The Diner

It was a couple hours past sunset, and only two streetlights pierced the darkness. One was almost out of sight, at the far end of the street. The other was in front of their destination: a seedy diner. The diner was the only other source of light. The neon red accents outlined the edges of the diner’s welcoming light pouring out of the windows and propped-open door.

Natania spoke first. “Alright, Wystan, Caspian. You two go ahead and get a table where you can observe the bar area. Do whatever it takes to blend in. Order coffee, food, beer – just look normal. Zeph and I will be about five minutes behind you.”

They both nodded and started walking towards the diner. Zeph wondered if they felt the same trepidation he did. All of them were learning spycraft on the fly. It was like some shit out of those old books where people lived spread out across multiple cities and fought with each other.

“Your stun-gun ready to go?”

Zeph realized he had been zoning out for at least several seconds before Natania spoke.

“Yeah, here, let me make sure it’s up.”

Three muted green lights shone from the black metal. It was a smaller version than he had carried in the guard. He carefully placed it back in his pocket. While not illegal per se, if the guard caught anyone carrying a stun gun, they asked a lot of questions. Outside the city it was different, but that was just due to the animal threats.

“What about you, your uh knives ready?”

Natania laughed, “Yeah, sharp and ready to go. After the barn I’m not going anywhere without being able to protect myself.”

Zeph nodded: he understood. This way, they had at least a fighting chance if the security guys showed up again. Not that Zeph was ready to fight the government. They were still trying to get enough people to wake up and realize they needed to take a stand. Their hope, or at least his hope, was that they could change things with little violence. If the informant was trustworthy – he had promised to explain whatever the hell happened last time – then his information might just help. But if he wasn’t trustworthy… well, that was why they had brought Wystan and Caspian as backup.

“Why do they call guns stun guns? Why not just call them guns? All guns are stun guns, it just seems redundant to use two words instead of one.”

Zeph turned to Natania. She was looking at him expectantly.

“Umm… I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. Is this a trick question?”

She chuckled, “No, I just figured you might know—as a former guard, and all. I just think it’s fascinating to wonder how language comes into being. Like, so many words we use don’t really make sense.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Zeph couldn’t argue with her. If he was to be honest, he was starting to have some serious questions himself. Like why were their files of books underneath History in the Library that were clearly fiction. They described worlds and things that didn’t line up with the history of the City.

Natania took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “Well, I think it’s been five minutes. Let’s go see if our informant has our information and why he picked such a strange place to meet.”

The diner was busy but quiet. Soft music mingled with the hum of muted conversation. A woman in the corner was playing some sort of instrument with keys; it seemed to be producing electronic undertones. The bar was set about elbow height and had a cream-colored counter. They snagged two bar seats near several other open ones.

A frazzled-looking server came their way. “What can I get you guys?”

Natania ordered first. “Black Coffee, full caffeine please.” The server turned around and immediately poured her a cup since the machine was directly in front of them.

“And for you?”

Zeph hesitated, then asked, “Do you have anything sweet?”

“Our chocolate cake is popular; we also have cherry pie and a couple different types of cookies.”

“Umm, I’ll have a slice of chocolate cake and a glass of milk.”

“I’ll have that right out.”

Zeph turned to see Natania smirking at him.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“C’mon, what’s so funny?”

She leaned in to whisper. “We are here to get information about a hovercraft crash that for some reason the government classified at the highest level from an informant who was somehow compromised last time and it’s like ten at night and you order cake. It’s funny!”

Zeph chuckled just a little, “Yeah, okay, that is funny, but hey—I like my sweets!”

With that, the server arrived with a glass of ice-cold milk and a large slice of chocolate cake on a small white plate.

“Enjoy.”

Zeph nodded—he already knew he would. The cake looked delicious. He took a bite and wasn’t disappointed. It was slightly warm and melted on his tongue. He could detect at least two different flavors of chocolate. One was stronger, almost bitter, while the other was softer and sweeter, with hints of raspberry.

“Good cake, eh, mate?”

A man had sat down on Zeph’s right. He was wearing a red hat pulled low, so his eyes were shaded and hard to see. His coat was black with the occasional scuff and stain—clearly not new and very non-descript.

“So, I take it that you’re Zeph, and the lady must be Natania.”

Natania replied, “And you are?”

“Your informant of course, see the red hat?”

Zeph spoke now. “Well then, I believe you have some explaining to do.”

