Reality Hack (7 page)

Despite the short walk, Nisa felt like she had trudged miles. Despite Kellog’s best efforts, she had had two more nightmares during the week. Cat had lulled her back to sleep both times and Nisa had to admit that she was kind of hoping that Mrs Carew had not owned a black cat with vibrant green eyes…
Because
of Kellog’s enthusiastic judo training, Nisa felt like her back, especially her shoulders and butt, was one, livid bruise. They were doing ten hours a day, and then she was going home and spending four hours on magic and statistics. After that she was so exhausted that she was amazed anything had disturbed her, but still she had managed to wake up screaming, and Cat had been there to help every time.

There was a ‘For Sale’ notice up outside the small house that Jennifer Carew had once occupied. The place looked empty and rather forlorn, as though it had been lived in and loved, and now its owner had gone and it was alone.

Nisa walked to the next house along and pressed the doorbell. The man who answered it was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of an expensive gym on it, and jogging pants. He had the look of someone who paid cursory attention to his physique. His haircut probably cost more than Nisa’s old job had earned her in a week. Tower Hamlets had its fair share of up-and-coming types due to the proximity of places like ExCel. There was a lot of new building going on. This guy probably worked in the City, making money lending poor people’s money to richer people.

‘Yes?’ he asked in a tone that suggested she was already wasting his time. He was not impressed with her hair, or her cropped T-shirt, or her faded jeans.

‘Hi, I was wondering if you knew anything about your old neighbour, Mrs Carew. Like, did she have a cat?’

‘Who is it, honey,’ came from behind him, followed by the owner of the voice who turned out to be an attractive, busty blonde. No wonder he was unimpressed by Nisa’s slimmer physique.

‘She’s asking about the witch.’

The woman, presumably his wife, gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. ‘She wasn’t a witch, even if she did have a cat.’

‘I don’t suppose you know what it looked like?’ Nisa asked. ‘I found a stray and someone suggested it might be hers…’

‘Black,’ the woman said and frowned. ‘It had really bright, green eyes. Um… Faline. She used to call it Faline. She died, you know?’

‘Yeah, I’d heard that. Heart attack, as I understand it.’

‘Summoning demons, more like,’ the man put in. ‘Woman was strange. So was the cat. Thing used to glare at me.’

Nisa gave them both a smile. She felt like glaring at him too and she had only known him for a couple of minutes. ‘Thanks. That’s all I needed.’

‘And it used to get everywhere,’ the man muttered. ‘Seemed like it could walk through walls. You be careful. That cat’s probably possessed.’

‘Right,’ Nisa said. ‘Well… thanks.’ She turned and started back to the corner with Furze Street.

