Chương 150: B3. 7.1 - Meeting After Meeting After Meeting

Amber Deen Leska Amber Deen and Erind stared at the 'Closed' sign hanging on the door of a British pub-themed restaurant located on the outskirts of the downtown area. The late afternoon sun poked through the gaps of the mid-rise buildings, painting the brick façade an orange hue. They came from Eloyce University straight to the address that Auron gave them yesterday. This was supposed to be their meeting place with the PCM—a private area to properly discuss their plans.

The restaurant was also too small to house massive weapons that could incapacitate them. That was Auron's explanation for choosing this place, anyway. Deen didn't exactly buy it. Given that this wasn't too far from the city center, with a fair number of people around, Deen and Erind would be hesitant to use their powers and cause a huge fight. The BID agents would respond quickly.

Deen conceded that it was for the PCM's security—both sides didn't trust each other, and the PCM members were mere humans—but it made her uneasy nonetheless. However, Erind did make a good point while discussing whether this was a trap on their way here.

"If Auron wanted to kill us for revenge," she had said, "he would've simply exposed us to the BID. Much safer for them."

"What if they want to capture us?" Deen had then asked, her overthinking mind refusing to not worry.

"Your Guardian Angel is there to alert us. Listen to it this time, okay?"

"I'm still not sure…" Deen didn't like to be extremely reliant on Gabe. It was the correct decision, but wasn't it also dangerous that their safety hinged on this creature that was visible only to her? They didn't know Gabe's motives or if it would be helpful all the time.

"And so am I. We can't be sure of anything. Works the same way for the PCM, too. They don't know what's up with our group led by Red Hood. If they do anything to us, Red Hood would attack them." Erind was right, of course. But an urge to worry welled up inside Deen. I want to worry! That didn't make sense given her power. She should have the least worry out of anyone. Throwing a guess, she might be subconsciously pushing against the control that Gabe had over her life.

Gabe told her the 'best' path to take, disregarding her agency. Her power was a reflection of her relationship with her parents. Deen felt justified in rebelling against her parents at times, but it was irrational to go against or disregard her own power. Yet, she was doing it. Having Gabe over her shoulder felt like her mother or father constantly breathing down her neck. Deen went to law school to get away from her parents, but she now had Gabe.

Deen could enumerate a long list of objections to meeting Auron at the place of his choosing, but she held her tongue. Learn to live with Gabe instead of instinctively wanting to 'rebel.' She shouldn't put others in danger because of her irrational stubbornness. She was a strong person—she was confident to say that. Any childhood trauma from her parents could be buried through sheer will. She shouldn't let her personal issues cloud her judgment and lead others, especially Erind, to danger.

"A pub theme, huh?" Erind said, looking up at the sign above the door.

"Do they serve English breakfast here?"

"Are you going to order food?" Deen asked with a frown. When it came to food, Erind could be quite air-headed at times. And it wasn't just about food. Her best friend's penchant for wandering thoughts was exacerbated after she became an Adumbrae. Erind's earlier talk about frogs that didn't know how to land worried Deen. Was Deen looking for problems that weren't there? She could only hope that the Adumbrae wasn't doing anything to Erind's mind. The pills from Dario might bring Erind's thinking back to normal.

"If the kitchen is open," Erind said, shrugging.

"But I guess they wouldn't serve breakfast at this time. I always wanted to check if British food is as bland as people say it is."

"I'll buy you whatever you want for breakfast. Just focus on the meeting now."

"I know you hate being asked…" Erind started to say as she reached for the door.

"But is your Guardian Angel—?"

"Gabe is silent." Erind opened the door, and Deen followed her into a dimly lit restaurant fashioned like an oldish pub, as was advertised. It even had pictures of the Queen of England, the reconstructed Big Ben, and the Tower Bridge, with its massive turrets from the Adumbrae War, hanging on the walls. The upholstered benches of the booths were worn, but clean. And there were many decorative figurines on the shelves. If all the lights were turned on, it probably would've been a welcoming place.

