He hadn't expected to fall asleep but he actually did even though he only managed to go for a couple of hours. He woke up around seven. The empty box of bagels he'd scarfed down last night was on the nightstand next to the second can of coffee that he'd decided against drinking.
Luce went to the bathroom, splashed some water on his face and rinsed his mouth with some mouthwash. He gargled several times because he didn't have his toothbrush and he didn't want to use the one that was already in the bathroom of his room.
He came back to his room, put on his shoes, draped his blazer over his arm, the can of coffee in its inner pocket, his wallet full of money in another and walked out of his room. He wanted breakfast.
Even though it was just half past seven in the morning, the dining area of the inn was already active, though there weren't many diners. The breakfast was all-you-can-eat buffet. Luce scoffed. The woman had called this place a 'cheap lodge'. Maybe she had tricked him–it cost three hundred hundred kervers a night, breakfast included. Luce didn't really care as long as he was getting his money's worth.
He served himself to a generous amount of scrambled eggs, six strips of bacon, four slices of bread and a cup of espresso. He sat down at a table and dug in. He was halfway through his scrambled eggs when he received a text from Tracy on his phone.
I'm gonna reach Sector 25 soon. Will call you in a bit to tell you what I find.
Luce nodded. He'd just started working on finding Mist the previous morning. It had taken him roughly twenty hours to get as far as he'd gotten. There was still a chance of the entire investigation being a mistake. Erik Koehlwin might not be the man he was looking for. And this whole operation might turn out as a failure. But there was his gut instinct again. Something told him that he was on the right track.
He was almost done with his breakfast when the woman and her son from last night sauntered into the dining room. She took triple the portions of what Luce had taken and the two of them joined Luce at his table.
He rolled his eyes. "You know you could've sat at another table?"
"It wouldn't have looked nice," the woman said.
Luce frowned. "Wouldn't have looked nice to whom? Who the heck is even watching you?"
"I am!" The little boy raised his hand.
Luce groaned.
"Also, I wanted to thank you for paying for our stay," the woman said.
Luce shrugged. "You don't have to. It was an act of trade. I got the bagels and you got the room. Whether or not that trade was fair is a different story. But you don't have to pretend like what I did was out of kindness."
"Do you have a problem with someone being nice to you, mister?" the boy said.
"Elliot!" his mom said in a hushed voice.
Luce let out a sigh. "Never mind, I guess."
They ate in silence for a while before the woman asked, "Are you from around here?"
Luce was about to sigh again. He was really going to be the asshole in this situation if he acted like he didn't want to make small talk. It would be worse if she or her kid, Elliot, started crying from his rudeness. That wasn't something he wanted to deal with so early in the morning.
He shook his head. "No, I'm not from here," he said.
"Oh, then where are you from?"
"Kingsville."
"It's really expensive to live in Kingsville!"
"It can be."
"You work for the government don't you?"
None of your business. "What if I do?"
"Oh? My brother used to work for the government too."
"Good for him."
"He died."
That wasn't subtle at all. "I...I'm sorry." Luce frowned.
He expected her to tell him more about her brother's death but instead she just went quiet. He noticed that she had brought the convenience store shopping bag with her. She was packing empty sandwich bags with slices of bread and putting them into the shopping bag. "Elliot, go and get more bread," she said, "also get as many cookies as you can."
The boy went to the buffet and did what he was told.
Luce watched the woman as she kept stuffing bags with bread. The breakfast was all-you-can-eat so it was already paid for. The two of them were probably making up for the bagels they'd given Luce last night. The deal they made with him had given them double the return on such a small investment. Luce felt a bit amused.
"Why are you taking all this bread?" He asked.
"Elliot and I are gonna need it." She didn't look at him. There was a strange bashfulness to her attitude. Luce wondered if she felt ashamed of what she was doing. It didn't make much sense since the food was already paid for.
Now she had him curious. "Does it have something to do with the ferry you talked about last night?"
