Books And Covers Thereof (1.10)

> Alternately, check the records to see if a 216 ever existed.

As far as Kitty knows, the records don’t really extend back that far.  She supposes it’s possible, maybe even likely.  But there’s no way she could really check without spending all day diving through records.  She might even have to see if there were still old, well-preserved paper records somewhere in the building that she’s unaware of.  It’s too much effort for right now.  Maybe if nothing else works...

> You've seen enough books to know there is some secret book you pull out to make some room appear.

Kitty certainly finds that a likely possibility, especially if it was hidden by ancient bookworms.

Still, she resists the temptation to just start randomly pulling books.  That’d cause a huge mess, after all, and she hates a messy Library.  If there’s really a book to pull, there’s likely going to be a hint somewhere...

>Get Anilin and Yu to help you pry up the floorboards. 216 is probably in a secret basement.

Hmmm...Another excellent possibility!  But, again, involves entirely too much damage to the Library’s floors with too little to go on.  She puts that one aside for later as well.

>Kitty: Use the secret power all Librarians are gifted with.

Her well-developed shooshing abilities and extensive knowledge of books aren’t immediately helpful here.  Well, the latter would be helpful, if there was anything obvious to go on.  All she sees is a wide, flimsy wooden wall.

...Wait.

...No, no, nevermind.  That would be stupid.

Kitty: Check section 612.

Hmmm...Maybe...Maybe.  She thinks carefully...612.  612.  What’s 612?  Human physiology?

Doesn’t seem super related, but hey.  It’s obviously some sort of puzzle.  They rarely

make sense at first.

She turns and starts to walk away towards 612, which is on a different floor of the Library entirely.  On the opposite side of the building.

>dropkick the wall. its clearly fake

She stops, and glances back.

...No.

No.  Absolutely not.
Right?

Whoever put that wall there couldn’t be that stupid, right?  Yeah?

Because that would be really stupid.

Really stupid.

I mean.

You don’t just put secrets behind walls people can just...Kick them.

That’s.

That’s silly.

...Still.

Better safe than sorry, right?

Kitty sighs and shuffles back to the wall.

She lifts a foot, and firmly stomps it against the wall.

The old wood tears like paper, the momentum of Kitty’s foot combined with a lack of resistance sending her right through it.  She tries to grab a piece to brace herself but this only creates a larger hole.  Kitty hits the ground on her side, eating dirt that appears to have been mostly untouched for decades, maybe centuries.  Maybe longer.  A cold, fell wind blasts over her from out of the murky darkness, overriding the safe, familiar smell of old books.

Whatever rage Kitty felt was immediately surpassed by a deep, primal fear. She scrambled and pawed for her flashlight, flicking it on and looking peering into the darkness by it’s thin light.

It was a long hallway.  There were no shelves on either side, only faint indentions in the wall, ghosts of shelves that existed once.  The ground was, rather improperly, covered in what appeared to be soil.

There was a square trail in the dirt, leading to back to the fake wall, but no dirt was present on the other side.  Kitty cursed herself, remembering now that she had cleaned a lot of dirt a few weeks ago.  She’d merely assumed the Library’s patrons had been particularly unclean that day.

She followed the trail to it’s other end, some way down the desolate hallway.  It turned to the right, into large square alcove in the wall.

Above it, scratched into the stone itself, was 0015.

Kitty gulped, dropped to her knees, and shined the light in.

This alcove clearly contained something...Large, until recently.  Crouching down, Kitty could have fit her whole body in there, and then some.

The light hit the back wall.

Ancient letters were illuminated.

Kitty read them.

HELLO

KITTY

* * *

While Kitty was sleuthing, a few unwitting early patrons had wandered into the Library.  A curious lack of Librarian was noted, discussed idly, and then quietly ignored.

A few minutes later, someone screamed.

The patrons were soon treated to the sight of the Librarian - clad in jeans, sensible shoes, and a tiger sweater - ran out of one of the aisles in back.  She hit the front desk, performed a handstand out of a mixture of adrenaline and sudden recurring childhood memories, held it for a moment, then came down on the other side, landing in the chair.

