Ray Antonias
peered at me across a long black desk. “What was your name again?”
“Tom
Jurgen.” I tried to keep my focus. “I’m a private detective. I wanted to talk
about Clark Glendon.”
“Well
. . .” Antonias wore a blue turtleneck and tight wire-rimmed glasses. The
muscles in his arms looked as if he worked out every day. “I’m not sure how
much I can tell you about his—his murder.” He shuddered.
“It’s
not like that. I was just hoping you could tell me what he was working on.”
“Well.”
Antonias sipped coffee from a tall black mug. “Some of that’s proprietary.
Lawyers, you know. And I’ve already talked to the police about—what happened.”
An eyebrow twitched. “If you’re looking for something to pin on my company—”
“I’m
not here about liability. And I appreciate your time. But it’s important. Can
you just give me some idea of the project?”
“Look,
I’m sorry Clark is dead.” He set his mug down like a chess player announcing
check. “But I’m not going to just tell you all about our projects for some
fishing expedition. If that’s it, then we’re done and I have work to do.” He
swiveled around to his computer. “That’s all.”
“Can
I ask you just one question?”
“I
was here all day yesterday, if that’s what you’re after. You can ask anyone.”
I
took a deep breath. This might sound crazy to Antonias. But the problem might
be worse if it didn’t. “Did the project have anything to do with breaking the
barriers between dimensions?”
He
stared at me. Not as if I was crazy. More like I’d guessed his aunt’s maiden
name on the first try. “What the . . .”
“I’ve
got some experience in things like this.” More than I wanted. “I’m not trying
to squeeze money out of you. I just want to stop something bad from happening.”
“You
son of a bitch.” Antonias took a gulp of coffee and lifted his phone. “Kate?
Could you come to my office right now?”
“Kate”
showed up a few minutes later—a lanky woman with dark hair in jeans, sneakers,
and a gray University of Illinois sweatshirt. “What do you need, Ray?”
“Kate
Asbury, head of IT special projects. Tom Jurgen, private eye.” He tossed a
skeptical look at me, even though I’d shown him my business card. “Could you
describe Clark’s project to Tom, please?”
She
narrowed her eyes at me, then shrugged. “We’re looking at ways to transfer data
faster across the Internet. Clark had some ideas about shooting data packets using
a different kind of protocol. Some form of quantum computing. He called it
Portal-2.”
“Did
it go through a different universe?”
Kate’s
eyebrows twitched. Antonias nodded. “Go ahead.”
“It’s
something . . . like that.” She looked me over. “What do you know about it?” “Nothing
about quantum computing. Here’s what I think happened.” I tried to sound as
rational as I could. At least they seemed to be listening. “Glendon managed to
open a gateway for sending data, but something else came through. It’s called a
voarkla, and it killed him. I think the voarkla is still here, and it’s
attacking people.” I waited for them to declare me crazy.
“Oh
my God.” Kate stared at me. “How do you know all this?”
“I
found Glendon in the office you were paying for. The door was closed and the
room was wrecked, everything except for his laptop. I think the voarkla got out
through this Portal-2 thing, but for some reason it didn’t go back to his
world. Have you listened to any of the news this morning?”
“Ray,
I need to check the server logs.” She stood up. “There might be something
there—”
“Take
him with you.” Antonias pointed toward the door. “Let me know as soon as you
find anything.”
I
didn’t know anything about server logs, but at least they weren’t calling the
cops to drag me away. I followed Kate past a row of cubicles to a door in the
rear of Tera’s office suite. A sign warned: “SERVER ROOM 2/AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL
ONLY.” Kate punched a code into the panel and opened the door.
The
room was chilly. Large mainframes stood against the four walls.
“You
don’t seem surprised by any of this.” I stood behind her, my hands in my
pockets.
She
sat down in front of a wide monitor and began tapping at a keyboard. “Clark
tried to explain Portal-2 to me.” The monitor started showing a stream of
numbers and symbols. They might have computer code or ancient Etruscan as far
as I was concerned. “I don’t understand the software or how he developed it,
but the idea was to send huge files back and forth seamlessly. I know email
seems instant, but this was even faster and more secure. Clark was adjusting
the settings yesterday, and I was in a meeting, but we lost contact with his
server up in Evanston right around—you know, the time the police said he’d
probably been killed.”
“Did
you know him very well?”
“I
only met him a few times. He was—okay. I wish . . .” She rubbed her nose.
“Okay, here’s a weird thing: We’re still in contact with a Portal-2 interface.”
“What
does that mean?” I leaned over her shoulder.
“It
means the software is still running on a machine somewhere.” She clicked a key.
“His
laptop was still working. Something on it blinked.”
