I’m not going to sentence someone to death because they cheated on me.”

“Not what I meant…” The words were meaningless. He did not know why he had said them and wished he could take them back the moment that they had slipped out.

She spun and stormed out. Ivey looked like she wanted to follow, but stayed.

“It’s pretty unforgivable.” Alex pointed out unhelpfully. “It’s close to rape.”

“It wasn’t. We only kissed.”

Everyone glared at Jayden.

“You’ve felt it. My powers aren’t that strong. They’re suggestions.”

They ignored him and Daniel turned to look at Ivey. “Thoughts? Should this change anything?”

“It’s disgusting.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Jayden argued immediately. “I thought my game was good or that with the whole world as good as ended and we both needed some extra comfort.”

“Shut up.” Daniel ordered.

His brain was running. He had been on the point of sparing him, but this changed everything. Daniel inspected the other man. How would Tamara feel if he changed his vote now and condemned Jayden to death? It shouldn’t matter, but it did. The man was a coward, but that was not a bad thing, especially if Priscilla, Finigan, and the club could keep him grounded.

A weak person could be controlled. Then he looked over at Ivey. She had voted for death, but he reckoned that was her emotions talking. Earlier today she had told him they should spare him.

It always came back to him, and he was willing to take a risk. “These are the rules.” Jayden perked up, and he saw relief wash through the other man’s body. His hunched over posture opened up, confidence filled his face once more. It was sickening. What a rat. “You work for me and do what I say.” He stared Jayden down till the other man nodded. “You won’t use your gifts on anyone. Finally, you’ll do your very best to make our community a success. Without using your SKILLS.”

“That is by backing up Daniel’s vision, not by arguing your own.” Alex threatened casually absently playing with his knife.

“If you don’t agree, you talk to me privately. Openly you back me every time.”

“I don’t.”

“Not negotiable,” Daniel interrupted. “If you can’t buy in to that, then I’ll take you to a higher floor and seal you in.”

“Unnecessary. Providing I get the chance to express my opinion privately, I can back you publicly. Some decisions you’ve made in the past that I disagreed with were correct. Pretty much all of them.” He conceded. “You were right with the kids. Though I still hate it and also pushing up to the penthouse.” His eyes flicked anxiously to the door. “I agree to your rules. Now can I check on Tammy.”

“You can’t use your skills on anyone. Including her.” Ivey warned. “We will find someone to confirm this.”

“I know,” Jayden said nervously.

“Not just us, anyone.” Daniel snapped. Unless I eventually need you to do it for the greater good, the small traitorous voice in Daniel’s head reminded him. After all, he was not naïve enough to believe that part of his decision to keep Jayden alive was also not having him available as insurance. “Remember at some point we’ll get someone who can tell if you’re lying.” The threat was like nailing a nail into the wall with a sledgehammer, but Daniel was past being nice and more than a little repetitive.

“I heard you the first time. It’s off. It won’t come back.”

Daniel nodded. “Go find her.” Priscilla was still with Tamara, so there was no way that Jayden was going to get away with mental manipulation with the mouse’s presence. If he tried, Jayden would die, Daniel could guarantee that. Though from the glimpses of emotions he was getting from Priscilla, she would personally take exception and even if she was tiny, he would not like to be someone she wanted to get revenge on. He had seen what she had done to the ferals.

A flair of excitement came from the mouse and Daniel realised he had not been hiding his thoughts well enough.

Only if he deserves it, he thought back. Then remembered the confession about Mia and regretted telling Priscilla to behave herself. He probably should have let her have some fun.

Hide for now, he instructed. We want to give him enough rope to hang himself.

Confusion radiated from the mouse.

Human saying.

He felt Priscilla’s general regard for humanity plummet even further in response.

“Can you give us a moment?” Ivey said. Daniel looked up, but she was talking to Alex.

The man nodded and patted Daniel on the shoulder. “You’re playing a dangerous game.”

“I know.”

“You think the gamble is worth it?”

“Don’t you?”

“I would’ve killed him.” Alex answered honestly. “However, it was line ball. I expect him to be too cowardly to cause problems.”

