Sub-lets in Hell, chapter 11. (Patreon)

Here we are. Another chapter soon. For now, please enjoy this one.

Why was Karen here? It was way too early for her - and she had some dispensation regarding her physical training. Yet here she was, in front of my house with jogging sweats on.

The jogging sweats looked new.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," Karen managed to yawn out in response. "Got any coffee?"

"I do." I handed her mine. I hadn't drank from it yet, and she clearly needed it more than I did.

She took the insulated bottle without question and knocked it back. For an entire thirty seconds. I was planning to sip the thing since it was probably still scalding, but the woman didn't even flinch.

Finally, she lowered the bottle with a sigh. "Thanks, I needed that. Work sucks."

"A fundamental fact of life," I agreed readily enough. It was true, cost me nothing, and might get her to open up more. I was curious, and the last thing I wanted to hear was 'you're not cleared for that'.

It was probably true, but I still didn't want to hear it. I'd been out of the loop too long with nothing else to occupy my mind; I wanted some juicy gossip.

"Right. So, you started doing the upgrade thing right?"

Why was she asking? She clearly knew. "I did. You want to see it?"

Karen shrugged and took another swig. "I'll watch you if you're making another one. I'm a bit curious. But I'm mainly here just to talk. To touch base, as the saying goes. This is the only time I have free today, and I need some exercise anyway."

I looked the woman over; she looked exactly like she had when I first met her. She did however, eat anything not nailed down even now, and maybe even some things that were when people's backs were turned. "Worried you might gain weight?"

Karen, ever the mature adult of us two, blew me a raspberry. "Nah. But if I have to run for my life ever, I'm only going to make it three blocks at this rate. I need to get some cardio in, and I've already waited too long."

Karen was old. I knew that; she supposedly learned some things from my Mom, and my Mom had been retired going on... well, I didn't know exactly. Fifteen, twenty years easily. For all that, Karen looked to be only a few years older than me. Thirty, tops.

Which begged the question of when Karen had learned from my Mom. There was a limit to how far good genes could take you.

Whatever, she was leaving it open now,. so I could ask.

I couldn't ask Mom; she'd have one of her episodes.

I started my stretches and bends. Just a minute's worth of simple stuff. Karen joined me.

"So, what's going on? Why are you so busy?"

"Had a lot of teachers leave, and had to ship a bunch of personnel around," She answered readily enough. "With some of the pressure off the other front and most of the German summoners either dead or in hiding, we need to switch and help the Russians so they can push back. That and we're getting ready to mount a limited offensive back over the ground you covered before. See how much we can take back and how hard taking it all will be."

That... sounded incredibly optimistic to me. "There are still an unknown but undoubtedly large number of demons in those areas. The gate is closed, but that didn't do anything to reduce what was already here."

Even in the dim light, I could see Karen roll her eyes. "This ain't our first rodeo. We know, but we can't just leave them there. So, reconnaissance in force is the call, and the moment we start meeting strong resistance, we retreat. We've done it before."

Right, I was the inexperienced one here. Surely this had happened before. Something to ponder while we jogged. Despite her concerns, Karen matched my pace easily.

Still, I felt a bit anxious - maybe it was my ego talking, but I was certain that without me there, a push of any kind into those lands would be costly. In my opinion, too costly.

Yeah, it was arrogant of me. I should keep a lid on that; humanity had been dealing with this long before I was born, and we'd probably be dealing with it long after I died. We had a chance now, though. A real chance.

Karen must have seen something she didn't like: "Don't worry. At the very least, we should outnumber them now. I mean all of humanity, not summoners. Summoners are still rare. Still, we should have the advantage now."

"Yeah, I know."

We jogged in silence, with Karen shooting me the side-eye every now and again. Halfway around the base and Clay joined us. "Karen."

"Clay."

Come to think of it, I'd never heard Karen's nickname. Unless Karen was her nickname? Wow, had I been that clueless this entire time? I was using her real name; I was certain. It was on all her identification. We all were - so what was the name her peers had given her?

"Alice," Clay greeted, with a nod at my direction.

"Clay."

The man settled in to my other side, and I bet we looked a little weird going down the darkened streets... if anyone was around to see us. I didn't see anyone.

"So Karen, what did you want to talk to me about?" If I didn't remind her, I wouldn't know until later. Likely tomorrow.

Karen proved my guess right with her response: "Oh. Oh! Right, word reached my ears that you were talking to the other instructors."

"I tried to talk to you first, but you were clearly busy."

Karen waved me off, unbalancing herself briefly before righting. "No, it's fine; you can certainly talk to the other instructors. It's a free country and all that. I just thought I'd ask what you talked about; I was curious."

