Clarissa made a not so graceful “Oof!” As Billie shoved her out of the way, the turret tracking the girl as she fell. Her bag, landing just behind her. Slightly dazed, and very confused she turned to Billie and shout “What the [CENSORED]!” Trying to get up, she finally realized she was in trouble when the turret menacingly loaded a round into the chamber.
Stopping, she slowly turned to look at the weapon; the color draining from her fear stricken face.
Slowly looking at Altier, Clarissa deliberately moved slowly; taking her bag in her hand and moving back toward the table. The turret following her movement undeterred by the presence of the others as she passed in front of them.
Bumping into Gracie, she said whispered in a stress filled voice “Get out of the way!”
After gently placing the bag back onto the table, she turned and faced the thing; her hands slowly raised.
After a tense moment of silence, the lights returned to their normal white hue; but the turret remained; its focus on Clarissa tormenting to the girl.
As you all watch this play out, you see two people slowly enter from the stairwell. One you recognize as Cass, a modified semiautomatic pistol in her hand; the other a man carrying a short barreled rifle.
“Easy.” The man says, slowly scanning the room. His voice recognizable as the info broker from the diner.
Cass, slowly returns her pistol to a holster on the small of her back, before raising her hands and slowly walking between everyone in the room; finally stopping in front of Clarissa.
The man, slings his rifle around to his side and says “Disengage Safety Protocols,” before saying a series of words that somehow appease the weapon. After a second to process, the turret rotates on its cradle before returning once again to its position inside the ceiling.
Cass lets out a sigh of relief, before turning to face the group. “Everyone good?” She asks, as she walks over to the table, placing her hand on its surface. With a quick scan of her hand, the table retracts its legs and slides (along with its contents) through the shimmering section of the wall, disappearing from sight.
Watching this, Clarissa begins to protest; but doesn’t get to finish before Cass interrupts her. “You need to shut your mouth!” She retorts, anger evident on her voice. “Do you have any idea what you just did?” She asked, walking toward her as she continued to berate the girl, “That thing was about to end you, and you have the audacity to complain about your stuff?”
Before she can continue, the man gestures to her; getting her to stop, but earning him an angry glare in return.
“I think everyone needs to take a breath, let the adrenaline wear off.” He said, once more moving the rifle into his hands; holding the weapon at a low ready position. “In the meantime, I say we all go downstairs and properly introduce ourselves. I’m sure you all have questions that need answering.”
Cass glared once more at Clarissa, murder in her eyes as she walked to the stairs.
Seeing Oswin, she said “And maybe a safe place to pull yourself together. Come on Tin Man, I’ll get you fixed up.” She continued, gesturing for him to follow her down the stairs.
Something clicked inside Oswin’s head for a moment, like an ethereal buzzing of sorts. He couldn’t figure out what it was, although perhaps it was due to his currently being preoccupied, but for some reason the last word in Clarissa’s excalamtion simply didn’t register.
That’s weird. Interference, maybe? I’ve had that at the college, too, when some of the older students got a bit too drunk. Maybe it’s something that happens when people get angry?
As the turret followed Clarissa’s movements, snapping from one position to the next, Oswin continued holding his detached arm in front of the barrel - badly. Once it even managed to unintentionally juke him.
However, upon the arrival of Cass and the stranger, and more specifically the arrival of their weapons, Oswin got a lot less brave, slowly lowering his arm from the barrel of the turret as his eyes darted between both of their guns. The tension in the air was palpable, even if his nerves were artificial.
Oswin did not get the best look at the man, as the gun he held was far more engaging to his attention. However, as the turret responded to his instructions and disappeared, Oswin’s attached arm made no pretense about holding itself up anymore, and dropped limply, the hand of the arm still in his grip making a clank noise as it collided with the floor. His eyes slowly started drifting towards the floor, as if his soul had been pulled out of his body. That had been a very draining experience.
Oswin barely noticed anything Cass did until her voice suddenly raised, and his weary eyes slowly snapped back into reality, flinching at the display of emotion from the Burgertory waitress. He tried and failed to stop his eyes from stealing multiple unsubtle glances at Billie during the dressing down.
Oswin already didn’t trust her. The recent exchange didn’t help.
His mind readily recalled the earpiece fitted perfectly in his artificial ear. As Cass gestured for him to follow, he could feel himself leaning away from her instinctively. With a worried expression, and against his best possible effort, his eyes turned towards Billie.
