“I’m sorry to meet you here on short notice Mr. Ivey. You must understand why I’m here and why this has become necessary.” He noted here was a slight uptick in her tone that gave away just how anxious she was. Just how bad have things become? He didn’t have time to muse over that.
“Uh, yes, I understand Miss Das. I haven’t been able to put together much for you I’m afraid.” He self-consciously glanced around the room. “This place is mostly just an archive and the computers are not hard wired for massive info searches. I was able to patch in to the national database but it’s going to take a while.”
He looked around the room again and shrugged uncomfortably. He was obviously embarrassed by the limitations of his equipment. He turned and looked around Ansuya toward himself and Nicolas, “You gentlemen are welcome to wait here. I know you’ve done some traveling to get here.” He looked back toward Ansuya. “I wish there was something I could offer you while you waited, Miss.”
Ansuya smiled and walked past him to sit in a seat at a desk. William and Nicolas followed and sat in similar seats at similar desks.
Time passed too slowly to stand. He had no idea that time could move so slow. At one point, he swore that time was moving backwards, conspiring to keep him in this hell forever. Nicolas seemed to have the right of it and quickly feel asleep. William tried, but sleep constantly dodged him, like some nightmare rabbit he just couldn’t catch.
Why were they here in an archive? It didn’t make sense, none of this made sense. They needed to learn about Kenneth. But how did you search for a person with a just a name, and a first name at that! How were they going to find one man in a city of millions? And what good would it do if they did? Would he lead them to whatever conspiracy the shape shifter Elders hoped to find? Would they learn some vital piece of information that would shed light on what had happened to the City under the Mountain for the last sixty years? He was still vague on that whole back story. What he really wanted to do now that he was here in this archive was find out who Chelsea really was.
That had just become a solid thought in his head. He hadn’t been thinking it before…at least he thought he hadn’t. Chelsea Thompson. He realized just how little he had known about her. If he could maybe find out more about her, maybe he could do something. Like what? Maybe send a letter to her parents letting them know what had happened to their daughter?
Wow, that was a fabulous idea! Dear Mr. and Mrs. Thompson you don’t know me but I helped kill your daughter…I’m sorry. Yeah, that was a terrible idea. William collapsed back into his desk chair and tried to go to sleep again. But the thought of finding out who Chelsea was would not leave him alone.
With one eye half open he looked around what little of the room he could see. The cubicle he was in was still empty and the surrounding desks were also unoccupied. He lifted himself up and spotted Nicolas. He had his legs propped up and leaning back in his chair, dead to the world.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
William moved around slowly and turned on the monitor that was in front of him. The computer showed a sign in page. Damn. Well, what the hell. He hit the cancel button and the computer opened up onto the main desktop. He smiled to himself. It had been a while since he had used computers but sometimes the idiocy of technology still baffled him.
The first thing he did was type in the name Chelsea Thompson in a Google search, 26,300,000 different hits. He scrolled down about two pages worth and stopped, Okay, that’s not going to work. What else did he know about the girl? She was a stripper. He typed in the name of the club where they met. House of Eden, the webpage was brought up with the address and the phone number.
He took a careful look around the room. Nicolas was still sleeping and Ansuya was nowhere to be seen. He grabbed a phone off a desk and dialed the number to the club. It rang a few times before he heard a man’s voice on the other end.
“House of Eden” was barely discernible over the loud dance music in the back ground.
“Yeah, hi,” William responded awkwardly. “Uh, yeah listen I was there a few nights ago.”
He was having a hard time trying to project his voice over the music on the phone while still trying to be quiet in his office cubicle. “And, I, uh…met this girl there. She was, uh really great.”
“Pal, what do you want?” The guy was irritated and impatient.
“Well, I uh wanted to know if Lacey is there or if I could maybe see her if I came there tonight?”
“Look pal, we don’t do that kind of business here and I don’t give my girls’ work schedules out over the phone. Bye.” The phone clicked and was silent.
William sat stunned for a moment with the dead phone receiver in his hand. That was really quick. Of course he should have known better, what kind of business just gives out personal information over the phone. If he really wanted to find out who this girl had been he needed to go talk to some people in person. Now all he had to do was convince Ansuya that finding out who Chelsea was and letting her parents know what happened to her was worthwhile and necessary. He had a better chance of making a snow cone out of dessert air, he figured.
He crossed his arms in front of himself in dejection and leaned back into his chair. This night was almost a total waste of his time. Why was he here? Ansuya didn’t need him or Nicolas to come with her. She knew where everything and who everyone was. Of course, maybe that was the reason. So that now he and Nicolas knew where this place was and had become acquainted with one more friend of the City. And yet he couldn’t help think it was still something of a waste of time.
“We have to go!”
He was nearly made immobile by the uncharacteristic panic in Ansuya’s voice. William jumped up and swung Nicolas’s legs off the desk. In a very agile motion, Nicolas used that momentum to kick himself up and run to where Ansuya had disappeared.
“What is happening?” Nicolas yelled to the Elder who was already at the bottom of the stairs moving at blinding speeds towards the doors of the building.
Ansuya reached the double doors and stopped as she yanked on them. They didn’t budge. Ansuya turned around as they ran up behind her. “He knows we’re here.”
“Who knows?” Nicolas asked still looking bleary eyed from sleep.
“Kenneth,” William replied.
Nicolas looked between him and Ansuya still trying to connect something in his mind. “Who is Kenneth?”