She paused. Then she nodded.
"You mind if I ask where you are headed?"
"C3."
Luce was surprised. "You are going back to a sectorized state?"
She stopped what she was doing. Her eyes found Elliot who was still by the buffet--now filling a second plate with cookies. "We can't afford living here anymore," she said. "The sectors have the virus and the infected and everything but at least we won't have to worry about the rent or electricity."
"Was your brother an operative?" Luce asked.
She nodded. "He died three months ago, just before the weird rain thing happened. The Operative Livelihood Services did what they are supposed to do and sent Elliot and I to this unsectorized city. It was all going good while we were receiving weekly cheques from the O.L.S and I was working as a waitress. But then..." she trailed off.
Luce waited patiently for her to continue.
"Then the restaurant I was working at went deep in debt and closed down. Elliot and I had to cut costs but things got worse when even the O.L.S cheques stopped coming."
Luce frowned. "Why did that happen?"
She shook her head. "When I filled a form for inquiry, all the answer I got was that some recent accident in one of the sectors had put a strain on the government's budget."
Eilliot came back with the plates of bread and cookies.
"Will the kid be safe in the sectors?" Luce said.
The woman swallowed hard. She handed Eilliot his glass of juice. "Go and get yourself more orange juice. You know what? Fill my glass too."
The boy pouted and left the table again.
The woman turned to Luce and leaned ahead with a desperate look on her face. "What else am I even supposed to do?" she said. "I was still in high school when the war began. All the schools and colleges in C3 closed down because of the constant bombings. I was barely twenty years old when I gave birth to Eilliot. Now with the O.L.S retracting their benefits, businesses going bankrupt and my lack of education, no one would hire me. And I have a child to feed!" She gripped the edge of the table as she leaned ahead.
After a moment, she leaned back in her chair and buried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean to rant like that."
"It's okay." Luce pushed a glass of water towards her. She nodded in thanks and took a sip.
Elliot came back with the juice.
Luce stared at two of them, then at his plate of half-eaten breakfast. He realized he wasn't hungry anymore. He looked back at the woman. "I never asked you your name."
The woman chuckled. "I-I forgot to ask for yours too." She ran a hand through her hair and cleared her throat. "I am Wendy. Wendy Marllowe."
"Marllowe?"
Wendy nodded. "And this is my son, Elliot Marllowe."
Elliot said hi.
Wendy and Elliot. Her brother was an operative who died just before the rains in sector 21. Just before Last Hand reappeared and stole away the special grade truck. Lady Luck is back at her jokes again.
"Um, I still didn't get your name," Wendy said.
Luce shook his head. And before he could say anything, his phone rang. It was Tracy. "Excuse me," he said and got up to attend the call. "Tracy, what did you find?" he said after stepping aside.
"I can't believe my eyes! It's not a sector at all. It's like a city. A city with people, electricity, running water and no infected! They don't even call it a sector anymore. They call it by the name it had before the bombings. Mathesdale!"
"Tracy, what did you find about Erik Koehlwin?"
"Right, right. Sorry. He is here. Him and his sister were the ones who turned this sector into what it is right now. I still can't believe what I just saw."
#
The man never came back. He excused himself to attend the call and just disappeared. Wendy felt the slightest sting of betrayal only to scoff a moment later. You can't get betrayed from a stranger, she thought, not like he owed me anything anyway.
She looked at the shopping bag that was filled with all the bread and cookies that would easily last the two of them a good two weeks. She checked time on her wrist watch. Half past eight.
"Let's go, Elliot. We have to get on the ferry," she said.
The mother and son went up to their room to retrieve their bags. As Wendy unlocked the door and walked inside, her eyes happened on something that she couldn't believe in.
On the floor, a couple of feet away from the door, lay a bundle of cash wrapped in a paper napkin. Twelve thousand kervers. And there was no note with the money.
(to be continued...)