“Go get it,” I said flatly.
“I can’t,” he said a bit timidly. “We’re, uh… We’re stuck here.”
“What?” I barked.
“We’ve sealed Permovren off — me and the other Incarnates, that is. No one gets in, no one gets out until we find the murderer.”
Chapter 14
I stared at Rune in shock, and then bellowed, “When were you going to tell me this?!”
“I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret,” he insisted. “It just didn’t come up.”
“Why would it?” I demanded. “Why would I asked if I’ve been kidnapped?”
“Kidnapped?” Rune repeated. “You’re laying it on kind of thick, don’t you think?”
“What I’m thinking is that I should have asked a lot more questions before agreeing to help you. I’m also trying to figure out which is worse: that no one can leave until the killer is caught, or that you left the only weapon capable of stopping said killer.”
Rune shook his head dismissively. “Even if I’d brought the Kroten Yoso Va, we couldn’t have used it.”
“Sure we could have,” I countered. “We could use it to siphon off the power of the other Incarnates, then simply read their minds to figure out who’s the murderer.”
“That’s a might-makes-right argument, Jim. It’s equivalent to you holding a bunch of your friends at gunpoint and saying, ‘One of us is a murderer, so I’m going to tie all of you up and interrogate you one by one until I find out who the killer is.’ Does that sound okay to you?”
I frowned in distaste at the imagery his words had invoked and admitted, “Not really.”
“Plus,” he went on, “I’ve heard it said that for supers to lose their powers is like losing a limb.”
I nodded. “That’s true. For supers, your powers are a central part of who you are. Losing them is akin to being maimed.”
“Well, it’s a million times worse for Incarnates. So in my scenario, in addition to hogtying and interrogating your friends, you also hack off body parts until you find out what you want to know. And when it’s over — even if you get the bad guy — all you can say to the innocent ones is, ‘Sorry about that, but I’ll sew these arms and legs back on and you’ll be good as new.’”
“Okay, I get it,” I said, rubbing my temples.
“They’d never trust you again,” Rune continued. “Likewise, if I used the Kroten Yoso Va like you suggest, the other Incarnates would never trust me again. And I have to deal with these people for eons — maybe even eternity.”
“I said I get it,” I stressed. “So we can’t use the Kroten Yoso Va.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” he announced with a self-satisfied air.
“What are you looking so smug about?” I asked. “You’ve trapped us inside with a murderer, kept the guy you brought on board to investigate in the dark, and intentionally discarded the only weapon that could stop the killer.”
“Geez, Pollyanna,” he muttered. “You’re just all rainbows and unicorns.”
“Funny,” I said sarcastically. “What are you going to say if the murderer kills you?”
Rune seem to ponder this for a second, then shrugged and offered, “Avenge me?”
Chapter 15
According to Rune, the next item on the agenda was for me to meet with his fellow Incarnates. However, that was slated for a little later, so we had some time to kill. Leaving Rune in the living room, I headed to my quarters.
Once inside, I dashed around the place at super speed to get a better feel for the layout. (Although I had been in here earlier with Sayo, I hadn’t had an opportunity to look around.) Ultimately, I ended up in the bedroom, where I stretched out on the bed.
One of the benefits of being in a place like Permovren was that physical needs were practically nonexistent. Being outside of space and time, you didn’t get tired, hungry, thirsty, or the like. That said, even though I didn’t have any physical fatigue, mentally, I was exhausted; it felt like the first time I’d been alone in days.
Relishing the quiet and the solitude, I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, thinking I would just lie there and rest for a few minutes…
*****
I woke to a thunderous booming noise, like two wooden bowling pins being rammed together repetitively. After a few seconds, I realized that it was coming from the front of the apartment. More to the point, I recognized it as someone knocking (or rather, banging) on my door.
There was a bathroom connected to my bedroom, and I dashed inside at super speed to make sure I was presentable and then headed to the door. I yanked it open and stood there, dumbfounded; directly in front of me was a giant hand there, at least as tall as me (and which had apparently been doing the knocking). A moment later, the hand vanished, leaving me with an unobstructed view of the main living area, where Rune was sitting on the couch.
“Oh great, you’re awake,” he said, coming to his feet. “And just in time. The others are waiting for us.”
“What others?” I asked.
Rune gestured with his hand, and the room furnishings altered. Gone were the items in the middle of the room, like the couch and easy chair. In their stead was a decent-sized conference room table at which six people were seated, three to a side.
Three of them I knew: Rune, who took a seat on the right side at one end; Endow, who sat across from him; and Mariner, who sat next to Endow. The other three were all men (and presumably Incarnates), but I had never seen any of them before. To my great surprise, however, they all had nametags in front of them.
The one seated next to Mariner appeared to be in his late thirties and sported a short, neatly-trimmed beard. He was dressed in what looked like a full-length black leather duster, under which he wore a formal white shirt with a jabot. On
