“Everyone in position?” I asked, getting four affirmations. Mr. and Mrs. Kalis were here in front of me. Feras and Torren filled them in on what we, or at least what Feras and I, suspected happened while I was busy with the Crusade.

I thought we’d go another day or two before making the plan concrete, but it seemed the duo, and the parents for that matter, wanted to get done with this as much as I did. Couldn’t really blame them. I was ready to sleep in and stop going to school too.

Ferras was hidden at the meetup point, deep in concentration as he focused on his Minor Illusions. Torren wasn’t much better as he cast some kind of magic out of sight. He said it was to set the mood, whatever that meant. If it was Claire, it would help draw out the guilt of her crimes. Supposedly, the overwhelming emotion should be able to break through whatever magic warped her mind. Not sure about all that.

That left me to run the whole thing since our leader was down for the count and also meant I was the one with the parents. We stood a floor above the meetup point and gathered around several holes punched in the concrete. This floor was almost entirely pitch black, making it nearly impossible to see us from the floor down unless she had some kind of night vision like I did.

”A-are you sure it was her?” Mr. Kalis asked. He looked shaken about the whole thing. He wore dark clothes to blend in with the terrain and had a duffel bag wrapped around his shoulder.

“We let her come over for sleepovers, and this-“ Mrs. Kalis’s face crumpled. Her husband wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She ducked into his arm for a moment before managing to put on a corporate facade. “They said mind control?”

I shrugged, motioning for them to keep it down. It would only be a matter of time before Claire got within hearing distance. “Suspected. Trovare thinks it was someone else."

"Principal Bously though? He seemed like such an upstanding gentleman. To think he was-" Mr. Kalis's voice broke. He sniffled roughly, continuing after a few moments with a steal in his voice. "Are you sure?"

"We'll find out shortly," I replied, looking away from the pure emotion of our clients.

We fell into silence for a few moments as we watched through one of the holes in the roof. My vision revealed itself to be surprisingly good as I peered through the darkness of a ramp leading up onto the floor below us. Claire walked up hesitantly. Her eyebrows were twisted in confusion and her eyes danced around fearfully.

Claire walked into a neon green light shining through a gap in the wall. Immediately I felt the two next to me tense up, though neither made a move to do anything but watch. The girl idly ran a hand through one of her three mohawks, brushing the hair back into shape.

”Claire~” A voice sang from the shadows of the parking garage. It was a girl’s voice, sounding perfectly sweet and kind. Gotta say, Feras, nice touch.

Claire walked hesitantly forward, her piercings quietly clacking against each other. “Trovare? Is that you? Whatcha doin'? When you said you had somethin' ta show me-“

Something flickered around two of the cement pillars supporting the place, causing Claire to jump back. “T-Trovare?”

”Silly Claire,” the voice said, drifting into a laugh as if she heard the funniest joke ever. The laugh shifted into a hauntingly cold cackle. “Can’t you recognize my voice?”

Beside me, Mrs. Kalis had a tear trickle down onto her cheek. She whispered, barely quieter than the cool breeze flowing through the garage, “Quora.”

Her husband pulled his arm tighter, hugging her tightly as he nodded along.

"Quiet," I whispered to the couple. I mean, I get it, I really do, but if they blow this it’ll all be for nothing. That and trying to set up something similar wouldn't work either since she'd be expecting it.

Claire stepped towards the middle of the parking garage. “Who’s there? This- this isn’t funny!”

”Oh, yes it is, Claire~! Two friends reuniting. Isn’t it just wonderful? I thought I’d never see you again.” Quora’s voice called out with an accusatory note to it. Although the voice sounded cheerful and happy, there was an undeniable coldness to it. It made even me uncomfortable.

Claire gripped her head tightly with a hand. ”I- I don’t know you. Who are ya?”

The shadows shifted as a girl walked out from behind one of the cement pillars. I recognized her face from the pictures of Quora. Feras outdid himself. The illusion looked extremely realistic. Well, except that it didn’t shift the dust at all as it stepped into the light. Hopefully, Claire wouldn’t notice? Or maybe she would and it would sell the whole ghost act better.

“It’s me, Quora. Your bestest friend. Did- did you forget me after what happened? Don’t worry, I’ll never forget you, Claire~” The ‘ghost’ of Quora approached closer and closer.

Claire turned into a shaking mess as she held her head, staring at the Minor Illusion. “I- I don’t- Gah!” She bent over, grabbing onto her skull with enough force to tear several strands of hair from her mohawk. She groaned, twisting away from the lights slightly. “Q-Quora?”

”That’s right! Do you remember me now?” The ghost quickly approached touching distance.

”Ch-chek. What happened? Why’s my head hurt so much?” The girl rubbed her head as a bit of blood trickled out of her nose. “Quora, what happened?”

”Don’t tell me you forgot what happened too!” The illusion chuckled, each laugh sounding colder than the last as it spread its arms out.

