I got caught up in the wrong crowd

For someone with an aura as oppressive as theirs, Genevieve was surprisingly good at sneaking. The most people would notice was a sense of dread making their chest drop, a nagging anxiety that something terrible was going to happen.

Genevieve ducked into the bushes and waited until the kids were out of view before making a dead sprint for the shed, then, when things calmed down, a casual stride towards the dumpster.

Nam Il was already there.

Well, shit! Color them surprised. They mistook him for a prim and proper Asian boy, but it looked like he could get the job done after all. Genevieve took one look at the ledger and the kid, and with a laugh, ruffled the kid's hair happily.

"Job well done, kid! You're a regular super sleuth." Genevieve took the ledger and began to check the accounts. For some reason, the intel was correct. This was Defan's ledger. Christ, how'd this end up in their hands, anyway? This was shoddy planning. It didn't feel right, and Genevieve knew when things didn't feel right. They tapped the ledger on their palm, thinking, before looking at Nam Il again.

People often underestimated children's helpfulness, forgetting that, back in the day, it was the kids that mined the coal. Nam Il was a valuable asset. They wanted to make more use of his talents.

"Hey, kid. It feels good being a thorn against bad people, isn't it? How'd you like to keep doing that with me?"

Genevieve slumped against the wall and looked at the numbers. They gestured for Nam Il to move closer while they looked it over. Gen barely had any primary school education, but they were more than intimate about the sort of transcription criminals used. Some things were a bit different back in Indonesia, but this was more or less the same template used.

"See these numbers? The rows are streets. The columns are weeks." Their finger slid down to the lower half of the ledger. An eyebrow raise. "Yep. This is Starlight. I told you. The sales here are kind of shit, according to these numbers, but I'm guessing they're edgy high schoolers who aren't smart about their dealers."

It wasn't as if Gen's earlier argument was a complete lie, there were operations going on in Starlight, but implying they did it because they cared for the students here? Pfft, as if. They liked Starlight, but if it blew up right now, they couldn't give two shits about the people in the fire.

They flipped through the pages, but all the same reading the little comments around the edges from the dealers and suppliers. Again, the jargon here was different, but they got the gist of it. There are police here. People are claiming territory there. They found a bunch of numbers they assumed was the cache's location, ran them on their iPhone, and exclaimed, "a-ha!"

"Warehouse 4-2 in the Underground. That's where they keep the drugs in this area."

They rubbed their chin. Security was the tricky part. Usually, they left the items in inconspicuous places without security so nobody would notice suspicious activity in the area, to throw off guards and stuff... But with the ledger stolen, they were bound to tighten up the place.

A smile. "I'm going to go to the cache tomorrow to steal their supplies and hand them over to the cops so nobody goes around selling drugs to students. You don't have to come with me... But I can use your help, Nam Il. Do you want to come?"

Genevieve gave the boy a bright smile and a thumbs up. "Just bring a knife, lockpicking tools if you have any, and anything else you'd think would be necessary. Don't bring too much. You need to be able to run too. Wear a hoodie, a plain shirt, and your best running shoes. Hold on, let me give you my phone number."

Genevieve pulled out one of their many decoy phones and showed the number on the screen for Nam Il to write and memorize. After a few moments, they bounced on the balls of their heels and beamed at Nam Il. "Done? All righty!"

They pocketed their phone. "Rendezvous six o'clock, noodle place with the dragon sign, Underground. Just me and you. We'll get them yet, kid."

They ruffled their hair and headed off to the college, waving at him one last time, ledger tucked under one of their arms.

Time to party.