Chapter 18: Interlude 2- Matthew Walsh
Chapter Text
"They're back again."
Matt looks up from the computer, glancing out the window at the two girls who were just walking into the library hand-in-hand. They disappear deeper into the library, walking out of sight of the office windows and moving to one of the tables placed in a cozy place behind the stacks.
"Huh," he grunts. "Four weeks now. Good for them, I guess."
"I think it is." Jerry grins at him, hands still busy folding a sheet of protective plastic over one of the new books. Matt is briefly fascinated by the light shining from the man's bald head over the dividing screen between them, separating their workspaces from each other- and, more importantly, hiding the TV and DVD player they had stashed back there from prying eyes. "Good to see someone's getting some use outta the place. Might get them outta this shithole and into a place worth something, you know?"
He shrugs. "Not my daughter, not my problem," he replies. He does pull the register over to him and begins filling out the attendance sheets, though. Attendance to these after-school sessions is sparse enough that he can't afford to miss a single participant. Hard enough to get Blackwell to agree to pay the two of them to stay after-hours when there's only five people who attend them regularly. She'd probably just cut the hours entirely if he didn't mark down two of the five.
His computer chimes, drawing his attention to a notification on one of his taskbar icons- his email program. He groans when he opens it to find it's from Blackwell again. Another notification that the Wards bitch is going to be conducting one of her "regular searches" of the school's facilities over the week. The library is scheduled to be looked over... on Wednesday, apparently. Not that the girl actually does it as regularly as Blackwell claims- it's just another one of the tools she likes to use to try and keep everyone in line.
"Hey, Larry," he calls over his shoulder. "Blackwell says Stalker's gonna be doing another sweep of the library on Wednesday. Might want to get Kev to move his stash."
The bald man lets out a barking laugh. "God, that's what, the third one this month?"
"Second." He shakes his head. "One before that was at the end of last month. Still a pain in the ass, though."
"Yeah, you're tellin' me." Larry lets out an aggravated puff of air. "Kid's gonna move his stash if we keep makin' him move his stuff like this. Who're we gonna get our supplies from then?"
Matt shrugs. "There are plenty of dealers around the place," he reassures him. "I've been thinking of trying to find another dealer anyway, since Kevin keeps jacking up his prices."
"Dunno about that." The man tears a piece of sticky tape off the roll, placing it down on the final loose bit of covering on the book and triumphantly placing it in the completed stack. "From what he's been sayin', doesn't sound like there're many dealers around still gettin' a good supply goin'. Brotherhood's been havin' some issues with the ABB again, Lung keeps hittin' their suppliers or something."
Matt rolls his eyes in response to that. "So get another supplier," he returns. "Or not, I don't care. Fuck, whatever, prices'll fix themselves eventually. Just get Kev to move his stash so he doesn't get taken out like Oliver did, yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Larry replies dismissively. "Fuck, this is annoying. Wish Rune'd pop that bitch a good one already."
Unseen by Larry, his eyes narrow at that, actually offended. "Oi," he shoots back, trying to keep the annoyance from leaking into his voice. "Get off it, dude. You know she's doing our kids a favour keeping them away from this shit."
"Fuck," Larry says reluctantly, annoyance clear in his tone. "Yeah, god, fine, yeah, don't want Rico anywhere near this crap. Still a pain in the ass for us, though."
"Won't argue with that." Matt turns his concentration back to the email, ignoring whatever inane crap Larry's spouting now. He casually turns his head to check that Larry's still behind the divider, then hits the 'New E-Mail' button and types in an email address from memory.
Hey, it's Matt. Got Kevin to move his stash tomorrow as requested. Olivia's given him detention, so he should be up here between second and third. Cameras are set up if you can't make it. Hope this helps.
Hitting 'Send', he leans back in his chair and cracks his knuckles. "There we go," he replies, satisfied. "Told her Wednesday's all good for us. Work for you, Larry?"
There's the soft clump of another book being placed on the completed pile. "Yeah, sure. Ain't like we got much else to do, huh?"
Matt chuckles. "Well, I dunno about that. Yvette's brought me back some new DVD's from her trip up to New York. Ever heard of a movie called Transformers? Apparently a big thing over in Aleph. Cars that transform into fucking huge robots or some shit, blowing shit up all over the world."
"Huh." Larry sounds thoughtful. "Sounds like my kinda movie then. Guess it'll give us somethin' to do tomorrow after we finish cataloguin' these books, yeah?"
Matt's eye is caught by another email flashing on his computer, marked as being from '. He checks again to make sure Larry's still occupied putting covers on the books before pulling it up.
Your message has been received and approved. It has been sent on to the appropriate parties.
A copy of your message has been sent to Director Piggot of the Brockton Bay Parahuman Response Team for archival and review purposes.
Thank you for your contributions to our efforts here in Brockton Bay.
- Agent Daniels, PRT Identification Number 22147.
Do not reply to this email. If you have any further inquiries, please contact the Parahuman Response Team on one of the phone numbers provided.
"Yeah," Matt replies. "Sounds good, Larry."
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