Hack Imperfect

  HACK IMPERFECT

  Tales of the Magi Saga 3

  By

  Andrew Dobell

  By Andrew Dobell

  Booklist

  The Magi Saga – Urban Fantasy

  When Amanda discovers she’s a Magi after being attacked by a werewolf on the streets of NYC, she’s introduced to a magical society and drawn into a hidden war for the fate of mankind.

  Magi Dawn: The Magi Saga Book 1

  Magi Rising: The Magi Saga Book 2

  Magi Omen: The Magi Saga Book 3

  Magi Edge: The Magi Saga Book 4

  Magi Odyssey: The Magi Saga Book 5

  Magi Descent: The Magi Saga Book 6

  Wasteland Road Knights

  Liberation

  Exploration

  Tales of the Magi Saga

  The Angel of Tarut

  His Love

  Hack Imperfect

  Casino Red

  Uprising

  Pilgrimage

  A Thoroughly Modern Witch

  The New Prometheus - Cyberpunk

  When Frankie’s brain is transplanted into a Cybernetic body after being shot, she must go on the run from the mega-corporations who want her and her cyber-body’s designer dead.

  The New Prometheus

  The Prometheus Gambit

  The Prometheus Trap

  Prometheus Vengeance

  The Magi Saga Short Stories

  Only available through my mailing list;

  www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk

  The Angel of Tarut: The Magi Saga Prologue

  His Love: A Magi Saga Short Story

  Anthologies I am part of:

  The Expanding Universe – Sci-Fi

  The Expanding Universe 3 – Sci-Fi

  For more of Andrew’s work, including Free Short Stories and Artwork visit my Website and Sign up to my Mailing List.

  www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk

  About this book

  The events of this short story take place between books 2 (Magi Rising) and 3 (Magi Omen) of the Magi Saga.

  Would you leave me a Review???

  Thank you for taking the time to read my book. If you enjoyed it, please consider posting a short review on Amazon.

  Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated.

  Thank you.

  Andrew Dobell.

  Loose ends

  ‘I can’t thank you enough for helping us out with Lucian,’ Amanda said, relaxing in an old musty office chair that had seen better days, wearing her usual look of fitted jeans, sneakers, tank top and a denim jacket. Her long, straight, bright red hair falling over her shoulders. She smiled at the man sitting opposite her. The Scion vampire smiled back at her briefly, revealing the row of miss-shaped fangs that filled his mouth before letting the grin drop from his face.

  Shaun was one of the less lucky Scions, having been permanently disfigured by his change into a vampire. He was hairless with rough white skin stretched over a deformed skeleton. He had a prominent brow, strong cheekbones, pointed ears, and a ridge of bone that ran up and over the top of his head and down his spine.

  She could only see the skin on his head and hands, though, as he wore fitted black-clothing, including leather trousers, tall black leather boots, tank top, and a denim jacket that had a goth feel to them.

  His bloodshot eyes stared back at her. He probably wasn’t trying to be intimidating, but he was a scary person to look at.

  ‘After what he did, he had it coming, frankly,’ Shaun said. He’d been working for Lucian, the self-styled Nomad king of New York, Jamaican Posse leader, criminal underworld boss, and Magus until his death over a month ago. Shaun had requested some privacy for a while after Lucian’s death, but Amanda had been keen to get back in touch.

  She felt sure that Shaun was a good man. She wanted to help him and get him out of these sewers.

  The smell here was fairly horrific, but it was worse outside the doors to his lair. They sat in a small abandoned subway station that had been blocked off years ago and commandeered by Shaun for his own personal use. There was even an old rusted train car in here.

  His one surviving assistant, Vanessa, sat a short distance behind Shaun, watching the conversation. She was a slim girl wearing fitted clothing with her dark, almost black hair pulled into a ponytail.

