Loose Ends

An unseen hand clicks open the door. Kit slips through the crack into the next room.

Kit clears the room and slinks into a stairwell. The floor here is some form of fancy rubber, with weird raised circles that make walking on it an irritation for Kit's paws. The stairs are made in the same stuff, and they go up one way and then curve back to continue going up with a door to the second floor right above the first floor doorway. The watcher spirit waves Kit in. "e's 'n dis fl'r."

Kit ignores the discomfort and makes his way up the stairway. He turns to the watcher. "Well? Where on this floor is he?"
His ears perk up, listening for anyone who might be approaching.

A confused glance meets Kit's question as the watcher responds hesitantly. "e's 'n 'ere, 'm t'k'n y' t' 'im now!" The spirit then darts through the door to the second floor without a second look. How typical...

Fortunately Kit can't hear anything from the other side. That might be because the door is thick, with very little of a gap to hear through, but it still sounds all clear.

Kit pauses. It really was an awfully thick door. "Scald? Is anyone approaching on the other side of that door?"

A boiling astral form seethes through. A voice of hissing steam. "nO oNE ComEs bUt A fOOl sTanDS neAr! DoN't go tHROuGH jUsT YEt. ShaLL I rEMoVe tHe prOBlEm?"
A silent curse. "I knew things were going too smoothly. Hmm...very well Scald. One Accident, please, but do not cause the individual serious harm. Something just enough to get the person away from the door will suffice."

Like sizzling laughter came the reply. "yoU wORRy tOo MuCH!" And then, still cackling, Scald disappeared through the door. A painful five seconds passed in awkward silence before a confused voice spoke up from the other side of the door, obviously annoyed. "Aw, come on! I just charged- no way the batteries can be dead- better not have lost all my work, damnit!" Angry footsteps storm off and then Scald returns through the door. "YoUr pATh Is cLeAR, lItTle HUnTEr."

"Haha!" A triumphant laugh. "Indeed I do, Scald. You're right: I should have more faith."
The door cracks open. Kit slips through.

Kit finds himself on the second floor, which is much more open than the first. A conference table is in the middle with a chair scooted out of place. A round table in the corner is presumably designed for lounging, and there are two vending machines with a variety of soy snacks and drinks in the corner to the left. On the right wall there are three offices, and he can hear an angry voice yelling at someone from inside the closest one.

"Why did I lose all my information?" A pause. "I know the power went off, what're you going to do about it?!" Another pause, this one with furious sputtering. "You can't just tell me not to lose power, I already did! Now fix it!"

The watcher dances over to the second door and jerks a thumb inside. "e's 'n 'ere, boss. I t'ld y' I c'ld f'nd 'm f'r y'!"

Kit turns to look at the watcher. "Is there anyone in there with him?"

In response, the watcher spirit shook its head vehemently. "N'body's 'n there b't 'im, 'll by 'is l'nesome!" The little spirit thought for a moment to determine what else its master might want to know. "'e's s'tt'n 't a desk, doin' w'rk."

The indicated office is quiet in comparison with the outrage coming from the slightly ajar door. "Yes! Yes I do want a guaren- ... no, that's not good enough! Look, I need to get this done right now, waiting until it crashes in the future doesn't help!" There's a loud crash like something toppling off a desk, or being shoved. "Well send me some more power then! A new battery, something! I don't care, just do your job!"

An invisible hand gently closes the door to the stairwell as Kit pads over to the door to the second office. The door opens slightly. Kit slips in. The door closes.

"Hmm? Who's theeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrreeeeee-" the man's voice trails off. He sits behind a desk, posture relaxed gaze staring blankly ahead. The man looks very official up close, but it is definitely the same person Kit spotted not so long ago outside. He has on a stylish button-up shirt, obviously expensive though not particularly prestigious. He has on a pair of glasses and the familiar flashing lights of an AR display can be seen shimmering in front of his eyes.

His desk is cluttered with papers and a large holo display takes up the corner closest to the wall, its three dimensional projected image taking the form of an aquarium as various types of exotic fish wiggle through the bubbling air. On the other side of the desk there are two comfortable-looking chairs and another fake plant in the corner.

A mental command. "As you were. You may speak freely, but keep your voice down and do not attempt to communicate to anyone but me. I apologize for the intrusion into your place of work, but I am afraid I must speak with you regarding a most urgent matter." The cat hops onto the desk and stares unblinkingly at the man. The words soften, no longer commanding him, merely speaking, albeit with a mental voice. "Now, a question. What is your name? I cannot continue to call you 'the angry man from the pier', after all."

The man immediately leans forward, shoulders raising again as he glances back down at his glasses. "Right, sorry abo-" his voice drops in volume to a mere whisper. "-ut that, I'm-" Then he fell silent altogether, looking past his AR display at the cat standing on his desk. His face registers no obvious emotion, no outrage or confusion at the cat's presence, and he responds cordially. "My name is Hugh Alphonse Jackson."

