Finally I actually got one of these up on time again! I'm very proud of myself. This chapter, titled confrontation, features one confrontation that I know I've been looking forward to writing, and I hope you've been looking forward to reading. It was a confrontation that had to happen, as it is very important to the development of Max's character. This chapter also foreshadows a lot of stuff to come next chapter, and in future chapters. Next chapter, also titled Confrontation, is the big one, featuring the confrontations that have more direct impact on the story as a whole, and set in motion the final direction of the story.
Chapter Ten
Confrontation, Part One
Neither Max nor El knew where to go to continue their search. In order to further their search, they needed to log again onto El’s jury-rigged cell phone and access the internet, and they should be private about it, considering their dress. They could return to the city, to Max’s makeshift home, but that would be time-consuming and draining. To make the best use of their time, they needed to find a place close by. So Max took them low through the nearest town, pushing himself as hard as he could without overtaxing himself. They saw the detectives again, walking from their car into the local police station, and Max veered the other way. It was fortuitous that he did, too, because in doing so, he spotted an insurance company building three blocks away with no cars parked at it, despite it being a Friday.
Max swerved toward the building. In less than a minute, he and El touched down beside the one-story brick office building and reformed. El peeked in through the front window, “There are plenty of computers inside. I could network to one of them and speed up the search process. I don’t see anyone inside, either.”
Max walked over to the door, “Here’s why. There’s a sign here that says it’s closed for a few days. The family that runs the place is out of town.”
“It’ll do,” El told him, moving to stand by his side, reading the simple taped-up sign once for herself. “I don’t know how long it’ll take for me to find the information we need, but if we do it here, and I take too long, we won’t lead the authorities to any places connected to us. But first we need to get inside.”
Max took that as his queue to dissolve them into smoke once again and move them through the gap between the door and its frame. Together they poured through the lobby, and into the back room, where half a dozen computers were lined up, offline and unoccupied. El picked one with only a partial view of the large front window, and she sat down, setting her pack beside her. She reached into the front pocket of her pack, and removed her custom-built device, and well as a second cable which ended in a standard USB male plug. She booted up the computer, as she switched the cable with the sim card attached to it for the new one, and plugged the device into one of the computer’s USB ports. When the password screen came up, it flashed, and a hidden phrase typed itself briefly before the screen disappeared, replaced by the standard Windows desktop.
“Impressive,” Max said, slightly in awe. He knew next to nothing about computers, but even he understood how staggeringly incredible El’s technical abilities were. If the government ever discovered what she could do, they’d hunt her down and imprison her. Or recruit her.
El smiled, “Thanks. I never really think about it anymore, but I guess this thing is pretty cool. I don’t know what I’d do without it.”
She unplugged the device from computer and returned it to its original configuration. Then she removed her phone’s charger from her bag, and she removed the AC adapter from the end, and plugged one end into the computer, and the other into the phone, connecting them together. She plugged the jury-rigged sim card into the phone, and turned it on. The phone immediately began pulling up programs on the computer as the two devices networked together, sharing software and processing power. El maneuvered to one of the newly-opened software pages. It took Max a few seconds to realize that it was a custom-made internet search program. El began typing a complex inquiry into the page.
“This’ll take a little time,” she said. “You’ve already used your powers a lot today in quick succession. You should relax and make sure you’re at full strength in case we have to make a quick escape outta here.”
Max nodded, “Yeah, not a bad idea. It’s not like I can do anything here. This is your brand of magic.”
He saw El smile and blush slightly as he turned and began to wander leisurely through the interior of the office building. He was careful not to open any doors, lest he trigger an alarm system, and he avoided any potentially sensitive files that he saw lying around. Finally he came across a seemingly unused office which nonetheless had a desk and a comfy-looking high-backed spinney chair. With a shrug, Max sat down in the chair, put up his hood, and closed his eyes, not sleeping, just resting, and waiting.
Not too far away, completely unaware of how near the Reaper was, Detectives Thompson and James were led through the interior of the local police station. They had yet to see it, as they had arrived in town just in time to intercept the call about the murder scene that they had just come from. As they were shown around the ten-by-twenty-foot visible space with its twenty-two or so employees, James was visibly disappointed. Thompson laughed.
“Not the hub of modern technology you were expecting from the early seventies exterior?” Thompson asked. The officer who had been giving them the tour scoffed and walked away, leaving them standing alone by the front desk. James tore his eyes from the room, with its outdated copier-printers, and old-fashioned bulky computer monitors, and blinked the disappointment from the his face.
“No, no,” he said, “sorry, its just that, as powerful as my laptop is, the desktops back at our precinct are more powerful. These wouldn’t be. I was hoping that they had something better, something that would speed up my search.”