“It
wouldn’t be able to run the software, but it might have a connection to a hard
drive that’s still working offsite.” Kate bent down, peering at the screen.
I
thought about the CompUniverse victims. And the woman in the coffee shop, where
consultants and would-be novelists with their laptops are practically a cliché.
“Could the software migrate to other computers somehow?”
Kate
looked at my reflection in her monitor. “Why would it do that?”
“Because
I think the voarkla attacked people in a computer store and a coffee shop using
the Internet, and then vanished before anyone could catch it or kill it.”
The
door opened behind us. It was Antonias. “How’s it coming?”
Kate
looked grim. “I’m trying locate the Portal-2 software on another server, and
then we can shut it down from here. Maybe.”
Antonias
twitched. “What if we just delete the software off our system? Get rid of it so
no one can—”
“It’s
not as simple as dumping it into the trash!” Kate pointed to the lines of code
running across the monitor. “If it’s still running on at least one other hard
drive, it could have spread across the Internet.”
This
was getting worse and worse. I felt cold sweat under my shirt. Killing the
program could strand Pontoval here—along with the voarkla. But keeping it
online so we could send them back might mean bringing other wheeslings and
voarklas from Ponto’s world here. Or accidentally sending humans over there.
“There must be some way to control it.”
She
glared. “I don’t know the ins and outs of the program code. Do you want to find
the documentation and read through it?”
“I
can’t figure out GPS on my cell phone.” I stepped back. “Just do whatever you
can.”
“I’m
trying.” She clicked her mouse. “Maybe if you all just—”
“What’s
that?” Antonias pointed toward her screen. “That doesn’t look like—”
The
monitor screen was glowing like a fiery red flare. No more numbers and
programming symbols, just a halo of crimson light, swirling around and growing
bigger with each turn like a hatch in a submarine.
“Oh
shit!” Kate shoved her chair back.
I
reached for the door, but Antonias already had his hand on the knob, and Kate
was swinging around in her chair. I grabbed for her arm, and then—
The
voarkla emerged from the halo of energy in the computer screen with a roar that
shook the walls.
I
hadn’t seen it before, of course, but the creature couldn’t be anything else.
The voarkla looked like an oversized wolverine, with wide jaws, two long jagged
fangs, and matted gray fur covering powerful muscles. Curved claws extended
from its thick paws. Its breath smelled like a swamp, and its second roar
burned my skin.
The
voarkla’s eyes were shiny and yellow as it searched the room for prey. I
ducked, pulling Kate down with me as the voarkla lunged forward. I wasn’t
really trying to shield her with my body—the terror wouldn’t let me think that
clearly—but we ended up on the floor, my shoulder over her head, as Antonias fumbled
with the doorknob.
Maybe
his frantic movements attracted its attention. Whatever, the voarkla ignored us
and leaped straight for Antonias as he finally pushed the door open.
He
stumbled out into the office, but the voarkla was already on top of him, its
claws thrashing as it growled viciously. Antonias screamed again, and someone
nearby shouted in panic.
I
saw one set of claws rip through his shoulder as the voarkla twisted around,
pinning Antonias beneath its body. Then its head shot down and it clamped its
jaws around his neck.
Its
fangs cut the scream off.
I
looked over my shoulder at the red halo above the computer. It flickered,
growing wider and then shrinking, a pulsing light without heat floating in the
air. I could hear the voarkla’s snarls as its teeth tore into Antonias’s body.
“What
the hell?” Kate whispered.
“Voarkla.”
If we could shut down the computer, would it disappear? Or just be trapped here
with a human smorgasbord to sample one Internet connection at a time?
Abruptly
the creature’s head rose. Its shoulders heaved as it gasped for breath, and
then it twisted back around to head back into the room. With us.
I
thought about Rachel, and my parents, and my brother in California. And
Pontoval. But the voarkla wasn’t thinking about us. Instead, as if listening to
a signal, it jumped across the room and then hurled its body back through the
glowing halo.
With
a loud snap! the halo closed up and vanished, taking the voarkla with
it. The monitor was smashed, and the computer next to it toppled over, lights
winking out. Kate groaned.
Then
she pushed me off of her. “I’m fine, damn it!” She wiped the sweat from her
forehead. “But thanks.”
“Any—anytime.”
I didn’t feel like confessing that I’d only been trying to keep out of the
monster’s path.
“What
the fuck was that?” This came from a tall guy with a beard and a long ponytail,
standing over Antonias’ dead body, shaking with shock. “Kate? Who’s that guy?”
“T-Tom
Jurgen.” I got unsteadily to my feet as Kate clambered up on her own. “And that
was a demon from another dimension.”
“I
think I know what happened.” Kate looked at the crashed computer, breathing
hard.
