Chapter 370: Let Them Fester

The walls of my room back at the resort flicker into view before any speakers get too close. I crack my neck and grimace at all the errant thoughts swarming about like a cloud of gnats, like for example; who the hell was that doll actually? If she didn’t know what happened to Taylor, then who does? Why did the Preservation choose now of all moments to send in the cavalry?

I shake my head and sigh as Pearl seeps out of my ear and forms on my shoulder. Slosh joins her for a second, then switches to my other shoulder for some reason.

“I am very confused,” Slosh begins.

…And doesn’t continue. I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes to try and focus my thoughts. Doesn’t do much at all. The Preservation’s in panic mode now, more than an hour after the thing they should be panicking about, and it obviously doesn’t have to do with them interrogating Lizzie. Call would’ve said something about it.

“Something stirred them up, and it wasn’t either of the two disasters that happened to them,” Pearl says, vocalizing my exact thoughts. “What the heck did we miss? Did someone die up on the floating island?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Aside from the four missing kids?”

Pearl nods. “Unfortunately, yes. That doll-speaker would’ve sounded the alarm the second she found out they were missing, and if all the action that was coming to the hangar was from that, she would’ve come down with them.”

“At least that’s what you’re assuming. You’re probably right, but we have to make sure somehow,” I mutter and walk over to the door, pull it open, and step into the empty hall. “Unfortunately for us, that means waiting on Call. Fleur, can you hear me? How’re things going with Ebb?”

My brooch crackles to life under my shirt. “She, along with the rest of the high-ranking Stonestep Solutions members, were in the middle of setting a time for the meeting. Something came up, though, and that cut the contact abruptly short. We’re still theorizing if there was an actual disaster or if that was simply an excuse to buy themselves time.”

“Shit. How long ago was this?”

Fleur hums in thought. “Two, three minutes ago? I assume it has something to do with the fact that you are here instead of there.”

“We’re not so sure of that ourselves,” Pearl chimes in. “If the Preservation tries to contact them again, tell them to act outraged over the sudden disconnection. Maybe they’ll come up with an excuse that tells us something.”

“Ebb already had the same idea, and it is being expanded upon as I speak to you. Oh, and the others just returned from their postings. They’re in the meeting room right now with one of my bodies.”

…One of her bodies? That’s a new trick for her. Maybe Slosh or Illumisia has been giving Fleur some pointers about using magic.

“Shelby?”

I nod to nobody and beeline for the elevator. “Tell them I’ll be right down. One last thing; any progress on taking the constructs out of the city?”

“Apologies, but we are not quite there yet. The more powerful ones, such as Slice, Slosh, and the Quest, are self-contained enough to move safely. All of the others are at risk.”

Pearl sucks air through teeth she manifests just for that purpose as I step into the elevator and hit the floor button. “How much of a risk?”

Fleur mimes the same sound Pearl made. She doesn’t normally have teeth either. “The city’s influence is either keeping them alive or contained to the city. If it’s the former, we’d have to effectively create new bodies for the constructs that don’t rely on the city, which is doable but will take a very long time according to Gil and a few others. If it’s the latter, we need to disable the city’s influence.”

I lean against the back of the elevator as it hums along. “But you can’t experiment with either option until you’re damn sure which one it is, or else we’ll have a lot of dead constructs.”

“Exactly so, yes. We’ve had volunteers. Quest is making sure that they can’t do experiments on their own time.”

“Good on it. Thanks for the check-in, Fleur. See you in a minute.”

“See you then.”

The elevator dings as Fleur’s brooch crackles into inactivity, revealing a family of five waiting right inside the hallway. They stare at me dumbfounded for a few long seconds, the kids dripping with sunscreen and the adults dripping with tanning oil. I keep eye contact for the entire thirty seconds it takes for the doors to close on them, sealing me back inside on my own.

I didn’t think I was that intimidating.

Pearl laughs. Slosh rattles in its flask as I send the container back to my inventory. And the elevator hums on.

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“Almost every floor,” Pearl wheezes as I finally step out of that thing. “It stopped at almost ever floor. And nobody got on! Nobody! We’re just too darn scary, and you didn’t even show them your teeth!”

I fiddle with an earring to help ignore the laughter stuck in my own head. At least one of us finds being feared by the people I’m supposed to be protecting funny. Say what you want about the Preservation, but the fact that they can show up in terrifying armor and not get a sideways glance speaks multitudes about their PR. We need to get us some of that.

Pearl instantly sobers up. “No, we don’t, Shelby. Trust me. Getting too close to the people during wartime just brings heartache.”

“We’re not at war,” I remind her. “There’s a huge difference between ‘so scared they won’t go on an elevator with us’ and ‘worship the ground we walk on’. I want to be somewhere in the middle.”

“No, you don’t,” Pearl repeats somberly. “This is fine. I really hope you don’t have to see why, but I don’t know if that’s possible.”

I share a long, meaning-filled glance with Pearl as I put my hand to the wall and open up the meeting room. She isn’t kidding in the slightest, and knowing what I do about how the shellraisers died out, I can’t find it in me to argue with her any more. It doesn’t feel good to be feared by normal people, though. Fear’s something I want from my enemies and nobody else.

