Session One
The
trail to stopping the Yovoni's secret plan was leading Vincent
Wagner in a very undesirable direction. He didn't have any
specific beef against Houston, but the city didn't have the same
Wild West reputation as other spots in Texas. One of his dreams
was to make it with someone in a cowgirl outfit and this mission
seemed like a golden opportunity. Sadly, that seemed to be
passing him by.
In all,
the mission was far less exotic than he was used to. Vincent had
become a leading MST expert on the Yovoni faction. As they used
sex to generate everything from revenue streams to political
scandals to mass distractions on the internet, Vincent was used
to getting enough action to exhaust James Bond. This felt like
actual work.
For
starters, the objective was quite serious. The Yovoni had tried
to infiltrate Central Academy with an eye towards reviving the
Mynoni. The faction had never seemed all that interested in the
world's destruction before, so it was an eye-opener. Whatever
they were planning, it was imperative that Vincent stopped it.
He shrugged off such pressure with flair, but it was kind of a
buzzkill.
Vincent
started with the tips he had received from Terrance and slept
his way from there. The nice thing about the Yovoni is that the
local network of seductresses very much enjoy their work and are
susceptible to the same tricks they turn. Through this, he
learned the location of their Houston base and infiltrated.
After 'thanking' the inside informant that got him this
information, he was off to work.
Some
secret agents carefully slink through their missions, avoiding
detection with their silenced pistol at the ready. Vincent
strutted around like he owned the place. And while spy jobs like
these were usually middle-of-the-night runs, he waltzed through
at eight in the morning. These were typically creatures of the
night, and were pretty well conked out during more respectable
hours. The few that he met along the way assumed he was some
sort of supervisor. Maybe a pimp. They smiled at him, he winked
back and continued effortlessly.
Despite
the ease of his mannerisms, he wasn't finding much. Procuring
useful information was a bit of a wild goose chase, and Yovoni
ladies weren't naïve enough to give away crucial secrets during
bedside chatter. That stuff had to be found the hard way and it
wasn't jumping out at Vincent. He uncovered plenty of other
things- a cache of ecstasy in the breakroom condiment rack, a
laminated pocket-sized guide to the Kama Sutra and no less than
three adult film sets. He left his business card at each of
them.
After an
hour of hunting, he found the part of the complex that looked
closest to an office. The windows were dirty, the lighting was
bad and there were stacks of folders scattered on tables
everywhere, but it had desks and filing cabinets and thus was
worth a closer inspection.
Vincent
rifled through the filing cabinets, smiling as he saw several
familiar operations- most were demonic, and all were recent
missions that he had either heard about or personally foiled. He
knew he was getting closer. Unfortunately, none of the folders
had anything relating to the Mynoni. Slamming the file drawer,
he stroked his beard and looked around. If the loose paperwork
was any indication, the room hadn't been organized in months.
“Heh,”
he chortled to himself as he looked at a nearby table. The top
folder on the stack read, “Mynoni Plan: Confidential.” Vincent
grinned, cast a spell to check the folder for curses or
barriers, and picked it up when he detected none. Skimming the
first few pages, he saw a picture of Terrance paper-clipped to
page four. Vincent had scored.
“Hello,
Vincent.” He stopped and grimaced when he heard her voice. Still
holding the folder in his left hand, he turned around and smiled
at the woman sitting on the desk behind him. Her long, poofy
brown hair extended to her shoulders. Vincent was surprised that
her black dress covered her shoulders, and most of her upper
body for that matter. Had it not been for the high hemline,
accentuated by her crossed legs and stilettos, it would have
been a fairly modest wardrobe. By Yovoni standards, it was.
“Madame
Aisha,” he cooed, clutching the folder tightly. “Head of Special
Yovoni Operations and Conquests. Been a while, babe.”
Aisha
smirked. “You know, I was beginning to wonder what happened to
Terrance. But when half the girls in the district are fawning
over their latest acquisitions and they all seem to match your
very... distinct description...” She looked him over. His
eyebrows flared. “...I had a feeling you were involved. Pretty
bold sending someone as infamous as you for something as crucial
as this.”
