Chapter Fifty-Five Qei, and the School Inspection (Patreon)

Qei looked around after coming in the door. She had never been to a school before. This clearly looked like the front office. There was a large reception counter nearby with a couple of bored-looking women manning the counter. Behind the counter she could see a few more women milling about. From the look of it, they were all busy with office work. It seemed normal enough.

She was still wondering what the Iniri she had followed was doing here. Thankfully the answer was quick in arriving. The Irini girl walked up to the counter. “I’m here for the bi-yearly inspection. Is everything ready for me in the nurse’s office?”

The woman at the counter nodded, “Yes of course. The couriers arrived and set everything up already. They finished an hour ago.

“Good. I’ll go take a look. Go ahead and call the first class up here for their checkup.”

The woman nodded, and the atmosphere of the office changed instantly. While the Iniri turned from the counter and walked down the hall. Qei followed her discreetly. So far it seemed she hadn’t been noticed. That seemed good. Hopefully that luck would hold.

The Iniri, as it turned out, was heading straight for the nurse’s office with the confidence of someone who had been here before. From the sound of it there was a good chance that she had indeed been here before.

The nurse’s office was a modest affair with a few beds, an office, and an exam room. There was even a waiting area. It was a modest one, with a few cheap chairs and nothing else, but a waiting area nonetheless existed. As for the exam area, the room was closed so she couldn’t see inside. It was positioned on one side of the waiting area, and had a door on either side. The school apparently was big enough that they had two nurses, both young women, on duty when the Iniri came into the room.

Qei found an out-of-the-way spot in the room, while the Iniri girl ordered the two nurses to strip.

Once they were both naked, she smiled, “There, much better. Just toss those in a cabinet or something, and get the clothes bins ready for the first class. They should be here soon.”

That statement proved true because not long after a gaggle of school girls arrived. They were quickly lined up in the waiting area, and made to strip out of their clothes. Tossing them into the provided bins. Before joining the line waiting in front of the exam room. The Iniri girl looked over the group with clear satisfaction before slipping into the exam room.

Qei followed her closely. Unlike the rest of the office, the exam room didn’t quite look normal. There was some strange equipment set up in the room. A tray full of bizarre tools was set up next to a strange chair with straps. Alien hardware was set against one wall, and there were a number of monitors set up against a second.

She barely had time to consider the equipment before the first girl walked in. The Iniri immediately began to physically probe the girl with her tentacles. The Iniri’s touch was clearly professional and clinical. After a moment she stepped back, and then ordered the girl to sit in the chair.

The moment the girl sat down she was strapped in. The Iniri began hooking up various sensors to her body. Occasionally employing those strange tools as well. Qei didn’t take long to recognize what this was. It was a full biometric assessment, a very invasive one, but also more.

The knowledge Qei was born with allowed her to read the monitors. More importantly, they allowed her to recognize what the Iniri was doing. She made note of what was being done as part of her future report.

After a moment, the girl was released. The Iniri smiled, “Alright we are done here. You may return to class, and forget what happened here.”

The girl nodded, and slipped out of the back door of the room. The Iniri called for the next girl, so a second girl walked in. This ‘exam’ started much the same with a physical inspection followed by being strapped into the chair, but this time there was only a very invasive full biometric assessment. The other procedure wasn’t done with this girl.

When she was let out the Iniri smiled, “We are done, you go wait by the beds for now.”

The girl nodded and exited the exam room as well. Setting the tone for what followed. Most of the girls ended up having that extra procedure done to them and then they were told they could go back to class while being ordered to forget the exam. Others ended up being asked to wait.

When the first class was done she called for a second. The Iniri headed back out into the main part of the office, Qei followed. Not long after, a pair of couriers arrived to shepherd the selected girls. The Iniri told them to escort the girls to the trucks, and then come back to collect the next class. A class that arrived not long after the first class left. Whose treatment largely followed the first. While watching she considered the mention of trucks. She had not seen any but she presumed they must be somewhere near the school. Possibly where the students are dropped off by buses. She remembered seeing a few grav-buses picking up students every morning.

Each girl was examined and then either operated on and sent back, or asked to wait. Once a full class was done the couriers would lead the waiting girls back to the vehicle. Qei stuck around watching hoping for more answers, more clues. Yet the Iniri girl was very professional and said nothing more than she needed to.

