Chương 194: B4. 5.3 - Annoying Start of the Road Trip

Auron? That's quick, I thought. Were PCM members observing us the entire time? How troublesome. I wanted a relaxing road trip, into fresh adventures for the movie sequel, but the universe couldn't help but send annoyances my way. As if the frat boys weren't enough. Maybe I could influence Deen to kill Khaki Cop instead of doing it myself, which she wouldn't allow me to do anyway. Deen didn't look back at me, keeping her eyes on Khaki Cop. He was probably a legit police officer who happened to be a PCM member.

"What's the message?"

"Auron says that you should meet," said Khaki Cop, "and return to him the item at the soonest possible time. He has other matters to discuss with you. Important matters that you should know about. He also says that he understands why you missed the meeting today."

"And why is that?" Deen asked in a cold tone.

"Did he tell you?"

"Because Corebrings and BID agents are everywhere in La Esperanza," Khaki Cop replied.

"Auron and the others have decided to leave as well." Auron's not accusing us of stealing this USB drive? Did he really believe we didn't have such an intention? Although if he suspected we were making away with Euphonia's USB, it wasn't like he'd pick a fight with us. He'd have more Adumbrae as enemies, on top of Euphonia, who'd be angry at him.

"Where did they go?" I asked, leaning towards the driver's side window.

"San Diego?"

"Exactly," said the cop.

"We could set a meeting halfway. Or if not, you can stay here, and he'll come to you. Spend the night in San Bernardino. We'll pay for your accommodations."

"We'll have to wait an entire night for Auron?" Deen haughtily demanded.

"It's only a couple of hours from San Diego," I added. Whether it be one or five hours, we weren't going to wait for the PCM leader. Could we find out how many tails we had and get rid of them all? They'd keep bothering us like persistent sales agents.

"Moving about is quite difficult for our leader," Khaki Cop explained.

"And he's currently occupied with some matters in San Diego. We have pressing problems, as you know." Yeah, the authorities are arresting your members, I thought. The PCM's goal was to experiment on Adumbrae to turn them back into humans, but the BID probably now thinks they were experimenting on humans to turn them into Adumbrae. It looked like the 2Ms and the PCMs were one.

"We also have pressing problems ourselves," said Deen.

"We'll meet with Auron after we settle them. We're not his employees. Tell him to wait for our call." Khaki Cop broke his composed demeanor, chuckling with a condescending snort.

"Okay, okay. Listen here, girls. Auron told me to treat you with respect, but you're pushing your luck here." Deen glanced back at me before facing the cop again. In that brief moment, our best-friend-link activated, and we thought the same thing—Auron didn't tell the cop that he'd talk to two Adumbrae. What Auron thought to be Adumbrae, anyway. I doubted a normal human would act like this toward an Adumbrae, even if he were a cop. Or was he thinking we wouldn't make a move in broad… not daylight?

It was getting dark, but many vehicles passed on the road.

"I don't know what item Auron hired you to get," continued the cop.

"But I know you have it with you right now—don't try to deny it." He pointed down the road.

"You just came from La Esperanza. Got some bags in the backseat. Fleeing, most definitely. There's no way you left the item."

"You don't seem to know what it is," said Deen.

"For your information, it's a set of digital files that's very important to your organization." My left cheek twitched. I wanted to be the one to concoct our fake story. Unfortunately, even if I butted in on the conversation, I had to lean over Deen to have a proper conversation with Khaki Cop. Also, Deen had already started her story. Super uncool if I hijacked it. I'd be acting like Deen in dictator mode.

"We don't have the files with us because we're on our way to get them," Deen continued.

"We're Auron's only contact with a hacker who's very careful about keeping his identity secret. Our hacker friend was afraid to go to La Esperanza because of the current situation, so we had to go to him. Once we've saved the files in Auron's special USB drive, we'll give it to him." Khaki Cop narrowed his eyes.

"Is that right, huh? Auron did mention some files…"

"I suggest that you," Deen said, "and whoever else is with you, stop tailing us. If our hacker friend is spooked, he's not going to meet us. Auron won't get his data, and we won't be paid."

"Let us do our thing, and we'll tell Auron when it's done," I chimed in, wanting to have a minor speaking role. Kind of lame for me to sit back while Deen hogged the spotlight. She always did that shit. Khaki Cop tipped his brimmed hat up to scratch the side of his head.

