Tina Chan - imperfect

Two off-duty law enforcers took the seats left by the men in dark clothes. Kristi beat a swift retreat; the last thing she needed was to be caught.

Time wore on; the tavern progressively grew rowdier and rowdier. More people filed in, seeking retreat from a stressful day. Kristi searched through the crowds for Chelsa, but was soon swallowed up by the mob.

“Where are you?” she mumbled to herself. She checked the spot beneath the moose head, but Chelsa had already left the area.

“You looking for me?”

Kristi held back a small shriek. It was the merchant with the fish-shaped scar. “No—no, I’m not.”

“You’re looking for information, aren’t you?”

Kristi’s face betrayed her answer. The merchant grinned, knowing he had guessed right. “I have many connections. Perhaps we can work out a deal…”

“Kelly, let’s go,” said a voice behind her.

Kelly? Who’s Kelly? Then Kristi remembered it was her cover name.

Chelsa tapped her on the shoulders. “We’ve been here for over an hour.”

“Until next time,” said the merchant, winking at Kristi. He disappeared into the pulsing horde of people.

They climbed up the stairs and onto the street. Kristi took one last look at Troll’s Tavern and saw a richly dressed person lead two fairly drunken fellows away.

“What did you learn? Did you see any spies? Who are involved? Were you guys recognized?” Chelsa and Kristi had barely walked through the doors when Jaiden started to fire them with questions.

“Let us eat first, then we’ll answer.” Kristi’s stomach grumbled, agreeing with her words.

“Cruel,” said Jaiden. “You are a cruel person. Withholding such information from a poor guy left behind while others get—”

“Oh, stop griping,” Kristi said.

“Does instant rice sound good?” Chelsa asked.

“Anything edible sounds good to me.”

“Spill. Tell me what you learned,” said Jaiden.

Chelsa ripped open three packages of instant fried rice while Kristi boiled some water on the bio-fuel stove. Jaiden vigorously bounced his knees up and down with impatience. Chelsa shot him a sideways look and said, “I’ll tell you what I found out, if that makes you happy.”

The water came to a full boil and Chelsa dumped the rice into the pot.

“So?” Jaiden prompted.

“The government suspects there are actually two headquarters of the Revealers. One is located, as we already know, in South Union. However, their second headquarters are located in the West Region of the United Regions.”

“The West Region,” Kristi mumbled. “It seems like a good place to start looking for other spies. There’s bound to be spies there if that’s where the headquarters are located. Ow!”

Jaiden jerked up. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I just scalded my tongue.” She bashfully held up her bowl of steaming rice.

“Geez, Kristi. You really scared me for a second.”

“I’m sorry.” She exaggerated blowing on her spoonful of rice before swallowing it.

“You can apologize by telling me what you learned at Troll’s Tavern,” said Jaiden.

“Okay, okay. No need to be pushy. I found out that the Revealers are searching for new recruits. They have roughly fifty members stationed in the North Region. A bandit attacked one of their members named Kelvin. Last but not least, we need to find and contact a woman named Tiffany.”

“Who is she?” said Chelsa.

“She’s part of the Revealers and worked closely with Don and Maria—I mean Kyle and Shelly. Apparently she is now finishing whatever work they left behind.”

“Here’s what I think we should do,” Chelsa said. “We should travel to the West Region, searching for Tiffany at the same time. If we haven’t found Tiffany by the time we have reached the West Region, perhaps someone there who is part of the Revealers can help us find her.”

“Works for me,” said Jaiden. “When do you want to leave for the West Region? A week from today?”

Chelsa swallowed a spoonful of rice. “I was thinking of tomorrow.”

By the time everyone had finished packing for tomorrow’s trip, it was well past midnight. The sleeping bags would be rolled up nicely on top of the weatherproof backpacks in the morning. Food, medical supplies and other knick-knacks required for living in the wilderness were distributed among the three bags.

After a few minutes of debate, they settled on traveling by day rather than night; the risk of running into bandits outweighed the risk of Jaiden and Kristi being recognized on the roads. They would just have to do their best to stay beneath the radar. Chelsa was the ideal travel partner, as she was excellent at staying unnoticed.

“I can’t sleep,” Kristi said.

“Try to,” said Chelsa. “You’ll need all the energy you can get once we hit the roads.”

“Chelsa?” Kristi asked her new friend.

Chelsa answered with a yawn and slurred, “What?”

“Never mind.” She lay on her back and stared at the ceiling for what seemed like forever. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

“ Who’s coming over for a visit?” Troop asked, even though he had clearly heard what his mom said the first time.

“Your father.”

“Why now?” He stretched his mind to the last time he had seen his father. Does he really think he can abandon us for ten years and then come swinging back into our lives?

“Troop, be reasonable.” His mom stabbed at her chicken salad, conveying the opposite message of her words. “He’s only staying for three days.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

The fork pierced a piece of chicken and struck the plate so hard its tines bent backwards. Troop fetched a new fork from the kitchen and threw the old one into the incinerator.

“Your father is going through some tough times,” said Troop’s mom. “He just needs a place to stay for a few days until he secures a new living arrangement. His house was destroyed by a mudslide two days ago.”

“He could go die in a mudslide for all I care.”

“ Troop .” His mom gave him a reproachful look.

“It’s the truth. What kind of person divorces his spouse behind her back, runs off and doesn’t visit his son for ten years and then expect them to take him in?”

“That is enough, Troop Mendax.” She never used his last name unless she was seriously pissed off.

Troop decided keeping his mouth shut was probably the smartest thing to do. His mother pushed her chair away from the table and said, “I don’t want to hear another negative word regarding your father from you.”

“Fine,” he grumbled under his breath. Then his voice rose so that his mom could hear him. “Fine. When is he coming?”

“Tomorrow.” She checked her to-do list on her electro-slate. “I don’t have enough time to prepare the guest room for your father. Can you do me a favor and do it for me? There should be fresh sheets in the dryer.”

“Alright.”

He threw open the door of the guest room and surveyed the interior. It was a basic room; there was only a twin bed, a wardrobe and a single window overlooking the streets. Troop retrieved the gray, microfiber sheets and fixed up the bedroom in no time. I wonder if we have any itching powder, Troop thought. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if somehow some itching powder made its way into this comforter?

He shook his head to rid his malicious idea. I better watch my thoughts. I don’t want to become the person I pretend to be in school. The Troop Mandex who attended Ludus High wouldn’t have had a second thought about dumping itching powder onto the bed. But the real Troop Mandex would’ve actually given a damn.