“Oh, you
know you want me.”
She
coughed. “There will be plenty of time for that later. As you
can imagine, this operation is far too important to be screwing
around.”
“Judging
from your minions, I'd beg to differ.”
Shrugging, Aisha said, “I knew you'd make it this far, Vincent.
No sense denying them some enjoyment. We're pretty casual around
here.”
Vincent
nodded. “I see that.”
“Besides, even you can't stop us forever. There are plenty of
desperate academy students out there willing to tail the Mynoni
for a little tail.”
“But why
do you want to get those cats involved?” Despite his jive-talk,
Vincent used a serious tone. “They ain't exactly a good fit with
your workplace. Not exactly... casual, as you put it.”
Smug,
Aisha replied, “But they succumb to charm spells just as easily
as the next person. And if they don't obey their liberators...
certain potions go a long way.” She grinned and stared at
Vincent. “Wouldn't you say?”
He knew
what she was implying, but didn't know why. “I'm not dumb enough
to drink the Kool-Aid that you ladies keep trying to serve me.”
“Cognac,
dear.”
“Smelled
delicious, but I turned it down. You don't get to be this...
infamous falling for easy tricks like that.”
Aisha
pointed at the dossier. “But you're clutching that folder
awfully tightly. Not every potion needs to be imbibed.”
Funny
how that's always when it seems to take effect. Vincent rubbed
his hands across the file and felt just the slightest traces of
powder. He began to feel mighty sleepy.
“Good
night, Vincent,” Aisha cooed as he started to tip.
Simultaneously rattled and impressed, Vincent muttered,
“Damn...” as he fell.
Session Two
Two days
into his exile and all Troy could think about was how stupid the
whole thing seemed to him. It was getting into April now,
marking a month and a half since the whole Urayoni thing went
down. It had been a month and a half since he killed Marie and
suddenly everybody was getting all pissed off about it. Just
when he had started to get it out of his head. Like that, he was
out a best friend, out a girlfriend and alone.
It
wasn't the loneliness that ate at him. Troy was never a social
butterfly, so sitting alone didn't kill him. It was the
reasoning behind all of it. He felt like he was being punished
for doing his job. He had set out to rescue Renee and did
exactly that. It bothered him that suddenly Renee found fault
with something that at the time seemed like a necessary and
logical step.
The
whole course of events left him unwilling to fight to get Renee
back. Troy found two possible routes to achieve that and neither
seemed pretty. One was full groveling, apologizing profusely
until she took him back. He couldn't bear to do that,
particularly since he wasn't convinced that he was wrong. He had
a few doubts over whether it was the right choice, but he saw it
as enough of a gray area that he couldn't understand why Kathryn
and Renee were so pissy over it. So he probably wouldn't be able
to pull off the sincerity needed for the utter repentance that
seemed to be required. That and he hated the fact that utter
repentance was required at all.
The
second option was making Renee understand his mindset. That was
problematic since he would have to stand by his decision and
convince his new girlfriend that he was completely justified in
killing his old one. He couldn't go that far either. In fact, he
wasn't willing to get so worked up over the whole thing. So
unwilling that he was willing to give up Renee just so he
wouldn't have to deal with it any more.
Kathryn,
however, was another matter. While Troy more or less shrugged
off Renee leaving him over this, it was Kathryn's response that
made him angry. Losing a relationship that officially lasted
less than a week was unfortunate, but Troy and Kathryn had been
best friends for several years and she abandoned him after a
five minute argument. Not only that, but her sudden loyalty to
Molly was another dagger. Troy wanted to talk to Kathryn, and it
involved neither apologizing nor justifying. He wanted to give
her a piece of his mind, away from Renee or Molly.
The
Pearson sisters appeared to have assumed the role of 'Kathryn's
BFF' as the three were mostly inseparable at school. The only
time he could get her on her own was during class, and that
didn't work out so well. After tossing several crumpled sheets
of notebook paper at her, he whispered, “Are you going to talk
to me or not?”
