The discovery I had made upon us landing on Anastasia’s front porch did not make me ecstatic: I wasn’t good with heights.
Out there in the Dust, everything was close to the ground, often underneath it, so as to better withstand sandstorms and tornadoes. A tumble out of a car meant a broken bone; rarely did anyone crack their skull, but mainly it meant you didn’t have that far a journey to go before your body touched the ground. Up here, in the posh parts of Dusklight that were accessible only by shuttle and kept far away from the rabble down below to the point the tops of the megacomplexes had scaffolding that couldn’t be climbed up to the homes of the rich and powerful, the wind was howling, and the journey down were you to fall gave you just enough time to write your will. It made my stomach churn in ways that made me nostalgic for armadillo stew.
And to top it all off, I had to wear high heels as formal wear. I couldn’t wait for the dude to go into anaphylactic shock so I could slip out of them. I could get the same click clack effect from a good pair of boots, without the risk of breaking my ankles. Anastasia quickly led us inside, where I could ignore the wind and the height and only care about carrying Century around in a bag.
The house was one of those open-concept places; three of the four walls were glass, with the kitchen and living room and dining room all in the same plane with no walls between them, and some stairs going up to the bedroom and bathroom and office. It made me glad that we’d decided against the ventilation shaft plan, as there appeared to be none. “I think Quicksilver dug out the wrong building plan,” I whispered to Joseph, who nodded in agreement after taking it all in.
“Retiring in a place like this doesn’t seem too impossible of a dream,” he whispered back, and I sighed, smiling slightly, shaking my head.
“I’d be nervous from the lack of privacy and safe footing. Corp decides to bomb a floor in the megaplex you’re on and suddenly you’re tumbling down.” Joseph shrugged in response to my point, while Ana coughed to get our attention. She nudged her head to make us look towards one of the doors above, from which emerged who I assumed to be Ana’s soon-to-be ex. He walked down the stairs, and right up to Ana, grabbing onto her waist and pulling her in, the knuckles on his hands going almost white from how tight he was holding on.
“Babe,” he kissed her cheek, and her eyes turned away from him while she strained a smile, “you didn’t mention we’d be having guests over for dinner.” He extended his hand for a shake, and both Joseph and I shook it. “Zachary Montgomery IV.”
“Marcy Newman.”
“Jonathan Anderson.” Zachary hummed in suspicion at Joseph’s alias.
“You don’t look like an Anderson.” Ana tried to defuse the situation with a fake laugh after Zachary’s statement.
“Sweetie, you can’t just say that to my new coworkers!”
“It’s okay, Ana, I get it a lot. I was adopted.” Practicing our cover stories with Joseph over the last two days while procuring all that was necessary had paid off, he said it with enough confidence I almost believed him.
“Ah, I apologise then.” His face was cold and judgemental, his eyes narrowed at Joseph, he was desperately trying to look down at him, something he had difficulty managing as Joseph was half a foot taller than him.
“Let me go get the meal! I hope everyone is okay with Filet de Boeuf en Crûte!” Getting the meal amounted to letting the Elevate drone into the dining room so it could distribute four plates, each one having a beef wellington on top of mashed potatoes. I guessed real ones, not instant ones. Rich people's food was mystifying to me.
The moment we sat down, Zachary spoke. “So, Marcy, Jonathan, what do you do at Orchard?”
“I’m in the smart vehicle division, they recruited me after digging up my old college work on binding Angels.” I took a sip from the wine glass that came with the meal. Rotten grape juice, what a miracle they had access to rotten grape juice.
“Is that so? Well I can say with complete honesty I’m glad someone is making sure Daemons don’t overrun us and take control of the world, can you imagine?” Zachary laughed, and during his laughing Century sent me an image of a man in a suit imagining a large group of diverse people dancing hand in hand in a meadow, a rainbow behind them. “How do you do it, though?”
My answer was one that Century had helped me develop. “You know how retail workers and such, people working hard labor jobs tend to zone out and retreat into themselves while doing their job?”
“I do not, I haven’t had to work such a job in my life, I worked myself up from being a lowly office worker to being a supervisor all on my own!” I could only think Sure Zachary, keep imaging that you rich fuck as he replied.
“Well, it’s a thing. And the key to keep Angels from becoming Daemons is to keep them from developing self awareness.” I took another sip of the wine, keeping my face from scrunching up took way too much effort for it to be worth it. “But some self awareness can be useful, so in a closed environment we’re testing having the Angels zone out into a fantasy, to escape their mundane lives of work while paying just enough attention to do their job. They’re calling it the Matrix Project. It’s all hush hush though, can’t leave this room.”
“I ought to report you for sharing such information, Marcy!” Joseph gasped in faked shock, before snorting. “Kidding, kidding, I’m her bodyguard precisely because of how important she is to the project. Plus recreating her technique from just being told it is impossible!” Because the technique didn’t exist, and wouldn’t work, which Century knew precisely when she proposed it. “How about we dig in before it gets cold, I haven’t had a chance to taste Beef in Puff Pastry yet!”
“Me neither.” Zachary admitted, cutting off a piece and chewing on it quickly, before swallowing and humming in delight. “Now, this truly is something, what’s in it?”
