Shadow

by Jan Stryvant

  Fiona blushed but let the towel drop and quickly got dressed.

  "Damn, you're hot," he purred smiling. "Anyway, let's find you some sandals, I have a large coat and hat here you can use."

  "Where are we going?"

  "I know a superhero, a real one, not some kid wannabe. I've helped him out before; he should be able to keep you safe for a few days."

  "Why not just drive me home?" she sounded confused.

  Shadow growled and turned to face her, toning it down when she jumped back, "And let everyone know that I saved you? And just what do you think would happen to me?"

  "I ... I don't understand."

  "Listen, right now everyone thinks I raped you, that the only reason I didn't kill you was so I could rape you and torture you and do all sorts of evil things. I have a reputation down here, currently you're helping it."

  "Oh!" Fiona looked very surprised.

  "Exactly, so I'm going to hand you over to Tomas. In a few days he'll announce he saved you in a daring raid of my house. Everyone down here will know I had my way with you, the rest of the world will assume, and of course the more you deny it, the more everyone down here will believe it. Just don't tell anyone that I helped you, okay? And if we ever meet again, go for me first, curse me, scream at me, and try to kill me."

  "Try to kill you? But you saved me!"

  "Don't worry, by the time you get good enough to have a shot, it won't matter anymore. But this is our secret."

  She nodded. "Anything else?"

  "Yeah, you have potential. Stop hanging out with second stringers, they'll get you killed."

  "Okay."

  The ride across town was uneventful; he met Tomas and enjoyed the surprised look when he turned Fiona over to him.

  "Shadow, I'm shocked." He confessed when he heard the whole story. "There may be hope for you yet!"

  "Yeah well, just remember to stick to the plan. I took a lot of risks tonight."

  Tomas nodded, "I know."

  Shadow smiled and ruffled Fiona's hair, "Take care, cutie. Tomas here is the real deal, get to know him if you really want to fight crime."

  Fiona smiled shyly, "Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

  Shadow laughed, "My phone number is in the pocket, invite me over to spend the night sometime and we can call it even."

  "Shadow!" Tomas said exasperated and Fiona blushed a bright pink.

  "Later!" Shadow said still chuckling and left.

  Two weeks later his phone rang and it was Fiona, "Shadow?" he heard her say, "It's Fiona."

  Shadow blinked surprised, the story was old news now, the papers had moved on. He'd almost forgotten about her. "Hi, what's up?"

  "I'd like to take you up on that offer," he heard her say quietly.

  "You sure?"

  "Yes, I'm sure. You saved my life, you made a hard choice, and well, I think that should be rewarded."

  Shadow purred, life was good.

  A Small Side Job

  Shadow entered Bell’s, it was early yet, he had a rather full night of partying planned. He had Stephanie in tow, since doing Jin-Tao in, she was probably his most regular girl these days after Circe. Of course Circe didn’t like to go and party like he did, Stephanie however was always up for a party. Circe didn’t have any plans for tonight, she usually didn’t do more than one job a week, if that. So he had the night off. Going to his booth he found Carl sitting there having a drink waiting for him.

  Shadow looked surprised, Carl rarely waited for anyone, he just showed up when you least expected it. “So what brings you around tonight, Carl?”

  “Can’t a guy just visit, Shadow?”

  “Carl, I have never known you to just ‘visit’ anyone. You have to be the busiest guy in the underground. People wonder if you ever even sleep.”

  “Sure I do, from six till noon at least once a month,” Carl grinned.

  Shadow had learned that Carl was the underground’s news maven and job board. If you needed to be put in touch with someone, Carl would hook you up. “But yeah, someone has something and I thought you might be interested.” Carl glanced at Stephanie then back at Shadow.

  “Why don’t you go hit the women’s room and freshen up pet?” Shadow told her.

  “Sure thing, Shadow,” she said with a smile.

  Carl watched as she walked away, Stephanie was in four-inch heels and wearing a very short skirt with not much underneath. It was a nice show.

  “The Renae Museum is getting the Hennessy collection next week.”

