Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 15: I'm Getting Sick of Tim's (Gasp!)

   "Jim, be careful!"

My elbow slipped off the edge of the table, knocking my French vanilla to the ground, where the top came off the cup and the contents exploded across the floor. I fell out of my chair, hitting my chin on the corner of the table on the way down.

"Are you alright sir?" A young lady asked me, hurrying over to us. At first I wondered why in the world she had called me sir, but then I remembered that all three of us were Illusioned as adult business people. Noah helped me get up from the ground and back into my chair.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that," I said, pointing at the mess I'd made. The lady smiled.

"It's no problem, really, I'll just have someone over to clean it up," the lady said, waving to someone in the back to clean up the mess.

It was three days later, and Noah, Cecily and I were sitting in the same Tim's, at the same table. We'd been in here every day since we'd left GreySlash, running through ideas. We now had a laptop, which Cecily had taken from a guy we'd seen in here the first day. She had put an Illusion over him to make him forget that he'd ever even had a laptop, and I still didn't know how I felt about that. She'd told me that it technically wasn't stealing, only 'borrowing without full consent,' as she'd put it. That hadn't really made me feel better, but she was going to use it anyway.

Cecily had hacked into the Guardian Database (yes, that's a thing). The Guardian Database was the base where all the information of every Guardian was listed and recorded. Cecily could have found it on the computer by scanning her Guardian Sign in front of the laptop's camera, but she wouldn't be able to access it. Only people who worked for the Database could view or edit files, and even then, not everyone had the same level as clearance. Cecily had manipulated the camera and her Guardian Sign to make it seem like she was Joseph Keelson, a Guardian that worked for the Database. (Don't ask me how she did that, I have no idea) Joseph had clearance for most of the files, but not all, but he was the best we could do.

Speaking of files, there were so many. There were files upon files upon files, some guarded more heavily than others. Noah's, Cecily's and my files were easy to get into, but James Delamir? Not so much. For one thing, Joseph didn't seem to have clearance to view his file. Great. Also, we couldn't even find him easily, let alone break into his file. Cecily had taken two days to just locate his file because it was hidden so deeply in the depths of the Database. Now she was trying to break in, and not having much luck so far.

Plus, there was the added danger of the real Joseph realizing that he was apparently already viewing the Database, and other people seeing what we were trying to do.

So yeah, not exactly a walk in the park.

While Cecily was trying to get into the Database, Noah and I had been running more ideas on how to find James Delamir, in case we couldn't get into his file. We had thoughts spread out on napkins and sheets of paper, but they weren't really the best ideas. We were really hoping that Cecily could break into James's file, and that it held some useful information.

As if on cue, Cecily let out a triumphant whoop.

"I'm in!" she said, beckoning us over. Noah and I jumped out of our chairs and wet around to stand behind Cecily so all three of us could see the screen.

"God, his file was so hard to get into, and for good reason," Cecily said, scrolling through the information of him. "There's everything in there."

I looked through the information listed on the screen. There were categories from Youth and Marks at GreySlash to Itineres and Crimes. There was so much information that my eyes hurt just looking at it.