Secret Agent Chapter 083 - Entanglements (Patreon)

Sister Paula was waiting for them on the doorstep, next to the still broken window from the night of the thurgenrat invasion, and when she saw Henrietta safe and sound she sighed with visible relief.

Zack [Stifled] a smile, even as a warm feeling settled in his chest.

Yeah, this was a good orphanage.

He wanted to keep helping.

Would he have gotten involved in something like this back on Earth?

Maybe.

He couldn’t have done it while working as a secret agent, though. He was watched too closely at first, and only once he had unraveled his entanglements and called in his favors to get his records deleted…

Some people think that a secret agent lives a double life; that he or she plays one identity during the day and then at night they go home and switch back to ‘normal.’

Not Zack Adder. And not anyone else he knew of in the business.

Mass surveillance had been too powerful for that.

There couldn’t be a normal identity. The part had to be played from start to finish until the mission was done.

For a hacker like himself, working from dimly lit rooms in remote locations, it was much more relaxed.

But when he had been sent overseas, in the role of an IT contractor, and later in the role of a defector…

The CIA had been very clear. Never relax. Never break character.

It was a full-time—as in twenty-four hours a day—every day job.

They had even done a sleep study on him to make sure he didn’t talk in his sleep.

“Jack?”

Roxy and Henrietta were looking at him. They were already to the gate, and he was just standing in front of the closed gate, making no move to open it.

“Ah.”

He opened the gate.

“Sorry, I was spacing out. I had an early start this morning.”

And the night before he had nearly been caught by the [Hero’s Party], the Kingdom, and the Church.

The orphanage. The Adventurer’s Guild. The Rose Theater.

Was he getting too entangled?

Sienna’s tongue flickered in his ear and brought him back to himself again.

Saa tired.

Maybe.

Suddenly having an idea, Zack pressed on his [Last Stand] skill.

He had acquired the skill while fighting nearly to his death against the swarm of thurgenrats, and it had kept him up and fighting regardless of the damage he was taking.

But nothing happened.

No sudden burst of energy. No sudden mental clarity.

He [Stifled] a sigh.

That would have been too easy.

“Welcome back, Henrietta. Please go help serve dinner as soon as you put away your things.”

“Yes, Sister Paula.” Henrietta was carrying the paper and art supplies, and practically skipped inside with a smile on her face.

And then the Sister turned to Zack and Roxy.

“Were you able to finish all your business?” she asked. “I realized only after you left that time had gotten away from us, and dusk was closer than I thought…”

Zack nodded, using his [Acting] skills to smile reassuringly. “It was fine.”

Roxy nodded as well. “I didn’t realize witches and alchemists were so weird!”

Sister Paula put a hand on her cheek and made a slightly worried expression.

“Anyway,” Zack interjected before the conversation could wander too far. “I’ll be back tomorrow to start on [Reading] lessons. Once the Theater starts back up, I’ll be free in the mornings. When’s a good time to come over?”

Sister Paula’s expression relaxed. “An hour or two after sunrise is best. That gives the children plenty of time to finish breakfast and their morning chores.”

“And, Roxy.” Zack turned to his fellow [Actor]. “You already know how to read, how did you learn? Was there a book you learned out of?”

Roxy shook her head with a slight frown. “I was taught by a courtesan, after I left the orphanage where I grew up. She taught me out of a book of poetry, but it was pretty hard… Until I got the skill, at least. Then it got much easier.”

Zack frowned, himself. It seemed like the [Skill] for [Reading] might actually help things along quite a bit.

He had picked up the [Skill] reading cramped handwriting in the dim outdated book storage room in the Castle, and hadn’t thought much about it since.

It was hard to notice the impact of a [Skill] other than the time before and after acquiring it. When he ran around the city, he was just [Running]. It was automatic. Even when he practiced [Slinging], the actually slinging motion was automatic, it had just been the aiming that had given him trouble, until he got the [Aim] skill.

“Mister Jack…” Sister Paula looked worried again. “The orphanage doesn’t have any books. I know I requested this of you, but do you have any books…?” she trailed off hopefully.

Zack’s mind went to the poisoner’s handbook tucked under his bed in Vlad’s apartment.

“Nope,” he lied casually. “But that’s okay. Henrietta’s got plenty of paper, we can just make some practice material.”

He noticed that both Sister Paula and Roxy reacted slightly when he lied. A slight narrowing of the eyes, a tightness in the jaw and shoulders.

The light faded more and more as the sun fully set behind the horizon.

He needed to practice [Lying] more.

He needed to do so very many things.

“Very well,” Sister Paula said, accepting his explanation. She smiled politely. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning, then.” Then she turned to Roxy. “Mister Jack, would you mind escorting Roxy home?”

“Yeah, Jack, can you walk me home?” Roxy smiled coyly and boldly grabbed Jack’s arm and clung to him, even with Sienna on his shoulders.

“Of course,” he said evenly. Sienna sent a huff of exasperation through their bond, but reacted no more than that.

They said their farewells and made their way through the slums towards the Kingsroad. There was a tension between them as they walked, and eventually Roxy let go of his arm and settled for walking closely next to him.

“Do you… want to come inside?” Roxy asked when they reached the door of her apartment building.

Zack couldn’t help but roll his eyes, and Roxy laughed.

“Nyahahahaha. I’ll see you later, Jack!”

“Hey, wait.”

Roxy spun back around and leaned forward so she could look up at him alluringly.

“Are you going to St. Bella’s tomorrow?”

“Maaaaaybe.”

“I might want to take Henrietta back to Kathy’s Apothecary.”