I
tried to catch my own breath. “Is that good?”
“Maybe.”
She nodded slowly. “Maybe.”
Detective
Elena Dudovich didn’t like me very much. Mostly because my explanations never
fit her definition of crime.
“Come
on, Jurgen.” She leaned over Tera’s conference room table, her arms tense. “You
know I can’t put that in my report.”
I
gulped lukewarm coffee. My hand shook. “So it’ll sound better if you say a
coyote took an elevator up to the 7th floor and snuck into the
server room? And then left through the rear exit?”
She
wanted to slap me. But Kate Asbury was in the room. She’d backed up my story,
but otherwise stayed quiet.
“Get
out of here.” Dudovich jabbed a finger at the window, as if hoping I’d leave
that way. “Call me when you've got something that doesn’t sound like a Friday
night SyFy movie. You . . .” She waved an arm at Kate. “If you’re smart, you’ll
stay away from this guy.”
Kate
stood up, her arms stiff. “Ray was my boss.”
Dudovich
groaned quietly. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“I
know.” She looked at me. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Right.”
I opened the door for her. “Just keep an open mind.”
“I think
parts of the program mimic a magic spell,” Kate told Rachel and me back at my
apartment. Ponto was on the floor at my feet, watching the Teletubbies on my TV
and slurping apple juice from a big jug.
I
was sitting next to Rachel. “When I told her to keep an open mind, I wasn’t
expecting her to catch on this quick.”
Rachel’s
eyes darted between the two of us. “You know he’s my boyfriend, right?” She
gets possessive. Sometimes. I squeezed her arm.
“I
don’t care about that.” Kate was exasperated. “When I was in college I was part
of a coven. We did the usual magic, but I remember how the spells worked. I
think there’s a spell in the program that’s holding the voarkla—is that what
you called it?—in this world, somehow stuck in the network that Clark set up
between his computer in Evanston and the one in our office downtown.”
She
pointed at Rachel’s laptop. “But the program runs through the Internet, so
sometimes it must pop up on a random computer, and that’s when the voarkla gets
out. But it pulls him back. I—I actually summoned it when I was running the
program on our server, and . . .”
She
closed her eyes.
“It
wasn’t your fault,” Rachel said firmly. “That guy Clark brought the voarkla
here in the first place. Anyway, we have to focus on getting rid of the thing.
Right?” She shot a look at me.
“And
getting Pontoval back home,” I said.
He
looked up from the TV. “Hommme?” Ponto was starting to pick up our language.
I
stood up and scratched his ears. He seemed to like that.
“We
can’t take the program completely off the Internet,” Kate said. “So the only
thing we can do is find the last server that’s running it and shut it down. The
server at our office burned out when the voarkla went back through, and the one
Clark was using probably did the same thing. But it’s still active on at least
one other computer in the city.” She sat back in her chair and crossed her
arms. “We’ve got to find it.”
I
rubbed my head. “I might have an idea.”
“Hommme,”
Ponto purred.
Lauren Moore
usually trusted me. I’d done other jobs for her. One of them involved a
background check that had turned up a vampire. (She didn’t hire him.) But she
was legitimately annoyed when I told her we needed the computer Glendon had
been using at her company. And that she might not get it back.
She
overcame her reluctance when I directed her to an online news report about Tera
Systems. She even helped me disconnect the machine and load it into my Honda.
Ponto
was jumping up and down on my couch when I got back to the apartment. Partly
because he knew he was going home, but mostly from terror of the voarkla. I
couldn’t blame him.
So
I tried to calm him while Kate and Rachel set the computer up on the dining
room table. I felt grateful that Ponto seemed to have mastered the use of the
toilet, and that he didn’t break anything while he danced around with growing
anxiety as the computer booted up.
“Okay.”
Kate tapped some keys, biting her lip. “The Portal-2 program is partitioned
off. And it’s . . . password protected. Damn it. I could override that on our
server, but—”
“Move
over.” Rachel nudged her aside. “And don’t watch what I’m doing. Trade
secrets.” Her fingers moved fast.
Kate
smiled. “You’re a hacker?”
“Sometimes.
Plus, kind of psychic. You’re not the only one who used to be in a coven. No
smartass comments, Tom!”
“Who,
me?” I handed Pontoval a handful of lettuce from a bowl on the table. “Just let
me know when we’re ready.” Not that I was in any hurry to confront the voarkla
again.
“Okay,
we’re in.” Rachel stepped back.
“We
have to talk later.” Kate crossed her arms and examined the screen for ten
seconds. “Okay, you’d better get ready.”
“Battle
stations!” Rachel blew me a kiss and headed for the bedroom.