She said through gritted teeth, now worried about the situation. Everything was now zero to eleven, and she was on edge.
Her vision swam with overstimulation. She was overwhelmed with new people, Oswin walking off, Clarissa getting yelled at…
She wobbled slightly, feeling a bit nauseous.
Seeing his reaction, Cass sighed. “I’m not mad at you. Promise.” She said, her tone softening as she spoke. “If it’ll make you feel better, I can show Billie where the tools are; maybe she can assist you in getting your arm back on.”
“I think we all do after that.” The man said, looking once more to the dome that hid the turret, a pondering expression on his face as he took his time examining it.
Looking back at Cass, he finally spoke. “This changes nothing by the way. We need to finish our discussion about what happened earlier.”
Cass shot him an annoyed look, before checking her watch. “I already told you, I didn’t do that.” She replied, walking down the stairs and disappearing once she reached the bottom.
He rolled his eyes, and looked back at the group. “Come on, you all can rest; maybe grab a drink while I get this sorted out.” He said, clipping the rifle to his side and he too walked down the stairs.
You all can hear him speaking with Cass as he disappeared at the end of the stairs, his words muffled as he went further away. The volume of which indicating that the stairs went down a couple stories underground; or that there was a large chamber beneath the room you all were currently occupying. Ultimately, there is only one way to find out …
Unexpected to Billie, the turret was responding to Clarissa’s change of position all too quickly and accurately, which meant that her shoving the girl didn’t have nearly as much of an effect on it as she anticipated, and she’d barely have any time to act before it was too late.
Hearing the weapon click, signifying that it has been loaded, Billie, having run out of all other options, almost instinctively prepared to jump in front of the girl in a desperate attempt to shield her from the bullets.
She took a stance, preparing to move in front of Clarissa, and would have done so, had Altier’s sudden words not stopped her.
The clarity with which he spoke made her reconsider her choice. She hadn’t yet consciously made the connection that what made the turret activate and point at the girl was her taking her bag off the table, but Altier’s words made this connection quite obvious.
Billie looked over at the bag which had fallen out of Clarissa’s hand when she fell. Maybe it leaving her hand was the only thing that prevented her being shot?
She froze in place and watched the girl slowly and carefully pick up the bag and place it back on the table, as per the man’s command, after managing to move past Gracie, who seemed to be too shocked at the moment to be able to do anything useful.
This move seemingly both made and didn’t make things better at the same time. As soon as the bag was back on the table, the lights turned back from ominous red to unnatural, arificial white, however the turret remained in its place, relentlessly monitoring the girl’s every move. Needless to say, the situation wasn’t looking much better, so Billie began to consider other options for how it could be improved.
Nothing apart from rushing the turret and attempting to break it came to mind.
Seeing two people with guns in their hands enter the room before she could make any moves, Billie had only one thought: it’s definitely a trap.
Her paranoia reaching its peak once again, seeing how desperate things started to get, Billie felt that she had no other choice. She took a wider stance and something snapped in her brain, causing pain in her lower arms to suddenly increase and begin spreading all over her body, signifying that her tissues were getting primed for some sudden and rapid changes while her heart rate increased rapidly, speeding up her blood flow. No physical alterations in her appearance could be observed yet, apart from all her muscles suddenly becoming tense at the same time and the look in her eyes changing from that of apathy to a much sharper, more concentrated one, however if the process wasn’t stopped, those were soon to follow.
However, noticing one of the newcomers, who appeared to be Cass from the diner, put away her gun and approached Clarissa with her hands raised, while the other individual appeared to be deactivating the turret, ending the kid’s futile attempts to cover it up, Billie suddenly snapped out of it, realizing that there was no immediate threat and her body returned to normal before it had a change to begin to change, causing Billie to wobble in place slightly, having briefly lost balance from the sudden release of tension in all of her muscles at once.
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, switching her center of balance from one leg to the other, trying to calm down and normalize her heart rate, which had been going crazy ever since the pair had entered the room. This was a close call, the closest she’s had in a very long time.
Once Billie managed to sufficiently clam down and process everything that had just happened, she started to get extremely angry. Not only at Clarissa for being such an idiot and endangering everyone in the room for no reason, but also at herself for even entertaining the possibility of risking her life for the sake of this absolute moron. This was absolutely not how she would like to go out.
