Off-Worlders Read online

  Earth

  Ari finished reading the report and nodded to his Senior Analyst who vanished it with a quick swipe of his hand on the central console.

  For god’s sake, get a grip, Ari thought to himself as Dhruv brought up a new image.

  “He’s a loose canon. A high-risk connection they hoped never to have to use," Dhruv paused for emphasis. "But he is still one of them. And they are running out of options. They have put him in play.”

  Ari nodded again, letting out a long breath. The Senior Analyst did not need to say more. And last month, even last week, this news would have both horrified, and excited, him.

  What the world did not need now was loose canons. But the fact that they knew who this particular loose canon was, and what was planned for him, meant they had a very real chance of stopping this new madness - that was the exciting bit - before anything too horrific went down.

  That is, if the almost sabotage level of management in here didn't screw things up again. Whose side were they actually on? He wondered again. It was a constant thought these last six months. Where were they finding these people? Why were they bringing them in here? Why were they letting them screw things?

  Ari rubbed his forehead and the sides of his face with his hands. The last six months had been bad. Cluster fuck bad. But in the last three days, the world had tipped on its head for him. Everything seemed distant. Superficial. And he was hearing things. Things that didn't make sense. But they were important. More important than the image on the huge wall projection in front of him. More important than the sabotage management screws ups. Way more.

  He wished he had someone to talk to. Hell, he wished he had a bunch of people to talk to.

  But there were few here experiencing connection to the Makers. Few feeling the rolling waves of anchored awareness. None of this new age or yoga-nazi shit. Actual awareness. Actual connection to the Makers. Stuff that would send way too many of the new agers and the yoga-nazis screaming for the hills.

  That thought made him smile.

  But the lack of people to talk to about this shit did not.

  He got why bad news sells now. He got why dumb fucks got off on their petty little gossip. If you can’t feel the thrill of the real and the good, you'll just settle for the thrill of the bad. Because everyone was hunting the connection. Everyone was hunting the thrill. Everyone was more than capable of anchoring to it.

  Unless they gave their anchor point away. Sold it not even to the highest bidder, but the easiest one. The ones who would do all their thinking for them, define their choices for them, spoon feed their shitty little, carbon copy, lives to them.

  "You will advise them there are Elementals with current high activity readings in their immediate vicinity. Which there are, incidentally, so be careful."

  “Sorry, what was that last bit?” Ari's voice was hoarse, the shake barely perceptible. .

  But this Analyst had worked with Ari a lot over the years, and he was sensitive to changes in him. “We’ve established a two man 24/7 surveillance Op, here,” Dhruv indicated a place on the map now displayed on the wall in front of them.

  Ari nodded from underneath his hands, and tried to breathe, very, very deeply and very, very calmly. His Senior Analyst had not just said anything about freaking Elementals with high activity readings. But to Ari it sounded like he had.

  “Are you Ok, Sir?” Dhruv looked at him in concern. Ari had not even looked up at the screen.

  “Yeah. No. Sorry.” Ari rose. “I need to get some air. I’m gonna get Jenkins to take point on this one. I uh, I might need to be away for a couple of days.”

  “Ok Sir, no problem. I can bring Jenkins up to speed.”

  “Thanks Dhruv. Great work by the way. I appreciate it.”

  Ari hurried from the room, blasting out a formal notification on his phone on the way to Jenkins' desk.

  “Jenkins, you’re taking point on the Boker-Shield case. I need to be out of here for a few days. Dhruv's waiting for you in briefing room one.”

  Jenkins raised an eyebrow at him,“Sure. You Ok?”

  “Yeah. Just need to sort out some stuff. Call me if you need anything. I’ll see you in a couple.”

  Jenkins smiled, “I’ll try not to. Red alert, incoming. Cluster fuck bitch from hell approaching at high speed to the rear.” He said it without breaking conversational rhythm, or giving any indication that he could see her coming.

  Of course, they were trained in this. Pity now, they were using it on their own.

  It was a satellite office. Sometimes the people in charge of these little satellite operations are legends. Sometimes they are morons.

  Unfortunately, cluster fuck bitch from hell was high in the moron category.

  And moron is Ok if morons are content to leave the efficient people with brains around them alone to get the job done. But when they get all antsy and bitter and paranoid about the efficient people with brains, and start falsely allotting credit for their achievements to their dumb sycophants, well then the good people tend to leave. And take their brains and crazy-assed efficiency with them.

  Cluster fuck bitch from hell had a foul energy, a heavy, draining presence, and beady, resentful, eyes. The bitterness monster inside of her was steadily sated by the continuous cocktail of wine and prescription medication she fed herself.

  Ari wondered idly what her pill to wine ratio was on a nightly basis, and hoped she maintained it. She was scary enough when she was off the happy meds, and her eyes had that permanent prescription torpor. So wrong. He was crazy sensitive to it of late. It was like looking into the eyes of something from the exorcist.

  He raised his eyebrows at Jenkins.

  “I’ll see you,” he said and made a quick break for it.

  He made good speed and closed the front door on the horrific sound of his name on her lips. It was not something he heard often. He was one of the efficient ones with a brain that made her bitter and insecure, so she tried never to mention his name or much acknowledge that he even worked there.

  God, she really was a disgusting piece of shit, Ari thought, as he waited impatiently for the lift. “Wouldn’t piss on if she was on fire,” was how he, Jenkins and numerous staff, both long gone, and present, liked to put it.

  He heard the click clack of her ridiculous heels and felt the oppressive bitch from hell miasma roll inexorably towards him. She’d made good time for someone in stupid shoes. Lucky said shoes and any hard floor surface tended to give her approach away, repeatedly. It's kinda like those bells they put on cats, Dhruv had mused once, and he smiled, remembering it.

  He resisted the instinct to wait to give her the finger and opted for the stairs. No need. Life - and every sane staff member currently to the rear of her - was already giving her the finger in abundance.

  He pushed open the heavy door. It was one of those strange ones from Blue Earth. With funny, handles and gaps that let cold air and noise in and out in equal measure. And it had a funny opening into the stairwell action rather than sliding neatly into the wall.

  WTF?

  'Blue' Earth?

  Where the fuck had those thoughts come from?!

  Ari took the stairs at a run. Maybe it was just this place. These people. Maybe he just needed to get the fuck out of dodge for a little while and everything would be Ok again.

  Maybe he shouldn’t fucking drive?

  Nah.

  He’d just get behind the wheel and turn the radio up, and keep the window down, and drive like a motherfucker until he made it home.

  Then he was going to crack open a beer and listen to some rare blues.

  Then he was going to wake up whenever he damn well felt like it.

  Then he was going to get back in the car and drive up to the old lake house and go fishing for the weekend.

  Now, that, that was a plan.

  That was a good plan.

  The best laid of 'em, of mice and men, is what they say isn't it?

  As Ari sat on the pla
ne, one way ticketed to the destination that had been calling his name loud and clear for months now, he wondered when he'd get to see the lake house again.

  A woman across the aisle, practically identical to cluster fuck, was pursing her lips into classic cat bum, and giving the flight attendant hell.

  Ari smiled. He was sure never coming back here to go back to that office.