Trust in Oneself, Draft 1, CH 10 (Patreon)

“The Chamber?” Donal asked as they walked to an apartment building. “They’re who is behind this?”

“Really?” Shila said, “it’s that hard to believe?”

The squirrel looked at the cane Nina held, then shook his head.

“Good, then how about we work on figuring out where they’re hiding instead of…” the pangolin motioned around them.

“Instead of providing some level of comfort to those society has a habit of not giving a damn about?” Donal finished.

“Donal,” Paul said, cutting off Shila. “Wouldn’t fixing the problem go further toward helping everyone? Once we know where those causing this are, we can give the information to the Cormoran family and—”

The squirrel’s snort stopped the golden tiger.

“Or maybe there’s someone better you think we should contact?” Paul offered. “The Cormorans are the only ones I know of, other than the Brislow.”

“Normally, if you’d want help taking down bad guys, they’re who you’d go to,” Donal said. “The Cormoran are administrators more than anything else. The problem is that from what I hear, every security agency, legal, paralegal, and barely legal, has been pushed to their limits by this. Knowing there’s someone behind it, I’m guessing they made sure they were particularly busy.”

“We can still tell people who can do something with the information,” Paul said.

Donal gave Paul a look the golden tiger couldn’t decipher.

“It’d be easier to just deal with this ourselves,” Donal said.

“No,” Shila stated, as Nina had a coughing fit.

“I’m okay,” she wheezed.

“You’re not Grant, and I’m not anyone who takes down ‘bad guys’. You tell us where they’re hiding, we tell people who have the know-how and the desire, and we let them deal with that while me and Paul go handle my problems.”

“You really think this has nothing to do with you, Shila?” Donal asked, pushing the apartment building door open.

“I’m not some hero,” She spat, following him, “I’m a hacker. I’m not even one of those white hats.” The squirrel gave her a look, but he was knocking on a door before she could reply.

Paul stayed away while Donal spoke in low tones with the harried-looking father. By the time the door closed, they both looked pleased.

“You think I’m not affected by this?” Shila spat. “I’m not dead inside. But this isn’t my thing.”

Donal stopped as he was about to knock on the next door. “This is everyone’s thing, Shila. The only question is if it’ll be too late by the time those who can do something about it get off their lazy ass and do something about it.”

“Doesn’t this mean you should help us, Donal?” Paul asked.

Instead of answering, the squirrel knocked on the door. When it opened, only as far as the security chain allowed, the person on the other side was no older than eleven.

Donal crouched to be at her height. “Hi, are your parents here?”

The girl bit her lower lip. “My mom said no to speak to strangers.”

“That’s wise of her. My name’s Donal. Is she here?”

The shake of the head was small, but the slumping shoulders said a lot.

“How long has she been gone?”

“Long. She went to get food.”

Donal offered her a small doll made of scraps of fabric. “Can you look after Dolly for me? She’s scared of what’s happening and while you do that, I’ll do what I can to find your mom, okay?”

The girl nodded and took the doll, then close the door.

“I’ll help.” Donal stood and took out a phone. He closed his eyes and put it to his ear. “Lou, it’s Donal. I need you to keep an eye out for a woman, pomeranian, who lives in the Santon building, apartment one-oh-four. She… still around. Not sure where, but within a few blocks. It’s the best I can give you. Something came up. I’ll finish with the building, then I have to take care of something. Can you have your people come by every so often? Thanks.”

“I can do a search for her,” Shila said.

Donal shook his head. “Lou and his people will find her. We have more important things to do. First, I’m not a crystal ball. I can’t just tell you where the Chamber’s hiding. That’s not how I work. Second. When I find them, we’re going to be close, so do you have any thought as to how we’re going to deal with being spotted?”

Shila thumbed at Paul.

“Excuse me?” the golden tiger said.

“Have you looked at yourself?” the pangolin asked. “And you’ve already dealt with a few fights.”

“Against looters,” Paul protested. “And that was mostly luck and them not knowing how to fight. How do you expect me to take one someone from the Chamber with a staff?”

“Clock him, or her, and take the staff. Look, this isn’t Italy, or even what Grant used to deal with. They came here for Merlin. They set things up to force apotheosis on him. The staff is either viral or genetic, and you have the best anti-viral in existence. So they can’t do anything to you.”

“What about another one?” Nina asked and immediately bit her lower lip. “You make it sound like this Chamber is pretty big. What if there’s another one there? Are you going to be able to protect Paul with what you do?”

