Maybe I underestimated Bob.

That’s a strange thing to hear, let alone say.

The man who, up until two nights ago, I only knew as a weirdo exhibitionist, the guy who was singing and dancing with his pants around his legs.

And he’s a fed.

It’s a little cliché for a teenager from a broken home, but I don’t respect authority. Well, my mom taught me that much, you know, her being a druggie and all.

My childlike reasoning blends with my rational, as someone on the cusp of adulthood.

When I was a kid, people would come around our house often, I’m talking about people my mom lent money from. She’d get me to hide in a corner beside the window with her until we were sure they’d gone away. As I’ve gotten older, things have gotten a lot better there, they don’t come as often.

But when I was a kid, I’d wonder why bad men were knocking on our door all the time. Now, I know that it was her fault. She’d lied to them. But the question still stands, if this sort of thing is illegal, money laundering, and it was going on for eighteen years, why did nobody stop it?

Isn’t that what police were for? Why did they never help my mom? In fact, as I started getting older, I asked why it seemed like they never helped anybody who grew up where I came from.

The victims would always get desperate, and in an attempt to do something to help their family, they’d get jobs, usually running for the people draining the money from them, then they’d get pulled in for that, they’d get a criminal record or end up in some correctional facility that wasn’t good for shit, that only served to further alienate them from society.

Really, what are you supposed to do when you get out?

Criminal record makes work hard, but what they learn in their makes it easier to get a job in dealing.

They get caught, sent to another facility, and come out even more bitter, rinse and repeat.

Really, I don’t hate authority. I like roads. I like schools and security.

But they can’t help a person, they help people. All they’ll do is read them their rights. A bunch of assholes who probably got their job through nepotism, who’ve never lived in a ghetto.

What would they know?

People don’t need a force to save them, they don’t need an authority, or a politician.

They need a person to save them.

Is that me? I don’t know. I hope not, honestly, though it seems like I’m the only person who’s willing to.

And FWI, yeah I steal money for charity from the aforementioned victims, but I do know them.

Marcus, for example, he lives a few doors down the road from Tayanita. Great neighbourhood, well of parents, but he wants to be a ‘hard-lad’. So he goes looking for trouble with a shit eating grin on his face.

I’ll beat up an asshole like that any day.

…

Side tracked.

Where do I start?

I could tell you about my phone call with Bob, I was planning to do that last post, but honestly it lasted a single minute. I wrote the last post to kill time after I called.

He was a little shakey when I told him it was me, then I told him I needed a lift and where I was.

Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be that easy.

He said someone’d be there soon and hung up.

Clover was unimpressed with that, she told me she was going to have a talk with Kim, maybe phone somebody in England.

It was a big maybe.

For some reason, I got the feeling she still wanted to keep me from the Mountain. At least, if I wasn’t going to join it.

It might sound stupid, but I think we both tend to overlook how our interests absolutely do not align.

At least, I overlook it.

I haven’t overlooked the (near certainty) that Clover is still keeping stuff from me, possibly some plan she intends to use me in.

Well, either way, I lucked out, Clover burst into my room with a bag slung over her back.

That’s when we charged outside, onto a balcony.

And there it was, an aircraft with the same wasp like design.

As we burst back into the halls, we informed Kim that we were leaving, to which he replied with an unaffected smile.

We jumped down flights of stairs coming out through the casino.

When Clover had talked to Kim, he’d mentioned where the designated International landing pad was.

Clover guided me when we were outside, and I made an attempt to find my footing while rushing us around.

I was carrying clover like a baby, which slowed me just as much as my apprehension to go running across unfamiliar rooves.

I don’t know how, but after running around for some time, we found it, just as the door was coming down.

I’d set Clover down, she stumbled, a little shaken by the ride.

That’s when I was surprised.

It was Bob himself.

My mouth dropped actually, just from seeing his face.

His nose was reddened, his face in a scowl, his eyes focused.

It had been four hours since I’d phoned.

