//------------------------------// // Chapter 42  — Reorg // Story: The Runaway Bodyguard // by scifipony //------------------------------// Too many things didn't add up. Even if the other four had been caught, they would have known me as Grimoire, not Gelding. The slip up came from higher up the food chain. I knew the game wasn't over. As a result, I figured we would be followed. I made a point of walking us under a long awning where early bussers were setting up café tables on the sidewalk and preparing for the breakfast rush. Citron said, "We will be followed." I nodded. "I think you're right." Pig Pen made to swat the unicorn's ear with a hoof, but he caught it in his magic. I said, "Which is why I am going to try something really hard to do. The magic takes a lot of concentration, and I need you guys to stay in formation around me. Don't let anypony bump into me and you have to stay where I put you. Can you do that?" Crystal Skies stated "You're a mare." "And I prefer colts. Wanna date?" He grimaced and shook his head vigorously. I made the pegasus and the earth pony lean into my right and left side. I told Citron to put his hoof on the top of my hip, but he specifically kept trying not to touch me on my dock. "You sure?" he asked, his face coloring. Hung up on me being a filly, too? Really? I rolled my eyes. "Yes. Don't unbalance yourself. Can you walk three-legged? I want you to fight for us if need be." "Yeah, but—" "Good. Contact is essential, so do it." I cast Don't Look, Don't See, Don't Hear. I'd gotten it through my dense head that I'd gotten it work a few times, notably when I fled Coach the day he tried to gouge me out of a fair portion of my fight purses. Problem was, it was difficult and I couldn't really tell if it worked. I knew that when it worked, it hid everything in contact with me, otherwise my running suit would have been seen running down the street, and ponies would have looked, seen, and probably heard. I felt the equations balanced. Some of the bussers had noticed us being, well, intimate. This time when they returned with a table between them, they either ignored us really well, or the spell was working. As we walked, I detailed the limits of the spell and why they had to carefully hold on to me. They liked being invisible, but not that they might get run over if not careful. I continued west on Eastern, went south on Wolf to Wonderland Gables Street and found the address Trigger had given me on the card he had burnt on the stove. I had to dodge into the street twice to avoid dock workers, but other than that, we made a good steady pace as the sun started to warm my dark cloak. The doorway lay open, with an earth stallion in a black jacket and black tee-shirt slouching in the shadows near by. Three abreast wasn't easy, but I took it slow and relied on the parameters of the spell. I could hear the soft sound of our hoof falls, the shishing of Crystal Skies' feathers and an errant clank from Pig Pen's chain, but nopony else would so long as I kept aware of every thing around me. We weren't invisible. Everypony just didn't want to notice us. The spell gloss notes had warned that young foals, dogs, and cameras would all register our presence. None were nearby. We walked down a hall and in a few minutes, found a meeting hall. Additional guards waited in the hall, but the doorway was between them and us, so we entered still unnoticed. I paused to get a really good bead on everypony there, and there were plenty. That took a minute, and fortunately nopony found a need to exit or enter. I crept forward toward an empty area, and the others kept tightly touching. That made me feel quite good. We'd all been wronged, not just me, and they understood that much. I realized the speaker on the left was the dark red pony I'd first had the pleasure of meeting six hours ago: Mr. Nopony. I looked around and didn't see Mustang, bless her heart and gizzard. He banged a hoof on the table. "Look at the time! How long are we going to wait? I told you, I didn't trust that pony from the moment I learned her name. She's trouble." "The reports were good," another pony said. These were all second level or higher in the syndicate. I recognized none, though the gang attire on some completely confirmed their affiliation. "The reports were wrong." "We can't search the city, not in the morning rush." "Which gets worse every minute we wait." He banged both forehooves on the table, then paced behind it. "At this point, my shipment is probably lost. The client is at the coffeehouse waiting. What do we tell him?" "Cool your horseshoes. I'm sure Grimoire was waylaid by the trouble and sent the mule on