novelraw Chapter 250 - INTERLUDE
Chapter 250 - INTERLUDE
11:32 PM, January 12, 2070, Downtown Toronto at TD Tower.
The elevator pinged at the 58th floor of TD Tower. Stepping out of the elevator, Ollie loosened the shattered gear that Erin had crafted for them and let it fall onto the floor in the hallway to his glass office.
Before opening the door, he saw the bruises underneath the torn shirt. The armour had done a lot of the heavy lifting. Better than anything he had ever made in his bazaar.
Plopping down onto his leather desk chair, he tapped on the power button of his laptop. The three monitors lit up as the fans whirred. Once the booting process finished, he turned on the teams app.
Scrolling down on his app, he clicked on Sarah Chen's chat history. She still had the green icon that indicated she was still online.
[Oliver Glory: I'm back. Need a debrief. Come to my office.]
[Sarah Chen: on my way]
Ollie minimized the teams app and hovered his mouse over the messenger app. He didn't have his phone, but he could still see his messages on his phone. Clicking the archived chats, he scrolled down all the way to the bottom before giving up and just typed "Cassie" in the search bar.
The archived chat appeared in the results immediately. Right clicking it, he clicked on "Unarchive."
Opening the chat history with her, his heart ached when he clicked on a random day 8 years ago. Every time he scrolled randomly, he'd find a stupid message from Cassie that he so dearly remembered like it just happened yesterday.
[Cassie: Miss you!! Where are you now?! You said this trip would only last a week!]
[Cassie: Don't forget to bring me gelato as apology!]
[Cassie: Did you forget me already? I miss your voice. I might forget you instead.]
[Cassie: YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE. HMPH]
[Cassie: OLLIE, I'm BOOORED.]
[Cassie: I'll haunt you if you don't text me!]
Reading her messages like this alone in his office, it felt like she was still here. A smile formed on Ollie's lips as he continued to scroll up the chat history. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember her voice, her touch, her angry face whenever he would come back home after a mission.
She'd cling to him for hours until she fell asleep. The frozen pizza would go in after. Once it was done baking, she'd wake up immediately.
Cassie always only ate 3 slices and fed him the rest. Something about Aurians and their powers burning up more calories. That was her theory anyways, and she got that one right.
The only thing she'd hog was the Coke Zero. It didn't provide calories, so it was all fair game on who could drink it up all first.
"Fuck," Ollie clenched his fist at the last message she had sent. It was just a month before he had returned to Earth from the 5 years of time dilated space of the Eclipsed.
[Cassie: Oliver, you know, in the past 5 years you were gone, a lot of boys liked talking to me. But I always believed you'd come back to me. Everyday, I looked at our pictures, looked at our messages, praying you'll come back.
But... I think I came up with something. It hurts, but you know what's more painful? Not having you here beside me.
My heart hurts so much. I cry everyday not knowing whether you're safe or hurting. I know they told me you went into a rift, but I'm crying so much from wanting to see your face.
I wanted to live a good life with you until death do us apart. I really did. And now, I think my time in this life is done.
Oliver Glory, I don't know if you died and went to heaven. I'll see you there. And if you're not, I want to tell you one more time, I love you. Please take care of yourself.
Wash your face everyday. Don't forget to do laundry. Don't rely on the gun syringes. Be healthy. Eat well. I'll love you in the next life. Goodbye.]
There was a voice message after that. Tapping on the play icon, the voice message played.
"Ollie, I miss you. I love you. I hope you have a good life," Cassie said, her voice hoarse as the crystals grated on her throat. Though he could tell there were tears in her voice.
"I love you too, Cassie. I really really do," Ollie said, tears running down his cheeks. For the first time in his life, he wished the haunting was real.
Ollie went all the way back in the chat history until the first ever message. The tears stopped flowing as the first message came into view. A bit of warmth entered his heart as he saw it.
[Cassie: i've never had a phone before. this is fancy.]
Both of them were just kids. The first time they got phones was after Ollie had his first mission. The mission took 3 days, and the anxiety got to him at not being able to see and text her.
It was something Ollie couldn't accept, and thankfully, Witch Raven reciprocated. Got them mid-end phones of the time and gave them phone plans courtesy of the Path.
A knock on the glass door pulled his attention away from the screen. Sarah Chen stood outside, lab coat over a blouse and skirt, coffee stained, and a tablet tucked under her arm.
Ollie waved her in as he quickly wiped his tears away.
Sarah closed the door behind her and settled into the chair across from his desk. "You ok?"
"I'm fine," Ollie said, wiping the tears away. "Do you have it?"
"The what?"
"The phone. From when those Russian bastards grabbed me."
"Oh." Sarah reached into her lab coat pocket and placed the phone on his table.
"Thanks." Ollie telekinetically grabbed it and placed it beside his keyboard. Clearing his throat and sniffling before continuing to speak, "So. What happened while I was gone?"
