DESTITUTIO
LING
Ling could hear the screams, far to the north. MC had called her three times, but she had ignored her every time.
This was a mistake.
But she had no choice. Turgay needed her.
“Thanks for patching me up,” the crow said. “I still don't know how I got hurt.”
“Shut up, Pig,” Turgay said tiredly. “Ling, we can only lay low for so long. Sooner or later, people will come looking for you.”
That was an understatement if there ever was one. Turgay had enlisted her help Sunday night, and it was now Tuesday morning. She had managed to delay questions simply going to class yesterday, but they had almost been caught twice in the process. There was no way she had the time for a screamer fight. But that meant the second it was over, everyone would be looking for her.
“We have maybe six hours,” she said. Probably a little more, actually, but it was best to be safe. “We need to have you back with Soaring Eagle before then.”
He licked his beak. “We're no closer to finding her than we were Sunday. She was nomadic even before she got on the 'sarians most wanted list. Nobody at G'Hanir has seen her in at least a few weeks.”
Ling pushed down her frustration as best she could. “You have to have some idea where she would be.”
He shook his head. “The only one I ever dealt with was Delia, one of her lieutenants. But she's dead or in custody now, so she's no help.”
Ling closed her eyes. “There has to be someone.”
The crow spoke up. “There's Delia's boy, that... Sharptalon guy.”
“Kevin,” Turgay said in the same tired tone as before. “Useless. He's one of her warhawks.”
Pigeon frowned. “What does that have to do with—”
“All her warhawks were with her.”
“But—”
“Shut up, Pig.”
The crow finally shut his beak.
Ling rubbed her forehead. This was what happened when you got involved in dinky little revolutions where no one had thought anything through. Everything started going to hell in a handbasket the second a single thing went wrong.
None of her friends would be of any use. Even if they didn't turn the aves in—which was a pretty big if all on its own—Necessarius would find them very quickly. Aves stood out, and lugging the toy box around would only make it worse.
Couldn't go to Matron, or anyone else at the orphanage. Even ignoring the fact that she was an avid supporter of Butler, she didn't have any power. At least Derek and Laura would be able to negotiate. The Big Boss had nothing he wanted from a bunch of orphans.
Ling started paging through her address book. In all honesty, she should have probably thrown her phone away, but the screamers should distract everyone from bothering to check her location for a while. She might as well use it.
Not that it mattered. There were over a hundred names, and none of them would be of any help. Helena, Mitchel, Abigail, Harry, Thuron, Lily, Negi, Hayate, Adam, Akane, Derek, Laura, Lizzy—
Lizzy. She might work. Laura said she had contacts, right? She was a voice actress or something. She made a decent living, which meant she had a support network. Maybe a small one, but hopefully one that had no connection to Necessarius.
But would it work? Was it worth the risk?
She looked at Turgay, her oldest friend, sitting on the toy box. He was tired and limp, as if he had given up.
Yes. Yes, it was worth the risk.
There was nothing else to do. Ling pressed the call button and put the phone to her ear. It rang three times, an eternity between each, before someone picked up.
The first thing she heard was what sounded like a sleepy curse in a language that Ling didn't recognize. Then she switched to English. “Hello? Who is this?”
“Lizzy? It's Ling.”
“Ling?” There was a brief pause. “Oh! Ling!” Lizzy babbled something in Chinese.
Right. That was the other reason she had been leery about this. “I don't speak Chinese, Lizzy.”
“Mmm... forgot. Yes, right, no Chinese. You're an otaku.” She seamlessly switched to Japanese.
“I don't speak Japanese either,” Ling said with a sigh. “Look... nevermind, it's not important.” There had to be someone else she could get help from.
Lizzy stopped her before she could hang up. “No, you woke me up, you have to explain why. Not like I can get back to sleep, with those screamers.”
Right. She also had a power. Didn't know what it was, but she had one. “I'm in a bit of a bind. I need to find someone and deliver something to them.”
“O-kay... why not just call MC?”
“The thing I need delivered is not something she would like to know I have.”
There was a brief pause. “Wait one second. You stole something?”
“I didn't, a friend of mine did.”
“A... friend.”
Ling scowled. “Yes, dammit, a friend. And he came to me for help. I need to get to Soaring Eagle, the ave Animal King, with two aves and a package about the size and shape of a coffin. Can you help?”
She shouldn't have said that, but she was annoyed. She knew the whole “my friend has this problem” was an old cliché, but that didn't mean it couldn't be true sometimes.
Turgay looked at her a little sideways. “Ling, are you sure—”
She shushed him and turned back to her phone. “Lizzy. Can you help?”
There was a long pause. “I'm still not quite sure what you expect me to do,” she said slowly. “I don't exactly have very much experience with grand theft.”
Ling took a deep breath and counted to ten before speaking. “I just need you to find Soaring Eagle and arrange a meeting. You have contacts and everything, right?”
