Interspirit

The escort into the office felt simpler this time. It wasn’t quite as embarrassing when you were prepared for it, though Kyrylo was still just as anxious going into the meeting. He was shepherded by an older woman in a beige outfit, someone he had seen around the office before but never spoken with. Just one more person you said good morning to if you met at the break room as you came in.

Kyrylo was ready for the room, for the ticking clock and the awkward emptiness in that cluttered space while he would wait for Webb.

But there was no wait. He was brought to the door and found the officer already at his desk, typing away at his keyboard, an empty coffee cup on the top of his trash bin. Empty cup meant Webb had been in early. Nobody liked when Webb was in early.

“Hello, sir.” Kyrylo tried his best to sound formal and restrained, caught off guard to already be speaking with his superior. “We have a meeting now.”

Webb pointed at one of the chairs, not looking away from the screen. He continued to type as Kyrylo sat, and then kept going, the clacking keys competing against the clock for more grating sound to eat away at Kyrylo. He tried to think to something more grounding, the cheerful memories of a sort of successful hangout with Isabelle. But then his mind careened off the edge straight down the pit of her having a boyfriend, of him getting caught with her, of death.

“Sorry,” Webb finally said, finishing up. “Just dealing with some messages.” He spun in his seat to face Kyrylo. His shoulders somehow seemed broader as he squared up. “Let’s have a more private conversation though.” He didn’t even look up for a signal and the door closed behind them. Kyrylo heard the escort’s feet shuffle outside. They must have pre-arranged that move.

But Webb didn’t keep going. He sat there. Kyrylo checked to either side, wondering if some other trigger was supposed to happen, if he was missing something.

“Do I…do you want me to turn off my phone? Is that what you’re…I’m sorry I don’t-”

“That’s fine.” Webb picked back up again, cutting straight through Kyrylo and waving him off. “We can just have an honest discussion here, ok?”

The clock ticked again in Kyrylo’s ear. He almost flinched at it. Was it intentional? Did Webb craft this space? “About what?”

Webb smiled. Kyrylo couldn’t feel anything behind it. “We’ll discuss your descent into the other realm.”

Kyrylo’s stomach tightened. He felt a ripple of nerves along the side of his skull, down his neck. “Felix…as we said…did Felix not submit a report?”

“I’m sure Iryna will give it to me after she reviews it.” Webb darkened for a flicker, eyebrows scrunching in before he bounced back into the smile. He folded his fingers together on his desk. “But we both know that’s not what happened in there. That’s why we’re talking about it here.”

“Like I said, there was a cluster of spirits. We did what we could to survive.” Kyrylo pinched his hands between his legs, trying his best to keep from fidgeting.

“You know I can see glimmers too. That’s how we’re all here. Well, most of us.” Webb shrugged off his minor error. Kyrylo had never heard of someone working at the RIF who was otherwise normal. “So you know I’ve been to the other side. And I think you can imagine that, as someone with a rank, I’ve stayed there for more than five minutes. That’s not a lot of time, Kyrylo.”

Webb held there and Kyrylo squeezed his legs together harder. Webb almost never used someone’s name. You didn’t want him to use your name during training, during meetings. Something had gone wrong if you heard your name.

“Let’s try again,” Webb picked back up, apparently satisfied by the amount of silence he had let pass. “You know I know what’s in there. You know I know you crossed over. What happened?”

Kyrylo was increasingly feeling a pressure at the back of his head, a little voice calling out that he could just give it up, just say what he saw and fudge some details and maybe, just maybe, he would walk away. He didn’t owe Felix anything. They had both saved each other, sort of. Sure, he had trained him but he had also been a shitty trainer so it kind of canceled out. And it was just a job. He was assigned to monitor Kyrylo, to train him, it wasn’t some moral obligation.

But he equally feared the whole thing would unravel. Why did they go in there? And then it was over.

“We engaged spirits, sir. A lot of spirits.” That was not a lie.

Webb sat back in his seat. He rubbed his thumbs along his eyebrows and then held his forehead in his palm. Kyrylo could hear the breath he was taking in through his nose. Long, slow, steady. His chest rose and fell.

“I don’t know what game Iryna is playing here,” Webb said. “I don’t like it.”

Kyrylo checked over his shoulder, expecting to see Officer Vrabec through the window but it was still just the escort from earlier, standing by as guard to take him away after this was over. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

“I’m just trying to…” He paused and rubbed at his mouth. His eyes flicked over to his monitor then back again. “I’ve been here awhile. I’ve put in my time, head down, you’re on the patrols, enough people die, and you work your way up.”

“I’m sorry enough people wh-”

Webb waved away the comment. “And so I risk my life and earn my place. Then suddenly, some new recruit is getting called the Overdrive Prodigy and they’re in the promo cycle with you. What the hell is that?” Webb shook his head like Kyrylo was supposed to be following. He really didn’t but this seemed to matter to Webb so he did his best to slowly nod along.

“It’s ridiculous,” Webb continued. “Now they’re all touting her, talking up how great she is with recruits, they’re talking about specialized deployments? A taskforce?” Webb slammed his fist into the desk. “You know how many proposals I’ve had to write up? It needs a little tweaking, we’re working on it with the higher-ups, we’re just trying to find the budget. Bullshit, all of it. Now they can just give you one you aren’t even asking for? Now one of my reports is under some unique clearance thanks to her fast track program? Get out of here.”

Kyrylo kept nodding. He had squeezed his hands together too long and they were going numb. It was also drawing attention to the fact he needed to pee. He couldn’t follow anything Webb was saying as the rant continued, trying his best to try and connect the dots but unaware of this level of office politics in his limited experience in the building. And he just had to get to the bathroom. His brain was chucking out new information to leave space for a big neon sign about it.