As the door came open further, and a flimsy looking staircase shot out meeting the tar beneath it, I could see him a little better.

His cheap suit was ill-maintained, creased and untucked, but that’s not what I was focusing on.

He had a crutch.

He wasn’t hobbling down the stairs on one leg, it more seemed like it was there for support, so he wouldn’t have to overexert a sore muscle or something.

He descended the stairs slowly, with great effort, and still his eyes had a singlemindedness behind them.

Then he’d seen me.

He must have moved twice as fast then, forgetting any disability he had gained since I last saw him.

“Aww, kid!” From where I was standing, he practically fell on me, sort of like having a blanket thrown at you.

While he was gripping to me, I had mistaken the action for him trying to find his footing, at first, I tried to help him to his feet, but then he wrapped his arms around me tighter.

I looked at the back of his head from the side, my arms outstretched stiffly.

“Dammit, I thought we lost you! Why couldn’t you have called sooner?”

There was a strain in his voice.

My mouth was still open, I wasn’t starring at much of anything.

After, an undetermined amount of time, my dumbfounded response and Bob’s overemotional response were both interrupted by an “Ahem.”

Bob backed away from me slowly, regaining his composure.

“For a guy with a custom-made ship, and with no problem deploying for a personal favour, you sure don’t fit the exterminator stereotype.”

As if nothing weird had happened, he coughed, and replied, “Well, I’m not an exterminator, miss-?”

Clover stuck her hand out politely, “Rebecca. Rebecca Hall.”

“You… a friend of his?”

“Try,” She curled a smile out, “minor acquaintance.”

He looked back and forth between us. I noticed that Clover had her hand raised to the left side of her face inconspicuously.

Eventually, Bob shrugged, “Well, are you coming too?”

With a little dip in her lips, “If it’s being offered.”

He picked up his crutch and hobbled back up the stairs, “Well, hurry it up then.”

I ran after him, thinking to help him. Clover- or Rebecca as she was calling herself was slower to follow.

From the last time I saw this ship, all the way back in January I think, it hasn’t changed at all, there was still rubbish littered around it, and in the same spots as last time.

Clover grimaced slightly; Bob was smiling with pride.

“Hey, Miss Rebecca, do you have an eye for machines? Not many people would recognise this as being modded if it was the first they’d seen.”

Naturally, he had questions for the dark-haired girl he’d never met.

“This isn’t my first time being picked up by an International- really, you must be pretty high up to have those wings.”

He gave a slightly flattered laugh, “Me? No, no like I said, I’m not an exterminator, I’m just a cleaner.”

She shook her head as he walked ahead into the cockpit, “But like I said, you got here quick Mister Bob, even if you were coming from City-D, wouldn’t you need to wait a pretty long time for clearance?”

There was a pause from him.

“The Philippines isn’t too far away, but getting a stamp on your passport, waiting in line or whatever, that eats up a lot of time.”

He looked back to us for a second before flicking some things on his console.

There were three seats in the cockpit, one for the pilot, surrounded by a semi-circle of things to pull and buttons to press. I don’t know why I wanted to see this room back then, I couldn’t tell you what the pedals of a car do, what was I supposed to know from this?

“I wanted to talk to you guys about that, our cover story.”

Clover’s polite demeanour fell away, she must have thought she’d been found out, “Excuse me?”

“I’m not flying out from Damascus. I came here from Bable,” he turned to me, “a couple miles hundred miles east of Portland, Oregan.”

I didn’t really know if that was a big deal. If never flown, so I’ve no clue if that was a long time. And I’ve got absolutely no clue on the distance.

“You flew across the Pacific??”

He raised a hand defensively, “I sling shot it, it was the safest route across. Well, to save some time, we’ll be taking the second safest route back.”

Clover walked away from the cockpit, making her way to the door, “Come on Rocky, this isn’t gonna work out.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Bob shouted after her, “Seriously, it’s not that big a deal! If it was, I wouldn’t have flown out here without telling anyone.”

