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Chapter Eight: Forward into the Lion’s Lair
Jazmynn dropped her gun on the table with a careless thunk. The occupant of the table glanced up at her, his gaze inquiring.
“And what exactly can I do for you, Miss…?” he said, straightening slightly and raising a brow suggestively.
“I need to find someone,” she said flatly. “Someone recommended you to me.”
His expression grew wary. “Isn’t that convenient? Sorry, but I don’t work for people without confirmation.” He lifted a hand toward her, gesturing for her to fork over proof of her legitimate connection.
Jazmynn’s fingers drummed on the handle of her gun. His eyes took that gesture in and he dropped his hand.
“I’ve feeling a little trigger-happy today,” she said coldly. “In other words, now’s not the best time to be getting in my way. I need to find someone, and you’re going to help me. Honestly, for a man who’s involved in the kind of work you’re in, I’m surprised that you worry about credentials.”
He shrugged, motioning for her to sit across from him. “Call it a matter of principle,” he said casually. “Do I get the honor of a name?”
“Mine or the person I want to find?”
“Preferably both, but I suppose I can settle with just the latter, seeing as you’re feeling a tad…persuasive.” He cleared his throat, eyeing her gun. Jazmynn smiled without mirth.
“You’re too kind.” She leaned closer to him. “The name of the man I want to find is David.”
He waited, but she didn’t say anything else. “That’s it? Just ‘David?’ How am I supposed to find a man with no last name?”
“I’m sure you’ll manage,” Jazmynn said coolly. She stood up, tucking her gun into her belt.
The man shook his head as he gazed up at her. “I have to tell you right now; there’s not a good chance of me finding this friend of yours.”
“Well, just in case, you can reach me here,” she said, handing him a slip of paper. “Oh, and if you happen to find him, tell him that Alexander is impatient to see him again.” She turned and walked out of the bar, leaving man to look between the paper and her back with his mouth hanging open.
He had climbed up the side of the building somehow. Fascinating, and a little bit dangerous, since she was on the second floor.
She opened the window and stood aside, allowing her midnight visitor to climb inside. Then she closed the window and turned to face him, flicking the switch on the wall. A solitary bulb flickered above their heads, giving off a small amount of dim light. It was, however, enough for Jazmynn to see the face of her visitor.
It was the man from the bar, and he looked a little put out.
“I had a feeling you might stop be,” Jazmynn remarked.
He glared at her. “You kind of left me with no choice,” he said in a low voice. “You have something I need.”
“News of Alexander,” she guessed without changing expression. His eyes widened.
“How did you know?”
“Call it a hunch.” She held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, David.”
He shook it hesitantly. “I may have to work on my acting skills,” he said uncertainly.
“Nah. You’re just fine. Alexander described you to me, though.”
“When did you last speak with him?” he asked eagerly. “Where is he? The last I heard he was still trapped inside the data world, being pestered by those hypocritical agents.” He spit on the floor. “Man, I hate those guys.”
“Thanks a lot,” she said. His eyes widened.
“What are you saying?” he demanded. One of his hands was feeling his belt, searching for something.
“I’m saying that you’re looking at the last agent ever to ‘pester’ Alexander,” she said implacably. “He explained some things to me, and I helped him out. And now I need you to help me out, so we can help him out some more.”
“Go back to the part where you’re one of those agents,” he ordered, his face hard.
“That would take too long, and I’m in a bit of rush.” She looked him up and down. “Where and when did you meet him?”
He laughed ruefully. “A long time ago is when. I met him before the agents got a hold of him.”
“That was about 10 years ago,” she estimated.
“Thereabouts,” he agreed. “I was 25 and a hotshot, and he was a 12-year-old kid with an incredible mind. We hit it off fairly well; did a little business together. And then the agents found the data world and they locked him up. Haven’t heard from him since then.” He stepped backwards and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.
Jazmynn sat down on the edge of the bed, watching him. “How did you know about the data world before the agents did?” she inquired. “I always thought that they were the first to make contact with it, the first to build an access door into it.”
