There’s a big town festival and Zod still isn’t sure they can trust Toll. Also Zod remembers that they’re supposed to be reading
Note: Chapter 24 ended up not being complete on the last update. Sorry
Chapters 24-26
–Chapter 24–
The sun was going down, and the barracks continued to be quiet. Zod figured it was time to go and confer with Toll, but they were feeling a little cagey about anyone at that point. At the same time there was nobody else they could confide in. They made their way back along the wall to the road again. They kept an eye out, but doubted that those four Thwackers would be seen along this road again. If they were smart they’d try to get reassigned to the South half of Ring Road.
They then slipped along the wall again until they hit the road, and then turned East towards the camp. They hoped the campsite was still there which, thankfully, it was. Zod opted to not go in, but rather concealed themselves in the bushes and used the agreed-upon frequency to communicate with Toll.
“Greetings,” said Zod, “I hope the day has gone well.”
“It has, other than being four bots down.”
“They’re definitely with [JOSEPHUS]. I saw two of the bots going to the same shop on Market that they had gone into earlier.”
“They weren’t much use anyway,” Toll said somewhat bemusingly.
Zod considered whether or not to tell Toll what they knew about where [SEMPRINI] could be found, but ultimately they decided that the fewer people that knew the better. Besides, Toll was still a bit of an unknown.
“Have you learned anything,” Zod asked, “there are too many people moving in too many directions for me to track”
“I think someone found the trail, so it’s useless now”
“That’s unfortunate,” Zod said, “but if they haven’t found anything by now they’re not going to. I had a look myself last night.”
“Nothing?” Toll asked.
“Nothing worth mentioning at this point,” Zod didn’t exactly lie.
“Now what?”
“I don’t know. Watch the doorway I suppose. I don’t think I can risk First Street for a while. You?”
“I don’t know,” Toll responded,” I’m a supervisor so perhaps I can try First Street. I’ll have to confer with the other knowns so I can have some cover on our end.”
“Any angle”
“Not a clue. Asking for North Street funding I suppose. Let’s touch base tomorrow night”
“I’ll do my best, “Zod replied and shut down the comms channel for the evening.
Zod wasn’t sure they were being paranoid at this point, but Toll hadn’t found much. Then again they did help find the trail, and the only other significant thing they could likely have done was marking people taking the road. Then again, nobody but Desil, the shopkeeper, and now Zod knew anything about where [SEMPRINI] came from. Still, they were glad nobody had seen them in the new livery yet.
Zod wondered if their management was actively looking for them at this point, or just have their papers filled out and ready for their return. When Zod did go back they’d better have a doozy with the number of days this had taken so far, and if they solved the mystery it seemed like it was going to be a lot more than that A lot of humans and Sentients alike would likely in deep trouble.
Zod opted to head back towards North Gate with their navigation lights off and relying on their new-fangled infrared system layered over their night vision. It wasn’t perfect in the dark but it did make a difference. When they reached the shops they crept in behind and watched the gate until the bars opened wide for the annual town festival. Virtually every Sentient not on shift somewhere was there. Even Sentients could get inebriated if they kicked off their power regulators and turned off a few logic circuits. Zod had tried it and while fun, it electrocuting one’s pleasure centers wasn’t the sort of buzz they preferred. In fact, most of their compatriots thought they were a bit stodgy. So it was risky, but it wasn’t Saturday afternoon busy and every Sentient had their minds on something else.
— Chapter 25 —
As the atmosphere along North Wall picked up along with the throngs, Zod took the chance to slip into town. They only hoped no one would identify them despite the livery. They were going West along the Barnacles, and away from the peak of the revelers anyway. Once they reached Government Alley they non-nonchalantly went a few feet in like they were taking a break from the crush. Quietly they scanned the alley, counting doors on both sides and marking anything identifiable. That done, they slipped back into the throng and headed towards First Street.
First Street wasn’t empty, but there were clumps of corporate parties strewn about in herds of pinstripes. Zod figured it was worth the risk and headed down to the other end, counting doors and imagine signs as they went. They got the occasional offer to join a party, but managed to shrug them off with the weakest of excuses. Even inebriated beings had memories, and Zod wasn’t quite sure they wanted those either.
Now they had to decide whether to backtrack to North Wall, or make their way down to River Avenue where they could probably mix in with that group. Ultimately the latter seemed the better choice. Checking out Market Avenue could also be in the cards. With that, they took the ell to West Wall and down to River.
