Jacob Marchetti

We’re heading back south again, now using our (kinda stolen?) car, instead of the train. This time, the destination is Washington D.C.

Course I didn’t know why we were heading to D.C., but since when have I ever been told anything here?

Only briefly passed through the city itself. First time I’ve seen it in person; was kinda expecting something a bit more… I dunno, impressive. The monuments and buildings were nice, but they were just buildings. Don’t know what the big deal about them is supposed to be.

After cutting across the city, we reached a very high class looking suburban neighborhood. Perfectly maintained lawns, multiple cars in the driveway, etc. The house 330 stopped in front of looked pretty much like every other house there. We parked in the driveway, and 330 knocked on the door. A middle aged middle-eastern woman opened the door and gave us a smile.
“How can I help you?” she asked.

“We’re here to see Jacob.” 330’s voice caught me by surprise. Almost sounded shy.

“Oh, I’ll go and tell Mr. Marchetti he has company,” then she walked away.

Few moments later, she returned, leading an older man, maybe in his 60s. He shuffled across the floor, feeling out the ground ahead with a cane. He’s blind, I realized, looking at the sunglasses covering his eyes. When the woman leading him stopped, he stopped as well, and gave a smile bright enough it could have won anyone over.

“So Marjane tells me I have two beautiful woman at my door, which is quite a unique experience at this time in my life. How can I help the two of you?”

330 hesitated, long enough that I was starting to think I’d have to introduce us, before saying, “Hello, Jacob.”

The smile was gone in an instant. “I-330.” He turned, and gestured at us. “You’d better come inside.”

Marjane led us to a living room, with a large couch and several chairs. Jacob slowly sat down in one of the chairs, and I automatically took a place on the couch. When I saw 330 remain standing, I suddenly wasn’t sure whether or not I should have sat down, but damn this was a comfy couch….

“Marjane,” Jacob said softly, “could you be a dear and please get our guests something to drink?”

She nodded and left the room. Jacob chuckled, saying, “Don’t know what I’d do without her.” And then the kindness was suddenly gone again. “Now what do you want?”

“We’ve had a run in with some people from your organization-“ 330 was cut off before she could finish.

“It’s not MY organization anymore. I’m retired, remember? They didn’t exactly have much use for me anymore once I was turned into a blind cripple.”

Pause, then 330 resumed. “We’ve had a run in with some people from the organization you used to run. They’re up to something suspicious.”

“Well, yes.” A grim chuckle came from Jacob’s mouth. “Being up to something suspicious was what we did for a living.”

“This is different. They’re not trying to contain paranormal creature activity; if anything it looks like they might be trying to assist one.

Jacob got real quiet for a long time, and then scowled. “Never did like the look of that kid they replaced me with. So why come to me?”

“I haven’t been in touch with anyone in the group since I last saw you. I need to know what’s changed; where they’ve relocated to, what resources they have, what they know, and so on.”

“And you’re assuming that, even though I haven’t worked for them in decades, that I’ve been keeping track of their activities or something?”

“Yes.”

For a moment, I thought I saw a smile on Jacob’s face, but then the frown was back in force. “Info you need is in the safe in the basement. And since you never gave it back to me, I’m assuming you still have the key.”

330 muttered a thank you, and then walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Jacob. Started to get up to follow her, but she told me to stay where I was, she’d be back in just a few minutes. So I sat there. While waiting for 330, Marjane came back, carrying a plate with teacups on it. I took the cup offered to me, and tried a few sips. Some kind of tea; don’t really know enough to say what kind, though. Tasted pretty good. Marjane left the room shortly afterward, leaving just me and Jacob.

“So then,” Jacob said, once more in the tone of the friendly man who’d greeted us at the door. “What’s your name?”

“Lisa, sir. Lisa Wells.”

“Oh, don’t bother with the sir. No need for that. You’d be I-330’s latest sidekick?”

Not sure I liked the word “sidekick”, but I nodded anyways. Then I realized how stupid that was so I said, “Yes.”

“And I expect you’ve barely been told anything about what it is your doing?”

Started to shake my head, caught myself, and said, “No, sir.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, that’s how she usually does it. Never telling anyone the full story, always making sure she’s the only one who knows what’s really going on…. It’s how she stays in control; you’ve got no choice but to do what she says when she’s the only one who has a clue what to do. Soon as you start learning enough to act independently from her, you get tossed to the side.” He tapped his sunglasses a few times.

Let that conversation drop. Few moments of silence passed. There was one question which had been itching at my mind, and eventually I worked up the courage to ask, “If you don’t mind me asking, what is the organization that you and 330 were talking about?”

“She really didn’t tell you much at all, did she? I did work for the CIA. Originally, at least. We were a small, secret branch they made in the 70s to ‘protect American interests from actively belligerent paranormal entities, with emphasis on those displaying reality altering capabilities.’ Didn’t have an official name, but we called ourselves the Scoobies, after the cartoon with the dog. Though I’ve heard they dropped the name since I left; apparently the guy they replaced me with didn’t think it was serious enough or something. Bit of a shame, that. We could have gotten royalties off that Buffy show.”

“You mean you fought against monsters and things as part of the government? Like the men in black or something?”

“Yeah, something similar. Although fight may not be the best word; you can’t really fight against most of those things. We mostly did damage control. Real damage control, not that hiding everything under the rug bullshit that Fisk bastard does.”

I had no idea what he meant by that, and he seemed to have noticed, because he continued, “Fisk’s from one of the FBI branches dealing with this shit. There’s got to be at least a dozen different government organizations I know about all for taking care of this. That’s the kind of screw up you get when the people you have working for you are more secret than the monsters they’re working against. Some bigwig finds out about the Slender Man, and creates a top secret organization for hunting him. Then a few years later, the administration’s changed, and we’ve got a new bigwig in charge who’s never heard of the super secret group his predecessor made, but he has heard about this Slender Man thing. So he creates his own group, until your drowning in suits all trying to hunt Slender Man.”

“So… is 330 something like that? Someone working for an agency to fight these things?”

He scowled, and I knew I shouldn’t have brought the conversation back to her…. “Truth be told, I have no idea what I-330 is, or even why she does these things. Hell, the jury’s still out on whether or not she’s even a human. We always kept a file on her, in case it turned out she wasn’t.”

Okay, 330 not human? That’s pushing even my ability to believe. Before I could object, Jacob raised his hand, and kept talking.

“Yeah, I know that doesn’t sound likely. But let me just give you a warning, as a retired sidekick to the new one. The first time you meet I-330, she’s the most amazing person you’ve ever known. You’ve never met anyone like her, and she shows you this brand new world filled with adventure and excitement. And she just fills up your life, and you feel like you’d follow her to the ends of the earth…” Another pause. This day seems to be full of them. “But you don’t realize until it’s too late, that all those adventures she’s gone on has left a mountain of corpses behind her. And to her, you’re just another expendable body to be abandoned once she’s no longer getting any fun out of you.”

Thankfully I was spared from having to think of a way to reply to that, as 330 came back shortly after he finished. “Got what I needed,” she said. “Jacob, do the ghouls in D.C. still owe you a favor?”

“Yeah. Just drop my name and they’ll do whatever you ask.”

“Good. Come on Lisa, we’re done here.” I got up, and started to follow her to the door, but she stopped before she walked out. “Jacob…. I’m sorry for what happened.”

“No you’re not.”

And that was it.
Drove to a hotel in silence. I just finished unpacking; not sure where 330’s gone to. She hasn’t said a word since we left Jacob’s house….

-Lisa