Roxy pouted.

“You’re really going to talk about other women now, right in front of my apartment?” she teased.

“Yeah,” Zack replied simply.

“Boo! Yes, I can come over, in the morning, but you owe me lunch!”

“Sure.”

At just that moment, his stomach growled.

Roxy straightened up and her demeanor changed. Suddenly she seemed more serious and down to earth.

“You sure you don’t want to come up and eat something?”

“Yeah, I’ve got one more thing to do tonight, and then I need some sleep.”

Roxy narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t push yourself too hard. Make sure to take some time off before rehearsals.”

That was why he needed to push, he thought, but he nodded. “Good night, Roxy.”

“Night, Jack!”

She turned once more and the door closed behind her, and Zack made his way to the final event of the day.

The gym.

He wasn’t planning to go out hunting tomorrow, so it was a good time to hit the weights and get some of his strength back.

When he arrived, he found Fyodor inside, talking to one of the other bulky dock workers.

“No,” the man said, “you’re still recovering. Just wait a week.”

Fyodor slumped his shoulders, defeated.

“Hey, Fyodor,” Zack called out a greeting from a few paces back, given Sienna was still on his shoulders.

“Ah, Jack! My friend, you are here to join our brotherhood of trulloy?” Fyodor smiled widely, though the other man gave him a more suspicious look.

“Is that a snake on your shoulders?” he asked.

Fyodor waved a hand. “It is fine, Jack’s [Familiar] is a very good snake.”

There was some negotiation, but Zack had come prepared. He still had the clearsteel case, and the other man, who managed the gym itself on behalf of the ‘brotherhood,’ agreed to let Sienna in if she was latched inside the case.

Sienna, for her part, preferred it that way. The slamming of the weights was making her anxious, and being inside the case dampened the noise and vibrations considerably.

“Jack, this is Rip,” Fyodor introduced the gym manager. “Rip, this is Jack, the [Understudy] of our Troupe!”

Rip was a stout man, several inches shorter than Zack, with a square head and bushy mustache and a somewhat angry resting expression. They shook hands, and his grip was incredibly strong.

“So, you want to join the brotherhood?”

Zack blinked. “Well, I’d like to join the gym. Is there more to it than that?”Rip barked a laugh. “Hah! No, not really. You already got Fyodor to vouch for you, just don’t cause problems and pay your dues on time, and you’re fine.”

There was more, but it was just like joining a gym back on Earth. An initial fee of fifty lindra, and then thirty lindra a month thereafter, and Zack was given a key to the door and a warning to basically not break anything and to clean up after himself.

“Do you already have the [Lifting] skill?”

“No,” Zack admitted. He thought about explaining that he’d done weightlifting before, but couldn’t think of a good way to explain why he knew what he was doing without having the [Skill].

“Then you’ll need a spotter until you get it and know what you’re doing. Normally I’d charge you for training, but Fyodor…”

“I shall do it!” Fyodor declared.

“Yeah, figured,” Rip said. “Jack, don’t let him do any [Lifting] himself. He’s still recovering.”

“Oh come on!” Fyodor protested.

“You got it, Rip,” Zack agreed.

“Hey!” Fyodor gestured to his upper body. “I only really got bit on my legs, I can at least do upper body!”

Sienna tucked her head into her coils within the clearsteel case as the two muscular men argued loudly.

Zack [Stifled] a yawn, and discovered he could also [Stifle] the rumbling of his stomach.

“Fyodor,” he interrupted his coworker. “I’m going to start warming up.”

Rip’s small eyes widened a bit. “Oh, good! You know about that already.”

Fyodor sighed dramatically. “I’m going to lose so many gains…”

Still, he gave up, and Zack slowly worked his way up from light weights to heavier weights. Though he couldn’t be sure the weights were the same weight they were back on Earth—how could he even check that, anyway?—he found his current limit and [Memorized] his numbers and called it a day.

*ding!* The skill [Lifting] has been acquired!

He knew he’d be sore tomorrow.

“Jack!” Rip called from the other end of the gym as he finished up. “Take him with you! He’s just being a nuisance in here!”

Fyodor stopped drifting towards the dumbbells on their racks and gave Zack a piteous look.

Zack merely cocked an eyebrow.

Fyodor gave up.

“Fine… Jack, my friend, have you already eaten?”

Zack’s stomach growled as he missed the brief window of time to [Stifle] it. Fyodor’s expression brightened.

“Please, come inside to my apartment! I have too much meat, you will help me eat it!”

They ate, Sienna content to remain inside the case, and Zack listened patiently to Fyodor’s complaints about being forced to rest.

“If it bothers you that much,” Zack said between bites of some kind of steak with an unusual flavor. “Why not just go to the Church and get healing?”

Zack himself couldn’t do that, lest they discover him, but Fyodor should be able to.

Fyodor blanched and frowned. “I could… But it would be a terrible waste of money. My wounds truly are mere scratches. Nothing so severe that I would need the Church’s healing.”

“How much would it be?” Zack took another bite.

Fyodor gave him a funny look but answered anyway. “You do not know? They announced the price changes several months ago.”

“That was before I got to Fortinium,” Zack answered truthfully.

“Ah…” Fyodor nodded to himself. “Well, the cheapest healing is ten fortin. And even that would be more than I need for these flesh wounds.”

Zack choked on his food momentarily. Fyodor, worried, started to get up, but Zack waved him down and managed to clear his throat.

“Ten fortin?!” he exclaimed belatedly.

“Indeed.” Fyodor nodded gravely.

It seemed gouging on healthcare was a universal constant, not just an Earth thing.