Legacy

Trouble

Astor

I had sent the letter. There was not much I could do now; hopefully, my hunch was correct, and the ministry would send people from the campus to track Nathan down; otherwise, I was a little better off than before I sent the letter. The next step was to surveillance the campus building looking for possible agents. I was betting on the whole topic being hush enough that the ministry would not let new people in on the secret. So the next couple of days or weeks or whatever long it took I would slum it down near campus to catch the people I needed. It was a high risk of getting arrested or otherwise questioned, but it was my best offer. The apartment was no longer safe since Nathan was being looked into, and I had no money left to spend on a place to stay. Whatever bills I took from the apartment were not going to last me long, but with the condition I had, I was not going to eat much no matter what. Swallowing water had become challenging, and I was confident that getting food down in any substantial form was going to be pure torture. I drew my jacket closer around me. The weather was getting colder by the day. Honestly, not much was looking up for me right now. I found a staircase to sit down on and relaxed a bit. This whole plan was stupid, and it was not going to work. The odds of me being able to track down Nathan through the agents were next to none. So much could go wrong. I might not be able to find the agents, I might find them, but they would notice me and arrest me. I might be able to follow them to realize they were taking a train or a bus leaving me unable to do much. I spent some time sitting there for lack of better things to do. I did my best to ignore the stares I was getting from people passing by. Most of them looked relatively young and were too shy to look at me too openly; they were probably students at the campus. The older ones were worse; they seemed to lack shame when it came to staring at a stranger. I knew why I was getting those looks; my appearance was that of a pale, sick, homeless person or a drunk bachelor fallen from grace. It was the suit I wore that protected me a bit at least it made look like maybe I had been a proper member of society at some point recently. The worst offender was this burly larger man. He kept giving me dirty looks. I decided to challenge his rude behavior by staring right back at him. We kept up a small starring contest before the man realized he had better things to do and left for the campus entrance. For the next hours, I was sitting there that rude man would not leave my thoughts. At first, I mostly cracked it up to be his behavior, but as I pondered a bit on the topic, it hit me that his mannerisms seemed oddly familiar. Where had I met such a terrible man before?

Nathan

Paris was as big and noisy as I expected it to be. The train ride had been awful since my funds had only gotten me a seat in the back close to the roaring engine making it impossible to rest on the way. I had a few coins left, but I would need to get creative if I was not going to end up sleeping on the streets. Slumming it down would be a terrible choice since I rather avoid the local law enforcement. I only knew the necessary amount of French I had been forced to learn at school, which was not going to help me much if I got into serious trouble. No, the main goal was to make some connections with the scientific community in the city. To best do that, I would have to find one of the campuses or other more open venues. I pulled out the map I had managed to hustle my way to at the train station and tried to get a feel for the city's layout. It was early evening, so I would need to be quick if I was going to visit a campus. There was one located somewhat close to my current location.

Well, there was no reason to get cold feet now, so I took a brisk pace and started making my way over there. I walked for a while just admiring the city there were so many beautiful buildings and the people looked pleasant as well. The smells of food got me dizzy. I had not eaten anything since I left my home. Hesitantly I started counting the coins I had left wondering what kind of food I could buy. Heavens, maybe if I was lucky, I could get some coffee as well. It was not the wisest choice, but in the end, I decided to get a coffee and a small sandwich at one of the many cozy cafes located around town. It was not like I had spent that long getting some rest. I only felt marginally horrible, leaving the cafe in a light sprint without a tip. Going a few streets without paying much attention to make sure they had not seen me. When I arrived at the campus, it looked very closed. There were no lights on, and the only people nearby were two elderly-looking men sitting on a staircase. Frustrated, I went to the front door just to conclude the obvious. The doors were locked. I read on the poster on the door that the campus would be open again tomorrow morning. This was not part of the plan. I had nowhere to sleep, and I did not know the city very well. This was not good. It had become rather apparent to me that my plan might be a bit harder to do than what I had thought — a sentiment which the next weeks would prove correct.