Stricken By Entropy

By Ryan Viergutz

Chaos mage Tatsuro Calesani took a job to steal important blueprints and chemicals. The executive Narita Lakishu knows where to find them.

When his plans to encounter Lakishu in controlled conditions collapse, he's forced to improvise with the help of the mysterious mercenary Aila Watami. A young girl by the name of Tenariat, subject of a twisted experiment, will assist him when she learns about her new skills.

Neither Tatsuro nor Ms. Lakishu saw the result of this mission ahead of time. It will take them by surprise and carry repercussions for years.

Stricken By Entropy is a 29,000 word novella, the first in a planned trilogy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ryan Viergutz
• Release date: Jan 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465944313

Ryan Viergutz

I'm a freelancer, writer, roleplayer and gamer. I don't want to live in the same place any longer than a year for a very long time and I am always yearning for adventure. The first two overlap often enough that they're almost the same thing, though they aren't by anyone's measure. Regardless of the state I'm in, I am always roleplaying and I allow myself to indulge in gaming, usually of a video game variety, sometimes. At any given time I will have a scifi or fantasy book in my hands or in my travel bag.

Book preview

Stricken By Entropy

Ryan Viergutz

Copyright 2011 Ryan Viergutz

Published by Ryan Viergutz at Smashwords

Cover by Ryan Fitzgerald

This work is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of

fiction. All characters and situations depicted in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to

real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Emily, Mom and Dad, because they make life worth living. Somehow or another, working together, I managed to achieve the bare bones of my two biggest dreams in one year. Now I have a lot of planning and work to do. This is only the beginning.

Chapter 1

When he put his ear to the conference room's door, Tatsuro heard the steel girders in the skyscraper's frame groan under the pressure of the thousands of people walking inside its hallways. As troubled as the managers sounded about the arrival of the executive later that day and the tough bargaining to follow over the next week, Tatsuro kept his attention attuned to the shifting structure of the tower. He had to keep alerted to it. His mission, and his magic, relied on the precision of timed events.

He stood straight again and wheeled his bin of letters and packages along in the hallway while people walked by and brushed his shoulders. They had come to know him in the past few days, a temporary deliveryman, and found him an entertaining figure by his mere presence. Tatsuro kept his head down and his shoulders forward and held another envelope in two of his fingers.

The edge sealed with glue could open a lock, draw blood from someone's skin or segment circuits too hot to touch with his fingers. He laughed at the thought, gauged the breeze from a woman's skinny arm beneath her white blouse, and the degree of the box ten feet away, and flicked it out of his hand.

Tatsuro watched it idly, ready to roll the bin on. Like he had predicted between two heartbeats, the envelope arched toward the ceiling, slammed against the wall, bounced off the border of the window in the nearby office, and sailed down smoothly into the box. Without bothering to check who had seen, Tatsuro took the second one out and walked it over.

The woman turned to look at him, her dark brows furrowed with curiosity. What did you just do?

Tatsuro smiled. It was a coincidence, kind lady. That's all it was.

You've done that before, the woman said. No one could throw an envelope into a box ten feet away so easily.

Are you accusing me of trickery? Tatsuro said. I'm just a lowly mailman beneath your notice. He gestured at the bin. I should get back to my work. My apologies if I disturbed you.

The woman tossed her head and her black hair went with it. No, it's not that. I just thought it was really odd. You do it so often.

I'm just good, Tatsuro said. You could do it yourself, if you practice. He nodded to her. Have a good day, ma'am.

The woman looked about to laugh but turned around before she could burst out. Tatsuro hoped she would have a better day. His looked to be filled with danger and excitement, but it hadn't started off on the right foot. The envelope should have hit the plant's leaves and stems, but they had missed. Before that, on his first attempt, the envelope had missed the path altogether and sailed straight in.

That could be a problem. He had prepared for this day throughout the week, gathering the chances and coincidences inside the skyscraper to his command. When he told an object to function or move, it should, and if he affected the route a person took, they should follow it. He had limits on how much he could change and instruct, but he had taken three days to lengthen them.

If, at the culmination of that, Tatsuro's abilities as a chaos mage had lessened or weakened, it could put the mission in jeopardy. If another mage had interfered with his grid and put their spin on the situation, it could fly out of control and bring him with it. This was supposed to be simple, in and out, take her papers and go. Who else would care about it? What did they involve?

Tatsuro finished the rest of the letters in a few minutes and rushed toward the closest elevator. He had to shove his way inside a group of office workers in suits and dresses. While one of the men pressed the button to go a floor down, Tatsuro watched the women through the corner of his eyes. He thrust his foot into her path so that she had to bend down and he got a decent glance at her cleavage.

She noticed. Her dark eyes glowered at him. Tatsuro aimed his eyes at the door, looking straight ahead, and tried to act nonchalant.

I saw that, the woman whispered. I know you.

Sure you do, Tatsuro said.

You're the temp, the woman said.

Tatsuro shrugged. Sure. What does it matter to you?

The woman leveled a finger at him. Harassment.

Tatsuro raised his eyebrows and looked at her. I didn't do anything.

The woman tightened her collar and buttoned up her jacket. Tatsuro looked sad and regained his composure as quickly. She walked onto the next floor with her briefcase at her side. The elevator went down again, and just as fast, got stuck and rumbled. It did this all the time, while the skyscraper changed its internal structure. Tatsuro winced, in his disguise as a temp worker.

It's nothing, said a man beside him. The Arscribe's thinking. That's what makes it so good to work here. It's never the same.

The elevator dinged. The doors slipped aside. Tatsuro stepped out, with the other people behind him. People exchanged from inside and out. Tatsuro followed the other people into the hallway toward the offices but instantly something felt wrong. The voices were hushed, the business quiet, people down at their desks and few of them walking around. Vibrations in the floor coursed up to his stomach and he rushed toward a window, delivering envelopes on his path.

On his first sweep, he didn't see anything out of the usual, the skyscrapers of the business district, the cars on the roads beneath him, the radio antennae and the logos. The city of Chicaygo moved while he watched it, thriving on the crossroads. Then, on the horizon and coming closer, he saw the source of the terror on the fortieth floor. Three television helicopters crawled too close to the window. He saw gunmen inside it who rappelled down on ropes of different lengths.

Tatsuro thrived on coincidence. He didn't doubt for a second he saw reality, but no one would believe him. He wheeled his bin back into the hallway and tried to calm his shaking hands. He gave them a minute before one of them would charge through the window and attack. Tatsuro scaled down the speed of his next deliveries and kept an eye out on the window. The seconds ticked down, one by one, and he began to wonder if he was in fact hallucinating.

It wouldn't have been a new experience, after all. He had seen things that didn't exist before. By the time he had hunched his shoulders and turned into the closest hallway, he heard glass shatter and heavy boots land on the floor. Tatsuro pushed himself to the wall, breathing hard, and listened. A few people gasped and shouted in surprise at the intruder. Before they could speak he already said his piece.

Please go about your business, the intruder said. You have nothing to fear.

He's got a gun! shrieked a woman.

Tatsuro pulled two pistols from beneath the packages and envelopes in the bin and thumbed the hammers back. He had them loaded already.

What do you want? shouted a man.

If any of them had accompanied Tatsuro on the elevator, he didn't recognize their voices.

I'm to provide security in your hour of need, the intruder said. You have a known terrorist inside your building. I, and my team, are here to eliminate him. The intruder's boots echoed as he walked further inside the hallway. If Tatsuro intended to stop him, he had to do it soon. Go about your business.

Tatsuro looked inside the hallway and considered the environment