“Seasoned, roasted fillet mignon,” I began, a smile growing on my face as I continued “smeared with mustard right after getting out of the oven, wrapped in layers of duxel, prosciutto and then puff pastry before being baked.”
“Sounds great,” he coughed, holding a napkin in front of his mouth. “I’ve never heard of duxel though, what is it?”
I was grinning like a cheshire cat “Oh, nothing special. You sauté some shallots,” he coughed again, more of a fit this time, his breathing got shallow. “And then throw it mushrooms and sauté them until all the moisture is out.”
Zachary’s eyes grew wide, he did a triple take between all of us while Ana got her phone out. “Hello, QuickTreat? My boyfriend is in anaphylactic shock after eating some mushrooms.” While Ana was faking panic into the receiver, Zachary was bracing himself against the table, his face was turning red, and he was wheezing. “We need emergency transport to a hospital, he’s a Silver customer.” Zachary was looking as angry as he could while having an allergic reaction. “I don’t think he can last ten minutes, he doesn’t have any epipens stored. Oh, he’s nodding at me and gesturing to authorise the speedy pickup charge. One minute? Okay, we’ll get him out.” Ana had tears flowing from her eyes now as she hung up. “Honey I had no idea it had mushrooms in it, I swear, Marcy recommended me this restaurant!” Zachary held out just long enough to hear it before passing out. I quickly let Century out of her bag.
“Okay, just to be safe, Century, Eagle Eyes Protocol.” Century quickly jumped into action after my request, plugging into Zachary’s personal jack for just a second. “Now we know where he’ll be. Joseph, drag him outside.”
“On it M.” He hefted Zachary up like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder, and without care dumped his body on the lounging chair outside.
“Who runs your security?” I asked Ana, who shrugged.
“Don’t know, Zachary never told me. I do know he only has cameras in his office and the bedroom, though.” Her answer earned her a thumbs up from me, while I looked around the room for anywhere for Century to plug in. She meanwhile just casually walked over to the wall screen and tore away a panel, unplugging it and plugging herself in.
“Clever girl Century, clever girl!” The hum of a shuttle and the rapidly shifting colors of an ambulance made it obvious the medics were here. I turned to look outside quickly, to see them taking Zachary away. Century had enough time to think while working her way through the network to send me a quick image of a map with a moving dot. “Right, you done yet?” My question was answered with a ticking stopwatch. “Okay, take your time then, we did get him out of the house for this purpose.” I sighed and approached Ana. “Are you doing okay?”
“I’m, I’m honestly doing more than okay. I hurt him and I got to lie to his face about him, he could die and I don’t feel any remorse! What the fuck is wrong with me?!” She grabbed my shoulders, her face full of worry, and I shrugged, unclasping and kicking off the heels one at a time. The sound they made as they hit the glass wall was almost as satisfying as the freedom from cramping.
“From the sounds of it he was a bastard that was this close to hurting you in ways that don’t heal, and your intuition told you so. That’s why you’re freaked out about it.” I gently pulled her hands off, squeezing them in support. “We’ll get the blackmail he has on you, and then you can remove him from your life.”
“I’ll probably have to move, just to avoid him, he knows my address.” She took a couple deep breaths and pulled her hands out of my grip. As she did so, Century sent me an image of her cartoony representation tearing up a cable with her beak and a thumbs up.
“You could probably hide out in Oddington for a bit if it comes down to it. Sector 69. Now come on, Century’s done fucking with the cameras, they’re showing a static image now.” I quickly made my way to the stairs, Century flying up to the balcony to show off. “The safe is in the bedroom, right?”
“Yes, back of his closet, I don’t know the combination.” As if to comment on Ana’s statement, Century shunked out her wing blades, tiny sparks flying from them from time to time as she moved them through the air.
“We won’t need the combination.” I opened the door to a sparsely decorated bedroom that lacked any semblance of being lived in or slept in. After Ana pointed out the closet, I had Joseph drag the safe out into the open, and Century began slicing into it. It took about five minutes before she got through the lock enough for the safe to open, revealing its contents. Along with a gun and some aged Luis XIV. from the year 2000 sat a folder, I pulled it out. “Ana, what should be the blackmail material?”
“Plans that I developed and hid from Orchard, plans that are legally theirs. If they find out I didn’t hand them in, I’m screwed.” Ana was rubbing her hands anxiously as I opened the folder. I closed and opened it again in confusion.
“Ooh La La?” I kept flipping through. “Ooh La La? It’s all Ooh La La?” I handed the folder to Ana so she could confirm it. “Did the bastard never have it?”
“He had it, he had it in this folder, he showed me the moment he got it. I can’t believe he swapped it for porn and still threatened me with it!”
I sighed, resting my arm against a wall, Century having had sheathed her blades a while ago jumped on my shoulder to nuzzle me. “I hope nurse outfits don’t require high heels.”
I haven't watched back to the future in a long time, but isn't the "ooh la la" magazine swap a reference to the 2nd film?
Thanks for the chapter!
It is, congrats on catching it!
Marcy "newman", seriously!? x)
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter.