[REND] B2. 3.4 - The Importance of a Corkboard

Fuuuudge cake! Myra was snooping around Marsh Row! Why couldn’t she just accept that Kelsey was gone? If I had a sister, and she refused to return home, I’d just ignore her. That was her life.

And who told Myra about Red Hood? Overdrive’s group? Teflon’s group? Could be anyone, really. The legend of Red Hood had spread after the bodies of the two guys I had killed were found. As much as I wanted Red Hood to be well-known, this was an unintended consequence I hadn’t considered.

I really needed to visit Overdrive and make sure my tracks were covered there. Wouldn’t want Dario, and by extension, the sinister Professor, to know that I was an Adumbrae. Either I’d get killed or get captured to be a test subject. I imagined they’d want to experiment on an Adumbrae who had melded with an artificial Core.

That said, maybe I should investigate Dario and the Professor.

I could use Overdrive to spy on the hero wannabes. Overdrive should owe me big time for what I did to the 2Ms. He hated them for ordering him around, if I recalled correctly. Now, I’d be ordering him around.

“Marsh Row…?” Dario slowly said, scratching his chin as he glanced at Johann. Dario probably didn’t expect Johann to keep their secret mission from him. “The 2Ms’ warehouse compound, where we saved Amber and Erind, is located at the back of Marsh Row. It was the first time that we, or rather, Erind, had encountered this Blanchette.”

Uh-oh. Dario was onto something. Diversion tactics so he wouldn’t continue this train of thought. “Isn’t it weird that Blanchette had shown up during a couple of your missions?” I offhandedly wondered. “It’s as if she knows where you are.”

“Huh, you’re right,” Everett said. “It seems like too much of a coincidence, doesn’t it?”

Reo groaned. “Man, there are so many people watching us. I’m not famous enough to be followed by paparazzi. What can a guy do to have some privacy around here?”

“It’s a puzzle how Blanchette knows of our missions.” Dario scanned the hero wannabes. “An important puzzle to solve.”

Was Dario suspecting any of them of being a snitch? No way he’d ever think that I was Blanchette or Red Hood. I got tied into this whole mess only because I got on the wrong train, and the 2Ms decided to kidnap me. I wanted Dario to be wary of the other hero wannabes. Let him lose sleep over this.

“Our questions will be answered if we meet Blanchette,” Dario continued. He couldn’t really point fingers now. “I should say, when you meet with her,” he added, gesturing at Myra. “This Blanchette doesn’t seem to like me that much. I wouldn’t risk a second encounter with her even if it’d turn out that our violent first meeting was due to a misunderstanding.”

“Does that mean you’re alright allying with an Adumbrae?” I asked. “I-I’m not sure how to feel about being saved by an Adumbrae… Of course, I’m grateful. But working together with her is… I don’t know.” I should get a medal for not laughing while saying that.

“Kelsey is one thing,” Reo said, nodding. “Blanchette, no matter how freakishly hot she looks, is a different matter. Yeah, she helped us. But why? It’s not because she’s being heroic as a hobby, I can tell you that.”

“She has beef with the 2Ms,” Everett said. “That’s all there is to it. Look, I also appreciate that she saved me, too. But I’m not going to work with her, even if we have the same goal.”

“We can trust her,” Deen said. “Gabe didn’t alert me to betrayal or—”

“Because Blanchette didn’t want to harm you,” I said, without moving my jaws as much as possible. I was on the verge of laughing. “She saved me, too. But she wasn’t being altruistic there. Everett’s right that Blanchette wants to fight the 2Ms, not specifically to help us.”

“She’s not an enemy,” Deen insisted.

Why was Deen so pushy with this? I thought she wasn’t comfortable with Adumbrae? This gave me a sliver of hope that she’d accept me if I revealed I was an Adumbrae. Maybe. It’d make my life easier if someone would help me disguise my changing body. And it wouldn’t be a hassle hanging out with Deen because I wouldn’t need to keep my guard up. I might be an introvert, but I wasn’t a shut-in.

“She’s not,” Dario echoed. “But that doesn’t automatically mean Blanchette is a friend. We don’t know what’s going on in the mind of an Adumbrae. She could’ve killed all of us at the docks if the… misunderstanding… had been perpetuated.”

“Even so, I need Blanchette’s help to find Kelsey,” Myra said. “My sister’s probably hiding with some Adumbrae. Real ones, you get me? I understand if you guys are suspicious of Blanchette, but I’ll continue looking for her. You can’t stop me.”