As the girl was receiving a very much deserved verbal beat down from Cass, Billie stared at her intensely, all of her strong emotions on the matter written clearly across her face. She didn’t notice Oswin sending a series of glances at her, in that fury-filled moment, he, or the rest of the world, didn’t exist to her, her sole focus being Clarissa’s face.
When Cass’s speech was interrupted by the man who seemed to be trying to deescalate the situation, Billie used that opportunity to add a couple words of her own.
Tearing her eyes away from the girl as she still stood not far from her, she said quietly, gritting her teeth with an undisguised fury and frustration in her voice: “You could have gotten us killed, you know…”
At least they don’t want us dead, based on the waitress’s reaction… it’s just this girl…
Billie suddenly noticed that the table with all the weapons was now gone. She didn’t see when it disappeared, last time she’d looked in that direction, it had still been there, but know it was no more. She didn’t know if she’d see her knife ever again. What a waste…
Billie still couldn’t relax, given how the man was still holding his rifle in a semi-ready position. And she still didn’t have any reason to trust him or Cass. However, she figured that the group’s only choice at the moment was to follow him down those stairs.
Noticing that Oswin was looking at her worriedly, Billie lifted up her glasses and wiped her eyes in frustration. She really didn’t want to deal with him at the moment.
What’s he looking at me like that for? Aren’t there more reliable people in the room? Like Alt or something…
And it’s not like Clarissa was the only person she was mad at. The kid was the one who instigated this whole thing. If not for him, none of this would have happened…
Billie opened her mouth to object, visibly outraged at the proposition, but quickly realised that she was too tired and emotionally drained by the previous events to argue. As her strong emotions from earlier left her, she gradually turned back to her usual tired, awkward, apathetic self. She didn’t care anymore…
Seeing the man and Cass depart, she waited a moment and walked towards the stairs with a sigh, still a little wobbly from her earlier almost-outburst.
Did the man say there are drinks?.. How nice of him…
Clarissa stood there, tears in her eyes as she quietly seethed at the situation. Anger and embarrassment clearly evident on her face. Glaring at Billie, she forced herself to mutter a quiet “I’m sorry.” Before taking off her glasses and wiping the tears from her eyes. Once finished, she took a deep breath; readying herself for another tongue lashing before walking toward the stairs.
As she passed by Altier and Gracie, she apologized once more. Her voice strained as she tried to hold back tears.
She did the same for Oswin as she stopped at the top of the stairs. Looking cautiously down the stairs, she sniffed and wiped her eyes once more before descending into the unknown.
As Cass descended the stairs, followed shortly by the info broker, his gaze remained on the stairwell, unsure what was supposed to happen next. Billie had moved in his peripheral vision, but not enough to justify his immediately looking at her again. Unfortunately for him, when she spoke, it became clear things weren’t exactly about to improve.
Oswin’s head snapped towards Billie with no subtlety or hesitation. She was mad, and more than Oswin would have thought possible, her voice burning like molten metal. Her words were directed at Clarissa, but they felt like they were aimed at him, and they stung as they burned a great big hole in his chest.
As Billie approached the stairs, Oswin backpedaled as much as the wall would allow to get out of her way. It was difficult to look to Billie for comfort and support in a situation where Billie was also the cause of said discomfort, and now with her departing down the stairs this group of supposed friends felt very much like the cold room with untrustworthy strangers that it was.
Oswin barely registered her existence as she spoke to him. There was the vague sensation that she walked by, that something came out of her mouth, and she entered his vision as she descended the stairwell after Billie, but his eyes were too focused on the void the muscular girl had once occupied. Where was he going to go? What was he going to do?
Maybe Gracie descended after the pair. Maybe Altier left before she did. He couldn’t tell. All he saw was Clarissa with her brains splattered across the floor. Because… Because he couldn’t save her.
When the lights changed, Altier’s shoulders dropped and he let out what was more of a yawn than a sigh. Relief was short lived when the other two came up from the stairs. Still in his spot, all he did was look in their direction.
So much for trust, Altier thought. Normally, if you were requested to disarm for a meeting, it was mutual. A safe talking ground, no toys for anyone. Seems they didn’t play by those rules. In that case, why hire any of them?