Well, I certainly knew what that felt like, and she knew I knew, so sure. "We talked about how far along the new blood was. How much of the basic languages they understood, and if they would mind if I helped in order to speed things up. The goal is to have a basic amount of magic they know, even if they can't use it post contract. I'm banking on the idea that most of them will be able to use some and be more useful with it rather than send those guys out immediately and see them killed before they can get fully trained after."

We might be able to afford to do it the old way now, but people hadn't caught up to the situation yet. At least, not from what I've seen. I'd never forget the fact that over half my graduating class had gone directly to the front before the blood and ink on their contract were even dry.

I'd been spared because some people recognized either my talent or the power that Grex represented. It had taken me months to get trained enough for my tour. How many others had been capable of that, and just sent to the front? Wasted?

Karen's response? "It's a good thought. I was just curious about it; you can do what you want there, at least so long as it's agreed to. I just got most of those people; I don't need you chasing them away."

She sounded as if she didn't think it would work for some reason. Either that, or as if she didn't think it would matter. Whatever. "Like I'd do that. I'm not you or Clay."

"Right, but you are a summoner. All summoners have issues in relating to people, and it's not always the summoner's fault. I mean, look at me! I'm downright normal, and it's still super hard for me to get people to approach me or even stand still so I can approach them. It's a known thing."

Karen... thought of herself as normal? I knew she did, but it was still jarring to hear it. I shared a loaded look with my other running partner to soak in his own disbelief and kept my mouth shut.

Karen did have a point in that she was more normal than most, but she had a few... issues. Not that either Clay or I could throw stones from our glass houses.

Come to think of it, in the silence of my own mind, I thought of myself as pretty normal. Was I... not?

No, of course I was, mostly. Sure, when I was working the my police squad, there were a few... incidents, but those weren't of my making. I was fine.

For making me think unhappy thoughts, I made Karen jog another lap with us. It was easy enough to pick up the pace, and Clay didn't say anything.

Karen was panting lightly as we pulled up in front of the parade ground to cool off and watch as the recruits did their thing. Clay and I stretched again while she leaned over, hands on knees and huffing.

She was overdoing it just a little, I knew, but she was just a touch winded. Which was bad.

"You need to keep this up," I told her.

"I know," she panted out. "I know. I also need to lay off the donuts."

Well, now that she mentioned it....

"I hear you over there, thinking that hard. I'm still in the proper weight range for my height."

My response was a little flippant; as bored as I could possibly make it. "Sure sure."

"What do you know?" Karen answered. "With all that weight on your chest, you've got to be over your weight limit. Probably beep when you back up."

Clay just grinned and kept his mouth shut.

Right. As if I could help these stupid things.

No wait, maybe I could. There was a surgery for it, wasn't there?

Karen proved she was still mind reading: "Denied. Those methods aren't a necessary medical expense."

She returned my look of disbelief. "It's been asked before."

Clay figured it out. "Crime against nature to do that anyway. That figure is a gift."

Well, he wasn't wrong. The only bad part of it was who gifted it. If Grex were here, he'd be cackling now.

Karen pointedly looked down at herself. Which was a little disingenuous since she looked fine. Better than average, even. If she wasn't an active summoner, she'd probably have already been married and had a couple of kids.

"Karen, why did you stay in the service? Couldn't you have retired by now?"

She favored me with a hmm, turning away to watch the training, stepping forward to cast her face in shadow. "I wanted to return the favor. I was given a chance when I was brought in, and that chance both changed and saved my life. I wanted a chance to do the same, so after my tours I stayed on as administration. That's really all there is to it."

I could read between the lines. Karen was saying either the General or my Mom had given her that chance; maybe even both. Still, I shouldn't have asked - it came very close to crossing forbidden ground.

"Sorry."

Karen's head shake was quick and abrupt. "No, it's fine. You two can now. Just... don't spread it around. To everyone else, I'm simply here because I'm too lazy to do anything else."

Hah. Yeah, I could see that; both other people believing it and Karen allowing them to think it.

We watched. They were really improving, those students.

Karen had a different opinion: "They are really awful. Look at the form of that guy in the first row."

Clay smiled. "How do you fumble push ups? Third row, six down."

The drill sergeant had just noticed what Clay had, which was unfortunate for the guy... was that Jenkins? I'd caught a little about the young man yesterday; he'd been voted least likely to succeed his first day at basic and had voted most likely to kill someone else.

A little harsh, but watching him now, I could see it. The way he was trying to do push ups was... tragic. They weren't supposed to be done in steps like that. The man's belly barely left the ground!

Not that I could throw stones from my glass house, sometimes bodies were just... shaped in an unfortunate manner for certain exercises. I was lucky I still had my full mobility, and from the looks of things down there, Jenkins did too. He had no problem touching his toes it seemed, even if he couldn't see them while standing.

