Long ti no see, I wavered.
The Nick Id known had been relatively muscular. But this was sothing beyond simple post-athletic build. He was absolutely loaded with muscle, though the physique combined with his own natural looks created sothing of a Hollywood aesthetic. I stared at Nick in disbelief, even as jabbered in my ear.
Riding high even with all the surrounding chaos. The system fixed his leg, like it did my ribs and shoulder. He wants sothing from .
Go get Iris, I told Ellison.
Bring her back? Ellison was still staring at Nicks leg.
No. Call mom for a ride and get out of here. With the tir, things are liable to get weird soon.
You guys Nick paused, twisting to watch as Ellison passed him wordlessly. He turned back to . You see the countdown as well?
I think everyone can, I observed, sowhat annoyed with the way the timing had worked out. I looked around. Since the advent of the tir, the kid-in-a-candy shop mont had devolved into panic buying. Word of mouth on Kinsleys store would still spread like wildfire. But the morale was muted compared to just monts before.
Nick crushed in a hug. Im so happy you made it, man.
I instinctively fought it for a mont before surrendering to the well-aning Neanderthal, patting him on the back. Just, dont start crying again.
No, Im good, Im good. Nick waved off. Trust , Im not that person anymore. He was bursting at the seams to tell more, but I saw his head shift slightly, and his eyes glaze over. I imagined he looked the sa way I did when I used to study sothing out of the corner of my eye.
Unless I missed my guess, he was eying the long line of tables, and actually being careful.
Different person indeed.
He thinks I missed the boat. Is looking to help, sohow. Probably better to ditch him early, hes stupid altruistic and will only drag down
I shook my head. God. was such an asshole.
You okay? Nick asked.
I nodded.
Because you dont seem very surprised about he waved a hand over himself.
You have sowhere to talk? I asked, ignoring the question.
Yeah, theres a little Turkish place down the road that still has coffee for cash only. I ca to get you, actually. Youll want to et the others.
Wait, what? I attempted to ask. But Nick was already dragging away.
/////
The restaurant was similar to a lot of dine-in establishnts in the troplex. Relatively unremarkable on the outside, completely over-decorated on the inside. It was lined with colorful, ornate rugs and a collection of various squat humanoid miniatures that lined the shelves.
The strong, rich, and bitter aroma of Turkish coffee perated everything. And understandably so. Either people just ca here for the coffee, or the kitchen was out of everything else.
And then I walked by Buzzcut, sitting on his own, with his back to the corner. Id only seen the man briefly, in the alley with Daphne, when he was attempting to talk into showing myself, but his smarmy visage and near-identical dark business wear was unmistakable.
How the fuck did he find ?
I nearly tripped on a rug on the way to our table.
He didnt find . No way of knowing Id co here. Back to the wall, book hes not reading, hes watching soone. But who?
My question was answered almost imdiately, when Nick directed to a table directly in Buzzcuts sightline. There wereperhaps unsurprisingly, this was Nick after alltwo girls sitting, waiting for us. They were sipping at their coffee served in tiny porcelain cups, chatting softly amongst themselves.
It surprised to realize that I knew both of them. Sae, the Korean student I ran into right before the teor hit. Her stylish appearance had taken a bit of a beating over the last few days, and from her sleeveless shirt it was clear she had gained so definitive muscle.
And the second was Jinny Stiles. She looked happy. Which was good, I guess, though I couldnt imagine why. The emptiness was gone from her expression.
You lived! Sae said, her eyes widening when she saw .
Uh, you lived, I stamred, feeling entirely out of my elent. Both of themall three of them actually, considering how Nick had apparently returned, triumphant from his fall from gracewere so far out of my social strata it wasnt even funny.
Ladies, Nick said, with a charismatic flourish. et Matthias. Our fourth.
Fourth what? I asked. A bead of sweat dripped down the back of my neck. Buzzcut could likely hear everything we were saying from where I sat.
How do you two know each other? Sae asked, her voice carefully free of intonation.
What she really ans is, why the fuck is he our fourth.
Theyre friends. Jinny gave an apologetic look. Sorry, weve never t, but Nick talks about you all the ti.
Its okay, I murmured, my words unintentionally cut off. Part of realized how ridiculous it was. I had gone in on Tylers group, manipulating the dynamic to prevent a killing that might create revolutionaries and start a war. Why was it so much harder with people my age?
Because youre afraid theyll see you for what you really are.
What would he be bringing to the table? Sae asked again, her body angled towards Nick and Jinny. I could almost feel Buzzcuts eyes burning through the back of my head. As unpleasant as the snub was, she was giving an out, and I should probably take it.
Its okay, I said, probably a bit too quickly, Whatever it is, it seems like you all have an established thing and I prefer not to get in the way.
Jinny and Nick looked at each other, then at Sae. Uh Sae, Matt is
Matt is what?
You rember Helpline? Jinny asked.
I slowly raised a palm to my forehead.
Nick, Im actually going to kill you.
Sae cocked her head. Which helpOh. Her face changed in recognition. Youre talking about the fixer?