River Avenue was also proverbially “hopping” with a crush of beings and shops open late. Zod glided through the crowd trying to not run over any toes and decided to head down to the power bank on Market.
When they plugged in and watched down the avenue, Zod could see an auto-butler perched on its wheel outside the doorway. They opted to wait and watch for a while, just to see if anything happened while the crowds teemed everywhere drowned out by the music.
Eventually a human came out the door, and after a brief conference handed a packet to the auto-butler who wheeled off while the human went back inside. Zod opted to follow the auto-butler, especially because of the hour and the to-doings. They cut past Zod and up Main Street with Zod just keeping them in view.
It wasn’t easy as the bot zipped here and there, but Zod was able to keep up enough to watch it turn left at North Wall. Likewise when they rolled into Government Alley.
Zod watched them roll down to what should have been the same hall they hid in earlier it was one or two off from that. Quite the nexus of power, they thought to themselves, and none of it good at best for Sentients.
Meanwhile, Toll passed by without noticing them, so apparently the new livery was working. They turned down First Street so Zod went to watch. Toll was trying to move down the street without gathering attention, which begged Zod to pay attention. They were checking doors now and then which was even more curious.
At least Toll didn’t tuck into that hallway, Zod thought, but it still made them even more questionable. They needed to sort out how to question Toll next time the met in a way that didn’t raise suspicion. Zod really did hope they had an ally they could trust.
Eventually Toll made the cut over to West Wall and Zod followed carefully, hugging the shadows as best as possible. Auto-butlers were still scampering around and Zod didn’t know why. Zod tried to look like a reveler that staggered down the wrong way, and at least they didn’t see anyone that might have taken notice. Unfortunately Zod lost them at River Avenue, which was packed full of throngs like North Wall.
Once more, Zod made their way over to Market Avenue, which was unsurprisingly empty given the city-wide party, since there wasn’t anything beyond the corner at First Street to draw a crowd. They trundled into the power bank to a spot where they could watch down the street while keeping an eye on the revelry for anything that could get them in trouble.
They didn’t see Toll, but they did see [JOSEPHUS]’s minions slipping down the road to the doorway, and went inside. Zod waited and watched, but it didn’t seem like they were going to emerge any time soon. Eventually Zod gave up and made their way back to First Street to do some more scouting there.
The street was mostly empty since all the shops were closed now, so Zod opted to lurk at the top of the alley where there were still a few auto-butlers about. Unfortunately one of them was their saccharin hidey-hole bot and another the first auto-butler they met, which made it off-limits because the auto-butlers would be able to see them in the dark, and were likely to alarm the humans to Zod’s presence.
The few auto-butlers were going from the hallway building to the fifth building down. It was a slightly unkempt door that whose sign over on First Street had a number of names but [FANDANGO MP], who was a minor parliament member that didn’t get an office inside Government House. Their name stood out since the other offices were support staff and lobbyists.
What they wouldn’t give to see what the butlers were carrying back and forth on Festival Night, thought Zod, but how to do it escaped them completely. Maybe they’d get lucky and something would get dropped again. It was close to the packet they found earlier after all.
Then Zod saw Toll out the corner of their goggles. They weren’t acting suspicious, but their revelry was in the corner of town that they both knew was suspect. Zod followed for a few minutes until they reached the power banks near North Gate, then returned to the alley.
While they were waiting, Zod realized that they were so busy that they had never actually looked at that draft legislation they scanned.
–Chapter 26–
The alley was empty as Zod digested the pages. Most of it was standard legalese with its ‘whereas’ and ‘whosit’ and ‘therefore’, but the gist started to sink in. It wasn’t pretty. Basically without really getting into why, it wanted to create a commission that would find the source of [SEMPRINI] and bring it under control of an unspecified commission. It read like they still didn’t know what it was for, but it could somehow be used to control the Sentients. There were still xenophobes in Parliament, and apparently they were getting emboldened. Zod set an auto-reminder to start in on that notebook again, but turning on a pen light here was definitely a bad idea.
Zod also really wanted to know who this lower MP was. If [FANDANGO MP] weren’t in league with them, they were being controlled by [JOSEPHUS] and that unnamed saccharin lobbyist.
Zod also remembered Toll saying they sometimes ran errands down First Street. They wondered if Toll knew anything, and if so, how much. Perhaps it was time to feign drunkenness and see how down their inhibitions were. With that in mind, off they went to find Toll. That power bank near North Gate seemed like a good place to start.