Chapter 6
08:57 the clock on my tablet said. I’d been waiting in the chat room for five minutes. My hands were sweaty. My heart pounded. If everything turned out as I planned it, I’d be a very wealthy woman by the end of the week.
08:58. I thought I saw a person sign in, and my breath left me. Then I saw it was just the flickering of an ad on the side of the screen.
08:59. I’m staring at the screen. He’s got to come. He hates her as much as I. He’d come even if he wasn’t willing to do it. That’s how it’s done.
09:00. I’m expecting his name to appear at any second. Perhaps he’ll come with his guy. Then we can discuss how we’re going to get her out of our life. Forever.
09:03. What happened to the last three minutes? Did I pass out and miss his arrival? Where is he? He should have been here three minutes ago. I begin to think he’s not going to show up.
09:04. If he doesn’t show, what am I going to do? I’d have to find someone to take her off my hands and that would cost me. But if he took her…
09:05. Atrox’s name appears on my screen. My speeding heart slows down. Everything’s going to be alright. In a few seconds I’d know his answer. All I needed to do was breathe.
Atrox: “I’ll do it.”
Every worry and anxiety I’d been feeling disappeared as if it had never existed. He’d do it. He had a guy who’d take Meredith off my hands for me.
Atrox: “But it’ll cost you.”
Aduro: “That wasn’t our agreement.” How dare he try to get money out of me? I was already going to let him and his friends keep the money she gave him. I just wanted the jewels. But if he demanded money…
Atrox: “He won’t do it without money.”
Aduro: “He’ll get money from the company he gives her to.”
Atrox: “He wants more.”
Aduro: “How much more?” How much more money did this bloodsucking cretin want?
Atrox: “Five times the finder’s fee.”
Five times!? Is he crazy? For that kind of money I could hire someone to kidnap twenty people and ship them off to Barathrum. These guys thought they were going rip me off. They were about to learn exactly what they were up against.
Aduro: “Zero times the finder’s fee and I don’t inform Latens or Fumantes about our plans.”
My words were a bluff. I had no real intention of telling Meredith anything, but if Atrox thought I would, there was a chance he wouldn’t screw around with me as he currently was. As for Latens, I didn’t really care if his buddy knew or not. In fact he’d probably already told Latens all about what I wanted to do after his little deal with Meredith was concluded. But if he hadn’t, and he didn’t want Latens to know, I could use this threat as a huge bargaining chip.
Atrox: “If you tell her, you’ll never get rid of her.”
Aduro: “There’s more than one way to skin a pest. Your guy keeps the finder’s fee, you keep the money she gives you, and we all walk away from this deal happy.”
Atrox: “What about the…goods?”
Aduro: “You mean the jewels? Those will be going to a very good home.” Mine.
Atrox: “How did you –?” Atrox stopped typing, evidently realizing he’d almost admitted that it was jewels they were giving Meredith.
Aduro: “I have my ways. Do we have an agreement?”
Atrox was silent. I could picture him talking to his “guy”, trying to figure out if they could get anything out of me. But they wouldn’t. There were enough thugs in the city who would willingly take her off my hands for a minimal price. I didn’t need them. It was just very convenient to use them.
Atrox: “Yes, we have an agreement. What is her real name and location?”
Aduro: “Patience. I’ll give you everything you need to know closer to the date. We’ll talk again the day before the delivery. After Fumantes makes the arrangements with Latens.”
Atrox: “Fine.” But I could feel he wasn’t happy. Nobody in his position would have been happy, but I’d learned to keep my cards very close to my chest. Giving information too early would jeopardize my chances of getting the jewels.
The jewels. I logged off the chat room and allowed my mind to drift away to the various items I would soon have within my grasp. Would they be exclusively precious stones? Or would there be a few one of a kind gems just waiting to see the light of day?
And what settings would these beautiful and valuable stones be set in? I preferred necklaces myself, but I’d never say no to rings, bracelets, pendants, broaches, or earrings.
The possibilities and combinations were endless.