“Well... some. I mean, she's a prominent member of the community, so I guess I could arrange something...”
“Okay, you just need to tell her we have the Pigeon.” From what Turgay had told her, the Animal King would remember the names of the men who had the toy box. Probably. “That should be enough.”
Ling could practically hear her nodding. “I can do that. Where are you now?”
She frowned. “Why is that important? You can just call once the meeting is set up.”
“That's not quite how this works. You have to do most of it in person. It's polite, and this crowd is big on that.”
She rubbed her forehead again. Whatever. Lizzy knew it all better than she did. “Fine. We're in the basement of the dorms. In the farthest laundry room.”
“Really?” She seemed very surprised. Why should she be? There weren't many other places they could hide. “Why aren't—not important. I'll be there in... half an hour.”
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Wait, what? It was only six in the morning, and Lizzy's first class wasn't until noon. “Where are you?”
“About half an hour outside of campus,” she said tersely. “I'll see you soon. Sit tight.”
True to her word, she found them within thirty minutes. They were huddled in the corner, covering the aves and the toy box under as many towels as possible, while Ling pretended to be a maid. It was a laughable disguise, and any idiot could tell they were hiding something.
“It took me a little while to find you,” Lizzy said. “It's a good disguise. This your friend?”
Well, that was hardly getting things off to a good start, but it was a little too late to back out. “You have a meeting ready?” Ling gestured to the towel-covered box. “And somewhere to stash this?”
Lizzy bit her lip in an almost ridiculously cute way. “Oh, right, you can't just drag that along behind us, can you?” She looked around, as though hoping a closet would materialize out of thin air. “I guess... we need a truck?”
“That would be helpful,” Ling said with as much calm as she could. “And we probably need a doctor for the crow. He got hit by some shrapnel.”
Lizzy leaned over, looking at him. “It doesn't look so bad.”
Odd reaction. It wasn't life threatening or anything, but it looked bad. Blood was already oozing into the white bandages, even though Ling changed them an hour ago. It was beyond her expertise, anyway. “Can you call someone? You have doctors and drivers, right?”
Lizzy shifted her feet a little. “Well... I have people. But I'm not sure...”
“Anything is better than nothing,” Ling assured her. They were out of options, whatever she had was enough. The screamers were distracting enough without having to deal with Lizzy whining about helping.
She bit her lip again. “Okay, let me make a couple calls.” She shook her head violently, like a dog drying off. “Sorry, the screaming is distracting me.” She pulled out her phone and headed out of the laundry room. “One second.”
The second she was gone, Turgay turned to Ling, an uncertain look in his eye. “You sure about this? She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. And what was that about the screaming?”
Ling sighed, and decided to simply deflect his uncomfortable question rather than try and find a decent lie. “She's all we got. If you don't like her, you shouldn't have stolen the damn box.”
He shut his beak at that. He knew she had a point. How did he even get in this situation in the first place? He wasn't a complete moron, he knew better than to screw with Necessarius.
Before Ling could think too much on that line, Lizzy came back, closing her phone with a satisfied snap.
“A truck is on the way,” she said, “and the ave woman has been called. Everything is under control.”
The crow perked up. “Really? What did she say?”
“Shut up, Pig,” Turgay grumbled. “She didn't actually talk to her.”
“I'm not sure if we should be here for this,” Ling said. She had seen allies who knew too much killed enough not to stick around. “I think this is an internal ave thing.”
Lizzy just shrugged. “If that's what you want, we can leave them to it once my truck gets here.” She brightened. “Ooh, we can go for ice cream!”
Pigeon gave an ave grin. “That sounds great! Can we come?”
Turgay rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Pig.”
Ling sighed again and nodded to both birds. “There's still that maintenance sign on the door, so you guys should be fine.” She turned back to Lizzy. “How long until the truck gets here?”
“No more than half an hour,” she promised. “Now, about that ice cream...”
Ling rolled her eyes. “Sure, fine. Let's go.”
Ling had to admit, she felt bad about leaving them alone like that, but there shouldn't have been any problems. And she really didn't want to let Lizzy's driver know her face. She was sure Lizzy trusted them, but stuff like that tended to get spread around.
But as they walked out of the laundry room and up to ground level, a large white van pulled up. A man stepped out of the passenger side almost before it finished stopping.
He was tall and thin, dressed in an immaculate suit and tie. He was a demon with red skin and small, sharp horns, and Ling saw a tail flicker briefly behind his legs. Ling couldn't tell precisely what subculture he was from, but that didn't mean much. Lots of people, especially demons, never bothered with specific subcultures.
The demon bowed deeply. “Mistress Greene, we are ready whenever you are.”
Lizzy raised an eyebrow. “That was fast. Were you waiting for my call?”
He didn't raise his head. “Yes, we were.” Ling noticed his tail thrash once. “That... is not a problem, is it?”
Lizzy grinned widely. “Far from it. I think I just remembered why I keep you around.” Her grin faded. “Is it just you and the driver?”
