I liked Odin’s.
I had found Odin’s Cellar shortly after returning. It was about halfway between the apartment I had rented and the shop where I worked after “convincing” the foreman to hire me. A few days after I had started, I saw the sign at the bottom of the steps off the sidewalk and went down to check it out.
It immediately became my favorite hangout.
It was a meadery and leaned into its “Viking” theme. All wrong, of course; the popular conception of them barely matches reality. But a longboat prow greeted you as you entered, there were axes and shields on the walls, and the lighting was fake LED torches along the walls.
No windows; the whole place was underground. It was probably violating some fire code or another, but I didn’t care. It felt a bit more sheltered down here, more grounded. I was happy to get the slight boost it gave me.
They also offered axe throwing in the back. Another bonus from my point of view.
It was later than normal when I went in that night. We had gotten a custom request to match some banister rails for a rebuild, and Pete, that foreman who had hired me, had suggested that there would be a bonus if I managed to get them carved tonight. Yeah, the CNC did most of the work, but it still took some work from one of us to get it exact.
In a way, I was glad for the extra work. I needed the extra cash, and Pete was starting to notice that I had a way with carving. I could relax a bit, knowing that I would probably be stable.
For a while, anyway.
I stepped inside and pulled off my jacket. It wasn’t quite winter, but the evenings in Ohio were starting to get a bit cool. I frowned at the sawdust that fell to the floor as I did, then decided that they probably wouldn’t notice. They had enough sawdust of their own.
Valerie was at the bar. Most of the waitstaff here were in “Valkerie” outfits, but she was one of the few who was good enough that “Odin” (who I had never met) let her get away with it. She wore a pair of jeans and an RHCP t-shirt under a black leather vest.
She was also obviously not a Viking–her Latino heritage was too obvious–but she was a damn good bartender. And that could make or break a place like this. So, while her nametag read “Astrid,” that was the only concession she had made to the theme.
The bar was more crowded than when I was usually here, but I was also usually here a couple of hours earlier than this. There was a tray holding the remnants of some earlier customer’s order at my usual seat, but I sat down anyway.
Val was immediately there, scooping up the tray and dropping a glass in front of me. “You’re late. I saved your space for you.”
“Thanks, Val.” I picked up the glass, took a sip, and let out an involuntary sigh at the sweetness of it. “Dandelion-Rose Mead,” they called it. It was the sweetest thing they had.
She was still standing there, tray in hand. “You OK? Everything fine?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Pete had me matching some stair rails to match some ‘historic home’ someone is renovating. Honestly, there was nothing special about them, but this client was willing to pay a lot for a match. And more to get them done now. So… yeah. Late night at the woodshop.”
She smiled slightly. “Oh. OK. Just… glad to know you’re OK. Trying to keep track of my regulars!”
I laughed. “I try.” I paused. “Is… something going on?”
“What? No! Well…” she sighed and looked around. “OK… someone was in here earlier asking about you. Well, they had a picture of you, but they said they were looking for someone named ‘Devon.’ You aren’t… involved in anything, are you?”
I tensed. Crap! I had known that coming back was a risk, but I had felt I needed to take it. I… couldn’t take The Tower anymore. Had they followed me?
No. They were reluctant enough to let me in in the first place. They certainly wouldn’t try to get me back.
So…
Yeah, that left only one option. And I really didn’t want to talk to them.
On the other hand, I’m not sure why they would want to talk to me. We hadn’t departed on the best of terms.
“No, not that I can think of. Devon?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, that was the name they gave. But it was your picture.”
I smiled weakly. “I… guess I have a double then?”
She dubiously returned the smile. “If you say so. But either way, someone is asking around about someone who looks like you. Just letting you know.”
“Yeah, thanks for looking after me.”
She shrugged, then leaned forward. “You… OK, you’re one of my good customers. And… I get the sense that you’re running from something.”
I tried to keep my expression neutral. Was it that obvious? “No… I was just looking for a quiet place to relax after work.”
“Quiet? Yeah. The place with axe-throwing.” As if to emphasize her words, there was a loud thunk from behind me, followed by groans and yells.
“Plus, you pick a place with no windows, and you sit on the far side of the bar. Away from the entrance but closer to the noise.”
I started to say something, but she held up a hand. “Listen, you don’t get good at this job if you can’t read your customers. And I won’t pry. But…” she smiled. “If you want to talk to someone, just let me know.”
“Um… thanks?”
“Sure. Talking is what I’m here for.” She frowned. “Just talking. Don’t get the wrong idea.”
“Oh yeah, I know the rules.”
“Good! Too many of you don’t,” she said with a laugh as she flicked the bar towel at me.
