by M. R. Forbes
Her name was Kayla. She was eight years old, and an orc. I could remember her like it was yesterday, laying on the operating room table, her body and soul tortured beyond measure. It had been seven years since I had helped her to a quiet end.
It was a memory that would never leave me.
I'd gone six or seven blocks before I decided to slip into a diner and grab something to eat. The waitress tried not to be too obvious about her fascination with my condition as she brought me to a table. I ignored her forced smile while I ordered a cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs, and then pulled out my phone.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Cleveland," Danelle said. "We had to stop at a gas station. The radiator hose sprung a leak or something."
Shit. "You have a mechanic working on it?"
"Amos is handling it."
"Amos?" I wasn't familiar with the name.
"My chauffeur. You don't know him."
"Are you being intentionally cryptic?"
"He's an old acquaintance, and he owed me a favor. He's pissed that I called him on it, and he's even more pissed that I'm making him drive me to New York, but at least he's doing it. We should be there tonight."
"Has he seen-"
She cut me off. "No. I padlocked the coolers and told him to mind his fucking business. He saw the armory though. He called it a 'nice little collection of pea shooters'."
The waitress brought my eggs, the plate clattering in front of me.
"Where are you?" Dannie asked.
"Diner in Manhattan. I'm trying to lay low until you get here, unless you can gift me with some wisdom on how to find a random person I know next to nothing about in a city of thirty million people."
"You know I can, or you wouldn't have mentioned it." I heard rustling through the phone, and then the tapping of a keyboard. "I cross-referenced recent flight manifests into New York with the state tax database, and then spent some time trying to connect Mrs. Red to the 161 Jin's that could potentially be in the area. I narrowed it down to three."
"Holy shit. You did all of that in the last five hours?" She had impressed me before. She had outdone herself this time. "How did you even know where to start?"
"You haven't seen the news?"
"I spent the night behind a dumpster."
She laughed at that. "Serves you right. It's plastered everywhere this morning. Apparently, a gang of ferals tore the shit out of Fairfield late last night. They killed forty-three people and torched six mansions before control caught up to them."
Six mansions? Torched? It made sense. "They wanted to make it look random."
"They did make it look random. Or at least, they moved in a straight line from the highway down towards the coast, hitting everything and everyone that crossed their path like a pack of wild animals. Now you've got control and the Army involved, trying to calm all of the well-to-dos whose idyllic little community just got ripped apart."
"Which means the investigation is going to be open and shut, and nobody will ever catch on to why there were really there." I couldn't help but smile. "Clever."
"It works out well for you, because they won't be looking too hard for anyone to refute their claims that it was just bad luck for the community."
"It only works out because I got away. I wasn't supposed to."
She was silent for a few seconds. "I know." Another pause. "Anyway, nobody knows who the leaders of the Houses actually are, right? I mean, we assume they're wealthy because of how much power they have, but its not like you could have walked up to Mrs. Red on the street and asked for her autograph. At least, you couldn't know that you were talking to Red when you did."
"Somebody knew who she was."
"Of course the other Houses know each other. I've never heard of them being so direct before."
If there was a war brewing between the Houses, it was the rest of us who were going to suffer. Not just the ghosts, but everyone on Earth. I shook from a sudden chill. "So who was she?"
"I don't know how the media got it and I didn't, but according to them the house you were in last night belonged to Kai Sakura."
"It isn't ringing any bells."
"I'm surprised at you. Kai Sakura owns Parity Limited. They're huge into med tech. Not only do they make all of the fancy gadgets and gizmos you used to use in the hospital, but they have an R&D division that tests over three hundred new drugs every year. It's one of the biggest in the world."
I still didn't know the name, but I could picture the Parity logo in my mind. It was nothing fancy, a butterfly bursting out of a strand of DNA, in front of the company name in a basic font. "You're going to have to do a little better than that. How does this relate to Red?"
"I think Red was his wife, Mei Sakura. I've got a pic I'm going to send over. You tell me."
It only took a second for the message to come in. I flipped the cell over to the image. It was a blurry shot of a woman getting into a car, a black Escalade that looked too familiar.
"Yeah, that's her."
"That's what I thought. Like I said, I narrowed it down to three."
"Okay, so who are they?"
"I'll text you the addresses. I haven't had time to do a full profile, and probably won't before I get there. You can either wait around and stuff your face, or you can go visit them."
I heard the squeak of the van door opening up, and the creaking of the seat as someone of apparent bulk got in on the driver's side.
"I think I fixed the damn crap radiator. Let's see what we've got." The jangle of keys was followed by the turning of the engine. It rumbled to life. "No smoke. Good sign."
"Amos, I take it?" I asked. His voice was a scratchy bass, and he sounded way too heavy to be a decent bodyguard.
"Yeah. He's got the van going again. We'll see you tonight."
"That your friend?" I heard Amos ask. "Tell him his van is a piece of shit."
"Conor, be careful."
Then she was gone.
I picked up the fork and ate a few bites of the eggs. The text came in with the addresses not long after. Two were uptown, one was downtown. It would be more efficient to start with the cluster, but I decided I would head downtown instead.