"Ah, you are in the middle of a conversation," the voice becomes commanding again. "Please quickly wrap up your conversation. I leave the reasons and methods up to you, but do it in a way that elicits no suspicion and does not betray my presence."

"Ahem, excuse me. Y- ... yes, I know you're aware who I am. My apologies. Something has come up, I'm going to have to call you back. N- no, no Susie isn't in here," he chuckles easily for a moment and shakes his head. "I'll have to get back to that later on, and believe me, whenever it is, it won't be long enough. Yeah, you know it." Then he straightens up, his smile fading. "Alright, so here's what we'll do. Go ahead and get the reports compiled according to the new format like we discussed and send them to my home commcode, I'll review them there. You have access to... the... company's? Right, good. Okay then, thank you. Yes, you too."

The flashing lights on the Jackson's glasses dim significantly, and cease their movement before he pulls them off and places them on his desk, taking a moment to rub his eyes and temple with his hands. "Alright, what can I do for you?"

The voice, honey-sweet and smooth as silk. "You were angrily watching a man at the pier this afternoon at one o'clock and you did so with a heart full of rage. Why? Who is that man, that he would warrant such...unfriendly attention?"

"No man warranted any such anger... I don't know what you're talking about. This afternoon I was... I received a call. I went outside to take it. My..." he sighed and sat back, once more rubbing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "My fiancée informed me... well, she's been having second thoughts. She just informed me that she's calling off the wedding. And why, you might ask? She's found somebody else!" His brow furrowed and his breaths began to come in ragged pants. "And not just anybody, her Aikido instructor! That little... bastard! I'm the one who enrolled her in that class in the first place!" A loud slam! echoed in the room as he smashed a fist into the desk, his face turning red. "That ungrateful- how could she after- and with that goddamn punk! I- I-!" He laid his head down on the desk with an unsettling crunch!, arms knocking a stack of papers off the desk, spilling messily all over the office floor. "Oh-h-h goddd... I should have just taken the day off!"

"Hey, hey Mr. Jackson, you alright?" The muffled voice came in through the hall, drawing louder.

A new voice whispered into Kit's ear, sounding for all the world like the random sounds of an avalanche on a rocky cliff. "the man from before treads this way." A second voice, hissing and laden with rage as Smolder spoke up, "i CAn tAKE cARe oF ThiS wOrM For yoU, oNCE AnD fOR ALl!"

"No. We are done here." Kit makes a frustrated sound and hops under the desk. "Mr. Jackson, I was never here. Behave accordingly."

The spirits- mostly Smolder- grudgingly complied, staying silent as they hid with their master. For his part, Jackson managed to pull himself together, stifling back a few hard sobs. Once more the other man called out, this time accompanied by a knock at the door, "Mr. Jackson?"

"I'm fine, Henry. Just had a long day," he assured the man through the door, standing up and gathering the papers off the floor.

"Ah, Susanne, sir?" The door opened an inch, slowly, as though testing to see what reaction the motion would elicit.

Jackson, his papers back on the desk, grabbed his glasses and a suitcase from next to the desk and opened the door the rest of the way. "I said I'm fine, Henry," his voice carried a tone of reproach, but it was tempered with a friendly smile. "I think I'm going to head out a few minutes early today, you're free to do the same if you'd like."

"Yeah... sure. Thanks, Mr. Jackson," the man looked perplexed but nodded, and walked back over to his own office and closed the door. Kit was left alone in the office as his suspect shuffled wearily towards the stairs.

"Mr. Jackson, you have forgotten your pen. You'd best come back and get it."

A mere two seconds later and the door opened up. Jackson stuck his head back in, frowning gently. He glanced around, and then walked back in. As he did, the lights gradually shifted back to their working day level, once more giving the office a relaxing luminosity that left very little in the way of harsh shadows. Jackson walked over to his desk, glancing down at the surface in confusion, but not seeing anything that could alleviate that nagging feeling that he had unfinished business in the room.

"Mr. Jackson, my presence is remembered. Now, I apologize, but I will need you to truthfully answer the following question: is everything you have told me completely accurate to the best of your knowledge?" An order, compelling. The cat emerges from under the desk.

"Hmm? Uh, yes." Mr. Jackson considered the request for a few moments before shaking his head. "Well, not entirely. It was my idea for Susanne to take up martial arts, but she decided on Aikido specifically; that wasn't my decision." He nodded confidently, glancing down at the cat. "That's the only thing I can think of. I do apologize for the confusion."

Kit was becoming increasingly frustrated. It was not in fact the wild goose chase that bothered him. Such failures happen and are unavoidable. It was the paucity of information regarding the entire affair. It was all too easy, too simple. The other shoe was going to drop somewhere, he knew it.
An irritated harumph. "Very well. That will be all, then. I leave you with this final warning: speak nothing of my presence. I was never here." Kit releases his control on the fellow, immediately beginning the process of wiping his signature from the subject's mind. Yes, best to release him here, where I can see his reaction and do something about it. Worse comes to worse, I can always just mind control him again.