Chapter 5

"Things that normal people thought were important, I thought were dumb." {Jacob Portman, pg 144 book 4}

"I should be charting maps of America!" Millard grumbled holding the chocolate sauce bottle over his bowl of ice cream.

After a handful of hours attending their assignments Miss Peregrine had collected them and had them return to Jacob's house. She remained in the Acre to continue work that needed her attention and none of them had missed just how cheerful she'd been. She thought this was a good thing, she thought all was well. She thought they just needed an adjustment period, time to swallow their bloody pride and pitch in. It seemed her concern for Aurora's potentially self harming ability had been the only factor she'd found needed tweaking, in terms of the others she was just peachy keen.

"Perplexus Anomalous is head of the blasted Mapping Department now. If the ymbrynes don't think they owe us anything for all we did, he surely does." Millard went on.

"Then you should appeal directly to him." Hugh said taking a heaping spoonful of honey straight from the jar and popping it into his mouth.

"I'll do that." Millard said adding a mountain of whipped topping into his bowl.

Aurora was seated next to him at the island in the kitchen while the younger ones were watching a cartoon in the other room. She was picking the pepperoni off the top of a cold piece of pizza and popping them into her mouth while she contemplated how she would go about asking Millard about his assignment. Had the Peculiar Information office decided where they wanted to send him yet? Did he think he was going to be leaving soon? In her worry she started tearing apart a piece of pepperoni into little bits rather then eat it.

"How can they stick us with grunt work?" Enoch asked filling another mug with soda, a beverage he'd seemed to take a strong liking to. "Do you know what the Dead Letters Office actually is? Five percent dead rising, ninety five percent filing paperwork! This is what they think is a meaningful use of my abilities? After what we pulled off in the Library of Souls! We saved the ymbrynes' hides. They should either let us have a nice long holiday, or give us shiny jobs with loads of underlings beneath us."

"I wouldn't say it precisely that way." Horace said eating right out of the pan of leftover ratatouille with a fork. "But I agree. Assistant to the anachronist in the Costumes Department? I should be advising the ymbryne council on strategy, at the very least. I can see the future, for birds' sake!"

"I thought Miss Peregrine believed in us." Olive said looking sadly down into her melting ice cream.

"She does." Aurora spoke up, "It's the other ymbrynes. They don't know us as well."

"They're threatened by us." Enoch went on, "These assignments? They're meant to send a message. You're still just peculiar children."

"They gave me three shifts a week guarding ymbrynes during wight interrogations." Emma said before taking a bite of cold pizza. Then she turned to Jacob, "What did they give you?"

"Motivational speaker."

"What the devil is that?" Hugh asked around another mouthful of honey.

"I'm supposed to go around to different loops telling people about myself."

"For what?" Olive asked.

He shrugged, "To. . . inspire them?"

"I can't see it." Emma shook her head, "Don't take this the wrong way, I think you're very inspiring. I just. . . can't see it."

"Me neither. That's why I'm not going to do it."

"Really? So what are you going to do?"

"Something else." He was looking down at his own plate of leftovers as he said it and the conversation grew quiet as all their minds returned to Abe's war room. To his operations log. To what they knew about that Miss Peregrine didn't.

They continued picking at their food, some joining Claire, Bronwyn and the twins in the other room to watch television and flip through magazines. Others like Enoch and Olive stayed in the kitchen while Hugh went out into the backyard and took his honey with him. Aurora took a shower to help the tension in her shoulders ebb away and when she reentered her and Millard's room she found him reclined on the bed with remote in hand flicking through channels on the television in their room – Jake had one in every single bedroom, she still couldn't believe it!

"A little mind numbing television love?" she asked as she sat on the corner of the bed and fixed her light blue robe before continuing to dry her hair.

"I would never willingly numb my mind Darling." He joked with a chuckle, "I'm studying."

She grinned and shook her head, "Of course you are."

He continued flicking through channels, the Home Shopping Network, commercials for dog food and ladies' hair products, a preacher, a talent competition show, snippets of news, something called Star Trek and another even odder show called Real Housewives, during a car ad they played something that was supposed to be music but Aurora thought it was just noise.