"I need concrete results, girls. Auron's going to chew my ass if I don't give him any. He made it very, very clear that the PCM will be in a very bad spot if we don't get the item. The files."

"Which we don't have yet," said Deen.

"How can we give you what's not in our possession?" Khaki Cop grunted.

"This won't do. This won't do. I don't know if your story is true or not, but here's how it'll go. We'll follow you, but keep our distance. I'll give you a number to call. Tell me when it's time for you to meet this hacker friend of yours—we'll make sure to stay away. Right after your transaction, give the USB to me." Deen stretched her hand to me, probably to say that she got this.

"I'm not sure if that will—""That's how it's going to be," he roughly cut in. Deen tilted her head in challenge, her golden locks falling off her shoulder.

"Or else?"

"I'll search your car for contraband," he said.

"I'll find contrabands. You, girls, are going to spend a night in jail until Auron comes. You talk with him. Let's see how your excuses work then. You're not going to resist arrest, are you?"

"Probably not…" Deen said in a tone that signaled her evil side surfacing. You're threatening the wrong bitch, I thought at Khaki Cop. Deen always made it appear that she was big on morality and doing what was wrong. However, she'd be the good guy, so long as it suited her. She'd do bad things if the situation called for it, branding it as good. She was a proper politician. When Tower Cop was investigating me, Deen's first reaction was to kill him. I had thought of that, too. But that was me.

Unnatural for a normal person to think of murder. Deen had proven herself not to be a normal person. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Where are you going to meet your hacker friend?" asked Khaki Cop.

"Barstow," Deen said. It was the location of Cecilia's lab that the PCM wasn't aware of. Did Deen intend to lure Khaki Cop into Cecilia's lab and kill him there?

"You girls are going to meet him tonight, aren't you?" asked Khaki Cop, waving his notebook at us.

"Around an hour and ten minutes, maybe twenty minutes, to Barstow. No, no! Don't make excuses." He wagged his finger at Deen.

"If you were meeting him tomorrow, you wouldn't have any problem waiting for Auron. If… you were actually meeting your hacker friend. Unless you were lying to me?"

"It's not a lie," Deen simply replied. The cop took out a card from his pocket and handed it to Deen.

"That's my number. Call it now so I'll know your number, too."

"I'll call you when we have the files," Deen said, slowly rolling up her window.

"We're going. Remember, don't—""The hell?" Khaki Cop held the top of the window.

"I can arrest you!"

"And no one gets the files." The cop released the window and stepped back.

"Remember, keep your distance from us," Deen said before closing the window.

"Don't scare our hacker friend." She drove away, leaving Khaki Cop fuming.

"Nice work there, Deen." I kept the jealousy out of my voice. Jealousy or envy? If I wasn't mistaken, envy should be the correct term—it was wanting something that someone else had.

"You should introduce me to this hacker friend of yours." Deen grinned at me.

"You're not the only one who can think of a story under pressure."

"I like your counter-threat to the cop. It's the same situation with Auron's threat—he can't expose us to the BID because he won't ever get this USB thingy. That's why he's acting relatively nice, making sure that we weren't betraying him before coming out with accusations. He didn't even tell the cop we're Adumbrae."

"We have time to formulate a plan to deal with the PCM."

"I… I can transform into Red Hood and…"

"What?" Deen gave me a stern sidelong glance.

"Are you going to kill them as Blanchette?"

"I-I don't know what to do." I stared at my hands. Add a bit of shaking for dramatic effect. My face has evolved from timid to proactive, but I should pepper in vulnerabilities. Deen would love to jump in at the opportunity to comfort me. Feeds her superiority complex.

"Everything is so overwhelming with so, so, so many enemies. I try to be brave. I really do, but…"

"Don't be scared," Deen whispered gently. As was her nature, she reached out for my hand to give me comfort. I had expected this, bracing myself for physical contact. She held my left arm and lowered it to my lap.

"Nothing bad is going to happen. I won't allow it. I promise you."

"What will we do?" I asked, wondering how I could make Deen agree that I should kill the PCM members. They were bothering us. A lot. And I wanted to stretch my arms to destress. The stressful times weren't going to end soon.