He was in my class. At the very least, he wouldn't die from any lack on my side of things. He'd still have to do the work himself, though.

I had no doubt he'd do it. Death, or the fear of it, was a powerful motivator, and there was no doubt where this group was going. If more than one of them were assigned to a post stateside, I'd eat my robe. These guys were all going overseas, and they would likely go to Russia.

Or they'd be replacements for whatever the Polish front lost in Karen's mentioned offensive. That would likely kick off just before these kids all finished.

Kids. Why was I calling them kids? I was only about a year older than they were.

It felt right though. They hadn't seen what I had. What we all had. I got why the veterans had always looked at me that way now, because I was doing it too.

Dark thoughts. No matter what, even the most light of subjects always led back to dark thoughts. It was enough to drive a person nuts, if they let it.

"Hey gloomy. You didn't have your coffee, right?"

Clay's words forced me to shove my mental processes aside. "How did you know?"

"You always get gloomy without coffee, gloomy."

Well, that was just wrong. "That's a foul lie. I always get gloomy anyway, sunny."

Clay laughed. "True, true. I guess I am sunny compared to you. Anyway, let's fix that, shall we? My treat."

Karen finally caught up, looking down at my insulated mug, still in her hand. "Wait, this was yours? You didn't just make me one?"

"You really aren't awake in the morning, are you? What happened to making coffee yourself?"

She brushed me off with a flipped hand: "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

I gave my mug a pointed look. she was playing the fool, but it was easy enough to play along.

She wanted me to play along, and all three of us knew it.

"Right, we all need coffee anyway. Even Clay."

Clay shrugged. He could normally take or leave the stuff - but he'd have some today. If he was treating me, I was treating him.

We left before the final act; it didn't really matter if we watched the whole thing, no one was going to hold us to muster or even demand we do the P.T.

We should be, though; just looking at how Karen had struggled with a single mile was inspiring in all the wrong ways; I'd stop skipping starting tomorrow.

The cafe was where I'd left it yesterday, and there wasn't a single instructor inside. There were some other base personnel, but no civvies at all. Well, unless you counted the yawning barista guy and the baker that I could hear rustling around in the back.

I should be putting together another rune setup; I had another tower to paint, and I'd even brought the stuff for it.

I'd also brought a healthy breakfast along, so I must resist the donuts and other wonderful goodness I saw presented before me. I could wait.

"Let's get some to go today," I offered. "I've still got time to do the thing, and while Karen has time, she can check my work."

I knew Karen wanted to check my work and how I was doing on it, for whatever reason, so she might as well watch me set the thing up. She hadn't outright said it, but I was certain that was what she was here for.

On her own or at the General's request didn't matter; the army was always going to have someone check it just to make sure I wasn't slipping in a way to explode people randomly, and Karen already knew me and how I worked. How I thought.

Clay could probably do it to, if pressed, come to think of it.

"Sure. Kill two birds, and all that," was Karen's sleepy response as she handed me my now empty mug and coincidentally cut in front of us to get her second coffee of the day.

We had both expected that, of course. I simply snagged some napkins and stuffed them into my now liberated mug to prevent any pillage, then screwed the cap back on and stuffed it into the front pocket of my secondary field pack. The bag was sturdy and carried more than enough when I stopped being gentle.

My primary field pack was by the door, full, and waiting next to my rifle. Just in case. It wasn't like I had any kids around, and this was a military base. I didn't need to lock anything up.

My sidearm was under my pillow, of course, loaded and ready. My real weapon, my athame, never left my side. The weight was a comforting one, and in my hands, it was more than dangerous enough.

I wonder how Mom dealt with the lack? I mean the answer was not well, but for me after less than a year, I didn't feel right without a knife of some kind on me. Or at least, I didn't think I would, since I didn't ever go without one.

It was an interesting question; I'd have to ask. Probably Dad, since mom wouldn't give me a good - or even coherent - answer.

The poor guy working the counter was looking at me. I should probably order.

"One americano."

I dragged out my card, but was very gently shouldered aside by Clay. "Two americano's." he amended while placing his own card in the guy's hand, ensuring he'd be paying for both of us unless I made a big deal of it.

Maybe even whatever monstrosity Karen had ordered; I hadn't really been paying attention, and she ordered some of the weirdest stuff normally anyway.

Yep, I was right. Her cup took the longest to make, and had froth in it.

At least she thanked Clay with a smile. Clay took the loss of almost five dollars with good grace and a muted "you're welcome."

"Right, let's go. I've got about an hour before I need to warp young impressionable minds."

Karen smirked again. "I like that phrasing."

"You should, you said it yourself more than once." Where did she think I got it from? When in doubt, just joke about it.