I didn’t know the implications of that, but I’m pretty sure that would break some kind of international law. Never mind the capital-I international, just plain old government regulations.

Still not really seeing the problem, I called out to Clover, “Come on, it’s not like it’ll kill you, right?”

I was asking it jokily in front of Bob, but it was a serious question. I assumed that they weren’t going to kill Clover if they found out who she was.

She twitched a lip, “This seems like the sort of situation that’ll blow up in our faces.”

That’s right, she was the one who told me to phone the International’s. If there were any risks, she’d have taken them into account.

“It’ll be a pit stop, this Babel. Besides, at least we can speak the language over there. Hell, you said that Vortech service had connections to the Internationals, so we might be able to work something out, right Bob?”

He shrugged lamely, not helping my case.

She rubbed her eye, concealing the mark of her King, “Fine. City-B, then home. Round the world in a week.”

Bob, nodded, “Alright, so let’s sort out the plan.”

I was mostly quiet now; I really had no stake in any of this.

Bob started as he got his craft set up.

“So, Shamrock isn’t on the systems anywhere. Though I submitted the file for acknowledgement as a Unit, there’s been no reply for the last few months. That means that me flying out here wouldn’t have been taken as a remotely justified action, not with everything that’s been happening with Egypt and the Beasts.”

Clover asked suddenly, “What’s happening with the Beast’s?”

Bob sat himself in his pilot seat, “World news can wait, buckle up kids.”

I got into the seat behind him, Clover crossed her arms.

Bob glanced over his shoulder, “It’s nothing that’ll affect us, unless you’re planning to go to the Amazon, or What-Was-Egypt.”

She walked forward, and dropped into her seat, crossing her arms after the belt buckled.

“Right, getting back on track, what I’m doing right now isn’t exactly justifiable, so we are going to have to pick up a VIPU, it’s a good thing you guys called when you did, a- friend of mine just had a scientific breakthrough that our people’d be happy to get the schematics off of.”

There was a slight mechanical whirr as we were lifted from the ground.

“Friend of yours?? Friendly enough to corroborate with treason, I hope.”

He gave a slight laugh, “She’ll help us. However, her say so won’t be enough. You guys are going to have to lie about having a personal relationship with her, we’re going to make it so that it was her request that led to me flying you back home, as a part of the deal with my superiors. They wouldn’t tolerate favours. She gives us some new gadgets, her ‘friends’ receive post-June relocation, and she’ll probably get anything else she wants if this is as big a deal as she’s making it out to be. We’ll swing by California, up the coast to Babel, drop her off, and then it’s the emerald isle, if everything goes alright.”

Clover was nodding along now, “Right, so you’ve already contacted both your superiors and her on the flight over, to make sure that this deal can go through. Though to be fair, wouldn’t it have made more sense for you to have brought her back to Babel, then get the ok?? I can respect wanting to help us out as soon as possible, but we would have been fine with waiting, especially if we were able to skip the cue, I honestly didn’t expect for this to be put on the high end of post-June cases.”

She leaned back, on the verge of smiling, “You might look a little beat up, and you might be a cleaner, but that’s not necessarily lower than an exterminator, it’s just a less respected profession. If I’m placing a bet?”

She turned to me now, “I’d say Mr Bob is pretty high up.”

I gave it a second of thought.

I’d known Bob as just another incompetent guy in a tie, it really didn’t help that he’d psychologically scarred me when we met.

But now I was hearing what he was risking for me, for some random kid. Don’t go thinking I’ve forgotten that I’m a Unit, it’s in his best interest to help me, to try and persuade me to join his Organisation.

But to use ten thousand dollars? To fly all this way out?

He helped. And I can respect that.

I finally looked back up at him, after Clover’s speech, he’d turned his head right, obscuring it from Clover, but accidentally putting it on show for me.

Yep. That’s a face I know.

His eyes were red, bags forming under them, his face going long.

It came from one of two places: Either he hadn’t even considered Clover’s more logical route and was now kicking himself about flying out here like an idiot, or he was reacting to her saying he was a higher up, meaning he probably wasn’t as important as she thought.