This thought was followed by another potential revelation. If Cass and the broker had a need for firearms when checking on them, it means the earpieces could not disable them. For something that could upload images directly into their minds, knowing it couldn’t explode their heads, or worse, was a comfort. An odd one as he didn’t consider that before, but with the funding this operation seemed to have…
“How’d you get one of those pups? Salvage auction?”
Altier asked as Cass made the table vanish. He figured they would get it back but was now glad he kept his phone. As a precaution, he moved a hand to rest on the sides of on his pockets with a ■■■■■ of his weight. And then squeezed it, pressing the power button to turn it off.
To the status question Altier answers, “Just dandy.”
He didn’t have anything to say to Clarissa that wasn’t being said by the others. She was an idiot. A should be dead idiot. And the only one at that if, a big if, some of the others didn’t seem to have a death wish. Except for seemingly - by means beyond understanding - Gracie.
Altier takes off his shades and taps Gracie twice on the shoulder with them. Should she turn towards him, he’ll hold out the sunglasses for her to take them.
“Might help. Usually worked when my siblings couldn’t stand,” Altier explained with a shrug. “Unless you want to slide down the stairs.”
Though seeing Billie walk down was also not fully stable, he adds under his breath that he doesn’t have enough shades to go around.
Altier said nothing and just watched. Without the shades, his face was much easier to read. He didn’t buy her apology for a moment and seem more confused than anything. The sort of upset bewilderment that parents sometimes give to young kids.
Whether Gracie takes the glasses or not, Altier will head down the stairs. He swings an arm forward in a, “come on” motion to the others remaining as he descends.
The stairs go down one flight before turning 90° to the right, leading to an open airlock style door that remains open to allow you access. Once through, you find yourself on a solid concrete platform that is 40’ wide by 20’ deep (12 meters by 6 meters), on the ceiling you notice four more domes flanking both sides of the door. The east side of the platform has lockers along the south wall. There are modern looking stainless steel railings along the edge of the platform and more stairs leading down another flight into an open bunker like facility.
Down the stairs, you notice what looks like living quarters on the west side of the room, with an open concept common area separating a large fully equipped kitchen. Beyond that to the north there are numerous vehicles (west toward an inclined ramp the circles to the south). There is a large section to the north past the common area with a slightly raised floor surrounded by computer workstations with large monitors against the wall. There are some more rooms and work areas as well, but their function is unknown from your location on the platform.
Near the workstations you can see the same wooden table from earlier, your items appear to be present on the table from your current vantage point.
Description Over:
———————————//-——————————
As you enter into the room, you can see the Info Broker following Cass to the common area, where a group of people wearing normal clothing have gathered. As Cass approaches them, you can hear her tell them to get their things and prepare to leave. She then goes over to one of the work stations on the north side of the room.
Stopping for a moment, the Broker hands his rifle to one of the members of the group before meeting up with Cass at the workstation.
“If you didn’t do it, then what happened?” He asked as he walked past her and started working on the computer.
“I have no idea John.” She said, walking around to meet him. “Look, even my AAR showed I planted the device on the power pole, not a gas line.”
After a second, you watch as one of the larger screens displays an image of the power lines near Burgertory. Turning to face it, Cass walks over and points toward the screen. “You can see it attached to the transformer.”
“Then what happened?” The man asks, frustration evident in his tone; “something caused that gas main to rupture, and there is no indication of a power outage in the area.” He said
“I have no idea. But I didn’t do that.” She protested, “The risk of accidentally injuring or even killing someone was too great to consider that as a distraction.”
Their conversation continues for a moment, allowing you all to arrive in the area, the wooden table from earlier next to the broker’s workstation; with all your items arranged and tagged as they were before the incident.
Gracie sighed, sitting down. This…this was a lot to process. There just were a bunch of guns pointed at people, screaming…and crying, and WHY IS OSWIN’S ARM STILL NOT ATTACHED?!
WE BLEW UP A BUILDING!! WHY? Oh, and now Cass is here. I guess that’s nice.
“…it’s…it’s nothing. I…it’s nothing.”
In reality, her brain was thinking about all of this at a snail’s pace, her thoughts flattened into gelatin. She took a shaky breath, rubbing her eyes. She slightly flinched at the cold metal of her left hand. She’d never get used to the feeling, not even after an eternity.