It was such a stupid series of events, I still find it embarrassing. Nick once had the bright idea to wrangle up flyers for the testing business. Even though hed hidden the idea from , hed been smart enough to keep it vague. Only hed been a little too vague.
Within a day, I was getting a high number of calls, and practically none of them had anything to do with testing. Most were pranks, and I dealt with them accordingly. I nearly threw the burner away. The one that stopped , the one I should have just ignored entirely, was so student, royally pissed off about soone stealing his Pace 500.
If you dont know what that isI didnt either, before a cursory Google searchits a bike. But its not just a bike. Its fucking expensive. Anyway, the bike was expensive, the owner was clearly loaded, and instead of telling him to fuck offlike I really, really should haveI kept asking him questions. Because I also had a bike that I sotis parked out front, and while it wasnt so expensive that I thought anyone would steal it, I didnt really want to have one more potential loss to worry about.
When three more people called, reporting the sa thing, I called Mr. My-Bike-Costs-More-Than-Most-Peoples-Rent back, and secured a paynt through bitcoin. Half up-front, half after the fact. Probably a third of what hed paid for the bike.
It wasnt really hard to track down the perpetrator. The thefts all took place during school hours and, while there were other possibilities, Occams Razor said it was most likely a student.
And most teachers took detailed attendance sheets and filed them in unlocked drawers or boxes.
It was as easy as cross-checking absences with the dates of the thefts.
In the end it turned out to be so middle-of-the-pack idiot with an angle-grinder. The idiot in question tid cutting through the locks with construction happening nearby. Then, he would ride away on the stolen bike to a nearby storage unit. The weirdest part was, he wasnt even selling them. Probably didnt know where to start.
I cut through the lock with a bolt cutter, retrieved the Bike-That-Costs-More-Than-God, discreetly called it in, and chained the stolen bike Id been hired for back up front at the school.
All of which would have been fine, a nice change of pace and one-off. Only the student turned out to be well-connected, and happily ran his mouth to the entire god-damn high-school about how great Helpline, was.
Nick grinned at Sae, pointing a finger at .
I could feel red creeping into my cheeks. Okay, well, Im going to go.
Wait. Helpline was you? Saes eyes bugged out of her head.
Allegedly, I said, glaring daggers at Nick.
I fought the urge to pull away as Sae grabbed my arm, still grinning. My friend, Choon, you helped her with her bullying problem.
And he got those pictures of Danielle taken down, Jinny nodded.
Thats insane. Sae leaned forward, putting a bit too much weight on the table, and it creaked loudly.
Those were just jobs, I refuted, overwheld. They were paying.
Nick nodded smugly. Point is, Matts soone you want on your side, and we need a good tactician going into this.
I placed both hands on the table, a bit too firmly. Okay, stop. You havent even told what this is.
Youre not a User, right? Nick asked.
No, but I have a general grasp on whats happening. I wanted to avoid an overwrought explanation.
Nick leaned towards with the sa, shit-eating grin he always had when hed found sothing particularly good. This was going to be a harder sell before what happened today, but not anymore. That market, that just ca online? Its exclusively for Selve. And I have a way to make a lot of it.
Fuck. That was why Buzzcut was here. Either he was following Nick because of sothing Nick knew, or sothing he had. Both were bad. I needed to end this conversation now.
But how, without drawing suspicion to myself?
Look, I leaned back, attempting to look disinterested, before you spill your entire manifesto in a public place, I put just enough emphasis on the words that I hoped that Nick would catch my drift, Im not a User. Ive only put together a little of all this, but from what I know, Users have abilities and survivability that I couldnt even dream of. If I go off and I made a vague gesture, Do User things with you, it seems inevitable that without any of those protections Ill end up a splattered on the pavent sowhere.
It was a legitimate excuse. If anyone was listening, I would sound overly cautious at most.
I realized my error when Nick didnt look disappointed. Rather, his eyes glead. Man, youve kept sane these last few months. Youve been a great friend, and Im just happy I can do sothing for you in return.
Stop proposing. I rolled my eyes. Or whatever youre doing.
Are they you know? I heard Sae whisper.
Definitely not. Jinny whispered back, then hesitated. Nick isnt for sure.
I found myself slightly surprised by Jinnys follow-up comnt, but it wasnt an-spirited, she just wasnt making assumptions. I could tell if soone was objectively attractive, but Id never felt that attraction myself, let alone had the ti to date. Maybe I would, so day, if we ever got out of this.
Nick continued, undeterred by the cross-chatter. Look, I know youre cautious. This isnt permanent, and according to the description, I can take it back if it doesnt work out. But its a new world, my friend. Join us.
It was so lodramatic, I could barely comprehend what he ant. Then a flurry of system prompts passed through my vision.
User: ???, Class: ???, LVL: ??? User: Matt, Class: NPC, LVL: N/A User: Matt, Class: Page, LVL: 3.
I kept a bewildered smile on my face, tilting my head slightly to see if Buzzcut was still watching.
He was.
All I could think was that Nick had just made this entire situation a lot more complicated.
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