Divine Fraud

by Thomas Green

  The temple itself was the classical mix of red and gold with a huge archway as the entrance. Sculptures of dragons wove over the columns and another one loomed at the top of the arch. Two guards stood by the columns, but judging by the ceremonially looking armor, they were more decorations than guards. No serious operative would wear that.

  I ignored them and stepped through. They either recognized me or subconsciously realized I was trouble, so they didn’t move, pretending they didn’t see me entering. I took the first stairs I saw and dashed up. A hallway decorated with vases opened before me and I knew I was going the right way.

  The thin carpet swallowed the sound of my steps. I advanced until I saw a door with a real guard. He wore a suit, sunglasses, and reached for the gun holstered by his belt the second he saw me.

  I walked toward him, calm. “I’m here to talk to Yu Yan, now.”

  He gulped, beads of sweat covering his pale face. “Lady Wu is busy. You’ll need to schedule a meeting with her.”

  I stopped straight in front of him, gazing down with my chin inches away from his brows. “Within the next five seconds, I will enter this door and you aren’t capable of stopping me. The only question is if you will live to tell the tale.”

  Now, he may have been a security guard, but that was a job very distant from threats on one’s life. I wouldn’t kill him, of course, but he couldn’t know that. And with all the aether overflowing from my body, dried blood on my torn coat and guns visible by my waist, he was bound to believe me. I doubted he was being paid enough to try to stop me.

  He stepped to the side, motioning to the door. “Lady Wu has a meeting now though.”

  Perfect. I opened the door, crossed the short hallway and entered the office. By a redwood table inside sat six people. Yu Yan sat at the head, wearing a traditional crimsons dress with a golden dragon woven into the cloth. Three men and two women in business suits sat at the sides. They all had laptops in front of them and turned to me when I entered.

  I glared at Yu Yan, and spoke in a steady, low voice. “I need to see your security camera feeds from last night, now.”

  “If you haven’t noticed, this is a private meeting to which you haven’t been invited,” Yu Yan answered, her eyes cold as ice. “Leave or I will have my security accompany you outside.”

  I grabbed the table and threw it at the wall. My strength slipped. The glass covering the paintings on the wall shattered, laptops broke and the people by the table screamed. The table’s frame dented the wall’s plaster.

  I moved my hands to slide my coat backward, revealing the colts on my thighs. The businesspeople shrieked, fell from their chairs and started running toward the door. As they did, I walked to Yu Yan.

  She remained seated, calmer than I expected her to be. “Who do you think you are to enter my domain and threaten me?”

  “Lucas Johnson. Someone close to me disappeared and I need your last night’s camera feed to confirm if she entered Nether Mart or not.” I motioned at the table lying by the wall. “And sorry about this.”

  “Sorry?” She chuckled. “You think saying sorry is enough? The only thing you will ever get from me is a visit from my assassins.”

  “Okay, I tried to be nice.” I smiled. “Give me what I’ve came for or this will turn very violent.”

  “You think you can fight me here? You must have lost your mind.”

  “Oh, I haven’t lost anything.” I stepped to the window, looking over the Nether Mart. “This entire enterprise belongs to Lucielle. Sure, you can fight me. You and your people might lose, or you may win, and you might even kill me. But in every case, there will be massive collateral damage and hundreds will die.” I half turned, glaring down at her with my eyes now turned into pools of darkness. “And then the Devil will come, asking why her sales are down, why her properties are damaged and why her employees are dead. What do you think she would do to you if she were to find out all of that could had been prevented if only you would had swallowed your pride and let me see the security tapes I wanted?”

  We glared at each other. This was why the first thing I mentioned were the security tapes. The people who have already run from her office heard me and would remember that, meaning Yu Yan couldn’t lie about it to Lucielle. Yes, I was blackmailing her, but I didn’t care about the long-term consequences. In light of Evelyn being gone, the rest of the world stopped mattering. I could solve that after Evelyn was home and safe.