“Heh…yeah…” She sighed. She was cursing herself a thousand-fold for being such an unhelpful idiot.
“Uhhh…thanks.”
She just eyed the glasses absentmindedly, before hooking them onto a stray band on her leg.
Her eyes flicked over to the group as they were descending. Crap.
She pressed herself up, grunting slightly, and walked down herself.
“Uuuhhhhhh…are we interupting something-”
She bumped into Altier.
“Sorry.”
Oswin slowly turned his head to look at the rest of the room. Gracie, Billie, and Altier had all descended, along with Cass and the mysterious fellow who had spoken to them at the diner. Even the mechanical gun which had descended from its black sphere was now gone as well.
He was alone.
Moving towards the stairs, his hand stopped just shy of touching the rail. There was an uncertainty to being alone, a draw that was difficult to get away from. It kept pulling at his head until he finally relented and looked back, seeing Clarissa lying on the floor with her head splattered.
It wasn’t the idea that he had somehow failed to keep up a virtuous standard by placing Clarissa in danger, as he was hardly self-sacrificial for a random girl he met two minutes ago and didn’t like. Rather, it was the notion that, perhaps because of his failure to protect her, or at least act with any common sense, he was now alone.
And, being something of a guilt addict, he quickly came to the conclusion that he deserved it.
Oswin meandered for a moment, unsure where to go or what to do. He really needed to go downstairs, to face whatever people had to say to him when he arrived… But he wanted to feel miserable. He wanted to rather selfishly crumple in on himself and regret ever having been brought back to life. And, with no one around to stop him, the latter option won handily.
Sinking into whichever corner happened to be closest to where he meandered to, Oswin slowly slid down the wall, drawing his knees towards his chest until he ha reduced his frame as much as he could. Resting his cheeks on his knees, he let go of his detached arm and wrapped his other arm around his legs, his eyes still locked on the image of Clarissa’s corpse he had in his mind.
Altier gives a flustered, “You’re supposed to-- forget it.”
Altier is surprised to see their stuff brought down to this floor. Again, this seemed to make little sense to him in terms of how this should work. Then again, these folk weren’t exactly government. Unless the Feds were taking ship modules and installing them in storefront basements.
Wait, is that what the modern gangsters do?
That random thought is busted when Gracie walks into him. He looks at her with half-shut eyes, a sort of light annoyance. The white puss in the corners spread out to cover a quarter of each eye before retracting. With them, it’s harder to read and it just seems he turns to acknowledge Gracie’s action.
“At least you didn’t throw up. Grabs a seat somewhere,” Altier says as he heads for the kitchen area. “Let me know if you want anything.”
If Billie isn’t already heading for that area herself, he says it loud enough to indicate he’ll collect drinks and/or snacks for them. He keeps an ear out on the conversation going on as he looks through cupboards and any fridges. Though this initially distracts him enough to not notice that Oswin has not followed.
Cass looks up from the screen and replies to Gracie, “No, you’re good.” Before looking to the info broker and giving him a questioning look.
He pinches the bridge of his nose then agrees. “Nothing else we can do right now. I’ll have Churchill look into it.” Standing up from the chair, he starts to walk over to the wooden table, placing his hand on its surface; the action deactivating the the tags and safety brackets next to the items on its surface.
Cass walks over to the common area and opens a refrigerator, “It’s Altier right?” She asks, taking a Lazarus bar from the fridge and a bottle of water. “Help yourselves, John won’t care.”
Walking to one of the couches, the info broker (John) takes a seat, picking up a tablet that was laying on the arm rest. “No, feel free to take what you want.” He looks up at Gracie and Clarissa for a second before glancing at Altier, “Just make sure those under 21 don’t get into the alcohol.”
Cass walks over to John, reaching into her pocket and handing him a small black device similar in dimensions to a credit card. Seeing the device in her hand, he nods and starts typing on the tablet.
“Sorry about that,” he said. After a second, a small display on the “card” lights up getting her attention. She looks at it and nods. “That’ll do.” She says, before pocketing the device.
Looking to Billie, Altier and Gracie; John asks “do you all have digital wallets?”
Clarissa’s emotional response didn’t seem to soften Billie’s heart all that much or at all. She knew about one’s actions leading to someone getting hurt all too personally, so she didn’t have much sympathy for the girl. However, she decided not to say anything else to her and was the first to leave the room, descending into the unknown.