Karen paused for a second, thinking. right in the doorway, of course, so that the Captain who wanted in had to wait. "You're right, I did."

I smiled an apology to the Captain, who had seniority on both of us if his age was anything to go by, and moved. Karen followed, thankfully enough. The Captain in question just watched us go with a sigh before finally making his way inside.

I'd jog, but the chances were that I'd spill some coffee doing that, so I settled for a brisk walk.

Of course, Karen complained about it. "Slow down, sheesh."

"We're on a bit of a time crunch here. I'd like to get the next one done, if I have to start it at all."

I might need to speed things up - which meant either calling Grex or doing it. Using my special talent - I'd been cautious since for all I knew, it left a trace. A trace that now two powerful demons might pick up on and track here.

I'd have to do it sooner or later; should I wait or take the risk now before the very wards and reinforcements I would need to resist either one were done?

No, not yet. I'd have to use it sooner or later, but no need for the risk just yet. Even if I didn't get the tower done and had to bleed myself again. I mean I was already doing it, what was one more? Though at this rate, the possibility of fainting from blood loss loomed in my future.

I should probably stop mixing my blood in for the ink. I did know another method, one that used a more normal ink, but it took far longer to make that ink and it just didn't have the pop using blood had.

I should check and see how others handled the problem. I could always stand to do more research if I could find the time.

One more thing for the list. I was running out of memory space for sure; I'd need to resort to a notebook or something.

A bunch of the base personnel passed us, heading toward the tower, both new recruits and old hands both. They waved around us though, and we didn't so much as break stride. It was kinder to them that we not try; I knew from experience. If you stopped, they would stop, and it would just make it much more awkward.

Then we were alone again, and the tower was in sight. I took a sip; I'd need some caffeine for this.

The sentries spotted us bearing down on them and froze, knowing who we were, and more importantly, who Karen was.

Karen stopped in front of them. "What are you doing? Watch out there, not us. You, stay out here."

We had to kick the guy hiding in the ground floor out in order to make the thing and hide it, but damn, she was nasty in the morning.

Whatever. I sipped, noticing that as I did, Clay did his trick, matching me... and Karen joined in.

The two came unstuck from reality. "Yes ma'am!"

They got out of the way, watching the desert for motion like they should be.

I had to hand my drink off to Clay in order to use both hands, but I got in the small shack and managed to pry the plywood wall facing the fence off, like I had for the last one. Ink, brush, design to look at just in case I needed it spread out before me, and a clear section of wall; the other wards were below this section, very small and old. It left enough space for this. Not that the new ward was a small one.

I was sure that was one of the main gripes people had with it, if people had gripes at all.

The wood I was painting was old, and was soaking up my fresh ink, but after yesterday, I'd expected it, and there was no danger of me running out.

Even so, I only had everything gone over a total of twice when my phone alarm went off. Another two passes away from completion, it looked like. I had to dry this out before I put the plywood back; the risk of contamination was too high to leave it open to the air - and people.

I settled for running my brush back over the work I'd done until I was sure nothing would drip, and then knocking the plywood back in place.

I turned, and Karen got out of the way with a shake of her head. "Good work. I can't believe you brought a hammer, though."

"Why wouldn't I bring a hammer? I know how the wards are set up here." I stuffed it back in the bag with my other stuff, and wrapped my brush carefully in the cloth I'd brought for it.

There was still a little ink left, so I carefully sealed that up. I'd burn it later to make sure nothing unfortunate could happen with it.

"I just... didn't expect it," Karen answered. I thought you'd just..." she wiggled her fingers in my direction.

Really? Why the heck would I use magic to remove a piece of plywood covering a spell array? Especially when a hammer would work? Especially when the array itself would resist magic being thrown in its' direction?

"Has anyone ever told you that you lack common sense?"

Karen shrugged. "Sure, plenty of times. Even you, twice. At least I'm honest."

That was a fair point. "At least you're honest."

Clay snorted laughter; then when I turned his way, he wiggled his fingers at me.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. We've got less than ten to get into our classrooms."

Clay settled in a runners stance. "We can make that easy."

I settled in to. "Sure we can. Karen, try to keep up!"

Karen did not settle in. Instead, she waved us off: "Yeah, no. I can afford to be late, but you kids go on ahead."

Weaving through the traffic too slow or inattentive enough to stay in our way, we covered the distance, and I was sitting in my chair with two minutes to spare. My coffee cup was still half full, and I hadn't spilled a drop.

The small sea - more a pond really - of young impressionable faces greeted me with rapt attention as I pulled out my book to take role. Young minds to twist and mold, oh so carefully, into something both monstrous and wonderful. For a moment, the weight of the moment hit me with the force of a minotaur's charge.

Then it passed, and I began.