Side Fangs: “Interrogating Chumbler” (Part 1) (Stella)

As Penteldtam kept crying, Evy paced back and forth by the table we sat at.

"I just...Mantorvel was a good guy, you know?" Penteldtam said.

"Uh huh, I'm sure..." I said.

"I didn't know he was an imp," Penteldtam said. "OK, maybe I had a hunch when he started asking me what I'd do if I found out he was an imp, but I was in denial!"

"That's gotta be tough..." I said. I try to be as empathetic as I can and listen when someone's hurting, but this was Penteldtam Kilander, and he'd been yapping for a while about how sad he was. I understood he'd been going through a lot, and a lot of it was unfairly put upon him. But also a lot of it was entirely his fault, and that lot was maybe responsible for my sister being in trouble, so it was more of an effort to listen to this. I thought maybe we'd get some clues out of this, but so far we had not gotten much.

"I said I'd be there for him even if he was an imp, was I lying? Because like, is dating an imp even dating a person, or is it like dating a cardboard cut out of a person?"

Chumbler raised her hand. "Permission to get up and go gamble some more?"

"Maybe a break from this would be good," I muttered without thinking.

"Yay!" Chumbler said. "Come Z.O.K., let us away to gamble!"

"Wait kid, hold it," Evy said, stopping mid-step. "You can't just ask us to go gamble every five seconds."

"Yes I can, and don't call me kid," Chumbler said, clenching her fists. "You can call me Chumbler, or God Emperor Chumbler, or 'The Master of Gambling' Chumbler, or—"

"Yeah yeah, sure," Evy said. "If Penteldtam is gonna keep venting in a way that doesn't tell us anyth—" She stopped herself. "In a way that I hope is very emotionally productive for him...maybe you two can tell us more about the 'Taramin science lady' that hired you?"

"Well...what's there to say...?" Chumbler said.

"Logistically speaking, it was either Stella's mom or that Dr. Vesper," Evy said. "Well, I guess it could be someone from the labs we don't know, but I'm leaning Vesper, she was on stage for the dome announcement."

"And Chumbler said that the person who hired her didn't look like me, so my mother is out," I said.

I still wasn't sure if it was a relief or not that my mother didn't hire two students to make sure the rest of us would stay in place while we were all hypnotized by this void node. I told myself that after this was over, I'd have to really think on how much of this crap Cani go through was worth it.

"I bet you five bucks it wasn't this 'Vesper' character," Chumbler said.

"I mean, if it wasn't, you'd know," Evy said. "Also, my patience is incredibly short right now, so don't try to turn this into a gambling thing."

"We're at a casino, that's gonna be a pretty tall order," Chumbler said.

"So when Vesper hired you, how did she get you here?" Evy asked. "I'm just gonna call this scientist Vesper, I assume it's her."

"I don't remember for sure but I think that's probably right," Z.O.K. said. "We were both kinda distracted by the five hundred dollars."

"Five hundred each," Chumbler said.

"Did she give you something to get you here or did she just send you?" Evy asked. "Because you said you got here late because you wanted to dance, right?"

"Yeah, she gave us like..." Chumbler moved her hands around, drawing a rectangle in the air. "Like a TV remote looking thing."

"Hm," Evy rubbed her chin. "So you got in the void with no fang scrape? It's not always necessary, but that's interesting. Do you have that with you still?"

Chumbler laughed nervously.

"What is it?"

"Well, I'm wondering if I dropped it somewhere, and I feel like if I tell you that, you'll murder me." Chumbler said.

"I'm not gonna kill you, we'll figure something out if you don't have it," Evy said.

"OK, then alternatively," Chumbler's expression darkened. "If I do have it, how much are you willing to pay me to get it? Six hundred, seven hundred dollars?"

"No, we're not doing that," I said. "Just show us if you have it."

Chumbler pouted, reaching into her pockets. She put a remote control down on the table. Evy swiped it before Chumbler could try to make us pay for it again.