The restaurant was empty except for three people sitting at the leftmost table. One was Auron. Deen recognized the other two from the café earlier. The table was littered with pieces of paper and rolled maps, presumably blueprints of the city's underground tunnel network.

"Welcome, ladies." Auron gestured for Deen and Erind to take the seats on the other side of the table.

"I'm glad that you accepted our offer."

"We're buying peace for both of our groups," Deen said, before Erind could respond. Deen felt better about a situation if she was in charge.

"This is only for a short time, of course."

"Tick-tock," Aurion said, laughing.

"We should find the cure to seeding before you two get tired of your human lives and decide to hunt us. On that note, will it only be the two of you? Will Red Hood join our little operation?"

"No," Erind said.

"We have—""We have decided to keep Red Hood in the dark about this," Deen cut in. She reached under the table and squeezed Erind's knee. Hopefully, Erind understood to let her do the talking. Deen didn't want Erind to go off on tangents during such an important meeting. Deen found those 'Erind moments' cute, definitely. But it had no place here. Erind could handle herself very well, but Deen was sure she could do it better.

Deen also didn't want Erind to insert any of her crazy, last-minute ideas that'd complicate the situation. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"It's unlikely that Red Hood would agree to this," Deen continued.

"She has already forsaken her human life, content with living in hiding. On the other hand, we—" she gestured to herself and Erind "—have just begun our exploration of the human world. Red Hood would prefer killing all of you to prevent you from ever achieving your goal. In contrast, we're fine with postponing our eventual final clash." It was a veiled threat doubling as an attempt to make the PCM trust them more, keeping secrets from Red Hood and such.

"No rush, as humans say," Erind chimed in.

"I'm glad that you've reached this decision," said Auron.

"I have considered that Red Hood wouldn't be so welcoming of working with us. However… will the two of you suffice to handle the BID forces scuttling in the tunnels? I'm not saying that you are weak without Red Hood. Please don't be offended. But BID agents are quite capable, even if they aren't Corebrings. They push the boundaries of what humans can do. You probably haven't fought any given your short time here on Earth. Don't underestimate them."

"We've been apprised of the BID agents." Deen aimed to speak more formally and a bit stiltedly. Sounds slightly inhuman.

"But it won't be only the two of us. We'll bring other Adumbrae in the early stages of seeding to assist us. They'll benefit from the success of our mission."

"Other Adumbrae, you say?" Auron's brows furrowed.

"Benefit them? How?" His eyes widened.

"Are you talking about friends of your human hosts who have also been taken over by Adumbrae?"

"You got that right." Erind chose to speak in a more 'human' way to show that she had been seeded longer than Deen.

"The Fletcher sisters aren't the end of it," Deen hurriedly said before Erind could continue. Deen was inexplicably irked by Erind not letting her do all the talking.

"It isn't a coincidence that four Adumbrae are so connected to each other." It was Erind's idea to brand the rest of Dario's group as Adumbrae as well, keeping the artificial Cores a secret. Deen approved of it. This way, Auron and the PCM would think that Red Hood's forces were bigger than they were. Auron would also assume that Red Hood was someone close to Deen and Erind but had since gone off-grid.

It'd be a fruitless search, wasting the PCM's time and drawing them away from the truth that Erind was also Red Hood. This would maintain Red Hood's threat that the PCM couldn't ignore. Deen mentioned that their allies were newly-seeded to entice the PCM to capture them someday for experiments. It was Erind's idea to pit the PCM against the Professor. Deen was surprised to find her best friend so fearsome in manipulation. This… this wasn't the Erind she knew.

Or was Erind telling the truth that the Adumbrae wasn't influencing her, and this was the real Erind all along? Either case was worrying. Deen didn't know how to handle this.

"I see how it is," said Auron.

"A BID investigation wouldn't start and end with the two of you. Friends, families, classmates, even teachers, and more. They'll be scrutinized. Some of them have become Adumbrae as well… Is that what you're saying?"

"You got that right," Erind said.

"We're not bothering to hide—""There's no need to hide it," Deen said in a loud voice, talking over Erind as she squeezed her knee again, "because you'll eventually know the identity of our allies with a little investigation. We also expect cameras and microphones inside your central base, recording our movements and conversations." Auron laughed, shaking his head.