Angrily,
and a little too loudly, she replied, “No, Troy, I'm not going
to talk to you. Thought you'd have that figured out by now.”
This got
the teacher's attention. “Kathryn, Troy, would you please not
interrupt the class with meaningless drama? There is no place
for that here.” Clearing her throat, Ms. Cohen added, “Now let's
start reading act two. Kathryn and Troy can play Oberon and
Titania.”
Troy
rolled his eyes. Despite the embarrassment of being called out,
it was a weak punishment. He flipped to the right page and
started reading.
Ms.
Cohen interrupted him, “Sorry, Troy, I meant that she's Oberon
and you can be Titania... queen of the fairies.”
He
narrowed his eyes as the rest of the class laughed. At least he
had fewer lines.
The next
day, Troy caught another opportunity after school where club
schedules were aligned in such a way that Renee could go
straight home while Kathryn had a short break before practice.
He found her in the hallway downing a sports drink. She saw him
coming and grumbled to herself, but didn't move.
“So
explain why you won't even talk about this. I mean, one little
argument and you don't want to talk to me again?”
Flippant, she replied, “That about sums it up, yeah.”
“It's
not like you can avoid me forever. We still have to go to
Central and do our-”
“Bad
place to start, Troy.”
“It's
true, though. Unless you're quitting it the way you keep saying
you want to.”
Kathryn
stared at the floor to avoid making eye contact. She probably
could have pulled off the glare at this point, and didn't
want that kind of power. “Just because I want to doesn't mean
it's a good idea.”
“So what
it amounts to is that we're in this together,” he said firmly,
“We're going to have to work this out.”
“I'm on
a billion teams, Troy.” Kathryn paused to toss her empty bottle
toward the trash bin ten feet away. Swish. “You think I like
every single person I have to play with? No. Some of them are
real bitches, in fact. Doesn't stop me from working with them.
But I'm not hanging out with them when we're not playing. Just
because we're on the same team doesn't mean anything. Donovan's
on our team, for Christ's sake.” She sighed. “If that's all
you're worried about, I can assure you that I won't try to get
you killed.”
She
started to walk away, grumbling, “Not that I can expect the same
from you.”
“Hey!”
Troy shouted, grabbing her shoulder. He pulled her around and
let loose: “You can disagree with what I did all you want, but
why would you think that I don't care about you? And how can you
say I turned on a friend when you're being a pretty lousy one
yourself?”
“Troy, I
just...” All the anger in her face seemed to disappear
instantly. Now it was pain. “Disagreements are one thing. But
what you did is just...” She shook her head, trying to stop her
eyes from welling. “I don't know if I can call you a friend
anymore.”
Troy was
expecting something along those lines, but it still struck him
how upset she was to acknowledge it. Trying to tone things down,
he said, “Look, I'm sorry, okay? My back was to the wall and I
just... couldn't come up with that one magic option that would
have made everyone happy.”
Kathryn
calmed down too, but didn't ease up. “And that's just it. It's
the option you did come up with. The fact you even thought about
it... the fact that you actually went through with it... it says
a lot about you. More than you think.”
“Well...” Troy turned away. She was making this really hard on
him. “What do I need to do then? Are you really going to ditch
me completely over this? Never going to forgive me?”
“It's
not about forgiving you, Troy. I can do that easy. It's just
that I always looked at you a certain way. And just sort of
assumed certain things. But now you've got some skill and a
little confidence and look what happened. You think that it's
okay to do that sort of thing to your friends... and I don't
want any part of it. And let's face it, I don't need you and you
clearly don't need me anymore.”
Kathryn
sighed and said, “Anyway, I gotta get to practice. I decided a
while ago that I'm not going to preach about what you did. I'm
taking it for what it is and leaving it there.” Walking away,
she mumbled, “See you around.”
And that
was that. Troy was angry enough to shout back about her sudden
change of heart, and her sudden loyalty to Molly, but a sudden
crowd in the hallway killed that thought. He forced his way back
to his locker, still grasping at how quickly it had all
happened, and how Kathryn had every intention to make it
permanent.