  She rose. “Follow me.”

  With a wide grin, I did. We left the room. The security guard stood by the door, pale and breathless. Yu Yan didn’t even look at him as we passed.

  The security room was in the basement of the temple. Inside were three men and a woman sitting by dozen shining screens.

  They all turned when we entered.

  “Show him what he wants and then see him out,” Yu Yan said.

  The people inside bowed and said, “Yes, Milady.”

  Yu Yuan spun on her heel and left.

  With a smug smile, I said, “I need to see the footage of all cameras you have on the Washington Park Arch entrance from yesterday 2100 to 2300.”

  They didn’t fight back. Five minutes, later, they put the feed of the four cameras they had there on one station, one on each monitor.

  I took the seat of a man who stepped aside. “Put it on times eight speed.”

  Nothing happened in the first half an hour. Then a morbidly obese woman came and hit the door with her palm, shouting something. She hit a few more times and then vomited on them. She turned and waddled away.

  Two mages came, both older men in suits, carefully tiptoeing around the vomit, and entered.

  A woman arrived, wearing a loose dress and a hat with a flower. She entered too.

  Two young couples left through the door, laughing, carrying full bags, but then shouting in disgust when they noticed they walked through vomit.

  A group of four men in hoodies appeared. They sprayed a dick on the door, giggled and left.

  The tape ended as the time reach 2300. I was certain I came home at about eight thirty, so the time covered the entire interval during which Evelyn could have arrived at the door if she came here.

  Which she had absolutely no reason not to do. That made my heart sink. If she were to forget herself somewhere, it would be in one of the enterprises here in Nether Mart. She clearly didn’t arrive at her destination.

  I noticed no signs of a fight, no stains of blood or anything else on the way here. Okay, I wasn’t looking too thoroughly, but still. The time I’ve spent working on this job made me remember every pin code I ever saw someone type, every password written before me and everything out of the ordinary.

  Evelyn was kidnapped or murdered. No, kidnapped. Murder made no sense and I refused to acknowledge any such scenario.

  “Thanks,” I uttered and left the room. I headed straight to the elevator leading outside. Perhaps I missed something on the way here since I was rushing. The crowd swallowed me when I left the temple and spat me out at the other end.

  A young man stood in the elevator, wearing a black suit. I entered and stood to the side. Three more men entered the elevator. The door closed.

  Who the hell kidnapped Evelyn? My mind raced too erratically to get any real thinking done. I breathed fast, was covered with icy sweat, and kept shifting my weight. If I didn’t calm down soon, I would solve nothing.

  ‘Would you start paying attention?’ Lucifer said into my mind.

  Fuck o… I looked around just in time to see the men drawing knives. Right, that.

  The first man stabbed at my back. I whirled and hit his throat with an elbow. His spine cracked and he fell to the ground. The other three swung at me at the same time. I caught the arms of the men at the sides and kicked the one in front. My boot sent him crashing into the door with a loud thud, his stomach smashed.

  I whirled and threw the two men around like cloth dolls. One hit the wall with his head and fell unconscious. The second one kicked the wa
ll and tried to yank his hand from my grip. I stepped in, bent his arm upward, shattering his elbow, and guided the knife into his shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

  The elevator beeped and the door opened. I left them to scream in pain, pressed the zero button and walked out of the elevator. Yu Yan must have been angry to throw an assassination attempt as poorly organized as this.

  ‘Not even a word of thanks?’ Lucifer asked, his tone playful.

  If I die, you die with me.

  He laughed. ‘You are becoming entertaining.’ He withdrew from my mind. I crossed the hallway, left through the door, and headed toward my home.

  Tourist groups filled the sidewalks. I scanned every yard of the way home with my aether-imbued vision. Evelyn didn’t leak aether, but her kidnappers may have. Except that it has been over twelve hours, so unless they fought with spells, there would be no trail left.