a long detour." "Right." He threw his hooves in the air. "It's lost. The shipment's lost." Mule echoed in my head, and I felt the others tense up. I hadn't given anypony details of what had transpired prior to our meetup, but this was a setup. No pony in my team had been designated as the mule except me and I'd come with the product. My homies could deduce why the other members of the team were MIA. With my anger peaking, I spun up Levitate, then for the heck of it, I tried juggling Force. Today, right now, it might just work. Somehow, all the math balanced. I saw so many digits flashing through my vision, spinning on three different axes, I was half-blinded. It didn't hurt that Force and Levitate were related, but my Don't Look, Don't See, Don't Hear didn't falter either. My anger left me hyperaware. It didn't dare falter. Maybe my magic understood that. Mr. Nopony groused, "I tripled the shipment." "What? You did what?" asked a pink mare. She looked nominally in charge and clearly middle-aged. She stood. "You what?" "The client looked ready to accept a bigger shipment, and said he had the bits. So, yeah." "No wonder you're acting like you sat in honey and the bees found you." "And the shipment is... lost. It is too late to go out to look." "No, it's not" I said, loudly and angrily, adding under my breath, "Stay with me." My team pressed against me harder. Because I spoke directly, I would be noticed. Them, maybe not. Pony eyes met mine as they searched and then did indeed notice me with a start. I felt my horn begin to overheat because of the strain. With steady and measured slowness, doing the best to be aware of each gang pony flinch and a guard sliding into the doorway, I reached under my cloak and pulled out the pasted together box. Frankly, it bobbed as if it were palsied as I floated it over to the table Mr. Nopony had so recently abused. His brown eyes followed it until I set it down. It felt good to let go of the extra spell! He didn't look up at me. I said, "What's this about a mule? You and Mustang clearly gave me the package and told me over my objections that I was now the mule. Carne Asada made a deal with me that I would never be the mule, but you told me 'join the herd, do the work.' Maybe these other ponies would like an explanation?" The fellow had a very sticky frog on his left hoof. In a quick swoop, he grabbed it, dropped it into the crook of his foreleg, and leapt for a rear door. "Tartarus with that!" I screamed and shot Force ahead of him. Luckily for my actually casting spell, other ponies dodged aside and out of my targeting range. I still missed, but the lintel of the doorway burst into flames with an explosion of splinters and greasy black smoke. Mr. Nopony reared, pedaling his legs and dropping my box of conditioner. Some ponies gathered around him, while others leapt at me. Others surged around the pink mare. Like a brown-furred Rockhoof, Pig Pen knocked me to left, hard, then shoved me to the floor hard enough that I lost all my spell prep. Crystal "The Knife" Skies screamed like a banshee as he flung out his wings. Wetness reminiscent of the color of roses sprayed. And... that may have been an ear flying toward the wall like a lopsided wren. The floor to my right burst into yellow flames hit by a bright yellow Force spell. I saw Citron spray his magic as two second levels made to escape with Mr. Nopony, one of which shot a green Force spell which set the table beyond where I'd stood on fire. I swiftly smelled burning hair and a thump as somepony yelled in pain as he rolled out flames beneath himself. "Neat Trick, Citron," I said. My chin rested on cold ceramic tile which ought not have been combustible. I lost track of what happened next, since I got piled upon under ponies that apparently thought they were protecting me, not suffocating me. Things got sorted out over the next few minutes. Apparently, I'd triggered a lower management reorganization. I later got admonished not to begin shooting when I knew that my target had grabbed something worthless. Well, worthless to them, anyway. I got grilled for over an hour, explaining all that had happened with the three other ponies backing up my story in different rooms. I also hoofed over the lined yellow paper with Detective Land Hover's name and badge number. From what the pony in charge said, I guessed Cyclone Beaujangles would consider himself luckier for what had happened to him than what might happen to Land Hover or Mr. Nopony. Nopony detailed anything. Nopony needed to. As far as the product went, I explained that, no, I wasn't stupid. Yes, it was safe. I would see it delivered in good time, if somewhat late.