Ivey loudly cleared his throat and with a friendly nod Alex walked out.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“I’ll brief people we trust about Jayden and downplay his abilities to everyone else.”

“Fuck, you see straight through me.”

Ivey rolled her eyes. “So did Alex. But keeping the weapon on hand and never using it is the best outcome.”

“Good plan with Jayden,” Daniel answered to change the topic. “We also need to make sure that he starts to visibly contribute. He doesn’t have any skills, so it will have to be manual labour. Jayden has to put in. He can be the glue as well, but we have to ensure that he is seen getting his hands dirty. Then, if we need him to use his gift, then he will be better placed than if he is a pariah.” Stating it out loud felt wrong but Ivey was not the type to get worried by moral dilemmas. “Jayden needs to inspire people to work hard and develop themselves, their crafts, their craft and training others.”

“You know how creepy that makes you sound?”

Daniel shrugged, not feeling at all apologetic about it. “The monsters outside don’t care. Why should I?”

“Because you’re a human being.” Ivey was laughing at him. She didn’t care either.

“Stop teasing me.”

Ivey nodded. “Second thing.”

“What?”

“Don’t make a pass at Tamara.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Be a friend for today, at least. She’s going to be emotional. Don’t take advantage.”

“Maybe it’ll be her taking advantage of me.” Daniel shot back. “After all, my heart was savagely broken this morning.”

Ivey doubled up in laughter. “Maybe I should have kept you. I didn’t realise you were so funny.”

“I’m hilarious.” Daniel a cracked a smile. “Are we done?”

“Yes. Remember to take it slow.”

He stuck up his finger at her as he walked out, her laughter following him.

Chapter 22

Ivey walked out, but Daniel took a moment to think things through.

He wished that the Tamara Jayden connection did not exist because he was self-aware enough to know it was clouding his judgement.

“Would I have killed him?” Daniel asked himself in the empty room. “If she was not there?” He could remember Beau and then he had not hesitated then, but Beau had come to kill him in cold blood. The mind worms were different, and he had even struggled a little with them. Killing a human for such unprovable crimes as the ability to be persuasive was hard.

There were consequences for the cowardice instead of a clean break Jayden was still alive. He was playing with fire. It was that simple. Sometimes when you did nothing happened and other times you burned down a million acres and dozens of people died.

Jayden was the same.

He knew it, Ivey knew it, and Alex as well. It was fire. Dangerous but potentially useful. You it could also start a campfire, scare away beasts and keep you warm at night. If it served you, then it was a lifesaver. Or not. These moral dilemmas were why he preferred hitting things to leading. With a sigh, he left the room, planning what to do for the rest of the day. Catch up with Cindy, create seed weapons and plan the attack on the floors below.

His list only ever expanded

What’s happening? He thought to Priscilla.

An image immediately came to him of Tamara, slapping Jayden’s face. He felt disappointment from the mouse when there was no blood. Then a door banged and Tamara stormed out of a nearby room, Priscilla on her shoulder doing shadow boxing.

Tamara stopped dead when she saw him.

“I…”

“You must think I’m pathetic.”

“Why would I think that?” Daniel asked in surprise.

“I think both of us knew it was over. And this exotic holiday was the relationship’s last gasp.”

“It’s the cheater’s fault, not the person who was cheated on.”

“I’m not sure the world thinks that.”

“I do.”

She smiled, and he saw that the staff he had created for her was tucked under her arm.

“Do you have five minutes?”

Tamara appeared torn.

“I was hoping to find out more about Mystic Explosion.”

Her face brightened. “It’s wonderful, amazing. It’s the best gift I’ve ever received.”

Behind them, he noticed Ivey walk through the same door Tamara had exited and then casually stepped backward, using her presence to block Jayden from leaving. She must after leaving him joined them to give emotional support to Tamara.

“Tell me about it.” Daniel, with a touch opened a nearby door and they walked into a room. “Bad choice,” he gasped, gagging on the smell, and retreated, pushing Tamara away. “Run.”

He grabbed her hand, and they jogged along the corridor before seeing an open door and they went into it.