The patrons clapped politely.  Kitty picked up the phone.   Within seconds a calm, cool female voice came on the other end of the phone.

“You’ve reached the Azalea Family Detective Agency.  Frauds exposed, slimeballs slimed, cheaters cheated, cryptozoological mysteries demystified, and cute dames rescued.  This is Detective Pamela Azalea speaking, how may I help you, toots-and-or-big-fella?”  The voice paused only half a second before adding. “If you are calling about my father, he’s not in right now.  All panties should be forwarded to the" - a heavy sigh followed - "usual address.”

“Pam!” hissed Kitty.

The silence on the other end of the phone was indicative of someone who has already figured out exactly how this is going to go.

“Kitty,” she said after a while.

“I’ve got a problem!”

Pamela sighed.  “Overdue library book, right?”

“Yes!  And worse!”

“...Worse?”

“Yes, Pam!  There’s a strange man in pink handcuffs upstairs!”

“...Go on.”

“...Well, I mean, Annie cuffed him, and-”

“...I feel like I’m missing some details here.”

“Well, anyway!  We’ve got a strange man locked up and robots are after him and there’s an evil aisle behind a false wall!  Evil!”

“...Okay.  Kitty, I think I better come by so we can sort it out there.  Hold tight, I’ll be over shortly.”

* * *

Kitty soon found herself in a locked reading room, staring at the floor while listening to the scratching of Detective Pamela’s pencil.  Annie stood behind her, rubbing Kitty’s shoulders in a sincere effort to keep the Librarian from losing her mind.  Downstairs, Yu was taking care of the Library patrons.  Kitty didn’t want to think about that.  She’d inevitable have plenty of time to have a panic attack about it later.

The private detective was a striking black woman in her early twenties, of mixed - however technically archaic these days - African and British Indian descent.   Whatever else you could say about Pamela, the most notable was that she had style.  She was presently wearing her usual “work uniform”; a brown vest over a collared dress shirt and black tie, a long skirt, a pair of close-fitting ankle-length tan boots.  A tan suit jacket and fedora hung off the back of the chair she occupied presently, a beloved brown cane lay across her lap.  Her legs were crossed and her back was very straight, regarding the notepad with cold, surgical care.  She had deliberately nursed a tendency to use slang she’d picked up from reading old hardboiled detective stories, a trait that had only helped her image.

She tapped her pencil against the paper in thought.

“A John Doe chained up in your living room after running from the police,  a missing book you don’t remember checking out, Dante Ilucis, and what is either a disturbing message to you hidden in an unused portion of your Library or a very unfortunately placed promotional message for an anthropomorphic cat.  Got our work cut out for us.  I can shed some light on the Dante Ilucis mystery, though.”

Kitty looked up at her hopefully.

“He’s the eldest child and only son of Lord Ilucis, one of the noble Dragon families in the Court.  The gink lives in upper levels of the Dragon’s Den Hotel, ritziest joint in town, but he frequents a popular little place at the end of Faust Boulevard called the Purring Kitten.”

“Hehe, like your name!” said Annie.  Kitty groaned.

“How do you know that, anyway?” Kitty murmured.

“Because I drink there too.  But it ain’t necessarily gonna be easy to get an audience with him.  I’ve got word that there’s something big going down at the Dragon’s Den tonight, right?  Something private, and they know my face.  They certainly aren’t gonna let me in without a reason.  But I figure, we go downtown and hit up a few places, maybe chat up a few of his friends, maybe we’ll figure out something.”

“...We?” said Kitty, her heart sinking further.

“Yeah, we.  I told you, they know my face.  And Anilin’s the princess.  You might be the Library, but most people aren’t gonna remember your face.  We’re going to need you to talk to people and get on their good side.”

“B-but...I c-can’t...”

“Sure you can, Kitty!  It’ll get easier once you’ve tried!  And you do need to get out sometimes, I’m worried about your health,” said Annie.

Annie and Pamela both looked at Kitty intensely, waiting for some kind of answer.

Kitty gulped.

____________________________________________________________________________

Leave a command below! | Discuss the update in the forums! | View the MSPA Forum Topic!