I went back downstairs and into the corner that I used to practice. Silently, I hefted the staff and made myself ready to step through the kata. Just as I took my first step, I heard Jennifer behind me.
“Jackson. We need to talk.”
I was yanked from my focus and stumbled. Catching myself, I turned to face her. “Yes? Have I done something?”
She stood there, her arms crossed, staring at me impassively, chewing on the inside of her cheek. After a moment more of quiet, she gave a minute nod of her head. “Come with me. You’re going to learn something a little different today.” She turned on her heel and walked back to the offices on this floor.
I sighed softly and placed the staff back on the rack and followed her as quickly as I could. She was quick for a small woman. Idly, I wondered just what she would have to teach me back in the offices. Eventually, we wound up in a small meeting room with a long table, and we were not alone. Five other members were there, including Zack, Anna and Tekky.
She closed the door as I walked in. “Everyone else here? Good. Jackson, why don’t you get us up to speed?” Jennifer took a seat at the far end of the table, leaving a single seat open by the door.
“I… uh… What?” My eyes darted around the room as I felt my body temperature rise. I began backing toward the door.
Zack stood up. “Dude, chill. Take a seat and then take a breath. As far as I’m aware, you’re not in any trouble. Jennifer?”
“He’s right, Jackson. You’re in no actual trouble, though we will be discussing a few things in private with William. Please. Sit.” She gestured to the open chair directly across from her.
“Um… yeah. Okay.” I sat between the two unknown members. “What, uh… what’s going on?”
Zack spoke up first. “I’m hoping you can shed some light on that, actually. See, we’ve been watching some interesting patterns lately, and it just so happens that the place you went for lunch today is involved.”
My eyebrows bunched together. “Al’s?”
The man on my right nodded. “Yeah. Seems that location is just the latest in a long string of robberies. If you could tell us what you saw, that’d help us out.”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, taking a deep breath. “Hang- hang on. Let me get this straight.” I looked at the man who just spoke. He had a slightly hooked nose and a wicked-looking scar that ran down his left side that puckered up that side of his face. “Al’s Italian Beef is just the latest in a string of robberies?” He nodded. “And since I was at the location that just got hit over on Wells, you think I might have some information?”
“Yeah, kid. I heard you have a memory for stuff, so if you saw anything out of the ordinary, that’d be a big help.”
I sat and ran the event through my mind once more, checking every detail that I could see, and came up with nothing. “Nothing out of the ordinary, really. What details do we have? Maybe I could spot something?”
The woman to my left slid a thick binder over to me. “Here is everything we have so far. Before you go digging in, tell us what happened. From the time you left here to the time you got back.”
I pulled the binder in front of me and began to recount my experience. From walking through the door and being yelled at by the fatass, to the pair of morons at the other location, all the way up to the conversation I had with the manager. “...and that’s when I figured that if the guy was telling the truth, I could help him, and it ensured his silence and kept me out of the public record.” I looked down the table at Tekky. “I know I’m not ready for the front, but I can handle some punk thieves in the night. I’ve done it before.”
The woman to my left cleared her throat. “Jackson? Do you know why you’re not ready for the ‘front’, as it were?”
“No. I’m assuming it has to do with my relative lack of experience.”
“That’s only part of the equation. The rest of it is sitting in this room.”
“I-wha?” I looked around, seeing four people I at least knew of, and two that I’d never met.
“You don’t know how to work as part of a team, son.” The man on my right placed a large hand on my forearm. “And that’s okay. We just can’t have you going all vigilante on us. If you really want to be part of The Grey Cloud, you’ll have to learn how to be part of a team. Remember, kid: You’re not alone anymore.” He sat back and motioned to the binder. “Show me that memory of yours. I want to know what you might be able to see that we haven’t yet.”
I stared at him for a long moment, my breath coming in shallow gulps. After a moment, I shook myself back to reality and nodded. “Okay. One shocker coming up.”
Over the next fifteen minutes, I flipped rapidly through the binder, scanning each page. Maybe five minutes in, I had begun to notice a pattern. After about ten minutes, it became clearer. By the last page, along with my recent encounter not even an hour ago, I was sure of it.
“Damn, that was fast. And you’ve memorized all that?”
“Yes sir. Every last word, every photo, every detail. You wanna quiz me?” I pushed the binder to him.
“No! Good god, no. That’s not what I’m all about, son. You say you got it, I’ll believe you.”
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I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man. Tell me. What is it you guys are thinking of?”
The group was silent for a long moment, then Zack opened a folder. “Look, all we know for certain is that this person or group has hit fourteen different restaurant chains, but beyond that there isn’t a pattern that we can see.” He eyed me suspiciously. “What have you got cooking up in your head, man? We spent too long together in school for me to not know you have something going on.”
The man to my right perked up. “You two went to school together?”
I nodded. “Yep. He kicked my ass nearly every day for about five years.”
“Is that so? Zack, I expected better out of you than to be a bully.”
