Magic World (working title): Chapter 10 part 4

A final note from The Man himself... And more code. It was like a layer within a layer. And this new code was... odd. It didn't seem to follow any pattern that he could see. There were numbers and letters, and sometimes even what seemed like commands, but nothing match up with anything else. There were patterns, it seemed, but they didn't last, surviving for maybe two or three iterations before disappearing.  This....

...This was going to take some time.

He didn't want to search even a portion of the code online in case it was intercepted, so he would have to set his computer to look through and find any pattern, and look at it himself when he had more time.

For now though, it was time to call "Jackie."

He found an outdoor cafe and took a seat on their raised "small peoples'" section, designed to put gnomes, Halflings, and occasionally dwarves on an even level with the taller races. It was surprising what a difference fourteen inches could make. For the most part the smaller races could pass as taller when you took height out of the equation. He ordered a Chai latte and braced himself mentally.

Gary hated talking to people. He hated phone calls, face to face, voice over IP, even FaceTime. Conversation was just too difficult, and draining, when having to condense the conversation, and go back and forth with people. And trying to explain things to people was it's own kind of hell.

Online was easier, less abrupt, and he could take his time to think about what he wanted to say, and how he wanted to say it. Conversations might take longer, sure, but hey, that's the price we pay for these things.

His Chai arrived and the cute waitress barely looked at him as he left her a five dollar tip, but smiled brightly at the ever-so-cute elven pretty-boys who were on their third free coffee refill, and would likely not tip anything.

He shook his head at the sheer stupidity of the whole thing...

...and realized he was stalling.

He grimaced but went ahead and put his bluetooth headset on, took a tiny sip of his scalding hot chai, and put the number in his dialer.

Then decided to add the number to his contact list.

Then assigned a specific ringtone for that contact; Livin' la Vida Loca.

Then looked up the lyrics for that song.

Then watched the video for that song on YouTube while he drank a little more of the Chai.

Then realized that he was once again stalling. He cursed to himself, and pulled up the contact on his phone....

....then decided to add a tiger as the contact picture for that contact.

He shook his head. "Fuck," he said quietly, then took a long, deep breath, let it out slow, and just as he was reaching the end of that exhale, tapped the "Call" icon.