Renaissance Smith: 10/21/96 (10/28/96)

 (Beth Miller)

More Events of 10/28/96

Dear Mr. Diary,

Let's see. The first significant thing that happened after we found out where the package was going was that John left. Just like that. I had no idea where he'd gone or for how long, but our little group was suddenly lacking one shapeshifter. Explanations later.

Ok, the rest of us wasted a whole bunch of time arguing about how we should go about getting the package. (Surprise, surprise.) This led into an interesting discussion on what we should do with the Weather Machine once we get it in our possession. It appeared that Eric had just received a call from some bigshot in the Order of Hermes called Master Porthos, who thought we should give it to him, instead. He wanted to disconstruct it. I know I'm no matter mage, but I couldn't quite see the difference between that and destroying it. And we already know destroying it would be bad.

So we aired our differences. It turned out that not many of us liked or trusted Mr. Forteau much at all. It was essentially Reuben and I arguing against the rest of the group. While on the ride to the Post office, we talked to Master Porthos. After much discussion with him and among ourselves, we decided to go ahead and take the thing to Mr. Forteau, after all. Cab took part in this discussion by cellular phone; she had borrowed Daedalus's motorcycle and gone off to check out something; she didn't really say what.

At the post office, we split. Nathaniel, Daedalus and I went inside and Reuben and Eric kept a lookout from the car. Important note: we took Nathaniel's rental car. Inside, Nathaniel looked at the Wanted posters, I browsed through designer stamps, and Daedalus got his computer to forge a package slip so he could pick up the package.

The postal worker disappeared into the back to get the package. Daedalus went outside to open the trunk, and the next thing I knew, there were flashing lights and police sirens everywhere. I was inside, so I stayed there, plastering myself to the window and staring out like any idiot gawker.

The cop who was in charge out there was shouting loudly enough to be heard back at the Chantry, so I had no trouble telling what was going on. He claimed that there was cocaine in the package, and he busted it open to prove it. I was holding my breath, waiting for little miniature tornadoes and the like to come spewing out of the carcass of the machine, but nothing like that happened. In fact, it was mostly empty. I figured out pretty quickly that the machine was probably never in this box. I thought it was probably a trap set for someone who wanted it, but whether us or the intended recipient, or someone else, I had no idea.

Anyway, the lack of cocaine didn't seem to bother the cop much. He said he knew it had been there, so he arrested the three of them, and took them away. They took the car, too, leaving the other two of us stranded. Nathaniel and I met up outside, and were about to try to call Cab, when she pulled into the parking lot on the motorcycle. I gave her my car keys and she went back to the Place to get my car so we could all get back. We filled her in on the drive.

KC wasn't at the Place when we got there, but she called a little bit later asking for a ride home. She'd gone to take a look at the intended party sight.