Emily The Strange_ The Lost Days Part 22

ME:.

[Noticing umlaut's crew listening in.] Let's walk.

[We strolled over to the minipark and continued our powwow in the peace and quiet of the nearly deserted town.]

S:.

We have a small problem. Everyone knows that Emma LeStrande owns the El Dungeon, but...well...

ME:.

Spill.

S:.

There's no proof.

ME:.

What?!

S:.

I don't know. I've looked in all the official records, but there's nothing anywhere that says she owns it.

ME:.

So...

S:.

At this point anyone with a reasonable claim could take owners.h.i.+p. I guess that's you or Attikol.

ME:.

What kind of claim does HE have?

S:.

Money.

ME:.

Right. Well, who decides?

S:.

Me, but I need three councilmembers to sign off on my decision. Luckily there are still three left in town. But they've all been approached by Attikol already. I a.s.sume they've taken some bribes.

ME:.

This sucks rocks.

S:.

Word.

ME:.

Didn't we have an agreement about you not using teen slang?

S:.

Sorry. Real sorry about that. Oh, also, one other thing, for what it's worth: I found out for sure that the building got painted beige BEFORE Emma died. Isn't that...strange?

ME:.

It doesn't make any sense.

S:.

I know.

ME:.

Unless Emma...wow.

S:.

Yeah, huh?

ME:.

Wild.

[image]

We agreed to meet in three hours at City Hall to see if we could talk the remaining councilmembers into seeing my side of things. Am about to sneak over to the junk-mail factory, to practice my lockpicking and looting skills.

Later Excellent loot at the factory! Also, am glad that the locks were so much easier to pick than the ones in the secret closet. I now have my oscillating vortical accelerator and astrogendetic gyroscope and everything else I need. Also, it was great fun poking around in the deserted factory. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE deserted factories! I scored some great cortical snippers, a modulated catheterizing burner, and a really nice heavy-duty fluorescent polarity iron, which might help with Great-Aunt Emma's burly locks. Am really hoping I can get that room open and build my sandstorm generator before my City Hall meeting. Time is a-wasting!

Later Tried all my fancy new tools on the top bolt, but no dice. And, still NO idea what to do about the other two locks. Had to leave for my meeting at City Hall, so I told Raven to go down into the closet and see if she could muscle that top bolt open. Closed up the cafe and bailed. Fingers crossed!

[image]

Later Oh frackalacking jabberwocking gramfadiddling...uh...fram-cheese!!!!

No swear words can convey my excitement right now, because the El Dungeon is MINE!!

Here's how it went down: Met Schneider and three councilmembers in the mayor's office (uh, Mayor Schneider's office, that is), and he laid out the situation for them. They were acting all nice and agreeable and VERY sorry that there was nothing they could do for me. First off, even though it was great that I had in my possession a letter from Emma addressing me as her great-niece, there was nothing to prove the letter was actually written to ME. It was also nice how I looked just like her, but that wasn't exactly irrefutable evidence, either. They'd even be willing to let all that slide, if not for the sad fact that, unfortunately, there was nothing, anywhere, in writing to prove Emma actually owned the El Dungeon in the first place.

Then I had a brainwave.

"Park bench," I said to Schneider, and he slapped his forehead.