Session Three
As bad
as Troy was doing, Donovan was faring far worse. He still had no
memory of the whole ordeal, so it was still a bit of a shock to
suddenly be without the muscle behind his magic. The demon was
gone, just as Donovan was starting to experience some of its
personality. It was one fewer voice in his head, but it felt
like he had lost a friend.
In
particular, the timing of Donovan's blackout was terrible. His
father had just detailed how the secret to success and true
conquest was to gain allies, which would channel into power.
Donovan had done the exact opposite, and just as he was dwelling
on that fact, he wakes up days later with fewer opportunities to
collect friends and a sudden loss of everything he had achieved.
While it
was never explicitly stated, clearly the MST didn't trust him,
which per Vincent's law was bound to make it difficult for
Donovan to succeed with them. And there weren't too many demons
dropping by these days, not that he had ever found one that he
could see himself working with. World domination was looking
more and more like a hopeless cause.
Once
again, he was not permitted in the dark room. Whatever his demon
had been trying to accomplish in there, there were too many
lingering effects for Donovan to be safe until Marlowe could
analyze everything properly. So Donovan had to find a new haunt,
and most of the good places in the school were already occupied.
The cafeteria didn't provide any privacy and the lavatory was
always taken up by the delinquents smoking during class.
At one
point, he thought it genius to build a small hideout amidst the
rafters above the school auditorium. He could easily fly up
there, but there was no room to maneuver along the beams and
little chance of him balancing for any length of time. Despite
the small engineering marvel that Blaine and Bryce produced in
the makeshift fort up there, Donovan abandoned it after two
days.
It took
some roaming around, but he finally found a nice hideaway where
he could meditate and read up on his dark magics in peace. The
place had several nice amenities that would serve him well in
his future endeavors.
“Oh...
hi Donovan, what are you doing down here?” Yuki asked as she
stepped out of the elevator into the student council lounge.
Donovan
was too busy scanning the bookcase to react. “Have any of these
manuscripts proven useful in your quest for power?”
“I
thought those were just for decoration. Molly said Claude put
them down there.” Despite the casual conversation, she kept her
distance. “You're not going to try to kill me, right?”
The
thought crossed his mind, but he figured that it was a good time
to try that whole allies thing out. Not that he could resist
using her fear to frame it. “Perhaps not,” he replied. When she
took a nervous step back, he said, “As you may know, I am
currently in need of a new lair.”
Yuki
paused. “Oh... for what?”
“Research... experimentation... meditation.” Donovan drew out
each of those, as it was hard to describe what he actually did
in there. At least without using the word 'brooding.'
“Does it
involve demons?” She inched forward.
“I seem
to have exhausted all opportunities with demons. There is
nothing to be gained from the likes of them.”
Yuki
sighed and walked past him, sitting in one of the chairs. “Well,
I'm fine with it then. Molly and I are the only ones who know
about this place, and she's only in school a few hours a day. If
you want to stay down here and work on your magic training...”
She
pulled out a gigantic textbook out of her satchel. “Hell, that's
usually what I'm up to down here.”
He
grinned. “Excellent. Perhaps you have some use after all.”
Yuki
looked up at him, face frozen. It took her a few moments to
brush that off. For a moment, it didn't look like she would.
Then she wagged her finger at him, suddenly serious. “In return,
I want one of your minions.”
“No
deal,” he blurted.
“Only
once in awhile. It's hard to tell how effective my potions are
unless I can try them on somebody.”
Donovan
looked away and pondered the pros and cons of this.
“Hey,
you said you needed to train! You can try to hurt them and I can
try to heal them!” Yuki said, far too enthusiastically.
“That...
I can agree to.”
“Great!
Just don't do anything too wild. I still haven't gotten advanced
healing down yet. There's a tricky-”
Too
late. Donovan was already up. “Blaine!”
“Sir!”
said Bryce.
“Stand
over there and remain perfectly still.”
“Um...”
Hesitant, Blaine looked over at Yuki, busy working on her
potion. “You didn't tell him about last week, did you?”
“What do
you mean?” Yuki replied. “How you helped us beat him?”