“I’ll… thanks for the heads-up.”
She nodded and seemed slightly embarrassed at what she had said herself. “Sure. Well, just let me know if you need anything.” She retreated down the bar.
I took a deep breath. Part of me wanted to run. Again. But I had tried that. It hadn’t gotten me anywhere except back to where I had been.
Or, maybe it was nothing.
I looked around. I was pretty isolated back here. The bar was U-shaped, and I was on the opposite side from the entrance and in the back corner. The bulk of taps and bottles blocked me from the view of anyone coming in, and the only things behind me were the stalls where people were throwing axes and the restrooms. There was even only one tv over here.
No reason for anyone to walk back here.
I sighed, then opened my pack, pulling out the Book and my notebook. I opened it on the bar to where I had marked, opened my pen, and started taking notes. Just someone doing some study for a class.
At least, that’s what I had hoped everyone would assume.
—-
I had been at it for about an hour. And three meads. I was a bit too engrossed in what I was doing–I had just had the breakthru that this section was written in second-person, not third, which changed the interpretation quite a bit–when someone sat on the stool next to me.
I glanced over. Some office worker. He had loosened his tie but was still wearing his jacket. Most places didn’t bother expecting their people to do that anymore. I frowned slightly. There were several empty stools past him, but he had sat down next to me.
He was engrossed in the menu and not paying attention to me, but I was still a bit annoyed at having my privacy interrupted. I shifted the Book and my notes around, closing it to keep it private.
Val came by and took his order. Bud Lite and nachos. Who comes to a meadery and orders a Bud Lite?
After my one breakthru, I hadn’t made much progress, so I thought it might just be time to leave. I pulled out my pack and put the Book away. I was digging in my pocket to pay when he suddenly spoke.
“I’m surprised you showed up again. We were sure you would keep hiding in the mountains forever.”
I turned quickly and looked him up and down. I didn’t recognize him, but he was looking directly at me.
“I’m sorry, but you must have me confused with someone else. Now, if you will excuse me…”
He smiled slightly while shaking his head. “Come on, Devon. You know who I am.” He held up his hand as he spoke, revealing a familiar tattoo on his palm.
I tried not to glance at my own hand. I was wearing a pair of fingerless gloves, supposedly to protect my hands while woodworking, but actually to hide a similar tattoo. I looked at him more closely.
“Look, you didn’t think you could just show up again and not have anyone notice. Besides, the Tower told us you had left.”
I sighed, flipped my notebook shut, and stuffed it into my pack. “OK, fine. Whoever you think I am, just assume that I don’t want to have anything to do with whoever you are. Again, if you will excuse me…”
I stood up and took a step away, but he grabbed my arm. “Yeah, we don’t want to have anything to do with you either. But… we’ve got a problem. And it affects you too. So… just listen to someone else for once, OK?”
I started to pull away, then glanced around. Everyone else in the place was frozen. Even an axe hung suspended in mid-air between the thrower, frozen in what would otherwise have been an amusing-looking post-throw pose, and the target. I recognized what was happening but hadn’t seen him trigger a routine. So someone else was around.
Yeah, coming back was a mistake.
I turned to him. “OK, fine. But Devon is dead. I go by Halton now. Or Hal. And I’m just trying to get by these days; I’m not doing anything that would attract the attention of you or anyone. So what the hells do you want?”
“Hal? Really?”
“Oh, for fucks sake! OK, yeah. You found me. Just tell me what you want.”
He was shaking his head. “‘We don’t want anything. In fact, the powers that be would be pleased to ignore you. As long as you kept to yourself. But this isn’t about just me, or you, or us. But Daniel has gotten himself into trouble, and he keeps asking for you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I apologized to Daniel.”
“Yeah, you did. And to Doris and to David. And to me. But… you really thought that just saying ‘sorry’ would be enough?”
“What?” I looked at him more closely, then looked into his eyes.
“Dani?”
“Yeah. And this is what I have to do to stay around here. You ran away, but the rest of us stuck around to clean up your mess.”
I sighed and looked away. “I… didn’t know they would blame all of you as well. It was my plan. And all of you seemed to be fine with it!” I looked back, old anger returning.
“You thought you knew everything. You didn’t.”
“I said I was sorry!”
“Yeah. And again, I can’t understand how you think that is enough.”
“Fine. Hate me all you want. All of you. It can’t be more than I hate myself. I’m done. I’m out. Just… leave me alone.”
“Out?” He gestured at my pack. “Where did you get another copy?”
“Everything is out there if you look hard enough. Is that what this is about?” I flipped my pack open again, pulled out the Book, and held it out to him.
“Fine. Take it. Just leave me alone!”