Of course, the alarming thing was that the cat
could
be possessed, but somehow she was pretty sure that she was just a cat. And apparently she was now
her
cat because no one else owned her. There was Battersea… But there was no way she could do that to the animal. She really was going to have to invest in a litter tray.

~~~

‘Faline?’ Nisa called out as she walked into her flat carrying a plastic bag in which there was a litter tray and a couple of tubs of Sheba. In her other hand was a bag of kitty litter, and she felt like her arm was about to drop off.

There was a prrt and the cat bounced onto the back of the sofa looking rather pleased. It was a sort of ‘Thank God, you’ve figured out who I am’ look, and that settled it if nothing else did.

‘Okay, so you’re Faline then.’ Another prrt. ‘Well, I guess you know that your old owner is dead…’ That got a rather mournful meow and Faline sagged down onto the back of the sofa looking distinctly sad. ‘I’m… uh, I’m sorry, but everyone dies eventually. I should really take you to a cat’s home, but… Well, you’ve been there for me and I guess… Look, I’m kind of assuming you want to stay here?’

Faline lifted her head enough that she could tilt it quizzically. Well,
of course
she wanted to stay here. Had she not gone to all that trouble to get here?

Nisa shook her head. The damn job was making her suspicious and she had not even started doing the real work!

‘Well then, to celebrate you moving in, I got you some nice food.’ Prrt! ‘I am not dancing through the lounge for this one though. I ache too much.’ Nisa started for the kitchen. ‘And you do know what a litter tray is for, right?’ Meow. ‘Good. I have no idea what you’ve been doing before now. The guy next door to Mrs Carew’s house said you could walk through walls…’ Meow-fft! ‘No, I didn’t like him either. And I didn’t believe a word he said, but I have this sneaking suspicion you left presents in his slippers or something.’

There was no sound in reply and Nisa looked down to find Faline sitting near her feet looking like butter would not have
considered
melting in her mouth.

‘I am going to give you this food, and I am going to completely ignore the fact that you seem to understand every word I’m saying.’

Prrt!

Westminster, June 30
^th
.

‘You know,’ Nisa said at lunch, ‘I was kind of expecting you to teach me some magic.’

Kellog chewed his sandwich for a few seconds, swallowed, and then said, ‘First, we need you up to speed on police procedures and the kind of thing you can expect to meet outside this place. Second, a lot of the time the threats are physical, so we need you to have basic unarmed combat sorted. I know you’ve done some boxing, but throws and falls are more essential.’

‘And third,’ Norbery added since he was sitting with them, ‘we have no idea how to teach you magic.’ Kellog scowled at him and he just shrugged.

‘A wizard and a witch, and neither of you can teach me any spells?’ Nisa asked incredulously.

‘He’s right,’ Kellog relented. ‘Magic is as much about… the way your mind works–’

‘Style or paradigm,’ Norbery put in.

‘That,’ Kellog went on, ‘as it is about knowledge. One of the reasons Hanson wanted you aboard is that you represent the new view of magic. This “Reality Hacking” you discovered is popping up in various places and it’s a different paradigm from the ones we employ. We can give advice, suggest things, and show you spells we can do so that you can attempt to do the same, but teach you? No, you’re on your own.’

‘You’re practising, I assume?’ Norbery asked.

‘Well, I’ve been summoning up lights.’

Norbery gave Kellog a grin. ‘Energy summoning? Your favourite thing.’

‘She knows how to do it and it’s useful for more forceful countermeasures,’ Kellog replied, refusing to rise to the bait.

‘Then perhaps you should show her one of your more violent countermeasures.’ The witch turned to Nisa, adding a conspiratorial tone to his voice. ‘He just
loves
fireballs, so long as there are no witnesses.’

‘I guess that would be a bit of a giveaway,’ Nisa commented. ‘Chucking a fireball at someone isn’t exactly kosher science.’

‘More than that, it’s harder. People who don’t believe in what you’re doing make it more difficult to do it. That’s why I prefer more subtle effects. Things people won’t notice take less power and are easier to achieve. Because they aren’t seen, they produce less Probrum. Normal people are the eyes and ears of The System and letting it see you doing “unnatural” things is never good.’

‘So… the text I read is a bit vague. What
can
you do?’

Norbery twitched his head at Kellog. ‘Get him to check you out a couple of textbooks, in English, not Latin. Something on wizardry, witchcraft, maybe alchemy. Your paradigm relies as much on what you can imagine doing as what you know and the broader your understanding, the better. Besides, you should know what you’re up against if you face a caster. Am I right, Field Agent?’

Kellog nodded. ‘Yes… Yes it’s a good point. Bugs and Glitches aren’t the only things you’ll find doing things we have to stop.’

‘Great,’ Nisa muttered.

‘I understand you’ve inherited a cat,’ Norbery said, apparently going for a brighter subject.

‘Uh-huh. Well, someone has to and she seems to like me, and Mrs Carew isn’t going to be looking after her.’

Norbery nodded. ‘A female then?’

‘Faline,’ Nisa replied, nodding.

‘Good. The males can be troublesome.’

Nisa grinned. ‘That works for humans too.’

Tower Hamlets.

Faline watched Nisa struggling through the door with a pile of books tied together with string and refrained from winding herself around her new owner’s legs until the load had been relieved.

‘Thank you for waiting,’ Nisa said, picking the cat up. ‘I’m happy to see you too.’ That got her cheek butted by a furry head and a burst of purr which dispelled the ache in Nisa’s muscles long enough for her to put food out for the cat and settle down on the sofa to read.

Kellog had decided she might as well have some basic texts at her fingertips, so long as she remembered to keep them out of sight if she had visitors. Nisa had assured him that she rarely had visitors, and when she did they were mostly interested in her naked body, not her library. Kellog had given her a look.

All the books were modern, rather stiffly written, textbooks, no more than twenty years old. Even the one on Druids was based on modern practice, though it stressed that those practices had been handed down since the Dark Ages. Somehow Nisa suspected the author was protesting too much. There was one on wizardry, another on alchemy, and a study of voodoo, but the witchcraft one seemed the most modern and the most accessible. She decided to start with that.

Faline returned from the kitchen, licking her lips, and apparently decided that she needed more attention. On the other hand, she seemed happy enough sitting in Nisa’s lap as long as she could read the book along with her owner. Nisa tried scratching her between her ears, but the purring made it hard to concentrate so after a few seconds of that they just settled for reading in silence.

Witches, it seemed, were into the kind of thing that you would expect witches to be into. There was a big section on herbs and their uses. The magic they used had a sort of elemental focus, but there were parts of the book dedicated to dealing with departed spirits and the ‘walking dead.’ There was a
lot
of stuff about how using your powers to cause harm tended to backfire. The universe frowned upon those who wrought ill. Nisa got the distinct impression that the author knew nothing about The System and considered what they did to be actual magic rather than bending the rules of a simulation.

That begged the question of whether this whole ‘System’ thing was real, or just a theory. Maybe the world
was
real, and The System was just another paradigm. Or a working theory to explain something which could not be explained. Were those who believed in it just trying to rationalise a universe which did not work the way they wanted?

Faline’s paw stretched out and landed on the page Nisa was reading. Well, there was a picture of a cat on it.

‘On finding a familiar,’ Nisa read. ‘So you think I need a familiar then?’ Meow. ‘I’m not actually a witch, you know?’ Meow. The paw drew back and Nisa turned the page, scanning over the text. ‘Says here that the skilled witch can communicate with their familiar through magic of the spirit.’ Prrt! ‘Oh, so you want to be able to demand Sheba directly then.’ Reproachful meow. ‘Well… it’s something to practise that doesn’t involve summoning lights. We’ll try it later.’ Prrt!

