Reality Heist by Geordi Riker (e manga reader .txt) 📕

“And what are the kiddies up to?” Chase asks as he stops in front of us.

Jesse slams the book shut, careful to hide the spine and cover. I turn my attention to Amaar standing beside him. I stand up and hold the tablet in front of me, “Look serious.” I snap a quick picture off, finish the program, and return to the hack.

“What's she doing?”

Jesse shrugs, “Wouldn't tell me.”

Chase shrugs, “Well,  the place will open in an hour if y'all want to wait that long.”

I glance up, “Sure.” They start to walk away, reminding me. “Wait!” I stand up quickly and yank the USB out. “When do we heist it?”

Chase thought for a moment, “I'm guessing in a few days, since there's some massive galeria in the adjacent wing then. Perfect time. Why? Want time off to go shopping?”

Ignoring the jibe, I hand Amaar the USB, “Plug this into a Smithsonian computer not accessible to the public at 3:54 today without getting caught.”

Amaar raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

“So that I can hack through virtually anything inside.”

“That's what you were working on?” Jesse asks.

I shrug as an answer.

Chase and Amaar leave, and I go back to hacking, a small smile playing on my lips as I photo-shop Amaar into a picture for a file. I keep his name, giving him the last name “Cuther Pauli” for kicks since I still don't know what his actual name is.

Before long, Chase comes back, a confused expression on his face. I've already tucked the tablet back into my bag, mischief accomplished. Jesse raises an eyebrow as he approaches. “That was fast.”

“Apparently, they were already expecting Dr. Amaar Cuther Pauli, an honored associate of some bigwig at the Jeffersonian, to visit for the next few days or so.”

“Weird, did anybody get knocked off?”

“No, they recognized him as soon as we entered the building. Apparently, a memo went out to the entire staff this morning, saying that he was coming down as an expert in the field of geology, to study the museum's collection. People were very interested in learning more about him, especially since there's an article online devoted to his work in the theoretical formation process of several high-end crystals.”

“Weird,” I say, “But convenient, right?”

He shakes his head at he grins at me, “You're going to put me out of a job, Petite.”

“Why? What'd she do?”

Chase glances at him, “You mean you sat beside her this entire time, but you don't know what happened?”

“No,” Jesse replies slowly, “But you're suggesting that I should have.”

“Our dear little hacker friend here hacked her way into the system, and set Amaar up with a fake ID and everything. I even Googled him on my way out- over twenty hits that all are dated from a variety of days, with thousands of viewers listed.”

“The Internet can be an ally if you know how to use it,” I grin, “Otherwise it's just a pain.”

“Is he on any sort of social media?”

“Nah, too much hassle, then you have to come up with all sorts of other people's profiles, and I just didn't have the time.”

“But you could have?”

“The world is my oyster when I'm in front of a computer.”

“Cute. So, should we stick around and check out security, or come back after a trip to figure out what sort of tech they have?”

“Raid the place,” Jesse grins, “That way, we've got an idea of what we're getting into.”

“I wasn't asking you.”

I blink. “Doesn't really matter to me as long as we're in a quiet place by 3:53.”

“You told Amaar 3:54.”

I shrug, “Need to leave room for error.”

“What'd you give him that doo-hickey-thing for?”

“All in good time. Let's scope the place out.”

The only place creepier than a museum is a funeral home, and even then it's hard to tell which one's creepier. People are silent, walking on eggshells for fear of annoying someone else. I smirk at the thought. If people are trying to be quiet, then why are they walking on eggshells? That would just make a bunch of crunching noises with each step.

But seriously, the place is full of people walking around and whispering to each other. Except for the tour groups, especially the little kids. Someone in the back goofs off, the guide raises his voice to try to get their attention, the goof-ball gets louder in response, causing the guide to get louder too. And then they move on to the next display.

The place is massive. Standing three stories high, the building is lit by a sky-light as well as huge chandeliers. The second and third floors rim the sides of the rotunda, with stairs at specific spots  enabling visitors to visit those floors. The walls are made of marble, and marble columns with spiderwebs of grey running through them tower over people's heads, supporting the building and giving it a sort of awesome feeling. People move in groups of  varying number, standing in line to buy their ticket to the first IMAX viewing of the day, or meander up the stairs to view the other floors. In the middle of the rotunda, an elephant stands with its truck raised, yellowing tusks held at the ready to defend its stand of sand and fake brush.