Eventually the last class left. The final selectees being escorted by couriers out of the room. It was at that moment that she suddenly received a surprise. One that she had not been expecting. She hadn’t any warning it was coming at all. The Iniri girl closed the door behind the last students, and turned to face where Qei was standing, her expression giving nothing away.

“You can come out now. I know you are there.”

Qei gulped, but said nothing. She didn’t decloak either, but it seemed that this Iniri could sense her. This wasn’t good. Not good at all, and she had just closed the door. Maybe she should not have followed.

The Iniri crossed her uppermost pair of tentacles, “Quite the shy one, now aren’t we?”

Qei kept silent, she felt that was best. The Iniri girl was baiting her, she was sure of it. Even so, her mind was already working through her options. Most of which would simply confirm that she had been there. She wasn’t worried about being caught, as she could get out of this. The question was could she get out without alerting the entire Iniri population to the presence of cloaked spies.

The Iniri’s expression shifted, “fine be that way. Just stay there.”

Qei felt a bit of relief surge through her as the Iniri girl turned to the two nurses. “That was the last group, yes?”

The two nodded.

“Good, tell the principal to arrange a general assembly of all students and staff. I have to talk to them all afterall.”

They headed out. Qei tried to follow, but before she could get to the door her path was blocked. The Iniri closed the door behind them with a tentacle, and glared in her direction, “I didn’t say you could leave.”

Perhaps it was too soon for relief. This one seemed rather... troublesome. How was she going to get out of this?

May stepped out of the apartment. She didn’t have any leads to follow up at the moment. Qei was off on a walk, and she had barely heard from Kiru since she didn’t come back yesterday. She was a little worried, but she felt Kiru was going to be alright. Although she knew Qei was more worried than she let on. It was why Qei had gone to take a walk.

Honestly she was getting a little bored herself. There was nothing to do all alone in that apartment. May figured she could find something to do, and she remembered what Qei had mentioned about the bank.

She decided that since it was previously a point of interest she might be able to find more clues there that Qei had missed. Then there was always going back to the storage facility. Although she had the feeling that she would need to actually interrogate someone to learn more about what was happening there.

No, what she was thinking about doing was hanging around the bank. Watching what the visitors were doing might help her find more households that the Iniri were actively brainwashing. There was also the whole matter of what they were doing with these black bank accounts that they were making people consolidate their money into. Since that wasn’t just a precursor to being disappeared, she wondered what was up with that. The bank seemed to be her best bet for finding the answers to those questions.

With a destination in mind she made her way to the Elevator. On her way down, a courier girl pushing a large box labeled ‘for storage’ entered at the second floor stop. She briefly read the more detailed label and marked another residence to be checked. May did not bother to follow the courier although their paths did briefly coincide as they both got off at the same stop and took the same route out of the building. They parted ways outside, however, and she headed for the bank.

The rest of the walk to the bank was uneventful. She spotted a few couriers, and some Iniri milling about doing who knows what. The couriers had all previously been tagged so she ignored them.

The bank itself was modestly busy with a few scattered customers. Unlike when Qei was here there were no Iniri in sight. That made her feel a little safer about being here. She had cloaked before coming in, so she approached the counters. May had no worry about anyone spotting her right now. The only threat to her was an Iniri, as only they could sense a cloaked biomech. Well the stronger ones anyway, as Kiru had found out on day one.

There was already a customer at the counter she chose, but she was merely making a deposit. Nothing truly suspicious. Then again Kiru had no way to know if that deposit was into a black account. Some part of her doubted that was the case though.

She made herself comfortable, and started to watch the line. Figuring it would not be too long before something interesting would happen. She was rewarded not too long after she arrived. The first few people to show up were all there for either a quick deposit or withdrawal. When finally someone came up with a different reason to be there.

It was a younger woman who came up to the counter, and she was a rare sight as well. She was pregnant. Something May had only seen a few times. May wasn’t surprised about pregnancy being rare since there were no men in sight. She had not seen one since they entered the city. So either this girl came from out of the city, or she was pregnant before the men vanished. She lacked the info needed to confirm either theory though.

The young woman was asked what she needed help with, and she replied to the receptionist, “I’m here to consolidate my accounts and to make a deposit.”

That sounded suspicious. It matched up with what Qei had observed previously, the possibility that this woman was moving her money into a black account was high. In any case she had a feeling that this was promising.