"It's too much. Too loud, too fast." She said in shocked protest.

"Think of it as a vaccine. Just a bit will be enough to inoculate us against the bigger shocks of this world."

She shook her head still in awe, "The effect is dizzying. Enoch was right, normals have melted their brains."

"You're agreeing with Enoch?" he asked with another chuckle, "Perhaps the world still is about to end."

But she didn't laugh with him, instead she softly replied, "Enoch and I have been getting on better lately."

Millard muted the television, "Since when?"

Aurora took a deep breath, looking at the now silent screen, "Since I almost lost you."

The air in the room stilled and she heard Millard shift ever so slightly over the covers.

"I wouldn't have gotten you back without Enoch. . . Olive says he has a soft spot for me now, after. . . that."

Millard shifted so he was sitting beside her on the end of the bed, "I'm glad that's behind us."

"Not all of it." She murmured.

"Darling –"

"They want to take you away from me again." She said getting the words out in a rush before she lost her nerve. "Did they mention where, or when they want you to go?"

"It didn't come up. Today was more of an orientation."

"But it will be soon. If they're as eager as Miss Cuckoo is."

She felt him wipe away a tear from the outer corner of her eye with his thumb that she hadn't realized had formed. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about this."

"What we put off today will only hang over our heads tomorrow."

He was quiet for a moment, "We could run away."

She chucked sadly at his lame attempt to distract her.

"I mean it." He said with a smile in his voice, "We'll go as far as we can, find the most normal of normal places in America and no one will ever find us."

Her next chuckle was more sincere as Millard shuffled closer and pressed his forehead to hers while he cupped her face.

"They can't make me do anything I don't want to. And I don't, for one moment want to be that far from you, ever again."

She felt him lean in closer but a knock on the door interrupted them as they each pulled back and Aurora called, "Come in."

Hugh opened the door with a sheepish grin, "Sorry to disturb you two, but someone just came through the pocket loop looking for you."

"Who?" Millard asked sounding baffled. Then Hugh opened the door a bit wider and a white fur ball came walking through with her tail in the air.

"Mira!" Aurora cried with a grin. She got up and instantly scooped up the little white kitten. Mira only let her hold her for a moment before she squirmed her way up Aurora pressing her paws into her shoulder and rubbed her head against her cheek while she purred. Millard stood from the bed and joined them, petting Mira between her ears.

"It's good to see you again."

Aurora giggled as Mira licked her cheek with her little sandpaper tongue. Hugh left the door open as he bowed out and returned downstairs with a smile. For a while all she and Millard did was sit on the bed with Mira taking turns petting her and playing with a shoelace. Millard wiggled it back and forth as Mira pawed at it trying to catch the plastic tip.

Aurora didn't realize how late it was getting until she glanced out the window and saw how dark it was outside.

"Miss Peregrine still isn't back yet?"

Millard paused and Mira succeeded in getting the shoelace, which she promptly began chewing on. "She must have a lot going on."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure."

"Mill." Aurora said like she was scolding a child.

"What?" he asked in an innocent tone.

"I know you better then you think. There's no chance in the slightest that you didn't sneak off at some point today and listen in on something not meant for you to hear."

His sleeve moved as he placed his hand over his heart, playing at being offended, "Darling, I'm shocked and dismayed."

She laughed and gave him a playful shove.

"Alright. . . I may have overheard a thing or two."

"Mmm-hmm." She rolled her eyes.

"To start the ymbrynes have heaps of traumatized peculiars now in need of care, and very obviously Devil's Acre is not an ideal place to recover from trauma. They're doing their best to make it a sanctuary, they're even in the midst of forming a new academy. The idea being returning to the mundane routine of classes could help their brains process that the danger has passed. Additionally they have approximately a hundred thousand unpleasant tasks, that's not exaggerated it's roughly the number, most of which are focused on cleaning up after the wights. There's the battle scarred compound, loops they left damaged but not quite destroyed, many of the addicts have been rounded up and are receiving treatment for their addiction but it's impossible to know if the ymbrynes got them all, it's not as if there was a list. And of course there are those in denial that they even need treatment. The most unsettling is the figuring out of who can be trusted. So many peculiars worked with the wights either by force or to a degree that is technically treason. There are trials to be held but first need to be scheduled and the ones running such things are balancing a dozen other tasks daily. At most peculiardom had only a few cases per year now we have dozens all at once. On top of that are the meetings, and the fact that the ymbrynes are being challenged."