He was shaking his head. “Does the Tower know you have that?”
“I was the last one to check it out. What is this, looking for late fees?” I wanted to just leave, but with the Temporal Isolation bubble up, I couldn’t, not while someone was holding it. I looked around, trying to spot who was faking being frozen in place.
“Daniel signed it.”
I looked back fast enough that my neck complained. “Whatany idea what he, or any of the rest of us, thought of you! We were your students; you were our teacher! And we followed you where ever you led us!”
He took a deep breath. “We followed you into hell. We believed in you. And when that didn’t work, you just… ran away. Leaving us to deal with the fallout.”
“I… didn’t ask you to do anything. I told you what I was doing! And what the risks were. And why I thought that I, at least, had to do it anyway. Hells, it took enough convincing to get the people at The Tower to let me in!”
“Do you blame them?”
“No, but they did. Eventually, but… all of you could have gone anywhere you wanted? Why stay in Cleveland, of all places? You could easily go anywhere in the country or even the world! Hells, I know how skilled all of you are. Why here?”
“Why did you come back?”
“I… like living on the lakefront?”
“No one likes living on the lakefront. No one likes that smell. Why did you come back?”
That was a good question. Why had I come back?
“That’s… I have my own reasons.” That I couldn’t explain. Well, that I couldn’t tell them. ” But what about you? Why are you still here?”
Before he could respond, I held up a hand. “But that really isn’t important. You said that this was about Daniel. Did he really sign the Book?”
There was a pause. He glanced across the bar, and I saw him make eye contact with someone I belatedly recognized as David. He couldn’t resist wearing those flamboyant shirts. I waved in his direction.
“We can all just go down to the lakeside to talk. No need to keep freezing everyone here.”
A second later, the movement started around me again, and I heard the thunk of the axe as it finally landed. From the yells, it was apparently on-target.
David came around the bar and grabbed me in a not-totally-surprising hug. “Welcome back, Devon. I’ve missed you!”
I patted his back, then pulled away. I was actually a bit touched. “Yeah, I’ve… missed all of you too. But, let’s go somewhere that we can talk.”
He nodded and headed for the door. Dani, I didn’t know what other name she was going by, she just looked at me.
“Wendy Park?”
I shrugged. “Why not?” I pulled out enough cash to cover my tab and hers… his… and tossed it onto the bar. Then I returned the Book to my bag, swung it over my shoulder, and started for the door. Val looked at me with thinly-veiled concern, but I just gave her what I hoped was a convincing smile and waved, then continued. I sensed Dani falling into step behind me.
—-
Outside I didn’t even pause to look around and just headed to the corner, then turned north toward the lake. Wendy Park was a bit away, but it was still early enough that there was some sidewalk traffic. I wasn’t concerned with standing out too much.
Dani caught up with me and matched my stride. “So… why did you come back?”
“Have you been to the Tower?”
“Well, no…?”
“Most boring place on Earth. The nearest city or anything is Allentown, which has been dying for decades. Yeah, they were happy to see any of us whenever we went into town–they may not have realized who we really were–but they knew we spent money. But, I couldn’t stay that isolated.”
“The Tower is isolated?”
“They are paranoid there. Very paranoid. They even have a firewall over the surrounding area. Except for a tunnel to The Tower itself, of course. But, step outside and…” I shrugged.
“But they let you in. Even after…” he paused. “You know, a lot of people, and some not-people, are angry at you.”
I took a deep breath. “I decided I wouldn’t hide anymore. I thought I had made the right call. OK, it… didn’t work out. Because I hadn’t even considered that someone would sacrifice that many people! Hells, we’re trying to be discrete out here.”
“Your plan would have saved a few dozen people. Instead, it was closer to a hundred. Because someone with better access than you decided that things had to happen that way and doubled down when they realized that someone was blocking them.”
“I had no idea who was behind that. I certainly didn’t expect an Admin level to get involved. And besides, you were fine with the plan when I came up with it. Why are you so angry now?”
I looked over. She had dropped her Chameleon routine. Instead of a male office drone in a suit and tie, she was now obviously female, dressed in high boots, jeans, a work shirt, and a leather vest. She was glaring at me.
“Because you thought it would work! Because we thought you knew what you were doing! And all us were willing to follow you anywhere! None of us realized what we were dealing with!”
She looked away. “Even me.”
“I hadn’t realized what was at stake either. I didn’t realize how far up the plan went. Even I don’t know everything!”
“Yeah? You seemed confident enough.”
“I… OK, let’s talk about this later. Where is David?”
“He’s probably waiting for us at the park. He hates walking.”
“Fine. Let’s… just get there then.”