Mei Sakura was Mrs. Red. She had been killed in an ambush, but it seemed that her husband was still alive. Had he known about the attack? Did he even know who she really was? It was strange to think that two people could be together and have a secret like that, but maybe it was just safer for everybody that way.
What about the ferals? Dannie said control caught up to them and killed them. Had they known they were running to their deaths? The organization of it, and the presence of a vampire made me question if they were even in control of themselves. If they were... what was so important about Red and the stone that had brought them to that kind of self-sacrifice? If they weren't... what kind of magic could master them like that?
I could feel the stone resting on my lap, hidden by the top of my trench. Forty-three innocent people had already died over this thing. I wasn't innocent, but I had no desire to join them. I took three more forkfuls away from the plate of eggs, gulped down some of the coffee, and left a twenty on the table.
I had been to New York before in a past life, to attend a surgical conference on intestinal failure and transplant. At the time my interests were targeted more at high-end restaurants, a suite at the Waldorf=Astoria, and buying nice things for Karen. When I stepped out onto the street and checked the address on my phone again, I knew enough to know I had no idea where I was going.
I stood at the corner and waved down a cab, careful to keep a good grip on my package without letting it slip from under the trench. It was a burden to have to carry the thing around, and at the same time I was grateful to hang onto it. The oblong rock was the bargaining chip for both my and Dannie's life.
A yellow cab braked hard and cut over, coming to a quick stop alongside me. I grabbed the door and swung it open, jumping inside and quickly moving the stone back out of view.
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"Address?" the driver asked. I glanced up at him. Human. Maybe Mexican? He had short black hair and a couple of days of stubble on his neck.
"You know where Gold Street is?"
"Near the bridge?" He turned his head to look back at me. His eyes darted from my face down to my coat. "You gonna rob me?"
I looked down. The bulge of the rock could have passed as a piece, the way it was draped by the trench. "This? No. Just a souvenir from the Museum of Natural History." I lifted the coat so he could see the corner. His eyes didn't show any recognition. "Its a reproduction. I'm trying to get it to my niece without scuffing it."
He smiled and nodded. "Gold Street?"
"Yeah."
He turned around and got moving, while I wondered if I was making the right decision. Whoever killed Red knew who she was. What were the odds they knew about Jin as well? I could be riding a cab right to a corpse, another ambush, or worse.
"Hey," I said to the driver. "You know what? I changed my mind. Do you know any cheap hotels near there?"
He didn't answer right away. "Mmmmm... yeah, I think so. You want to go there instead?"
I didn't want to, but it had to be a bad idea to keep carrying something Red had called the 'treasure' around with me. "Yeah."
"Okay, man."
He dropped me off half an hour later. I laughed when I saw the rusted, slightly crooked sign of the hotel he'd picked for me - the Bright Sun. There was nothing bright or sunny about it, but if it was cheap, I was game. It wouldn't do to have Danelle's friend pull the van into the Ritz.
The attendant at the front desk was a heavyset woman with curly white hair and a smile that showed she was trying, despite it all. Unlike the waitress, she didn't have to force it. "Good morning, sir."
"Good morning. I'd like to rent a room, but I was wondering if you have parking on-site?"
She laughed. "Welcome to New York. We do, but it's fifty a night."
"How much is a room?"
"Forty-five."
Living was cheaper than parking. I smirked at that. "You take cash?"
Her smile turned a little crooked. "I can give you a deal for cash. Ninety for yourself and your car."
"Done. I'll pay one night at a time. I'm not sure how long I'll be here."
"Not too long by the looks of you." She said it with the same sweetness she'd been wearing since I walked in. "Let me get your key." She typed into an ancient computer, its beige shell splattered with grease, or blood, or something. A minute later she went to a rack behind her and lifted a key for me. "Room 601. Enjoy your stay."
I wondered what the likelihood of that was while I walked over to the elevator. It was already waiting for me when I hit the button, and I stepped inside and directed it to the sixth floor. As soon as the doors had swung closed I put the stone on the floor, and then reached up and found the emergency access door. I flipped it open and pulled myself up, just enough to survey the top of the elevator. If the mechanism broke while I was gone I would be in trouble, but I didn't trust that the stone would be safe in my actual room. I dropped down and retrieved it, and then reached up and positioned it out of sight against the mechanism. I closed the door and straightened my coat before hitting the button to go back to the lobby. I didn't need to see my room right now.
"Is everything okay?" the attendant asked as I walked back past the desk.
"It's perfect. Just going to get a bite to eat."
Her eyes followed me from the hotel, leaving me with the feeling that I had done the right thing.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The necro and the Jin.
It wasn't hard to find the address Danelle had sent me, now that I was close. I traced my way down a few blocks and over a couple more, until I was standing in front of a tall, somewhat run-down high-rise apartment building. I looked over the address again, just to be sure this was the right place. It was.
I was pretty certain that the Jin I was looking for didn't live here. If she was close to Mrs. Red, she was probably loaded, or at least comfortable. This place looked anything but. Since I had made the trip, I figured I might as well go in and check it out, though I was glad I hadn't brought the stone with me.