  ‘I’m sorry you had that happen,’ Amanda said, feeling sorry for them both. Lucian had killed Shaun’s other assistant, Gary, shortly before Amanda had returned the favour and killed Lucian. It had been the catalyst that had made Shaun offer help to Amanda in taking Lucian down. ‘I didn’t know him, but I doubt he deserved to be killed like that.’

  Shaun remained stoic, but Amanda could see the glistening of fresh tears in Vanessa’s eyes.

  ‘He didn’t,’ Shaun said.

  ‘My condolences,’ Amanda said.

  ‘Thank you,’ Shaun said. ‘So, was this a social call?’

  Amanda smiled at Shaun’s direct approach. He didn’t seem like he wanted to engage in meaningless chit-chat. ‘No,’ Amanda said. ‘I came here to make you an offer.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ Shaun asked.

  ‘I don’t like seeing you living down here,’ she said. ‘I want to offer you a place in my Coven, and a new home in my house.’

  ‘In your house?’ Shaun asked.

  ‘It’s a big one. Myself and a few friends already live there, but there’s room for more.’ She could see the interest in Vanessa’s expression. She already seemed interested, but Shaun had a more sceptical look about him.

  ‘You don’t look keen,’ Amanda said.

  ‘I, well, it’s just not quite as simple as that,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I mean, don’t misunderstand me, it’s a generous offer, but I’m not exactly human looking.’

  Amanda smiled. ‘True. But I think I can get you something to help with that,’ Amanda said. She was already aware that although her Magic could technically reshape his face into something more human, she knew that once the Magic was finished, his Scion blood would reassert itself and within days be would be back to his usual appearance. But that wasn’t the only option.

  ‘That would be useful,’ Shaun admitted.

  ‘When you were working for Lucian, did he not try to help you with this?’

  ‘I believe he wanted to keep me where I was.’

  ‘Figures,’ Amanda said.

  ‘But that’s not the only problem,’ Shaun said, and looked back towards Vanessa. Vanessa glanced at Shaun and pressed her lips into a thin smile before returning her attention to the floor.

  ‘No. No, it’s not,’ Vanessa said.

  Amanda raised her eyebrows. She wasn’t sure what the problem was, but it did feel like they were throwing up obstacles before her, offering her excusing about why they couldn’t come and live with her.

  ‘Can I just check, would you like to come and live at mine and move out of… here? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?’

  ‘No, no,’ Vanessa said, looking up. ‘It sounds great. It’s just that, I came down here to escape. I was in trouble, and Shaun offered to help me.’

  ‘You’re hiding?’

  ‘Yeah, I am,’ she said.

  ‘From what? Maybe I can help you?’

  She glanced up at Shaun as if she were looking for his support or permission to tell her what had happened to her. Shaun nodded, and Vanessa sat back in her chair.

  ‘I got in trouble because of a hack,’ Vanessa began. ‘I was living in a bedsit. Kind of a group of digital criminals I suppose, although, we saw ourselves more like freedom fighters taking on the evil mega-corporations, I guess.’

  ‘How very cyberpunk of you,’ Amanda commented.

  ‘Yeah. Well, we went too far. We hacked an investment company who seemed to be involved in some dodgy stuff, and they somehow tracked it back to us. The commune was raided. Carson and I got out.’

  ‘Carson?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘My mentor, I suppose,’ Vanessa said. ‘He took me in, gave me a direction, a purpose. He just got ambitious, hacked the wrong people. I don’t know if anyone else who lived there survived.’

  ‘So, how did you end up here?’

  ‘That was Gary. We’d met online and got talking before things went bad. I helped him with a couple of things, he helped me, you know? After the raid, when Carson and I were on the run, I was still talking to Gary. He was trying to help us. When I got separated from Carson, Gary offered to help.’

  ‘And that’s how you ended up down here?’

  ‘Yeah, it was a bit of a shock at first, you know? Meeting Shaun here and finding out about vampires and Magi and stuff, but it’s cool.’

  ‘And you’ve been down here ever since.’

  ‘I go up to the streets, but I keep a low profile, stay off the radar. If the people who we hacked found out I was alive, I’m pretty sure they’d come after me again.’

