Meliora - Emanate - 17

[lady_mab]

Lionel Darcy

Lysander's voice adds itself to the list of droning teachers that I haven't really been listening to for the entire day. It's the second to last period, and then the day is over, and then I will be able to go home.

I can't stop thinking about the text from yesterday -- the one that let me know that my program worked, the one that let me know that either Kaito is not doing his job well enough, or that other teams are getting more messages. It has been surprisingly quiet on the ALICE front, and I had to modify the program a bit to see if I might have done something wrong. I coded in a randomizer, so it wouldn't pull every single message coming in. With who knew how many groups participating, there was no way I would want every single message.

But no, the program worked perfectly. It would pull randomly from the messages being sent to the Informants, and send one to me every so often. I received another message yesterday. Still no word from Kaito. 

I stare down at my blank tablet, having not taken a single note this class period.

Liala, who sits a few rows away due to Lysander's ill-guided attempt at trying to make us independent, watches me every so often with concern lining her features. 

There's a brief moment of silence, and then all the students are talking and shuffling around. I glance up, only to find a few female students clustered around Lysander with shy smiles and questions on their lips. Class must have wrapped up before the bell. And then, before I have a chance to register what is happening, someone drops down into the seat in front of me that had been abandoned seconds before.

Zoné grins, slinging one arm onto my desk and settling in. "Hey," he chimes. "So, what do you think about these secretive missions so far?"

I glance around at the other students, but no one pays us any attention. Lia talks to the girl who sits next to her, comparing notes on their tablets. Does no one find it strange that suddenly the twins who don't talk to anyone else are suddenly being surrounded by others?

At least no one will hear our conversation about Meiora -- or if they will, they wouldn't think much of it. That's one bonus of talking to Zoné I suppose. No one will think that he's a part of something so secretive.

"I don't know," I finally reply. "I've only been on one boring trip to the Northern Quarter with Rhys. If you don't count the whole 'meeting the host' thing."

He leans in over my desk and props his chin up on one hand. "Uh-huh. Just one?"

My eyes narrow and I cross my arms over my desk in order to reclaim some of the space he's taking over. "What's with that tone of voice?"

"Well, it's just..." He hesitates, picking his words carefully. "I heard you went on a walk yesterday."

My stomach flips and my heart grounds to a halt. I didn't tell anyone that I went out on an 'unsanctioned mission'. I was late to work, so I made up an excuse that I went for a walk and lost track of time. And while that is true, I thought that was that. I hadn't received any calls, or texts, but I realized later that it was because I had gone so far that I had no reception.

Eastern block - tower 925 is what the message said. I left as soon as I received the message, doing searches on the train to the eastern portion of the city and the bus as I went further and further from the organized ranks of Eminence proper.

The city that used to be London, before the Thames flooded, stretched before me in a haze of October fog. Shapes loomed, indistinct and blurring together.

Zoné waits patiently as I try to summarize a story to feed him, but when only a strangled sound comes out of my mouth, he proceeds with practiced indifference. "I mean, it's kind of weird, right? Your little walk caused you to be, what was it again? Two hours late to work?"

"How do you know that?"

"It's just that your boss called your brother, who called your Informant, who texted Lysander, who texted me--" He ticks the list off on his fingers as he goes.

The frown is automatic. "We're not even friends."

"I know!" He tosses his hands into the air. "Hence my confusion."

I hesitate, putting his words together into a coherent argument. Then realization dawns and I scramble to recall all the people that I passed by yesterday. "It was your mission?"

Zoné grins but doesn't say anything.

"How come I didn't see you?"

"Jun and I have learned to be... a little cautious after the last mission we went on." There's something in his gaze that I can't interpret because I don't know him well enough. "We heard someone faffing about and hid, but then she said that she thought it might have been you. It sort of did look like you from behind. So I guess it was after all."

I glance at Lysander in the front of the classroom. He's facing the board, pointing at the timeline written up there. "Did you tell Lysander?"

"Ah, no. Jun thought we should talk to you about it."

My eyes narrow again. "Why?"

"Well, it's your secret, isn't it?"

I consider this carefully. It is my secret, although I suppose Rain is aware as I used his phone to test the program. And I guess I won't be able to keep it from Rhys and Kaito very long, especially if Lia is made aware of my missing two hours.

Though, considering I haven't heard anything from Rhys after I told him I was fine, then I don't think anyone has told my twin.

"Yes," I say slowly. "It is."

"Good. Glad we agree." He's about turn around and I'm about to get some blissful silence when suddenly another student pulls up a chair from the row beside us and sits backwards on it.

Ayumu, one of Zoné's crew, though I know him a bit better. "Yo, Darcy, I got a question for you."

"Yo, Murata, I'm not an information kiosk." I start to pack up my stuff. The bell should be ringing any moment, and I want to be out of this room as fast as possible. I don't like talking to people.

Ayumu either doesn't care or doesn't get the hint because he pulls out his thin phone in a green and gold case and places it on the desk -- right on top of my tablet as I'm trying to pull it free. "It's about this."

"Your tacky phone case?"