~~~

There had been some more practical advice in the book along with a lot of theoretical stuff. Gathering power from the ambient energy of the universe, it said, tended to reduce the Probrum the caster ended up accumulating, and that seemed like a valid sort of thing to practise too.

Faline sat in front of Nisa, who sat cross-legged on the floor in the bedroom. The bedroom, she had decided, was where she was most comfortable doing magic, so that was where she did it.

‘Okay, so I need to channel the energy around me…’ Nisa mused. She lifted her arms and spread her fingers, and tried to imagine that energy was drawing in from around her. It felt less like drawing and more like dragging. ‘And I need to focus on your mind…’ How the Hell did you focus on a mind? Think catty thoughts?
No, that was going to make her mean or something. She was pretty sure she had to be precise about it. The text on Reality Hacking had said that you needed to set your mind to a thought of
exactly
what you wanted to happen. ‘So it’s like a Vulcan mind meld, right? No, too deep. I want to be able to hear what you’re thinking. That should be enough…’

It kept slipping through her fingers, but she remembered the same sort of thing happening when she had been learning to summon the light. At least she was not having to learn to set her mind the right way now.

It took her nearly two minutes before she managed to hold on to the energy
and
get the phrasing of the spell right and suddenly…

Faline gave a meow and Nisa heard ‘That’s much better’ in her mind.

‘Holy fuck, I did it!’

‘I don’t believe profanity is appropriate,’ Faline commented.

‘Wait a minute,’ Nisa said, frowning. ‘Stop me if I’m wrong, but cats should not know what “profanity” means.’

‘Why not? We hear enough of it. The man next door constantly referred to me as “that fucking cat.”’

‘Yes, but… Forgive the statement, but you don’t have the brains to be talking like this. Is this some artefact of the spell?’

‘I,’ Faline said, licking her paw in a distinctly proud manner, ‘am a most superior cat.’

‘Yeah… obviously.’

‘Jennifer was a witch. I am a Witch Cat. Much better than a typical domestic breed.’

‘Let me get this straight,’ Nisa said, frowning. ‘Mrs Carew
was
actually a witch and you were, what? Her familiar?’

‘In a manner of speaking, yes.’

‘So when she died, you went looking for a new… uh… I don’t want to say “owner.”’