“None of us will,” Dario said. “I simply advise you to be on guard and not be readily trusting. If you do find her, she might be willing to share what she knows of the 2Ms… and of us. Keep us updated, okay?”

You really want to know about Blanchette, huh? I wouldn’t be surprised if Dario would ask the Professor to deploy their resources to look for Blanchette. They would be suspicious of this strong Adumbrae who seemed to know of their operations.   

“Tell her to stop peeping on me,” said Reo, chuckling. “I already have a cop doing that.”

“That’s it, then?” Everett asked. “Johann’s assignment is to dig up stuff about the cop guy. Myra is going to look for Blanchette. What’ll the rest of us do? I won’t have much free time this week because my aunt’s family is coming over for a reunion.”

“I’m not going to do shit,” Reo said.

“I’ll go with Myra,” said Deen. “I want to meet Blanchette to say thanks. It’ll also be safer if I’m present while Myra looks for Blanchette. Meeting her, too, if we’re successful. Gabe will advise us on how to handle the conversation so we won’t offend her or the like.”

“Thanks, Deen,” said Myra. “Appreciate it.”

“If Deen’s going, then I’ll go with them,” I said. Good luck finding Blanchette if I was going to be with you. I wouldn’t want to miss this scene for the world. “I feel guilty about not doing much during the docks mission. You guys put your lives on the line while I was safe.” I met Deen’s eye for a moment, signaling that there was an opportunity for us here. Maybe Deen would think that we’d try to win over Myra.

“That’s a good idea.” Dario nodded at me. “Erind, you’re the only one who has seen Blanchette’s human face. You have to join the search. If anyone is going to be observing you, it’ll appear that you’ve maintained connections with Myra. Sgt. Hall wouldn’t think that you’ve ratted him out, for lack of a better term.”

“Which she did,” Reo said, laughing. “You guys will be A-OK with Deen around. Anyone will be okay with Deen around. Right, Everett?”

Everett grumbled, “Shut up, man.”

“What? I’m talking about her powers keeping us safe!”

“On the topic of safety,” Dario said. “Erind, have your powers already manifested?”

“No… not yet.” I had expected this question. There wasn’t anything else I could answer. Even if I admitted that I already had my Core powers, I didn’t know how to use them. I didn’t want to test with Blanchette in giant werewolf mode. “I guess that I’m a late bloomer like Reo. Will taking more of those pills help?”

“It certainly would.” Dario took a small box out of his pocket. “I’ve brought some for you.”

I received it using my left hand. He glanced at my right hand. Did he think I was doing something weird? He didn’t mention anything. “Thanks. I do hope I get my powers soon.”

“You will,” Dario replied, staring too long at my right arm by my side.

-------

“And the last test to confirm the seeded status of a human that we’ll discuss,” droned Professor Bansa, “is the Eloyce Field Integrity test, named after the founder of our alma mater.”

It was Wednesday morning, and I was trying not to fall asleep while listening to the lecture. I should be interested in this class—CrimLaw II, focusing on Adumbrae cases—but Professor Bansa was just so boring.

He was just reading off a presentation, adding comments here and there. Just give us the printout and dismiss the class! We’d read this shit right before the exams.

“As you all know, and should know,” the professor continued, “Mr. Graham Eloyce discovered the Eloyce Field and proved the existence of the Adumbrae dimension. Our world is not alone.”

We were discussing the ways that the government could confirm someone was an Adumbrae before executing them. I didn’t really care about the tests because it was quite easy to find out if I was an Adumbrae without checking if I healed my injuries inhumanly fast. This morning, a patch of marbly skin had cropped up on my left arm, near my elbow. Thankfully, I had spotted it before leaving my condo, and I changed to a long-sleeved blouse to cover it.

I’ll take the pills later, I thought. Spooky Erind didn’t seem angry that I was cultivating the artificial Core. But what if the artificial Core became strong enough to, I don’t know, destroy my Adumbrae parts?

“Erind, you’re dozing off there,” Ramello whispered. Right, this annoying guy was sitting beside me.

“I’m fine,” I shortly answered.

“Who can give a short explanation of what the Eloyce Field is?” Professor Bansa asked, looking up from his laptop to look at the class.

Before Ramello could talk to me again, I raised my hand.

Professor Bansa pointed at me, and I stood up to recite. “Graham Eloyce discovered in 1968 that the whole of humanity has a collective higher-dimensional link—a gestalt subconsciousness that is projected in the dimension of Adumbrae. This is the Eloyce Field, and this is what the Adumbrae are tapping into when they seed us.”

