Shadow

by Jan Stryvant

  Shadow yawned. “Of course, but we both know you wouldn’t have fought me for him.”

  “Don’t be so sure of that, Shadow!”

  Shadow stood and stretched slowly, then looked at Circe, “We can’t kill each other, hell we probably can’t even really hurt each other, and you know it, Circe. It’s the price you pay for your control over me.”

  “Why you, you! That’s it, you can sleep alone tonight!”

  “Oh hell no,” Shadow said and hooked one of Circe’s legs as she walked away from him. “You can go play with your pets, after I’m done with you!” He growled.

  Circe kicked at him, and tried to crawl away, and he was having none of it. It was fast, it was brutal, and Circe came so hard she almost passed out. She finally had an animal that could get the best of her, it had been so long since she’d been in this situation, and she had thought it would never happen again. But now it was and for all of the frustrations she loved it anyway.

  Shadow spent the rest of the evening and all of the night checking out a few of Circe’s girls while Circe was occupied. It was a combination of curiosity, horniness, and wanting to be sure everyone understood that he was someone to be reckoned with.

  But primarily it was just him wanting to get his rocks off in a bunch of attractive women who were already used to males like himself. And he was by no means disappointed either.

  The next few months were a little tense as Shadow and Circe started to get each other’s measure. Shadow enjoyed her company, except for when he had to help her with a job. He didn’t care as much for that part because she was often flashy in her heists and people often got hurt. But at least no one was getting killed anymore. They butted heads several more times and Circe got a few victories and Shadow got a few as well. If he could have walked out on her, he probably would have. She was as close to the limit as he could stand, actually often a little past it.

  But some of the control worked the other way as well and she learned he had limits she had to honor or bad things would happen. She did not want to lose him, he realized, and he was starting to care about her, because she did actually understand the cat in him. So they hammered out a relationship.

  Shadow did make sure he didn’t spend all of his time with her; he needed his freedom after all. He wasn’t going to let himself be leashed. Three or four nights of the week she got him, the other nights he spent with Liz or a girlfriend or someone he scored from one of the many parties he went to. He was getting a lot of party invites now, his new stature, and the wares he supplied had put him in a higher demand. Sometimes he even brought Circe along with him, she enjoyed showing off now and then, and liked to socialize some herself. The first time they had a fight in public, well argument really, Shadow was surprised at the shocked expressions of many of the others at the party when he just picked her up and carried her off while she cursed at him.

  Apparently many thought he was a dead cat for sure, but over time people realized that their relationship was volatile, and that it was best to stand clear if they got to fighting. As relationships go it was fairly dysfunctional, but that didn’t stop Shadow from enjoying it all the same. At least when she wasn’t pissing him off.

  # # # # #

  Tomas stood up and stretched, then took another sip of his coffee. He hated these ‘after action’ reports that he had to fill out. Every raid, every arrest, every time his team went into action there was the paperwork they all had to do afterwards. Sometimes they spent more time filling reports than they had in the action that generated them. He looked down the list of possible perps that had been at the party. The ones that they’d either glimpsed during the raid, or that the ones they’d arrested claimed had been there. Once again Shadow Cat was on the list and this time no one on the team had even seen him.

  Oh they’d stopped him more than a few times at a raid, but a quick search had always turned him out clean, the cat had nothing more than money on him and wasn’t engaged in anything illegal at all. So they’d not been able to arrest him. In the last few months however they’d maybe had a glimpse of him in the initial moments of the raid and then - nothing. But now in these last three, not even a glimpse, yet the people they’d brought in for questioning all claimed to have seen him.

  And of course the intelligence people had given him the other news: that Shadow Cat was apparently working for Circe now. Circe was bad, she’d been caught twice now for murder, but each time the case had collapsed due to a lack of witnesses willing to testify. Tomas had been involved the last time she’d been caught, he knew she was guilty as all hell, but he hadn’t been able to prove it in court.

  Tomas sighed, Shadow had won over Jin-Tao and though the body had never been found the rumor quickly spread out of the underworld and even made the rumor columns in the local tabloids that followed such things. And so Shadow had obviously finally moved up. They’d been seen in more than a few places together, but not at any crime scenes. Of course Circe hadn’t killed anyone in awhile, which was refreshing, nor had she given them any reason recently to bring her in. But he knew when that time came he’d have to bring the heavy artillery; she was obviously getting more powerful.

  The team was coming along well; they were having some successes here and there, but nothing major yet. The Mayor was pushing for results too, it had been nine months since the team had been formed and quite a few budget dollars had gone into it. The Feds were promising matching funds, but Tomas knew that without some prodding those probably wouldn’t show up either. His team still needed a big success, something to guarantee their budget, get them a little recognition and confidence. Maybe even some trust, until the public trusted them more, getting important tips wasn’t going to happen often, and even when they did happen, without people manning the telephones, they might not even be there to get them.

  Tomas shook his head again; life had been so much easier as a rogue hero. Yeah you didn’t get as many convictions, but you didn’t have to fill out reports in triplicate!

