Chapter 129: Chapter 124

I stomped over to the elevator and dropped down the shaft. 

It was only to the first underground level again, but the fall was still long enough for me to notice that I wasn’t hurt and likely should have been. The enhanced strength in my legs was turning out to be helpful in many ways.

After that, I took the stairs. It didn’t seem prudent to push my luck, or possibly damage the elevator. 

When I arrived at the bottom floor, I followed a hobb guard to Rayna. She was with Mel, in the room where I had killed Taytrinn. The sword gash in the floor was covered by a ratty throw rug, and some simple wicker furniture. 

The whole place looked like someone had moved in recently, and was living there.

Mel was seated, arms crossed, lips pinched in defensive anger. Rayna was standing, arms also crossed. I faced Rayna and nodded.

“She not helping,” Rayna immediately grunted.

“Says you,” Mel replied.

I raised my hands. “Rayna, do you hound the rest of our human residents like this for work?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Most volunteer to help. Want to fight for all our lives. Or at least help clean up after.”

I shook my head and sighed. “Rayna, you may not know this about me, but I would rather be doing literally anything else. None of this is something I desire, all of it is a fuckin’ burden. It’s a miracle I keep finding reasons to live at all.”

Mel chuckled. I raised my middle finger at her and continued, “but I do it anyway, because I feel responsible. I do what I can, which is apparently a lot. So does Mel, she does what she can. So leave her alone.”

Rayna scowled, and her arms fell to her sides. “But she not help!”

I turned and faced Rayna, anger etched into my forehead. “Yes she does! You just don’t understand how!”

Both Rayna and Mel stared at me.

“While you and I were fighting yarsps this morning, do you know what she was doing?” I asked Rayna, pointing at the young woman in the chair. 

“She was helping keep everyone down here calm, by hand-drawing portraits and giving them away as gifts. I saw our people up top, showing them off. You and I just warded off the next lethal threat, that’s what we do. She helped heal people’s fear, through kindness, and charcoal pencils. Its fuckin’ amazing, I can’t do that. You can’t do that, so leave her alone and let her work.”

I stopped, taking a deep breath, and moving out of the doorway. “Melanie is the kind of person you just let be around your affiliate, and benefit by sheer proximity. Don’t force her to be your idea of helpful, that’ll just ruin the entire thing.”

Mel uncrossed her arms and sighed. “Those charcoal pencils are expensive now too.”

“Shut up Mel,” I said, still staring at Rayna.

The hobb was uncomfortable. She crossed her hands behind her back and struggled to make eye contact. 

“BlueCleave is grateful to you, Melanie. I am sorry, I failed to recognize your value to our affiliate,” she said, careful and slow. “You may choose your own work detail, as the boss says.”

Rayna turned to look at me, and steadied herself, meeting my eyes. “You are right, of course. She will not be bothered again.”

“Ugh,” Mel grunted, getting out of her chair. “You guys are gonna guilt me into helping with the wasps, stop it.”

She walked to the door, hesitating in the frame, and clutching her sketchpad. “It’s cool though, I’m not mad. Thanks Tyson,” she said, before leaving.

The guilt rushed in, on the heels of the realization of my blood alcohol content. I wasn’t quite drunk, but I was definitely not sober enough to be yelling at my security chief over a disagreement.

“It’s no big deal, Rayna, I shouldn’t have yelled. You did right, just run it past me if anybody else is being a problem. We’ll deal with the humans on a case by case scenario, you can still deal with the hobbs however. I just know my people, the way you know yours. Let me make these kinds of decisions from now on, when it comes to them,” I said, gently.

“Of course boss,” she grunted, standing up straight.

I sighed and nodded at her. “Hey. I’m gonna need your help with something later today.”

Rayna nodded. “I’m not leaving. Tollya and I down here now. Keep eye on lowest level.”

I turned to leave the room. “Thank you.”

Before the unnecessarily stressful morning, I had been hoping to go spend some time with Molls. Maybe take the rest of the day to sleep, assuming Dearth would let me.

But first, I had to go talk to Lee, and enact my only gambit against Dearth. I’d only come up with one terrible plan, and it was time to put it in motion.

A few minutes, and a brisk climb up some stairs later, I was in Lee’s office. Axle had spent some time soundproofing it, and I was able to speak freely, without Morbin overhearing. The old man sat at his desk and stared at me as I explained my rough plan to deal with our biggest threat.

“You want me to sell you to the Dearth Conglomerate?” Lee asked.

You are reading story BuyMort: Rise of the Windowpuncher – How I Became the Accidental Warlord of Arizona. Apocalyptic GameLit at novel35.com

I sighed and nodded. “That’s more or less the whole plan, yeah. I give the MortBlock to Rayna for safekeeping, you sell me to Dearth, I get in and turn the place into a Jaxon Pollock. It ain't pretty, but it’s our only chance to get me in front of their board.”

Lee stared at me. “So let’s pretend this goes your way, what happens when you get back and Rayna doesn’t give you back the MortBlock?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Well, that’s a question. I trust her not to screw us.”