The suite had been lived in. There was an aged laptop on the desk and a suitcase on one of the twin beds. He only hesitated for a moment when he saw that, but there was no smell, so he shut the door after them.

Tamara frowned at the visible reminder of other people. “Well, this drives it home.”

“What?”

“Who cares about fucking relationships?”

“Let’s not talk about it,” he offered.

She sniffled.

“Unless you want to.”

“No. Let’s talk about Mystic Explosion.” She smiled as she held it in her hands. “I can honestly say its best thing I’ve ever got. It isn’t even the power. It’s how she makes me feel.”

Daniel’s heart soared at the whimsy in her voice combined with simple joy.

“She’s alive, my friend, part of me and I know she’s only level one, but,” she hugged the weapon. “She’s real and incredible.” Tamara looked up and pinned him with her big eyes. “How can you make something so unbelievable?”

“Power wise it’s the moth cores but the sapient seed.” Daniel peered at the floor. “My magic starts the process, but ultimately it comes from the feral core.”

Her eyes went wider. “It’s sort of like has someone’s soul?”

“I didn’t say that,” Daniel said hurriedly. The implications of that, given his absorption of feral cores was dark. Then he saw her eyes and the hope she needed a win. “But you’re kind of right. It only works with feral cores.”

She smiled and looked down at the weapon. “A new lease on life. I like that and then power from the moth cores. Dark, Life and Sound,” she remembered.

“Don’t forget evil.”

She beamed. “No. She’s a kind soul that rejected the evil part and only absorbed the sound components. Her skills are mainly defensive. She creates a wave of noise to knock weapons and enemies away. And…”

It was like rusty nails along a metal fence. Daniel flinched.

“Sorry. I wanted to show you. That was at the lowest level of power. At full intensity, it will blow out ear drums and I can direct it in a cone.”

“I noticed. Does it improve your magic control or strength? Because that was what I was imagining and going for when I created it.”

Tamara shook her head. “Probably at the next level.”

“That’s a pity because it worked for Ivey’s.”

“It’s okay. I’m ecstatic with its skills. Now try to hit me.”

“No.”

She looked at him flatly. “Pretend to hit me?”

“No, I don’t want to be thrown across the room.”

“I won’t do that.”

Daniel activated his second level of speed, lowered his body and moved forward, intending to grab her hips and toss her onto the bed behind her. It was like running into a brick wall and he bounced back with his arms vibrating. “What the hell?”

“That was at the lowest power on the defensive shield, and there’s one last trick.”

She swung the weapon at him and he instinctively swayed away. It felt like a wet towel slapped him on the face and his head rang.

Daniel stumbled backwards more out of shock than pain. An invisible magic attack was terrifying.

A confident feeling radiated from the club. Blood Drinker was more than capable of helping him either avoid similar attacks or blocking them outright.

Well, why not this time?

Complex thoughts came back, but it basically came down to Priscilla would have got upset at the club if it had interfered.

“Sorry.”

“I’m fine.” He said hurriedly. “It was more a reaction due to surprise than anything else.”

On Tamara’s shoulders, Priscilla had abandoned the shadow boxes and was instead mimicking Daniel’s flinch at the unexpected impact. He narrowed his eyes.

Amusement radiated from the mouse.

Tamara noticed where his glare was going and her hand instinctively went up to protect the mouse.

“What did she do?”

Smug amusement reached him.

“Nothing.”

“She’s trembling.”

Laughter echoed in her head.

“You need to be nicer to her.”

“She’s acting.”

Tamara presented the mouse to him and sure enough she was trembling like she was petrified. “Look at her.”

“Maybe we should give her some chips.” Daniel suggested.

Like a switch had gone off, the trembles stopped and Priscilla was looking excited dancing in the hand.

Tamara smiled at that reaction. “Oh, I see.”

“Absolutely terrified.”

She stifled a giggle. “Anyway, that was the last ability. It extends the length of the staff or makes a direct hit stronger. I shouldn’t have demonstrated it on you.” She moved nearer, studying him. She reached out and touched his lip. “Oh no. I gave you a blood lip. Sorry.”

