August Intruder- Chapter 42- More Questions Than Answers

They did not all come out of the precinct together. Instead, David followed the front door, rough-handled by one of the officers—for dramatic effect—and was shoved out into the street.

As for Melmarc and Pelumi, a random officer led them to an underground parking lot. The place was filled with cars occupying almost every parking space. Melmarc was sure he counted at least thirty cars.

Looking at each car, only one thought came to mind. Being a Gifted detective must pay well.

None of the car models were older than five years. Each one was sleek and looked like something the mysterious bad guys would ride in an action movie with tinted glasses and glossy exteriors.

From the way Pelumi stared, looking from car to car, Melmarc was pleased to know that he wasn’t the only one impressed and surprised.

The underground parking lot led them into what looked like an actual tunnel pathway. The officer gave them a confused smile, clearly unsure of why he was guiding two kids to such an estranged place. In the end, he pointed them forward and let them know that a straight walk was the way out.

With a quick thank you, Melmarc and Pelumi walked the distance. They didn’t run, but they didn’t stroll either. They found an easy pace between both speeds and kept to it, walking in silence until they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, which was funny since they barely walked five minutes.

Melmarc found himself wondering if there was something else to this tunnel than just being a tunnel beneath the precinct.

“Nervous?” Pelumi asked.

Melmarc shook his head. “Not really.”

It was a good lie as far as lies went. In fact, he was wondering why he wasn’t shaking in his boots.

This is what you wanted, isn’t it? he thought to himself. At some point you’ll have to deal with the big and bad, you might as well start somewhere.

Melmarc wanted to be able to go into portals and close them. He wanted to be able to protect cities in the event of Chaos runs. Did he really want to be busting bad guys who were selling drugs?

That was more police and less Delver.

“On a scale of one to ten,” Pelumi said as they drew closer to the light, “how bad is it?”

“Four.”

Melmarc kept his eyes on the light remembering the name of the street they were supposed to meet David at.

“Want to bail?”

Melmarc’s attention snapped to Pelumi. “What?”

“I’ll take that as a no.” She turned back to the light. “You looked like you weren’t sure. And it felt like you were only doing this because they pressured you into it. You know you can always say no, right?”

Melmarc opened his mouth to say he did but ended up closing it back. He knew he could say no. He told people no all the time. But had he ever told people who mattered no before?

“I’m just saying,” Pelumi continued. “Because I’ve noticed you don’t really do much in the way of arguing.”

Melmarc wasn’t sure he could agree with that. “I argue.”

Pelumi put a thoughtful finger to her lips as the smooth tunnel ground came to a stair case. “Maybe argue is not the word I’m looking for. You ask questions, a lot of them. But when you do it’s for the sake of asking questions.”

“It’s good to know everything you’re getting into.”

They took the stairs one at a time. Surprisingly, two ladies walked past them, going down the stairs and into where they were just coming from.

Confused and not sure if the tunnel was supposed to be some kind of secret, Melmarc and Pelumi turned to stop them and froze.

Both girls walked down and into a crowd, having a friendly conversation while everyone else made their way around the underground train station.

Melmarc looked at Pelumi. “Please tell me you’re seeing it, too.”

“I’m seeing it.” Pelumi nodded slowly. “Please tell me it was empty just a second ago.”

“It was empty just a second ago.”

Melmarc had heard of advanced architectural work. Crafters who could create things like the glass machine that had taken his reading during his registration, things so out of the ordinary. Apart from the glass machine, the only surprising feat of crafting he’d ever seen was the remaking of his home after the attack.

But this? This was something else.

“What do you think will happen if we go back down?” Pelumi asked as people continued to walk back and forth.

Melmarc wasn’t sure, but this wasn’t the time to confirm it.

“We should hurry,” he told her. “David might be waiting for us.”

Pelumi gave the train station one final glancing before turning away from it.

……

They found David’s car parked exactly where he’d told them it would be. It was a banged up car that Melmarc had a suspicion would need to be literally pushed before it would start. While he stepped into the front passenger seat with a little trepidation, Pelumi slipped into the back, carefree.

It was like she didn’t even register the vehicle as hazardous.

David slid the car key into the ignition and turned it. When the car came alive, it was loud and gutterly. It was the sound Melmarc expected to hear if an engine had a cough. The car jerked twice as the engine tried to come alive and David kept pumping down on the clutch.

“Don’t worry about this,” he told them, staring down at the meters on the dashboard. “Sometimes she just needs a little kick.”

