Chapter 9: Kendra Sellers

"I can't believe I did this. I can't fucking believe I did this. I'm terrible. I'm the worst daughter probably ever. I've even disappointed my idol. I'm literal human garbage, truly the lowest of the-"

"Can you wait until we're on the ground to mope?" Beatrice said. "I'm trying to concentrate on flying this thing and your constant whining is very distracting."

"Sorry." Charlie said as she trembled and squeezed Beatrice's waist. "This is a lot scarier when I'm not blindfolded. I think it's exasterbating the anxiety I feel about doing this."

"Well- just try not to move around too much."

"Are you sure no one can see us?"

"Yes. We're invisible."

Charlie looked down at her feet, but she could see them perfectly fine. She could see Beatrice as well. Even though her father's company made cloaking devices all the time, Charlie still wasn't very sure how they worked. In fact, this was first time she had actually seen one being used in person.

The ground below them zipped by so fast that Charlie couldn't even really make out where they where. She could only judge by the derelict, but tall buildings that they were somewhere south of New Atlanta, and probably heading further out of the city.

"Are we leaving the city?" She asked.

"Yes. I want to get a little ways away from the search effort." Beatrice said.

Charlie nodded and pressed her face firmly into Beatrice's back, not wanting to see any more of the scenery rushing around her for fear of throwing up.

Instead of panicking out loud, she settled for having a mild anxiety attack in the comfort of her mind.

They came down in a dirty ally way that smelled like piss and old garbage. Charlie had calmed down a good bit, and her heart was no longer threatening to pound it's way right out of her chest.

"That was pretty scary." She said.

"Yeah, it's actually pretty dangerous." Beatrice said with a little bit of a laugh. "A lot of people kill themselves with those things. I'm surprised your family's company hasn't been sued about it before."

Charlie was quick to reply.

"Oh, we have. A lot of times actually."

Beatrice looked like she was going to say something, but just shook her head instead.

"Nevermind- follow me."

She ducked behind a dumpster and Charlie reluctantly followed suit.

Beatrice crouched down as she removed her helmet and fished around in her bag, pulling out two small, triangular devices. She handed one to Charlie, and pressed the other to her collar bone.

The device beeped twice, and Beatrice's entire body flickered briefly. Suddenly, it was like a different person was there. Her skin was warmer, her eyes were blue, and her pale blonde hair was now dark brown.

"Here, go ahead and activate yours as well." Beatrice said. She pressed the device to Charlie's chest and turned it on.

Charlie could feel little jolts of electricity begin to tingle on the surface of her skin, but she couldn't see what she looked like. Her hands seemed pale, and her fingernails were painted red. That was about all she could tell.

"How do I look?" Charlie asked.

"Well, you're a ginger." Beatrice said as she zipped her helmet into her duffel bag.

"Oh sweet. White privilege." Charlie joked.

"Come one." Beatrice said, taking her by the hand. "We need to find a place to stay for the night. That's our priority right now."

"You mean you don't have any other secret hideouts scattered around the state?" Charlie asked warily.

"I'm afraid not." Beatrice said.

"What's your plan, then?"

"I was really just planning on finding an abandoned building to squat in for a few days while I get a real plan together."

Charlie wrinkled her nose. "Ew. I don't want to squat in some gross old abandoned building."

"Well, then you probably shouldn't have come with me." Beatrice said. "You should have went back with Lin so you could bask in your daddy's money."

Charlie narrowed her eyes, but she tried not to focus on that second part. "Can't we get a hotel?"

"I only have like- maybe two hundred dollars total."

"But I've got four thousand! In cash!" Charlie said, pulling out her wallet. However, a sudden realization quickly put the idea out of her mind. "But I guess we need IDs to check in."

A somewhat guilty, somewhat pensive look passed over Beatrice's face. Charlie quickly took notice.

"Can you get us fake IDs?!"

Beatrice groaned. "I'm not taking any of your money for a hotel room when we could stay somewhere for free."

"Come on." Charlie rolled her eyes. "It's more for me than for you anyway."

Beatrice sighed, and bent to start rummaging through her duffle bag. She pulled out a square device that looked almost like a toaster oven, only much smaller. As she started typing on the touch screen on the side, she turned to Charlie.

"Could you bring me a couple of plastic bottles from the dumpster?"

Charlie did as she was told, reluctantly fishing out two or three bottles, and bringing them to Beatrice.

Beatrice clenched her fist, and crushed them into a compact square. Charlie looked on with wonder as Beatrice fed it into the machine, and moments later, a square piece of plastic emerged from the little door on the machine.

Beatrice pulled it out, and waved it in the air for a moment like a Polaroid before handing it to Charlie.

"Careful. It's still a little hot."

Charlie looked down to see the image of a generic red headed woman plastered on the card, just below the name Kendra Sellers. Charlie held it up the light, but it looked as legit as any other ID to her.

Beatrice did the same fiddled with the machine a little while longer, and it soon produced a second one, which she waved off before slipping it into her pocket.

"Now, let's find a hotel!" Charlie said. "I'm ready to get out of this disgusting allyway."

"How do we find one?" Beatrice asked. "I've never been in a hotel before."

