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Episode 141 |
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Peace and Pieces “It’s fake,” Emma repeated, holding the book out for
Assif to see. Sarah and Alex both
looked over his shoulder, staring at the gibberish drawn all over the inner
pages. “This book is full of absolute
nonsense. It’s got diagrams taken from
folk medicine websites, incantations straight out of a Disney cartoon;
nothing about it is legitimate.” Assif rubbed his face in frustration. “Did you try checking to see if this was
some type of illusion or cover-up?” he asked. “First thing I tried,” Emma said. “This isn’t just the real ink on the real
pages; this ink is less than a year old.
This book was probably bought at a flea market or something, and the
pages were traded out. But even then,
the cover itself isn’t even more than five or so years old.” Assif
sighed. “That means one of three
things,” he said. “Either Vick lied to
us and has not given us the correct book, he never had the correct book, or
someone found his secret hiding place for it and changed it out.” He turned around to Alex and Sarah. “I want you two to confront Vick on this
and find out.” “Uh, quick note,” Jin asked. Alex and Sarah stepped back so Assif could
see him. “Might I remind you, Vick is
a knight. If you confront him and, oh
I don’t know, piss him off, he might kill you. And all of us. And from what I’ve seen so far, there’s really
not a whole hell of a lot any of us could say or do about it.” “Vick isn’t going to kill anyone,” Sarah said with a
trite tone. “Right,” Alex nodded. “I agree,” Assif said, turning from the group. “If he was planning to do so,” he said,
heading towards his office, “he would have done so already.” The double-doors of the cafeteria pushed open. Inside, in the dark room lit only by the
light from the industrial refrigerators, Alan sat in the far corner. Nursing an extra-large sandwich, he looked
up as Alex and Sarah entered first, Jason and Emma behind them. Dressed in their black trench coats, the
four didn’t bother with the lights as they came to stand before Alan, the
table between them. “More tests?” he
asked, looking vaguely nervous. “Perhaps,” Sarah said in a caustic tone. “If we feel like they’ll be necessary or
otherwise beneficial.” Alan sat still for a moment, staring at her. “You know, you remind me of a dominatrix I
used to know,” he said, unintimidated.
“She only charged five bucks an hour.”
Sarah’s jaw worked in anger, but she said nothing. Next to Sarah, Alex tossed the book into the seat to
Alan’s right. “It’s a fake.” Alan was taken back for a second, then picked it up. He flipped through the pages awkwardly,
getting more concerned as he looked through it. “Are you sure?” he asked. He looked up at them, worried. “How can you tell?” “I can tell,” Emma said certainly, standing behind
Sarah. Alan looked down at the book for a moment longer, then set
it on the table. He stared at it for a
moment, as if trying to get his mind around it, then looked at Alex. “You don’t think “ “Hiding things in plain sight is remarkably effective,”
Alan defended absently, flipping through pages. He sat back, looking vaguely troubled. “This changes things,” he said. “Yeah,” Jason agreed.
“It means that we don’t have a second book and the other guys may have
it.” “When the Clan attacked you, is there a chance they
might have traded this fake one out for the real one?” Alex asked. “No, they didn’t trade it out,” Alan said, his eyes
never leaving the book. He sighed and
sat back, looking up at the four Responders.
“What do you guys want to do from here?” “We need to track down the book,” Sarah insisted. “If you don’t have it, then we need you to
help us track where you might have lost it, assuming you had it at all.” “And if I didn’t?” Alan asked. Sarah was quiet. The knight looked down and sighed. “This does change things.” “I’ll say,” Alex nodded. “No, not that,” Alan said. “It means I can actually trust you
yahoos.” Jason looked at Emma,
lost. Alex was about to speak when
Alan reached into his trench coat, pulling open a hidden pocket that lined
the back. Reaching inside, he pulled
out an ancient red-bound book. He
placed it on the table next to the blue-bound fake. “You tricked us,” Alex said. “More or less,” Alan shrugged innocently. “I had to make sure I could trust you
guys. For all I knew, the moment I
gave you the book, you’d off me. At
least this way, if you’d done that, you’d have been screwed.” “That was a very dangerous little ploy, Vick,” Sarah
said scathingly. Alan looked her square in the eyes. “So’s thinking you can intimidate me.” He turned his steel gaze to Alex. “I promised you the book. This is the real, genuine article.” He suddenly smirked. “I know you probably think I’m some dumb “The thought had occurred,” Alex said, handing the real
book to Jason and Emma. As they headed
off, he turned back to the knight.
“That is the real one, isn’t it?” he asked. Alan nodded. “Trust is a valuable commodity right now,
Alan, and it goes both ways. We need
to know that we can trust you. Any
other little secrets or pranks you’ve got running?” The knight shook his head. “Alright,” Alex said, stepping back. He turned with Emma and walked out. The two turned the corner from the cafeteria and head
down to the hallway to the elevator. Hitting the button, Sarah stopped, Alex
standing on the other side of the door from her. The two waited quietly. “Think we can trust him?” Sarah asked
quietly. “Not a chance,” Alex mumbled. |
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