Donovan
glared at Blaine, who cowered even before facing him. “Go,”
Donovan snarled.
Blaine
sighed and took the short march of death, standing in front of a
hallway and closing his eyes. “Ready, sir.”
After
charging up a big black ball of pain, Donovan fired. The energy
ball limped out of his hands, petered out halfway to Blaine and
dropped. It bounced off the floor twice and hit Blaine in the
legs. It was still enough to bowl him over.
Yuki
stopped her mixing, blinked, then turned to Donovan. “I can see
why you need the practice.” Despite the scowl on his face, she
added, “Can I bowl the next frame?”
Session Four
Now that
it had been recognized as such, Troy bore his cross of solitude
with a solemn sort of pride. He wasn't happy about sitting at
what was still a large segment of table alone, but he was never
one for dramatics. Troy ate quietly, quickly and with a steeled
face that suggested nothing amiss. Once finished, he buried his
nose in a textbook, many times one from this school. Passing
observers would think this was how it always had been and how it
should always be.
That was
a correct diagnosis for Molly, still compelled to watch him from
a distance. She and Kathryn watched him for entirely different
reasons.
“Don't
get any thoughts, Kathryn,” Molly said.
“I know,
I know,” Kathryn had long since gotten used to Molly's ability
to see through her. “It's like instinct. I feel like a goddamn
mother.”
She was
hurt enough by Troy's attitude to stay confident in her
decision, but watching him bear this so stolidly when he
couldn't possibly accept it hurt more. It triggered something
when she saw someone, anyone, so clearly in need of a friend. At
times she wanted to march back, give him another scolding and
forget all about it. Kathryn had to remind herself that he
hadn't earned it, and she doubted whether or not he really
needed a friend at all.
Renee
picked up on this too. “He puts on a brave face, but I bet
he's-”
“Completely willing to accept it and move on,” Molly replied,
drawing Renee and Kathryn to her. “Nobody's in his corner. He's
going to swallow his pride and accept this as the new reality.”
“Lucky
him,” Kathryn muttered. “Wish we could.”
“Simply
a matter of not turning around. If you need help avoiding him,
Yuki can switch lunch-”
“None of
that now.” Kathryn raised a finger. “Gotta get you off of those
evil council powers. It's a bad habit.”
“Yeah,
what are you going to do at college?” Renee asked.
“Marietta's fairly small,” Molly replied, straight-faced. “I'll
figure something out.”
“Besides, it's not like we can avoid Troy forever,” Kathryn
said, resisting the urge to turn around. “When are we getting
called up?”
Molly
sighed. “I'm expecting a call any day now. The MST lost contact
with Vincent two days ago.”
Renee
and Kathryn knew this was serious as Molly pronounced Vincent's
name correctly.
“Any
longer and I'm sure they won't wait to send in the
reinforcements.”
Kathryn
shook her head. “Between what went down with Troy and Donovan,
do they really think we can work together?”
“That's
one drawback of the Donovan incident being officially off the
record. They will sometimes take internal issues into account
with field assignments, but they can't here.”
“Troy
being a douche isn't enough of an internal issue, I take it?”
Molly
heaved a sigh. “On the contrary, they're all for it.”
Eyes
rolling, Kathryn said, “Surprise surprise.”
“You
don't know the half of it.” Molly reached under the table and
pulled out a file folder.”
Kathryn
leaned in and asked, “Where'd that come from?” Molly stared back
blankly until Kathryn's brain recovered. “Man, you'd think I'd
be used to this by now.”
Molly
opened the folder without verbal comment. “As a guardian, I'm
not supposed to share exact progress analytics with you.
Something about not letting you precious snowflakes worry about
grades. But they are squarely behind one horse.”
Renee
and Kathryn hovered over it, but the sheet Molly had flipped too
didn't list simple letter grades or number scores for everybody.
Instead, it was a complex box graph with several measurements.
Even without a translation, they could see that Troy had far
more boxes filled in than the other five.
“In
short, the MST not only supports Troy, but considers him the
ideal student. If he graduated next year, he would be a strong
candidate for top of the class if I bothered to fill out the
paperwork Marlowe sent me.”
