Page 32A simple call

Anyway, why today is important, is because I finally had a lead on Seriph. I felt a bit lonely though. Esmeralda was gone for a week, maybe longer, as she felt like going out into the country for a bit, so I felt eager to find some other people. It wasn't easy though, it'd taken quite a bit of time. At least Tyler let me use the office computer at times. He'd told me that I was free to browse whatever and wherever I want, as it was set up fairly safely. It took me some minor getting used to though. It wasn't a standard interface.

And I found the playground.

After sneakily listening in on some of the conversation and connecting all the dots, it was a fairly simple answer. A forum.

And of course it was a very innocent forum, where people talked about random and various things. From games to philosophy, books to movies. And most of it was very innocent and random. But there, after understanding how it worked, were simple posts and responses where people asked for things. And there was someone named Seriph as well.

Very few posts and they were subtle.

Most of her posts appeared to be genuine responses to whatever people said. To me it felt like some of those posts were in code. And very simple one at that. The best kind, where you have to know what's going on otherwise it won't mean anything. Even "eating cake" can mean anything you want it to. There had to be a way to get into contact with her.

The direct approach would be too much, like sending her a private message.

No, there had to be a sneakier way. (And I'm not very good at sneaky when it doesn't imply sneaking).

First I made a new account on the forum, with a very unoriginal name: "Amie". It was kind of a simple wordplay that only those who knew me might see through. The problem was that I had no avatar, but that was something I could fix later. I wrote a message, asking if someone could help me to attain interesting new heights. If they had a challenge for me. And she responded fairly fast to it. It was almost as if she'd been waiting for me.

And today I was going to get contacted by her. At one I was supposed to be at the docks. Somehow it felt there was some symmetry in it all. It wasn't too far off from where I'd left the car. But it was probably just a good place to be. Tyler easily agreed with me leaving earlier for an evening, it mostly meant me missing out on lessons anyway as I usually had most things sorted before the store closed.

So I walked through the city, all eager, jittery and curious. Wondering what would happen there. It surprises me now that I was not at all worried, despite all the dangerous things I'd already been through. But somehow working for a female (at least I think she was) crime boss somehow felt safer. Not that I even knew if she was a crime boss but, you know. Life's a story that needs spicing up at times.

I never embellish anything without pointing it out though.

But I almost heard the echoes of my beating heart in the silence. It was nice actually, after dark, there weren't as many cars as I was used to. A phenomenon I had most appreciated. On this Friday night it was fairly quiet at the docks, though I heard some giggling from far away. It was amazing how far sound could travel over water. And there were probably couples sitting at the water's edge, being romantic.

Or at least touchy.

It was still a few minutes to one when I arrived at the dock. It was colder than I expected, with the wind coming from the sea and bringing with it interesting scents, but it was still fairly comfortable. I was a fairly patient person when I wanted to be, however I didn't have to wait long for something to happen.

A phone rang.

It was almost funny how much you can be surprised by the sudden ringing of a phone. I looked around for any other people that would have a phone ringing and, hopefully answer it. Nothing. No one.

Except a phone vaguely hidden behind a garbage can. A simple, cheap but surprisingly clean phone with an unknown number dialing it. If this was meant for me I was a little disappointed that it didn't say Seriph as the dialer. Although...

I couldn't let it ring, so I picked up. "Hello?"

It was a woman's voice. Calm and very nice. Even in those four syllables it was clear that she wasn't afraid of anything. "This is Seriph. I've been wanting to talk to you."

This page was a little less legible than usual. Forgive me for not transcribing more, but it is already too late.