As Billie went down the stairs, she gradually returned to normal, each of her steps becoming more and more sound. When she was halfway down, the wobble that had been present in her walk just moments earlier, was completely gone as her body returned to its normal functioning state… well, the most normal that could be achieved for someone who was taking pills non-stop in unreasonable quantities and was known for excessive drinking.
Billie expected to see many things at the bottom of the stairs, but a seemingly massive fully fledged base of operations complete with a kitchen, living quarters and a car park wasn’t one of them.
As she cautiously walked through the space, she wondered how such a structure could fit under a simple electronics store and how its existence was seemingly kept a secret from the entire outside world. Doesn’t it like, mess with the plumbing or something?
The ever-present look of apathy mixed with anxiety on Billie’s face didn’t disappear for a second even after this unexpected revelation. The only thing that stood out to her in a meaningful way was the table with the group’s equipment, which somehow, for some inexplicable reason, ended up down here. Not only did Billie have no concept of the kind of technology that could achieve this, finding it impossible to explain, but she also found the decision to move the table here an utterly bizarre one. If they made us give up our weapons to isolate us from them, then why move them to a place where they are easily accessible?
As Billie passed by, holding herself a fair distance away from the pair or any other people in the room, not sure where to put herself, she overheard a part of their conversation.
For someone who didn’t mean to explode that building, she sure looked very unbothered when the explosion happened… Hearing Cass’s confession didn’t make Billie trust her any bit more. On the contrary, it only made the woman more suspicious in her mind… at least her boss seemed to be genuinely upset with her move, which made him a little more trustworthy.
Hearing Altier speak not far from her snapped Billie out of trying to listen to the conversation between Cass and the broker. She had actually been meaning to have a word with him ever since she’d seen that thing in the store. Despite her fear of all human interaction, she couldn’t keep it to herself, as the fear that the thing instilled in her was stronger. The kid was, well, a kid, freak wasn’t much better, Clarissa seemingly couldn’t be trusted with anything, while Altier seemed to be the only sensible person in the group, as far as Billie could tell. In this group, he was the closest thing to a person she could trust, which, while not much, was better than nothing. She felt like if she were to tell someone about what she’d seen up there, he would be the one.
Altier going to the kitchen area seemed like the perfect opportunity to talk to him one on one, without anyone eavesdropping on what she was going to tell and show him. Billie took several steps to follow him, but stopped as soon as she noticed that Cass finished talking to the stranger and was approaching the kitchen as well. This woman was definitely not someone she could trust with a conversation like this. It was too late. Billie turned away with a defeated face and stayed standing quietly in the corner of the common area, trying to blend in with the background.
Even the broker taking a seat didn’t make Billie reconsider her standing position. How could she relax in a situation like this? She didn’t get a chance to talk to Altier, but at least there was a chance that she was getting a drink from him…
Billie threw a confused glance at the broker and answered quietly: “N- no?” in such a tone as if her not having a digital wallet should have been obvious. Her phone was say too old to accommodate one, however the man couldn’t have any way of knowing that. Did her overall appearance not make it obvious enough?
Seeing Gracie depart up the stairs, Billie only now realized that the kid was nowhere to be found. Her mind had been occupied with too many other things to notice his absence.
Clarissa reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small aluminum card holder. Removing her digital wallet from the holder, she walks over to the broker.
“I have one.” She says, handing it to the man.
He takes it from her and looks at it for a moment, his facial expression hard to read. Then looking back at her, he returns the card.
“Good for you, but I didn’t ask for your card.” He replies with a level of sternness that made the girl flinch in surprise.
“I just assumed that …” she started before he interrupted her, “You assumed a lot today haven’t you.” He said.
Clarissa stood there, unsure what to do. The info broker was being standoffish; and after receiving a butt chewing from Cass, Billie’s angry retort from earlier and a cold shoulder from everyone else … she just stood there; her face downcast as the man continued.
“You know, at first I was impressed with your ability to break through our firewalls and insert yourself into my conversation with everyone at the diner. That was until my tech told me that your actions caused more harm than good.”
Hearing Billie’s quiet reply, he acknowledged her with a nod. “No worries, we can get you setup with one.” He replied, before looking back to Clarissa once more.
“We’re going to have to since someone severed our secure connection to your accounts.”
