Dani Steele

dani-steele:

“Yeah, obviously I couldn’t give any sort of indication of that when we were walking,” I admitted, giving Rachel a sheepish smile. 

“Ahhhhh right, of course. I’m happy to help any way that I can - even if it’s doing a crap-tonne of paperwork,” I said pleasantly. I was well aware Dalton wouldn’t want me going out on missions with Cadenza, but I wasn’t angling for such a responsibility anyway. Paperwork was dull but it suited me just fine.

“All in all, things are improving. Things are looking up though,” I summed up, feeling rather hopeful about the future in general. “We can do this.”

“That sounds ideal,” Dalton responded, giving a smile to Danielle as he sat down next to her. “Indeed, it appears to be so. We will continue to go on, despite the pitfalls and obstacles that come our way. After all, there is a certain level of triumph that can only be gained after trials of hardship. Regardless of how many times we fall – it is in the act rising that we are defined.”

And they would continue to rise. In that, Dalton was certain – he would do all in his power to make that a reality. They would rise to greatness, and all would be witness to it. Looking at Danielle, he could see the familiar Soul Voice pulsing with hope, and after such a long time, beyond any reasonable doubt –

“Indeed – I have yet to hear from her, but I am optimistic.” Dalton was certain that Vanessa would cross paths with Paris at some point in the day, given how much work she was likely doing with the Sharps.

“Ah yes,” he began, turning to Rachel. “Bartolo has pulled Paris from our group as a consequence of our rejection. However, Paris expressed that he wished to help serve our group still despite going against his father’s orders. So we decided that he would be a spy for us among the Sharps. While he is unable to maintain contact with us, he can still pass on information through Joreth.”

Rachel grinned, “That’s fantastic news! I was worried that we would be without anyone left within the Sharps.” That was much more than what she could have hoped. ‘I did not anticipate Paris to go against his father – I suppose it was the last straw…’

“Yea, we are lucky that Paris is on our side,” Brian added, his mood somewhat improved than before. “The real work is doing our job – making sure the Sharps don’t screw the rest of us over by Dome Fall. With Paris among the Sharps we can start collecting the information we need to figure out what the state of things is, now that the Understudy is gone. We will need to police those who are putting us all at risk because they jumped ahead.”

“Yeah, obviously I couldn’t give any sort of indication of that when we were walking,” I admitted, giving Rachel a sheepish smile. 

“Ahhhhh right, of course. I’m happy to help any way that I can - even if it’s doing a crap-tonne of paperwork,” I said pleasantly. I was well aware Dalton wouldn’t want me going out on missions with Cadenza, but I wasn’t angling for such a responsibility anyway. Paperwork was dull but it suited me just fine.

Dalton beamed, “It most definitely worked out. Once I explained our situation and the position we were in he was more than happy to help towards our financial security. Now, all we need is for the Trabens to do their part and we should be back on our feet.”

Brian sunk back in his chair with relief. Despite the Rangos jumping the gun on them, they had managed to dig themselves out of the hole the slimy group had left. “Fucking thank god for that! Now we can actually get onto some real work!”

“Brilliant! That’s so good to hear. We’ll have to talk to Joreth as soon as possible,” I enthused. 

“It’s a way to take on a family name – meaning you get their reputation without doing anything. It’s not something that often happens, but it is done.”

Brian couldn’t help but smile at her response, despite her distraught. “Na, you would still stay here and be your own person – it just means you would be connected to them. Anyway, it’s a damn lot of work so I doubt you’ld be put through it unless it was necessary – and Dalton is pretty keen to keep you out of the public eye.”

As if summoned, the door to the room opened as Dalton entered the room. “We now have ourselves funding.”

At Brian’s explanation I dialled back my nerves a fraction. Even if it happened I could still be here, which was a relief, though I couldn’t see Dalton wanting me to be out there. 

“Right, right. Yeah, I can understand that. I still wouldn’t really want to but if it was the only option...” I trailed off.

My eyes lit up as Dalton came through the door, and I grinned as he gave the news. I’d done good. I’d succeeded.