Which would I place my bet on? I think it’s called arbitrage betting, which is to say, both.

.

.

.

The flight over Japan was largely uneventful, the landscape was passing us by pretty quickly, I don’t think I could match the speed we’d crossed the country in.

We were a few miles out to sea, when Clover suddenly blurted out, “Is this really safe??”

I felt like I should ask what the hell was wrong with the Pacific, but Bob cleared most of it up for me.

“Well, the Ocean Beast has never gone anywhere near land. Currently, we’re completely safe, so long as we stick a couple hundred miles close to some form of land, we’ll be fine.”

Clover gave it some thought, “Then why aren’t we going around the north?? It would get us to Babel quicker, right?? And it’ll be safer, from what you’re telling me.”

Bob gave a short, forced laugh, “Yeah, but we’ll still need to get my… the VIPU. And I’d rather avoid the Super cities while we’re travelling.”

“Why’s that??” Clover was asking honestly, despite nearly an hour of us flying having passed, she still hadn’t figured him out.

I assumed he was going to come clean now, that he was going to tell her he had no clue what he was doing.

“It’s the shortest distance. Fuel isn’t cheap.”

He was again tilting his head to the side. Was he this desperate for someone to think he was cool that he’d lie?

“Huh… I thought these things were pretty cheap. Fuel wise, I mean.”

He fanned himself with a hand, “No, as far as aircrafts go, these things are cheap, sure, but it takes a lot to make those a-grav disks go so fast.”

He’s hands were sitting idlily once we got out of Asia, he explained that he didn’t have to pilot once they’d gotten into an open space, he could rely entirely on the systems AI, all rights reserved to the Right corporation.

“You guys want anything? You can undo your seat belts now, I have snacks in the back, near the Int-fluid.”

Clover hopped out, “Let’s see what he’s got.”

I refused, wanting a moment alone with the ‘big shot’, “I don’t want anything.”

When she left, I asked Bob, “Seriously though, what’s the plan?”

He let out a fake laugh, trying way too hard to maintain his cool persona, shattering it completely.

It went on for a few seconds, he was trying to speak, but kept stuttering over himself, eventually he ran out of hot air.

“That, uh, is the plan.”

I leaned forward, “The basic outline, sure, but you’re not telling us everything. I’m used to that, I don’t mind if you pull some crap, (not that I think you will), but Cl… but she would.”

He gripped his hands, I recognised the expression on his face, it was the same he’d made when I finally got him to admit he had been indecent in public.

“The VIPU is my sister. Honestly? I’ve got no clue what she’s made, but it’ll be a big deal. She made Anti-gravity technology, and that’s been integrated into tons of tech. They have very high hopes for her future. It might take some time, but things will work out for me in the eventually. Either way, you guys will get sorted.”

I considered everything he was saying now.

“So you got this thing through nepotism, not because you actually deserved state of the art equipment.”

Through his teeth he hissed back, “It was a gift! Why would I say no?”

He paused for a second, trying to stay on point, “I actually do know people. Even if shit hits the fan, I will get you home.”

I looked out the window to my side.

“Tell me this, why’d you save me? With that foam stuff? My friend says it was illegal or something.”

He gave a short laugh, “Your friend knows a lot about this. More than you, anyway. Who is she?”

I doubled down, “I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

“Ok,” He rubbed his nose, turning to look at me, “I saved you because you were going to die. Happy?”

“Bullshit,” I called, “You’ve stuck your neck out for me twice now, you’ve got something else planned, don’t you?”

He raised an eyebrow, “I haven’t a clue who you are under there. What possible reason could I have for helping you? Seriously, I was half way through cleaning this thing out when you called. I pushed my friend out, and flew away.”

I shook my head, “But you have to admit, that’s just stupid! You’re like, thirty, doesn’t your job mean anything to you? Weren’t you even a little mindful about how this could affect your career?”

