Chapter #76The Airport Assignment by: imaj   Rick pushes through the crowd of passengers milling aimlessly about the airport concourse. He snakes through the crowd with the ease of a shark darting through water, people almost instinctively part to let him pass. No such luck for you though, you inevitably get caught when the gap in the crowd closes after Rick’s passing, or trip over suitcases, or get elbowed in the face by accident. You wonder if you are subconsciously throwing your cloak about again, blinding the passengers to your presence. Now that you have a better understanding of it, you can see you aren’t. You just naturally have that effect on people.
“Come on squirt,” says Rick impatiently, turning to see why your progress is slow.
A little girl runs across your path, almost causing you to trip and fall. “Can you slow down Rick,” you call, just keeping your balance. “I can’t keep up.” Rick sighs but stops, giving you enough time to catch up. “Why are we here anyway,” you ask, just before a heavyset woman in her late fifties pushes brusquely past you and careless lets her suitcase roll over your toes on the way to the check in desk.
Rick snorts as you suppress a yell of pain. “Christ squirt,” he exclaims. “No wonder your prodigies developed the way they did. You’re almost naturally invisible.” You look at your shoes, partially to see the damage, but mostly to hide your embarrassment. “And that’s what we’re gonna do here, put your prodigies to the test, at least the cloak anyway.” He pauses to look around, his gaze settling on travel agent recessed into one of the walls. “We’re gonna look for Kali too.”
“Why here,” you ask.
Rick frowns. “Investigating’s all about making connections squirt,” he explains very quietly. “Kali withdrew a large amount of cash from one of the ATMs here – we know she was here. Kali took her passport – we know she took a flight, and was probably going abroad too.”
“But she could have gone anywhere,” you whine. It’s true – flights go from LAX to all over the world.
“We’re gonna play a hunch too squirt,” explains Rick, flashing the briefest grin. “I got an idea where Kali might have gone, and there’s only a handful of travel agents and airlines that offer that destination.” He points at the travel agent he was looking at earlier. “That’s one of them.”
“So?”
“So, this is where you work your magic squirt,” says Rick. “Kali ain’t the kind of lady who carries a false passport. She’s booked a flight in her own name, and it’s gonna be on someone’s computer.”
Rick starts pushing through the crowd again and you hurry after him, stumbling as you go. “So I just throw up the cloak and peek on their computer,” you ask.
“You’re a quick study squirt,” answers Rick. “That’s exactly what you do. You’re young, you understand how these things work better than I do anyway.” He stops by the entranceway to the travel agent and turns to look at you. “Look, I’ll make it easy for you. See that blonde at the desk there,” he explains, subtly gesturing towards one of the woman inside. She’s pushing forty and wears far too much make up, you decide. “She’s going to take a leak in a minute.”
You try to keep your surprise and confusion off your face, but probably fail miserably. “How’d you know?”
“What did Kali tell you about Eldibria?” You shrug noncommittally. “Water squirt, water. You know how much of the human body is water? I just gave it a little nudge.”
You watch the woman closely as she taps at her computer. After a minute, just as Rick predicted, a pained expression crosses her face briefly and she stands up from her chair. Then she passes through a door at the back marked ‘employees only’.
That’s your cue. You wrap your cloak round the other woman inside the travel agent. She too busy with her computer and it’s easy to tie up her attention. Two customers sit in front of her. The first, a man, is talking animatedly to the woman and is easy to distract. The second customer, presumably the first one’s wife or girlfriend is looking round. You have to wait until she looks away, as you learned last night that you cannot vanish from someone who is looking straight at you whilst practicing with Rick. Only once all three are tied up in the folds of your cloak, distracted by the scenery and not by you, do you enter.
You look back as you walk calmly over to the vacant computer. The crowd on the concourse is floating aimless outside. No one seems interested in what’s going on inside, and in any case they are far too numerous to distract anyway. You’ll just have to keep your wits about you and duck out of sight if anyone shows any interest. You settle into the empty chair and your hands hover over the keyboard.
Damn.
It’s locked. You’d need the woman’s password to access the computer. You look up sheepishly to where Rick is leaning nonchalantly by the entrance. Nothing to do but go tell him of your failure you realise with a sigh.
“What’d you mean locked,” says Rick out of the corner of his mouth once you’ve explained it to him.
“I mean, I’d need the woman’s password to look up Kali on their system,” you explain. “I don’t have it so I can’t check.”
Rick puts his head in his hands. “Christ squirt,” he moans unhappily. “You give up at the first hurdle? That ain’t going to work. You’re gonna to run into problems out in the field, and you’re gonna have to change your plans on the fly. Why don’t you find out what the password is?”
“But how would I…” you begin, before realisation strikes you full in the face. No wonder Rick is so upset. “Oh…” you add quietly.
“Yeah,” sighs Rick.
You smile sheepishly and duck back inside the travel agent. The three people, the woman at the computer and her two customers still seem to be thoroughly enmeshed within your cloak so you proceed to the door the blonde passed through a few minutes ago. One quick last look around assures you that no one is looking and you enter the door quickly yourself. You close it behind you as soon as you are assured that no one is standing behind it.
There’s not much in the back. A very short corridor leads to a small kitchen which must double as a break room. You glance inside – it’s empty. There’s another door opposite it which is closed and, as you find out when you gently try to open it, locked. Pressing your ear against it, you can just about make out the sound of running water. A toilet being flushed, you guess.
Which means you haven’t got much time. You press yourself against the wall beside the toilet door. If the blonde sees you when she comes out, you will not be able to hide yourself from her. You prepare the sigil from the Libra in your hand and wait. After a moment, there is a clicking sound as the door unlocks and the blonde woman exits.
You’ve chosen your spot perfectly, as she turns away from you. She is so close that you can see the roots of her hair, which are much darker than the rest of it. You don’t waste any time, tapping her gently on the side of her head with your open palm. She topples forward as soon as the sigil connects, but you grab and hold her before she can reach the floor. Then you drag the blonde back inside the toilet, sitting her down on the toilet seat. With luck she will not give her fainting spell second thought.
You neither need, nor particularly want, to summon this woman’s imago, so you just reach for the memories you have absorbed. Luckily, her password was near the surface. It turns out to be her husbands name: Ron. You shake your head at her appalling laxity.
Better move fast. You open the door back to the shop front and poke your head round, careful to take a look before you exit. The customers have left, just leaving the other woman. You wrap your cloak around her before heading for the unused computer again.
The system opens up when you tap in the blonde’s password. You have her memories of how to use the system, so searching it is easy.
Paydirt.
Kali booked a ticket here. You have her destination, the airline she flew with and even the time she flew out – the very morning after she disappeared. You push the chair back and head to Rick to tell him the good news.
You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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