“That does sound bad,” Kyrylo added, not even sure if that was the right reaction. “If I could just step out for-”

“But that’s where you come in.” Webb’s focus snapped back entirely to Kyrylo and he sat up straight in response, somehow all of his bodily needs evaporating in panic. “Because you’re not authorized to do any of that. Whatever, they want to claim you’re under Felix’s jurisdiction, this is all nonsense. I think you get it, you understand what we’re after here. This place is filled with nonsense systems, it’s all so bureaucratic, there’s rules and layers and who can follow it, right?” Kyrylo more genuinely agreed there, mostly still just nodding out of politeness to move the conversation on.

“So I think we can be more honest with each other and we can really help each other stay safe in this place, right?” Webb raised an eyebrow as he threw down his thesis. But with all of the words involved being vague, Kyrylo really didn’t know what he would be agreeing to. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times and his confusion must have been obvious on his face because Webb picked back up again.

“Ok, ok, we can be clearer. I know you were in the spirit realm, you must’ve ended up somewhere, maybe in one of their towns or something. You and Felix would’ve stumbled into it and probably encountered some spirits and that brought out further ones, right?” Webb didn’t actually look for an answer and just kept going, much to Kyrylo’s relief. “You killed a couple of them in a public space and more of them came out, Felix freaked out and told you how to turn on Overdrive and you fought a bunch of them until you could get clear and press for evacuation. That’s a pretty normal story, it happens every so often around here because people get curious or stupid and they stick around too long before they’ve been cleared. It’s not that big a deal, it’s more about where we go from here. And I think that’s where you help me.”

Kyrylo held onto the bait to speak once again, pondering this one. Everything was on the table. Webb was making clear he fully understood what was on the other side. That made sense the more Kyrylo sat on it. The spirits had mentioned other humans fell down there, they said ones with weapons were rare but that meant they had seen them. The RIF was a big organization, they couldn’t possibly keep everyone out for five minutes. They hadn’t stopped Kyrylo on his first try.

It was kind of silly the more he dwelled on it. Why hadn’t he just gone in further? What actual, physical restraints had been put in place or were they keeping everyone in check on nothing but assumptions and vague warnings?

“What do you want?” Kyrylo asked, accepting that he was already caught. He was still not going to admit to it but it obviously didn’t matter. The key piece was that Webb never mentioned fusion and wasn’t interested in exploring why they were there.

Webb sat back in his seat, visibly relaxing. “I knew we’d get there eventually. You’re a good kid, you’ve been putting in the work, like I said you were getting close to moving out of training. I want to see you succeed here. So I want to clear your access issues, get you back in here. I’ll move you out of training, you’ll be able to do projects for me.”

“You want to reward me for rules violations?”

“I still need to complete an investigation of what you encountered in your extended engagement. The Overdrive authorization is cleared, Iryna saw to that.” Webb’s smile wavered for a moment as he said her name. “But there’s still an expectation for a report. People above me will want to know what you saw. And we may need to go back in to collect more information and I think the culprits make for perfect candidates.”

“Because you want us to die?” Kyrylo folded his arms across his chest, feeling strangely victorious in this moment. He had figured out the game Webb was playing at.

“No.” Kyrylo’s confidence shattered at the words. Webb delivered them without malice, there was nearly some shock, though the officer was keeping everything level and contained. “I’m not a maniac. I don’t need reports dying. I want your success because it’s part of my success too and will, ultimately, make the RIF a better organization. We’ll achieve our dream to make the world a safer place.”

Kyrylo resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the corporate mantra that wormed its way into almost every meeting he was ever in. “I don’t get how it helps you.”

“Two ways.” Webb held up his fingers. “First, if we find anything interesting, that’s a huge win for both of us. That’s how anyone gets promoted around here. That’s how we get budget, that’s how we do anything. For example, you said it was a large cluster of spirits. What kind of spirits?”

“What?” Kyrylo wasn’t prepared for questions in the middle of the explanation.

“You said you encountered a cluster of spirits. What kind of spirits? What did they look like?”

“I don’t know,” Kyrylo replied, wavering on how much detail to give. “It was like reptiles, snakes, rats, stuff like that.” He held back a grimace, unsure if that gave anything away. It couldn’t though, really. There were lots of spirits and lots of shapes, it didn’t mean anything.

“Not uncommon,” Webb said. Kyrylo slowly released a stealth sigh of relief. “Could be something related to the Rat King. And that would be a report. So you see how that investigation would help.” Kyrylo only nodded, hoping he wasn’t actually turning pale as he felt blood draining from his face.

“And second,” Webb continued, “is the matter of Felix.”

“What about him?”

“He’s close to Iryna. She’s doing something. And I want to know. And you can tell me.” Webb laid his hands back down on his desk, giving Kyrylo a final, meaningless smile. “That’s all I’m asking here. No punishment for you or Felix, no danger. We work together. We build a better RIF. You help me investigate what you encountered, maybe we get to file a report on the Rat King. Maybe it’s some other major spirit. We get something like Aenyron or Drakmir, at least some information on their movements. There’s a lot of good here, Kyrylo. Believe me.”

Kyrylo could feel a full bead of sweat rolling down the back of his neck. His throat had dried out. Everything he had heard was terrifying, mystifying, intriguing, back to terrifying. He knew there was no way out of this room though. And his life wasn’t on the line. His access would come back. Felix would be safe, there would absolutely be no debt between them, no vague guilt either could point to.

They could go back into the spirit realm, under authorization. Find a solution to the fusion. Be freed of all of it.

Or not.

Kyrylo felt the flicker pass through his brain, the notion of going deeper, getting more power, killing more spirits, rising higher, breaking through to the Honours, rewriting history, reshaping the laws of the universe. He shrugged it off.

“Fine. We have a deal.”