"The Ann Family declared war on the Silver Lions before midnight even hit after the Russians took you. Anns took less than 3 and a half weeks to completely dismantle the cats."
"Three weeks?" Ollie sighed. Guess the rumours were true about the Ann family. They've been in this game longer than any of the other families combined. "Even though the Lions had stations at every corner of Canada?"
"Had. All were made past tense. Greater Sudbury, Old Montreal, Oshawa, Toronto, Boston, New York, Surrey BC. The Anns hit every major operation simultaneously. Over a thousand people went 'missing' overnight. And not even a news report on it."
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"Didn't even know the Silver Lions had that much."
"Conservative estimate based on what intelligence we could gather. Real number's probably double that. Gerard personally led raids in Montreal and Boston. Blue Witches didn't mess around either. Something about their leader being taken poked the hornet's nest. This wasn't just a takeover. It was extermination."
"What triggered it?"
"You tell me. Rachel Ann. You were there."
Ollie sighed. Right. Rachel was their only heir. Being kidnapped and sent to a rift was the perfect casus belli. That was probably what Esther was aiming for. That fox knew she'd be safe from the get go. It was only a matter of time till her precious granddaughter came back from the rift.
Sarah shrugged. "The family doesn't exactly publish their reasoning. Whatever the reason, the response was total. No prisoners. No negotiations."
"What's left of the Lions?"
"Rumours of a bunker somewhere in the Northwest Territories. Unconfirmed. Everyone else disappeared. The Anns consolidated everything. All the Lions' territory, assets, distribution networks. Don't even get me started on all the juicy projects they got a hold of."
"Any clue on how this'll affect us?" Ollie asked.
"Been asking that myself since yesterday. But, to be honest, it just makes things harder. A lot harder. The Lions made noise that kept our own distribution from getting sniffed out. Even moved some of our stuff through their infrastructure."
"And now that infrastructure's gone. Or at least, inaccessible due to the Anns. Correct?"
"Right. Seized by the Anns. Negotiations haven't started yet with them, not until you were back anyways."
Ollie rubbed his face. A month. He'd been gone a month and the entire landscape changed. "The Path's asking questions?"
"Arcanes couldn't care less. They just let it all play out."
"Typical." Though Ollie knew that the Path's Arcanes just didn't want to poke their nose into the business of the Anns.
"What about our current distribution?"
"Still running on our own infrastructure. We pulled back from the compromised routes, tightened security. Lost about half of our reach but kept our core network intact." Sarah swiped to financial data. "Revenue's down but stable. Bleeding some money, but we got years of runway."
"And Nathan?"
"Looking at the data we collected that day in Humber Hospital." Sarah cleared her throat again. "And get this. The data shows high similarities to the Silver Lion's Project Armament's activation process."
Ollie's eyebrow rose up.
"Project Armament's mechanism is to apply a 'fix' on the dust that converts it into energy. The data we saw that night does something similar. The shard applies a 'fix' on the crystallization that held the crystal in place. A week later, the patient, Mia, grew a patch of crystal just on the surface of the skin on her spine. She said it didn't hurt or cause any discomfort."
"Interesting."
"Speaking of Project Armament, bad news is a mundane got a hold of a fully loaded gun that used dust. Blew up a rival gang's building in one shot."
Ollie grinned. That was at least something funny from all the b.s that happened while he was gone.
"That's not all. There's rumours circulating around about a bad batch of dust that came from the Silver Lion stockpiles."
"A bad batch? Never heard of dust having a bad batch. Did one of the Arcanes fuck up?"
"That would be the case if they didn't find one defective grain in the dust vials that were in there. It caused an overload that destroyed user ether pools, effectively crippling them to be mundanes."
Glancing over at his screen, there were messages from Dr. Gray and Marc. The short message had mentioned something about the UK and Jiuling creating supply chain blockades that had high profile enforcers. Ollie didn't even want to click and see the names of these enforcers. That was just bad news all around.
"Jiuling and the United Knights have made contact with the Path asking for clearance on deeper investigations of specified locations."
"This again?"
"Not the same as last time. They're setting up shop at key areas in BC, Ontario, and Old Montreal."
"Shit."
"Right. Apart from the Anns looking into our network, we're getting blocked in from both sides."
Ollie slumped deeper into his chair. Fighting in the rift with everyone, just like back then in the Eclipsed, had taken a lot of weight off his shoulders. Heck, it even made him forget all the misery that was happening in this real world.
I will lead with kindness!
Those were Gale's very own words.
The responsibility of bringing everyone back alive felt more like a curse to Ollie. He couldn't even save a single person from dust corruption even if it killed him.
"You think it was all worth it?"
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.
"I used the shard on a girl when we could've saved... thousands and more."
"It wasn't worth it," Sarah said.
Ollie sat up, noticing the stern expression on her face.