Shila looked at the hare with what Paul thought was a hint of respect. “It’s going to depend on what the staff does. I need to see what it can do before I can do anything useful. Paul told you, this isn’t a story. I can’t just program a ‘save Paul from everything’ app.”

“But it isn’t going to get to that, right?” Paul said.

“If it does,” Donal said, “I’m sure I can find you something to fight with. But before we get to that, my third point is that you’re going to help me clear the building before we start. All that means is that we knock on doors, make sure the people in the apartment are okay. If there’s any doubt, give them the location of George’s shelter, and she’ll look after time. I don’t expect a lot of that. This neighborhood seems to be having a good day. When we’re done, give me the apartment number of anyone you think should be looked after, and I’ll make sure something drops by later in the day.”

Paul looked at Shila, who looked appalled at the idea. “I’ll do it with Shila. Nina, will you be okay on your own?”

Her nod was hesitating at first, but gained confidence.

“Good,” Donal said. “We each take a floor and meet down here when we’re done.”

* * * * *

Donal was on his phone as they walked away from the building. As he’d predicted, most people were fine but pleased to see someone was looking in on them. Over four floors, each with a dozen apartments, only a handful needed to be checked on, and the squirrel was making those arrangements.

Then the squirrel made a left through an alley, and Paul allowed himself to fall behind to join Nina he’d been lagging since they’re left the building.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, but it sounded forced.

“You know you don’t have to continue with us, right? You’ve been a great help, but this should be done soon. And there’s also the possibility things might turn violent at some point.”

She smiled. “That sounds like a perfect reason for me to stick with you. Shila doesn’t strike me as someone who knows a lot about first aid.”

“If the information’s online, I wouldn’t be surprised if she can just access it and suddenly know how to do it. I know kung-fu, you know. The hare’s uncomprehending look told him she didn’t get the reference. It was an old one, he had to admit.

“You and Shila, been friends for a long time?” Nina asked.

“Acquaintances, and only for a few days, really. My best friend is how I knew of her.”

The hare looked at him, surprised. “Then why are you here with her? From the little I caught, her problems don’t sound any smaller than what’s going on here.”

Paul shrugged. “She needed help.”

“That’s very… noble of you.”

Paul couldn’t help getting the sense she’d intended to use another word, and he didn’t blame her. “I prefer to think of it as decent.”

“What are you going to do when this is over?” Nina absently ran a hand over the cane she carried.

“Hopefully find a company to work for that’ll let me do my own research.”

“Nutrition and muscle development.” She looked him up and down. “You seem to be doing well in both of those.”

He chuckled. “You haven’t met my friends. I’m borderline beanpole compared to them. But it’s mainly to help others. There’s a lot of factors that get in the way of someone building muscles and I want to figure out ways for those who are interested in getting those to be able to do so.”

“You sound pretty passionate about it.”

“I guess I am. Been thinking about that sort of stuff since my early teen. It’s guided my studies, and now it’s just about finding the people to support it.”

She nodded, and it looked like she might say something, but then remained silent and they followed Donal as he seemed to walk aimlessly through Denver’s street.

* * * * *

“So,” Donal said, looking at the hotel. “What is it with magic people and fancy hotels?”

“Easy to come and go in a hotel,” Shila said.

“And people with money want to make sure you know they have it,” Donal added.

“And they’re in there?” Nina asked, awed.

“Twenty bucks on the penthouse,” Paul said.

“I don’t know,” Donal said. “That doesn’t feel right. But if I were them, I’d have talisman up to make it hard for anyone to find them, and even I’m not immune to those.”

“You got us here,” Nina said.

“But this might be the furthest I can ‘guide’. Any more will have to be the old fashion way.”

“What is that?” Paul asked.

Donal smiled at him. “Without magic.”

“We’re fine,” Shila said. “We know where they are. Let’s just tell that Brislow guy and he can storm the gates.”

“Is that really the best thing to do?” Nina asked. “Wouldn’t it be better if we knew at least what floor they were on?”

“Girly I’m not—”

“I’m with her,” Donal said, then looked at Paul.

“You realize that Shila’s protection is going to fail at just the right moment, right?”

“Wrong moment,” the squirrel said. “That’s what you mean. The right one would be if her magic failing under the strength of their wards ended up benefiting us.”

“At least you know what I meant. But yeah. The way things have been going, this isn’t going to be smooth.”

“Sound’s like you’re siding them,” Shila said unhappily.