  “I hadn’t heard, then again I’m not much for modern art.”

  “The Hennessy collection isn’t art, Shadow, it's jewelry.”

  Shadow flicked his ears forward, curious, “If it’s jewelry, why is it called a ‘collection’? And why is it going to the Renae?”

  “Hennessy bought up a bunch of Nazi war loot near the end of World War two,” Carl explained. “And it’s going to the Renae as part of their ‘war crimes’ show.”

  Shadow nodded, “Okay, so what does this have to do with you and me?”

  “The families that the jewels and jewelry were stolen from have been trying to get it back for decades, since it turned up. But the Hennessy’s are rather powerful politically so they’ve been getting shafted. Well an insurance agent I know happens to have a contact with the representative of the families and they were wondering ...” Carl smiled at Shadow.

  “How much?”

  Carl smiled even wider, “So you’re interested then?”

  “Fuck yeah. The Hennessy’s are rich bastards; they should have given it back instead of rubbing peoples' noses in it. It’s not like they need the money, they profited obscenely from that war. So how much?”

  “After my finder's fee, and the insurance agent’s skim; hundred thou.”

  “How much is the collection worth?” Shadow asked frowning, that didn’t sound like a lot.

  “Probably over ten million.”

  “And they’re only offering one percent? Kind of cheap.”

  Carl shrugged, “They’re pretty broke, the Hennessy’s have been dragging them through court for ages. But I know you, you like these kinds of underdog crimes.”

  “No, I like quiet anonymous crimes that give a lot of cash and can’t be traced to me.”

  “I haven’t told anyone else. Even the agent has no idea who I’m hiring.”

  “You really think I’m going to do this, don’t you?” Shadow said smiling.

  “The stuff arrives Thursday at two pm. Armored car, guards, the whole set up. The museum isn’t setting up any extra security though, well other than five extra night watchman, moonlighting cops I heard. I’ll stop by here Friday morning with your cash and you can give me the stuff.”

  “I haven’t said I’d do it, Carl,” Shadow let Stephanie back into the booth, pulling her into his lap. He wanted to play tonight and she seemed rather interested as well.

  “Here’s a set of fake duplicates to put in their place.” Carl put a velvet bag down in front of him on the table. “They’re pretty decent quality, so it may be awhile before they realize what happened.”

  Shadow laughed and shaking his head took the bag, putting it in the pocket of his duster.

  “See you later, Shadow,” Carl said and got up and left.

  Shadow smiled at Stephanie and petted her a little as she sat in his lap. She smiled back and looked happy. Of course his paws were under her blouse so that didn’t hurt. “Lets go home,” He told her and she smiled even more. It was early yet, normally they’d stay out until at least four am, but now he had plans for much later tonight, so if he started in early on her, she’d be well sated by then. Plus he was pretty horny; he hadn’t gotten laid since breakfast after all.

  It was Tuesday and later tonight, much much later, he’d case out the museum and see what it was like. He’d been there a couple of years ago and he doubted it had changed all that much since then.

  Thursday night came and Shadow was in the Renae, switching the jewel
ry had been painfully easy, of course he’d practiced doing it between one and two am in another room after looking at the layout, so he could get in and out fast. Security was pretty lax once you got inside. The outside security was pretty heavy; inside they had two guard dogs and guards that walked a regular beat. Shadow had warned all the dogs earlier to ignore him, or he’d eat them. Suitably cowed they pretended he wasn’t there and the guards were none the wiser. To be honest it was so easy that Shadow was very worried, there was no sign at all of the extra guards Carl had told him would be there, but his paranoia was fully engaged now so he spent extra care cleaning up his traces and took the time to make sure the stuff he had grabbed was real and not fakes.

  Friday morning Shadow was happy to see that Carl was already waiting for him at Bell’s when he showed up.

  “So, any problems?” Carl asked.

  “No, in fact I’m worried. It was way too easy, there was no extra security, you might want to check this out.” Shadow said and slid the bag over to Carl.