"Challenged?" She asked, "By who?"

"There are some, a growing number as I understand it, who are saying it's time for a change in how we govern ourselves. That the ymbryne system is outmoded. That the world has changed and we must change with it."

"That alone is enough of a stress."

"More so are the ones who no longer wish to live in loops."

"Don't they. . . have to?"

"Yes – unless they were to attempt a large scale loop collapse."

"Like. . . what we did?"

"Precisely. Our internal clock reset raised enough eyebrows that people are now questioning why can't all peculiars have the same. And in the spirit of equality I do agree. On the other side of the coin they have no idea just how dangerous it was when we did it the first time."

"And that in turn gives them another thing to use against the ymbrynes."

"The idea that they have the power to do so but won't only makes it look like they want to keep people under their power. Until we can understand the loop collapse phenomenon more completely, make a proper science of it, we cannot say it's possible to do such a thing safely."

"Millard this is more then just overhearing 'a thing or two'."

He chuckled guiltily.

They continued to discuss the pros and cons of each subject Millard had been privy to. But after about another hour they were getting tired and Millard decided to take a shower before bed.

Aurora scooped up Mira who had also fallen asleep and cradled her in her arms as she stroked down her back. It was only a flash of movement outside the door that grabbed her attention enough to make her move out of bed.

Out in the dark hall she spotted Jake.

"Jacob?" she asked and he halted turning to her framed in the light coming from her room. His body language was stiff and she immediately knew he was doing something he knew he shouldn't. Then she noticed Abe's log book under his arm.

"Aurora –"

"What are you doing with that?"

He sighed, "Cover for me."

"What?"

"Just for an hour or two. I need to go back to the Acre."

"Why? For what?"

"There's no time to explain. It's just a hunch. . . please don't say anything."

She paused. There was so much going on right now, so much inside her that was conflicting. So much that she just didn't have the energy for after such a long day. She sighed and nodded, "Okay."

He ran back to the lobby of the ministry building but the clerk was already gone. His window was shut and there was no one behind it. Moving to the window beside it Jake asked the woman there if she knew where the clerk was.

"Who?" she asked squinting through her glasses.

"The man who works right there, Lester Noble."

"I don't know any Lester Noble." she said tapping her fountain pen on the desk, "But the chap who works next to me just left for the day. You might still catch him if you - oh there he is."

She pointed across the lobby and Jacob turned to see the clerk hurrying toward the exit. Jake muttered a quick thanks and ran across the room catching him just before he made it through the door and stood in front of him.

"Lester Noble." he said.

The clerk stopped and turned a bit pale, "My name is Stevenson. And you're blocking my way."

He tried to push his way past but Jacob stood his ground and Lester clearly didn't want to make a scene.

"Your name is Lester Noble Jr. And you're faking a British accent."

Pulling the photo from his grandfather's log book Jake held it up enough for him to see. He froze, then snatched it, when he looked up and met Jacob's eyes again, he seemed afraid.

"What do you want?" he whispered.

"To get in contact with someone."

His gaze flicked across the lobby then back to Jacob, "Walk down that hall. Meet me at room one thirty-seven in two minutes. We can't be seen walking together."

Jacob nodded before he snatched the photo back, "I'm keeping this. For now."

Two minutes later Lester met him outside a plain wooden door that was only marked with a number. He fumbled with the keys his hands were shaking so badly. They went inside and Lester closed and locked the door. The room was small and filled with manila file folders, wall to wall, floor to ceiling.

"Look kid." he said turning to Jake with his hands pressed together, "I'm not a criminal okay?" His British accent had vanished, replaced by a slight southern twang, "There are some bad people in America, and I couldn't let them find me. I changed my name when I got here. I never thought I'd hear the old one again."

