Benedict Jacka - Cursed

The old factory was the kind of place you only find in the very worst parts of big cities. Its bricks had once been red, but years of grime and pollution had darkened them to a brownish-grey. The outer wall was topped with ragged coils of razor wire. The wire was rusted and full of holes that hadnt been repaired in years, as if the owners had decided that they couldnt keep the burglars out but might at least be able to give them tetanus on the way in.

The rest of the dead-end street was dark, empty-looking buildings and shops hiding behind steel security gratings. The gratings were covered in graffiti and it was hard to tell whether the businesses locked behind them were still open or whether theyd been abandoned too. The only shop that looked in good shape carried the triple-sphere sign of a pawnbrokers. Behind the shops and factory was the sort of council estate where the muggers use broken bottles because they cant afford knives.

It was only eleven oclock and the rest of London was filled with the sounds of the city, but on the street nothing moved. The road was empty except for parked cars. Half of them were missing wheels, windows, or both, and none would have looked out of place in a junkyard-except for the minivan parked at the top of the street. Its polished black paint melted into the shadows, with the orange glow from the streetlights picking out the silver hubcaps and lights along with the Mercedes symbol mounted on the grill. I rolled my eyes when I saw it. My senses told me there was no immediate danger but I stayed in the shadows of the alley and scanned the street for another minute before walking out towards the van.

Most of the streetlights were broken and the ones still working were patchy. I walked the streets length cloaked in darkness, with only the occasional circle of orange piercing the gloom. Looking over my shoulder I could see the pillars of light of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers, visible over the rooftops. We were close to the river, even if I couldnt see it, and as I walked I heard the mournful sound of a boats horn echoing off the water. Ragged clouds covered most of the sky, their cover blending with the glow of the streetlights to hide the stars.

As I reached the van one of the front windows slid down, and the street was quiet enough that I could hear the purr of the motor. I stopped by the door and looked at the man sitting inside. Could you possibly have made it any more obvious?

My name is Alex Verus. Im a mage, a diviner. In mage terms Im unaligned, which means Im not affiliated with the Council (the main Light power block) but dont count myself as a Dark mage either. Although Im not part of the Council I do freelance jobs for them, like this one. The man in the passenger seat to whom I was talking was my contact with the Council, a mage named Talisid, and he gave me a patient nod. Verus.

Good to see you. I looked the van up and down. Seriously, a Mercedes? Did you get it waxed, too?

If youre concerned about stealth, Talisid said, perhaps we shouldnt be talking in the open?

Talisid is a man in his forties, shorter than average, with greying hair receding from a balding head. He always seems to be wearing the same understated business suit, but with a sort of steadiness that suggests he might be more than meets the eye. Id met him in the spring, at a ball in Canary Wharf where hed offered me a job. Things didnt exactly go to plan, but Talisid had held up his end of the bargain, and when hed asked for my help tonight Id agreed. I stepped back and watched as the passengers piled out of the van. Talisid was first and following him was a tall, thin man with a long face like a greyhound, who gave me a nod. His name was Ilmarin, an air mage. I didnt recognise the next three but I hadnt expected to; their guns marked them as Council security.

Still planning to take the lead? Talisid asked me quietly as the security team went through their preparations, checking rifles and headsets.

Thats what Im here for.

Its also what theyre here for, Talisid pointed out. Its their line of work.

I almost smiled. When Talisid had called me yesterday and given me the briefing, hed assumed Id be staying at the tail end of the formation, maybe all the way back in the van. He was offering me another chance to back out. But there was another message in there too, which wasnt so funny: the security men were expendable and I wasnt. Im not going to be much use from a hundred yards back, I said. Ill give you all the warning you need, but I need a good view.

Talisid held up a hand in surrender. All right. Youll be on point with Garrick. Well move on your signal.

The man Talisid had nodded towards was the one whod been in the drivers seat, now standing a little apart from the others. He was tall, with short sandy hair and an athletes build, strong and fast. He was wearing black body armour with a high-tech look, along with dark combat fatigues, black gloves and boots, and a webbing belt that held a handgun, a machine pistol, a knife, and half a dozen metal cylinders that looked suspiciously like grenades. A second pistol rested in an ankle holster, and he carried a weapon in a sling that looked like a cross between a submachine gun and an assault rifle. He watched me with calm blue eyes as I walked up. Garrick? I asked.

Garrick nodded and spoke in a deep voice. Whats the layout?

Ill tell you once we get inside.

Going with Talisid?

With you.

Garrick raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down. I was wearing combat trousers, black sneakers, a belt with a few things hooked into it, and a light fleece. If Garrick looked like something out of a military thriller, I looked like an amateur camper. Im flattered, Garrick said, but youre not my type.

Im your recon, I said.

Thats nice, Garrick said. You can do it from the van.

Im not going to be in the van.

This is a combat mission, Garrick said patiently. We dont have time to babysit.

A lot of people think diviners are useless in a fight. All in all it helps me more than it hurts me, but its still a bit of a nuisance when you want to be taken seriously. Ill be the one doing the babysitting, I said. Those guns wont do much good if this thing takes your head off from behind.

I expected Garrick to get annoyed but he only gave me a look of mild inquiry. What are you going to do? Punch it?

Im going to tell you exactly where it is and what its doing, I said. If you cant figure out a way to beat this thing with that going for you, then you can back off and let us handle it.

Garrick studied me a moment longer, then shrugged. Your funeral. He turned to the other men. Lets move.

The inside of the factory was pitch-black. The power had been turned off a long time ago and the lights that hadnt been smashed or lost their bulbs were dark. Corridors were cluttered with old machinery and pieces of junk that had been piled up and left to decay, forcing us to pick a winding path through the obstacles and making it difficult to get a clear line of sight. The air smelt of dust and rusted metal.

The creature we were hunting was called a barghest: a shapeshifter that can take the form of either a human or a great wolflike dog. Theyve got preternatural speed and strength, and theyre difficult to detect with normal or magical senses. Or so the stories say; Ive never met one. But all the sources agreed that the creatures killed with claws and teeth, making these sort of dark, cramped quarters the absolute worst place to fight one. There were too many possible hiding places, too many ways the creature could lie in wait to attack from behind.

Of course, that was the reason Talisid had brought me along.

To my eyes, the factory existed on two levels. There was the present, a world of darkness and shadow, broken only by the torches in my hand and on Garricks rifle, looming obstacles blocking our path and the threat of danger around every corner. But overlaid upon that was a second world, a branching web of lines of glowing white light, the web branching over and over again through four dimensions, multiplying into thousands and millions of thinning wisps, every one a possible future. The futures of the corridor and the objects within it were fixed and solid, while my and Garricks futures were a constantly shifting web, flickering and twisting with every moment.