He gives a charming smile that is trained by his roles in the drama club. "No, my Mihari unit."

A frustrated sigh makes its way out of my mouth and I yank my tablet out from under the phone. "I don't use the Pomme. I can't tell you what's wrong with it, other than that's what you get for using a Pomme."

"C'mon man, just hear me out. I'll even get Lia an autographed headshot of my brother."

I freeze, trying to figure out just what those words strung together are supposed to mean. Everyone in our school knows that Ayumu's other brother is a lead actor on a popular daytime drama, but I can’t figure out what that has to do with my sister.

He interprets my silence by replying with, "What? You didn't know she's a Hideki fangirl?"

I didn't. Because she's always interested in more intelligent pursuits than daytime dramas. Because she never talks about it. "Oh."

"Thanks, you're a pal." Ayumu thumps the phone fondly. "Now, about my Mihari unit."

Zoné laughs as I reach for the mobile. "How often do you have to use your brother as bribe material?"

"Quite often. He's got to be good for something, right?"

I try to block out their conversation, but it isn't working. They're both too strident, and everyone else is getting louder as they're watching the clock tick down. I'm flipping through Ayumu's apps and I watch the time on his phone get another minute closer to the bell. Everything on his phone is in Japanese.

Annoyed, I slap my hand on the desk to make them shut up without having to waste words. "I can't concentrate with the two of you jabbering. What the hell is wrong with your phone?"

"It shuts off randomly and it doesn't respond to my commands." His fingers flit over the screen, though it takes him several tries before he can pull up the Mihari program.

"Have you tried taking it to a Pomme store?"

"Why, when I can take it to you?" He grins and hits the mic icon on the screen. "Mihari, what's the weather forecast for this evening?"

It beeps and brings up a picture of an animated storm cloud frowning. A scratchy sound filters out through the speaker, bringing with it a sad violin wail.

"What--"

A finger is thrust into my face to silence me. Then Ayumu turns off the music with a wave of his hand over the screen. "I ask him for the news in Gunma prefecture in Japan where my grandma lives, and he brings up the financial report for France. I ask him to set an alarm so I can make it to a shoot on time, and the flashlight app turns on and drains the battery."

I find my way to the settings, where at least the numbers are a language I can understand. "What the hell did you do to your phone?"

"I just installed a new app, that's all!" He drapes over the back of his chair, defeated. "No one else with the Mihari unit has had these problems, so I've got to figure that is it. I deleted it already but it still doesn't want to work."

I am trying to figure out how to do a factory reset on the phone without asking him to change the language so Zoné asks, "What app?"

"I don't know. Glen asked me to download it, said it was for some game--"

Zoné's on his feet in an instant, knocking his desk aside with a screech of metal on tile. The entire classroom is silent, and Lysander calls out to him.

The bell picks that moment to shriek into our silence.

I remained in my seat, staring up at Zoné. He doesn't say anything, merely caught there in shock.

Ayumu doesn't seem to think anything is wrong with that. "Can you fix it? I really need a reliable phone, and I'd rather not get a new one--"

"It'll take a bit, and in all honesty, you should probably reset it to factory default. But I'll give it a shot." I rise carefully to my feet and sling my bag over my shoulder. "I work in a repair shop in the 22nd north block. Come by tomorrow." I slide the phone into my bag.

"Thanks. I'll bring that headshot for Lia, too."

I flinch, though I don't know if it's the idea that I would have to feed her explain to her just why I have that photo, or if it's because what I'm about to say. "Give it to her yourself."

"Permission to speak to the twin, Captain?" Ayumu asks, sitting ramrod straight and lifting his hand to his brow in a mock salute.

I hate the implication, but it's true. Even if it takes me several seconds to catch my breath for a reply, I force myself to do so.

Lia's head lingers in the doorway for a moment, and I catch her eyes as she leaves for her next class. She doesn't even wait for me, to see what was wrong, to see what I was talking to other people about. It's because she knows that if she doesn't ask me, I'll honor her silence and not ask her.

"I'm not her bodyguard," I say, and move into the crowd. My concentration has been shot all day, thinking about the QR code at the base of the tower yesterday that I didn't scan -- because I didn't know what it would mean for my team to register for a mission that isn't ours.

But now I have this new puzzle in front of me, one that isn't mine to worry about, so I can clear my mind and take a more clinical approach to it.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. A text from an unknown makes me pause. It takes only a glance at the message to figure out it’s from Zoné, though I don’t know how he got my number.

Tell me what you find, it says.

I have a serious debate with myself on if I want to skip my last class or not. After a brief struggle, I don't, because then Lia will get involved. Only if you tell me what you suspect.

His reply comes as I'm entering into my stats class. If I'm right, you'll know. Please. Ayu and Glen are my friends. I'm worried.

I don't know Glen that well -- he's the more silent and reserved out of Zoné's ragtag group. We had Culture and Evolution together last year, but we never even sat on the same side of the class.

What a strange thing, I realize, as I sit down and send my last text before class begins. A month and a half into this game, and already so much has happened that has very little to do with learning anything about this city.

You're not the only one, I tell Zoné.