Sell you a Bridge chapter 257

June 4th 2016 The Nightside 12:00 PM EDT

We  arrived at the Londinium Club at noon, just in time for my top up to  twenty five thousand. It was a nice surprise, but not really important  at the moment. With my recent lessons and practice I'd already gotten to  the point where I could substitute my ability with points when using my  powers for the most part. It was still taxing, but more in the way a  good workout was taxing than a 'my head is splitting open and I wish I  was dead' sort of way. Because of that I could stockpile points for  purchases in case I needed something, or failing that buy something  really pricey down the line.

In the meantime though, I was  here at the Londinium Club with Taylor, John, Suzie,Tommy, and my crew,  and we were going to ask around about anyone who might be dealing with  Neron. Which actually left me with a burning question. As we approached  the massive and incredibly posh looking building, I had to pull Taylor  to a stop. The big detective turned around, raising an eyebrow in  curiosity. Once he'd come to a stop I leaned in so no one else could  hear me because I didn't want to worry anyone. "Is it really safe to do  this? What if someone in there doesn't want it getting out that they  traffic with dark forces?"

Taylor, just stood there,  staring, then he slowly turned to look at Suzie, who had been close  enough to actually hear us even with my lowered voice. They stared at  each other for a second and then they both burst into laughter. Suzie  literally doubled over and slapped her knee with amusement and Taylor  had to hold up a hand to have me wait as he cackled so hard he seemed to  have trouble breathing.

They kept laughing for a few  minutes, and I finally got annoyed enough to throw up my hands. "Ok, it  wasn't THAT stupid of a question! People do worry about that kind of  thing." I gave an indignant huff. "Forget I asked though." I turned to  stalk away from them, but Taylor reached out and caught my arm, holding  me back before I had a chance to get too far. He took a second to calm  down, but he managed it pretty fast. I could tell he felt a bit bad  about his reaction, or at least that it bothered me.

Once  he'd calmed down he clapped me on the shoulder. His tone was still  mirthful but I could at least understand him. "Sorry kid, I wasn't  trying to take the piss. It's just been a long while since I worked with  someone that idealistic. It's refreshing. As for the question, that's a  resounding no. No one here cares about anyone else knowing they truck  with dark powers. This is the Nightside, this is the kind of place where  people list the unholy forces they traffic with on their resume as a  character reference."

Suzie chimed in. "Not to say this  will be safe. Never make the mistake of thinking that. But if something  inside decides to kill you and wear your arse as a hat it won't be to  keep their misdeeds quiet. It'll be because they feel like it. Or  because you smell funny. Or because they don't like your shirt." She  paused, her facing taking on a pensive expression. "Actually, I think  keeping their sins quiet is just about the only reason I can think of  that someone WOULDN'T kill you." She looked back at me, seeing my unease  and Taylor's glare and cleared her throat. "So...hope that helps you  feel better."

I gave her a flat look. "Yeah, I feel loads  better now. Thanks for that." She gave a sheepish grin and a shrug. I  rolled my eyes. "Ok, so if this place is so dangerous do you have any  advice? If I'm going to get murdered at the drop of a hat a few  guidelines might be helpful, just to keep any hats from dropping."  Honestly I hadn't been too worried about this place until Suzie gave her  little speech. The Londinium Club sounded like a pretty upscale place,  and I was under the impression we'd have a better chance of living  through this visit than most of the other places we'd been.

John,  who had been loitering nearby, drawn by the laughter, snorted. "Don't  listen to them, mate. The boss and...her. They're compulsive  troublemakers. The kind of people in there like law and order, they like  when people are polite and respectful. SHE doesn't have  a respectful  bone in her body, unless she just finished eating a particularly well  behaved rack of ribs. The boss is almost as bad, he's contrarian as  hell."

Taylor glared at him. "That's rich coming from you  junior, you're most ornery little shite I've ever met." The glare  softened. "But you might be right. As long as they're polite and don't  make trouble they might get left alone. Most of the people in that club  are already fire and water with me, so I tend to think of them a certain  way. The club itself is based around civility and politeness, so at  least inside they aren't likely to snap and slaughter you all without  some kind of reason to do so. Just keep a civil tongue in your head and  you'll be fine."

Suzie shot us a grin. "Or don't. I'd love  an excuse to shoot some of those old bastards. Feel free to be as  ornery as you like, if they start something we can handle it, and even  if it's not something we know how to take care of we can just improvise.  Suddenly, and violently, and all over the place." John was looking at  her sideways as she spoke, and took a step or two away from her as she  started getting an excited gleam in her eye. Apparently I wasn't the  only one who was a tad bothered by that little speech.

