After smiling in the direction of the dining table, Nina watched as the various members of The Cloud Orchestra stood up and broke off towards the stairs and the sofas.
“Dishes?” Trim asked as she approached.
“Thanks,” she replied before heading in the direction of her bedroom.
As if her earlier fears had been written on her face, Reina had asked her to cook breakfast for the group. It was celebratory, apparently, and Nina didn’t have much of a choice but to oblige. Saela wasn’t present, and she had to admit that it had helped the morning atmosphere. Visiting her parents, the rest had speculated, although her prolonged absence was beginning to cut it fine with their supposed departure time which was in roughly an hour.
Not my problem, she thought as she dropped onto her bed before burying her face in the pillow. Her hand landed on the open book that lay beside her, the book that she had spent yesterday trying to get through after her conversation with Reina. The Seven Plates showed an interesting view into the worlds below her, but filtering through all the content in one evening had proved to be too much for her to handle. Normally she could drink up information with ease, but yesterday she had been unfocused and as a result the words didn’t stick. After reading the same page three times in a row, she’d settled for looking at the pictures, but while pictures were interesting, they could only educate her so much on what she was getting herself into.
There were just too many things on her mind. Her packing had fared a little better, but that was probably because there wasn’t much room to use in the first place. She had thought she would be able to cram the bag full of necessities until the seams were about to burst, but was dismayed to find that the internal structure was rigid enough to prevent it from stretching. Even the bare necessities had struggled to fit.
‘Reina’s rules,’ as Trim had put it, were not quite what she had hoped for. After investigating the pockets in her jacket, she thought about squeezing some clothing in there, but shelved the thought when she realised that carrying underwear around in her pockets might seem a little strange. The two main pockets on the inside were already reserved for her pistol and ammunition, and clogging them up with other bits and pieces was not an option. ‘Reina’s rules’ had also covered that, apparently.
Svanda’s cargo pants, which she had initially chalked off without a second thought, were starting to look like a pretty decent idea. That being said, Svanda probably didn’t fill the extra pockets with underwear and toiletries in favour of packing something a little more explosive. Her pockets had been bulging the first time they met in the sky, so maybe she would have to add it to the ever growing of list of questions to ask when she had the time.
She paused as she listened to the voices that drifted into the hall. If she was hearing correctly, Saela had returned and wouldn’t be given any extra time to prepare. Not that there was much for anyone besides her to prepare, their gear would be nothing different from any other time they left the office besides a couple of small bits and pieces.
She’d be nervous, stepping outside the office. It would be the first time that she had left since Hala and Cross had dropped the wanted poster off and she didn’t know what to expect. The rest of The Cloud Orchestra had been keeping their eye out for any signs that the posters had spread this far, but the fact that nobody had come across anything did little to ease her fears. Hopefully she would be able to duck out of sight before it became an issue and her heart would be able to slow down a little.
“Nina?” Jade’s voice came from the other side of the door.
“It’s open,” she replied, purposefully louder than before. She didn’t need her lock picked again.
“Ready?” Jade asked as her head popped out from behind the opening door. Her eyes flicked from the open book on the bed to the packed bag that was ready to go.
“Do I look ready?” Nina pointed to herself, more to the loose grey shirt that she had been cooking in. “I haven’t changed yet.”
“Change then,” Jade smiled as she stepped inside the door. “Reina wants to go over a few things with everyone before we leave.”
“Alright, I’ll be down in a moment.” Nina walked to her wardrobe before pulling out her maroon work pants and a white shirt, unbuttoning the top to let it slide off the hanger before taking it to the bed. She paused for a moment before turning around. “Is there something else?”
“Umm, no?” Jade replied. Nina noted that while she didn’t have anything else to say, she wasn’t leaving either.
“Out, I’m changing.”
Jade frowned before slinking out the door in disappointment. Nina thought about locking the door before changing but realised that it probably wouldn’t help anyway. Quickly throwing on the shirt and pants, she stepped into her boots and threw the blue jacket on. Popping open the T&TERM case, she pocketed the pistol and magazines before swinging the bag over her shoulder and sitting on the bed.
“You haven’t been so bad after all,” she murmured to herself as she pat the bed. Her gaze flicked over the room’s few features as though saying goodbye to each before she stood up and marched out the door. Maybe she would see this room again, maybe she wouldn’t. Either way, there was no point looking back now.
She closed the door behind her and made her way to the stairs before descending to the office. Fanned out in a semicircle around Reina who sat on an empty desk was the rest of the team, geared up and ready to go. ‘Geared up’ might have been overkill, but Nina could feel that the atmosphere that surrounded them was sharper.
“Ready?” Reina asked as Nina joined the group, standing beside Saela who had been left at the end. She ignored the bitter look on Saela’s face as her gaze flicked over her black overalls, the same pair that she had been wearing when they met. A yellow collar popped out from the top which was a few shades lighter than her hair, the two together framing her grumpy expression.
