Seeds of Doubt

The club doors hadn't opened yet for the night when Dorien showed up at his old work place looking for his cousin. He finally found her in the kitchen area, getting ready for the evening's shift.

"Gen!" he said, hurrying up to her with a few loose sheaves of paper clenched in his hand, "We need to talk. Do you have a minute?"

Gen was mildly surprised by her cousin's somewhat flustered presence in the kitchen. "Um... yes? Something wrong?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure. Mostly I just need you to tell me I'm not crazy."

He handed her the papers.

"Do you recognize these?"

"I'm probably not the best person to advise you on matters of sanity..." Gen shook her head slightly, humoured, and then turned her attention to the papers Dorien held out to her. She stared at them blankly for a bit. There was, possibly, something vaguely familiar about them, but she couldn't place them. "They're... plans? For... alchemical equipment?"

"Yes. They're devices for extracting substances from plant material and the blueprints for them were on the walls when we visited that government lab outside of town. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but now..."

He looked his cousin in the eyes and pointed to the drawings.

"These were given to me by a friend of mine who works for an alchemical plant. They've been mass producing these things off the books on some secret under-the-table deal. And all this is happening right when magic fungus is appearing in the Shade and fairies start showing up in Diablotin? There's no way it's not all related... Right?"

There was a kind of desperation in Dorien's eyes, as though he was hoping that Gen wasn't about to pronounce him a paranoid nutter.

"Maybe? I don't know... The plants out there had no fungi on them, though."

"Maybe, maybe not," Dorien said, conspiratorially, "But who knows what they might have on that compound. Maybe underground, even. What if all that stuff we saw is just a show? If they're just extracting magical components from plants then why all the secrecy? Someone wants this kept quiet. It's only sheer luck that we heard about it."

Dorien pulled out a cigarette and lit it to calm his nerves.

"I had a bad feeling about that place from the moment we set foot in it. Now I have a reason for it."

Gen tried surreptitiously to take her breaths while her face was turned away from Dorien's. She had always liked the smell of pipe tobacco, but cigarette smoke was another matter entirely. At least it wasn't as bad as cigar fumes - those made her feel sick. Close, though. "All right. Supposing that your surmises are correct, what do you intend to do about it?"

"I don't know," Dorien admitted, "but surely we need to do something... tell somebody. I mean, if I could just get back into that place for ten minutes I could figure out if there's anything to this or not."

Gen suddenly suspected that Dorien was angling for her to do something about it. Resentment bubbled up within her. "Dorien, I don't want to work there, and I'm not going to pretend I do. I'm neck deep in military justice already and I don't want to come under suspicion of anything again."

Dorien held up his hands.

"No, no, I'm not asking you to do that. I'd never ask that of you after everything that's happened. I'm not asking you to do anything. I just want to know I'm not completely crazy before I try to pursue this further, because if I'm right then I have no idea how high up this thing could go."

Gen felt bad for jumping to the wrong conclusion. "Okay. I'm sorry. I don't know if you're right. I don't know if you're wrong. I doubt you are crazy, though. Just... if you're going to look into it, be careful, okay?

"Maybe you can ask Ander if he can put you in touch with someone who might have access to military secrets. My friend still works for the military, so I wouldn't feel right putting him on the spot.  But Ander used to be a captain, and he's already involved in questionable dealings. Maybe he has someone on the inside." Gen wasn't sure if offering this suggestion to Dorien was the right thing to do, but it was too late now.

"Andre, huh? I don't know much about him other than him being Den's boss and a big cheese in the rat mob. Maybe..."

Dorien shrugged.

"I mean I'm already in debt to one mob. What's one more, right?"

He winked at Gen to show he was joking.

"I'll figure something out. Maybe it's nothing and I'm just chasing a wild hare. I know Bri has been looking into this Fae malarky. Maybe she can fit some more pieces into place for me."

"Bri...?" Gen thought aloud, perplexed. "Oh! You mean Aubrienne? Maybe she can. And you are friendly with Denise, aren't you? So you can ask her about how likely Ander is going to be to want a favour back from you down the road. I think he's a decent sort, for a mob leader, but I don't really know anything useful about him."

"I'll think about it. Thanks for not thinking I'm crazy at least."