We
had a big cardboard box in the corner for Ponto. I picked him up, whispering
some wheesling words that I hoped would keep him calm if I pronounced them
right, and carefully pushed him into the box. Out of sight. We hoped.
I
picked up my Taser from the table and made sure it was fully charged. Then
Rachel walked out of the bedroom, lugging a sword with both hands.
Kate’s
eyes got wide. “Wow. Is one of you compensating for something?”
“Talk
to him.” Rachel hefted the sword. “Just call me Xena the Warrior Princess. And
no jokes about chain-mail bikinis, all right?” She gave me a wink.
I
forced a smile. “Never entered my mind. Mostly because I’m terrified right
now.”
“All
right.” Kate hit a key. “I’m opening the program. This might take a few
minutes—”
She
jumped back as the halo burst into existence above the monitor. Pontoval
squealed. The halo flared bright red, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Rachel
stood next to me, her arms trembling from the weight of the sword. I clutched
the Taser with both hands. The voarkla moved fast. I’d probably get only one
shot. I didn’t expect the Taser to bring it down, but it might scare or shock
the thing long enough for Rachel to—
“What
are you doing? Put that thing down before someone gets hurt!”
A
human emerged from the halo. She was tall, dark skinned, and wore a long gray
robe with grass stains at the bottom. Her feet were big and bare on my carpet.
Oh
hell. “There’s a voarkla!” I pointed over her shoulder toward the portal. “Be
careful! It might . . .”
Pontoval
surged from the box with a happy snort and jumped up into the woman’s arms. She
laughed and hugged him as he snuggled against her chest. “Pontoa! Pontoa arkla
u mando! Yi asla n . . .”
Ponto
wrapped his long arms around her neck. “Yeeha. Yeeha, linooo.” He closed his
eyes. “Lionooo . . .”
The
woman shifted him around in her arms. “Who’s in charge here?” she demanded.
I
took a cautious step forward. “Tom Jurgen. So who are you?”
“My
name’s . . . let’s see, what would you understand?” She stroked Ponto’s fur.
“Just call me Lionna, is that all right?”
“Lionnnnna.”
Pontoval lifted her head and turned his face to me. “Tommm? Tommm!”
I
smiled. “Ponto. You okay now?”
His
head bobbed up and down. “Yesss.”
Lionna
gave us a look as stern as a disappointed nun. “I don’t know how Pontoval got
here, but it’s about time he came home. I’ve been looking for him for seven
years.”
Seven
years since yesterday? Well, it was another dimension—time probably moved
differently there. “But the voarkla—”
“We’ve
taken care of that. He was harder to find. This world is so confusing.” She
slid a foot back and forth on the rug. “The thing you call Goo-goo? It’s a road
without an end. And that Yahooo thing makes no sense at all.” She lifted one
lip in what looked like a smile. “But I—we—are grateful that you took care of
Pontoavallian.”
“Well
. . .” Suddenly I realized that he was leaving. “He’s a good friend. I hope—I
mean . . .” Damn it.
“We
need to close this world off.” Lionna glanced back. The halo behind her was
shrinking. “It’s too dangerous for us. You won’t need to worry about us any
more.”
“But—”
Of course. “Yeah. I get it.”
“Thank
you.” Lionna stepped back, and the halo expanded to catch her.
Pontoval
twisted his head to look at me. “Tommm! Tommm?”
I
waved. “Bye, Ponto. So long.”
He
waved back. “Soo looong . . .”
The
halo collapsed, taking Pontoval and Lionna out of our world and back to their
own.
Kate
dropped into a chair as the monitor went dark. I set the Taser on the counter
and looked at Rachel.
The
sword lay at her feet. “He was cute.”
“Yeah.”
At least he was safe.
“At
least they didn’t destroy another computer.” Kate tapped the keyboard and began
uninstalling Glendon’s program from the hard drive. “I’ll help you take this
back when I’m finished.”
“Thanks for your help.” I looked at the images rolling across the computer screen.
“Sorry about your boss.”
“Yeah.”
Kate rubbed her forehead. “Does your other client need any IT help? I may be
looking for another job right away.”
My
fault. At least partly. “Lauren Moore needs someone to take over Clark’s
project. I’ll give her a call.”
“Let
me finish this first.” She stabbed at the keys, her eyes fuzzy. “Just give me a
few minutes.”
Rachel
picked up the sword, and I followed her to the bedroom with the Taser. We
stowed the weapons safely away.
“I
didn’t think I’d miss him.” I rolled up the sheet I’d used to protect my floor.
Rachel
patted my shoulder. “We could get a cat. Or maybe some fish. Or a Chia pet.”
We?
I shook my head. “Right now I’d settle for some Chinese food.”
“Good.
I was joking about the cat.” But she kissed my cheek. “I’ll find the menu.”
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