Clarissa looked at the man, staring daggers at him through tear filled eyes.
”I didn’t mean to …”
He held up a hand and cut her off. “I know you didn’t mean to, but you did.” Her tears having no affect on him. “Which is why you’re going to be working with my tech, you get to help undo what you’ve done. In the meantime, don’t expect to get paid, especially since you didn’t actually help the group in getting the files.”
“Wait, you’re actually going to let her stay?” Cass asks, confusion in her voice. The broker looks at her and slightly nods. “Bynari thinks she has potential. He was just as impressed with her ability to break through our security as I was.”
Then looking back at Clarissa, “Honestly, I still am impressed.” He said, leaning forward and placing his tablet on the coffee table. The table reacts to the tablets presence, a razor thin blue light bracketing the device for a moment; before a slight shimmer appears next to the device.
As you watch, the shimmering section of the table builds upon itself, a formless shape continues to rise from that section until after a minute it solidifies, a small device now sitting on the table’s surface.
After another moment, the new device pops out a digital wallet. The Broker takes it from the “printer” and offers it to Billie.
(If she takes it, he picks up the tablet once more. If she doesn’t take the digital wallet, he lays the card on the table, and picks up his tablet once more)
Cass, seemingly unbothered by what just happened, shakes her head. “I don’t agree with Bynari on this one. But I don’t really have a say in the matter.”
“No, you don’t.” The broker replies, “Are you and the team ready to go?” He asks.
Cass nods. “Yes sir.” Annoyance evident in her tone. “We’ll head out now.”
“Okay, keep me apprised.” He replies, his attention once again returning to the group. Cass wishes you all “God speed” before looking back at Clarissa; “Don’t break anymore stuff kid.” She says, giving her a disdainful look as she starts to walk away. Stopping she looks around once more before asking, “Where’s Oswin?”
While going through the potential options, the broker mentions not to get alcohol for the younger members. Which, once again, brought up the question of why some of them were picked.
“And why did you hire children? Actual kids for at least one.” Altier asked at a loud volume.
He didn’t want to turn around, so most of his voice was into the fridge. If it was a smart fridge, it probably didn’t appreciate the nonsensical question. He grabs a couple of fruit flavored energy drinks and a ginger ale. When he turned around and found that Billie was hanging out rather than heading straight for the fridge, he paused. Then added whatever he considered to be a decent brand of beer for Billie to his arm pile.
“Not for awhile now,” Altier answers as he comes to the common area.
He watches Gracie head back up stairs and then notices the boy isn’t among them. Altier puts most of the drinks down on a nearby table and considers tossing the beer to Billie. But given her current state, he hands it off to her instead. Then he takes a seat on any open chair rather than the couch. Cracks open the ginger ale with a fizzing pop and takes a drink while the conversation flows.
As it does so, Altier thinks over what they are learning so far. Someone else might have exploded the gas lines. Probably the spook. Would explain why she was keeping on eye on the diner’s line. In which case, when would she have blown them up? Unless she was also after the files, not trying to stop them. Blow up the diner once they left with them, get them in the panic? Too much to really speculate.
Evidently, the idiot girl hacked her way into the group. And only to a partial surprise, she was being shown grace. A kind Altier was familiar with but did not feel it worth extend to Clarissa right now. Like data from horrific experiments, code-crackers are too useful to fully punish and remove. But how did she learn of this operation to even attempt such an act?
“Gracie went to check on him,” Altier answers as nonchalant as he could manage.
Of course, his eyes were mostly locked on John as saying so. The man, or at least whoever they worked for, had a lot to answer.
Billie had been wondering the same thing herself ever since she came to the diner, so she looked over at the broker with a questioning expression when Altier made his inquiry.
Beyond the illegality of employing a child in an operation of this kind, it didn’t make sense why they’d hire people so immature and inexperienced, who, at least in Billie’s mind, wouldn’t be able to contribute to the operation in any meaningful way. The actions of one of them already almost led to them getting killed and the other was actively undermining the operation and seemingly managed to get lost somehow.
Billie listened to the conversation between Clarissa and the broker. It explained some of the weird things that had happened during their first conversation at the diner, however the notion that the girl was seemingly able to insert herself into the group without the organizer’s permission was a very concerning one and led to Billie trusting her even less. Combined with the commotion from earlier, it started to seem like Clarissa was actively trying to sabotage this mission for whatever reason.