The man nodded. “Ah yes, the unfortunate incident at the barn. I’m glad you two weren’t caught. It’s a shame they burnt the place down and blamed it on activist cells. At least I’m assuming that’s what happened…...” He trailed off, clearly expecting them to fill in the blanks. Zeph didn’t say anything though, and since Natania didn’t either they must be on the same page.

The man coughed and had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Well, I’ll make a long story short. I was caught by some shady security guys. They didn’t realize I hadn’t got the information yet, so I told them about the meet. Obviously, I left out some crucial details, like the red hat part. I hoped that you two would be sharp enough to notice and not get into trouble. I knew I was right when the barn was torched, and I heard rumors I was being looked for. If those security folks had caught you two, then they wouldn’t be trying to track me down. But I had the information you paid for, and I wasn’t about to go back on the deal. That is why I contacted you guys to meet here.”

Natania spoke up, “But why would they let you go?”

“Well, see I know some people, some rather important people. It was a lot less headache for them to just let me go than have me cause a fuss. Plus, the whole tit for tat deal where they thought I gave you up. And knowing what I do about those files, I imagine they really didn’t want anyone asking any questions about why they were classified.”

Zeph and Natania looked at each other. Right before the security men burned the barn down Zeph and Natania had heard something similar as the men were complaining.

Zeph turned back and replied. “Okay, sounds plausible so far… is this place safe?”

The man laughed, almost a snort. “Oh, nowhere is really safe, but it’s better than most. My family runs this diner, speaking of which. Joe!” The server looked up. “Make sure you save me a slice of grandma’s cake!” The server snorted, “Sure but if you don’t eat it by closing, I will.”

Zeph looked over just in time to see Natania roll her eyes. That little exchange had reminded him of his own cake, and he quickly ate another bite.

The informant continued. “Where was I… oh yeah. So, I have your information which by the way was surprisingly hard to get. I saw glimpses of it while I was downloading it and I think it will suit your purposes well. It makes sense why they classified it so heavily. But anyway, here it is.” He pulled a small drive out of his coat pocket and placed it on the counter. Zeph picked it up and passed it to Natania. He didn’t want that thing bouncing around in his pocket with the stun gun.

The man waited till the drive was secure before he spoke, “Now thank you for paying in advance. I hope it was worth it despite the unpleasantries at the barn. However, I pride myself on good service, so I have an extra for you. Normally, I trade in information but when I came across this, I thought I knew some good revolutionaries who could use it.”

As he finished speaking the informant stood up and reached over the bar. He picked up a long, narrow box wrapped in brown paper and put it on the counter.

“I think you’ll like this, Zeph, but I would wait till you’re in private to open it.”

Zeph wasn’t sure what to do. He hadn’t planned on getting an unexpected gift tonight.

“Thank you.”

“No problem! Also, make sure you two tell your friends about the chocolate cake. Oh, and Zeph… some guards would say that chocolate cake is to ‘die for.’” He chortled again. “‘Cause it’s dangerous for a guard to come here, ya know? But seriously, you two stay safe, we are watching your little movement with interest.”

The informant walked away with a broad smile on his face. Apparently, he was really satisfied with his joke. Zeph couldn’t decide if it was completely in jest or a subtle warning. Natania drained her coffee and stood up.

“Alright, let’s collect Wystan and Caspian and get out of here. I guess bring that… package with us. I’m not very comfortable not knowing what it is, but he is probably right about opening it in public.

It took about half an hour for the four of them to go from the diner back to the abandoned workshop that served as their pseudo-hideout. They didn’t really have a name for it. It wasn’t home for any of them except Natania. Zeph still lived with his uncle, although with the strain on that relationship he didn’t know how much longer that would last. Wystan and Caspian were roommates at a small apartment down the road. They took off quickly after a celebratory round of drinks. Wystan’s job required him to be up early, and Zeph still didn’t know exactly what Caspian did.

Natania pulled out her workstation and sat down to upload the drive they got. Zeph was barely keeping his eyes open at this point. The meet and the walk back had gotten his adrenaline all hyped up. Now that it was over, he was crashing fast. He wasn’t sure if he was even going to try and walk home—maybe he'd just crash on the couch. Either way, he wanted to open the box first. The informant had said he thought it was for Zeph, but why? Was that a good thing or bad? Right as Zeph was getting ready to rip the brown paper, Natania spoke up.

“Hey Zeph, you should come here and read this. It’s pretty crazy.”

Read part one to find out about the barn and where Zeph and Natania's stories have started: Burnt Old Barn.