He laughed harshly. “They aren’t anything but copycats. The way I heard it, they captured a member of the underground, someone who knew a lot about accessing the data world. They got all his ideas out of him, killed him off, and went to work.” She shuddered and he quirked a brow. “Wouldn’t think something like that would bother you. You said you were one of them.”
“I was one of them, but that doesn’t mean that they told me the truth about their work, by any stretch of the imagination,” she snapped. “I joined so they could help me look for my parents’ murderer, but…” She pressed her lips together.
“Sorry,” he said a bit awkwardly. “Didn’t know.”
“Neither did I,” she murmured. “Not until Alexander enlightened me on the subject. Have you ever had the feeling that you get from finding out that these things you thought were true are really a bunch of lies?”
“Now and again,” he said offhandedly.
“It’s not very pleasant, is it?”
“Not particularly.”
“Neither is finding out that the people you work for are the ones who had your family killed.” She propped her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her fists, staring at him. “Now you know what my purpose in this is.”
“You want revenge,” he said quietly.
“You have no idea.”
There was silence for a little while as they studied each other. Jazmynn spoke up again. “How exactly does one ‘do business’ with a 12-year-old boy?” she inquired skeptically.
David chuckled. “I told you he had a brilliant mind. Combine that with a natural gift for underhanded dealings, and, well… You have the best partner in crime ever.”
“Fantastic,” Jazmynn muttered. “I’m unleashing an unethical holy terror on the world.”
He grinned impudently. “A bit shocked to hear of dear Alexander’s background? Don’t worry too much; most of the deals we did involved swindling your former agency. They got on our nerves even before they discovered the data world.”
“Oh. Then that’s okay.”
“Good. I’m glad. I’m sure Alexander will be pleased by your approval as well.”
Jazmynn saw the little boy in her mind, watching as she left, one hand wrapped around his side. “I’m sure he will be,” she agreed.
David cocked his head. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that there’s a specific reason why you contacted me,” he guessed. “Maybe your should give me all the details so we can start working on all of that.”
“Okay, then I’m going to go out on a limb here and ask if you’re committing your cooperation to me,” she returned, raising a brow.
“You got it.”
“Great.”
Alexander hadn’t been specific about that part.
If he didn’t have a plan, she would probably be able to come up with something…that would probably involve the immediate demise of her former agency. The thought of that gave her great pleasure, but it had been a long night, and she was bone-tired.
As she lay there, wishing for sleep to come, Jazmynn cried a little.
This was all wonderful, but it’s hard to lose that fresh, keen edge of betrayal in a few days.
David turned and flashed a pearly-white grin over his shoulder without slowing his pace. “Now you’re talking like one of those blasted agents,” he teased her. “I told you last night; your friends at the agency are just copycats. We can get into the data world easy as pie. I have a few favors that I can call in; some people owe me, and enough to get us into the data world.”
Jazmynn whistled. “Must be a lot of favors,” she remarked. “I would think something like this would be expensive.”
“It is. It just depends on where you go to pay, and who you’re paying.”
With those enigmatic words, David continued merrily on his way, with Jazmynn still trailing after him.
David shifted, ignoring the amused look Jazmynn was sending him. “Come on, Mike,” he said persuasively. “It’s important. Besides, remember what happened last year, when you snuck in and took that, that thing…?”
The Mike character rolled his eyes and sighed. “If I ever get around to destroying the records of my involvement in that little scheme, none of your blackmailing will ever work anymore,” he said, disgruntled. David shrugged.
“Maybe, but you haven’t gotten rid of the records yet, have you? Therefore you still owe me.” He flashed that impudent smile. “Like I said, it’s important.”
“And sometime today would be nice as well,” Jazmynn interjected. Mike studied her, his gaze roaming up and down. She scowled at him.
“Who’s this, Davy? New girl?” He grinned. “She yours?”
David cleared his throat, glancing at Jazmynn nervously. Her face darkened. “Uh, no,” he said quickly. “New business partner.”
“And that’s different because…?”
“Never mind. Can you get us in or not?”
“…Yeah. I can get you in. But after this time, I don’t owe you nothing. Got it? We’re even, straight, whatever. End of story.”
