Chapter 3: The Case (Part II)

“What? That doesn’t make any sense!” Elaine blurted. Unable to contain her incredulity, she stood up and paced behind the couch. Careless, she knew, but since she was very young, cognitive dissonance tended to manifest with nervous legs and she couldn’t sit still any longer.

“I assure you my sources are impeccable,” Emily said in perfect imitation of political ingénue. Her pale features followed Elaine as she walked a circuit around the couches; but her stiff shoulders stayed elegantly still, except for the rise and fall of her measured breaths. “From what I understand, my entire campaign as Treasurer has been afforded a certain good fortune.”

Frog stifled a laugh. “If someone felt like handing me elections, I don’t think I’d look a gift horse in the mouth!”

“There are some serious implications.”

Behind them, Elaine lowered her voice and leaned over the couch. “Blackmail.”

A small smile cracked the ice veneer on Emily’s face at that word and she nodded.

“Do you see why I am hesitant to let this go without gathering intelligence of my own?”

Elaine recalled from the State Press that Emily Early had a reputation for trouncing her political opponents in the student elections. So badly, in fact, that her current seat had gone unopposed in the previous year. Elaine didn’t know who her opponent this year was, but she did remember a headline noting that he was expected to win. In spite of Emily’s record.

“Why not drop out of the race?” It seemed obvious enough. If someone was pulling strings—and like a spider, might eventually reel you in, get out of the web.

“And ruin my career?”

The phone in her pocket bleeped again, this time she took it out and looked at it. The blood drained from her already pale expression. Elaine imagined for a moment, Emily moving in slow motion—the eyes closed, her lips pursed, and a finger tapped the screen to silence the alarm. When she deposited her PDA back into her breast pocket, she carefully avoided laying eyes on it.

“You should go to the Dean or the President,” Frog said. “Does ASU have a President? I could have sworn it does. The cops maybe? If there’s fraud…”

Urgency now lined Emily’s features. “If official word of this gets out…” She shook her head. “My life would be ruined. No. I need more information and I think that you, Ms. Mercer, have the talents needed to procure it for me. You are the only student detective I know about and I am ready to pay your full rate, up front, for two weeks of work.”

Frog’s lips moved, but no sound came out. Elaine knew exactly what she’d said; she was thinking the same thing. Holy fsck! Two weeks of work calculated to about thirty hours, which—assuming no special assets would be required—could easily hit three-thousand dollars. Far more than her lost earnings from the contest. Far, far more.

But a niggling thought stabbed at the back of her mind. She looked at Frog; the athletic girl’s hair bobbed mightily as she gave a vigorous nod.

“Take it,” Frog said under her breath.

Frog’s enthusiasm simply added fuel to the skeptical thought. Elaine tapped into it and let it play out. A political bigwig had come to her, made meeting in broad daylight, in a public space. During their entire meeting she’d been scanning the crowd, camouflaging furtive glances at passersby with idle gesture. Emily was afraid of something. A stalker? Perhaps her vote fraudster. Getting tangled up in this could be more dangerous than bargained for—no matter what the monetary gain.

“I don’t think I’m the person you want,” Elaine said finally. “Please don’t take this personally but—”

The PDA came out in a moment, flourishing to life as Emily’s fingers flashed across its surface. “I will double your fee.”

“—you should contact the authorities.”

“We’ll take the case,” Frog said.

Elaine turned to face Frog. “I shouldn’t.”

“You can.” Frog put her hands on Elaine’s shoulders. “What have you got to lose?”

If she turned the girl down, Frog would probably not let her hear the last of it. Unless she could show why it wasn’t a good idea. Of course, she could just put her foot down. Something that would be very difficult with Frog trying to bring her on board.

“Why me?”

Pale hands rubbed against her skirt and Emily made a few more glances around the room before she went on. “Because what I do have is very, very strange. My, hm, confidential sources have given me more than just predictions. They’ve gotten me computer files. They’re secured. You are familiar with cryptography?”

Elaine nodded.

“This stumped even my father’s geeksquad—” Her voice caught in her throat suddenly and she pursed her lips. “I’m sorry, that was rude. I meant no offence.”

“No offense taken,” Elaine said. “I am a geek. Continue.”

“Well. It totally stumped them and they do work for the military. Huge computers. Well funded projects. Real experts. They extracted what they could, but it was…weird.”

The edge of an accent had entered her voice making it shaky. Her phone bleeped again, this time Emily nearly jumped out of her skin. She stood up as if she had sat upon hot coals, and a single finger stabbed down onto the screen.

“What do you mean. Weird?” Elaine said.

“Just…” She swallowed and sank into a kneel, covering her PDA with one hand. “Look at this and you’ll understand. It’s been going on for the past few days.”

She handed the phone to Elaine who glanced at the screen. It seemed to be an e-mail, with an image and some text. Except the text swam on the screen; it moved at odd angles in an almost holographic fashion. Frog sidled up to her shoulder and frowned at it as Elaine turned the phone around.

The image in the e-mail showed an oversaturated photograph of a wall in an impossible perspective—as if the photograph had been taken close enough to capture the edges of the wall, but so far away to suggest the wall was miles wide to a side. The center of the photo was dominated with canyon-sized chiseled gutters cut into concentric circles. The circles intersected in tesseract geometries producing the optical illusion of straightness in odd places. The longer she stared, Elaine thought she could see words forming between the circles. Hazy half-symbols that entertained notions of intelligible thought, like half-heard voices.

Below the image, obvious English words in Microsoft Sans-Mono:

Good luck. May their will favor your ascension. I will be watching. Waiting.

In the background, Emily pressed on with a hushed voice. “I found your website from your Facebook profile. I know you’re a member of the ASU Esoteric Society. I have a Wiccan friend who says that you know what you’re doing, and I trust his judgment.”

“If I accept this case. I will need your phone.”

“Take it. Please,” Emily said. “You’re my only hope.”

Frog on one side, urging her to take the case. The money would be awesome, although if someone really was stalking this woman, the risk of running into real harm would run. Emily on the other—pleading in desperation. And she did it badly. Elaine could hear from her sudden change in vernacular that she was unaccustomed to asking for help. Through her entire life she probably just bought it.

The articles in the newspaper said that Emily came to ASU from Maine to study Political Science. So she was also far away from home, potentially far away from all the things that coddled and protected her.

Of course, then there was the eldritch designs displayed on the PDA. Someone really had it in for this girl if they were going to these sorts of lengths.

“You have a deal,” Elaine said. “Looks like I’m your Obi-Wan.”