Light of Demon

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Polluted. That was the first impression Caedmon had when he stepped out of the portal to New Earth. They called it New Earth, but it wasn’t so much different than when he had been with Sedna in Greenland. He should have treasured every moment he’d had with her. He shook his head to escape his brooding mood. He couldn’t afford that right now.

Focus. He had come to the future only to alter his past reality. One wrong move and he’d be stuck in this future oblivion forever.

He could still feel the sensation of the heatwave from the explosion—the one that had robbed him of his family, and the multiverse of the precious traces to the Scorpio key.

He had reminded himself every waking moment over the last month about the mission he had to fulfill by coming here. He was a commander with Silver Blood energy—a special source of energy that could destroy almost anything in its way. An important skill he had learned over the years was to control the energy so he could use its destructive power against those who deserved it. But he knew his disadvantage when coming to Earth from Eudaiz, a faraway universe, and being on his own.

His father had approved of his mission but wouldn’t have approved of the way he had approached it. Thus, he had no military support. The injury his father had suffered from the explosion had limited his capacity to work for a few weeks, Eudaizian time. That means he’d have years on Earth to execute his plan.

He stepped into a corporate transport, a hovering private car that was waiting for him. Inside, he was greeted by a computer screen that flashed a scanner beam at him and then faded away immediately once it recognized him.

Apparently, asking for consent wasn’t a part of the identification process on New Earth. There was definitely room for system improvement, but he had no attachment to Earth, neither the old one nor the new one. And he had his own problem to deal with.

He punched the green start button on the control panel. As the car automatically departed the station and drove itself, he settled next to the window to look outside. He saw nothing but red dirt. The multiversal teleport terminal must be quite a distance from where people lived.

After a while, the transport crossed a transparent dome that covered what looked like a city. It was similar to London, New York, and other places he had been to when he’d visited Earth before. But he didn’t recognize any of the landmarks here, and the liquid map on the dashboard didn’t show the shape or size of any of the countries.

He could have done a more thorough investigation of the place before he came, but he had been using a rather shady source of information to get what he needed, so he was in and out of the databank too quickly to obtain anything more than the bare essentials.

There it was, the LeBlanc headquarters in the center of the city, in a small but exclusive area called Old Sydney. It was apparently a piece of what used to be Sydney, a city in Australia if his memory served him right. Some of the landmark’s architecture had been preserved and treated like rare pieces of art in a museum. It was quite charming.

The floor-to-ceiling steel door slid open as he approached. He noted that the lightweight steel his father had invented when he was a kid had been used for the office door. It looked just like any other door, but the properties of this steel could protect the people inside from a multiversal war of the worst kind.

A stunning woman approached him. “Mr. LeBlanc, welcome!”

“Caedmon, please,” he said and glanced at his wrist unit, which by that point had scanned and identified the woman as his executive secretary. “It’s very nice to meet you, Leanne.”

“It’s an honor to be at your service, Mr.—” She hesitated then smiled graciously. “Caedmon. The LeBlancs have never before sent a representative to this corner of the Earth.”

“I’m happy to be here. We need to interact much more with our associated branches.”

She gestured to a smaller steel door, and he guessed his office was inside. “I have arranged everything you need inside,” she said. “Your computer, your workstation. Also, food and beverages are there as well.”

“Food and beverage?”

“Oh, I don’t know about Mid-Land London, but eating the wrong foods here can have nasty consequences, especially for out-of-towners. If you need more, I’ve programmed your contacts. Just call for service, and whatever you need will be delivered to you. Please don’t wander around the city, especially in the unsavory areas, without a security escort.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I’m more than sure you can, Caedmon. But it’s my top priority to make sure you are safe.”

“You seem so tense. You’re making me feel unsafe already.”

“Really? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“Leanne, I’m just joking. Relax.”

“I’ll try.” She smiled.

“Okay, just to make you feel better, I promise not to head into any bad parts of the city, okay? So what places are at the top of that list?”

“The North Side.”

“All right, North Side it is.” He grinned at her and was pleased to see her relax a bit more. But then her shoulders tensed up, and her smile vanished. “Mr. Tann,” she whimpered and looked down.

Caedmon turned around. An intimidating man with a hard face and a scar along his left jawline approached, reaching his hand out for a handshake.

“I’m Lewis Tann.”

Caedmon smiled. “The man in charge!”

Lewis smiled. “Only when you’re not here. To what do we owe a visit from the Mid-Land London central, Mr. LeBlanc?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be in your way for long. I guess that’s where my temporary office is?” He pointed at the steel door.

“Sure is. As permanent or temporary as you’d like it.” Lewis gestured for Caedmon to go ahead of him.

Caedmon turned and grinned at Leanne. “I promise I’ll only eat the food you recommend.”

Leanne smiled then looked down when her eyes fell on Lewis.

On the way into the office, Caedmon quickly scanned the area for the layout, entry and exit points, and number of staff.

“I trust you received the memos, Mr. Tann?”

“Yes, and I still don’t understand them. The business here is doing well. Why do we need to take on Amaraq’s burdens?”

“It’s called a business extension.”

“Look, Caedmon, private security business isn’t our thing. We’re not into fist fights and gang business.”

“But it can be lucrative if done the right way. That is, using advanced technology and weapons street gangs can’t afford. And it’s the LeBlanc’s profits we’re talking about here.”

“Yes, but it’s not a safe business.”

“Are you suggesting we should start selling flowers?

“LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals is our strongest business line. Why deviate from that?”

Caedmon smiled. “You obviously haven’t gotten the full picture of the takeover proposal, Mr. Tann. Amaraq has two main businesses, and the private security business is a by-product for me. I am interested in their natural medicine business, which is bankrupting them at the moment.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m from Mid-Land London. You don’t have anything to worry about, Mr. Tann. If I turn Amaraq’s natural medicine business into a success, you’ll keep your job doing whatever you do here.”

Mr. Tann nodded.

“I’ll need to survey the area along with the clinics, so I’m going to take a walk around. Where do you suggest I look first, Mr. Tann?”

Lewis Tann smiled. “The North Side.”

“The North Side it is. I’ll let you know what I find.”

Mr. Tann nodded a goodbye and strode out of the office.