From the rearview mirror Melmarc caught Pelumi staring out the car window with a nostalgic smile on her face.

He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it.

The front passenger seat of David’s was one of the most uncomfortable sits Melmarc had ever had the displeasure of sitting in. But he kept his mouth shut and suffered the entire thirty minutes ride.

David led them through the streets, taking turns and often ignoring red lights he completely did not have to. The car made all the noise a car was allowed to make and made all the noise a helicopter was allowed to make.

And each time Melmarc checked on Pelumi through the rearview mirror the nostalgic smile remained on her face.

Melmarc was surprised that no police officer had come to pull them over.

“So…” David turned the car onto a secluded street. “What’s it like working for the cops?”

“It’s okay, I guess.” Melmarc shrugged.

“Just okay?” David scoffed.  “Don’t they give you guys like a stipend or something? I’m sure you get to use their sweet gym.”

“I guess it’s alright.”

Melmarc hadn’t used their gym, and he had no idea if it was sweet or not. Also, he wasn’t sure how he felt about the conversation. It felt as if David was trying to clear up the air, have a friendly conversation to prove that his first encounter with Melmarc was water under the bridge, but Melmarc didn’t know how to have a conversation with someone he barely knew.

“You know,” David went on as the car slowed down. “Your supervisor, Mr. Hitchcock, he says you’re not a Basher. You sure hit like one. Never seen a young class hit like that when they aren’t part of the Basher people. Is your class a strength type or something?”

Melmarc thought about how many instances of [knowledge is Power] he had used during the chase. Four, maybe?

And if each boost gave him a 0.5 increase to all attributes that gave him an increase by two, give or take.

His mind went to how far David had gone from his tackle. Thinking about it made him wince, but he was more interested in how far he’d gone.

Were two points in strength really that powerful?

David looked at him from the corner of his eye, trying to keep his attention on both im and the clear road in front of them. “You still with me, kid?”

“Uhh…” Melmarc shook his thought. “Spaced out for a bit.”

David chuckled. “I know the feeling. First gig? Must be. Naymond practically threw you to the wolves on this one.”

Pelumi perked up at that. “Why would you say that?”

She sounded angry.

“Calm down, missy,” David said casually, looking at her through the rearview. “I’m just saying, he’s willing to send you in to tangle with Romanian business without back up.”

“I thought you were back up,” Melmarc said.

David snorted. “Oh you poor kid. I’m not back up. All I’m doing is introducing you to the crew. They’ll give you your task and you’re on your own from there. See, missy, I’m not saying anything he doesn’t know.”

“So let me get this straight,” Pelumi said with a frown. “You felt that while they told my friend how dangerous this was, it wasn’t dangerous enough. So you had to put it in his head that he was being abandoned and put in more danger than he knows.”

David’s hands held the steering wheel tighter. “It’s the Romanians. I’m just looking out for the kid. That’s all.”

“And you see nothing wrong in what you said?”

“Alright,” David raised his hand in a surrendering gesture. “I was just trying to help, there’s no need for you to make me look like I’m doing something wrong.” He looked at Melmarc as he placed his hands back on the steering wheel. “I’m sorry if you took that the wrong way. The Romanians are just real pieces of shit. They said they’ve been kidnapping certain classes so I just wanted to be sure you were safe.”

Melmarc looked out the window. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t more worried than he’d been a moment ago.

For all he knew, Naymond could’ve been downplaying the entire thing just so he could do it. He didn’t think Naymond was a bad person, but he was of the opinion that Naymond was an unpredictable person. The Sage had been concocting this entire plan longer than before Melmarc had joined the force.

Did he think Naymond would be willing to sacrifice him just to ensure the continuance of the plan?

Yes.

And with what David had just said, he feared it a lot.

“Time to duck down, kid,” David said as they slowly pulled up to the house on the picture they’d showed them. “Last thing you want is one of these guys getting a sight of you.”

He put the gear in park. At least Melmarc thought it was park. He didn’t know how stick-shifts worked, all he’d seen was David move the gear box around a little before relaxing and turning to him.

“Here’s our stop, kid. I’ll take you in, make the introductions and I’ll be out. So just remember, don’t look inside the package.”

Before they stepped out of the car, Melmarc said, “Agility.”

David paused. “What’s that?”

“My class type. It’s Agility”

“Why the hell would you tell him?” Pelumi asked, appalled. “I swear to God, Marc, you’re too trusting even with all your questions and observations.”