  Shadow yawned and stretched slowly. It had been a late night and he really didn’t feel like getting up, but he was hungry and he could smell food. Circe’s assistants often used that trick to get him out of bed, because often nothing else would do. He growled and shifted and walked out to the kitchen to see what there was for him. At least it all smelled good.

  “Good afternoon sleepy head!” Joyce said to him when he walked into the room. She had several plates set on the table with food on them, all meant for him obviously. All of the staff girls knew Shadow could be grumpy in the mornings and if woken early he wanted one of two things. So she was nude as well just in case it wasn’t food he wanted.

  Shadow grabbed a chair and sat, still only half awake, starting in on the food. He’d have Joyce later; he wondered if they knew it was their parading around naked that raised his interest? He wasn’t going to tell them that of course, he liked these distractions whenever they got him up early, because early always meant he had to do something for Circe. He peered up at the clock as he started in on the omelet. Joyce was really a good cook and she’d put a lot of meat into it, he purred and shoveled it in.

  “What time is it?” He asked between bites.

  “Eight.”

  Shadow groaned, he’d read the clock right. He’d been asleep for maybe two hours.

  “Your own fault, you should have gone to bed earlier,” Joyce teased him.

  “I did. Not my fault one of your horny co-workers decided to keep me up late.” Shadow grabbed the coffee; he was going to need some caffeine for sure.

  “Just one? I heard you had three or four in there.”

  Shadow felt his ears go flat in embarrassment. “Umm, yeah. So anyway, what’s up?”

  Joyce smiled and walked over and started to rub his shoulders as Shadow ate. She liked the feel of the muscles under the fur; Shadow had quite the body she thought. He was definitely the best of both worlds.

  “Circe called; she was out at a friend’s and is sort of stuck there for t
he moment.”

  Shadow paused in mid chew, “Stuck?”

  “The police are out in force, there are roadblocks everywhere, people are being hauled in for questioning if they even look suspicious. She thought it would be better to stay where she was for the moment.”

  Shadow swallowed, “So what does that have to do with me?”

  “She said something’s up and she wants everyone awake and alert in case we have to high tail it out of the hideout.”

  Shadow nodded and leaned back into the neck rub he was getting. He’d eaten enough food, now he had other hungers to sate as long as he was up and about.

  “Mmmm, that feels nice. Now how about coming around and doing the front?” He purred.

  “I thought you’d never ask!” Joyce laughed.

  It was nine thirty when Circe called back and this time Shadow answered the phone.

  “So what’s up, Circe?”

  “Haven’t you bothered to listen to the news or watch TV?” Circe asked him.

  “Nah, I had something much more enjoyable to watch,” He purred and licked the back of Joyce’s neck, causing her to giggle softly.

  He could hear Circe sigh at the other end of the phone line. “Someone kidnapped Senator Larson’s daughter. Snagged her right out of the house, killed a couple of security guards in the process too.”

  “Whoa, that doesn’t sound good.”

  “It wasn’t a straight up job either, sounds like someone with super powers.”

  “Any idea who it was?” Shadow asked curiously.

  “I’ve checked around a bit. No one thinks it was anyone local. This is drawing way too much heat. There are Feds everywhere and more flying in by the minute.”

  “So what do you want to do?”

  “Make sure the animals all have lots of food and water, then tell my Amazons to hide their stuff and disperse until the heat blows over. Hide whatever can be hid, and be ready to take my staff and what animals you can and leave if they try to break into our place. I figure I’ll be there about noon. I’ll figure out more when I get there.”

  “Okay. I’ll tell everyone what to do.”

  “You’d better stay off the streets hon,” Circe warned, “They’d take you in, in a heartbeat.”

  “Later.”

  “Take care of my pets, you furball. And yourself!” and Circe hung up.

  Shadow told Joyce what to tell the others, and then headed off for a shower. By the time he got out of the shower the Amazons were starting to filter out, and the staff girls were getting the animals cared for, and ready to move if need be. Shadow could talk to some of them, mainly the cats, and of course the ones that had once been men understood English fairly well.

  He told them if the helpers opened their cages to follow the helpers and go where they were led. There wasn’t much else to do after that really and it was boring to just hang out around there. The Senator’s daughter thing came to mind again, she was only six; this was the kind of thing he had to look into. If he didn’t, it would probably bother him later.

  So he gathered a few of his own things that he kept here and putting on his armored duster he told the girls he’d be back later and slipped out to see what was up.

  Shadow used his stealth form; his abilities had been growing steadily as he got comfortable with it and gained confidence. It was time to put it to the real test he guessed, and see just what he could get by. He decided to head down for the Senator’s house. It was probably the best place to start, though he didn’t think he’d be able to get inside. There would be way too much heat for that. But he wasn’t sure he’d need to do that anyway. The conventional people could cover the conventional angles. He’d be thinking as a super and see what different spin on things he could come up with.

