This choice: Hide in the punishment corner • Go Back...Chapter #72Stumbling Over a Spy by: Seuzz   You're still shy about committing yourself in any particular direction.
So, the next day, when you and Jonathan are moving your supplies over the Strausslers, you ask if you can just bury yourself in his "punishment corner."
"I guess," he says. "It seems like kind of a waste of opportunities, though. And you could always be Monique," he adds with a leering grin.
You smile tightly. You've still got a remote sigil on her, so you could be her directly if you wanted. But you're still thinking in terms of research possibilities, and possible future plans, and don't want to feel yourself distracted—still less dominated—by a "boyfriend."
* * * * *
The takeover of Jonathan Straussler's house proceeds like clockwork. Curt Straussler, Jonathan's "Beast" father, is trapped under a golem mask already. True, it is under the control of Frank, who is not with you, but when you find him in his office your colleague moves swiftly to remove it from him—knocking him out long enough that the two of you can get your "operating table" up into his outer office, where you spread it out on a conference table.
You start by removing Curt Straussler's anima and essentia, leaving him an impotent husk. The latter you split into five jars. One of these you reintroduce with a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder into Straussler; the other you insert into Joe. When he shifts into that essentia—which leaves him without his prodigies, but he doesn't need them for the moment—he orders Straussler (who is now indistinguishable from a golem) to get to his feet and summon his head of security.
The man, one Egeman Tiryaki, is already on his way, for the crashing and banging from inside Straussler's office has alarmed the staff. Curt briefly distracts Egeman —a strapping Turk with a fierce glower and a bald head—until Joe can get a blank Libra mask onto him, knocking him out. His operation is even more straightforward than Curt's: You have on hand four jars of Jonathan Straussler's essentia, and you insert one of these into Tiryaki after removing his own essentia and anima. It seems best to handle it that way: As Joe will likely be spending most of his time as Jonathan, it makes sense that "Jonathan" should have direct control of the security staff.
The next three victims fall quickly. Golem-Tiryaki only has to summon and distract James Willson, the security officer who doubles as a second footman, until Joe can get the mask onto him, and a similar operation turns him into a minion. He and Egeman actually lay hands on and hold Charlie McGehee, the security man who watches the exterior of the house while acting as a groundskeeper, and then McGehee and Willson grapple Huojin Liu, Curt Straussler's driver, into submission.
Jonathan spends a good five minutes giving his new security officers a reorientation. It's not complicated—they are already trained to obey and protect the household, including Jonathan, and mostly he just has to assure them that they should put the day's events out of their mind and return to their duties.
Except that he keeps two of them—Tiryaki and Willson—on hand as Curt calls in the remaining three converts-to-be: Mrs. Straussler; the butler, Arturo, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Szymanski. These get a transfusion that replaces their native essentia with Curt's. After Joe switches into "the Beast's" essentia he sends them away with orders to tell the rest of the staff to ignore all the booming and crashing that has been frightening the house. They are also informed that you are a friend of Master Jonathan's who will be staying with him in his quarters.
To prepare for that, Jonathan orders Liu to drive you in to town so you can buy another sheet of steel for a redesigned operating table. You have, in using your first version, seen a couple of ways to simplify and condense the design while adding more features. As you drive off with Liu in the work truck, you are looking forward to a good night's sleep followed by a pleasant day of sigil construction.
You are occupied by quite different thoughts on the drive back.
* * * * *
"And how long has he worked for you?" you ask Curt Straussler.
"Five years," the tycoon says. He glowers at Huojin Liu, who returns his anger-mottled expression with an impassive stare.
"And you never knew he was a double agent?"
"I'd have fired him and filed a couple of lawsuit!" Straussler snarls.
"Don't blow a gasket, Pop," Jonathan says, but as he's controlling Liu with his essentia, Curt Straussler ignores his order and slaps the table with the palm of his hand. "This is actually good news," Jonathan adds, "because Liu here is now a triple agent working for us. Isn't that right, Liu?"
"If you say so, sir," says the chauffeur.
"Well, I don't say anything yet. What do you think, Will?"
