Chapter 126: Depature
Selene got in and pulled the door shut behind her.
The Panamera’s interior at 7AM had its own particular quality. Warm, quiet, the city outside still finding its Friday energy. She settled into the passenger seat with her bag at her feet and looked straight ahead through the windscreen at the empty street.
Xavier pulled out.
They drove in silence for the first few minutes. Not uncomfortable. The natural quiet of two people who had learned that silence between them didn’t require filling. The city at this hour was different from any other version of itself. The commercial district was mildly empty in a way it never was by 9AM. Residential streets carrying the particular stillness of people who hadn’t yet decided the day had started. A delivery truck parked outside a corner shop. A woman walking a dog at the unhurried pace of someone with nowhere urgent to be.
Kenvale, Xavier thought. Before it becomes itself.
"You packed light," he said after a while.
"I always pack light," she said. Still looking ahead. "It’s not that far."
"No," he said.
A brief moment.
"How long since you’ve been back," he said. He already knew. Three years ago, she’d said it twice. But he asked anyway because sometimes people needed to say a thing out loud rather than have it known silently.
She looked out the passenger window.
"Three years," she replied. "Almost exactly."
"What made you leave," he said.
She was quiet for a moment. The particular quiet of someone deciding how much of the answer to give.
"Millhaven is a certain kind of city," she said finally. "Comfortable. Knows what it is. Doesn’t ask too much of you." She paused. "I needed somewhere that would ask more."
"Kenvale asked more," he said.
"Hale and Associates asked more," she said. "Kenvale was just where it was located."
There’s more to it than that, Xavier thought. The way she said Millhaven is a certain kind of city. That’s not the full answer. That’s the version she gives when she’s decided the full answer isn’t for right now.
Fine, he thought. Right now isn’t the time.
"Are you nervous," he said.
She looked at him.
"No," she said.
He glanced at her sideways.
She looked back out the window.
"Maybe a little," she said. Quietly. The honest version.
He said nothing. Just drove.
Good, he thought. Honesty is good.
His phone chimed once from his jacket pocket at a red light.
He registered it without reaching for it.
System, he thought. Not urgent or it would have chimed twice. He kept both hands on the wheel. Later.
"You got a notification," Selene said.
"I know," he said.
"You’re not going to check it," she said.
"Later," he said.
She looked at him with the expression of someone noting something and filing it carefully.
He drove through the green light.
She’s reading me, he thought. The same way she reads everything. Quietly. Without announcing the read.
They reached Kenvale International Airport at 7:48AM.
Not the largest airport in the region but serious about what it was. A mid-sized terminal that handled its volume efficiently without the particular chaos of somewhere trying to be bigger than it needed to be. Clean signage. Good light. The kind of airport that got you where you were going without making the getting there the story.
Xavier parked in the short stay car park. Got out. Retrieved both bags from the boot before Selene had finished getting out of the car.
She looked at him standing there holding both bags.
"I can carry mine," she said.
"I know," he said. And walked toward the entrance.
She fell into step beside him with the expression of someone who had decided this particular battle wasn’t worth the energy.
The airport at this hour had the particular focused atmosphere of a Friday morning. Business travellers moving with purpose, families with the organised chaos of early starts, the check-in queues already forming. Xavier moved through it efficiently. Business class check-in. No queue. The particular ease of a process that had been designed to remove friction for people paying enough to have friction removed.
Selene moved through it beside him.
She travels, he noted. She knows airports. She’s done this before. He watched her navigate the security queue with the practiced efficiency of someone who had been through enough of them to have a system. Different from the Hale and Associates version of her. More relaxed. More herself.
The business class lounge was on the second floor. Clean, quiet, natural light from a long window that looked out over the runway. The kind of space that justified the ticket price before you’d boarded.
Selene sat in one of the lounge chairs and looked around the room.
"You booked business class," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"For a forty five minute flight," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at him. "Xavier.."
"Vacation," he said. "Remember."
She held his gaze for a moment. Then she picked up the menu from the side table and looked at it with the expression of someone who had decided to accept the situation and find the best version of it available.
"They have good coffee here," she said.
"Order it," he said.
She ordered. Xavier ordered the same. While they waited he opened his phone and checked the system notification.
[CHIME]
[ REBATE SYSTEM — SIDE MISSION ]
New Environment Unlocked
Objective: Spend $3,000,000 in Millhaven
Reward: +2,000 EXP
[ Note: Mission expires upon departure from Millhaven ]
[ Current Progress: $0 / $3,000,000 ]
$3,000,000, he thought. In a city I don’t know. No USB document. No Vincent network. No Patricia on the ground. No pre-validated targets. He looked at the notification. Just the Tier 3 cap and my own judgment and whatever Millhaven turns out to be.
The system wants me to spend blind, he thought. In a new environment. Without any of the infrastructure I spent four months building.
He almost smiled.
Interesting, he thought. Very interesting.
Challenge accepted.
He closed the notification. Pocketed his phone.
Selene was looking at him.
"Good news or bad news," she said.
"Neither," he said. "Just something to handle while we’re there."
She held his gaze. "Work."
"Loosely," he replied.
She looked at him a moment longer than the conversation required. Then looked back at her coffee which had arrived while he was on his phone. She picked it up.
"Loosely," she repeated. Quietly. Not annoyed. Just noting it the way she noted everything.
She knows, he thought. That there’s always something running in the background. She’s been watching it from the Hale and Associates side for months. He picked up his own coffee. She’s not going to push it.
"It won’t get in the way," he said.
She looked at him over the rim of her cup.
"I know it won’t," she said. The particular confidence of someone who had already decided that before he said it.
They sat in the business class lounge with the airport doing its Friday morning thing outside the window. The runway visible below. A plane taxiing toward its gate, another already moving toward the runway with the particular slow purposeful pace of something about to become very fast.
Xavier looked at his coffee.
$3,000,000 in Millhaven, he thought. Mission active. He looked at his coffee. With the Tier 3 cap at $2,000,000 daily. Two good days of spending and it’s done. He almost smiled. Not even a challenge.
But, he thought. That can wait.
He looked at Selene.
"Tell me something about Millhaven," he said. "Something nobody asks about."
She looked at him.
Then she almost smiled. The real one that arrived before she decided whether to let it and started talking.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $48 spent on airport lounge refreshments
Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x
Total Return: $96
[ Net Balance: $17,446,137.00 → $17,446,233.00 ]
Even airport coffee, he thought. Every single time.
He listened to Selene talk about Millhaven and let everything else sit where it was.
This, he thought. Just this for now.