Schism

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Hayes had grilled him for five full minutes.  Bryan had given him most of the truth, only leaving out that he knew who the vigilante was.  He didn't think that he'd ever be able to admit that to Hayes.

Then, he'd gone to find Jess and the doctor.

He searched the crowd as the first responders began to arrive.  She wasn't anywhere.  He grabbed Meyers and set him to looking.  Bryan stepped to the front of the crowd, looked down the street.  It was bright from the fire, but he couldn't see her in either direction.

A window exploded outward from the front of Jessica's building as a figure crashed out onto the sidewalk and rolled to a crouch.  It had to be William.  Bryan ran up.  William stood and stared at the fire as he came up, then nodded to Bryan.  "We have to hurry." 

Bryan saw the look of pain was gone.  But it wasn't replaced by the vacancy he'd seen earlier.  William looked awake.  "We need to find..." Bryan started, but William cut him off.

"They have her.  Your car?"

Before Bryan could answer, William started toward Bryan's car.  He followed and dug for his keys.  "What happened?"

"Smith pulled the maintenance man out before I could get to him.  They were at the back of the building.  I think I can track them."

Bryan unlocked the car and got in.  He pulled out into the street and waved at Meyers.  "Get Hayes.  Follow me."

He saw William staring at him.  "What?" Bryan asked.

"They shouldn't come.  It's dangerous," William said.

"Hence the backup."  Bryan headed toward the back of the building.

"Hence the terrible burning to death from the inside out."  William stared out the window.  "If the maintenance man, Harold, can see you, he can turn your whole body into a torch.  So no one goes after him but me."

"Why just you?" Bryan asked.

"Can you see through walls?"  William didn't wait for an answer.  "I've got the best chance of sneaking up on him."  He pointed to a spot on the street at the back of the building.  "Stop here.  Shouldn't take long."

"What are we waiting for?" Bryan put the car in park.

"I sent The Hunter to follow them.  He'll lead us there."

"If you don’t want backup, if this guy is so dangerous, why am I coming along?" Bryan asked.

"My driver's license expired."  William grinned at him, then turned back to the street.  "And you'll need to take care of Jess."

Bryan felt the headlights from Meyers' car come up behind them, but kept his eyes on William, who obviously thought the maintenance man was going to kill him.  What could he say to that?  He watched as William patted the seat and the dashboard.  "Can't even remember the last time I was in a car."

Bryan forced a smile, but it felt more like a grimace.  "You're chatty tonight," he said.  “You’re different.”

William looked back at him, stuck out his right hand.  "Hi.  I'm William Adams."

Bryan shook the hand.  "I think we've met."

"There wasn't much of me around then," William said.

"What's changed?  Those things you see?"

"The voices?  No.  They're the same.  Something in me switched when I made them help Westen.  Kinda woke me up."

Did that make William less dangerous or more?  Bryan turned away.  How much of a threat was he?  Who would those voices want him to kill next?

"Hey.  You were the one who was going to shoot me.  And poison me, and tase me.  I'm obviously not the dangerous one," William said.  After a second, he pointed to the air beside him.  The voices had been reading Bryan's thoughts again.

Bryan tried to turn his stray thoughts from Jess to the voices.  "How could you send them with me?  They were there to begin with, weren't they?  They're a bigger system we're both part of, right?"

William stared at him a long moment, then turned, obviously listening to the voices.  Finally, he answered.  "That's a pretty good way to put it.  Maybe I just got them to pay more attention to you for a while?"

"You don't sound too sure," Bryan said.

"Up until a few nights ago, until that night at the diner, I thought I was alone.  I always thought the voices were just my problem," William said.

"The diner where we met?" Bryan asked.

He saw William pause.  There was something he wasn't saying.  He wanted more answers from William about what the voices were, but his friend might not know anything more than he did.  Either way, it wouldn't help keep Jess safe tonight.  He forced his thoughts away from her to Harold.  "If this guy needs to see me to burn me, how did he start the fires all over the building?" Bryan asked.

He waited until William answered.  "Not sure, but I think he knew that building so well he didn't need to see it.  If we're lucky, they're going to a place he doesn't know very well.  That might slow him down."  William was silent a moment.  "You asked if he was like me."

"Yeah.  Is he?" Bryan asked.

"Kind of the opposite, I think.  You understand what the voices are now," William said.

Bryan nodded.  "I think so.  More of an it than a they, right?  One thing that's bigger than you, giving you information."

"Bigger than my consciousness, yeah.  Or yours, or a bunch of people put together.  It's something like the conscious mind, just much bigger.  A consciousness for something more complex than we are," William said.  "You access it one way, right?"

For a moment, Bryan thought back to the old cases he'd worked, the problems he'd solved.  He'd used analogies and models to build on his hunches, to shape the information into something he could understand and work with.  It really was something like what William did.  "Yeah.  Intuition."

William nodded back.  "And I think I interpret it into something familiar; the three voices, like archetypes."

"Jung is much cooler than Freud," Bryan said.

William smiled.  "So what these voices do with me, I think the maintenance man is doing with even smaller things.  He's reaching down and giving directions, maybe letting loose their potential energy."

Bryan waited for William to go on, then noticed him staring at the street.  "They've stopped.  Going into a building.  An old textile factory, by the river.  Part of it's been renovated into an apartment.  That way."  William pointed straight ahead.

"You can see all that?"  The answer he got was a shrug.  Bryan jammed his foot on the gas.

*

(Author’s note:  Are they going to get there in time?  And what kind of a horrid trap are Bryan and William walking into?  What do you think???  Please vote, stay in touch and tell your friends about Schism!  Thanks!)