Chương 170: Cordyceps Thirty-Five

The very next Saturday, I was out of the school and back onto the not-so-mean-streets of city Nineteen's wealthier district. I left early enough in the morning that most of the boys were still either sleeping in because it was the weekend, or were groggy from having just woken up. It was... interesting, going back to school again with the mind of an adult. The level of challenge that I recalled as nearly insurmountable as a child was basically nothing now.

Most of the work we were given only required basic levels of discipline and some small amount of effort to accomplish. It was easy. Then again, I was also only in the first year, and I imagined that with skills and classes tipping the balance, the school would expect more and more from its students. I'd even overheard that the school fully expected a student to have a second class by their fifth year. Skills and classes and such would be a topic that the student body would study, but only in their third year.

Before that, a student with a poor class choice and awful skills would be forgiven for making that kind of mistake. I suspected that the school had a way to see a person's class. And I suspected that I wouldn't be here long enough for it to matter. That's the kind of thought I was running through my head as I made my way to the marketplace. It was too early for the contact I'd been notified of via letter to show up, but I preferred to be a little early than too late. Besides, I was in the school uniform.

I fit into this environment. The same couldn't be said of my contact when they finally showed up. Two men, one I recognized, one I didn't, both wearing their best clothes and yet sticking out like sore thumbs. They weren't even as clean as the local service people. I made my way across the square to where they were trying to look inconspicuous by smoking and leaning against a lamppost.

"Follow me," I ordered as I walked past them without slowing down. Both of them jumped, then they jogged after me and into the nearest alleyway. I kept moving, even as they both told me to slow down and stop. I did, but two blocks down in another alley squeezed between two residential homes. The fences here were all wooden, so we couldn't be seen, and the buildings were far enough apart that no one would likely hear us. Also, it was about as clean as an alleyway could be.

"Alright," I said as I turned, arms crossed.

"Let's chat." The two of them stopped, but only one was clearly out of breath, the other was eyeing me up and down, and he started to grin.

"I knew you were a boy!" he said.

"Hey, Gary," I said.

"And... what?"

"I'm earning some good coin for this," he said. I frowned, then looked down at my uniform. Did he...

"Uh, you know that uniforms can be changed, right?"

"Nah, you look like a boy. You have to be one," he said with a very confident nod. I decided not to burst his bubble. Mostly because it could be funny to let him continue to believe whatever he wanted. Maybe I'd show up at the Union headquarters in a suit one day, then a dress the next? Just to mess with him. Or not, that seemed like a lot of effort.

"I didn't know they'd send you here," I said.

"They needed someone who'd recognize you," Gary said.

"But he's the one you need to talk to." He gestured to the side, to the man still catching his breath next to him.

"I'm Tommy, Tommy Ten Fingers," the other guy said. I glanced at his hands and noticed that he was missing two fingers on his right hand.

"I'm the one what'll be helping you with your mission. Can't imagine what sorta business the Union's got with a fancy whelp like you."

"He's not fancy," Gary said.

"He's one of us. Trust me."

"And trust me when I say that you really don't want to know what the mission is. For your own good. Actually, it'd be best to forget everything you can once this is done." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Tommy squinted at me, then nodded.

"'Ight, I can do that," he said.

"So, the boss, who's not your boss, but mine, said that I had to give you the rundown of our plan."

"I'm listening," I said.

"Right, right. So, fancy bloke's birthday party, right?" Tommy said while tugging out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He offered it to me, and I waved him off.

"Big place. Nice place. Not a very safe place. Big hour smack in the middle of the old-money part of Nineteen."

"Alright," I said.

"And what's the plan?" He struck a match and lit up.

"Right, yeah, so, plan's easy. Catering company's got some ties to the Union, and no real love for rich folk. We'll be replacing a couple of members with some... friends. They don't know more than I do. Just doing a job, ya know?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah, yeah, so they'll be setting a few little things up. Place is three floors, with little passages for the help. We'll be leaving those open and unlocked. Ropes on the third floor to the nearest building to get in and outta there, if you need it for whatever you're doing... are you robbing the place?"

"Something like that," I said.

"It's union business," I said.

"I'm Union," he said, glaring a bit. I sighed.

"We're there to steal some documents. Rich people scheming stuff that'll be bad for the Union. If everything goes right, no one will know," I said. It was all a lie, of course, but I didn't need Ten Fingers here thinking I was stealing some precious jewels he could then take off my corpse. Or that I was going in to kill people. That amount of heat was way too much for the average person to want to touch. Him not knowing made it all more legitimate anyway, if he got caught.

"Nice, nice, stick it to 'em, eh?"

"Yeah," I agreed.

"So, that's my escape route?" He shook his head.

"One of them. Basement's got servant's quarters. There's a tunnel down there. Then there's another way in out the back. That's meant to be locked, but we can stuff someone your size in a box and carry you out, easy-like."

"That could work," I said.

"I like having lots of exits."

"Need an entrance?" Gary asked.

"No, I think I've got one planned. What I do need is access to the kitchens at some point. Or... you said you were with the catering?" Tommy nodded, and I grinned.

"Well, that might just work out even better. If I give you something special, can you arrange to have it sprinkled into the food?"

"Might, yeah," Tommy said.

"Sounds like something we can do. What're you thinkin'?"

"I'm thinking you might just have made my job a lot easier," I said. Of course, I couldn't just poison the food. I couldn't control who ate what, and what if... I don't know, Tommy poisoned the fish and one of the targets happened to dislike trout or something? It was too much of a scattershot approach. But that didn't mean that it was an entirely bad idea. Not if I spread the right kind of poison around. Then all I needed to do was find a way to hit the right targets with something else.

"Gary, I need a gift, for the party."

"For the kid?" Gary asked.

"No, for the dad. I think I want to go in there looking like some new-rich person, maybe make it look like my family's trying to get on the good side of the Milo's. I'll need a gift that the dad might want to open up. Wine, or something alcoholic like that," I said. That'd require more testing on my part, but it was yet another option.

"Tommy, do you know if there will be a bar?"

"Should be," he said.

"Then I really need the bartender to be on my side. It's important," I said. Tommy scratched at his patchy chin, then nodded.

"'Ight, I'll see if I can manage that."

"Good. And thank you. Gary, get me that gift. Tommy, do what you do best. If there's nothing else? I have a cover to keep so I can't be seen out here. Tell the Boss that I'll get his work done soon enough." Our goodbyes were curt, and with a final nod, I slipped out of the alley, leaving them behind. As I walked, my mind churned. There were a lot of pitfalls and problems, but I was pretty sure I could come up with a solution or two. First, I needed something that would lower people's faculties...

‎