  ‘So, who are these people you hacked?’

  ‘No idea, I wasn’t really at the front end of that operation, so I don’t know, and Carson wouldn’t tell me. Kept saying it would put me at risk.’

  ‘So, what about this Carson? Do you know where he is?’

  ‘No idea. He’s off the grid, as far as I can tell.’

  ‘Shall we find out where he is?’

  ‘You can do that?’

  ‘Have you got something that used to be his?’

  ‘Um, well, yeah, I have this,’ Vanessa said, lifting the necklace she wore over her head. ‘He gave it to m
e for my birthday. It’s the only thing of his I have left.’

  Amanda reached out and took the item from her. ‘That should be perfect,’ she said as she closed her hand around the necklace and concentrated. She focused on Carson, and on trying to reach out and find him as she pulled on the veil of Essentia all around them. It was subtle Magic and couldn’t be rushed as she sent her mind out into the city.

  Slowly, a sense of him grew and pushed through into her mind. Carefully, she was able to follow the threads of that connection. Soon enough, she got a reasonably good sense of where Carson might be and managed to narrow it down to an abandoned house that was being used as a bedsit by several people, including the one she felt sure was Carson.

  ‘I think I’ve found him,’ Amanda said, opening her eyes and looking up at Vanessa. She made sure she had a good idea of where the house was in Queens and cancelled the Magic.

  ‘Where is he?’ Vanessa asked.

  Old Wounds

  Amanda eyed the front of the building that she and Vanessa stood in front of. It was late morning, and they had decided to leave Shaun back at her house. Amanda could have placed an illusion over him to hide his features out here, but there was too much of a risk of it going wrong or slipping and revealing his true appearance. Plus, Shaun just did not feel comfortable going out in public until he had a better method of hiding his face.

  Amanda understood that and didn’t argue with him. Besides, Amanda got the feeling that Carson might get skittish with her turning up with Vanessa as it was without Shaun being there, too.

  And anyway, Amanda felt sure she could handle it.

  The building that Carson was apparently living in was disused and not in good shape. The windows were bordered up, as was the front door. Amanda guessed there would be a back entrance somewhere that Carson was using, but she didn’t feel much like trying to find it.

  She’d sent another set of senses into the building when they had first got here, and Amanda had quickly found Carson with them. She left them in there to keep an eye on him.

  Weaving another effect from the local Essentia, Amanda damped the sound around her before walking up to the front door and giving it a good solid kick.

  Her enhanced strength allowed her to break open the barricade with a single kick, splintering and fracturing the wood and leaving a nice big hole they could step through. Her Magic had worked, though, and not a sound reached the ears of Carson or anyone else in here.

  Stepping into the dim interior, Amanda cancelled the silence Magic and found herself standing in a hallway lined with peeling wallpaper and covered in dirt and bits of rubbish. It was a mess. Vanessa climbed through the hole behind her, and they moved forward as a pair. There were rooms off to the sides and a set of stairs leading up. Carson was upstairs working away on his laptop with his headphones on from what Amanda could see with her second set of senses, but there were other people in here other than Carson.

  In the room to her left, Amanda saw a guy apparently collapsed on the sofa with various drug paraphernalia scattered on the table before him. His eyes were wide, but it didn’t really look like he was aware of the world around him.

  Another couple of steps forward and Amanda looked to her right into another room to see a man in there smoking a cigarette. He did a double take on seeing Amanda, stubbed out his smoke and moved towards them, apparently not very happy.

  ‘Hey, who are you? What are you doing in here?’ he said, stepping into the hallway and looking at the mess Amanda had made of the front door. ‘What the fuck you do that for?’ he asked.

  ‘No bother, young man, we’re just here to see a friend,’ Amanda said, wondering if she could diffuse the situation without the use of Magic.

  ‘Oh yeah, who’s that, then?’

  ‘Carson,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Oh, it speaks. Well, I don’t know any Carson, so, fuck off out of here, alright?’