Taylor  just cleared his throat. "Yes, well, probably best to try to avoid that  if we can. Who knows if one of the kids will get hurt." He spoke gently  but with emphasis, and Suzie almost seemed to wake from a trance. Her  face screwed up in distaste but she nodded. As much as she liked to play  the cold hearted badass I could see the lie there. Suzie cared about  people, at least when she felt they were worth it. Zee standing up to  her and Artemis's obvious hero worship had cracked that icy heart a bit.  She didn't want to see us die for no real reason.

With  that mostly taken care of, we approached the door of the Londinium Club.  Unlike the other, more public bars and clubs we had seen, rather that a  password or anything automated, the Londinium Club had actual guards at  the door. A pair of large, stoic men in suits watched us as we  approached, and as I got closer I realized they were both nearly  identical. Taylor seemed to know them, and vice verse, but when he  stepped up, Tommy shouldered him out of the way to take his place in  front of them, smiling charmingly.

The existential  detective gestured past them. "Well now gentlemen, no need to hold us  up. The people inside are expecting us. You can just let us pass." His  voice was conversational and relaxed, but I could feel the wash of his  power over my skin. He was weaving it into his words, but it was subtle.  Where what he'd done to those green things was a hammer and chisel,  this was more like a delicate engraving tool, slowly carving his point  into the guards heads as they looked at him blankly.

As I  watched it, I realized he was teaching me again. He was showing me more  about how our powers worked. Where before he'd had to trip up his  enemies and confuse them before he could convince them properly, this  time the guards weren't focused on him. He wasn't expected or defended  against, he was just a foppish looking guy standing next to John fucking  Taylor, and that lack of notoriety gave him power.

Sure  enough, the guards barely glanced at him. "You aren't invited. Come back  when you're on the list." His deep bass rumble was intimidating to most  people I imagine, and I could tell from his bearing he was dangerous,  but Tommy just ignored him, breezily strolling up to get close enough to  speak to the pair of guards with a blase smile on his energetic face.

He  leaned in closer as he spoke. "Listen, gents. I know your job is to  stop people at the door, but this isn't a situation where you need to  act." The didn't respond and he sighed. "Listen, the people in there are  powerful, yes? Influential?" They nodded. "Right, well then they must  have amazing sources of information musn't they?" Another, more uneasy  nod. "So, as I said earlier, they must know we're here, and are  therefore expecting us. I think you'll agree that the implicit purpose  of a list is to record the expected guests of the occupants of the  building, and as we both agreed we were expected, then wouldn't that, in  this situation, be ourselves?"

I blinked. That had been  incredibly subtle, I almost hadn't detected the weave of power in that  last little speech, and it took me a second to shake it off when I did,  because the logic there was...not valid, but weirdly compelling. It was  the type of logic you know is wrong, but can't form an actual counter to  out loud. Even the guards looked kind of poleaxed, like they felt like  they should be letting us in immediately, or else they wouldn't be doing  their jobs, but also knew somehow that their jobs meant not doing that  and had gotten stuck in a logic loop.

I  could tell from the way the power was moving that Tommy was trying to  make a point for me. While reality manipulation wasn't the same as  persuading people, there were similarities. Levels of reality existed,  some things were more real than others. Reality wasn't a monolith, and  as such, not all the lies we told it would be received the same way.  There was give and take to everything.

Tommy  was showing me that subtlety and structure were important to our  abilities, but so was reception. Weaker spots in the world, less complex  items or concepts, these things took less power and produced a greater  effect. It was another dimension to what we did that I hadn't  considered. Not just my own effort or the complexity of it but what that  effort was expended on. My aura sight might be able to help with  gaining a better understanding of that kind of thing once I could use it  again.

Tommy  kept speaking, his easy, friendly tone making his words much more  convincing than they had a right to be, and the men looked more and more  embarrassed. Rather than confuse them, he'd decided to change the tone  of the interaction. Jim chuckled to himself next to me and I raised an  eyebrow at my mentor. "Forgive me, I was simply thinking of something I  heard once. 'It is poor form to accuse someone of being a liar, and even  poorer form to lie. It is the mark of a skilled liar to be able  convince someone that the inverse is true.' Convincing these gentlemen  that doing their jobs was a breach of professional etiquette has a  similar feel to it."

That  surprised a laugh out of me too, because he was right. I could kind of  see that. Within a few minutes Tommy had gotten us officially invited  in, and the previously tense guards had forgotten all about Taylor and  Suzie, who had been getting a cautious eyeing up from them when we  arrived. As we headed inside Tommy shot me a wink and a thumbs up, which  I returned. I had a feeling I had plenty to learn from the flamboyant  detective. Despite the circumstances, this trip was turning out to be  worth it so far. I was just hoping it didn't end horribly and prove me  wrong.