There was no security in the lobby. There was a desk for a guard, a suggestion that they had made the effort once, but it had probably gotten too expensive to maintain and had been abandoned. Beer bottles and food wrappers were scattered along the dingy floor, and the elevator doors had graffiti all over them. I paused to reconsider my reconsideration, and forced myself to forge ahead. I couldn't risk missing Jin because I'd been too quick to judge.
Of course the elevator didn't work. I hit the button multiple times, stood in front of it and waited. When nothing happened, I leaned my ear in and listened for the hum of the motor, or the creaking of the winches. Nothing. I found the stairs and started climbing.
The steps were as filthy as the lobby, and also deserted, leaving me to wonder if there was anybody living here at all. A stone plaque on the outer wall had confirmed I was in the right place, but the right place for what? The possibility began to creep into my mind that the data was bad, the address a front to keep people like me, or whoever had screwed me away from Jin. If the address was the penthouse, I might have stopped and waited for Danelle to arrive with Evan. It was on the tenth floor, and I had already climbed six.
My hand drifted to my pocket as I pushed open the stairwell door, finding the dice and wrapping around them. The feel of their curved sides brought me comfort, and I needed it.
The hallway was the scene of a massacre.
Two dozen bodies were scattered across the floor on either side of the elevator, used and thrown aside like the food wrappers down below. There were all kinds of puncture wounds and jagged tears through flesh and bone, leaving severed appendages and entrails mixed in with the corpses, and sending out a smell that would have made me gag if I weren't already used to death and decay. Even so, the sight of it made my stomach turn, and I clenched my teeth and gritted myself against the resulting nausea.
I should have gotten out of there. I should have turned and ran down the stairs. Every instinct told me to, and I would have if I hadn't heard the whimper.
It was small, and frightened. It was coming from down the hallway. Shit. I listened for the fields, getting just the barest whisper of a ping back. It was only just strong enough to be accessed from this height. I wasn't about to risk pulling the energy in before I knew I needed it, but it was good to know it was there. I steeled myself and stepped forward, closing the door softly behind me. My boots squished against the carpeting, wet from all the blood.
I don't want to die. That was the thought that always ran through my head at times like this. It was a thought that had served me pretty well so far. I gripped the dice more tightly and removed them from my pocket. I wouldn't have much time to use them if I needed to. If I tossed them without naming a target they would choose at random, and I wasn't excluded from the pool.
Not that I heard anyone else. Maybe whoever was in there was alone. Maybe they had somehow survived their injuries and were a few breaths away from death. There was little I could do for them in that case. This place was a nightmare. What the hell was I still doing here?
Tiptoeing through a mess of dead bodies, my boots getting bathed in their blood, that's what. It was a new experience for me, and I fucking hated it.
I examined the bodies as I crept past them. All traditional human, all men, all between twenty and forty years old. The majority were asian, Japanese I think, with a couple of mean-looking caucasians thrown in. They wore suits, blazers, jeans, t-shirts. Random clothing, but their presence here was anything but random.
The doors to the apartments I passed were hanging open. Televisions were still casting flickering light in a few of them. I could picture the scene in my mind. The ferals coming into the hallway, maybe busting into Jin's apartment. The other people on the floor hearing the ruckus and moving out to intercept. Moving out... not hiding.<
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Protecting them, or at least trying to.
My initial reaction to this place had been that I was way off-base. That whoever Red had asked me to find would never be living the slum life. The carnage here was suggesting otherwise. Unfortunately, it was also suggesting I had gotten here second, and I was going to be shit out of luck.
Another whimper brought me out of my head. It was stronger this time, and it sounded strained. A third, louder cry made me stop moving. I waited while my heart pounded through my chest, and then inched forward towards 1024 - the apartment that was supposed to belong to Jin Mori.
I didn't trust that whoever had killed these people had left. It would have been stupid to drop my guard. I kept myself near the wall opposite Jin's door, crouching low. As I did, I saw that one of the bodies nearby was armed, a gun in a hand that was positioned unnaturally behind his back.
I rolled the dice in my fingers. They were what they looked like: an element of randomness, of chance. My luck was running pretty lousy right now, and that made me hesitant to trust them.
I put them back in my pocket and glanced from the gun to the doorway, figuring my route, running through it a few times in my mind. If I fucked it up, it could mean my life.
Screw that. I took three long, quick steps towards the corpse with the firepower, swung low to scoop it up, ripped it from the dead hand, dropped to a crouch, and turned to fire into the room in one quick motion.
I didn't pull the trigger.
A girl was hanging from a motionless ceiling fan, her face and clothes bloody, her lifeless hands gripping the bottom of the belt that had been wrapped around her neck. She was young, too young, and pretty. Japanese, with short, bobbed hair and delicate features.
She was dead.
I kept the gun out and aimed into the room, walking forward. I swung the weapon back and forth as I entered, making sure I was alone. There was a door on either side of the living room, whose furniture had been thrown into the back corner to make space for the hanging. Those doors were open, too.