“It was kind of a sucker punch.” Daniel admitted, touching the sore lip.

“You poor,” she got very close. His heart thumped. Then the mood seemed to break, and she moved hurriedly away, looking flustered. “Sorry, I wanted to show it off. I shouldn’t have done it.”

“Don’t worry you can make it up to me later.”

“How will I do that?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You’ll have to wait to find out.” He grinned at her. “More seriously. Those abilities seem too powerful.”

She looked at her staff, tracing the name. “Yeah. But that’s not something to complain about.”

“No, it’s definitely not.” For a long, awkward moment, he was lost in her eyes. “I…” He remembered Ivey’s words and broke eye contact hurriedly. “I’m delighted you got those abilities.”

Tamara stepped back. “Me too.”

They stood awkwardly. There were lots of things he wanted to say, but they seemed inappropriate for the moment and he couldn’t bring himself to talk about something superficial. She deserved better. “Unfortunately, I need to return to work.”

With that hurried apology, he rushed out of the room and then paused. “Tamara, the loot chest had staff fighting skills. You should see if you can get it.”

“Ivey already gave it to me.”

“Great.”

Cheeks burning, he bolted upstairs to level twenty-five and an annoyed ball of fur attacked him. It leapt into his arms and then started licking his face. The body was wiggling.

“It’s okay Finigan.” He tried helplessly to control the excited animal. “Not my tongue.” He dropped the dog only to have it spring up from the ground and despite its small size it could still get high enough to lick his chin.

“You little rascal.” He caught him and hugged the dog deliberately positioning the face to spare him licks while vigorously rubbing his belly. “Missed me, hey.”

Happy contentment floated back to him and a desire to always be together.

“I’ll try, boy.” Daniel’s tension melted away. He had not realised how stressed he had been getting. “Do you know where Cindy is?”

The dog tilted its head.

“Your old owner.”

Excitement flashed through the bond and Finigan sped away and guided him to a room on the opposite side from the kitchen. This one did not even have a curtain and Cindy was at a desk scribbling.

Finigan disregarded that and sped over and leapt onto her. She happily greeted her dog. “Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy.” They descended into a mock battle. It was almost the same reaction the dog had provoked from him.

Daniel gave them about a minute before he knocked.

Cindy jumped up and brushed off her clothes. “Sorry, I was just.”

“You wanted to speak to me?” Daniel interrupted gently.

The girl looked flustered and her eyes dropped to the papers she had been scribbling on. “Yes, traps. Wooden traps. Umm… pressure plates… Bear and…”

“I’m aware of them.”

“Of course you are.” She forcefully stilled her hands, that had been shuffling through the papers pointlessly. “I wanted to see if I can help you optimise and possibly explore some new ideas.”

“I’m always open to improvements.”

“Good. Good.” She snatched up a piece of paper that had several dot points on it. “I’ve been trying to come up with ideas. I don’t know if they’re good, they’re just ones I’ve thought of so far about. Crossbows, a gun,” she waved to the side to where there was a broken pressure trap. “Like the middle bit is already a gun, but maybe as a separate unit. Foot spikes once more I think you’ve done that, Multi-stage delivery.” She looked questioningly up at him. “Have you done that.”.

“I’ll bite. What’s that?”

She made a fist with one hand and an open palm with another. “That’s the feral.” She nodded at the open palm. She punched her fist into it. The open hand wrapped around it and then she acted up a blow up gesture. “One part of the trap delivers the payload and the second bit the projectile or spike then explodes up. Basically, you get the arrow inside the monster and then it detonates. It means your explosion bypasses the armoured flesh to do the maximum damage inside. No, no, don’t look like that. It’s definitely. Doable, you’ve got all the components already. We only need to put them together.” Once more, she pointed at the broken trap. “And my last one is a one use spear for the front line. You stab and then when the enemies impaled the end of the spear explodes to finish them.”

“What happens after that?”

She shrugged. “They switch to a different weapon.”

“I’m happy to test them, but you said optimisation as well.”

“Come sit.” She sat back in her chair and gestured for him to join her on the second chair. “To do that, I really need to understand your capabilities.”