“What happened?” Claire stepped forward for a hug. “You’ve been gone-“

Her arms brushed right through the illusion, causing the girl to step back in confusion. Immediately, the temperature in the parking garage dropped cold enough for our breath to turn visible. The illusion of Quora slowly tilted her head up, staring into Claire’s eyes as blood began to pour out of her eyes and mouth. “You killed me.”

Claire stumbled back, falling onto her hands as sharp shards of rubble tore into her hand viciously. She left a trail of blood as she tried to back away from the illusion. “No- no- no- oh God!”

She froze, curling into a ball as the illusion of Quora vanished into the wind. Sobs racked her body, growing more wretched with each passing moment. Creepily, blood was mixed in with the tears. “What have I done? What have I done?! I’m sorry, Quora! I didn’t mean it! Please- please come back… what have I done? T-this can't be real... oh God!”

"Th-that's enough..." I turned to look towards the Kalis family. They were hugging each other deeply, tears in their eyes. Mr. Kalis unslung the duffle bag from his back, handing it to me as he spoke quietly, “Our payment.”

“Are you sure? We still don’t-“

“We’re sure.” Mrs. Kalis had tears in her eyes as she stared down at the girl shrieking and crying below us. “We’ll- we’ll question her ourselves too, but this much…”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Right.” I nodded my head to the two. It was their gig, their call… Just… “What are you going to do with her?”

”Ask some questions… after that…” Mrs. Kalis stared down in sorrow.

”Quora would want us to forgive, but-" Mr. Kalis's face twisted in pain as he looked down at the sobbing girl. "But we need to find her body first. After that... things won't be the same, but Quora wouldn't want us to punish Claire for this."

I don't even know what I'd do if I was in their position. Makes me think of the guy who killed my parents, Timothy McLare. If he wasn't dead already, I wouldn't even have hesitated to put a bullet in his brain. Mind control or not. Guess that says more about me than I'd like to admit. Then again, it was easy to say what I should've or would've done and entirely different to actually do it.

Mrs. Kalis locked eyes with me. “And the principal? That- that devilish bastard behind all of this?“

I shrugged, glancing over my shoulder to the exit. “Above our pay grade. He's a high-level Adept at the very least, far above our capability to take care of. The kind of Rayn needed to put a bounty on his head… but give it a day or two. We called in some favors. He won’t be free to roam much longer.”

”Thank you…” The couple turned away from me, speaking quietly to each other.

I took that as my cue and headed for the back exit, calling over the comms, “That’s a wrap. Let’s delta before anything else can go wrong.”

”Chek.” Torren sighed as the cold in the air faded away to its normal temperature. “Heading for the fire escape.”

”Same.”

I turned back to check on the Kalis family before undoing the zipper of the bag and checking it. There were three data chips in there, each marked with a piece of tape saying ‘1000 R’. Then there were what looked to be three sets of devices each with five pieces. An instruction manual, handwritten, sat buried under all of that as well as a schematic.

I fished out the schematic as I exited out of the building onto the fire escape, instantly memorizing the plans for the Drop Chute. Guess they changed the name since Feras told us about them. The print was extremely technical and revolved around something called Gravitic, whatever that was. For the most part, though, the five devices in each set looked like thrusters of the ionic variety.

I stuffed it back into the bag as I met up with the others on the fire escape. “That went well. Nice touch with the cold.”

“Yeah…” The big guy looked a little down as the fire escape thundered under his footsteps. “Got the pay?”

I tossed him the bag. “Chek.”

Ferras spoke up from the front of our group. “That went better than I was expecting. She broke so, so easily.”

”Would you break slowly if your dead best friend’s ghost showed up to confront you?” Torren asked a bit defensively. “Damn, I really thought it wasn’t her too…”

”Please.” I laughed at him, sidestepping the potential minefield about Claire. I had mixed feelings about the whole situation to begin with. “Everyone knows ghosts aren’t real…”

Ferras looked over his shoulder, staring me dead in the eyes. ”Do they?”

I paused for a second, my steps slowing down. There were a ton of ghost stories everywhere, but there were always other rational explanations… but what about the Dune Walkers? Did they count as reanimated? Or that- that cursed beast from the Nomad camp. Could that count as a ghost?

No, ghost stories were just that, stories. Aether entities didn't count. Regardless, stuff along the lines of the cursed beast was closer to wraiths or revenants than proper ghosts. At the very least, it wasn’t haunting me. That I knew of-

I hurried up, my steps dead silent, and fell back in line. All of us were deep in thought as we hit the ground floor.

Torren sighed deeply. “Damn. I sorta liked her. Other than her weird desire to watch me eat.”

"Just the job." Feras stepped ahead of us, seeming unbothered. I was a bit envious of that detachment. No way I could fully commit to the illusion of Quora like he did without some serious help from Cold-Blooded, at least. Then again, being so detached probably wasn't all that great mentally...