Just like the possibilities as to which planet was the Planet of Riches. This shift in thoughts reminded me of the huge folder named Planet of Riches, which was in the subfolder of a subfolder of a subfolder, et cetera, until it was finally under the large folder of “Projects.” If I’d been her, I’d have created a shortcut to get to it easier, but evidently, shortcuts weren’t her style because there were none on her desktop.
I connected my tablet back to Meredith’s and accessed the directory. At first glance, it looked as if she’d been doing research on the planet for a school project.
But I knew better. Our project wasn’t on the Planet of Riches and I’d already noted she’d done no research on our real project topic. So why did she have so much information on this one topic?
As I opened documents and scanned them, I saw the folder was full of books and articles about the planet. Except for one document, Search the Universe, which was a piece of software I’d never seen before.
I opened Search the Universe and the first thing which came up was a query box. “Would you like to continue your previous session?” I clicked yes and instantly was presented with a search box full of search inquiries.
As I read through the search parameters Meredith had inputted, a crazy idea came into my mind.
“No. She’s not…She couldn’t be…” Half-formed ideas came and went through my mind. But they couldn’t be true. Surely nobody believed they could find it by using a program.
“Why not?” The question escaped me before I realized it had formed on my lips. Why couldn’t a program be used to find the Planet of Riches?
“But if it was that easy, everyone would have thought of it. And it wouldn’t be a myth. But what if they hadn’t used the right search parameters?”
This newest question stopped me in my tracks. “That’s what she’s doing. She’s trying to find the planet by using the right search parameters.”
I stared at my tablet, lost in the implications. If I found the planet…I would be rich. I’d be a legend. “Who am I kidding, I wouldn’t tell a soul. I’d keep the planet a secret and exploit it for my own betterment.”
I hit the search button and watched as the results came up. Found: About Seven Octogintillion Planets. “Maybe this won’t be as simple as I thought,” I said, staring at the outrageously large number of results.
Her search parameters must be flawed. This was the first thought that rolled through my mind. How could her search yield so many planets if she’d inputted the relevant parameters?
I decided to see what the program could do before going to the trouble of copying the entire program to my own systems. Clearing out the parameter’s Meredith had put, I started out with the scarce amount of information I knew about the Planet of Riches. It had to have minerals and/or gemstones. A breathable atmosphere was a must. Metal rich.
I thought for a few minutes, trying to come up with some other distinguishing features which would help narrow down the results, but couldn’t come up with any so I pushed search.
Found: About Five Duocentrillion Planets.
Really? That many? I relooked at my parameters and had to acknowledge that they had been pretty general. I’d have to get very specific if I was to find the planet I was looking for.
A loud beeping rang through my apartment, breaking my train of thought. Looking down at my phone, I saw a message had appea
red on the screen. In bold red letters, the message said, “You have twenty minutes to make it to Advanced Yeast Creations.”
“Damn.” I thought I had more time before class. Checking the time, I saw my alarm was correct. In nineteen minutes, I’d be expected to present my chocolate babka to the class for taste testing.
(A babka, for people who aren’t familiar with obscure yeast products, is a sweet yeast cake. There are many different versions of babka depending on what background you come from, or what style you decide to bake, but the one we were assigned to make was the Eastern Oland version. It kind of had the shape of a tall bundt cake, and was traditionally only topped with icing and decorated with candied fruit. And sometimes rum.
Our assignment, however, had been to think outside the proverbial babka and to do something different. I’d chosen chocolate because I loved chocolate in all it’s unique flavors, but also because I’d be staying close to the traditional roots of the babka. I figured that if they’d been making babka’s one way for hundreds of years, they’ve got to know what they were doing, so why try to go completely away from tradition?
But babka making wasn’t for the person who was in a rush because the rising steps alone took three or more hours, as I’d learned much to my detriment the first time I’d tried making it. On the first trial run, I’d only given it an hour to rise, total, and, well, let’s just say things went badly. It was short and squat and way more yeasty than it should have been.