“Yes. Oleander is the driver, though.”
She nodded. “Good. The aves aren't going to be much help, especially since one is injured. Get him inside first, then worry about the package.”
Her servant finally straightened. “Aves? Then I am I to understand the package is...”
“The toy box, yes,” she said in an annoyed tone. Ling was a bit surprised. She wouldn't have thought anything could crack Lizzy's cheerful shell. But then she quickly smiled again. “I've already made arrangements with Soaring Eagle. Just take them to the meeting point, and it will be fine.”
The demon raised an eyebrow. “You are not coming with us, Mistress Greene?”
She grinned wider and grabbed Ling's arm. “Of course not. I saved the day, that means I get ice cream!”
The demon smiled slightly and bowed again. “Of course. Now if you'll excuse me...” He straightened and hurried past them, down to the laundry rooms. The driver got out as well, revealing himself as a giant. A Jotuun, if Ling was any judge.
Lizzy dragged her off by the arm, tugging her towards the eastern side of the campus, where the food court was.
It took Ling a minute to figure out where they were going, mostly because she was so surprised. “You like the school meals?”
“Only the ice cream,” Lizzy said. She had let go of Ling's arm and was now dragging her by the hand. She was much stronger than Ling, probably because she was two feet taller. “It's really good, and cheap too.”
“I believe you. Now can you let go of my hand?”
“There's also a nice spot under the trees, but next to the air conditioner,” she said cheerfully, clearly not listening. “You get shade and warm air pumped out of the building shot at your feet. No one else seems to like it, which is perfect.”
Ling frowned. “I'm not sure I like the sound of it either.”
“The chef knows me,” she continued as if Ling hadn't spoken. “He'll make our ice cream himself. What kind would you like?”
“Uh...” It took Ling a moment to realize that Lizzy was actually waiting for an answer. “A sundae? I guess?”
“Good choice!” she said. “Me, I prefer just a simple cone, but I'll get a sundae this time too.”
They found Lizzy's table. As she had said, it was unoccupied. Ling thought the air conditioner a little too close for comfort, but didn't say anything.
A small baseline man with violet eyes came up with a pad. “Hello again, Lizzy. The usual?”
“Actually, my friend would like an ice cream sundae,” she said cheerfully. “And I'll have the same.”
The waiter nodded. “A good choice. I always say that you should expand your horizons. I'm glad you're finally doing so.”
Lizzy grinned at him, golden eyes glittering. “I think I've already tried enough, Mark. I know what I like.”
He wisely chose not to retort, just smiled, inclined his head, and went inside.
“It will be a little while,” Lizzy said. “Dessert is on the sixth floor.” She grinned again. “In the meantime, what's going on with you? Other than helping kemo minorities commit grand theft, that is.”
This girl... Ling knew she didn't mean it, but she could be a little abrasive. “Ah... not much. Just soccer and school.”
It was a bit awkward. Lizzy knew about the screamers, obviously, but Ling couldn't exactly tell her how involved she was in the whole thing. And other than that... what was she doing, really?
But Lizzy just nodded, not noticing Ling's troubles. “Yeah, I'm about the same. School and voice acting.” She grinned. “And shopping. Lots of shopping.”
Ling rolled her eyes. “I'm sure that's loads of fun.”
“It is!” she said. “Hunting down the perfect item is quite satisfying. There's a rush to it.”
“So... that's it? That's all you do?”
She chuckled. “Like you're much better. What do you do in your free time? You must have some. College can't be too time-consuming, I seem to be passing easily enough.”
Well, Ling hadn't actually been doing anything recently other than sleep, since the screamers kept waking them up at weird hours, but there was always the old fallback. “Mostly, I watch anime and stuff.”
Lizzy nodded. “I think Laura mentioned that before. What kind?”
“Shounen, mostly. What about you? What's your favorite anime?”
Her face scrunched up as she thought. “Well... nothing specific. Just seinen in general, really. Though I'll admit a lot of them have too much sex.”
Ling nodded in agreement. “I hear that.”
Her phone buzzed. She reached down and turned it off without even considering answering it.
Lizzy blinked. “Shouldn't you—”
“No,” she said firmly. “I should not.”
Lizzy winced. “Boyfriend troubles, I take it?”
Now it was Ling's turn to blink in confusion. “I'm sorry, what?”
“Derek, I mean,” she said, looking at her with those innocent golden eyes. “You two are dating, right?”
Ling coughed. “No... ah, no. No, I'm not. We're not, I mean. There is... no.”
“Oh, that's a shame.” She leaned back, allowing the waiter who had suddenly appeared behind her to place their sundaes in front of them. “You'd make a cute couple.”
Thankfully, with the food in front of them, Ling had a good excuse for not answering, and by the time they were done eating, Lizzy had apparently completely forgotten. The next hour was much of the same, and passed in a pleasant and talkative blur.
Punctuated every five minutes by Ling's phone ringing.