"Were the hollows over there really that much worse than the ones here?"

"They were bad, but that's not why I left. It was the peculiars. They're crazy."

"How?"

Lester shook his head, "I'm breaking about a hundred rules, taking you back here. If you want a file, okay, but there's no time for stories."

"Fine. What do you have on the hollow hunters?"

Lester hesitated, "Who?"

"I know you know who I'm talking about." Jacob said taking out the log book and flipping it open to Lester's mission page. It said Lester had been living in a loop of January 5, 1935 in Anniston, Alabama. Until the loop had been raided and its ymbryne killed. Abe and someone named H had found Lester holed up in a motel in the present, then 1983, where he'd been in bad danger of aging forward. They'd managed to ferry him to safety in another loop. He must have found his way to England sometime after that.

"How do you have all this?" Lester asked, his whole body gone rigid.

"Abe was my grandfather."

"He told you about me?"

"Not so much. Look, there's nothing to worry about and there's no need to go into many details. I'm not here to dig up bodies from your past. I just need to get in touch with the one called H. You spent time with him. You work here, in the inner sanctum. . . You're my best bet."

He sighed and seemed to relax a little. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned over against one of the shelves. "They didn't leave me their business card or anything. And even if they had, that was a long time ago."

"I was hoping there might be something in your files. The ymbrynes must have had some way to get in touch with them."

"So why don't you ask the ymbrynes?"

Now he was getting a little too comfortable. "I'm trying to be discreet. But if I have to, I'll be sure to let them know it was Lester Noble Jr. who referred me to them."

He frowned, "Okay then. Let me see what I have."

He turned and walked down a wall, running his index finger along the folders as he went. He pulled a file folder from a shelf, flipping through its contents mumbling to himself. Then crossed another wall and another shelf and pulled two more folders. After a few minutes he returned and held his hand out, in his palm was an old matchbook.

"What's this?"

"That's all there is."

Jacob took it, the matchbook was wrinkled at the edges like it had spent a lot of time in someone's pocket. The outside cover was blank and on the inside was an advertisement for a Chinese restaurant, an address and some random looking numbers and letters and a penciled note that read burn after reading. Clearly, someone had ignored those instructions.

"Now then." Lester said, "I'd say that's an even trade." he snatched the photo back, "Seeing as I could get fired for just letting you into this room, much less letting you walk out with that."

"It's just an old matchbook. What am I supposed to do with this?"

"That's for you to figure out." he went to the door and opened it, "Now do me a favor mate." he said his British accent returning, "And forget we ever met."

Lester disappeared into a crowd of others leaving the building after their shifts. Pocketing the matchbook and Abe's log under his jacket Jacob hurried back to the present, the entire time mulling over what his next move would be.

The change from the weather in the Acre to the warm Florida night shocked his system a bit but didn't stop his determination. Creeping past his own house he could see the light of the tv flickering from behind the thin curtains of the living room and continued onward toward the beach. It was the only place he could think of where he'd be assured some privacy and if anyone came to check on him he'd see them approaching.

Reaching into his pocket Jake pulled out his phone and the matchbook and tried to decipher how it could be used to contact H. As anyone from 2016 would do: he started with Google.

Typing up a few searches told him that the odd looking string of letters and numbers was actually a phone number, but an undialable one, written in an alphanumeric style that had fallen out of use in the 1960's. He tried searching the name of the restaurant advertised on the matchbook and luckily, it was still in business. Jake didn't hesitate to dial its modern phone number.

There was a series of clicks, like the call was being routed, then it began to ring. After about ten or twelve times a gruff male voice answered.

"Yeah."

"I'm calling for H. This is-"

The line went dead. He'd hung up!

Jake called back. This time he picked up after two rings.

"You got the wrong number."

"This is Jacob Portman."

There was a pause. He didn't hang up.

"I'm Abe Portman's grandson."

"So you say."

Jake could feel his heart speed up and his brain slowly processed what was happening. The number was still good. He was talking to someone who knew his grandfather. Maybe H himself.

"I can prove it."

"Let's say I believe you. Which maybe I do, maybe I don't. What does Jacob Portman want?"