“My plant growth skill aren’t like a lot of the other types of magic. It’s more flexible and the closer to nature the easier it becomes.”

She looked at him. “That’s fine, but Alpha magic is not magic. By that I mean it’s repeatable. When most people cast a spell every time, it produces an attack with the same amount of energy. While yours is flexible, I’m assuming it is fundamentally the same. Repeatable?”

“Well yes.”

“Then we can optimise design.” She smiled and tapped her chair. “First, I need to understand how you embed the explosive energy into the wood.”

Daniel sat and for the next half an hour and got grilled about details that seemed irrelevant and created dozens of simple scaled-down versions of his traps. Cindy was the energiser bunny, jumping from subject to subject and after the session he walked away with a prototype single use multistage delivery bomb.

“Thank you,” Daniel said, holding the weapon they had designed together. “I guess I should test fire it.”

Cindy nodded. “That’s always for the best. Just because the scale models worked doesn’t mean the full size will.” They both looked at the small indents in the plaster. They weren’t impressive, being no larger than what could be achieved by punching the wall with a knuckleduster. Maybe only a thirteen-year-old pre-event doing the striking he corrected in his mind. Zach, if he tried could definitely put a wider hole in the wall than what the mini-prototypes had managed. The more he considered the less impressive that damage was.

“But I think the big version will work even better.” Cindy said excitedly.

“Well, bigger is better.”

“Not what I was saying!” She rolled her eyes. “You don’t need to be juvenile and you know what I meant. That one,” she pointed. “Explosion will be impressive when I scale for maths.”

“Physics doesn’t necessarily work like that.” Daniel told her, thinking of lots of examples where what worked on small scale did not work when you made larger models. It was like a rubber band. Small ones could create an impressive fling shot, but larger versions had always been disappointing. You couldn’t for example make one that fired stones which were faster than bullets.

She frowned. “I know what you’re trying to say. Friction and air resistance can change how small objects act, but none of that should apply to these. In fact,” she rolled her eyes again. “In this specific instance, bigger is better as the initial penetration is important and…” She saw him laughing stopped when she realised what she had said. “I’ll stop right there after I say one more thing: the multi-staged delivery bomb will kill ferals. If you can get the explosive charge fully into the chest before it blows, it will be more likely to kill than if it occurs at skin level.” Her cheeks were rosy.

Daniel smirked. “Moving on, I have another project. Can you design something that will let us run commando raids to the floor below us?” He pointed at the window. “A ladder, stairs, something.”

“Really, you want to go that way instead of putting a hole in the floor like you did in the upper floors.”

“It’s in case we want to blitz downstairs. Surprise them with overwhelming force. A small hole might be limiting and impossible to attack if they’re defending it.”

“If they were smart,” Cindy said dismissively.

“They are.”

She looked sceptical.

“Trust me, they can defend choke points. The ones below differ from the ones you guys fought on twenty-six and seven.”

“Okay. Are there any specific features you desire?”

“Stability, speed deployment, large enough for multiple people to use at once and a fast release mechanism so we can drop the entire thing if the enemy drives us back and tries to use it.”

“You’re paranoid.”

“Prudent,” he answered. “Deployment can be assisted with magic and I think you know my capabilities regarding fast growth. Not that I think that’ll help.”

“Maybe to secure it.” She looked doubtful and stared at the window. You could almost see the gears turning in her head. “I’ll do my best.” She told him with a distracted tone.

“When it’s done, can you send it down to me? I’ll be working from twenty-one.”

Before heading downstairs, he went up three floors to an empty level. He wanted to test his new weapon without scaring anyone.

Animal Sense.

There was not on the current floor or the ones immediately above or below. He positioned himself ten metres away from a shot door and looked at the strange weapon he had created. It was sort of like a bazooka harpoon cross. With a twist, it was armed it and then he levelled it at the door.

He squeezed the trigger.

Bang.

The force to the recoil made him take two backwards, his shoulder aching, and he watched the spear slam into the door just like it was supposed to.

Boom!