  Only a psycho or a man with a plan takes on the Fed’s these days, and that would be Shadow’s approach.

  It took Shadow several hours longer than normal to get to the uptown district and work his way out to the mansions that littered the area. Security was high alright, police were everywhere, and there was a lot of people being stopped and questioned. He had to wonder how long they could keep this up, eventually people would start to complain, and somewhere a judge would finally say ‘enough!’ and it would all go away. Well the stopping people would, he wasn’t sure just how long the extra presence would last.

  Shadow got fairly close to the house; he was actually on the grounds sitting in a tree looking in a window. There were a lot of police about, and he saw the parents, wringing their hands and talking to the police. He looked around the area; he could see the signs of a first class security system, one that would make him think twice. However he didn’t see any signs of violence around back, which conflicted with what Circe had said and the news report he’d heard while coming here. Maybe the news reports were wrong then? He knew how he would have done it, so he decided to investigate that angle and slipped back down to the ground and prowled around. It took him a couple of hours, he had to stay hidden after all, but eventually he found it. Her ‘secret garden’.

  It was a little play area hidden in some bushes. An adult would over look it because it was too small. But to a small child a small place is a world of fantasy and enlightenment. Her scent was everywhere, and a few of her toys were there as well. Shadow prowled some more and he got it eventually, a scent that didn’t belong. Another girl’s scent, a bit older maybe, but not much.

  Shadow backtracked that scent out of the garden, off the property and down the street. He lost it at the shopping center, a supermarket. She had come out of a car here, probably been with an adult, but there were too many scents to tell. He looked around and saw there was a camera focused on the parking lot. Most places didn’t bother, but in this part of town people worried about their cars being stolen. Shadow traced the wire from the camera, found the store that owned it and took a little time to infiltrate the building. He had to admit his stealth form was working rather well, the time and effort he’d put into it, was definitely paying off. People’s eyes just didn’t see him, and neither did the electronic ones.

  Getting the tape was simple; playing it back wasn’t very hard either. He had to watch it a while, but eventually a mini-van parked and a man got out with a small dark haired girl. He led her out of the range of the camera, but it was in the right direction. Twenty minutes later they came back with another child, and got into the van and drove off. Simple, easy. Someone who understood how kids worked. Shadow wasn’t sure it was a super, but he was sure he didn’t like what he saw. If he had better equipment, he could probably get a better shot of the man’s face, maybe even the license plate. But he didn’t have access to that sort of stuff.

  Then again, he knew someone who did. He found a payphone, a rarity these days and made a call.

  Tomas was flying as fast as his powers would let him go, the caller had been clear, there was a tape with vital evidence, at a specific location, and the sooner he got it back to a lab to study it, the better. There was something to the voice that reminded Tomas of something, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. When he got to that phone booth twenty minutes later, the tape was there where he had been told it would be. There was a note attached to it with a time index written on it, and the location of the camera the tape was from.

  There was also a smaller second note, with a phone number and a brief sentence: ‘If you need something illegal done, this number is good for 24 hours’. Tomas considered that part carefully as he flew back to his office. This wasn’t the kind of tipster he had expected, but it was more than he’d hoped for.

  “Yup, that’s her alright Tomas,” Centurion said looking at the tape. “Whoever took this knew what they were seeing.”

  “It came from the parking lot security camera down the street from the Senator’s house. This wasn’t done intentionally, we just got lucky.”

  “Well, how’d you get it?”

  “Someone either saw something, or figured something out, and sent me the tape. Think you can
get the plate number off of that car?”

  “Easily. I’ll have some nice printouts of his face and the little girl with him as well.”

  “Good, we can turn them over to the feds and see about getting them identified.”

  “Are you sure that is a good idea Tomas?” Chen asked.

  “Of course it is. I can’t sit on this Chen!”

  “No, you can not sit on it. But maybe we could use it to save her ourselves. We call in who we need to support us, and we do this. Not them. This is our town, these are our people. Fate has given this to us; we should not abuse the choices of fate after all.”

  Tomas thought about that a moment, involving the feds would mean a delay, without them they could move much faster. Then there was the whole story about this being a violent abduction. There was nothing violent about this at all; it was a perfect stealth operation. Something didn’t add up. Chen was right, fate had taken a hand in events, and he would not toss it away.

  “Get DMV on the line and get all the info you can. Thadieus, send that picture around once Centurion gets it up and see what you can find out. Call me when you have something.”

  “Where are you going?” Centurion asked.

  “To the crime scene. Something doesn’t add up. I’m going to see what they will share with me.

  Shadow was back at his apartment, taking a nap, Circe had called to bitch him out, but everything was fine at her place. Traffic was still a mess however and his place was closer, and had fewer distractions in it. He’d been asleep probably twenty minutes when the throwaway cell he’d bought at the 7-11 rung.

  Growling, Shadow picked up the phone, “What?”

  “Why’d you give me the tape?”

  Shadow took a moment to collect his thoughts, and then remembered why he had that phone.

  “Cause you’re the good guys. So go be good.”