Melmarc gave her a weak smile. “It’s just my class type. There’s no harm there.”

David’s face softened. “Thanks. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. People look at me and just assume that I’m some kind of douchebag scheming something bad. I’ve done some bad in the past but I work with the cops now. I’m trying to make up for the wrongs I’ve done. But people take one look at me after finding out what I do and my horrible history’s all they see, not the good I’m trying to do. It means a lot that you could trust me with that. I swear I’ll put in a good word for you in there.”

Pelumi’s jaw was hanging open in confusion when they came out. Personally, Melmarc found the look funny.

As they walked up to the house, taking the stairs up to the front porche, David turned and offered Melmarc his hand.

“David Swan. E-rank Crafter,” he said. “Doesn’t do much, but it has its uses.”

Melmarc hesitated before shaking his hand. “Marc. C-rank Weaver.”

They shook once and David opened the door for him to enter.

……..

Inside was exactly how Melmarc expected it to be. Run down and questionable.

As they walk into a small waiting area, someone bellowed from what was supposed to be the living room.

“Davi, that you?”

“Yea, Navari,” David hollered back, then gave Melmarc an assuring look. “I brought my kid.”

“You’re late. Hurry up.”

There was a slight shake in his voice, so slight Melmarc almost thought he’d imagined it. But David gave no inclination of worry so he kept his own worries to himself.

David led Melmarc into the living room, which was an equal mess with broken picture frames on the ground, dust and other detritus. The house smelled old and musky.

Inside the living room there were eight boys standing casually in the middle of the room in different outfits. On one side of the room were three men, probably David’s age, likely a few years older.

Then at the head of the room was a couch with a man probably in his thirties sitting casually. He was so large he occupied more than half of the three seater.

David strolled into the room in leaning forward, like he was trying to look below something that came down to his chest but wasn’t sure if he should.

“What’s good, Boss. Sorry I’m late. Took me a while to get the—”

David froze, leaving his sentence incomplete and stopping in his tracks. Melmarc had to side-step him to prevent himself from running into him.

When Melmarc came to a stop beside him, he saw what made David pause. He wasn’t sure how he’d missed it, but behind the man on the couch, one man stood quietly.

The house was dark with no lights on so it wasn’t a difficult miss, but Melmarc felt he should’ve noticed the moment he’d walked it with [World of Insight] active. He pulled up his interface, checking it quickly and saw why.

[Name: Melmarc Jay Lockwood]

[Class: Faker – World of Insight (Mastery -21.22%)]

[Rank: B]

[Growth Potential: Unranked]

Status: August Guest +0.5 to all stats, Intruder -0.5 to all stats.

[World of Insight] had dipped significantly into the negative. It left the effects of the skill basically nonexistent.

“Uhm, boss,” David started slowly. “I see we have a guest. Everything good?”

Navari dismissed him with a gesture of his hand. “Take your place, Davi. And your kid should stand with the other kids. Mamba, get the kid his pack.”

 Melmarc moved to stand in the middle of the room, hoping his legs weren’t visibly shaking. He was now realizing that David had no power of any kind here.

So much for putting in a good word for me, he thought as one of the men with a snake tattoo on his face handed him a package.

He noticed then that the other boys had packages of their own.

Navari snapped a finger to get their attention once more. “In case your patrons haven’t told you,” he said. ‘The packages in your hand are to be delivered to a location of our choosing. Upon successful delivery, you will each receive a hundred dollars for your troubles.”

One of the boys fidgeted, raising a hand.

“No, it is not harmful,” Navari said. “And no, it is not illegal. However, you are not allowed to open it. If you check inside, we will know and your hundred dollars is forfeit. Is that clear?”

The boys nodded in understanding. Melmarc did the same.

“I would just like to add one thing,” the man behind Navari said. His voice was slow, as if he was tired, and he didn’t step out of the darkness so his face remained concealed.

But there was something about his accent. Melmarc tried to figure it out. He’d heard someone who spoke like it, as if their brogue was being swallowed up by a proper English accent. But it was still there, under it all. It tickled Melmarc’s mind in a way he didn’t like.

“I wish to make this… delivery… more interesting,” the man said. “So we will do this. If you successfully bring in your box, Navari here,” he placed a hand on Navari’s shoulder and Melmarc could’ve sworn the big guy flinched, “will give you a hundred dollars. However, for every other box you submit, you get an extra two hundred dollars.”

