Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 22

 Lainey focused and an image popped up. Only two images showed up. There were no other images throughout the entire web. She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. She stopped herself when she had worked two of her fingers through. She didn't need to show weakness. The voice of the Lady rang through her mind. Since you're about to fall anyway, let me take you on a trip down Memory Lane. What did that mean? In Memory Lane, she couldn't get to the memories of her meeting Christopher Tom and afterward with the Lady since Casey, Fredrick, Pumpkin, and Emerald interfered.

 She wanted to look up Emerald's name on the web. She hadn't in a while because she didn't want that name traced back to her by any Magician spies in any of the big tech companies. Emerald had spies in the big tech companies and when she had run away, she had taken all precautions to make sure she wouldn't be followed. She hardly used her phone and she had used apps to turn off her location from being tracked. She had done a great many things to be on the safe side. In Salt, she had put safeties on her laptop to prevent it from being hacked. Emerald had said inside the other dimension or the dream that her scrounging about in Salt was just a test. A tear ran down Lainey's face and she moved her head away. She couldn't. She had to be strong. The tears came down anyway.

 She cared about Emerald, but he couldn't be the dad she'd always wanted. Her own dad was sub-par and was mostly away on business trips. Technically, he was okay, but he'd never really conformed to what Lainey wanted based off culture and what ideals that she was fond of. It was selfish. Her dad taught her to dislike selfishness, but he'd never been there when Carla had forced her to hand over the funds of the Alternative Club's treasury members to her in an open classroom. Many of kids had watched during that moment and it was a painful moment for Lainey. At the end of the day, Lainey had gone with Carla and her friends to the mall a few steps away from the school. They ate at Balanced Panda. They went shopping at perfume stores. They got all these designs for their nails and tried on all these exquisite clothes that Lainey had no interest in. She also had no interest in the fact that Carla listened to dumb pop rap music, cussed, tried to be cute, and had an interest in mainly herself and the mainstream culture. She wouldn't even shop at Goodwill with people around since she believed that was where the poor people shopped. Salt didn't have a lot of poor people, but the rich people did shop at some of the Goodwill's because the funds went to go help the poor people.

 Carla wouldn't even help a crying kid whose cat was stuck in a tree. She would wave her hand and say, "It's your fault that the cat got in the tree in the first place" then move on after that. Carla could sometimes be kind, but she wouldn't give away some of her dad's money to aid people in need. Lainey looked at the clock on the bottom right side of the laptop. 4:03. She had to get this show on the road. She would find this company later. Rein Industries. The logo said.

 She typed into the computer. "I need more time to do this," Lainey said.

 She hoped the person would receive that at mission control. She went into a folder that said instructions after she was looking around.

 First: Go to the secret passageway of 859 on the First Floor.

 Second: Go inside there. The device is in Codebreaker's enclave on the stairs.

 Third: Don't get caught. Hide around some of the crevices in the room.

 Fourth: Get out of the room, and turn right when you are going through the tunnels.

 Lainey's heart raced. Could she follow their instructions? How did her new friend know what she needed? Could they read her mind? She never really said any of her thoughts out loud so how did this person know? Could it have been someone from her past who might have changed? For better or for worse? Was the new friend either Casey or Fredrick? They weren't new friends, but old ones. New Friend could have meant a new beginning. She placed the laptop back in its' corner after reading the P.S that said 'close the laptop when you're done reading the instructions.' She closed the laptop when she had done this. Lainey walked out of her room. She couldn't use her Rider form for this, but part of her knew this would make the mission she'd endeavored so much easier.

 She tiptoed across the checkered floor from her room to the secret passageway. This reminded her of when she had been back in the past and Grace found a secret passageway behind the Queen Elizabeth painting in the West Jopiline hospital. She thought about the battle that had occurred with David, Emerald, Pumpkin, Codebreaker, and others inside of West Jopiline earlier that night. Her feet didn't make a noise on the floor. Memories enhanced Lainey's powers and made them come involuntarily sometimes. She could see in the dark! She jumped! There was a system that could alert other people in the house if someone was up and about the house, but it wouldn't set off an alarm unless you switched on a system to see who was up and about! Salt was inside this system! Lainey's eyes briefly burned at the sensation of the salt. Miraculously, it had switched off. What happened? It could have been taking some updates if it was a system or having brief issues. This was one of the most highly secured mansions in America. Lainey came across the secret passageway inside a closest and turned a lever. She crawled through the caves and she ended up eventually in Codebreaker's enclave on the stairs after figuring out the navigation. This was despite her night-vision. She peeked inside the room. Codebreaker with his armor was asleep in one of the bunk beds that he had attached to a system on the walls.

 In David's Anti-Magician program, identities were kept secret of real names. Pronouns and codenames were okay, but real names were a no go at this station. This was a precaution in case of any moles inside the program and vital information about their missions was only revealed to trusted members. This was weird since Benedict Arnold had been trusted and he had ended up betraying George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Lainey Paris knew vital information inside the Magicians as well, and she had ended up thinking twice about the missions as a result of the incidents. Her night vision made her think of the New Shadow Rider. What were they doing now? Lainey's eyes were still red from crying about Emerald earlier and how it was sad that he was part of the world upside down equation. She went from crevice to crevice across the room like a ghost with her silent steps. The memory-erasing device was right out in front of her on a panel.

 Its orange colors were reflecting into the room and giving the area around it eye candy. It looked green in night vision, but Lainey knew that it was orange since her night vision could give more variety to the colors in her vision. It was tempting where it lay for her to grab out at it. She looked back toward Codebreaker. It looked like he was still sleeping. Could it have been a trick? She grabbed the panel underneath the orange memory-erasing device. Her new friend could have been lying, playing off her emotions. It may well even have been Codebreaker after conducting a psychological analysis on her personality to see how she would react in certain situations. This could all be just a simulation. Her hands slipped against the panel, but they turned into shadows and went through the panel. Her hands felt for wires. Which one was the right wire? I will always be in your head  from Emerald flashed in Lainey's mind and she almost bounced back from her struggle with the wires.

 Suddenly, Emerald was standing right in front of her and he pulled her up by the throat.

 Lainey fought back against him. Emerald here? It couldn't be.