Katherine, you lying bitch. So much for staying on campus—we spent all of five minutes hanging around the Guardian whatever building before making our exodus. I would have been seething if I wasn't secretly happy about it.
Sitting around with my former—albeit short lived—teammates pretending to study or whatever would have been hellish. Leaving campus to go screw around was much more tolerable, and it would take way less mental effort for me to blend in, reintegrate into the group, and maybe even have a little fun.
I still think Katherine is up to something, though.
After spending almost an hour getting lunch, we ended up at the docks where I used to have my boat. I had to text Cassandra several times to let her know what was going on and that I was okay—and also that I was on duty, doing my promised job of spying on Katherine.
My mind wasn't focused on that, though. This bitch seriously stole my boat?
Kevin—or Wizard Boy, as I still liked to think of him—was the one pushing the idea of going boating. Chloe, Maria, and even Laurence were all happy enough to go along, though—leaving me and Katherine as the only hesitant ones.
It wasn't hard to guess why Katherine wasn't keen on the idea. Bitch stole my boat. That honestly pissed me off. Losing the boat stung harder than absolutely trashing my car not that long ago. The guy who caused me to lose control and send myself, along with a few thousand pounds of steel and carbon fiber careening into the Pacific, was already dead.
Ah, Bungie Guy. The memory of me freaking out, instinctively hitting him, and then watching him tumble off the cliff was kind of nostalgic. I mean it sucked at the time, but—looking back on it was a weird experience.
I remembered thinking about stealing his car and going on the run, only to realize I would only be making things worse that way. Wow. I got away with murder, but not with stealing a Goddamn cat.
And then there was the time where someone—well, the specifics were still a bit of a mystery—got the AAG on my ass. You know—the more I looked back on all the crazy shit I'd been through in the past several weeks, the more I got pissed about the direction my eventual mania took me.
I survived another kidnapping, an incursion, cultists, insane Star Guardians, an entire Guardian team on my ass, murder, powerful Anathema, the AAG, crime syndicate goons…
"Vonnie? Are you okay?"
I blinked. Katherine was staring at me, and I realized I'd zoned out of my surroundings. "I'm fine." I gestured at the boat—my boat. "You have a boat?"
It was subtle, but I saw Katherine cringe at the question as she hastily turned to face the boat—the boat that Kevin had now boarded and was getting ready to set sail. No, wait. It wasn't a sailboat, it was one with a spinny motor on the back. Fuck. What's the equivalent of 'set sail' for boats that don't have a sail?
"It's really Mr. Huntingfield's," Katherine said. "But he's okay with us using it."
"Huntingfield?"
Now that it came up, I realized Katherine hadn't told me anything about David yet. Or rather, she hadn't told Vonnie. Interesting.
"David Huntingfield," Maria explained before Katherine got a chance to properly answer. "CEO of Vanguard. You know, the big defense contractor? A lot of engineering students end up there, but Kat here managed to lock in some particularly good networking."
"They blow people up," Kevin said, a big smile on his face. "...And also Anathema, I guess. It's actually really funny. There are all these student protests against like genocide and other bad stuff, but then you look at a list of companies where students get technical internships and Vanguard is literally at the top."
"Duality of man," Laurence muttered.
"The Jungian thing?" Chloe asked, her head popping up over the railing of the boat. She was the last one to climb aboard, and with how uniquely short she was, I suspected she might have to resort to using her power.
Meanwhile, Maria and Katherine looked confused, and Kevin chuckled. "Nice."
"I know what Vanguard is," I said, perhaps a bit too testily. Not because I was David's adopted daughter, but rather in accordance with my persona. Vonnie wasn't stupid, and she knew what Vanguard was. "I don't think most people know the name of their CEO, though."
I was pretty sure that was the case. It seemed to me like most large, well-known companies didn't have well-known leadership. Executives with widespread name recognition were more of the exception.
"Yeah, well, he's basically Katherine's stepdad now, which is neat, because I get an awesome boat out of it! It's basically mine now." He drummed his fingers along the rim, the rim of my boat—it's just called a rim, right? Please tell me there's not some obscure boating term for it. "God, I bet Alex would be fucking pissed."
It was amusing watching everyone's reactions to that last part. Katherine flinched. Maria and Chloe suddenly looked uncertain and awkward, and Laurence frowned. As for myself, I had to consciously make sure I didn't start grinning like a maniacal idiot.
You're right. I am pissed—wait. This kind of thing is called dramatic irony, isn't it? I loved moments like this in books or films or whatever. You know, when one character draws attention directly to something that they don't know the related truth about, but another character and the audience do…
…Actually, no. I think sometimes the audience is the only party that knows. I frowned. But am I the audience here, or am I the main character?
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I couldn't decide which option would be better.
"Don't say that, man," Laurence admonished. "Not cool."
Returning my full attention to the conversation, I found myself uncertain as to how I should proceed. Do I question what just happened, or do I 'read the room' and just keep quiet until everyone moves on?
Actually, there's another option. I could not only read the room, but be the one to move things along to a different subject. There was nuance there—but I didn't consider it in detail any further. Instinct told me it was the correct choice.
"So you're into boating and stuff?" I asked Kevin.
"Yeah."
Chloe snorted. Both Kevin and I glanced at his cousin. "What?"