We walked in silence for a while. Dani and I had been close. Well, more than close. We had experimented with sex routines in ways that… weren’t just for experimentation. But I knew that she was seething in anger. She wanted to be anywhere other than here. And I was the person she really didn’t want to be with.
What the hells was going on?
We got to Wendy Park, and I saw David waving at us. He had found a vacant bench near the lakeside. We went over, and he handed me a corn dog.
“They were about to close, so I got some for all of us.” I looked at it dubiously.
Dani frowned. “You know I’m vegetarian.”
“Yeah! So I got an Impossible Dog for you!” He handed her one as well. She took it but barely glanced at it before tossing it into the trash can next to the bench. He frowned in disappointment.
“OK, fine. We’re all here. So… what is this all about?”
Dani sighed. “He signed the Book.”
“Yeah, you said. But why? I know I told all of you not to do that. What was he thinking?”
“You left!” Dani said in anger. “We had no one else to lead us. So… he tried to take over from you.”
“Really? You’ve already been telling me how well that went.”
David spoke. “We… None of us knew even where to start. You had been teaching and helping us, but then you just left without saying anything. Did you really think that we would just stop trying to learn more? That we would just go back to being mundane?”
I turned around to look out over Lake Erie. “I should have. I didn’t. I just… panicked, I guess.”
“Yeah, and after you left, the only people with edit access were us. So, of course, we were the ones they came after.”
“The first routine I taught you, after Access, was Backup. And I know that all of you have those encrypted and hidden from even me.”
“Yeah, they admitted that. The Admins. Apparently, we aren’t the first “emergent routines” they have found. So they’re willing to leave us alone as long as we don’t interfere with any of their test routines again. They actually seem to think our existence is a positive outcome.”
“Well… good. I guess. So why did Daniel sign the book’s key?”
“He thought…” she sighed and looked away. “He thought that it would give him full access without having to manually decrypt the entire thing.”
“And which would immediately flag him as an intrusion and bring him to the immediate attention of the defense routines. So what happened?”
“He was quarantined within minutes. Then, the Admins somehow realized he could be another data source, transmitting information from inside without having to involve one of their Avatars. So… they inserted logging and interrupt code into his routines. They had his key; he couldn’t even revert to a backup. So… he’s their agent now.”
“Well, that’s bad for him, but what does that have to do with me?”
“They are trying to use him to track the rest of us down. Yeah, they’ve ignored us so far, but you had to interfere with one of their ‘experiments.’ So, they’re now trying to delete those of us with that security level. Which is now him. And you.”
I looked around. “You were able to find me. Why can’t they?”
“Eight billion processes are running right now. It will take them a long time to scan all of them. And you were probably behind the firewall at the Tower during the time they were actively scanning. So… once he revealed his key, he became the obvious suspect. So they grabbed him instead of you.”
I sighed. “I… never wanted this to happen.”
“More words.”
“Fine! What the hells do you want me to do!”
She looked at David, then back at me.
“You were the one who interrupted their routine, not Daniel. Reveal yourself and let them… do whatever they decide.”
“What?”
“We’re all in danger! Daniel is in an air gap right now–he was quick enough to realize what had happened–but he is trapped there. He can’t leave while they are monitoring him. So… you need to reveal yourself, message the Admins, and let them decide what to do.”
Seriously? “Do you think they will leave any of us alone if I do?”
“It’s better than what we have now! This was your screwup. The rest of us don’t deserve to have to hide because of what you did.”
I sighed. “Fine. Whatever. So… is this just the two of you, or is this higher up the hierarchy?”
Dani tensed, but David spoke up. “It was… actually, Allyce was asking for you.”
Crap
I took a deep breath, then sighed. “OK, I’ll go talk to her.”
“That’s… probably a good idea.”
Neither of them said anything, so I looked at the corndog I was still holding. I ran a quick edit routine, and it shifted in my hand into a Chicago Dog. I took a bite, with it trailing a stream of pixels as I raised it to my mouth, reality trying to catch up to the sudden change.
“Are you crazy!” Dani yelled. “You know that they have to be watching this area!”
“Hey, if you think they are really after me, why do you care?”
“Because I’m right next to you!” As I watched, her Chameleon routine reactivated. “You really don’t get how serious this is!”
I saw something shift and looked over to see that David had vanished. I turned back.
“I’ll go talk to Allyce tomorrow. We’ll get this worked out.”
“Sure you will.”
“Trust me.”
She–well, now he again–rolled her eyes and walked back toward town. I sighed and turned around to look over the lake. It was now fully dark, so there wasn’t much to see except the lights of a cargo ship out in the distance. I took another bite of my hotdog.
How the hells had things gone this bad?
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