  Carl handed him a large brown envelope. Shadow didn’t bother to count it, Carl didn’t break his deals.

  “That could be because of the big blowup last night.”

  Shadow blinked. “Blowup?”

  Carl looked at him, “Don’t you watch the news? Where were you last night?”

  “Where do you think I was?” He said.

  “All night?”

  “Well, when I got back I decided to spend the rest of the evening playing with Circe’s girls.” Shadow said, ears flat and looking a little embarrassed.

  Carl laughed, “Okay, I can’t blame you for that. Around one am last night the fifth precinct raided an after hours joint, Harv’s little operation up there on Hudson.”

  Shadow liked Harv’s parties; he would have gone to last night’s if he hadn’t been working. He had even supplied Harv with a number of designer drugs he manufactured for last night’s affair. “What happened? Harv’s parties are usually pretty mellow.”

  “Laughing Boy was there.”

  “I thought he didn’t go to Harv’s parties.” Shadow said surprised.

  “I suspect your not being there had something to do with that.”

  “You’re saying he’s afraid of me?” Shadow laughed.

  “No, he’s afraid of Circe, who you have a tendency to bring with you when you go.”

  Shadowed ‘ahhed’. That was true; he usually did bring Circe to Harv’s parties. Harv was one of the few men Circe tolerated, probably because she was trying to get Harv’s sister into bed. “So what happened?”

  “Laughing Boy escalated and things got a bit nasty. Several people got hurt, several got arrested, but when the dust cleared, a cop was missing.”

  Shadow grimaced, “Oh, shit.”

  “Exactly. Every cop in the city got called out and they’re taking the town apart. Surprised you didn’t get rousted on the way over here.”

  Shadow had noticed the extra police, but had been using his stealth abilities to get here unnoticed.

  “You going to be okay getting that stuff back?” Shadow asked Carl.

  “Yeah, I got it covered.”

  “Might be time to lay low,” Shadow said. “They get pretty pissed when someone kills a cop.”

  “He’s not dead,” Carl said leaning in close and lowering his voice.

  “What? You sure about that?”

  “Course I am. Laughing Boy has him on ice someplace. Not his headquarters, first place they’ll look once they figure it out.”

  “Why’s he holding the guy?” Shadow looked perplexed.

  “I don’t know, usually no one bothers the boys in blue unless it’s in the heat of battle. But it can’t be good whatever it is.”

  “I hope he doesn’t bring a lot of heat down on us,” Shadow griped. “I was going to go partying this weekend.”

  “Yeah well, you might want to change those plans. I suspect all of the raves are going to be hit; Scorecard said his parties are off until this blows over.”

  Shadow nodded, “Well see you later, I’m going to head back over to Circe’s and entertain the girls some more.”

  “Lucky bastard, I’ve seen those girls, they’re pretty hot.”

  “You’re too human for them, Carl,” Shadow laughed.

  “You mean they ...?”

  Shadow grinned, “Dude, they work for Circe, what do you think they do?”

  Carl’s eyes bugged a little and then he sort of smiled, “Any chance I could watch one of them sometime?”

  Shadow just shook his head, “Later, Carl.”

  Shadow stopped by his apartment and stashed the cash, then headed back to Circe’s. He had been thinking of doing the party circuit all weekend, but now maybe he should just have a little private party at Circe’s with her and the staff. Then again, Shadow wondered just what the hell Laughing Boy was up to. Snatching a cop was pretty stupid. You couldn’t ransom them; the government wasn’t much on paying ransoms and even if they were you wouldn’t get much, not for a cop. Most people who got snatched were important people, usually a little shady, who’d rather pay the money than get the law involved.

  Shadow turned and changed direction, heading down to the theater district, Laughing Boy had his headquarters there these days, maybe he could learn something.

  It took him a while to find a good place to stake out Laughing Boy’s base, he had to be careful, if any of Laughing Boy’s lieutenants or foot soldiers saw him, it would be a serious fight. As Circe’s lieutenant he would be attacked immediately. So he poked around checking all the approaches, all the angles, the windows, spending a couple of hours.