Everyone remained quiet. Silence met the man’s new rule.

“I don’t know.” The man made a vague gesture, twirling his hand. “How do you say it properly? One box, you get a hundred dollars. Two boxes, you get three hundred dollars. Three boxes, you get four hundred dollars.”

With one hand still on Navari’s shoulder, he counted the boys with the other.

“So… one, two, three…” his words trailed away but his hand continued to pick them out. “Nine of you. Which means, if you bring nine boxes, you get…” he frowned. “Who knows what nine times… if you bring nine boxes, how much will you get? Someone do the counting.”

Seventeen hundred dollars, Melmarc thought. But he wasn’t going to be the one to offer the answer.

“Eight times two’s sixteen,” one the boys said confidently. He was wearing a varsity jacket. Black and white. “So that makes seventeen hundred. You got seventeen hundred to give? That’s a lot of money for a delivery.”

The man chuckled and one of the older men standing with David ran a hand down his face in dismay.

“The hundred dollars is what they pay you for the delivery.” The man gestured at Navari then the older men. “I offer another hundred dollars on top, not for the delivery, but for the drive. To see who can step out of the norm and make their own rules.”

He released Navari’s shoulder and stepped into view, close enough now that they could see his face. He had a hard face, not the kind gotten from age but the kind gotten from seeing too much. It reminded Melmarc of some before and after pictures he’d seen on the internet. On one side was a man before going to war, on the other was the same man maybe a year after the war.

Both men were never the same.

Seeing the man’s face, the accent also cliqued. He was Romanian.

“But I must warn you,” the man continued. “While I want to see who will make their own rules, I will beg you not to break mine.”

He chuckled darkly and walked up to the boy who had answered. “After all, I’m not as nice as your friends over here.”

Melmarc kept his face straight, hoping not to catch the man’s attention. There was just something about him that seemed wrong. He couldn’t say what it was, and he wasn’t talking about the bloodshot eyes and slow speech.

The man simply felt wrong.

The man turned dramatically, arms held out on both sides. “Let the games begin.”

He made his way back to Navari’s back with a sluggish gate and went back to standing. If he was suspicious before, now he was ominous.

Navari looked like he was doing his best not to look intimidated as he sat forward and gestured to one of the older men.

“Mamba,” he said in a hard voice. “Get me the map.”

“Th… the map?” the man with the snake tattoo, Mamba, stuttered.

Navari sighed. “Not the time to be confused, Mamba. It’s the one in the other room.”

Mamba looked around confused for a moment before realization appeared on his expression. He didn’t say anything, just darted out of the living room. The sound of clattering and searching followed for a while. Then he rushed back in, handing Navari a folded up piece of paper.

All the while, Melmarc just stood there, wondering what the hell Naymond had talked him into. I thought they were supposed to be an excuse for gangsters.

If this was what the test run looked like, he couldn’t imagine what the final run would be like. And they expected him to do this a few times before the last one?

He didn’t think he could. No, that was the wrong thought. It wasn’t a matter of thinking. That guy just tried to motivate us to fight each other.

Some of the boys were already eyeing each other like they were somehow competition. Which, with the updated rules, they were.

Melmarc could already feel the growing hostility in the air. All that quick sense of violence over a hundred dollar extra?

Not a hundred extra, he corrected himself.

It was for the potential of a thousand and seven hundred dollars. All the boys here were high schoolers, and they were a lot of things a high schooler could do with that amount of money.

Navari unfolded the piece of paper and held it up in front of him for them to see. “Can you see the map?”

All the boys nodded.

“I don’t have x-ray vision, kids,” Navari said from behind the map. “Do be kind enough to use your words. Can everyone see the map?”

A muttering of responses went through them.

“And you see the red dot?”

Melmarc saw the red dot. It was small and at the edge of the map.

“Now because I’m nice,” Navari said, “I’m going to hold this map up for three minutes. Your job is to use those three minutes to memorize how to get there from here.”

“Ehmm,” one of the boys interrupted. “Where exactly are we on the map.”

“That’s also for you to figure—”

The Romanian rushed over to the map, vaunting over the backrest of the couch to sit beside Navari. Once again, Navari froze as the man adjusted on the chair so that he was looking at the map.

“No need to make this any more difficult than it is, Navi,” he chuckled, then tapped a spot on the map. “You kids are here.”

The distance looked far.