Jesse grabs my arm and starts dragging me along. Yanking my arm free, I shoot him a glare as we walk at the same rate as everyone else- just another part of the crowd. Chase is already half-way up the stairs.

I stop in my tracks. Something's watching us. Some one. Among the quiet, peaceful atmosphere, there's a single Black thread wafting in the air, invisible to everyone else. I watch as it weaves in and out, going through people as it wanders around, like a fish among rocks. It slips to a stop before me, and rises up like a snake. It twists into a black hooded cobra  with glittering eyes. It strikes at me with a hiss. I shriek as I jump out of the way.

In a flash, the tendril of Pressure vanishes, smoke dissipating to mingle with the air before disappearing before.

I can't move, my eyes fixed to where it had just been. Jesse steps in front of me, slouching a little to make eye contact. Before I know it, he's coaxing me over to a bench, helping me to sit down. I keep staring straight ahead of me.

What the hell was that? I start shaking uncontrollably as I think about how close it got before my Motes attacked it.

“What happened?” Chase's voice seems to be coming from far away, even though I know he's right beside me.

“I don't know. She was right beside me, and then all of the sudden she freaked out and froze up.”

“She's not moving still.”

“What do we do?”

“Get her out of here. I'll come back later to measure things out.”

“What about Amaar and the chip thing?”

“If she's not with it in a couple of hours, we'll call him up and tell him to hold off. I've got a feeling that the chip's not something we can leave lying around.”

Hands gently grab each of my arms and bring me out of the room. I can still feel the thread behind us, but it makes no move to stop us from leaving. The sudden warmth on my face tells me that we're back outside.

“You guys wait here, I'll go steal our car back.”

One of them stays beside me and the other leaves. He leans against the bench and sighs, “Dee, you have got to let us know if you're an escapee from a mental asylum. We won't send you back, but we could at least get you some meds you know.”

I'm not crazy.

“Didn't say you were.” Guess I didn't think it. “But when it comes to this sort of business transaction that we tend to make a lot of, it's good to know who's bananas and who's not. Jesse over there, he's just barely gotten his land legs. His dimension has the world still covered in water, y'know, so he's used to swimming door to door when he goes trick-or-treating.

“What happened to you in there anyways?”

I shake my head. “I don't know. There was this... thing. And it attacked me.”

“You seem to be okay now. Did you see it go into your ear or nose?”

I groan and lean forward, losing my balance. Chase grabs me before I can fall to the cement. “Just asking to make sure that whatever it was, it didn't get you. Theoretically, anything is possible, I just want to make sure that you're all right and that it didn't enter your brain like in some horror film.”

“I... I'm fine.”

“Ready to go back in?”

I shudder and he lets up.

“One of us will bring you home and stay to keep an eye on you, alright?”

I nod as Jesse pulls up  to the curb meant for buses in a dark green Ferrari. Chase opens the door for me and gives Jesse a hard stare. Glad that I can't hear them Linking Up, I rest my head on the head rest and shut my eyes. Jesse doesn't say a word the entire ride back. If he did, I didn't hear anything as I settled into a doze. 

                Jesse left me alone in the hotel, only to come back a few hours later carrying several mismatched shopping bags that all bulged the same way. His arms were so full that he had to kick the door to get my attention. I turned my tablet off before opening the door, trying keep from blinking too often. Every time I blinked, I saw that Pressure snake. I had already figured out that it belonged to that woman in the red dress, Magdalene, and had been scouring the files on my tablet, trying to find out more about her. But the majority of the files that mentioned her either didn’t make sense, were useless, or both. I was no closer to figuring out why she had tried to kill me than I was right when her Pressure had started to wrap around my throat.

                Jesse dumped the bags onto the closest bed, next to where I had dropped the tablet. His eyes flitted to it briefly, but then he turned his attention back to the bags that he had brought in. He started to dump them out, and low and behold all of them held clothes and a few pairs of women’s shoes.

                “Normally Dutch is