“Ready,” she confirmed. Like Saela, Reina was dressed in a similar fashion to how she was the day they had met. The labcoat had been replaced by a pale blue sweater that sat over her white three-quarter pants. Even the boots were the same, but Nina guessed that they could only outfit so many pairs with whatever Euris did to them.
“Great. First up then,” Reina smiled as she picked up a wooden box that sat beside her. “Abysswort seeds going to the Inin Estate on Zaffre’s. Svanda, you’re carrying.”
“Can I have a couple?” Jade asked as Svanda caught the box that Reina had tossed to her, her hands clasped behind the back of her short black and white checkered dress in a demonstration of innocence. Aline wore the same dress, but with inverted colours. “They won’t notice if a few go missing.”
“They counted last time,” Svanda laughed as Nina watched her drop the box into one of the pockets in her pants. Like Reina, her choice of attire was the same as the last time. Nina noted that the box was a similar shape to a hip flask, wondering if it was intentional for ease of carry.
“You don’t need any,” Reina smiled. “You just want to sell them.”
“I want to grow one!” Jade replied with a pout.
“Oh?” Reina raised an eyebrow at the remark. “Do you want to grow the rest of the forbidden four while you’re at it?”
“Yeah!” Jade punched into the air with enthusiasm before pausing. “Well, maybe not a drearwood plant. Drearwoods are ugly.”
“Agreed, but the answer is still no,” Reina said as she picked up the other item that sat beside her. “This is also going to Zaffre’s, to those weirdos at the NNZ.”
“But you didn’t call them that, right?” Trim smirked as she stretched a hand out. Like usual she was dressed in a full tracksuit, this time it was pale red with a white stripe. “I’ll take it, and I won’t look at what’s on it either.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Considering they didn’t ask someone from the Network to take it, you probably don’t want to look at what’s on it anyway.”
“Eww,” Trim frowned as she grabbed what Nina realised was a hard drive before sliding it into a small compartment on the stereo which sat in front of her. “I’ve got bad images now.”
“That’s your own problem. It’s probably just data that they don’t want anyone seeing anyway. The Network are cheap, but anything run through them is going to be logged in their system somewhere,” Reina replied with a casual wave of her hand before she pushed herself off the desk. “We’ll pick up the rest of the work when we get to Zaffre’s. Shall we go then?”
The members of the group nodded before Reina led them to the door. Nina, who fell in at the back, thought she saw movement at the corner of the curtain that protected Euris’ office, but wasn’t sure.
“Is Euris going to be okay?” she asked as they filed through the door, Trim waiting beside it to close up.
“She’ll be fine, we prepared.” Trim closed the door and walked beside Nina. “She probably likes it, the quiet.”
“Maybe she’s already dancing on our desks to celebrate having the entire place to herself for a while,” Jade laughed.
The group exited the apartment and moved onto the wider streets. Reina and Svanda walked at the front, while Jade and Aline flanked them on each side. Saela walked in the centre of the group while Trim and Nina brought up the rear, forming the group into a rough hexagon.
Watching as the crowds moved out of their way with admiring gazes, Nina thought back to the conversation with Reina from the day before. She had to admit, it did feel good. It was unlike anything she had ever felt during her office life on Caecus because she felt important. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea to attract this much attention while a wanted poster was circulating with her face on it, but she was standing at the back and was hopefully flying under the radar due to the others around her.
“What are the forbidden four?” she asked Trim as they walked, recognizing the route that they were on as the way to the abandoned shaft.
“Plants,” she replied. “Declared illegal by the respective authorities on every plate besides Terminus, which is where they’re all from. Abysswort, fisherleaf, drearwood, and the thirty days flower.”
“Why are we carrying abysswort seeds?”
“Abysswort is poisonous. It’s also easy to make lethal poisons from that are tasteless with a delayed onset of symptoms. Nasty stuff, really.”
“How lovely,” Nina replied as she eyed Svanda’s pocket, wondering why Jade would be comfortable with such a plant lying around. It certainly wasn’t something that she would want Saela to have access to either.
“Some freaky stuff comes out of Terminus,” Trim laughed. “It’s… a unique place, but you will see that for yourself.”
Nina became aware of the pistol that sat against her ribcage, which was also from Terminus. Her thoughts were quickly dragged away however as the group pushed through the heavy door and filtered into the abandoned shaft. Svanda worked at the control panel without a word as Nina examined Reina’s expression in the dim light. The knowing smile had returned, but Nina was beginning to wonder if that was really how she was feeling inside. She herself had been calmer than she thought she would be as they walked through the streets, but she had still been nervous. How much of Reina’s smile was a mask placed over her own concerns?
It was obvious that Svanda had gone through the calibration process a few times as she gave them a thumbs up in about half the time it had taken Jade to do the same thing. The panel flashed green as the group then took turns to haul themselves over the railing, dropping down in a silent descent. It was almost eerie, Nina thought as she rocketed downwards towards the bottom of the shaft, how she felt about what she was doing. She was more comfortable with the process now, but it was still frightening. Falling through a shaft lined with rusted steel and dilapidated lighting was something she would never completely embrace.