Billie accepts the beer with a quick nod as a means of gratitude and immediately opens it, taking a few consecutive sips. This time, instead of drowning the whole bottle in one go, she decides to stretch out the experience a little more, realizing that she might be stuck here for quite a while.
Billie cautiously takes the small device from the broker’s hand and looks at it with confusion as if she’d never seen anything like this before. She sent a glance at the broker, hoping that he would provide some kind of explanation. She didn’t really know what she was supposed to do with it, so not seeing any other options, she kept it clenched in her hand as she held the beer in the other. Is it like… a credit card or something?
Hearing that Altier didn’t have a “digital wallet” either, she threw a desperate look at him, hoping to see what he’d do with it after he received his from the broker.
Seeing how Cass was about to depart, Billie braced herself. There were answers that she needed to get out of the broker, and the woman’s presence made Billie too uncomfortable to attempt to ask any questions. She still didn’t buy that Cass didn’t intend to cause that explosion, and her feat of strength back in the diner unnerved her, so Billie would prefer if she wasn’t around for this conversation in case things were to go bad.
However, Billie’s composure was completely thrown out the window as soon as she heard Cass mention the name Oswin. She jolted and barely managed to hold onto her beer, almost dropping the bottle to the ground. Suddenly, her heart rate increased drastically and her knees buckled, causing her to sit down in the nearest chair. Hearing that name for the first time since that night instantly transported her back to that horrific moment and its aftermath, filling Billie’s heart with guilt. She stared blankly directly in front of her as thoughts rushed through her mind.
That kid looks similar to Oswin, but it can’t be him. Oswin is dead. There’s absolutely no way. She can’t be referring to that kid. She’s just talking about someone else named Oswin. There were other people in here, maybe it’s one of them? She wants to find him because she’s being sent on a mission… It’s just a coincidence, there are many other people who have that name… Why am I freaking out?!
Billie tried to compose herself as best as possible, chalking it up to her paranoia. She sent anxious glances all around the common area, praying that nobody noticed her episode, or at least didn’t pay attention to it.
She sent a bewildered glance at Altier. Why is he so sure that she’s talking about the kid? Nobody here knows his name, he didn’t put anything on the table. He could be called anything…
It can’t be him.
Billie looked over at the broker and Cass.
“Who’s Oswin?” she asked quietly, but then immediately regretted it. She was too scared to find out the answer. It would be better if she never found out the identity of this Oswin, if it meant that it excluded the possibility of her ever finding out that it was the kid.
Gracie’s eyes widened as she reached the top of the stairs, and saw Oswin…just…sitting there. She nearly went into a bit of a mini-panic just looking at him. Her composure was shot, riddled with enough holes that not even a desperate man would use it as a raft.
Crap. Crap. Uhhhh…how do you even help? I DON’T KNOW!!!
She pulled out the sunglasses and put them on, sighing.
She sat next to him, the metal bits and tools clinking as she did so.
She felt a pang of empathy shoot her heart to bloody pieces as he curled up.
I…I guess I could…
Gracie pursed her lips, before she was about to speak, before hesitating, and stopping, then blurting out:
“H-hey…is…is something bothering you?”
She said softly, looking at him for a moment, blowing some hair out of her face. She noticed his arm wasn’t attached still, and promptly looked away.
Oswin’s heart skipped as someone appeared out of the shadow of the stairs, and in his mind he assumed for an instant that it was Billie. However, as the bright colors of Gracie became apparent, his gaze fell back towards the floor in disappointment.
Oswin felt himself instinctively leaning away from Gracie as she sat next to him. Did she not see the brutalized skull cavity of Clarissa lying on the floor? Did she not see the smoking hole in his disconnected arm, or feel the obvious guilt at his failure to defend her?
It wasn’t some noble quest he had attempted in order to save her life. It was a shallow coveting of attention and closeness that the had been unintentionally conditioned towards, and its not being reciprocated was especially hard on him. In his defense, however, he was thirteen, and had been thirteen for the past few years.
A very brief glance towards Gracie confirmed she was now wearing the sunglasses offered to her by Altier, and it definitely did not help her connect with him by obscuring her eyes. He turned his head away from her, too picky to accept the admittedly quite impersonal attempt at consoling him.