“After six days?” Lee said, mustache twitching.

“It’s more like five, but yeah. Yeah, I trust her,” I said. “With my life.”

He shook his head, his face a grimace. “Well, she’s a hell of a fighter, I know that much about her. Nothing else. Our hobbs turned their backs on us when it got tough. How do you know she won’t do the same? I mean, hell Tyson. Seems like that’s what this whole BuyMort system wants everyone to do! Why wouldn’t she take it all and stomp you into the dirt?”

I put up my hands in a warding gesture. “I respect your concerns, Lee, but BlueCleave won’t. This is their home now. Your hobbs had someplace to go. The place these ones come from is some kind of debtors' slum, and I imagine it's worse than our version. Everything about BuyMort is.”

Lee nodded slowly, then pressed his fingers together in a temple and fixed me with his gaze. “So, if I understand this plan correctly, we sell you out to Dearth, and you wreck up the place from the inside. How does this help us, exactly?”

“If I fail, there’s a chance you all might live. This will buy the affiliate time to get out of here, maybe get back to Storage, or go someplace else on earth, maybe even dig in better here, I don’t know. But, if I can get in front of their leadership, I’m willing to bet I can get my hands on some MortBlocks. We have to expand in order to survive, and Dearth owns all the land around us in every direction for miles.” I shrugged as I finished. “It’s the only way forward.”

Lee nodded. “And forward is the only way through.” He shifted in his chair and straightened to face me. “Very well, I’ll sell you out to the Dearth Conglomerate. I put out feelers already, and made a contact in Garthrust’s orbit. I assume he would be a good way in?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I imagine he would want a piece of me. Go for it, I’ll go get prepped.”

Lee nodded once again and moved to stand. I held up a hand.

“Hey, you mind if I borrow your office?” I asked. “Need the sound-proofing.”

“Ah yes, the new arrival. Morbin, I believe his name is? I should make friends with this individual who can hear every conversation in the facility,” Lee said. He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Must be a lonely life. Bet he likes to gossip.”

I chuckled again. “Well, be careful if you do. I warned him against gossip pretty hard, you might clam him up if you go that route.” I sighed and turned back to face Lee. “But yeah, you should keep your ears open with him.”

Lee’s mustache twitched. “Like second nature at this point. I’ll keep you informed.”

After he had left, I shook my head and slumped in my chair, texting Axle to meet me as soon as was convenient, in Lee’s office. Within a few moments the door swung open and the Knowle stood in its frame.

“Everything good, boss?” he asked, cautiously stepping inside. I watched closely until the door was closed before nodding up at the oversized hyena-man.

“Yeah, Axle, everything is great. I just need your help with a few things, and some of it's pretty confidential,” I said, with a small shrug.

He nodded and pulled up a chair to sit in, facing me. “Okay, what do you got?”

“A few things of varying complexity,” I answered, taking a deep breath before continuing. “I’ll need to go over some facility maintenance with you, let you in on the overall plan before it kicks off, pick your brain about the nature of BuyMort, and get your opinion on what the hell my suit is.”

Axle’s tail started wagging gently as I spoke, and his eyes fixated on the starfish suit as I finished. “I thought you would never ask.”

The Knowle stood and produced a little black tube with a flared end, and affixed it to his eye, before leaning in close to inspect the small turbine on my chest. “May I ask what affiliate provided this item?”

“Not just yet,” I answered immediately. I stood up so he could inspect the device better, specifically the small metal lines that deployed tendrils.

Axle glanced up at me, then went back to his inspection, following a single line that tracked up my throat to wrap around my head.

“May I ask why?” he asked.

“Sure, the affiliate is my little secret, and until I know you’re with me on some important stuff, I don’t want to give away my little secret,” I said. The huge Knowle being face-to-face with me was intimidating. I could really see how big his teeth were as he stared at the line of metal beneath my hairline.

Axle finished his inspection. “Well, without knowing where it came from, there is very little I can tell you about it.” He reached out a claw tip and tapped at the turbine’s housing, before shaking his head and removing the monocle.

“The material is unlike anything I’ve seen before. My spectrometer claims it’s a void. No emission from within at all, and material analysis came back inconclusive,” he said. “It appears to be metal but feels much denser.”

“My supposedly ‘magic’ sword can’t cut it,” I offered. “Just bounces right off.”

Axles eyebrows raised. “That is unexpected. Atomic projectors should be able to penetrate any matter arrangement.” He sat back down in the chair opposite me, a distant look in his eyes. “Unless,” he breathed. “It could be a relic. An item from another universe, far enough apart from this one that the physical laws are different. Relics are not offered by BuyMort directly but can be found using incredibly specific search terms.”

I nodded as he spoke, then shrugged. “I don’t understand.”

Axle sighed. “Without knowing the affiliate, I really can’t say for certain, but this item seems likely to have come from someplace far enough from here, that the natural laws instrumental in forming it do not operate the way we understand natural laws.” He narrowed his eyes as he spoke, then crossed his arms.

“What do you know of your multiverse theory?”

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