"But you are human. And sometimes, being human is more important. Like think about it. We only had a measly chance of getting a cure in 5 years. Who cares? At least we got data out of it."
"Right." Ollie chuckled. "You got a gun syringe on you?"
Sorry, Cassie. Can't really keep my promise that I won't rely on gun syringes right now. The bruises hurt.
"How many you need?"
"Just two."
"Only got 1. Deal with it." Sarah pulled out a gun syringe from her pocket and put it down on the table.
Ollie took it immediately, stabbed his neck, and pulled the trigger. The syringe hissed, and green light flowed into his veins. "Mmm. That's the stuff."
"So what now? You back yet?" Sarah asked.
Instead of answering, Ollie reached out a hand and materialized Prudence onto it. The sniper rifle that Erin had made sat heavy in his hand. Its flowing lines, alien inscriptions, and etchings gleamed under the dim light of Toronto's night sky behind him.
"Take it," he said.
Sarah reached for the gun with both hands and braced for impact. But when Ollie let go, her eyes took on a surprise as the gun felt lighter than it looked.
"New gun from an alien world, eh? Guessing you want the team to research this to dupe it?" Sarah asked. "You also might want to check the anomaly that happened at Algonquin."
"What happened there?"
"A bunch of families fainted at the sight of an anomaly. Most likely connected to the zombie looking woman that passed through some of our cameras."
Ollie pulled up his email, opening up an email from Dr. Gray. It contained a 100 MB file.
Opening it, he saw a video of a familiar blue haired woman with the same expressionless face floating through the middle of Toronto's roads. Her trajectory was towards the Ann Family estate, an interesting choice.
Gale was right again. That she'd make it out alive from there. The encoding Erin mentioned had a connection to what sounded like the same thing that happened when the shard 'fixed' Mia.
"Can you call me a cab? I wanna go sleep."
Sarah's eyes widened. "That's honestly a bigger surprise than this gun. The great Oliver Glory going back home to take a nap."
"Not a nap. To sleep."
"Right." Sarah pulled out her phone, used swipe texting, and then looked back at Ollie. "Cab's downstairs in 5. Glad you're back, Glory."
"I can't say the same, to be honest."
*
The cab dropped him off at Shuter and River Street. The apartment building looked the same. Red brick that had browned over the years. Twelve stories. A flickering light at the front foyer.
Ollie paid the driver and headed inside. The lobby smelled like bleach and old people, a smell so nostalgic that it reminded him how Cassie mentioned she loved the smell of it compared to the government provided housing they used as kids.
Taking the elevator up to the 8th floor, he went over to unit 808. They had a fight about the unit number for a long while. To Ollie, 8 was a lucky number. Cassie complained he was too superstitious.
Fishing out his keys from the storage box, he inserted it and turned. It clicked open. He pushed in the door and locked it behind him.
As he took off his coat carefully to not aggravate the remaining bruises, Ollie said, "I'm home."
Ollie! Welcome home! That's what she would've said, and that made Ollie smile.
The apartment looked exactly the way he left it. Cassie's backpack sat by the door. Purple with that stupid patch of a small green haired girl called 'Maki' sewn on. The straps were perfect as she always kept the bag he bought her in perfect condition.
Though she always complained about why her classes in university were hard. He'd always reply, how are you going to become a scientist if you don't study?
Walking into the living room, it hadn't changed. The same couch and TV that were almost a decade old. The PS8's controllers were still in the same place on the coffee table.
Moving past it was the kitchen. The yellowed paper was still there with her writing. A grocery list of what to buy that day before he disappeared.
[
MILK AND EGGS
BREAD
CEREAL (THE CHOCOLATE ONE NOT THE BORING ONE)
ORANGE JUICE
CHICKEN NUGGETS
ICE CREAM (GREEN TEA)
]
Opening the fridge. Milk. Eggs. Chocolate cereal. Green tea ice cream. Fresh, cold, and exactly where she would have put them, even the cereal that didn’t belong in the fridge. He had told the cleaning staff to restock it with the same items every week after they expire.
He closed it.
Tears began to flow again down Ollie's cheeks.
It hurts, Cassie. It really does. A world without her, the first person to care for him in this alien world called Earth.
Ollie moved back to the living room, floating the remote towards him and turning on the TV. He put on the movie Secret Life of Pets. That was her favourite movie.
She always told him that Ollie was a cuter version of the rabbit. That never made sense. The rabbit was a ruthless gangster underneath while he, at the time, didn't have that fierceness underneath him.
As he watched the movie, Ollie began to smile. He didn't imagine her beside him. Instead, he accepted the grief. She was gone. That wasn't going to change.
So...
"Cassie, I know you're gone," Ollie said with trembling words. "So please. Let me be selfish just this once and wholeheartedly grieve you. And I promise, I'll be back. Goodnight, Cassie."