The second explosion sounded thunderous in the narrow confines. The tip of the secondary part of the weapon, a forty-five centimetre long stake had shot at the door. It’s point had punched through and then it exploded in the shaped pattern Cindy had designed where instead of the explosion spreading in all directions it was mainly forward and to the sides in order to do maximum damage to whatever the projectile had struck.

Dust was everywhere, and he waved it away with his arms while approaching where the bullet had hit. There was a hole larger than his head in the door.

He had not noticed in those first fraction of an instant, but the weapon’s accuracy was poor as he had hit near the handle as opposed to the centre of the door where he had aimed. The range of the weapon was significantly less than ten metres, but that didn’t perturb him. Cindy had already warned him that accurate aiming was difficult without doubling the weight of the weapon. Plus, this was intended for mid range rather than long. Not short range because if you waited till the monster was a couple metres away then while you weren’t going to miss the benefit was lower. Even if your attack slew it, the monster would probably have sufficient momentum to crash into you and potentially rake you with its claws. After all, the body could function for a moment with a hole in the chest if the arms and the nerves connecting the brain to them were unaffected. The lack of blood to continue to fuel the cells would kill it quickly, but not fast enough to stop a claw from swiping at you. If you delayed too long, then you guaranteed a kill but risked getting hurt, anyway. Fire too soon, then you might miss. Daniel frowned. The effective range was rather small.

Curiously, he touched the splintered wood and stuck his arm through it. If you hit an elite, you were probably going to take it down with a single strike and relatively quickly.

Not that bad. He thought. While there was always room to complain, ultimately, it worked as well as Cindy had promised and most importantly it was an upgrade, as they would no longer have to rely on pre-placed traps.

Then there was the second idea she had shared with him. His whole design for creating weapons was based on transferring energy. There was no reason that he had to be the person physically pulling back the thin trunks of wood.

Passing by twenty-five he spotted Carly. “Hey.”

She turned to face him expectantly.

“I’m going down to twenty-one. Can you gather four strong men, people whatever,” he corrected hastily, remembering the women who had helped with the eggercough slug trap. Levels triumphed over biology within this new framework. “Who aren’t doing anything vital and send them down to help me?”

“Sure.”

Satisfied, he kept going down the steps.

When he hit twenty-one, he discovered that the same four as before were hard at work killing moths, but this time they had a team of fighters standing nearby.

In case the traps failed again. There was always a risk and while Daniel had tried to design a foolproof trap, there was no such thing as Trudy had showed. Since he was here, Daniel gave each trap a quick once over just in case. The trap that Borris had enhanced in the first session, which Jordan was now using was in perfect condition. He had been reinforcing them, and the changes to the wood were extraordinary. Not only was it weathering the moths it accepted his magic easily, letting his consciousness sink and immediately establish a three-dimensional view of the box.

“Good,” he said, patting it and smiling at Jordan. “This thing will not fail.”

The next box was the new one Borris was using. He had started the process but not finished it and Daniel took a minute to correct and thicken the teeth. While the traps were hardy when the months unleashed their sonic attacks, it had an enormous impact and significant wear and tear were occurring on the inner elements. The next two boxes were in the same state, but it took only a small amount of his magic to heal them.

With the traps working, Daniel checked the moth cores. There had only been another ten killed since lunch, but if they kept shifts going with the four traps not only could they gain the cores for crafting, they would slowly thin the moth population.

Animal sense spread out into the immediate area behind the elevator door. He could not feel any changes. Killing eighty of the bloody things had not made a noticeable dent in their numbers.

Good, he thought. They were easy experience, and while they were trapped, they were not a threat. Daniel in some ways would be happier if there were ten thousand rather than one. “Enough moths,” he muttered. “Focus on…”

“What?”

Daniel looked up startled at the young woman who had spoken. She was dressed in leather armour and held a spear. She was probably mid-twenties, but first impressions put her younger.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

Daniel’s cheeks went red. “Um,” his dog nuzzled his hand. “I was talking to Finigan.” He knelt down to pat him.

“Sorry,” she turned away.

“You’re a good boy,” he told the dog. “But I need to get to work. Make a plan for below and create some single use multistage rockets. Yes, I do.” He scratched the dog vigorously.