The Second Layer

Chapter 8: Garen

Chapter 8: Garen

As Garen entered Derek Vanning's basement, he was bothered slightly by the fact that he sensed two freaks a couple rooms over, and not the one he'd expected. Someone was with Vanning. Not that he was worried, Garen knew himself to be too valuable to kill off for the moment at least. He just didn't want to have to wait for Vanning to conclude his business with the other freak before he could give his report and collect his money.

Garen had always wondered why Vanning would live in a place like this, but then Garen had seen people living in far worse places so. Maybe Vanning just liked the atmosphere. The dark musty nature of the place did sort of suit him. Or maybe he just didn't want to have to go through the trouble of packing up his stuff and moving. It was one of those mysteries Garen would probably never know the answer to.

Striding through the room, across the hall, and into the throne room, he caught sight of the second freak almost immediately. Vanning was seated on his throne, as he almost always was, but not far from him stood Payton Michaels, better known as Payne. A guy of average height and average looks. Short dark hair, flat brown eyes, Payne was the kind of guy you'd have difficulty picking out of a crowd. But his power was very real. He was the second strongest freak in the city by most accounts, although not nearly as strong as Vanning himself, and he just happened to be Vanning's most loyal supporter.

"Carnus. Payne and I were just talking about you. Now that you're back, make your report," Vanning ordered almost casually.

"After its previous owner's death, the larikin fell into the hands of a human. At first he just thought it was a knife, but over time he started to experience the effects of its power. He began to regularly have what he thought were nightmares, but what I believe were visions of both the Shadowlands and random events of pain and suffering in this world. Whenever he tried to get rid of the larikin, the visions changed in a way I'm unsure of, became centered on a dark place that he described as being much worse than the other supposed nightmares. Eventually the freak who's in possession of the larikin now came and offered to buy it from him. He made it clear to the human what he was and promised the nightmares would stop if the human sold the knife to him. The human did, and the freak left him alive. I tracked the larikin to the freak through this human. When the two came in contact, the freak killed the human to tie up loose ends, but so far as I know he was unaware that I'd found him. I wrote down the address of the apartment building I followed him to," Garen replied, stepping up to the throne and holding out the paper he'd jotted the address down on after he'd gotten back to his car. Without hesitation Vanning reached out and took it from him, glancing over it once before nodding.

"Very good. In that case, here's your money," Vanning said, before grabbing a bag that had been sitting beside the throne and sliding it over. In it, Garen knew, would be the seventy-five grand he'd been promised. "But I've got another job for you."

"What kind of job?" Garen asked. He didn't bother looking into the bag to check the money, he knew it would all be there. Vanning wasn't the nicest guy around, but he always paid in full.

"Harken called a little ago, said she wanted to see me. I have things to do, so I'm going to be sending two ambassadors to her in my place. Payne will be one, you get to be the other. Unfortunately, you won't be getting paid for this job, since I can't exactly have my representatives looking like hired mercenaries, but it should be a good experience for you. After all, it's not every day you get an audience with someone as influential as Harken," Vanning informed him.

"Not get paid?" Garen asked. The very idea seemed foreign to him. If there wasn't going to be money involved, what was the point? It's not like he cared whether or not Harken even knew he existed. Besides, Vanning was trying to put him in a very dangerous position. If Vanning himself had been asked to come, it wouldn't look good if Garen and Payne showed up in his place. Especially given that Vanning had been running the city in a hazardous way of late. A way that had people wondering if Vanning might get axed sometime soon. That was probably why he was sending people in his place, to act as a buffer of sorts.

"Not for this job, no. But I'm not giving you a choice on this one Carnus. You will go, and you will act as my representative. Just smile, be respectful, and say nice things and I'm sure it'll all be over before you know it. Oh, and you'll be riding with Payne in his car. He'll swing by your place so you can drop off the money before the two of you drive on to Harken's," Vanning told him.

And this sort of thing was one of the main reasons Garen didn't like Vanning. Oh, he worked for the man, in exchange for large sums of money. And would continue working for him so long as he paid well. But Vanning believed that he controlled all the freaks in the city, and could simply force them to do his bidding when he wanted. The problem was he was essentially right.

Glancing back and forth between Vanning and Payne, Garen could only feel annoyed. Having Payne here to back Vanning up only emphasized just how dangerous it would be for Garen to try refusing this job. To say no to Vanning would be to challenge his authority, and no matter how valuable Garen might otherwise be, challenging Vanning about anything would cause his value to evaporate fast. So while going to see Harken in Vanning's place would be dangerous, trying to stand up to Vanning here and now would be even more dangerous still. Harken might be the more powerful of the two, but Vanning was far more likely to kill him for insubordination.

Garen immediately began to consider. He had no option but to take this job, that much was clear. But if that was the case, the least he could do was try to turn it to his favor as much as possible. "Very well, sir. I'll just have to hope that I'll prove a skilled enough ambassador to inspire you to be especially generous in your payment for my next job."

"Fair enough. I can be very generous when I want to be," Vanning responded, nodding. "As a matter of fact, you should stop in later, after the two of you get back into the city. I might just have the larikin in my possession by then, and I wouldn't mind having you take a look at it and see if there's anything more you can tell me."

That wasn't exactly surprising, since Garen did have far more expertise with larikins than most freaks in the area did. "In that case, this will be my first stop when we get back, sir," Garen answered. He was going to say more when suddenly he sensed the approach of five freaks from the direction of the building's entrance.