"A job."

"Try the want ads."

"A job doing what you do."

"Crossword puzzles?"

"What?"

"I'm retired, son."

"What you used to do then. You and Abe and the others."

"And what do you know about that?" he asked, his tone suddenly defensive.

"I know a lot. I read Abe's mission logs."

There was a metallic squeak and then a grunt, like H had just risen from a chair.

"And?"

"And I want to help. I know there are still hollowgast out there. Maybe not a lot of them, but even one could cause serious trouble. And there's plenty to do besides that."

"That's charitable of you, son. But we're not in business anymore."

"Why not? Because Abe died?"

"Because we got old."

"Well then I'll start it up again. I have friends who can help too. A new generation."

A cupboard slapped shut, a spoon tinkled in a cup. "You ever see a hollow in person?"

"I have. And I've killed them."

"Is that right?"

"You didn't hear about the Library of Souls? The Battle for Devil's Acre?"

"I'm not exactly up on the latest current events."

"I can do what Abe did. I can see them. Control them too."

"You know. . . " he sipped his drink loudly, "Maybe I did hear something about you."

"You did?"

"Yeah. You're raw, untested, impulsive. And in our line of work that gets you killed real fast."

Jake grit his teeth together but managed to keep his voice even and calm. "I know I have a lot to learn. But I think I have a lot to offer too."

"You're serious huh?" he sounded both amused and impressed.

"I am."

"All right. You talked yourself into a job interview."

"This wasn't it?"

He laughed, "Not even close."

"Okay, well what do I –"

"Don't call again. I'll call you."

Then the line went dead.

Aurora nervously paced the floor after Jacob left, Mira was still in her arms and she stroked the kitten's fur at a fast enough pace that it was obvious she was anything but calm. When Mira woke up she would occasionally lick Aurora's arm to try and comfort her but it did little to help.

When she heard Millard turn off the water from his shower she headed downstairs. She knew she'd told Jacob she'd cover for him, the problem was she had no idea how. She couldn't lie to Millard, he knew her too well, so she avoided him. Ending up in the living room with the others she'd found them watching some zombie show. Half dead walking corpses were smashing their hands against a window trying to get to the people inside. Aurora tried to focus her attention on the conversation the boy with a red bandana and a black woman were having and for a while it did help.

Her hand moved slower over Mira in her lap as she relaxed, catching up on what the fictional characters were up to. She was surprised the gore didn't bother her, but then again, she'd been an eyewitness to what a hollowgast could do to a body.

After roughly an hour Jacob returned. He ran past the living room and Emma was quick to notice him and follow. Aurora debated going too and after a brief internalized moral debate with herself she stood and followed them.

"I made contact with one of Abe's old partners. I just talked to him on the phone." Jake was telling Emma. Her eyes grew wide as Jacob noticed Aurora and waved her over to the dark corner of the hall they were in. "This guy H, he worked with my grandfather for decades. They ran tons of missions together. But now he's old and he needs our help."

"With what?" Emma asked as Aurora gnawed her lower lip.

"A mission. Here in America."

"He should call the ymbrynes if he needs help." Emma replied.

"Our ymbrynes don't have authority in America." Jake shook his head.

"And apparently America doesn't have ymbrynes of its own." Aurora spoke up and they both turned to her. "Millard and I were discussing it, earlier at the beach."

"Why not?" Emma questioned.

She shrugged and Jacob let out a long breath.

"There are a hundred thousand things we don't know." He said, "But I do know that Abe locked that door in the woods with a passcode only I would know. And he left that mission log for me to find. And if he had any idea there was a chance you'd all be here with me, he would've meant it for you to find too."

They heard music from the living room before everything went quiet. There was the shuffle of people moving, whatever the others had been watching must have ended and they were getting up to go to bed. Jake, Emma and Aurora all shared a look before they too headed for their rooms. Aurora had no clue how she was going to get to sleep tonight, with all that her mind had to process. But she was grateful Millard was already asleep when she joined him in bed, she didn't have the energy to recount it all to him. She felt positively drained.

And her sleeping problem was solved the minute her head hit the pillow and she was out like a light.