Warlock

Shooting an Angel

The guard with the gun was a tall man. Beside him stood two women, one in a suit and one in disheveled sweatpants and a t-shirt. She looked like she had leapt out of bed and into her car to get there. They must have called her to come, so she could be important. Each of them wore the demon-viewing goggles, and all three leapt back when his eyes opened.

The guard spoke first, starting with a small wave. "Hello, sir. I um... I shot you a few hours ago." So he had not been knocked out for long. That was good; his healing time was just as long as it had been when he was under one hundred years old. "I'm really sorry. It was an automatic response. I'm trained to shoot when I see prisoners escaping." He was clearly the one who thought he was an angel. Loch resisted the temptation to correct him once again; if their boss Estrada was another clueless human he could convince them all that the Others were not demons. "I'm sorry again, but until we know you're safe we're going to keep you locked up. I have to put you in a cell, but I'll take off the handcuffs when you're in there."

Loch said nothing, but stood and surveyed the room. He did not know how humans would expect an angel to act, but mysterious silence was a safe bet. The guards he had immobilized were gone, probably to nurse the wounds and bruises from the vengeful escapees. All of the transparent cells were empty, to his relief, while the entrance to the staircase tunnel still interrupted the pristine white walls. Loch returned it to its original state with a little more effort than usual – magic without hand movements was not impossible, but it was not easy, either.

The humans gasped in awe, the husky-voiced woman swearing under her breath. She took her phone out of the pocket of her sweatpants, but the wall finished its self-repair before she could press record.

"What else can you do?" The businesswoman had come equipped with a notepad and pen, each of which was poised for action.

He did not respond. The guard understood the point and motioned for him to follow. "Here, I'll bring you to your cell so you won't have to wear those handcuffs. Iris, if he understands human languages I don't think we're important enough to talk to." The guard was amazingly gullible, and Loch had not even spoken yet. The businesswoman was another situation, but her gaze showed skepticism, not complete disbelief. It was the disheveled woman that he could not read. She simply watched him, her face devoid of emotion. Whether she was too tired to show emotion, or too clever, he could not tell.

The cell the guard brought him to was a kind he had seen in several horror movies; the floor was solid rather than glass, the walls were padded, and the door had a complicated electronic locking mechanism. He half expected someone to present him with a straightjacket. To his good fortune, there was no straightjacket, and the guard unlocked his handcuffs as soon as they entered the cell.

The gullible man bowed slightly before he left the cell, then locked the door behind him. He was probably gullible enough that Loch could convince him to unlock the door for him, but it would not be necessary. All he had to do was wait for the women to leave. They took their time leaving, the businesswoman asking sweatpants if they had any other bits of good news to tell Estrada, then sweatpants discussing the details of Loch's healing process with the guard so she would have more details to tell Dixie. Eventually, however, they did leave, and Loch was alone with the guard.

Just like the guards from the night before, the guard was easy to manipulate. Rather than immobilizing him to watch everything without moving, Loch sent him to sleep. Then he unlocked the door and stepped back into the world of freedom. There were desks with computers on the opposite side of the room, each with a perfect view of the transparent cells, so he figured that would be a good place to start.

It would have been a good place to start if the humans did not enjoy passwords so much. Loch had seen several movies where characters hacked into computers, but they never showed how. Skye's movie obsession was not very useful. He pushed the rolling chair back from the computer and stared at the room around him, searching for clues, or at least something else to investigate.