He smiled sadly, “I wish. Your friend was totally right. I’ve fucked up. It was a heat of the moment decision, you know? Kid, I thought you were dead. For a week I was left thinking ‘bout it. It wasn’t from the goodness of my heart that I flew out here. It was guilt. I was the one who let you run out into that forest for God-knows-why, and I didn’t keep in contact with you after February.”

I sighed. That was… an answer I could understand, an answer I would expect.

“Now, who is she? I know she’s a part of the Mountain.” He turned his back on me already.

A pit building in my stomach I asked, “How did you-” then I realised, he might have been bluffing, and before I could take a second to think, I’d given him a definitive answer.

“Who says ‘treason’? Only somebody who believes in what they’re pushing.”

I leaned back. “She’s no one important,” I whistled.

“You’re not a member of the Mountain though, are you kid?”

“No,” I answered honestly.

He gave a pause, preparing himself to stand.

“Sorry. I don’t know if I believe that or not. Either way, you called me, not them. That’s a good sign.”

I gave a nervous smile, when I heard Clover clatter up from behind me.

She was whispering, well, it wasn’t a hushed voice, there was simply a hiss to it.

“Go fucking north! Go north! Your boards lit up like crazy!”

Bob turned around again, “Sorry?”

Then we heard a siren going off from Bob’s console

It sounded like pac-man, when you get the power-up pellet.

Right before he eats the floating blue ghosts.

It was worrying enough just hearing that go off, but what really spooked me was the face they were both making.

Of which, Bob’s was naturally the most extreme.

The blood drained from his face, and it seemed like it was physically pulled down as well, his lower jaw was shrunk, his upper lip was extended to take up a third of his face.

He slowly turned to his console steering north, pushing some buttons to speed us up.

“Distance.”

With the order, Clover rushed back to the first room, with the large area map and life detection monitor.

“Uh, uhm, 2 miles south-east!”

Clover clenched her fists and stomped a foot down, “This is all your fault, you stupid fucking bureaucrat!”

Bob rolled his eyes and shouted back, “Okay, what happened to the boot licking? O-one bad turn and now your true colours are shining through! Is it visible? There’s a camera on the opposite side from the bio tracker, check it.”

Clover had already dashed over to it, clacking away on some buttons.

I left my chair and asked, “Do you want me to do anything?”

“No!” It was good to see that they were agreeing on something.

I still went over to the bio tracker, the same thing I’d look to in order to find the Pooka, that dark purple dot a little smaller than the black squares that lined the map.

I didn’t really understand what was wrong with the map.

It was all purple, not the darkened purple that denoted the creature’s biomass, there’s no way a creature that large could exist.

I checked what the full size of the map was, it being marked as five miles by ten miles, y by x.

The map was covered in the light purple meaning whether or not the creature senses us.

Then I saw a tip, the violet that had been burned into my mind on that day in January.

Except this thing was slivering after us, after our single green blip.

“It’s not visible! Not the body. But maybe…”

“A mile and a half South-East.” I still tried to help, even if they thought I couldn’t.

“Shit, Go up cleaner!” Clover buckled to her knees as we began to rise, I hardly felt anything.

Bob shouted back, “Are you sure it hasn’t surfaced yet?”

“Yes,” Clover replied weakly.

My eyes were still fixed to the graph.

Somehow- the dark purple tendril was blackening still.

And then, from off the map, another came in after it.

As they extended, I was beginning to understand, I’m in the ocean, aren’t I?

There is nothing but the abyss for miles and miles in every direction.

I turned back to see outside the cockpit, it was on the very verge of sunset, as we were facing north, half the sky was brightened, the other loomed a darkness after us.

I don’t know how long it was.

I turned back to the scanner, and another had appeared, its predecessors had realigned their positions.

How big… were these things anyway?

Hesitantly, I raised an arm to the reaching limb, measuring it out.

It was about the length of the tip of my index to my thumb, I slowly moved my hand over to the ruler at the side.

Just about a mile.