While
Renee only nodded in dismay, Kathryn was busy with the other
charts. “Huh... some of my boxes are actually filled in. I'm
surprised.”
“Everybody had an uptick this term. Even Donovan.”
Renee
scanned hers, noting, “I'm not doing half-bad. The book?”
“More
than likely. Your big upswing was January. As was Donovan, which
will make things interesting without his demon. Yuki's been more
committed, but Kathryn surprised me.”
“I
assure you I have not been more committed to learning this
stuff.”
“I
know.” Molly flipped a few pages. This was a line graph. All
Kathryn could make of it was that it concerned her, started out
low, then shot up recently.
“Weird.
You don't think they graded us on charging in to save Renee, did
they?”
“Only
their marks on character, which you would think would go down.”
“Did
they?”
“Yours
and Donovan's couldn't get any lower.”
Kathryn
grinned. “Awesome.”
“Troy's
went up.”
Kathryn
stopped grinning. “Of course they did. I can guess why.”
Molly
nodded slowly. “I did. It explains his character score going up,
and your overall score going up.”
“What do
you mean?”
“Your
illegal Urayoni invasion was not a factor. Our actions in the
Hageshoni attack, as with most of our extra-curricular
activities, certainly were.”
Kathryn's face started to turn green. “You mean...?”
Molly
took a long, sad breath breath before looking into Kathryn's
eyes and saying, “You single-handedly defeated a Hageshoni
operative in battle. You may not consider that your finest
moment, but the MST would disagree with you. As far as
demonstrating your particular combat style-”
“Stop
it,” Kathryn said, turning away. “I don't want someone to
analyze my 'combat style' or whatever. I never want to go
through that again.”
Renee
patted Kathryn's hand. Molly closed the folder. “I just wish the
MST was looking for kids like you. That would make this all so
much easier.”
Session Five
Molly
was in the middle of history class when her earlobe started
wiggling tremendously. Yuki considered Molly's class attendance
vital to her rehabilitation into normal society but at that
point, Molly didn't care. She packed up her bag and walked out
of the room with seemingly no provocation. It wasn't like her
teacher was going to question it.
The
hallway was quiet enough for her to answer it while she made her
way to the student council office.
“Hi,
Molly, it's Marlowe. Got a minute?”
She was
used to far more official telepathic conversations, but she was
also more used to dealing with Uriel's office.
“I'm in
the middle of class.”
“Perfect! Think you can get on Skype in an hour?
Molly
reached the office and sat in Claude's old desk. Yuki hadn't
bothered looking for a replacement since the populace was still
generally obedient. Who, what or where is Skype?”
“You've
never heard of Skype?” Marlowe replied, surprised. “You're
almost as bad as Jonesy. Ask your sister. I understand she's
with the times.”
“She's
in class too.”
“Please
page her. This can't wait.”
“Fine.
One hour you said?”
“Yes.
I'll get you my account name when you're hooked up.”
The
conversation ended, but the noise drew Yuki from her office.
“Oh, Molly! You should call me if you need to use the phone.
Don't want anybody seeing you in there and thinking we're in
cahoots.”
Molly
shook off the admonition and replied, “Telepathic message from
Marlowe. Apparently I need to get Renee in here.” She gestured
to Yuki. “If you please.”
“One
sister coming up!” They walked into Yuki's office, where Yuki
pressed the intercom button. “Would Renee Pearson please report
to the student council office? Repeat, Renee Pearson to the
student council office. Thanks much!”
Molly
flared her eyebrows. “Are you that nice about it when you're
taking someone down?”
“Doubly
nice, actually. What do you need Renee for?”
“Marlowe
says she can get me on something called Skype.”
“You've
never heard of Skype?” Yuki waved a hand dismissively. “Hell, I
can do that.” She pushed the intercom again. “Never mind, Renee,
I'll take care of it.”
“Aw, I
was bored anyway,” said Renee, walking out as quickly as she had
teleported in.
“So what
is it?” Molly asked.