“I got it. Thanks, Mike.” He shook hands with the ruffian and tugged on Jazmynn’s arm, pulling her along with him before she could tackle his friend. “Sorry about that,” he apologized. “Mike’s a little, ah, rough around the edges, I guess. Living below city does that to ya’ sometimes.”
“Of course,” she said stiffly, one reddish eyebrow raised in disdain. David grinned at her and they continued down through the tunnel.
At the end, there stood a thick door, embedded into the wall of the tunnel. There was a slot inserted into a stand situated right next to it. David removed a dirty-looking card from his pocket and swiped it through the slot. Jazmynn eyed him quizzically.
“Where did you get that?” she inquired.
“Mike slipped it to me,” he said with a perfectly straight face, managing not to laugh at her affronted look. The door in front of them gave a slow, drawn-out hiss, and the heavy rusted latch clicked, echoing in the tunnel. David reached for it and then hesitated. “You’ve been in the data world before, right?”
She snorted. “I had to, remember? Alexander is in the data world. I had to be in it in order to, you know…” Her voice trailed off into uncomfortable silence.
“Right. Just making sure. Uh, I should probably warn you; going into the data world isn’t going to be quite as pleasant as you’re used to.”
“Why not? It didn’t hurt or anything when I went in before.”
“Yeah, I know, but your lovely little agency has better finances than we do down here in the underground.” The smile he gave was bitter. “I’m sure that your friends have enough money to provide your portal into the data world with sufficient padding, so as not to contract inter-worldly sickness, or anything like that. But as I said, we don’t have that luxury down here.”
She stopped. “Inter-worldly sickness?” she repeated.
David nodded. “Among other things.” His eyes took on a strange light as he studied her. “You’re not going to let something as small as that keep you from rescuing Alexander are you?”
Jazmynn gave a rueful smile, hiding her discomfort over his intense perusal. “Even if I did, I have a feeling that you wouldn’t.”
“Of course not. But you’re not going to back out, are you?”
“Like you said, of course not.”
They exchanged firm nods and both turned back toward the door in front of them. David grasped the latch and yanked on it. The door swung open with a sharp, grating creak. Crackling blackness waited beyond. David took Jazmynn’s hand; his were warm and hers were icy cold.
“Here goes nothing,” he muttered and then stepped through the doorway.
Jazmynn opened her mouth to demand what he was talking about; was there something wrong with this portal that he wasn’t telling her? But it was too late. They were both swallowed in the electric blackness before she could force out the words.
The fact that the blackness could be described as “electric” ought to give you a decent hint of how the brief trip felt to a human body.
Yes, it was brief, but it felt like a really long time to Jazmynn.
She fell through the other side and collapsed on the ground, random muscles twitching sporadically. David had fallen through before her, already claiming his place there. Jazmynn craned her neck back to study their surroundings, once she had possession of her motor skills again.
They were in a room much like the one Alexander had been held in. There was another door at the other end, nondescript and almost exactly like the one they’d just tumbled through.
Jazmynn crawled to her feet; her head jerked in David’s direction, but only because he had done the same thing and then proceeded to throw up in the corner by the wall. She grimaced and turned away, her mouth turning down at the mere sounds of it.
After a minute, she glanced back and saw him climbing to his feet. “Feel any better?” she inquired.
He gave her a baleful look. “I’m sure you don’t miss the irony in this; I tell you about the inter-worldly sickness and I’m the one who gets sick…”
“Oh no, I didn’t miss it.” She paused. “Do you need to, um, puke again?”
David shook his head. “Think I’m good. It’s not usually a prolonged thing.”
“‘Kay. Good. But, should you feel the urge to do so anyway, kindly lean away from me when you do it.” Jazmynn grinned at him. “I like you, but not enough to let you puke on me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” They started walking, pulling open the door and stepping inside.
Both of them gave a start. There was a boy standing there inside the next room, waiting for them.
Jazmynn did a double take. “…Alexander?”
(A/N- ...And I leave you hanging. Sort of. It's not really that great of a cliffie... Anyway, yeah, this particular story is back in business. I'm happy to have something moving, for once. Sorry if some of you really observant people have picked up on any inconsistencies in here. I have a hard time keeping track of all the little details. Thanks for reading! Please review! It gives me warm fuzzy feelings... -I.I.)