“There’s a lot of people in that hotel, Shila,” he replied. “If there’s one thing I’ve gotten from Thomas is that the Chamber isn’t afraid of causing deaths and damage. The more information we can give to whoever will come to deal with them, the better the odds they can contain this. It’s still just a recon, just a little closer than we’d initially thought.”

“And how do you plan on not being noticed?” she said. “There’s only so much my cloak can do under the strain of other talisman trying to see through it.”

“Leave that to me,” Donal said, “and follow me.”

* * * * *

Paul felt like a trained quad monkey in the green and gold suit he had on. It was garish, with the epaulets, and the cap that wasn’t quite the right model to accommodate his ears. But, it clearly marked him as one of the employees, therefore, as someone it was fine to ignore.

At the back of the hotel, Donal had come to a rack of uniform waiting to be brought in. “Forgotten there,” the squirrel had said as he took four and handed them. Then he plucked the hidden paper by the door with the code to the lock and got them in. They’d changed in the restroom and then had agreed to split up.

None of them were happy about it, but time was of the essence. As Shila had said, now that they were inside, the Chamber had to have an idea people who didn’t belong were there. They’d have to rely on looking like they belong there to not be noticed by the Chamber.

That, unfortunately, meant that while Paul had been mostly ignored as he walked from one floor to the other, he’d been requested to help some of the guests three times already. The last one, a group of wealthy business people who tasked him with carrying a traveling case containing the props for their demonstration.

He got to listen to them complain about the inconvenient timing of the emergency, as it meant they had to settle for a video conference instead of an in-person meeting.

Another couple, riding the elevator on his way back to the floor he’d been on, went on and one about the marvel that was good hotels and how they were lucky to have picked one that had kept the sickness at bay.

Paul had been tempted to tell them it was because they were staying in the same hotel the people engineering it was and see how they’d take that, but good sense took precedence.

Back on his floor, Paul returned to searching for clues where the Chamber was. The only advice Donal had for them was that they’d feel off. Shila had added that they’d more than likely rely on their talisman to remain unnoticed by the staff and guests, but she was confident the app she’s added to their phone would let them see through that.

So Paul finished sweeping the eighth floor, then took the stairs to the ninth, hoping the others had better luck. They’d divided the forty-eight floors among them, and Paul had the lowest twelve. Four to go and he hoped one of the other would send the signal they had found it soon. He’d made the mistake of grabbing a snack on an unattended tray and it had only reminded him he hadn’t eaten anything in hours.

The hotel floor plan wasn’t rectangular, but more like a claw, with hallways branching off here and there to maximize the number of rooms on each floor.

He was passing one such hall when someone called, “There you are.”

Paul glanced in the direction and froze at the glare he received. The woman wore a suit with a name tag. The suit was understated gray but screamed, ‘I’m in charge’. Paul looked around.

“Don’t give me that,” she said. “Come here. Do you have any idea how long you’ve kept me waiting?”

Paul swallowed.

She seemed utterly normal, except for how he couldn’t shake the feeling that her waiting for him wasn’t a case of mistaken identity. After all, how many golden tigers could there be working here?

Zero was the most likely number.

Running wasn’t an option, so he headed in her direction. He couldn’t go with her either. The odds were she’d take him to the Chamber alright, but he didn’t want to meet them. Just know where they were.

That only left him with one option, and he hated it.

“Now,” she said.

“I’m sorry.”

“You better damn be sorry. They requested that you be here fifteen minutes ago. Come with—”

Paul struck her across the muzzle, then hurried to catch her, shocked it had worked.

Okay, now what?

He looked around, but it was the sound of the ice machine that guided him. To an out-of-the-way place where he could wait for the others. Shila or Donal would have an idea how to get the information from the… he checked the name tag. Manager.

How they’d know to look for him specifically, Paul didn’t know. Maybe it was some they’d find out. Maybe not.

He put her down as gently as he could next to the ice machine and tried to get her comfortable. He didn’t know if this qualifies as the emergency Shila had meant when she’d added the panic button app on their phones, but at least it would get them to him in a hurry.

He was reaching for his phone when he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye, and he was moving out of the way of the approaching whatever-that-was before it fully register it was aimed at his face.

He almost made it.

Somehow he’d twisted enough for his face to be out of the way of the fist coming at him, but he’d been so focused on that, that he hadn’t noticed the fist was holding something that extended past it. That connected with the side of his head with enough strength that he felt his feet lift off the floor before the world blacked out.