Drowning Utopia

Chapter 11: Celebration

"Cheers!" Everyone involved in the heist congratulated each other over a toast of rum, the traditional celebratory beverage for the crew after a successful job. Tessa, too, raised a glass but halfheartedly. She sat in the corner, pouring over the stolen goods as Donny told the others about their part of the highest.

"So, there we were, the twin moons hanging lazily in the night sky. Obscured by the thick smogish fog..." Donny acted like a storyteller standing above a campfire, his pint in one hand and his hat in the other, "Through the tunnels and passages we went, until we popped up right underneath the school's bell tower. We wormed our way through the inner workings until we hit the top." The rouge leaped onto the table, lording over the others as he continued.

"Using Tessa's little gadget, Marcus shot the grappling hook clear across the courtyard just as the bell tolled the first of nine strikes. With the defining crack of the device all but muted by the bells, the projectile whizzed through the air until it landed on the roof below." He tossed his hat on top of Marcus's head like a ring toss game. Everyone laughed and cheered as Donny bowed.

Everyone, that is, except for Tessa. She simmered to herself, wondering how much trouble Professor Cornwall was about to be in. Had he even realized yet that his livelihood had been stolen? Would he have put two and two together? She hoped not. Tuning out Donny and his shenanigans, Tessa turned her attention back to their spoils.

She had hoped to find clarification as to what she had witnessed with Miss Briggs. However, Tessa was disappointed. If anything, the more she investigated, the more confused and bewildered she became. Picking up another case at random, she cracked it open. Inside, she found a notebook sporting the words 'Project War Wolf' stamped with an ID number below it. Just like all of the others, everything inside the booklet was useless unless she could decode whatever cipher was being used. Tessa mused at the set of vials accompanying the notebook, filled with a thick yellow substance.

I wish I knew what each of these meant, Tessa thought to herself, opening another case. 'Project Warlock' had multiple sets of smaller glass containers of purple liquid. These were accompanied by a syringe. Tessa noted that several of the vials, in this case, were missing. She supposed they had already been used. The second smaller set of vials were labeled on their side with the word mitescere. She hadn't the faintest idea what that could mean. If only I had the library's old medical textbooks, Tessa thought glumly, withdrawing one of the mitescere. Hesitating a moment, she went back and forth in her mind before settling on taking one of each from Project Warlock. After all, she reasoned, several of them have clearly been used and disposed of. Perhaps the Count would not miss one set?

"Oh, Tess, why so glum?"

Tessa looked up.

Lonny sauntered over to her and plopped down on the arm of her chare, "We just had a successful Job! Come have a drink!"

"Not now," Tessa muttered, "I want to figure out what we have first. Especially before we hand it over to the Count."

"Really? Are you thinking of skimming some off the top?" Lonny asked, sipping her beverage.

"No," Tessa shook her head, even though she had just covertly pilfered two of the beakers for her own study. "Besides, I do not enjoy the idea of celebrating the ruin of one of my old friends,"

"... and then—" Donny said with glee, "Tessa comes bursting in, catching us completely off guard just as we were getting off the rope. Might as well have had our pants down." Donny pretended to moon his enthralled audience, several loud guffaws from the more inebriated, "Lonny and I dove for cover behind the desks as Rex pulled up the rope as quickly as he could before the professor came bursting into the room."

Leaning into Tessa as to be heard over the others, Lonny asked, "So then, why are you looking over all of this?"

"Because I am concerned," Tessa admitted.

Lonny frowned, "About what?"

"What we have gotten ourselves into."

Donny concluded his story with their daring escape with the goods. But before the next performer started to tell their part, Tessa called out, "Marcus! Come here a minute."

The ringleader, who was still laughing over the story Donny delivered, pushed his way out from the others and over to Tessa, "Yes, my precious inventor, what can I do for you this fine evening?"

Tessa, still upset, huffed a small sigh before asking under her breath, "What exactly have you gotten us into?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Marcus said with a smile as he slumped into his armchair next to her, "All I know for certain is that the troop is now debt free and should get paid a nice bonus to boot because of this."

"Are you sure it is worth it?" Tessa asked.

"What do you mean?" Marcus frowned, "we have stolen far more valuable stuff than whatever this chemistry set is."

"I'm not so sure," Tessa picked up a document with 'Top Secret' stamped in bold red lettering, "This is, well, whatever this is, it's far beyond me."

"Beyond you? But you play with chemicals all the time," Lonny pointed out.

"It is a little more complicated than what I normally mess with," Tessa said, gesturing to everything, "These formulas, they could be anything. I mean, yes, I know the professor said this was for some cure for whatever Briggs is suffering through, but I have my doubts. I mean, it could be some medication. Or it could be some new weapon for all we know."

"What did you expect? We already knew that it was some secret project," Marcus shrugged.

"Yes, but what we saw with Miss Briggs," Tessa shook her head before admitting, "it has me worried. To be honest, I'm afraid this will come back to bite us."

"How so?" Marcus asked, stroking his beard.

"Look here," Tessa pointed out several leather bags, and envelopes, "What is not encoded is eclectic; warlock, wizard, siren, devil—" she slapped each of the files down on the table for emphasis, "and tucked away in each are several sets of compounds that I have only the fantast idea of what they could be."

"Do you think you could figure it out?" Lonny asked.

"With enough time, perhaps, but I'm not sure that I would want to," Tessa admitted, feeling an uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. "Whatever this is, it has been going on for a while," she pointed to a list of numbers, "spanning multiple governments and regimes, and not just Avalon or Kent. There are things here from Albion and the Missidith Loyalist movement too. The dates on these suggest that this started before even the outbreak of the Liberation Wars."

"Either way, it is not our problem," Marcus hummed. "We were hired to steal it and then to drop it off. Nothing more, nothing less. As it is, I am uncomfortable with you messing with it as you are." Marcus waved a hand, "Go ahead and put it all away."

Lonny tried to say, "But Marcus, how valuable do you think all of this is? Certainly, they wouldn't miss—

"No," Marcus said flatly. "It all goes to the Count. I'm not going to chance crossing him by trying to skim something off the top. Now put it away."

"All right," Lonny sighed, helping Tessa put the things back into their respective casings.

"So, when and where do we make the exchange?" Donny asked, stepping over with his own drink as he hovered over the table.

"Tomorrow." Marcus said, "We have a drop point that I will take it all to. Our payment, hopefully, should be there waiting for us."

"Where is the drop?" Lonny inquired.

"At a nearby theater. The Backlot." Marcus explained, "We have a crate that we are to deliver the goods in."

"You don't say," Lonny said, sitting up with enthusiasm, "Well, might as well go and catch a show while we are there. After all, we did get our little job done. Now it's time for some fun."