Talk To: Jax
"I do not mind tea, at all," Wade told him. "In fact, would have totally preferred it over Grape flavored Tidal Wave," Wade joked, setting down the half empty can he had drank from anyway.
Jax calmly poured more tea from his thermos into a cup that appeared to have belonged to the cafe. “Yes, that stuff is more caffeine and sugar than grape, I’m afraid.” After he had finished pouring the tea, he pushed the cup over to Wade.
Taking a quick sip, he said, “so, what did you find out? That was fast, after all. I didn’t expect to hear from you for at least a few more days.”
Wade grabbed the tea, holding the warm bevarage up as he answered. “Yeah, well I might be rushing into this. Found something online that more or less gave me a deadline for 3 days.” Wade thought on that for a second. “To be honest, I don’t know if I found out a lot as much as I found a lead.”
He was still being overly cryptic, but Wade wasn’t sure how to start spilling what he knew, or even if he should. He wanted to outright say everything --Lord, did he want to-- but not yet. Wade took a casual sip and peered up at Jax.
“Three days? What would make you think that?” he raised his tea up to bask in the steam and enjoy the fragrance. “I guess what I’m asking is this: what kind of lead?”
Wade paused for a moment, trying to think of the right words. “Okay, this online thing? Someone anonymously pieced together… how completely sketch Deepview is, and for the most part, the crazy conspiracy facts are checking out. But so far, there hasn’t been anything on the Sisters or Annie.”
Wade bridged his fingers. “They’re going to go... investigate Deepview for themselves. Anyone who can defend themselves is welcome to join if they can find them.”
After taking a small sip of his drink, Jax plainly asked, “do you think it’s legit? I’m sure you noticed the cheap audio manipulations in the answering machine. These people aren’t afraid to send out misinformation to throw people off the trail.”
Setting down his cup, the inkling started to twiddle his fingers. “This may be the exact opposite thing. A lure to call in people who are interested. I’m never one to discount a lead, but I want to ask, again, how legit do you think this is? Is there any way to verify?”
Wade smirked. “So you did pick up on the fake recordings.” He took a quick inhale and took off his hat, pulling out the notepad.
“Mm, to be perfectly fair,” Wade began, “I don’t know if it’s a lure or not, but I do know that this person knows what they’re talking about. Aside from the extra cautious “use a proxy” warning on their post, which is probably down by now, they happened to mention a pretty freaky way Deepview has been keeping people quiet. Wiping people’s memories.”
Wade started flipping through the notepad, looking for the details of the meet as he kept explaining. “Which sounds just about as stupid as it is, but someone in my apartment building was apparently a giant Squid Sister’s fan until a little while ago. Then… he took a mysterious trip to Octo valley and then,” Wade gave a low whistle.
“I see… well it can’t hurt to look into in more detail, then,” he grinned slightly, which was hard to see in the dark. “So, where are they asking to be found?”
“Octo Valley, neutral ground, zone 1,” Wade read off. “Bring a weapon, 2 days wait.”
Wade frowned, “Uh, yeah, heading to Octo Valley after that seems a little counter intuitive, but Simone didn’t exactly have it all together. I’m pretty sure we’re missing part of the picture. He had a lot to say about Octarians drilling in the Valley, but I’m not sure how that’s related.”
“Me either,” Jax admitted, “though it might be connected to this quake, if true. But then again, it could be the ravings of a madman.” He took another sip of his tea and was quiet for a moment. Gears seemed to be turning in his head as he contemplated different options.
Finally, he seemed to decide something and said, “I’m trailing a person. Maybe an Octoling, maybe an Inkling--those are the only two I could think of them being. The trail ends in Octo Valley so I’m headed in that direction anyway. I wouldn’t mind coming along. But first, there’s another matter of business.”
Holding up a large ring of keys, the Inkling said, “we need to be armed, right?”
Wade leaned in, grinning. “This is more or less where I hoped this conversation was going.”
He finally took his own sip of tea. “So you definitely knew more about the phone automation. Seriously, did you go to check out the Deepview building?”
“Yes,” Jax said, then he backtracked, “well, kind of. I paid attention to an internet news board--it’s been deleted now. See, they decided to go to the Deepview building for answers en masse a week or so after the Squid Sisters’ disappearance. A huge group went in. No one came out.”
Taking one last chug of his tea, Jax set down his cup and started pacing. “A few of them were people I knew personally. So, I knew that the people returned. They exhibited the same signs you were talking about--loss of memory.”
He started searching through the keyring, seeming to know each one by feel. “That is what I know about the Deepview Building. I wouldn’t want to enter without more information.”
Wade blinked, kind of astonished by how quick that turned dark. Again, he didn’t quite know what to say so he took a quiet sip of tea.
“Damn, sorry. Uh,” Wade stopped. He really didn’t have anything to apologize for. “I mean, they just stormed the place, right? No one knew there wouldn’t be a legitimate business on the other end.”
“Yeah, basic protest over the fact that no one could get any information,” Jax shrugged, noncommittally, “nothing too complicated. I went there to collect some information for the paper the next day. After seeing the results, I figured it best to not publish that article.”
“That… was probably smart,”was all Wade could think to say. He blinked before downing all of his tea, then standing up and slipping his hat back on. “Weapons. Right. I guess we should lock this place up… This place is yours, right?”
“No,” Jax said, flatly, “I just know a lot of people.” And with that, he started for the door.
