Old Porters: Burning Eden

Chapter Nine

If Roger had asked himself how he felt, he would have answered with the word frustrated. When anyone else asked him, he said he was fine.

The Two Ravens had been emptied. Roger had watched it all Saturday night and nobody had been near it. On Sunday he broke in and discovered that even the glasses and bottles had been taken. The tunnels beneath the building had led into the underground. Roger knew he was not going to find the Urban Vikings there again, which set him back to square one.

Monday night he had scoured the city, searching for someone spraying the serpent symbol. He had found nothing. Tuesday night he had done the same, but widened his search for anyone dressed in black leather with silver additions. He had come up sort again.

Wednesday he had been forced to stay home and study after work. He had read an article about a thief who targeted night clubs and used the sound system as a distraction whilst he stole from the cliental and the tills. The vigilante told himself he would come back to that, and to Sebastian, once he had caught up with the All Father.

Thursday had been spent trying to find some trace of the Urban Vikings online. Nobody had any concrete evidence, but someone had set up and Instagraph page documenting every serpent tag they could find. The page explained that the art did not come from one artist and did not seem to have any pattern to where it appeared. Roger had not found this helpful. Rather worryingly, the serpent had been popping up all over the globe, not just in Old Port.

Feeling like he had wasted the week because A) he had not been able to track down the Urban Vikings and B) he had not even been near the Golden Clock Office, let alone asked Parker and Rhyana for help, Roger sat in a lecture, not listening to what was being said at the front.

The lecture hall was one of the rare ones that appeared in films, tiered seats rising up until the students at the back of the room were about one storey up in the air. Most of the people in Roger's row could barely see the writing on the board, but he could see the lines on the professor's face. That being the case he was very surprised to see something for the first time.

Summer was sitting on the row in front of Roger. As of yet, ten minutes into the two hour lecture, she had not asked any questions. Roger had thought she was about to raise her hand, but instead she ran it over the back of her neck and re arranged her loose dyed red hair. On the back of her neck Roger saw a tattoo, the serpent symbol.

Had the vigilante been drinking at the time, he probably would have spit the liquid out. Instead he took a deep breath, composed himself, lent forward and calmly whispered.

"Summer."

She looked back at him, then turned back to face the front, so it looked like she was paying attention. "Hi," she replied quietly. She hoped he was not going to ask her out or something. Frankly someone who asked so few questions in a class like this was either pretending to know everything, or was a know-it-all. She wanted noting to do with anyone like that. Besides he was a geek, even by the standard of someone else sitting in a physics lecture. Finally, she had a boyfriend. Summer felt something unpleasant in the pit of her stomach. She was going to have to break this guy's heart and she hated doing that.

"I like your tattoo," he said. "What's it mean?"

"I'm not really supposed to say," Summer replied, eyes focused on the notepad in front of her. She had not made any notes related to the lecture yet. She had planned what she needed to get from the shops later though. "But me an August got them to symbolise us joining a movement." She emphasised the word August, hoping Roger would pick up on it.

"A movement?" he said, trying to sound impressed and not wanting to know who August was. How could a girl called Summer know someone called August? It made no sense to him. "To keep the fox hunt ban in place or something?"

"No," she said. How could she casually fit into the conversation that she was not interested in him before he asked her out? He would feel bad when she rejected him and she would feel bad for making him feel bad. "This is for the salvation of the planet. We feel very strongly about it."

Assuming that we meant her and whoever this August was, but not really caring, Roger continued. "That sounds very noble. How would I get in on something like that?"

"I'm not really supposed to say," Summer replied. This was good, if they spoke about the group, he would probably not ask her out and she would not have to break his heart. Not today at least. "They're kind of particular about who gets to become a member."

"I thought we were friends," he said, not quite clenching his jaw as he did so.

"Alright," she said. "Because we are friends and I want us to stay friends, I'll tell you." Summer smiled to herself. He had to have got the message by the way she said friends. "There is gonna be a party tomorrow night. They're going to select a couple to win some big prize. Whoever wins is going to move up to the next level of membership."

"What do the different levels of membership mean?"

"Well we, me and August, are at level one, which means we are in the running to become level two. Once you're level two you get to know about the upcoming event, apparently it's something really big happening on St Andrew's day, but that has not been confirmed. It's just chatter I've been hearing. If you pass level two you become a level three, you get to go to one of the retreats where you can spend a while learning about the teachings of our leader. But whoever wins tomorrow will be level four and level four opens you up to a better physical and spiritual life."

Wishing that Summer would either explain why she kept repeating we, or better yet, stop saying it, Roger tried to think of the best way to reply. He wanted to fit the word cult into the next sentence but thought it best not to. "Wow that sounds like a lot of fun. Where is this party?"

"It's supposed to be a secret," Summer said quietly. He was going to ask her to go with him or something, she just knew it. "Besides you probably won't even get in. You've got to be a member and you've got to be a couple. Male and female. It's a Líf and Lífþrasir party. Like an Adam and Eve type thing but the Viking version."

"If I won't get in what's the harm of me knowing where it is?" he asked. At what point did he stop asking questions nicely and threaten to throw her off a roof? He got the feeling that a real badass would have got all the answers they needed by now.

"Alright," she said, still looking forward, still attempting to look like she was paying attention. "You know the old Mcoy place?"

Roger clenched his teeth. "My dad worked there before it was closed."

"Well it's that's where the party is," Summer said. "But I'm telling you, you won't get in. August and I are very lucky to have got invites."

"I'm sure you and August will have a great time," Roger replied. "Maybe you'll see me and Kate there."

"Kate?"

"My girlfriend," Roger said flatly. "What's the dress code?"

"Girlfriend?" Summer asked, voice rising, turnig around in her seat. Of all the nerve. Him trying to ask her out when he had a girlfriend. She had a good mind to inform this Kate about what he was up to.

Not sure why Summer sounded so surprised to hear that he had a girlfriend, Roger pretended to write notes as the rest of the lecture hall stared at Summer, who was staring at him.

Sheepishly apologising as soon as she realised that people were looking at her, Summer turned back to face the front of the hall. She scribbled something on the corner of her notepad and tore it off, then passed the paper over her shoulder to Roger. "Check out this blog for the dresscode and time and whatever."

Roger looked at the paper. Whoever this Hoddmímis Holt person was he had missed their blog whilst looking for the All Father online. He thanked Summer, who went back to paying attention to the lecture. Or at least, that was the impression she gave off as she ran through the conversation in her head a dozen times.

The vigilante took a moment to ask himself how best to approach this situation.