Yuki
pulled it up on her desktop computer. “Skype is a peer-to-peer
network for voice, video and text conferencing.”
“In
other words, it's a phone on the computer.” Molly rolled her
eyes. “If he had said that, I could have figured the rest out.”
“The MST
uses a more proprietary system over the Moogle network, but if
you're not patched in, I guess the good ol' internet will work.”
Yuki clicked some more. “There you go. Steal a webcam and mic
from the computer lab and you'll be all set.”
Molly
looked it over. It seemed simple enough. “How long will that
take?”
“Five
minutes.”
“We have
an hour.”
“Let's
grab lunch. My treat.” Yuki grabbed her jacket and put her hand
on Molly's shoulder. “Pick the spot.”
Molly
shrugged and chose a nearby sandwich shop as it was the only
place actually accessible via teleportation. The conversation
wasn't much to speak of as Marlowe using telepathy to request a
conference was significant enough to make her apprehensive.
Whatever it was about, and she had an obvious subject in mind,
it was a big deal.
Even so,
they spent enough time there that Yuki had to scramble to get
the necessary devices acquired and installed in time. She was
testing the service when Molly got the earlobe wiggle and the
contact information.
“Maybe
we should do this downstairs,” Molly said.
“Can't.
The wi-fi's terrible,” Yuki replied.
Molly
connected and entered the conference. There were three other
faces: one was Marlowe's, one was Meg's, and one was a generic
blue face that must have meant audio-only.
“I
assume that's Reggie?” Molly asked.
“No,”
Marlowe said, “Reggie's actually in the office with me.”
Reggie's
forehead blocked the screen and his voice burst in: “Hello out
there in radio land. This is Reggie with all your lovin'
advice.”
“And you
asked why I preferred to do this from my dorm,” Meg said.
Marlowe
seized the mic. “Our mystery guest, incidentally, is the
district commander for Texas. He's been heading Vincent's Yovoni
operation.”
A
muffled buzz came from this computer, followed by a 'call
dropped' indicator.
Sighing,
Marlowe said, “Well, he tried, so he's one notch above Uriel.
Anyway, to summarize, we haven't heard from Vincent Wagner for a
couple days now. When he last reported, he was about to
infiltrate a Yovoni compound believed to be responsible for
contacting Terrance. It would be really nice to have some
further details on what we need you to do, so excuse me while I
try to contact our fearless commander.”
While
Marlowe stepped aside, Reggie took the mic again. “Our first
caller is Meg, a poor girl with a body inhabited by four people!
That's gotta be hell on your sex life.”
Meg
glared through the computer at Reggie, but even Molly could pick
up on her blush. At least until Mindy blurted, “Yeah, tell him,
Meg!”
Thankfully, the fourth connection was not only restored, it had
video to go with it. Molly's eyes bulged.
“Well,
there's enough here for all four of you, if that's what you
need,” Vincent said. “Happy to be back!”
“I
thought you were...!” Molly said.
“Eh, got
in a bit of a pinch there, but nothing Vincent Wagner can't take
care of! A couple stunning spells and my stunning looks took
care of it. I'll spill the beans later, but long story short is
that the plot's uncovered, Madame Aisha's caught, and the world
is save for love again! Oh baby!”
Even
Marlowe was stunned, but he smiled and nodded. “Well, they don't
call you one of the best for nothing. So no need for backup
then?”
“Nope,
we are good to go! Read up on the saucy details when the
report's out. You won't be disappointed. I'm gonna hit
debriefing, then take the district office out for drinks. They
say there's a nice place in town where the waitresses dress like
cowgirls. Sounds like fun. Over and out, bitches!”
The
images on Molly and Meg's cams were exactly the same: views of
their scalps and their foreheads firmly planted on their desks.
It wasn't as if they wanted to go on this assignment, but the
circumstances made it seem awfully inevitable. To have it
retracted that suddenly, in that fashion, by that man...
it was a headdesk moment.
Marlowe
shrugged and chuckled. “Well, I guess that's that then. Guess
we'll have to come up with another one for you. Talk to you
soon!”