“And,” the Romanian continued. “All you have to do is get there in under an hour. Also, don’t forget now, more boxes means more money.”

Standing where he was, Melmarc had been considering a lot of things. One of them was the certainty of him not coming for this run anymore. This would be a one-time thing and he’ll be done.

He wanted to be a powerful Delver, but this level of risk this soon seemed… unnecessary. He hadn’t even been a Gifted for up to six months and he was already in this kind of bind.

He watched one of the larger boys in the group eyeball him. Great, and I have to run from bullies while playing courier.

Regardless, since this was going to be a one-time thing, he felt extra information was necessary. Maybe if he could get Alfa and Naymond some useful information, they wouldn’t be so annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t willing to go through with the plan anymore.

The Romanian looked important. At least more important than Navari. Which, in this instant, made him the boss of David’s Boss.

If he could get information on the man, it might just be very useful.

“Alright, kids!” the Romanian announced abruptly. “That’s enough map studying. Everybody out! And I’ll see you on the other side.”

Everyone stood quietly as the man strolled off into another room. When he was gone, it was like the room breathed a sigh of relief. Then Navari shooed them out of the room.

“Go on, then, scat!”

The largest boy in the group turned almost immediately with a fist cocked back. He was right next to Melmarc, and Melmarc had no illusions of who his target was.

Even as the boy’s hand was pulling back, Melmarc was already backing away.

“You lay one hand on anyone in this room and I’ll take your limbs!” Navari growled, halting everything.

The older men shook their heads. When Melmarc glanced at David, the man wasn’t making eye contact.

Asshole’s sold me out.

Now Melmarc didn’t feel bad about running him over or lying to him.

“You take that violence shit out there,” Navari continued.

He got up from his chair and walked over to the boy. Melmarc had to tilt his head back to look at the man. He was easily near seven feet. With his weight, he was practically a giant.

Towering over the kid that had wanted to punch Melmarc, he said, “You’ve got spunk kid. But keep that spunk out there. Don’t show it in here or I’ll break your legs and send you home to your mother on a unicycle. And the devil bless your soul if you don’t ride it yourself.” He looked around the room, meeting each boy’s gaze. “Got it?!”

There were murmured choruses of affirmation.

“Good.” Navari turned and returned to his couch. He ran a tired hand over his face. “Bastard’s come in here and is trying to ruin everything I built. You guys just get out before I realize I want that seventeen hundred for myself.”

Melmarc dragged his feet as he left, waiting for the larger boy to leave first. In the end, he was the last to the door, his package in his hand. He tried one last look behind him and found no one watching their exit.

It’s now or never, he thought, slowly backing up into the building. He hoped the Romannian hadn’t left the building yet.

Then he activated his skill, ready to bolt out of the door.

[You have activated skill Knowledge Is Power.]

Melmarc waited for the skill’s return. When he noticed it, he rushed for the door. He was barely three steps out of the door when the skill returned to him.

The information he received stopped him in his tracks.

[Skill Knowledge Is Power is concluded.]

[All stats are increased by +0.5.]

[Life forms detected: 17.0329.]

[You have received 22 Potential buffs.]

As confusing as everything his interface was telling him, he had bigger worries and confusion on his mind.

Three things stood out the most to him.

The first was that while he’d caught the Romanian in his skill, he was worried by the fact that he now knew he’d been in a room with the man, while the man had been carrying a switchblade and a gun.

As terrifying as that was, it paled in the face of the fear and confusion of his second and third discovery.

There was a dead body in the basement of the building and there was a man lounging on the roof sipping a can soda.

“Did someone take my drugs?” the Romanian bellowed from somewhere inside the house. “Who the fuck took my drugs.”

Melmarc fled from the house as fast as his feet could carry him, staring at one of the buffs [Bless Your Kindness] had brought him.

[World of Insight(Mastery 02.09%)].

The Gifted is aware of their existent present surrounding.

…

[Buff mastery is scaled based on mastery of skill Bless Your Kindness. Mastery of buff will begin reduction after eight minutes.]

[Would you like to select a Buff?]

[Yes/No.]

[Remaining time: 00:02:00.]

As glad as he was to find out he hadn’t been abandoned to this madness, other worries started growing on him.

He had more questions than answers.

For starters, why did the number of sentient life detected have decimals? Why was there an S-rank crafter in the building? What was Naymond doing on the roof having a drink?

And last but not the least…

Why the hell was he delivering a package of half a human brain?

What the hell have I gotten myself into?