"Very unnerving to learn that a seeding event is unfolding in our city. How did this happen? The stress levels of the population were stable until last month. And there's no Purple Bloom to strain the fabric of reality."

"You should know more than us," Deen replied.

"You're the ones tinkering with reality," Erind said as she pushed away Deen's hand on her leg.

"Perhaps you did something to invite more of us on this side." This wasn't part of their prepared script. Erind added it, perhaps to play mind games with the PCM. Auron's smile wavered for a moment. Was he wondering if their experiments attracted Adumbrae into the city? Or was he blaming the 2Ms for this? Auron shook his head. Then, he unfurled a blue parchment on the table, showing us a map.

"Enough of the unknown. We'll study this seeding event once we have the data from our central computer. Here is the target." The PCM's central base was located beneath a busy intersection. No one could tunnel from above because everyone would see. The way to reach it was through a tunnel that the PCM had excavated themselves, not one of the tunnels made by the government long ago.

"When the BID raided our offices and started arresting our members," Auron said, "we knew that our laboratories would soon be found. We evacuated what we could, which wasn't much, and set off demolition charges, caving in the bunkers and tunnels. BID agents are specialized in fighting Adumbrae, not digging through the Earth.

"Luck was on our side. The authorities chose to keep the truth of our activities secret to prevent panic. They mobilized only a small excavation team, disguising their activities as public works. A slow progress through the collapsed tunnels is the result. Furthermore, given that this tunnel is of our own making, the engineers wouldn't think to dig this way."

"Wait… So, all's good then?" Erind asked.

"Just wait it out. The BID wouldn't stick around for that long. After they leave, you can go dig for your tunnel, and that's it. Why do you need us?"

"The answer is simple," Auron replied.

"I've already mentioned it—our members under BID custody. Some of them know of our central base. We can't expect that they will keep it a secret."

"Issue of loyalty among humans," Erind scoffed.

"Your lives are very complicated," Deen added.

"How can you not enjoy the world you live in instead of thinking if another will betray you?"

"It's difficult to enjoy our world with beings from other dimensions coming over to wreck it," was Auron's icy reply. He placed the huge USB drive that he had shown them earlier. He then explained how to use it.

"If we fail to do what you want…?" Erind asked.

"Then we'll all see each other in hell," he said with a wild grimace.

"Unless hell is where you came from, then I suppose I'm doing you a favor sending you back home. Are you ready to listen to how to reach our central base?" The PCM-made tunnel to their central base was unusable because it had collapsed. It'd take too long to dig through it, even if they had super strength. The path that Auron taught them involved navigating other tunnels and digging to the unblocked part of the PCM-made tunnel.

Auron made sure they understood the specific points they should dig, but Deen knew that the real operation wouldn't be so simple. They'd mostly be working in the dark while police officers and BID agents might be patrolling nearby. The meeting ended after around fifteen minutes. Deen sat in her car's driver's seat. She rolled and unrolled the map that Auron had given them, the gravity of their mission starting to sink in. Stunned was how she'd put her mental state. Afraid.

She was more afraid of this mission than attacking the docks because the BID might get involved. Should she be afraid? She had Gabe. Dario would provide boosters. A boosted Gabe provided visions of the future, much better than vague phrases. Erind would also be there. Was Deen worrying for the sake of worrying? On the other hand, Erind was moping about forgetting to order English breakfast. Deen suspected this was a defense mechanism. Erind should be as afraid as she was.

Instead of overthinking, the favorite pastime of Deen, Erind chose to divert her mind. Deen decided that she should be the rock Erind could lean on. Speaking her worries would worsen Erind's fears, pushing her mind to think random thoughts.

"Erind, how about we study at my house?" Deen asked, trying to be nonchalant about the situation.

"We have a few hours to spare before your meeting with Reo."

"Can we order English breakfast?"

"I don't think there's anything like that available for dinner," Deen said. Poor Erind. Forcing herself to think of other things.