Good thing I studied this shit while riding the taxi on the way to school. I couldn’t do much schoolwork last night because I kept daydreaming of all the drama when I’d visit Marsh Row to visit Overdrive later. And I finally put my corkboard to work, outlining the storylines of my faces.

“Correct, Ms. Hartwell,” said Professor Bansa. “The Eloyce Field, a mirror of our collective consciousness, is in another dimension.” He gazed at the walls of the lecture hall, muttering almost to himself, “What if we’re the mirrored image? Some believe we are but a mere reflection of the true reality… the reality of the Adumbrae.”

The class became more silent than usual. We stared at each other, wondering if the professor was losing it. Probably fried his brain from being too bored with himself.

Professor Bansa shook his head and adjusted the microphone. “Where was I? Ah, yes. Ms. Hartwell, what is an EFIT?”

My sleepiness had subsided a bit because of the professor’s weird display. I gave him the textbook answer. “Sir, the Eloyce Field Integrity Test checks the link of a person with the Eloyce Field. If the link is crumbling, that means that the person will be invaded by an Adumbrae sooner or later.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hartwell,” said the professor, motioning for me to sit. “As you’ve all learned in your Constitutional Law class, the profiling of the Eloyce Field of a person is an invasion of privacy and a violation of the right against self-incrimination. This means one can refuse such a test. The authorities need a court order after due process to perform an EFIT. Can someone explain why an EFIT—uh, Mr. Staten?”

Ramello’s hand had shot up before Professor Bansa had finished his sentence. This guy just wanted to show off to me. “Sir, a biologically-human individual with a crumbling link to the Eloyce Field is still a human, and has all the rights of one. An EFIT is different from a blood test, for example, which doesn’t violate the right against self-incrimination. It simply provides physical evidence, which is innocuous on its own. In contrast, the Supreme Court ruled that a positive result in EFIT is self-incriminatory.

“A person with a crumbling link is not committing the crime of betraying humanity by letting an Adumbrae into our world. They will, in the future. But we don’t punish them until then. This can’t even be considered an attempted stage of a crime because… there’s really no attempt made. A clinically diagnosed psychopath isn’t jailed for what they are. They have to commit a crime first.”

“Well put, Mr. Staten. Thank you.”

Ramello leaned to my side as he sat. “Nice tag-team we did there, yeah?”

I ignored him, pretending to be intently listening to the lecture. I projected that I was annoyed at him. He’d conclude that it was because of his uncle. I wasn’t sure yet how to use him.

Professor Bansa continued. “To avoid misuse and abuse, many states have banned EFIT.” The list of such states was displayed on the screen, and he started to read every… fucking… one of them.

The class decided it was time to hibernate once again.   

“What did my uncle talk to you about?” Ramello asked. “If it’s not some big secret… which I doubt it is. This must be about the Adumbrae attack again.”

“Not exactly,” I said. Maybe I could convince Ramello to spy on his uncle for me? If I acted like a very distressed damsel, he’d side with me over the guy who raised him. As the saying goes, bitches before uncles. Not that I was a bitch. Just sometimes. “He asked me to observe some friends, like Myra Fletcher.”

“The sister of Kelsey? Why?”

“Because he thinks that they’re connected to the Adumbrae? I don’t really know.” I wouldn’t tell Ramello my actual conversation with Tower Cop. “I guess it might have something to do with his fourth Adumbrae theory.”

“That’s odd,” Ramello said, furrowing his brows. “Questioning you is part of police work. Asking you to be some sort of informant is wild. That doesn’t sound like my uncle. If he truly thought you were with the wrong crowd, he’d tell you to avoid them, right? Maybe you misunderstood him.”

“Maybe, I did…” I balled my right hand under the table into a fist. My heart raced as adrenaline rushed throughout my body. Tower Cop was baiting us!   

(Author's Notes: A small addition to the previous chapter: Dario mentions that he doesn't know if the trackers he placed on the Red Island ship will be useful since the 2Ms are changing things up after getting attacked. In this chapter, we've set up plotlines for Book 2, including Myra looking for Kelsey and Erind meeting Overdrive again. There'll be a lot of scheming, investigating, and manipulating in Book 2. Fights will be smaller scale, more like a gang war, I guess.

We also have some worldbuilding going on in this chapter. We didn't have this stuff in the original version. The Prior Cycle was scant on world-building, which I hope to remedy in this rewrite. And what was this that Tower Cop did? Thank you all for your support!)