Under the Floorboards (and In the Walls)

The Magic Visitor Detector 3000-Lucy

Fittes House was bustling with life. Which either fit or didn't, depending on how you looked at it. The square in front was teeming with agents of every cut. Rapiers hung from a thousand waists. I fingered the hilt of mine. With the level of competition between agents it always felt a little like a ticking time bomb to have so many gathered. But the rules on fighting fellow agents, in public at least, were very harsh. And no one was going to cross the line with DEPRAC officers breathing down their necks as they were now. You could have your license permanently revoked. If caught, that is.

Lockwood pushed his way to the front of the building. I followed close behind.

"Hey Lucy!" I craned my neck around to find the speaker in the crowd. But then at my elbow popped up Kipps, crew tailing. "I was hoping you would make it."

I turned back to where Lockwood had been, but he was lost in the crowd. I turned my attention back to Kipps. "Yes well, when there is a city-wide agent meeting... we thought it would be fun."

"Fun?" Kat rolled her eyes.

Kipps dropped his voice and I had to lean in to fully hear him. "Do you know much about this new agency?"

I shook my head. "No, not really. Just that they have some weird new methods."

"They are all adults."

I gasped, "How is that possible."

Kipps shrugged. "Just thought you should know."

"Well, I'm sure I'd find out in a couple minutes when the meeting begins."

"Yes, but what I'm trying to say is," Kipps lowered his voice again.

"Speak up Kipps, even I can't hear you." I said with a smile.

Kipps looked around, which was silly because even though we were surrounded by people. He looked nervous, which was unusual for Kipps.

"It's no secret that Lockwood and I have bad blood. But I like you Lucy. And I wouldn't want to see anything bad happen to you."

I shifted my feet. Where had Lockwood gone off to?

"Did you hear about Sophie Wilde?"

My attention snapped back to Kipps. "She is that new freelancer who left Rottwell's right? They say she is the most talented agent with Touch to ever exist." I was a bit in awe of her.

"Not anymore."

"What?"

"She's dead." Kipps face was cold. "Last night."

"How?"

"How does every great agent die? Job went wrong they say." I could have sworn there were tears in Kipps' eyes.

"They say? But you've heard different. From whom? What exactly are you implying Quill Kipps?"

"Shush! Keep it down. All I'm saying is you should be careful. Things are changing around here. This meeting is the first sign." Kipps gave me one last earnest look and started to move on but I grabbed his arm.

"Wait, where did you get your information?"

Quill paused a moment before answering. He blew out his cheeks and looked at the ground. Then he looked up at me and said, "You know Flo Bones? You get information from her that you cant get anywhere else? You're not the people who have informants on the streets."

I let go of him. I never thought of Kipps as someone who would associate with relic men of any sort.

"Be careful," Kipps said one last time before moving on in the throng that had started to trickle into the building. He had pressed something into my hand. I looked down. It was a note with his number.

"What was that all about?"

I jumped near out of my skin and spun around, rapier half drawn to see Lockwood at my elbow. He looked concerned, a lock of dark hair hanging over his forehead. "Dang it, Lockwood, why do you have to scare me like that?"

"Were you scared?" Lockwood raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

I pushed past him toward Fittes House shoving the note in my pocket. "I'll tell you later."

-

We found seats quickly. Unfortunately. Megan saw us when we entered and waved us over. Or is that being presumptuous. She waved Lockwood over. She never acknowledged me. Whatever. I didn't want to talk to her either. She chatted nonstop about stupid stuff. I don't even know what. I don't know how Lockwood managed to appear interested. It was one of those rare times that I wished Skull was with me. He would give me good advice. Like on all the ways I could murder her with the fingernail clipper I had in my pocket. Ugh. How did I turn into a jealous child?

The meeting wasn't so much a "meeting" as a Public Service Announcement for Agents. Marissa Fittes purred on about the Fittes Legacy and the honor to be with all these "talented agents" before introducing William Saunders, the head of Saunders Paranormal Investigators (SPI). He was a heavy-set man with a thick moustache. Everything about him was big. He wore a long robe which seemed a little pretentious to me.

Mr. Saunders wanted to open with a demonstration. Two of his associates come forward with silver boxes. They placed them in a line on the stage. The boxes were shrouded in cloth. It was explained that while each box had an object inside, only one was a source. Mr. Saunders then pulled from his cloak a, well, wizard staff, although I'm not sure if he'd like us to call it that. He was being terribly serious. On the end of the staff was a jewel. He hovered the jewel staff over the boxes. Nothing. But then when he approached the second-to-last box in the line up the jewel began to shine very brightly.

Mr. Saunders explained that this was a one-of-a-kind jewel discovered in the jungles of Mexico that could detect a source. With their new "technology" agent work could become safe and done by anyone, even in the daytime when visitors would not appear.

Marissa Fittes definitely seemed impressed and pleased. "Saunders Paranormal Investigators are already doing very important work in the city, and I hope they continue to. I know their methods are unusual to ours, but I hope you'll be welcoming and helpful."

The crowd seemed uneasy.

"I give them two weeks." I heard one agent say. It did seem dangerous. To fight ghosts when you couldn't even see them? But then again, they weren't going in at night. Just in the day with their Magic Visitor Detector 3000.

I exchanged a look with Lockwood. We didn't say a word. But I could tell we agreed. This new agency wasn't going to be much of anything. 

Hey guys! It's been a while since I updated but I'm almost done (I hope). Thank you all for reading. It means a lot. I couldn't find a picture for this chapter but I figured it would be better to spend my time writing than scouring the internet for a staff with a jewel lol. #SaveLockwoodandCo #ParamountSaveLockwood