"Let's find a cafe." Charlie said. "They'll probably have a visitor's station we can use."

Beatrice looked disgruntled, but said nothing. She followed silently behind Charlie, arms grumpily folded across her chest, as Charlie found the closest cafe.

Even though they were at the next city outside of New Atlanta, it was still very busy inside and Beatrice seemed visibly uncomfortable being in such a large crowd of people. Charlie tried to hand Beatrice some money for coffee in an effort to get her to go away while Charlie booked the hotel.

"I don't need your charity. I have my own money." Beatrice scoffed as she turned to head towards the line.

Well, that didn't work how I wanted it to but hey- it worked nonetheless!

Charlie turned to the visitor's station started to look through hotel listings. She didn't want Beatrice around, because she knew the woman would be urging her to pick the cheapest, shadiest, pay by the hour-est place she could find, and Charlie wasn't in the mood for it.

Instead, Charlie quietly booked a much nicer place for them to stay at. It wasn't what Charlie would call outrageously expensive, but it wasn't certainly a lot closer to Charlie's usual comfort level.

Charlie printed out the reservation ticket and a map just as Beatrice walked back over to her with a drink in hand.

"You got it?" She asked.

"Yep!" Charlie said cheerfully as she held up the small piece of paper with a barcode.

"Alright then."

They left the cafe, and Charlie guided them through the busy city streets, only taking them on a wrong turn a couple of times. After a few blocks, they came up to the building. It was about twenty stories tall, and the silvery windows glinted in the midday sun.

Beatrice let out an annoyed sigh.

"Please tell me this isn't the place."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Charlie said, feigning ignorance.

"You couldn't have found somewhere cheaper?"

Charlie rolled her eyes and didn't respond in an effort to try and give Beatrice a taste of her own medicine, though she didn't seem to take much notice. Still, Charlie tried to keep up the silent treatment as she walked inside the hotel.

Charlie checked in as Ms. Kendra Sellers, and Beatrice looked nervously overwhelmed as she looked around the lobby beside her.

A part of Charlie was nervous that the man checking them in would be able to tell the ID was fake, but he handed her their room keys without so much as a pause.

Their room was on the top floor, at the end of a hallway. The entire elevator ride up to it, Beatrice looked annoyed and disgruntled and Charlie tried to stay silent.

Beatrice's frown only grew deeper when Charlie opened up the room and she saw how nice it was.

Charlie, however, was focused on something else. She ran in, and quickly threw herself onto the bed. It smelled like clean linens and air conditioning, and it was the most comfortable thing she had laid on in over a week.

"Oh, yeah. This is much better." She said, mostly to herself.

"If you're done displaying your love for rampant consumerism, try keeping it down. Take a nap or something. I need to work out a plan."

Charlie sat back upright.

"Wait, I don't get to help make the plan? I came with you to help you!"

"Really?" Beatrice said. "I thought you just came with me because it seemed like a fun little field trip for you."

"No!" Charlie said defensively. "I know I might seem kind of careless and goofy, but I care about this just as much as you do!"

A look of confusion passed over Beatrice's face.

"What? Why? You don't even know what's in the vault."

"I..."

Shit. I said too much. It's not like I really know what I'm doing right now anyway. I just know I want to help.

"Well, if you're not telling me what's in the vault, then I'm not telling you why I care so much about helping you!" Charlie said.

"Fine by me." Beatrice said indifferently. "Anyway, before we can really come up with a plan, we need to see what Lin is going to do."

"What do you think he's going to do?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know. He could tell the authorities you came with me willingly, or he might lie and say I was already gone when he got to my apartment." Beatrice said.

"If he tells them I went willingly, you don't think the ransom will work anymore?" Charlie asked.

"Probably not." Beatrice said. "So we'll have to resort to my plan B."

"And what's that?"

"I'll sneak into Delacqua Tech and just steal what's in the vault." Beatrice said. "If it comes to that, then you'll actually be useful."

"Hey! Actually useful?!" Charlie scowled at her.

"Yes. I assume you're familiar with the layout of the building?" Beatrice said.

"I mean, yeah." Charlie said. "I practically grew up in that building. But, I mean, I'm not an expert on the security systems we have or anything."

Harleigh might be. Charlie thought. But if I asked her to help Shadow Witch, she'd think I was crazy.

"Still. Anything you can tell me could be helpful." She said. "Think of every security system you know about and write it down."

"Okay." Charlie nodded.

"I think as far as actions go, it's best we lay low until the authorities respond. We'll use their next move to calculate ours, and we won't give them anything to use against us."

"That means we can watch movies or something in the meantime, right?!" Charlie said excitedly. "Or we could order room service and get a whole cake!"

Beatrice sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You can do whatever you want. I'm going to be over at this desk in the corner, working very quietly." She said evenly.

"Okay. Sure." Charlie said with a shrug and a smile.

Beatrice gave her a strange look before stalking off to the corner, probably to fiddle with her electronics some more.

Charlie tried to take her mind off of what was going on, but she had a knawing feeling in the pit of her stomach. She kept trying to convince herself that she had done the right thing, but part of her didn't agree.

Part of her kept saying that she should have stayed out of it, and left the heroics to the real heroes.