Belly Literary Universe (part 2)

Kelri's Gain Part 76: Council

Back in their townhouse, Kelri explained the plan to Connor.

***

"You're planning a heist!?" Connor tugged at his already messy hair.

Kelri held her hands out and urged Connor to take a deep breath. "It's not a heist... It's just an unauthorized use of computational time..."

"So we're stealing time."

"Yes, but not really." Kelri grimaced.

"You know how much they charge for people to access that quantum computer? They charge by the second. If whatever is on that USB drive takes a long time to run, that could mean the research center would be short thousands - maybe even millions of dollars. That could fall back on us. We'd both lose our jobs and be unemployable... assuming the justice system was lenient..."

"When you put it that way it sounds serious..." Kelri crossed her arms and twisted her lips.

"So you agree this is madness?"

"Yes. But..."

"But what?" Connor threw his arms to the side.

Kelri took a deep breath, and pointed outside. "Ever since the Secret Advisor had me steal that data, and that guy with the gun showed up, we've been looking for answers. This is how we get those answers."

"No this is how we get used and tossed to the side by some obviously criminal organization. Belly or no, they're using us."

"And that's why they gave me the task. They're farther ahead of me than we expected. Miranda and the Secret Advisor have been playing us every step of the way. If we just give up this lead then we'll never learn what is happening. Even if I just get strung along again - they promised answers. And the more I've helped, the more they've given... This time feels different."

"What exactly have they given back?"

Kelri squinted and rubbed her cheek in thought. "Not a lot. But we've learned that this is widespread. We've learned they're well funded and that the Secret Advisor acts congruently with Cozca. They've got ties to medical research, entertainment, the food industry and I'm sure plenty of other things. We also learned about them - the whole belly cult. And we learned at least part of the Secret Advisor's motivations have to do with fetishistic stuff."

"Not a lot of concrete details there..." Connor crossed his arms.

"Enough to cause a shitstorm in the news if we ratted them out though. And yet if we walked away when the gun got pointed at us Hugo would have gotten rid of both of us and probably ruined our careers. And we wouldn't know about any of that. Maybe he's just confident that we can't get any information from what we've learned - but that doesn't matter."

Connor sighed and thought for a long while. "Fuck. Well, ultimately if you're doing it I'll help. I'd be an accomplice anyway for not ratting you out. Can we at least take a look at the code?"

"I asked Miranda that. She seemed confident we would be able to make heads or tails of it. She said she tried too. But she didn't say we couldn't look."

"Fine, I'll take a look."

"In the meantime I have a meeting to plan." Kelri said.

***

Kelri rented a party enclosure in a nearby park. And there she gathered the seeds of her team. Herself. Connor. Maia. Valerie. The people with some connection to the belly world she'd fallen into. The ones she thought she could trust.