Giving it it’s proper rising time, however, meant having a nice high cake which had the perfect balance of chocolate and yeast. My final creation was perfect and I knew my class would just love it.)
As I got to my feet and walked toward my kitchen, I directed my tablet to copy every file out of Meredith’s Planet of Riches folder including the Search the Universe software and then disconnect. The copy box which came up told me it would take two hours to completely copy over everything she had.
That stopped me cold. It should have only taken five or ten minutes max. For it to take two hours…that meant either there was a lot more information I hadn’t seen or the program was inexplicably huge.
Another beeping brought me back to reality. Now I had fifteen minutes to get packed up and to my class with babka in hand. That would be a tight timeline considering it would take at least seven minutes via trolley to get to the building my class was being held in. Add to that the two minute rush to the trolley and I had less than five minutes to play around with.
No problem. I’d been under more pressure and still arrived within seconds of class starting.
I shoved everything haphazardly into my bag, grabbed the cake carrier my finished babka was in, and was out of my front door within a few minutes. I really wanted to run to the trolley stop, but I forced myself to power walk. It wouldn’t do me any good if my perfect dessert turned into a lopsided mess just because I couldn’t control myself.
I made it just in time to catch the trolley and it made record time to Confectionary Hall. Hopping off, I looked at my phone and saw I had three minutes to go up eight floors and into my classroom.
I waited for the elevator to arrive, which took another minute and a half, and watched people walk slower than sloths off the elevator. Didn’t these people think that someone might be trying to get to class on time? Some people had no consideration of the needs of others.
The elevator ride took thirty seconds and I was sliding inside the room with twenty seconds to spare.
Professor Bellaria gave me a pointed look, but said nothing. Not that he had anything to complain about. Technically, I was in class on time. If he’d wanted me here earlier, he should have made it mandatory and told us on the first day of class.
“Good morning, class. Today we shall be sampling everyone’s babka and sharing what you all learned as you made this time consuming dessert. If everyone will please put their dish on the front table, we can start the tasting.”
I followed the twenty other students and put my babka in the middle of the table. I knew from experience that Bellaria would have us move from one end of the table tasting to the other, and I always hated being the first to present something.
When they were all arranged, he took a minute to study them. “Very nice. I can see that some of you put more time on presentation than others. Always remember that no matter what you make, presentation is only second to taste. Let’s start here,” he said, stepping up to the first babka, which looked to be covered in nuts.
This started a familiar routine. Professor Bellaria would deftly slice into a babka, everyone would take a piece while the maker told about what they had found easy or tricky, and any difficulties they experienced.
Some babkas were lifeless, flat, and contained little to no flavor. Others were too yeasty. There were even a few which looked like their bakers hadn’t even used any yeast. They were so flat and without air. But a little over a handful were delicious and perfect.
Mine was one of the delicious ones.
By the time we’d finished sampling and discussing, the class period was almost over. That had to be the best part about these days. Little work except eating and listening and our homework was always the same: read up on our next project so we could discuss it during the next class period.
As the bell rang, Professor Bellaria said, “For next class, read chapter twenty-four and think about what you want to put in your stollen.”
Packing up my things, I was steps from the door when I heard my name being called. I turned around and saw Professor Bellaria summoning me back into the room.
He waited until the room was empty before saying, “I won’t keep you long. I just wanted to say that you have a lot of promise in this field. Have you ever thought of a future in the culinary arts?”
“No.” I hadn’t really thought about any career to be honest. I’d simply been trying to slide by for as long as possible.
“I’d think long and hard about it. If you decide to pursue this path, I know some excellent graduate schools which would welcome you, all expenses paid.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. “I’ll think about it,” I promised him. And I would. I would really consider his offer for if I could get a few more years of a free ride, I might be willing to go for it.
“You need to give me an answer soon, by the middle of next month at the latest. There’s paperwork which needs to be filled out and submitted in order for everything to be approved.”
“I’ll let you know by then.” I left the room with a smile, which grew even larger when I saw that all the files I’d wanted copied from Meredith were finished copying.
Everything was finally coming together.