“No problem. I knew we were in trouble as soon as he stepped out with you, so I interceded as soon as I could.”

Entering one of the few empty rooms, he sat down on a seat as he continued. “Yea, we are gonna have to really sort you out something. Maybe even put you in a real family if we have to, although we would have to really be careful about that.”

“That’s something we can do?” Rachel asked, sceptically.

“It is a possibility, so long as we do it in a way that the family wants to adopt her. Would take a lot of work though – would be a long time before that could come into fruition.”

“Bloody hell, seriously? I’m an adult though who would want to adopt an adult? How would that even work?” I asked, bewildered and somewhat frightened by the idea. 

“Oh good, I was concerned that you might have assumed he was the wrong guy and said something off.” Brian had not been able to hear their conversation, and although he trusted that she had done her best he wanted to make sure that she wasn’t the reason Dorvil had decided to make his move. “No, that sounds reasonable. Sharps do talk like that, although he was probably surprised by it because he didn’t know who you were. I doubt that would have been something that would have fully swayed his mind to helping us out. He is not a man of whims.”

“Yeah, I was scared I’d assume wrong too - hence why I didn’t say anything until I was sure.” 

Breathing a sigh of relief, I relaxed a little. I’d done the right thing.

“Exactly,” Brian concurred. “Yea, he was really trying to weed out some information about you when I was escorting him. I just played dumb for a while, said you were new to the team. Come, let’s go inside for now. We can use the other door and just wait around in one of the other rooms.” He lead the way, looking to Danielle as he began to walk. “So did Dorvil decide to come as soon as he read the letter? Or was it something you said?” he asked, wanting to get a better picture.

I frowned, nervous at the thought of him trying to get information on me. That level of curiosity was probably not ideal - unless Dalton talked about me to assuage it, he might go searching.

“Not.... not immediately, but I can’t think of what I said which would have changed his mind,” I said, still frowning as I trotted along beside him. “I nearly had a bloody heart attack when he started opening the letter, and only introduced himself after he’d read it. I couldn’t help myself, I was kinda... cheeky - saying that I knew it was him, or I wouldn’t have let him open the letter in the first place. That got a laugh... and then he decided.”

Brian spotted the two approaching, feeling relieved as he walked to meet with them. “Thank you for doing this Rach – we were in a real tight position. Hope the walk wasn’t too bad.”

“No problem,” Rachel responded with a small smile. “I figured it was probably something important. Besides, we had a good catch up eh?” she spoke, looking at Danielle before turning back to Brian. “Is there a reason you’re outside besides waiting for us? Did the escort work out well?”

Brian nodded, “Yea, he made it here just fine - he’s been in there discussing with Dalton now. Dalton wanted me to stay out here to meet with you two, just to make sure that Dorvil didn’t get a chance to meet Danielle unprepared.”

I smiled at the approaching Brian, glad to feel the relief in his Soul Voice. It meant that he’d probably just been concerned about us rather than being the bearer of bad news.

“We had a good talk, yeah,” I agreed with Rachel. “Glad that he’s here and talking with Dalton though. We’re due for some luck.” 

“Oh right. That makes sense.” After all, if they had so much water then why not put it into good use?

Rachel nodded, “Ah yup, so it would be really common then. And that’s very true – if it works well for them, then that’s all that matters.” After all, they were unable to have trains so such an alternative was not unimaginable – now that Rachel thought about it some more.

‘I guess it’s just how people utilise the environment around them,’ she summised in her mind.

Continuing on, it wasn’t too long before the facility was finally within view. She squinted slightly to make out the figure in front of it, before noticing the Soul Voice. “It looks like Brian’s there out front – probably looking out for us.”

Seeing the Facility appear in my sight was far more calming than I really expected. It felt like safety, like stability and security.... almost like I was going home. 

I frowned as Rachel mentioned Brian was waiting, instantly beginning to get worried about what that might mean. ‘Did I mess up? Did Dorvil storm off? Did something happen?’

“How odd! Must be strange having the waters be such an integral part of the city. Are the waters very deep?” Briefly Rachel wondered whether one could be caught underneath the city itself, the thought somewhat horrifying.