“Liam, it was years ago, and-”
I held a hand up. “It was years ago, yes. Zack was a child. Am I over it? Kinda. Do I trust him? Not completely. Will I still work with him? Absolutely. I don’t want to relive the past any more than he does, so I'd like to move past this bit of information. Is that okay with you, Liam?”
Liam sat back and crossed his arms. “I suppose. But we will be discussing this later, Zack. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” Zack huffed softly and after a beat, he picked up where he’d left off. “So. As I was saying. You got an idea that we don’t. What is it?”
I shook my head. “I want to know what you guys have first. I just have a memory. Nothing more. I also don’t want to present something to you that you’ve already dismissed.”
“That makes sense, Jackson.” Jennifer piped up. “So far, we’ve come up with the following:
“First, this might be the work of a group that simply hates the idea of fast food. Some sort of eco-terrorist organization. Since they’ve hit places that serve processed food, it might suggest a desire to force others to a more intimate, family-oriented lifestyle.”
I nodded as she spoke. It wasn’t an unworthy goal, but it was definitely poorly-executed.
“Second, this might be someone who has a personal vendetta against the franchises in question. What better way to get back at them than to disrupt their operations?
“Third, we might be dealing with someone who just wants to spread chaos. I mean, if you can’t eat at your favorite lunch spot after a shitty day because some jerk robbed the place, you might wind up doing some shitty things.” She shrugged. “That’s what we’ve got so far.”
I nodded. It all sounded possible. However, one thing, one detail that I’d seen might be what they’d been missing. “Who is the one in charge here? Which one of you is calling the shots?”
Jennifer spoke up again, motioning to the woman on my left. “That’d be Lydia. She’s the director for this team.”
I turned to her. “Would you ask Marie to send herself to the Al’s location over on Wells? Tell her to look for a receipt stapled or pinned or somehow fastened to the side of the middle cash register? I have a hunch.”
She eyed me up and down. “Okay, hotshot. One moment.” Lydia put her hand on the wall behind us, and I felt a high-pitched vibration echo through the room. It lasted all of five seconds before she folded her hands atop each other and nodded. “She’s on her way. Be about two minutes.”
I blinked in confusion and waited. Sure enough, two minutes later, Marie walked into the office, seemingly upset.
“Lydia! I thought I told you not to ever call me when I’m in the bathroom! Do you know how creepy that is?” She must have noticed the confusion on my face. “Lydia here can control vibrations and sound, Jackson. She’s able to send a message to anyone she wants here in the Cloud, and make it seem like she’s right fucking next to you.”
“Jackson here has a request of you, Marie.”
Marie put her hands on her hips and turned her glare on me. “What is it?”
I took a deep breath. “First, I’d like to apologize for bothering you while you’re in the bathroom. Second, would you please send yourself to the Al’s over on Wells and see if there is a receipt affixed to the side of the middle cash register? I need as much information and detail as you can give me, please.”
She knitted her eyebrows together. “A receipt? You bothered me to go see if you left your receipt at the restaurant?” She leaned down close to me, boring a hole in my face with her glare. “If this is some bullshit prank, Jackson, I’m going to feed you to the lake. Am I clear?”
I leaned away from her icy stare. “It’s no prank, Marie. I swear. It’s also not going to be a receipt for Al’s. It’ll be for another restaurant. They’ve brought me in for an investigation, and I’ve got a bead on something. I wanna make sure I’m right before I present my theory.”
She poked me in the chest, punctuating her words. “You’d better be, or so help me…” She grumbled and sat herself in the corner, drawing her knees up to her chest, resting her arms on them, and lay her head down. Soon, all we could hear was her steady breathing. I opened the binder to a fresh page, and sat it down beside her, along with a pen, then settled back in my chair to wait.
Anna cocked her head to the side. “How do you know it’ll be for another restaurant?”
“Not only will it be for somewhere else, but it’ll be for a total of $6.50. Cash.”
“What?” Anna stood up and leaned forward on her hands. “You can’t possibly know it’ll be for that much, Jack. That makes you look suspicious.”
I nodded. “I can see that. I’m asking you to trust me. I’ll lay out the rest of my theory when Marie gets back.”
I put my face in my hands, putting some pressure on my eyeballs. God, I was tired. I knew the request was odd, and my statement made me look suspicious, but I was fairly sure of myself.
After a few minutes more of tense silence, Marie came to, seeing the binder and the blank page. She picked up the pen and started writing. “You were right, Jackson. There was a receipt there, but it was for Milo’s Mediterranean Bistro, of all places. Here.” She handed me the binder. “I’ve written down all I could remember. Sorry it took so long. The cops had already bagged it, and were packing it away.”
“How had it been attached to the register?”
“A small knife. Like maybe two inches long. Just poked right into the screen. Damndest thing I’ve ever seen. Anyway, if you guys are done with me, I’d like to finish my workout.” She turned to Lydia. “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again, Lydia.” She turned and stomped out of the office, slamming the door as she went.
All eyes were on me as I scanned the information she had written down. I was right. The total had been $6.50.
“I know where they’re going next.”