“How big is-” We were hit by turbulence.

Bob cried back, struggling to keep a stick straight, “GET READY!”

Clover was struggling to her feet as I grabbed her by the collar, rushing back to the cockpit, “THERE ARE SEATS BACK THERE, JACKASS!”

I threw her back into her seat, closing the door, and joining them.

“On your left Goth kid, bio-scan!”

Clover tapped a screen, and I leaned after her.

It was all there. The full creature, at least it’s basic outline.

Four long purple tendrils extended out from a black centre with smaller tendrils running after it.

I understood that this creature was huge, that this was an actual monster, it was massive, but the literal abyss presented made me question what could possibly make it worth a black coating in the centre.

Then it shook.

The horizon in the distance was being blasted around, and us with it.

“Under your seats!” Bob shrieked.

Clover was being battered around in her seat, she was trying to do as Bob had directed, but failing.

I reached down at her seat; I was starting to feel the struggle now.

Under her seat was a slide-box, opening it, I found a respiratory mask and stuck it to her face.

I don’t know what was going on with me, I was starting to struggle to move, is that common in this situation?

I was beginning to fumble with my own box.

I wasn’t really thinking about my movements, my mind started to wander.

What’s happening?

Did it grab us?

Did it shoot us?

Where is it?

Is this normal?

Is it because I’m here? As a Unit?

Am I killing a man who tried to save me?

Did I kill him? Did I kill her?

It felt like my mind was completely out of the situation, and I gave it a second thought.

Can I fight it?

Something told me no.

But then again, something was telling me yes, that I could do something, I could save both of them at least.

I was about to get up when I got pushed down and back, into my seat, we were sent spiralling higher into the clouds, the ship now tilting back.

I felt sick building up in the back of my throat, though I couldn’t even manage a cough in my condition.

I think I might have blipped out of consciousness for a second.

It was like time skipped a couple of seconds, and we were back to normal.

I cracked my head around to the graph, seeing that the tentacles had passed us by.

“Hackack-a…” That’s all I could say.

Bob said to me quietly, “Breath kid, get some oxygen in you.”

I fumbled around on the floor finally grabbing a hold on the mouth piece and breathing in.

While I was taking a few moments to breathe in, I tried to check Clover’s condition.

I did a sloppy job of finding her pulse, but in my state, I was satisfied enough.

“Whut- what happened Bob?”

He coughed a little, a detectable stutter in his throat.

“That was Angroboda, the Ocean Beast. We got real lucky, it was just passing us by, we got hit by air force from its passage. Heh, boy, you have no clue how glad I am you didn’t do what you did last time. That thing’s a lot worse than the ‘ploopy’, or whatever you called that fox.”

I nodded my now clear head, “Yeah, I’m glad too.”

I looked out the window, the sun still visible, though only slightly now, for all intents and purposes, it was night time.

I looked back at the man who tried way too hard to impress teens.

“Why… how come you’re… how come you didn’t need to wear a mask?”

He managed to set it back on auto pilot, as he turned to me, “Oh, listen, you did pretty good to keep your consciousness, you put durability down as your primary, right?”

I nodded.

“Ha, well, you might be physically tougher than me, I’m just the average guy after all, but I’ve done g-force training. And I got pretty high marks on that, heh- coff…”

He squared his jaw and smiled, “Just call it good old-fashioned human will.”

I looked to him.

“Where are we going again?”

He nodded his head to the side.

“My sister’s in Sacramento. We'll get to her, then we’ll try and hash something out with the higher-ups, so I don’t get fired, or worse, charged.”

Clover let out a laugh, letting us know she was awake.

Bob made a similar expression to when that alarm went off.

“California here we come,” She sang, “Hey, Bobby, d’ya think they over looked us because it knew you were just small fry?”

This single moment in the trip served to solidify my opinion of Bob.

A dumbass suit with good intentions, a guy who’d trip over his own pants if someone didn’t dress him in the morning, that’s who I think he is.

Emphasis placed firmly on the good intentions.