  Shadow realized that it was pointless, unless he got in there; he wasn’t going to find out anything. His stealth form was almost completely undetectable, especially if he had shadows to work with. He’d snuck into some of the most secure places in the city using it. Of course in those cases failure meant jail at the worst. Here it would definitely be worse.

  Then again, here he wouldn’t feel upset if he had to kill anyone.

  Shadow flicked his tail in annoyance, time to cat up he guessed.

  Getting in the front door was easy. After that it was a slow and careful dance, there were people moving and things going on and the closer he got to the boss’s office, the more difficult it got. Laughing Boy was paranoid. Then again, somewhere he had a cop on ice, once they found out, things would get dicey.

  “Man, the boss has sure got them rattled this time!”

  Shadow stopped and retraced his last two steps and flattened against the wall, listening.

  “Yeah, they’ll be running ‘round in circles for days.” A second voice said.

  “Any idea what he’s going to do next?” The first voice spoke again.

  “Nah, he wouldn’t tell me. But I don’t think it’s gonna be good for the pig he’s got on ice. You shoulda' seen the guy; he was begging to be let go, going on about his wife and kid. Boss had to threaten to kill them too just to get him to shut up.”

  Shadow’s eyes narrowed, this one knew where the officer was being held. That would do. He peeked around the corner, head low to the floor. They shouldn’t be able to see him, but it was never wise to take chances, you never knew if someone’s power could trump yours and he hadn’t put his stealth up against any supers yet.

  “Well it serves them right for interrupting the party. Word is the Boss had a big surprise planned, was going to fuck up Harv’s place pretty good, and Harv as well. Seems he’s feeling a bit insulted about that bitch Circe and her flea bitten cat being over there all the time.”

  There were only two in the room and Shadow identified each of them quickly, the one talking was Jimmy, the one who he wanted was Tony Sharp Shoes.

  The phone rang and Jimmy answered it.

  “What’s that? Yeah sure, I’ll get right on it.” Jimmy hung up the phone and turned to Tony. “That was Mikey Jr. Gotta run over to the projects and pick up a package. See ya’.”

  Shadow slipped ba
ck and waited.

  “Yeah, I might as well head home and catch a nap. Gonna be a long night,” Tony said and Shadow heard him get up as well.

  Shadow followed Tony then, out of the building, down the street and when he got into his car Shadow carefully climbed onto the roof and just held on tightly. Fortunately Tony was a slow driver. Then again it was a big caddy and the last thing he wanted was to attract any attention right now. Shadow was definitely gaining confidence in his stealth form and the abilities he’d worked so hard to put into it.

  When Tony opened the door to his brownstone duplex Shadow was right on his heels, stepping in behind Tony he shifted into his martial arts form and clipped him hard on the back of the head, knocking him out.

  “Tony? That you?” He heard a woman’s voice. Shifting back to stealth he pushed the door closed and waited in the shadows for her. She screamed when she saw Tony on the floor, and Shadow shifted to human and grabbed her from behind, ripping her blouse off and wrapping it around her head then putting a hand over her mouth.

  “Say nothing; you come out of this alive.” He said in a low voice. Working quickly he grabbed the electrical cord from the lamp and tied her hands behind her back. Next he tied her feet, then gagged her and put a better blindfold on her. By then he had noticed that Tony had rather nice taste in women. He tied up Tony next and then moved her to the bedroom and left her on the bed. He could tell she was terrified, she’d wet herself and was crying now.

  He was tempted to say something to her, but knew that would probably be a mistake. He then dragged Tony into the bathroom. He hung him from the shower, blindfolded him and turned the water on. Tony came around after a couple of minutes; Shadow had turned the radio on and turned it up so hopefully no one would hear this.

  “What the fuck ....” Tony moaned.

  “Where is the cop?” Shadow said softly. He was in his human form; he knew his cat forms had a distinctive growl to his voice when he got angry. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to kill Tony.

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Mister!”