Log: Rush Delivery

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

A courier delivers a package for Alison, and is rightly amazed by the size of the school and its caretaker.



It didn't look like any school she'd ever seen even with the kids
sitting on the lawn. It had taken her a stop in town to find this
place at all. The locals had been all too happy to give her
directions though the kid at the Chinese place had looked spooked and
hidden from her. You'd think this place was full of monsters or
something, not mutants. Rural townspeople--defined by the courier as
anything outside the NYC boroughs--were always so superstitious.

Pulling off her helmet, the courier ignored the staring kid with
the…were those gills? and leaned on the door buzzer. She yawned and
checked her watch. She had a lot to do today and this was already
taking too long.

Cain opened the door, looking down at the girl on the front step.
Helmet hair, uniform, bike in the driveway, stuffed envelope beneath
her arm - obviously a messenger of some sort.

"Who's the delivery for?" he asked, tucking his newspaper under his
arm and rummaging about for a pen.

Big. She craned her neck back, gaping. Her brain stuttered to
a stop, trying to comprehend the sheer size of the man. "Uh…" For a
moment she wondered if she'd gotten smaller because it didn't seem
possible for anyone to be that size. She wasn't short--she'd
played basketball in college and toyed with the idea of going pro--but
he was…she jerked her thoughts back around. Job. Had to do job. She
looked down at her manifest, "Blaire, Alison."

"Yeah, I'll sign for it," Cain peered over at the sending address,
then raised an eyebrow. "What's this, a court summons or something?"

She shrugged and offered him a pen and the manifest to sign. "Couldn't
say. Doesn't look like one though, too bulky," she explained,
"Probably just court docs or a contract. This was a rush job though,
didn't even have time to find someone to bring it out this way, and
had to ride out on my own."

Cain scrawled his signature at the bottom of the form, accepting the
package from the messenger. He turned, then stopped, looking back at
the bike, then at the address on the package. "You rode all the way
here? On that?"

At the answering nod, Cain smiled. "Hell of a work ethic. Here."
Reaching into his pocket, he thumbed off three crisp twenty-dollar
bills, folding them and passing them to the courier in a quick
handshake. "Don't find a lot of folks your age these days who're
willing to put that kind of leg work into their job. It's
appreciated."

She flashed a grin at him and shoved the money in a zipper. "Not at
bad as it seems. Caught a ride out on a truck, some young brat who
didn't mind breaking the limit or taking the side trip." She tucked
the manifest away and gave him a nod, "Thanks. You have a good day."
She skipped back a couple of steps and grinned at him again, "Pretty
place, by the way."

The simple observation brought a huge smile to Cain Marko's face.
"Hey, thanks. You take care." As he absently waved and walked inside,
pausing to shove the package in Alison's mail slot, he spent half a
second pondering what Alison would want from a courthouse.

Sitting down to fish the sports section out of the paper, he ignored
the quarter-page article in the Metro section: "District Court Judge
dies in chambers of heart attack, continued on page 7-C".