"One step at a time. We should keep in mind that the moment we attack the PCM members tailing us, Auron would be alerted to our non-cooperation. So, no, we're not going to attack them. As much as I hate the idea of being spied upon, we must let them be, for now. We can't say for sure what Auron's reaction will be. What if Cecilia's wrong?"

"You mean, like, what if Auron immediately tells Euphonia about us?"

"If we kill his members, he'll consider retrieving the flash drive a lost cause and might admit to Euphonia what had happened."

"How do you think he'll take our hacker friend story?"

"Auron will assume there's a problem—there are plenty of possible problems—that we couldn't relay to his follower. The fact that we didn't kill the policer officer meant we haven't abandoned our regular human lives, and his threat of exposing us has some value." Deen was right, and convincing her to sign off on some bloodshed would be impossible at this point. Some other time for my fun.

"We'll stick to our original plan then," I said.

"Get to Cecilia's laboratory, make a fake monster USB drive, and give that to Auron."

"String him along. Buy time."

"What will we do with all that time? Do you really think that Cecilia can cure me…? I mean, us. Both of us. It's just that I'm…"

"Both an Adumbrae and a Corebring." Deen reached for my hand again, making me regret being dramatic.

"We have proof your Corebring side counteracts your Adumbrae side. You have a higher chance of becoming human again… compared to Kelsey. Realistically speaking. Of course, we'll try to help Kelsey, too. We'll all become human again." I nodded, staring at the falling night outside.

"Not soon. We need to retain our Core powers because a lot of people will be after us."

"If we're human again," said Deen, "Maybe the Professor will ignore us?"

"Not happening," I said.

"But we'll become humans again. Someday…" Sometimes, part of me wanted to stay superhuman. It had only been a short time since I became an Adumbrae. However, I couldn't imagine returning to my normal human life now. Boring life. The life of a side character. Even if I became a lawyer at a high-powered law firm, negotiating contracts valued in the hundreds of millions, that wouldn't match the excitement of crunching skulls as a werewolf.

I could continue manipulating people, but it would be nowhere near pretending to be a Corebring from the Hive in front of a BID agent. So… do I really want a cure? Was this Spooky Erind influencing my thoughts? Did I need to be influenced? And would I even want to give up my Adumbrae side? I could no longer transform into Pino and try to reverse the seeding of other Adumbrae. No, I didn't have any shred of altruism in my body. I just wanted to be a savior because it sounded fun.

"Are you alright, Erind?" Deen asked.

"Ye-yeah… I'm fine," I said, pulling myself away from my ideas of starting a religion.

"Focus on what can make you happy. Um… What should we call an Adumbrae-Corebring hybrid? Adumbring? Core… brae?" I giggled.

"Why do you think that would make me happy?"

"It won't?"

"Not sure. I can't really think of a cool name for that hybrid. Maybe Corebrae because the Core part goes first? Speaking of hybrids, are you aware of tigons and ligers? Lion-tiger hybrids."

"I've heard of a liger before," Deen said.

"Tigons? You're pulling my leg, aren't you?"

"They're real," I said, eager to impart knowledge on the uncivilized blonde. She should know cool facts about animals.

"Male lion, female tiger, the result is a liger. Male tiger, female lion, then it's a tigon. Interesting, isn't it?"

"It is interesting," Deen replied in an overly-enthusiastic tone.

"But I must say it is concerning that someone is trying to make lion and tigers… um…"

"Bonk each other?" I said, laughing. Deen joined me laughing.

"Exactly. People can be freaky, including the scientists."

"I consider it freaky strangling my best friend," I mumbled.

"That was to pass the BID scanners!" Deen protested.

"If you didn't choke me, we would—""A little English lesson," I interjected.

"People use the words 'choke' and 'strangle' interchangeably, but what I did was strangle you. Choking is like what happened to Snow White. You know that fairy tale?"

"With the dwarfs and the poisoned apple?"

"Yep. That's choking."

"It's freaky that we're talking about the difference of choking and strangling. Anyway, it's time to talk to Cecilia and find out where exactly in Barstow are we going." I took out the second-hand laptop from one of my bags in the backset, turned it on, and plugged in the USB.

"Cecilia, are you there?" I asked.

"We're out of La Esperanza and heading to Barstow. Where exactly in Barstow is your lab?" Glowing green text appeared on the screen. [I hope you girls have time to visit a tourist attraction. My lab is at Barstow Station.]