“That definitely makes for a unique place, especially with such tiny boats! They would need a lot of those, right? For so many people?” She couldn’t imagine a boat that size to carry more than about four people at most.

“It’s definitely intriguing. I don’t think the water is too deep - it’s all canals rather than any natural waterways so probably a couple of metres or so, but I’m not sure. I believe an adult would be unlikely to drown, but you still wouldn’t want to fall in. The water isn’t exactly clean, though it’s undoubtedly better than before sewerage systems were invented,” I said, shuddering at the idea of anyone falling into a canal that was essentially an open sewer itself. 

Rachel shook her head, “I can’t even begin to imagine that kind of size…Tens of millions with only small rooms to spare? They must live an entirely different kind of life.”

She nodded as Danielle continued to explain, “I see. I suppose there will always be some form of optimal route that trains can follow.” Her eyebrows rose in interest at the high water level city. “Boats? That’s surprising – would that be dangerous? Or is it a big kind of boat?” She couldn’t imagine how small boats would help speed things up at least, unless it was impossible to get to the destination without it.

“I know, it’s ridiculous and widely considered pretty unhealthy to live like that. But people do. Sometimes for their whole lives,” I added. 

I smiled at the raised eyebrows, glad my description of Venice sparked her interest. 

“The main road is much longer – going by the main road would take at least an hour, if not longer. From where we are now, taking this shortcut will mean we will get there in about twenty minutes. So yea, about right!” She smiled at Danielle’s praise for the city, “It functions very well – I can’t imagine how other cities can cope with a different layout. It must be hard to locate places, not to mention making travel difficult. Our trains pretty much depend on the circularity of it to be efficient.” She had seen pictures of other cities – it all looked just too chaotic to be able to get around. “How big can they get? Would you consider this one to be fairly large?”

I smiled and nodded, glad that I guessed right. It gave me a better idea of distance - and I estimated it at a couple of kilometres in a straight line. 

“It’s pretty decent, yeah,” I said generously. “But there are some with millions of people. And not just one or two million. But tens of millions. They are immense, and terrifying in their scale. Huge high rise buildings, tall as the Dome, with people crammed into apartments barely bigger than my room. And that’s their entire home - often shared with a spouse, or maybe even kids.”

“We’re about two sectors from where the facility is. Right now we are on the east side of the pillars, and we are moving north-west. Continuing on the main road, the circular one, would have taken hours, so we are going in a more direct path towards the facility. Road-wise, it is not as straight-forward.” Rachel wished she could have drawn it for her, but she figured Danielle would have likely seen a map by now so would hopefully have an idea on what she was saying. “You can usually tell what the edge of a section is by how big the roads are in comparison. The big ones determine the edge of the sector.”

I nodded as Rachel spoke, trying to visualise it in my head and not having much luck. However, I figured I could look at maps later and figure things out a bit better from there.

“That makes sense. Going in a straight-ish line is gonna be faster than a curve for sure,” I agreed. “I don’t really have a great handle on distance, but I think I have a bit of an idea. We’ll be... another half hour or so? Twenty minutes? Or would that be following the main road?” 

“Even worse is they know that their decisions affect people’s lives, but they just don’t care.” Because of course they believed those who fell did not matter – despite the obvious truth that those are the very people who keep everything up by their support.

“Yea – the Dorvils were the ones with… different connections,” she spoke, wary that they were in public. “If we gain them then there might be a possibility to assuage him a little – but Sharps do not deal with rejections lightly. I doubt we will ever get Paris back without a full submission.”

She sighed, stretching slightly to ease her frustration, “We will just have to keep moving forward. Dalton likely has a contingency plan – I wouldn’t be surprised if he had seen this move coming. His awareness on such things is usually spot on. The Dorvils in any case will be really useful.”

“That’s probably the case yeah,” I nodded. I noticed and easily accepted her wariness - choosing to say no more on the Dorvils. No need for things to become even less steady because of a careless comment made in the streets.

“It wouldn’t surprise me, in the slightest,” I agreed. “I’m sure we can talk to him about things when we get back.”