Despite your recent experience with masks, subterfuges, and the turning of agents, you are still intimidated by what you learned on the ride out: Liu, conscience-stricken by the change of loyalties that elevated Jonathan above all others, had confided in you that he makes three times what Straussler is paying him by acting as an agent for Spartan Techadyne—one of Straussler's chief competitors.
"Is this really any of our business?" you ask. "We're not trying to take over your dad's business. We just want a place to hide and a little spending money until we figure out what we're doing. Can't your dad just, uh—" You break off as Curt snatches up his phone and jabs at the receiver.
"What are you doing, Dad?" Jonathan asks him.
"None of your affair!"
Jonathan turns to the chauffeur. "Liu, wait in the outside office." With a curt bow, the traitor withdraws as Jonathan swabs his chest. "Dad, what are you doing?" Jonathan asks again.
Curt twitches. "I'm calling a— Kim!" he barks into the phone. "This is Curt Straussler. Hold on a minute." He covers the receiver with his hand. "I'm calling a business acquaintance who should be able to tell me something about what's going on!"
With a wave of his hand, Jonathan gives his father permission to proceed. The conversation that follows leaves Curt with steam coming off his scalp.
"He says he doesn't know anything about it!" he roars after hanging up. "Bullshit! He must've set it up!"
"Calm down. Who set what up?"
Curt's demeanor instantly smooths out. "Eric Kim. He's my liaison with Fane."
At that, Jonathan sits up sharply. "Fane?" he says.
"One of my business partners," Curt says. "Partner, supplier, customer, competitor." His lip curls. "Saboteur."
"What do they have to do with the company that's paying Liu?" you ask, for Jonathan has sunk into a thoughtful silence.
"Spartan Techadyne? It's one of their subsidiaries, one of my competitors. Fane's been trying to get in business with me—buy me, partner with me—for a couple of years now. Eric Kim's been their Johnny-on-the-spot, trying to jolly me along, but it looks like he got tired of playing nice and decided to start stealing. Or maybe that was the plan all along."
Jonathan comes to life again. "So let's get this Eric Kim guy out here and talk to him." As he speaks, Curt's phone rings. By his expression when he answers, you can tell it's person you've just been talking about.
Jonathan gestures you to follow him into the outer office, where Liu is patiently waiting. "I still don't see how this is any of our business," you protest to him.
"Then let me explain, because this is big," he says, and he pulls you into the outside corridor so no one—not even the docile Liu—can hear you.
"You heard Dad mention Fane," Jonathan says. "They're this giant corporation, like General Electric or AT&T, only bigger, I think. But they're more than that. They're in the magic business, too."
"You mean like David Copperfield?"
He shoves you lightly. "No! Like you and me. Like the Stellae. They started as a secret society back in the eighteenth century, investigating occult, oogedy-boogedy stuff, and black magic. They went into business to finance themselves, and now they're one of the biggest companies in the world, and way back behind the scenes they're still doing stuff like Blackwell was doing. Like we've been doing."
"So they're like the Illuminati or something?" you ask, still trying to feel the contours of what your colleague is trying to say.
"Like the Illuminati and the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians and all the other conspiracy stuff that you've ever heard of. But also secretly running a hundred-billion dollar a year multinational conglomerate that makes everything from airplanes to chocolate chip cookies while drawing pentagrams on the walls of their secret laboratories so as to invoke Unnamable Entities from the Nether Dimensions."
He holds your eye. "You're pulling my leg," you say.
"But I'm not. They're someone the Stellae have been fighting for a long time, and never being able to get the better of because they've sprawled out everywhere."
Now you do feel a slight shiver. "So you're saying they're even worse than the Stellae? Do we need to get out of here?"
"No, I think I'm saying the opposite." Jonathan cocks his head. "Stellae are dangerous because of their prodigies. The guys running Fane are just normal people. They're like Blackwell." A gleam comes into his eye. "And we handled Blackwell."
"Still, I don't want any trouble," you start to say, but Jonathan cuts you off.
"Who's Blackwell's boss now?" he says. "How would you like to be the boss of a Blackwell that makes a hundred billion a year?
"And," he adds, "they've got a lot more places for us to hide than in Jonathan's punishment corner."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author