“You’ll get by,” Thompson told him, patting him hard on the shoulder before he wandered off to a seat in the corner where he lowered his fedora cap over his eyes. James had wondered why Thompson had brought the hat, when he had never seen him wear one before, and now he knew it was for exactly this purpose. Someone who didn’t know Thompson might think that the man was simply pondering the case, when really he was sleeping the day away. James wasn’t bothered, though. Thompson didn’t know enough about computers to help him anyway.
James made his way to the desk, “Excuse me, I’m Detective James. I’m in town helping with the murder reported this morning at-.”
“The old hospital,” the slightly-heavy African-American woman to whom he had spoken interrupted, nodding. She looked sad, “I heard about that. Nothing like that has ever happened ‘round here, far as I know. It’s awful. I know they won’t say it, but I know a lot of the guys are glad to have you and your partner here helpin’ out.”
“We’re happy to help,” James told the kind older woman. He lifted up his laptop case to show her, “I help best with this. Do you have a place I can sit and tap your network? I have a search to run that might help us get ahead of the killer and track him down.”
The woman considered that for a moment, “Yeah, I got just the place. We’ve only got two cyber crimes guys, and one of them is out for the next two weeks. You can use his office. His computer is better than these out here.”
She stepped from behind the desk and pointed down a corridor off of the main bullpen, third door on the left. It’s closed, but it shouldn’t be locked. If anyone asks what you’re doin’, just tell ‘em who you are.”
“Thanks,” James told her, hiking his laptop back up onto his back and making his way toward the room without hesitation. He almost couldn’t believe that a police office this small even had a cyber crimes unit, but he wasn’t going to complain. Maybe he could get help from the other cyber crimes officer, and speed things up a bit.
When he reached the room that had been pointed out to him, James briefly looked around for the other cyber crimes officer, but couldn’t find them, so he simply pushed the door open, and stepped into the small office. It was a tight fit. The room was only big enough for a sort of half desk, two filing cabinets, and a minimal swivel chair. Upon the desk sat a modern LED monitor and a wireless keyboard. James’ heart skipped a beat. He peeked beneath the desk, and was filled with relief. This computer was easily a full year newer than the one that he used at home. He stepped back outside and redoubled his efforts to find the second officer. He finally spotted a youngish man walking down the hallway with a takeout box in one hand and a smartphone in the other. He stopped the man and asked him if he was the officer. The man said yes.
James explained the situation. “I’d help you out,” the officer replied, “but I’ve got some filing to finish. The Captain wants our paper files transferred to digital, and ‘cause he doesn’t get the amount of work that takes-.”
“He gave you a ridiculous deadline to keep,” James interjected. He’d experienced something similar more than once back home. “Thanks, anyway. I was wondering, though, if you knew the password to the computer in your partner’s office? If I can use his computer together with mine, I might actually get done some time this week.”
“Yeah,” the other officer told him hesitantly. “He gave me his password in case the Captain needs something off of it while he’s gone, but I guess he wouldn’t mind if you used it. You seem like a good guy. Just don’t fish around in police files. I’m not sure what you’re allowed in on.”
James agreed, and the other man jotted a nonsense phrase on a piece of paper and handed it to him. James walked back into the tiny office and sat down. He turned the computer on and let it boot up while he pulled out his laptop, balanced it beside the monitor and keyboard, a third of it hanging off of the desk. He input the password and watched as the desktop appeared. The wallpaper was a mecha from an old anime that James had been meaning to catch up on for a while now.
He nodded his approval and then pulled some network cables from his bag and connected the two computers together. He brought up his custom search software, and he input the search parameters. As he executed the search and began sifting through the results which already popped up into the screen, he was completely unaware of the similar search going on just down the road.
Despite himself, Max fell asleep. He hadn’t wanted to admit it to El, but using his transportation power so many times in so few days had been wearing him down. Between that, and the fact that he hadn’t exactly gotten much sleep the night before, he was more worn out than he was willing to let on. He wasn’t sure how long he was out, partially because, despite what had become typical, Max dreamed. In fact his dream was vivid and detailed. When he eventually awoke, he remembered all of it.
Max dreamed that he was in a dark room with a floor that looked like it might be stone. Shadows filled every corner of the room, making it hard to see anywhere beyond the place where Max was standing. He took a step, walking aimlessly, with no goal in mind. As soon as he did, a mirror came into view. Max didn’t react to his reflection within it, even when the reflection spoke in the voice that he knew as the whisper in his head.
“Leave the girl,” the voice told him. “She brings only hardship.”