  ‘He’s just upstairs,’ Amanda pressed on.

  ‘There’s no Carson upstairs,’ the man said, clearly getting pissed off.

  ‘You probably know him by another name,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Oh yeah, and what name’s that?’

  ‘I don’t know, whatever he came up with,’ Vanessa answered.

  Amanda could see that wasn’t going to go anywhere productive, and really didn’t want to spend too long arguing with this guy, so she concentrated and worked a little Magic, pressing her will into reality around her and forcing the man to see their point of view and let them through.

  ‘Right, well, if you know where he is, you can just head up there. Okay?’

  Amanda smiled. ‘Thanks,’ she said and ushered Vanessa up the stairs first. Amanda followed close behind her and directed her towards where Carson was.

  ‘What the? He changed his tune…’ Vanessa said.

  ‘That conversation was going nowhere, so I made some adjustments.’

  ‘Of course,’ Vanessa answered.

  They pushed open a door that stood slightly ajar to find a room that probably couldn’t have looked in a worse condition and remain habitable. There was a stained mattress in here with some dirty sheets on it, surrounded by empty food packets and cartons as well as other detritus of day to day life. Meanwhile, sitting in one corner fairly close to a window was Carson. He had his laptop on his legs and was tapping away on there. Amanda noticed that some cables were snaking in through the window, that were hooked up to the computer. She guessed they were stealing electricity and bandwidth for internet use.

  ‘I told you I was busy…’ Carson said, before looking up and coming up short when he saw Vanessa. He stared up at her for a moment in disbelief, before he pulled his earphones out. ‘Vanessa?’

  ‘That’s me,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, my God, you survived. How did you find me?’

  ‘I had some help,’ she said and glanced back at Amanda.

  Amanda smiled.

  ‘Who are you?’ Carson asked, placing his laptop on one side and coming to his feet.

  She could hear the suspicion in his voice, but Amanda ignored it and chose to be as friendly as possible. Given what he had been through, he had every right to be suspicious of her.

  She stepped forward and offered her hand. ‘Hi, I’m Amanda. I’m a friend of Vanessa’s.’

  ‘Is that right,’ he asked and glanced at Vanessa.

  She nodded to him. ‘She’s one of the good guys, and she wants to help.’

  ‘Help? How can you help? No offence, but what can you do?’

  ‘She has a lot of friends with a lot of influence,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Right, well, she’ll need it.’

  ‘Give her a chance.’

  ‘Why? What difference is one skinny redhead going to make? No offence,’ this last part he directed at Amanda.

  ‘None taken. But, if you give me a chance, maybe we can sort this thing out,’ Amanda said.

  ‘Do it for me, please,’ Vanessa pleaded with him.

  Carson turned away, thinking it through. After a moment, he sighed and looked back at them.

  ‘Yeah, alright, fuck it, why not. What you got in mind, Red, because I would dearly like to kill the fuckers.’

  Amanda wasn’t keen on his tone or his pent-up aggression, but she understood where it came from, so his attitude would get a pass for the time being.

  ‘That really depends on who you’ve hacked. Tell me who’s after you.’

  ‘You want me to just come out and tell you? I didn’t tell Vanessa to try and keep her safe. If you know…’

  ‘Then I can help,’ Amanda interrupted. ‘Don’t be an ejit. Not telling Vanessa didn’t really help at all, did it? They still came after her, so let’s change tactics a little. Tell me who we’re dealing with.’

  Carson sighed. ‘Fuck it. Okay, we hacked Willis Financial. They’re an investment company and also do a load of corporate takeovers and shit before selling these assets on. They’re known for being aggressive.’

  ‘They sound just grand,’ Amanda joked.

  ‘They don’t mess about, these guys. They have ties to one of the Five Families.’

  ‘The Mafia?’

  ‘The Cosa Nostra, yes. I think they’re one of the mob's rackets.’

  ‘Do you know which made man is their contact?’