City of Ports by Jeff Deck

Author:Jeff Deck [Deck, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-02T22:00:00+00:00

The parking lot is full of emergency vehicles and sound and light. The SWAT team has arrived, belatedly, along with police cars from the neighboring towns of Kittery, Newington, and Greenland. About a dozen guns train on our little party of me, Agent Jeong, and the captive Evil Allard before we can consider sneaking out.

As we kneel on the pavement with our hands above our heads (well, Evil Allard with hers still handcuffed behind her back), Jeong shouts at the cops to check his pocket for his FBI badge. Once they do so, they let us up. They have strong reservations about letting us leave the scene with the murderer in tow, but Jeong promises them we’ll be back. His badge can move mountains, as can the mere mention of his boss, SSA Marsters.

The cops do keep staring from Evil Allard to me and back again, understandably. One twin sister is evil, and the other isn’t? Doesn’t that only happen in soap operas?

I can only imagine what the city council must be thinking right now, Stone and all her well-heeled cronies. Tonight’s body count is a little bit enormous, isn’t it? They must be ready to kill me with their bare hands just for the damage I’ve done to this year’s tourist season. I wouldn’t want to be in Akerman’s shoes tonight when he gets the first call.

Eventually we’re on our merry way. They even let us keep both of Jeong’s guns. Though I can sense Jeong’s trepidation at the piles of paperwork that will await him after tonight’s adventures. At least that’s one duty I’ve escaped, having been stripped of my own badge long ago.

Evil Allard is silent as we walk toward Jeong’s car, picking at the bandage on her ear. But I’m full of stuff to say, for once, forgetting my own loathing for chatterboxes. I’m too amped up to stop.

“So I guess I don’t need a lawyer anymore,” I say. “But do you think Evil Allard does? What kind of interdimensional jurisdiction do you guys have? Oh shit, and speaking of the Port, do you really think we’ve got this ritual down? Should we make a pit stop for some coal? Do you remember the—”

“Stop.” Jeong opens the back door and shoves the unresisting doppelgänger inside. “We need to take this one step at a time. First, we need to get this—thing—into a safe place, where she can’t hurt any more people. A specialized place. I happen to know one, because of the, uh, specialized nature of my office.”

He eases into the driver’s seat. It’ll be a short ride to Daniel Street from here, but as soon as Jeong starts driving, he forgets his plea for me to shut up. Curiosity wins out, and he says: “Now. You didn’t seem at all surprised to face down an exact duplicate of yourself. Give me the abbreviated version: what the hell happened tonight? Where did she come from?” He jerks a thumb at the backseat.

“You ready for a story?” I say.

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