Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ To Those About To Die ❯ Chapter 10 - Deductions ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter Ten -- Deductions

"I can't believe you're wasting your time reading that crap."

I slowly raised my head, sparing the Girl an annoyed glance over my new reading glasses. "Explain, Mädchen."

"Sherlock Holmes? Really, Berger! How in the Hell will that help us find them?"

I felt my lips curve into a smile, and I knew it was a nasty one by the way her expression froze. "It was a suggestion from a ranking officer, Mädchen. Are you saying I should go against orders?"

"One book, Berger. He gave you one book. You've got the whole damn lot of them now, and you spend more time reading them than reading the briefing materials or doing field research." Her eyes blazed menacingly. "One might think you're not taking this seriously."

The cold smile still upon my face, I shut the book and set it down, then removed my glasses. I folded them carefully and set them upon the book before looking back up at her. "And what would you recommend doing at this juncture? Bring in another leader, perhaps?" I didn't need to scan her thoughts to know this was exactly what she was thinking.

"If need be."

I regarded her critically. Everything about her posture suggested challenge. So it had finally come. She had finally gotten the nerve to try something. Very well, let's see how this plays out.

"And how does Kiko feel about this?"

She snorted derisively. "You're fucking him, so he'll side with you, of course. Unless he thinks it will get him killed to do so."

"And would it?" I kept my tone chilly, despite the fury I felt building up inside.

"It might."

I hit her with the image of Roderik lying in a pool of blood. I made it so sharp and clear that she gagged and fell to her knees under the weight of sudden horror and nausea. "Do not doubt that I will do whatever it takes to keep this team alive and strong, Mädchen. If our masters believed that I was wasting their time with my own personal research, they would send someone much more capable than you to inform me of this. Understood?"

She nodded weakly, her mind begging the illusion to fade. I held it a moment longer, then let it dissipate. She would have colorful nightmares that night.

Before she could get up, I strode over and grabbed a handful of auburn hair and yanked her head back. I glared down into her face and snarled, "Never defy me again."

I left her there to think about it.

A need for fresh air pulled me out of the apartment, allowing me only time enough to grab my coat and keys. My feet moved of their own accord, and I found myself at a small coffee shop several blocks away from the source of my aggravation. There was enough small change in my pockets to cover a pastry and coffee, so I sat down and tried to collect my temper there.

She was beginning to know. And that was a very dangerous thing. Kiko was right, she wasn't as stupid as I liked to think she was. I would have to be more careful.

Much more careful.

But...she did have a point. What was I gaining from my new hobby of devouring every Sherlock Holmes story in print? I already knew logic and the arts of inductive and deductive reasoning.

Still, I couldn't shake the image of Crawford as Moriarty. A brilliant, respected man, always one step ahead of his pursuers. True, Moriarty was not a precognitive, but I had no doubt that, were Crawford not a psi talent, he would still be leading us on a world-wide ghost hunt. For that was, in effect, what we were doing: hunting ghosts, for as soon as a report would come in from one quarter of the world, another simultaneous sighting would place them thousands of miles away.

Part of me wondered if they were even still alive, or if we were all chasing our own demented hallucinations.

Perhaps the summoning had not failed, and we were now living in the world of chaos.

I picked at the buttery crust, barely tasting it. Somehow that last thought made too much sense. Because, if it were true, then we were all acting within our own accord, and there was no mystery to be solved.

But no, I knew in my heart that the truth was much more unsettling than that.

The four would not be found.

At least not in any way that would be meaningful to the hunters.

And furthermore, the unsettling truth was something so powerful it would set the world a-tilt.

Again I wondered, for what reason would they remain exiles when they could even now return to Esset? For I was certain that they could return, if they wished to stop running. But I knew they never would. They would not be taken alive, as refugee or as prisoner. No, something had changed in them, and they would serve no longer.

Was that it?

Had they simply wearied of being slaves to the machine that was Esset?

Mädchen be damned. I would figure them out if it drove me to madness.

I paused. Madness? Had I been a puppet so long that I had forgotten how to be a human being? For the desire to be free was a very human one, one that I myself had surrendered long ago. Is that why Esset hated and feared them so much?

Did Brad Crawford have the power to remind servants that they were born to be free?

A shiver ran down my neck as I realized that I too had that birthright, though Esset held it hostage.

Yes, I would have to be much more careful.