Magic World (working title): Chapter 10 part 10

Gary looked over his choices, dismissing the construction workers who all sat together chatting away, their hands dirty, their boots muddy, and they were all carrying various hats, gloves, jackets, and safety glasses.

That just left Tweed, Leatherman, and Zebra with a Sunburn.

After a few moments, he dismissed tweed. He knew very little about Jackie, but Tweed was habitually looking at his smartphone, which was on the table in front of him, and he had a nervous twitch which looked like the result of too many cups of coffee, and too little sleep. He also hummed to himself in a rather cheerful way that reminded Gary of the little gnomish wizards that ran around in World of Warcraft.

He was about to approach the guy in the leathers, but noticed a couple of things. First, his watch was far too gold and shiny, his boots were far to polished, and his teeth were too white. The leather jacket showed no signs of wear and tear. Plus his keychain had a BMW keyless ignition fob which was only available on their motorcycle models from the last couple of years. That type of vehicle seemed far to flashy for someone who acted so paranoid.

That left Zebra man. He wasn't sure he was right though until he spotted something behind the counter.

He sat down across from the newspaper. The headline read, "Explosion in Storage Park" with the subheading "Four deaths, cause still unknown."

Gary shook his head. He knew he should have seen that...

"So, Sonka huh?"

The paper rustled  slightly, and the person behind it cleared his throat. Gary could see through the glass tabletop that his contact was wearing black combat boots, and blue jeans, both worn and faded. The boots especially seemed to have many layers of multicolored dirt.

"I wasn't convinced that it was you, until I looked behind the counter and saw the wide angle mirror, which, from your angle allows you to see almost every part of the room, and even into the back." Gary was typing away on his phone now, his head hunched down, and squinting at the screen. "I mean I know I am personally quite paranoid, and even obsessive sometimes, but when I play paranoid, I go all... out." He tapped a button on his phone and suddenly several different live cameras came up on his screen. He set the phone up on it's kickstand, and watched several images float over the screen.

"Local webcams?" asked Jacky's voice, sounding impressed despite himself. That's when Garry noticed the tiny holes in the paper. He would never have noticed them if Jackie hadn't drawn attention to the fact that he could see through it.

Gary scoffed. "Well, yeah, But also cell cams, traffic cams, hell anything that has a 'Cam' in it."

Jackie paused a moment and went very still. Then he said "Anyone coming from outside?"

Gary shrugged. "Define 'anyone.'"

"Mercenaries," explained Jackie. "Anyone in black tactical gear with guns. Also biker gangs, anyone with a goat's head on their kit."

"Oh, those guys," Gary snorted. "I'm pretty sure most of them are over at the other Sonka. You know, the one that's actually CALLED The Sonka Pub?" He sighed in slight annoyance. "You know I've met some paranoid people in my time, but you off the grid. But no, no mercenaries either."

Jackie seemed to consider that for a moment, then slowly lowered the newspaper.

He had a short haircut, not exactly a marine buzzcut, but similar in style.... actually he was reminded strongly of Henry Rollins in terms of young face, and square jaw, but Jackie had more lines, some that looked like scars, but most looked weathered, especially around the eyes, which seemed haunted. He was wearing a leather vest over a denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up. On the breast pocket was a devil head sporting the legend "Red Devils MC."

He too was looking Gary over. "So... our friend didn't mention you were a gnome."

Gary smirked. "He also didn't mention you were a douchbag."