She touched down at the base of the shaft and moved aside as Trim landed behind her, eyeing the stereo that sat on her shoulder. She was reminded of how Trim had called it tactical, but having a few slots to carry stuff wasn’t exactly tactical. She would find out why it was tactical sooner or later, but maybe she didn’t want to. If Trim was using it tactically, their situation probably wouldn’t be that ideal in the first place.
The group moved through the maze of narrow corridors in pairs. Svanda and Reina walked at the front, guiding the group without a word as the sound of their footsteps echoed through the passages. Jade and Aline followed behind them, with Saela the only member of the group who walked by herself. Nina’s opinion on her had adjusted since her conversation with Reina, but not by much. Reina would let them sort the issue out by themselves, because if she stepped in and fixed it herself, the relationship would never truly mend. Actions spoke louder than words.
They exited the maze of corridors to find themselves in the damp and dark corridor that Nina had confused for a prison on her last visit. Unlike her last visit, however, Svanda turned in the other direction and the group followed.
“We’re not going to the station?”
“Nope,” Trim replied. “Why do you think The Cloud Orchestra is based on JE-22?”
It was a question that Nina had never thought about. There were so many towers that together made up Luem, so why this one? The answer, she found, was quite obvious.
It was here because their way to the worlds below was also here.
“We know of three locations to jump,” Trim said. “JE-22, IX-78, and OL-40. The other two are backups, and Reina doesn’t need to pay for any more information than that anyway.” She waved her hand in what seemed to be a random direction. “OL-40 is ages away too.”
Nina did some rough calculations in her head as she studied Saela's posture while she walked in front of them. If JE-22 to KF-14 took as long as it did, travelling all the way to OL-40 would have been painful. Saela’s shoulders had seemed to prop back and rise a little higher, she thought. They had entered a dusty street that had a reasonable amount of pedestrian traffic, was she showing off? It was as though she was saying to the people look at me, look how far I have come.
Admittedly, after looking at their decrepit and dirty surroundings, Nina agreed that she had a reason to be proud. She watched as Saela nodded in the direction of a pair of women who sat on the railing at the front of a pub, and they nodded back. Their exchange didn’t require a single word, but Nina could see that the recognition was there. Saela was feeling validated.
The group turned off the main road and Nina followed them through a door into what seemed to be a carpet shop. Dim light filtered through an array of rugs that stretched across string hung above them while a small man smoking a cigarette sat at a desk in the corner. Considering all the dust that was drifting through the air, she assumed that this place didn’t actually sell very many carpets, but that was obvious because she knew that this shop held a secret.
“You’re back,” the main spoke in a bored tone as he looked up from the book he was reading. His gaze flicked over each member of the group, pausing on Nina for a moment before his attention turned back to Reina. “A new one, is there?”
“There is.”
“The cost goes up,” he shrugged.
“Euris has already sorted it out, the credits are there.”
Instead of responding, the man placed his hand under the desk. Nina assumed he pressed a button, because after a moment three men stepped out from behind a carpet hung on the opposite wall. Unlike the majority of people she saw down here, they were clean. Clean black clothing, clean shaved, clean haircuts.
Clean weapons.
She hadn’t seen many people carry weapons as openly as Svanda did, but this group did. Futuristic assault rifles like Svanda’s were slung over their shoulders while matching pistols dangled from their hips. Despite the fact that Nina had found most of the people they had run into flying under SuTSU’s radar quite friendly, the gazes from this group were cold.
“Seeya next time,” Reina smiled at the man with the cigarette before walking over to the armed group. Like the rest of her team, Nina followed as they ducked behind the carpet to find themselves in a small concrete room that featured a fourth man. A table covered with playing cards sat in the centre with four chairs around it, a solitary light dangling from the ceiling. A door in the far wall, however, which looked more like a bulkhead, was what drew the group’s attention.
The three men from earlier followed them through before sliding a block of concrete that was on rails back into place, sealing them inside. Without acknowledging them, they sat back down at the table and continued their game.
“You Network guys must be great at parties,” Jade chuckled as Svanda hauled the bulkhead open. Seeing that she didn’t get a reaction, she sighed before stepping through the door. Nina followed after her and Trim came through behind. Sitting in the middle of the small square concrete room was a dark hole in the floor, around two by two meters.
After walking over to the other side, Reina turned to face them with a grin stretched across her face. “So, are you ready?”
Nina didn’t know if she was ready or not, but she nodded like the rest of the group as they fanned out around the hole in the floor and stared downwards into the darkness. She couldn’t see a thing, but here she was again, jumping into the unknown. It wasn’t just one world below here, but many. Reina had said that they would be travelling the plates, and now her first real journey was about to begin.
“Let’s go then,” Reina cheered before stepping off the edge, Svanda mirroring her as they both dropped away into the darkness. Jade, Aline, and Saela immediately followed them, Jade diving headfirst as though she was entering a pool.
“It’s time,” Trim laughed as she stepped off, leaving Nina standing there at the edge.
What the hell have I got myself into? She thought as she took a deep breath before stepping over the edge and following the rest of the group into the unknown.