Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 20

 Who was her new friend? Was it Nathan? Was it Chard, Codebreaker, Kylie, Paractive, or was it one of the Magicians masquerading as her 'new friend.' It couldn't have been Casey or Fredrick. What if Emerald or Pumpkin had managed to break into David's house? Xrious? She highly doubted that Xrious would use a laptop as a way of transmitting messages to Lainey, or Emerald even. Lainey clicked on the laptop's power and it opened up to a file titled David Lars.

 A picture of David was in a file holding up an award in an underground tunnel smiling with a bald man in a suit. Who was the bald man? She knew a little bit about David since she knew about Jolene and his ex-wife, and she knew how he was a part of the Azachee tribe. He was also the leader of the Anti-Magicians. The Anti-Magicians was a government program. She clicked onto the picture. In the magnified version of the picture, the bald man had a curved patterned dagger hidden deep inside his right pocket. Was he a mentor of David? Had David been an Avant-Gard spy? For some reason, all of the ones Lainey had seen all had some kind of dagger. The bald man also had his hand in his left pocket where there was a logo Lainey could hardly make out. She zoomed in with the laptop's mouse.

 The logo in the bald man's left pocket had a gray head. The rest of the logo had been crossed out, but she knew that it had to do with David's wealth. He was holding up an award in the picture. Wait! Lainey zoomed in on the award. Best Painting? That couldn't have been it. She minimized the tab and she moved onto another part of the folder. It said: Life story.

 Lainey knew some of David's life story already from her time in the Magicians. He had been born in Holts Summit, Missouri. He also had been trained by an Anti-Pumpkin magician named Monzellera, but his life was a blank page to Lainey other than that. David Lars wasn't commonly brought up when she had been a Magician, and he was a ghost on the internet. There was little information about anything important or too personal of him including his social media accounts. All the information on his social media accounts was non-personal. Also, why did he have influence in both the House and the Senate? How could he even whisper into President Fred Lossie's ears? Many of Fred Lossie's decisions and the ones of Congress weren't consistent with David Lars' proposals. Many of them also weren't supporting David's way of thinking since Fred Lossie let Minapon shipments into US ports.

 On his social media accounts and throughout the entire internet, there was nothing about how he got rich. David Lars hid his tracks well enough or someone else hid his tracks well enough to where not even Emerald knew much about David himself. They had spies on both sides, but very little information about the two imposing figures was known. Little information was shared from them to their comrades. Of course, David must have been rich if he was able to recruit heroes like Codebreaker to his cause. She recalled some of her fights with Codebreaker when she had been Shadow Rider. The times he'd captured her as well was something back when her boyfriend was Christopher Tom she also recalled. The incidents Emerald mentioned earlier came into her mind. She clicked onto the document called 'Early Life' in the folder, 'Life story.'

 David was born on July 5, 1959, to two loving parents inside an upper-middle-class neighborhood inside of a ritzy part of Holts Summit, Missouri where he had been raised to appreciate opportunities and hard work. It was also the place where a lot of people made friends, shared dreams, and went to the Fourth of July festivals where they shot firecrackers in the air to celebrate the American Independence from the British.

 At the Fourth of July parties, David had shown kids his artwork and his school projects regarding the military, which he aspired to be an officer one day. He even played video games for some research projects, and he excelled at classes at his Missouri schools. One day, he went to the Capital Mall in Jefferson City with his friends when he was a teenager.