Gil turns the moment the wall hisses aside. “Shelby? Back so soon?”

“Yeah, had some problems that I can’t deal with yet,” I confirm and walk over to my chair as the meeting continues around me. “Anything worth reporting that Fleur didn’t already relay?”

Jumble latches onto my arm the moment I sit down and smiles vibrantly. I return the expression and hug her tight.

“Not really, sorry,” she apologizes needlessly. “We couldn’t find much of anything under the city, which was honestly really weird. You’d think there would be a lot more stuff, or monster corpses, or regular corpses, but there kind of just wasn’t anything.”

Illumisia snorts in agreement. “It wasn’t quite a waste of time, but it was a waste of effort. There had been some cleanup effort in place to restore the city, but it seems to have been abandoned some weeks ago. Perhaps even longer. Clutter, tell her.”

Clutter startles from where he’s sitting–right next to Agathe. Staring very inconspicuously at her while she quietly talks with Gil and a few paindne I only recognize as being from Stonestep Solutions. He blushes furiously and whispers to himself that he has a girlfriend, then swivels to face us and clears his throat.

“I, um, found a lot of dead monsters made of metal exactly like you said we would. Not many alive ones, though, which was good for me but really confusing. Plus, that barricade that was supposed to trap you in? It doesn’t look like they were looking for you at all.”

Really? That’s surprising. “If it wasn’t for me, then what was it for?”

“We couldn’t tell. I tried getting close, but they had something that could detect people through invisibility–by the time they caught me, all I’d managed to make out was ‘research material’. Which is, um, pretty obvious,” Clutter glances at Illumisia and purses his lips. “They’re getting ready to do something. Not soon, but eventually.”

Illumisia nods in agreement. “They have plans for that city. Inscrutable plans, pathetic plans, pointless plans; whatever they are, they matter not.”

Pearl squishes out of my ear to join in. “Why not?”

“Because the city is unstable,” Illumisia says matter-of-factually. “The sewers are collapsing, the transportation tunnels are collapsing, and even the earth underneath is disturbed to the point that there is no safe place to stand. Unless they plan on razing everything, compressing the rubble, and building anew, the place is dangerous and inhospitable.”

Gil snorts and crosses his arms. “As if that ever stopped the Preservation.”

“Yes,” Agathe agrees, turning her attention away from her conversation to ours. “Unsafe places. Unstable ground. Cheap and abandoned is their favorite.”

“Yeah, that. Hell, they’ll probably lay claim to the land once they’re done with whatever they’re doing to it,” Gil shakes his head and sighs. “Hope you didn’t own your old place, because that property deed won’t be coming back to you. But enough about our difficulties with the Preservation; how’re your difficulties with the Preservation? Annoying and befuddling to the point that you’re getting angry because things aren’t adding up?”

“Hey, sounds like you’ve been in this exact spot before,” I say sarcastically. “Turns out that whatever third unnamed disaster happened to them is the one that finally got the big guns. I have a feeling it’ll keep them busy for at least a few days, so we have a little time to plan for whatever’s going to happen next. You got any idea how to wage a war where you don’t want to fight troops against troops?”

Gil smiles coyly. “I just might know a few people. Maybe an organization of assassins that just so happen to call you ‘boss’, combined with a few Preservation leaders who’ll be out doing conferences or appearances over the next few days. Are you above murdering someone in broad daylight?”

“Gil, no,” Agathe says and gently smacks Gil’s arm. “Not broad daylight. We can’t have this link back to us. Bad PR.”

“Tsk, you’re right; it has to look natural. Or, even better, somehow find a way to link it back to whatever’s happening in the Preservation headquarter city right now,” Gil leans back and scratches his chin in thought. “But to do that, we’ll need more info. Maybe more than Shelby’s contact can get us. Agathe, is there any way you can make Clutter completely undetectable?”

She looks Clutter up and down with a discerning eye. He shyly looks down to avoid her gaze. After a look that lingers for maybe a little too long, she nods.

“I think I can. Preservation doesn’t know I’m with you. I’ll get in that way and take Clutter with me,” she says with confidence, then smiles at Clutter. “Are you okay with that?”

“Yes! I-I, um, yeah, sure, totally. I can d-do that,” Clutter stammers awkwardly. “Illumisia said I only need a few more lessons first. T-then we can go, just the two of us. Um.”

Agathe smiles kindly and puts her hand on Clutter’s. He squirms under her touch, embarrassment radiating from him like a miniature sun with a gradeschool crush on the moon. I can’t quite tell if she’s doing it on purpose or not, but from the way Clutter’s murmuring a reminder that he’s dating Dell, he’s definitely tempted.

“We’ll find where their next rescue is and put you two there,” I cut in before anyone else can say anything. “Once you’re there, try not to make contact with Call at all. If they’re suspicious of him because of me, we can’t risk anything else happening. Stay in touch by Class Card every chance it’s safe to do so.”

Jumble raises an eyebrow and pulls me closer. “You make it sound like you’re about to go somewhere.”

I shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’m just figuring it’s about time for some newbies to return to the world, you know?”

Fleur’s extra body, which had been motionless up until now, turns to look at me and tilts her head in question. I reply with a nod.

“Let’s see if we can catch the twins and their escorts.”