“Go away,” Max told the voice, looking away and stepping in a different direction, “I think the fact that you have been absent for so long proves that I don’t need you.”
But as he finished speaking, another mirror came into view. “And you do need her?” the voice asked mockingly. “She is only a distraction, and she pulls you further off course with each passing moment.”
“I had no course,” Max insisted, turning away again, stepping once more into the darkness. “I can’t do anything else against the men who I set out to stop. I’ve had no mission for months. With her, I have a focus again. A new purpose.”
A row of mirrors, side by side, came into view alongside Max’s path. The reflection in them walked beside him, keeping pace even as its lips moved independent of his own, “There is more that can be done against them, but you refuse to take the required action. You are more than capable.”
“No,” Max said simply, and he veered away, into the darkness that was his only reprieve from the argumentative visage.
“This is the last time I’m going to say it,” Max said to the reflection receding behind him, “I don’t need you anymore. I have real companionship now. Get out of my head and don’t come back.”
He took one more step, and another mirror came into view. “Alright,” the Whisper said with lips identical to his own, “but soon you’ll long for the days when you were content speaking only to yourself.”
And the mirrors shattered, and the darkness lifted, and Max found himself alone in a bare, empty room. For just a moment, Max felt more alone than he ever had before, and then El kicked his chair playfully, and he awoke to her smiling face.
“You were snoring,” she said.
“I was not,” Max protested, wiping a bit of drool from the corner of his mouth and sitting up straight.
“You were,” El said matter-of-factly, “but that doesn’t matter. I found something.”
Max stood up, “What is it?”
“I found employment records for a Professor Arlen Cord with a university up state. The State University of New York at Potsdam. He came over on loan from a university in the UK, and I guess he liked it there because he stayed on for years, until one year before the dig.”
“How can you be sure that this is the school that sponsored the dig?” Max asked. “Did you find any financial records?”
“Not exactly,” El replied with a satisfied grin, “but you could say I have a hunch.”
Max paced around the office for a moment, “I don’t know that a hunch is really the best lead to be following at this point. We should try to find something more substantial, don’t you think?”
“Did I say hunch?” El asked mischievously, “because I meant to say is that SUNY at Potsdam has one of the best archaeology programs in the world, and my dad used to go there.”
“Oh,” Max said, nodding, “well in that case, it might be a good place to start.”
El packed up her various gizmos, and returned the work space that she’d been using to its original state. Max walked over and looked out the large front window. It was getting dark, but Max was rested enough that he didn’t mind starting the journey immediately. El walked over to stand by his side, following his gaze.
“I feel like we’re coming to the end of something,” she said, “like this journey that I’ve been on for so long is finally coming to a close.”
She looked over at Max, “And it’s all thanks to you.”
“You would have gotten here eventually,” Max told her, “with or without me. You’re more than strong enough. And maybe if you had, Arlen Cord would have survived. Me being here might just be making things worse for you in the long run.”
“Even if that’s true,” El told him stubbornly, “I don’t think I want this to end anymore if you aren’t there with me to see it through. You’re part of this now. Part of me.”
Max blushed, and was suddenly very aware of how close El was standing to him.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” she said, “I’m terrified. The last people who I ever got anywhere near this close to were my parents, and they died. As ridiculous as it sounds, I avoided forming attachments for a long time because I was worried that something like what happened to my parents would happen again. I had friends, but I never let them in too far. Not until you came along. With you, I just can’t seem to help myself.”
Max didn’t think that what she was saying was ridiculous at all. In fact, he had felt much the same way, and to a degree he still did. He wanted to tell El that, to assure her that she wasn’t the only unreasonable person in the room, but he somehow felt that she already knew.
“Since you’re around, though,” El concluded, “I just feel like everything is going to be okay. I can’t really explain why, but it’s true. Maybe having someone else around who’s almost as competent as me just makes me feel better about his chances.”
She looked over at Max, and their eyes met. “Well, I’ve spilled my guts,” she said, “and feel thoroughly embarrassed. Anything you’d like to say, and maybe even things out so I don’t feel like so much of an idiot.”
“Just,” Max replied with a teasing smirk, “that you aren’t an idiot. No more than I am, anyway.”
“That’s reassuring,” she replied sarcastically. They both laughed, and finally El held out her hand, and Max took it. “Shall we?” she asked, and with a glimmer of Max’s Soul, they dissolved once again, moving purposefully toward their goal. As they soared away from town, Detective James completed his own search. Excited that his findings made so much sense, he ran to present them to his partner. In ten minutes’ time, he and Thompson had returned to their places in Thompson’s gas guzzler as they made their way north to SUNY at Potsdam.
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