"He used to just share those dumb fishing memes on his socials," Chloe explained, using more words than usual but still speaking softly. "But then he decided to make it his entire personality like a week ago once we started using A—Katherine's boat."
"Oh come on," Kevin complained as he started the process of undocking the boat and getting everything else started, "It's been way more than a week. And it's not even like that was the first time I drove a boat or something."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh."
I was content to let the cousins bicker as Kevin guided us into open water. I do miss this. My original reason for buying a boat was to use it as a convenient way to get food from the ocean to alleviate the constant rise of hunger.
It worked super well, actually, and I still thought it was a good idea. Only two things so far had worked out better—chewing my way through an incursion and hopping to an alternate reality with much higher anima saturation.
As of right now, both of those came with a whole heap of other issues and complications. Wandering around on the seabed as a giant dragon and gobbling up any marine life I came across remained a simple and effective solution.
I should really find a way to keep doing this. The Bouquet could probably work out something. At worst, I'd just convince them to buy me another boat.
I kind of wondered how they'd all react if I randomly jumped over the side of the boat. Not that I would. So far, I suspected that the only one to suspect anything of me was Katherine, and while I was completely convinced by this point that she did have suspicions about me, I still didn't know what kind.
My biggest fear at this moment was that I would run out of masking elixirs or even have to eat another one at an inconvenient time. They didn't last that long, and since I'd been out with people ever since arriving to my first class earlier in the morning, I only had one left.
It would be about twenty minutes before I absolutely needed to use it if I was still in Katherine's presence. And after that, I would have just about two hours before the clock expired.
Should have brought more. I started with six of them but hadn't replaced any after my first day of classes.
We were still close to the shore when something brushed at the edges of my senses. I instinctively flicked out my tongue to taste the air and immediately regretted it. Fuck, did anyone notice?
That was not a good habit to have for keeping my identities separate. That being said, I don't think anyone was looking—and my unfortunate reflex informed me that my senses weren't jumping at nothing and that I wasn't imagining things.
There was a Tier 3 Guardian approaching.
He felt like a strong one. My first instinct after that was to turn around and get a good look at him—I could tell that he was approaching generally from behind us—but I clamped down on it just after I started moving.
If I just randomly turn around and end up being the first one to spot the approaching Guardian—I mean that's kind of suspicious, right? It would definitely be suspicious to Katherine, who probably reacted a little bit before I did.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she seemed to be concentrating hard, and—seriously? Are you also pretending not to notice?
Fortunately, his approach didn't end up being particularly subtle. It wasn't just my esoteric senses that detected him—there was also a distinctive rhythm to his approach. I wasn't sure how to describe the sound beyond it being repetitive and unnatural—I suppose it could be described as twangy and metallic, yet also thumpy and somehow deeply, viscerally wet sounding.
It was very—drippy. Like someone dropping wet springs into a shallow puddle, but without the splash.
It was not at all the kind of sound I wanted to hear when I knew there was a Guardian strong enough to give me trouble approaching from behind. For perhaps the first time in my entire life, I felt like I deeply and truly understood the feeling of cosmic horror.
I have no Goddamn idea what kind of, uh, anything could be producing a sound like that—but I somehow also know that I absolutely don't like the idea of being on the wrong end of finding out.
Finally, everyone in the boat had realized something odd was happening, and I got my first proper look at the likely herald of near-future troubles.
Wait, what?
He was a surfer. I still had no idea what could be making the sound, but there was no doubt that it was accompanying his arrival. Nothing about his appearance signalled that he was a Guardian, but everything about it quintessentially 'surfer dude.'
Blonde, tanned, and fit, with sunglasses, swim shorts, and some distant cousin of the bandana that had since adapted to the aquatic environment—Christ. He could be on TV doing beach tourism advertisements.
There was little doubt that he was the Guardian I tasted, though. The way he was steadily surfing along a perpetual wave—a wave that was several feet higher than any of the others—and one that was moving away from the shore—and at a speed close to forty miles per hour—there was nothing natural about that.
We all just stared at him, except for Kevin, who only mostly just stared at him, on account of still being occupied with driving the boat.
I decided to call him Surfer Dude. But honestly, what else could I possibly call him?
Surfer Dude suddenly swerved closer to us, bringing his board right up to the edge of the boat and out of our own wake. I noticed that the board was an eye-catching pastel pink. Neat.
We all just continued to stare—and then Surfer Dude made his move, leaping into the air, grabbing his board, and landing perched atop my side of the boat. He ended up dripping water on me, an offense that came close to sending me into an incoherent rage that would end with his head being ripped off.
With my firm and well-practiced self control, though, I was able to contain my instinctual anger.
"Shit," Maria finally exclaimed, followed by a demand. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Hi." Surfer Dude Tucked his board under one arm. "Don't worry, I'm just your friendly neighborhood surfer dude."
Everyone stared. Kevin, for some reason, didn't even bother to slow the boat.
Surfer Dude cleared his throat. "I'm a Guardian. My Guardian alias is Surfer Dude."
I felt one of my eyes twitch. Oh come on. You can't be serious.
"Why—" Maria started to ask, but Surfer Dude cut her off.
"An Anathema has been preying on these waters," he stated. "That's unusual, but what's even stranger—it wasn't coming and going from the shore." Beneath his shades, his eyes raked across all of us. "It was using a boat."
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