"What are we going to do about that bastard principal anyway? I- I've got some connections. I can call in a favor to make him disappear." Torren said though he had a slightly hesitant look on his face as if he would rather not use said connections.

"It's fine." We hit the street level, stopping as we all looked at each other. "I've already got the ball rolling with the Crusade. They'll take care of it."

Torren shuddered. "How'd you manage that? No, don't answer that... if it's the Crusade though, they aren't exactly known for being gentle... good."

I nodded my head, patting the big guy on the shoulder. I felt guilty- no, that wasn't quite right. Maybe empathetic? I empathized with Claire a bit. It was a seriously shit situation all the way around. Someone in power using those under them like this, especially when said underling couldn't resist even if she wanted to was always shitty to see. At least we could do something about it this time. It was only a matter of time before the Crusade fully got involved. Too bad I didn't have connections back when I first got to work with Carone...

It’s not like she was dead, anyway. Who knows, there might even be a happy ending in there somewhere… stupid, Shiro. You forget this is Aythryn City, where the happy endings are rarer than good people. Claire would probably have a life full of guilt ahead of her. Probably try to drown out the emotion like every other corpo, yet another cog in the great machine slowly being ground to dust. Like Feras said though, it was just the job. I was better off with a clean break from this whole situation just like I usually do. It was safer that way. For me, at least.

We split the loot and headed our separate ways. Torren got the blueprint since he took a hit monetarily after the fight with the gang at Mortas Motel considering how expensive the jammer and Sonic Suppressor were, and Feras took the manual with a promise to send us pictures of every page.

I was okay with the loot distribution as I headed towards my bike, stuffing the Drop Chute into my bag as I cleared the thousand Rayn off the chip using my phone. I already had enough illegal blueprints, and the manual would just be another piece of junk left to rot somewhere.

As I got to my bike, I cleared my alarms as I tried to detach myself once more. At long last I’d be able to sleep in.

— — —

The next morning, I awoke bright and early as I jolted free of my bed. I tiredly rubbed at the bags under my eyes and summoned Crows Canteen of Chaos to gulp down Sentinel’s Super Supplement.

I checked my burner phone, spotting several messages from Sean, Tristen, and the rest of the people at the school.

‘No school, choom!’ Came from Christine.

Tristen tried to fish another date out of me. ‘No school today… how about we meatball somewhere to study?’

‘If you need help catching up, don’t be afraid to message me! Today would be a great day to tutor you.’ Aaron, the puppy kid, sent.

There were dozens of other messages, most of them from people I don’t remember speaking to or giving my number to. It was kind of scary. I needed to get a new burner as soon as possible. I had a bit of a weird feeling knowing it was highly unlikely I ever see any of these people again. At least, unless my shit luck kicked in once more at some inopportune moment.

After a moment to think about it, I cleared all of them from my contacts except Sean’s. I actually kind of liked Sean. Sure, he was a corporate asshole, but he grew on me over the last week. I kind of felt bad using and then ditching him without a word. ‘Did you hear what happened? The entire school is shut down while the Crusade runs an investigation. Father was pissed the security lost control of the school.’

I deliberated for a moment before sending him a message back. He was the only one I messaged.‘Yes. My Grandfather is moving me back to Pyrus for the summer due to the security threat.’ Grandfather... I felt a hint of longing in the depths of my heart, though I quickly washed it off with a pulse of Cold-Blooded. This damn gig making me too sentimental.

’Are you coming back to finish your schooling?’

I waited a few moments, deciding to kill his hope before it could fester. ‘Probably not. Grandfather decided for me to finish everything on Pyrus.’

’When will I see you again?’ There were no emoticons, but I felt a ghost sensation of lonely sorrow as I read the message. Maybe it was just my own emotions peering back at me through the tight wall I usually caged them in.

‘Maybe one day.’

’I’ll eagerly await that day, Lady Meno.’

I tossed the phone to the other side of my bed. I sighed as I stared up at the ceiling. I don’t exactly know what I was thinking messaging him back. It was impossible to make friends when you were lying to them about who you were and spying on them. I sighed again and looked up the morning scream streams from the Corporate Quarter. It didn't take long to find the right incident. The Crusade got into a large-scale firefight with the principal of SPS, who the news was calling an ecoterrorist, early this morning. He took his assistant hostage, killing her when the Crusade wouldn’t back off. After that, he summoned a forest of plants to try and evade arrest.

The fight apparently tore up a city block before the Crusaders on the scene could end it. After they severely wounded him and took him under arrest, every plant in the school went haywire and turned vicious. Two janitors were killed and some of the teaching staff were severely wounded. Thankfully, a Knight and two Squires happened to be nearby and evacuated the civilians before too much more damage could be dealt.

I’m so glad I got to sleep in and miss that shit show. I can't even imagine how badly things would've gone had the boys and I tried to take the principal on by ourselves. I made the right call.

I slid my phone onto the charger and got up and moved for the day. As I took a nice warm shower, my mind jumped between all the things I needed to do now that I was free again.