Alyssa comes out of her room, and looks around at the empty communal area of
their hotel suite. It’s been empty for days. Mateo and Ramses are stuck is
some sort of something or other. Leona and Winona are off doing whatever,
they won’t talk about it, but it kind of sounds more personal than
operational. Arcadia and Vearden are dealing with family issues. Kivi never
lived here anyway. Marie was the last to leave, and she hasn’t called in
since. Seems mighty weird, Alyssa living here all alone. Not only is it too
much space for one person, but she has the least amount of experience with
any of this. She’s just a farm girl from Central Kansas. That’s the problem,
isn’t it? They don’t trust her with anything, so they don’t ask anything of
her. At least not anymore. They asked her for a lot in the past. The
temporal energy has dwindled, though, so she’s of no use to them as an
illusionist. Still, a quick call would be nice.
She has to do something. Living it up in this fancy place is making her feel
terrible. Maybe Marie needs her help tracking the other time travelers, but
she doesn’t know how to ask. Let’s find out where she is. Alyssa pulls out
her device, and looks for Marie’s location. Her device hasn’t moved in a
long time, and it’s not where she had her surveillance nest set up. She
zooms into the satellite view of the friend finder app, but she can’t tell
what this building is. She has to cross-reference it with the regular map.
It’s showing those coordinates to be a mental hospital, which doesn’t sound
good. No one else’s device is on, or they’ve switched off location tracking.
Either way, they’re not picking up. She can sit here alone and be useless,
or she can try to help.
Seeing no better option, Alyssa looks up the number to the hospital, and
dials. “Hello, English?” she confirms. “Yes, I’m looking for a friend. We
share our location history, and she’s been there since yesterday afternoon.”
She waits for a response. “Her name is Sydney Bristow?” It’s the alias that
Marie has been using, and apparently the name of an agent on a TV show from
her reality called Alias. “Oh, really? Well, does she have outside
communication privileges?” She does, but Marie will have to call her if
she’s feeling up to it. “My name is Alyssa, she’ll know me.” She hangs up,
and waits.
Ten minutes later, her phone rings. “Sydney, are you okay?” The phone may be
tapped, she doesn’t know what kind of laws they have over there, so stick
with the alias. “Yeah, I can see where that might get you into trouble, if
you weren’t talking to the right person. Well, how can I get you out of
there?” Marie doesn’t want to leave. “You’re happy there? What, are ya gonna
stay there forever?” Not forever, just a few days to clear her head. “Your
friends need you. I need you, I don’t know what to do.” Marie has one idea.
“You think I’m ready for something like that on my own?” Yes, it’s just
reconnaissance. “That’s the problem, we don’t know what—or who—I might run
into.”
They keep discussing it for a little bit, Alyssa asking to fly to Manila
herself, and be there for her. Marie doesn’t want that, and she’s the one
controlling the purse strings. The trip would cost about ten thousand
dollars, and still, no one else is available to help. Marie has to go, so
she leaves the choice up to her, and hangs up. Alyssa thinks about it for a
few minutes. This is her moment to prove that she deserves to be part of the
team, and she doesn’t always need help from other people. She grabs her
coat, and heads downstairs. If she’s gonna do this, she’s gonna do it right.
She needs to shop for supplies. Who knows what she’ll find in Springfield,
Kansas?
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