Night 73: M-A Block Hallway

[freewill]

[From here.]

At this point, the walk from his room to the meeting point that he'd set up with Kratos and Lloyd had become tedious. That didn't stop Castiel from being cautious, something that was ingrained in him from years of acting as a soldier and nothing else.

He scanned the hall with his flashlight and determined it was clear before crossing it to the door that would lead him out of the block. From there, it was a quick right.

[To here.]

Comments

[idolism]

Aidou's eyes narrowed. Could it be? Had Sasuke gotten a copy of the same note?

"What did yours say, precisely? I still can't say what the device is--I haven't yet come across anyone who seems to have more information than these vague tidings--but it's too be brought to Landel's front door, the implication would seem to be the third floor."

The boy's assumption was a fair one--if the radio group was making a move, perhaps it was possible they were circling in on the building's defenses. But they still knew nothing of the suppose device, especially where it might be. Perhaps this was the initial delivery, but even that theory lacked weight without the facts to support.

"None of that really matters if no one has a clue where to find the radio people's gift and what to do with it. Even their nightly riddles offered to go on than this."

[firewhichrefines]

"That's all it said -- stop Landel with this device once it's delivered. Nothing on when or where it might be delivered," which was about as helpful as the radio people had ever been through the weeks he'd been here, but a tangible break in the security system was new. The man had sounded panicked on the intercom.

"If someone else got more specific information, it's possible they'll bring the device to Landel themselves." Piggybacking on the off-chance that someone else had received more information was something less than his favourite way to go about it, but between trying to find out what exactly was going on here and continuing to chip away at the frustration of the basement ... neither were ideal choices, but one was at least action.

[idolism]

"Do you have it on you? I want to see it."

Not for any doubt toward Sasuke, or any hope that seeing the note in all its glory might magically make a new clue fall from the sky, but because thoroughness was an old habit, one that had gotten him past more than one obstacle. Even if the scales were stacked so far out of his favor that he no longer took comfort in sheer cleverness to get him out of this problem.

He resisted a sigh, gaze wandering back to the intercom system. Absolutely everything about the rebels' plotting smelled rotten, but then, what didn't in the Institute? Everything was rigged, everything a matter of sleight of hand. Regardless of whether or not the notes were sincere, they were being used as pawns--blind pawns, without the right information necessary to pick their battles.

Annoying.

"At any rate, we are not those people," he said. "Yet it would seem this is all nonetheless connected to the mysterious third floor. What say you, shall we head that way?"

[firewhichrefines]

Sasuke had been close to not bringing the note -- if not for the unexpected confluence with Landel's broadcast, Sasuke would have been in full support of continuing their attempt through the basement, however grueling -- but the awareness of how infrequently he seemed to manage to stay awake during the day had spoken to prudence. Still, he raised an eyebrow at the request even as he fished the slip of paper out of his pocket and held it out.

"Do you believe you'll see something else in it? They're doubtless spreading their information thin in case one of their recipients is compromised.

"It's clear enough we're being played as pieces in a larger game." A sensation he'd grown both accustomed to and distasteful of over time. He turned toward the next hall even as Aidou arrived to their shared conclusion, that sense of urgency that came with nightfall rising at the awareness of how empty it was already.

"This way we'll at least run the chance of learning something more."

[idolism]

"Oh, come now," Aidou replied with mock sincerity as he took the note, "what's the point of living if you can't memorize morsels of information that may never amount to anything? You never studied very hard in your classes, did you?"

Honestly, though, he didn't. Yet maybe there was something in the word choice...

In a manner of seconds, Aidou had scanned the note, a task made far easier when he possessed eyes suited for reading in the dark. He handed it back with a frown.

"Well, you certainly won't hear me arguing about being pawns, though the amount of useful facts they're dispersing isn't even enough to organize pawns in a collected manner. But if we're agreed, then perhaps we can use this "something more" to connect the dots for ourselves. In the end, it may have something to do with the caverns, after all."

[firewhichrefines]

Sasuke had studied hard for the classes that mattered and largely ignored the ones that hadn't; there was no point getting lost in details when what was and wasn't of practical use was so plainly apparent. Things were a little less cut-and-dry in Landel, to be fair, but Sasuke still allowed himself a half-second of satisfaction when Aidou turned the note back over with no apparent further flash of insight.

It was drowned quickly enough by disappointment at the lack of one: at this point in the game, it would have been more than easy to sacrifice a bit of pride in exchange for meaningful information.

Landel would want a great more than that before any kind of answers were shared, though.

"Even if they know more than they're sharing, it hasn't seemed likely thus far that they know as much as they imply they do." It was less a complaint and more irritation voiced -- Sasuke had no faith in these people who called themselves rebels in any case, but if they wanted help bringing the Institute down they could at the least have been more effective about it.

Still, disruption of whatever Landel's nighttime security fully entailed was better than nothing. Sasuke moved even as Aidou drew the obvious conclusion, turning toward the more substantiated rumours of a secret third-floor secret.

"Whatever it is, it's more than nothing."

[to here]