Chapter #43Two New Recruits by: Seuzz   "Let's go with Eileen and Joshua," you tell Ursula. You lean against your locker and smile into her face. "Keep it all nice and friendly. They're friends of yours, right? That'll make it easier. Bring them over to your place around five."
"What should I tell them?"
"That I was being goofy and invited you over, said you could bring some friends."
"No, I mean about the—"
"Nothing. Leave that to me. But remember—" You touch her cheek with a fingertip. "As far as they're concerned, this is only about masks, and ... 'fun'. The whole Lemuria thing is strictly between you and me and Frank."
Her smile turns conspiratorial, and you can tell she'd like to touch you back. You wait for her to move, and when she doesn't, you lightly brush her nose, then send her on her way.
You turn back to your locker, and jump: "Jiminy Crickets!" you shout, for Maddy Caron is directly beside you, smiling at you. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"You like everyone, don't you, Joe?" she asks with a knowing smirk. "Even the weirdos."
"Especially the weirdos," you reply, and feel Joe's irritation at her snobbery. "So if I said I especially like you, what would you say?" Her eyes narrow. "And if I said I don't especially like you, what would you say?" While she puzzles over the dilemma, you change out your books. "I think Frank calls those paradoxes," you carelessly continue. "I don't know what cows have to do with it, let alone a pair of them, but Frank's a weirdo too." You dart in and plant a quick peck on Maddy's cheek. Now she jumps, and you plunge into the crowd with a quick laugh.
* * * * *
"This is so cool!" Joshua enthuses. He isn't even wearing the mask, just holding it in his hands. Eileen is still looking a wobbly after taking it off, and her smile is a little glassy. Ursula just sits back and looks between them while occasionally shooting you a meaningful glance. You wish she'd stop. But at least she chose her friends well.
Okay, Joshua makes you a little nervous. He's one of the "creative types," though you strongly suspect his creativity, insofar as it's genuine, is powered by weed. The impression is not solely a function of his appearance, though it certainly reinforces it: His dirty blonde hair falls in tight ringlets to the bottom of his jaw and the middle of his neck; he has a scraggly goatee sitting on his chin; his short-sleeve, floral-pattern, button-down shirt is very dirty, as are his jeans. Eileen is more presentable. Her hair is almost the same color as his, but it falls in looser curls that she has bound back into a thin ponytail. This has the slightly unfortunate effect of emphasizing the size of her forehead and nose. Her eyes are also slightly protuberant. Like Joshua, she is quite skinny.
"I love masks," Joshua continues. "Disguises." He gasps. "Could you make, like, a werewolf with one of these things? Or, like, a half-man, half-snake thing?"
"They're not hard to make as long as you're copying real people," you reply. "Making new hybrids and stuff? I'm not sure about that. Might be complicated." Hybridizing people inside a mask is child's play. But what would you get if you tried mixing a man and a dog? Something you'd want to try out on a golem first.
Joshua holds out the mask at arm's length and continues to study it with shining eyes. "The only way this could be better is if you could use it to make puppets. Like, fake versions of the people you could order around. That would be way cool!"
"There are definitely ways of doing that," you tell him, and all eyes turn toward you. "It's not hard to set up, though it takes some time. For right now, we'd just have to wear them ourselves." You want to mention golems, since the idea will definitely hook Joshua, but you're not sure of the effect on the others; Ursula in particular gets an uneasy look on her face.
"But we could go around and pretend to be these people, right?" Joshua asks.
"In theory, yes. But it could cause problems, if people caught sight of two Darcys. For right now, we keep these things close to home."
"How do you make them?" Eileen asks.
"That's proprietary information. And all this stays just with the five of us, okay?"
"I still want to try them out," Joshua says. "Can I put this one on? Or is it, like, only girls can be girls?"
"No, you can put it on. But here, if you want to play around with them in public, we should make masks of you guys, and then you can go around pretending to be each other." You snap your fingers at Frank, and from under the table he pulls out three blank masks. Bless his golemized heart, he figured out a way to make masks quickly: a power buffer lets you polish a mask up in the space of only about an hour, and last night you made three masks for your new acolytes.
Joshua shoots Eileen a mischievous glance, but she stiffens. "Yeah, um—"
"Just go ahead and put it on. It's okay." You lay a gentle hand on her shoulder, and massage the back of her neck. She looks at you, and at the mask you have balanced just in front of her face, then gives a tight shrug. You put it onto her face, and let her slump back in her chair.
Joshua grabs a mask from Frank, and with another exclamation about how cool it is slams it to his own face. He falls out of his chair to the floor.
"He's enthusiastic, isn't he?" Ursula says.
"We want enthusiasm," you reply, and hand her a mask. "The more enthusiastic they are, the quicker we'll get this done."
"He'll make a mess of things," she says.
"Then why did you recommend him?"
She takes a deep breath. "I didn't think he'd be this enthusiastic."
"Well, you just help keep him under control. You guys can work with each other at making your quota. You can help rein him in." You nudge her. "The mask."
She settles back and puts it on.
"These aren't reliable allies, Joe," Frank says after they are all unconscious.
"They don't have to be. They just have to get the job done."
"And when the job is done, what then?"
"Then we'll be set up to take care of Patterson."
He folds his arms. "I don't understand what you're thinking. It seems like you're playing multiple-dimension chess."
"That I am, so don't try to follow. You'll just hurt your head. How are we fixed up for supplies?"
"They just used it up. If we're going to get more masks for them, we'll need cash."
"We can hit them up for contributions. Or we can snag Straussler. He could finance the whole enterprise with his folding money."
* * * * *
You don't let them take their masks home, telling them (truthfully) that you need to "seal" the masks before they can be used. "As for new disguises," you tell them, "let's keep things simple. Each of you come up with a list of names of people you'd like to try out. Five or six. After you have a list, come find me. You'll each be responsible for getting three of the names we all come up with. We'll meet tomorrow."
Joshua practically bounces out the door; the two girls follow with more dignity.
* * * * *
You call Patterson immediately afterward. "Yo, I got three recruits. Two girls and a guy."
"Can they handle it?"
"That's for me to handle, isn't it? I'm in charge over here, right?"
"For the time being. Yeah, okay, you're senior level now. Just make sure they can get the job done. Don't help them out, either."
"How come? I'm perfectly placed to get a bunch of people."
"Because those are the rules," he replies. "Look, the point of this is that you have three guys who can do this themselves. You and Johansson have proved you can handle the responsibility, and I didn't give you any help. You make sure your three guys over at Eastman can do the same."
"How is Keith doing?"
"He's a fuck up. I've about given up on him." You don't like the sound of that. Before you can reply, though, Patterson continues. "If you want to keep your friend mobile, you might want to volunteer to take him off my hands."
Yikes. "Yeah, okay, I'll take him."
"Don't go easy on him."
"I won't. Can you send him over with a blank mask? We're short on supplies over here, and the sooner I can get him set up at Eastman, the better."
"He's still got the mask he can't get on Yumi, so he'll be armed," Patterson says. "Make him start over. Five masks."
"That's fair. Send him over now." You give him the address and hang up with a sigh.
It's going to be complicated with Keith also at Eastman. You could keep him hidden, let him get his own five masks secretly. Or you could introduce him to the group. But then you'd have to redistribute the assignments, lowering the quotas for each. Ursula thinks you're only going for twenty-one masks, and that you'll be sharing the burden equally. She will probably kick if you raise the total numbers to five masks each, as Patterson wants.
* Introduce Keith to the group (Non-canonical): "We're In the Money" 
* Keep Keith hidden (Non-canonical): "Doubling Darcy"  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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