  I found too many traces of aether, so I had to revert to normal sight. I passed through a group of Japanese tourists. Along the way, there were no tire marks of sudden breaking, no glass shards from a broken window, no sign of blood. With a scowl, I soon stood in front of our house.

  All right, Lucas, think! I reached for my pack of cigarettes and lit one. Nicotine washed through my mind. This was most likely a kidnapping related to the case I’ve been working on. The major parties I angered in the past two days were the statuette thieves, the traffickers, and the Yakuza.

  And then there were two more sides, Sora and the FBSI centered around Agent Miller.

  For this to have been done by another party was unlikely. But I couldn’t investigate five subjects at once. Okay, who had the most to gain? Sora wanted the Yakuza gone, so that wasn’t a good motive for taking Evelyn. The FBSI had no current beef with me and, most importantly, didn’t operate this way. Even if they did, they’d only arrest Evelyn, meaning she wouldn’t be in immediate danger. If I was wrong about this and it was the FBSI, I could find her next week and she’d be alive and well.

  The Yakuza had good cause to get blackmailing material on me. But they haven’t tried to contact me yet, and more importantly, they knew about my connection to Lucielle. I wasn’t the Devil’s agent right now but had good relationships there—as proven by my letters of recommendation—so it would be reasonable to assume I could ask her for help. And the Yakuza wasn’t stupid enough to enrage the Devil herself.

  I broke the gang of human traffickers, but perhaps that was only a part and there were others who wanted revenge for their friends. Yeah, they would have the motive, but they didn’t strike me as capable enough to execute something like this. The Evelyn kidnapping was precise, done when I was wounded in the single opportunity presented. That meant whoever did it was watching me. I didn’t think the traffickers had the means of doing that without me noticing.

  That left the statuette thieves. They had the means to both watch me, to kidnap her and they also had an excellent motive—to protect themselves from me. Yeah, that made sense, so that was where I had to start.

  I grabbed my phone, glanced at the tracking app and saw the trackers were somewhere in the Bronx. I tossed away the cigarette butt, got into my car and drove there.

  Chapter 10

  I SAT IN MY ANCIENT CAR, watching the house across the street. The trackers were pointing at this two story, house with a For Sale sign standing in the yard. Tall grass covered the small garden and white walls shone in the sunlight.

  All right, how would I play this? I could choose a direct attack, but that’d be extremely risky if they truly had Evelyn as they could use her for a shield. I needed to find a way to sneak inside the house… nah, that would take too long, and I had no time to waste if I was wrong about them having her.

  I drew my guns and hid them under my backpack on the seat next to me, together with my two hunting knives. I got out of the car and walked toward the house.

  After vaulting over the garden gate, I raised my hands into the air, palms up. I reached the door, pressed the doorbell and shouted. “I’ve come to talk.”

  No answer came. I kept ringing until a male voice sounded from behind me. “Why should we talk with you?”

  “Because talking could end with me not killing you.” Yes, they could have run when I approached, but they had no idea how I was tracking them. From what I have seen so far, they had no high-tech equipment and relied solely on their magic. That meant they were well-equipped for dealing with magical tracking, but no way to find the small trackers I hid in one of their companion’s metallic limbs.

  That was doubly difficult for them to figure out because I spent the entire first day tracking the invisible runner. That must have led to them assuming I was tracking him, not the assassin. To run would only mean I would find them again and next time, I wouldn’t be coming to talk.

  The door opened slightly and the runner, Susanoo, tossed out a pair of shackles. “Put these on.”

  I laughed. “You’re in no position to make demands of me. Last time, you escaped because I was tired and busy fighting others. But right now, I’m on full strength while you have two wounded friends you will not be able to save them from me.”

  A silent moment passed before he spoke, and a black Lexus parked in the street at the other side of the house. “What do you want?” he asked.

  “To talk. I promise I will not attack or harm you from the moment I enter until one hour after I leave the house, provided you don’t force me to.”

  He opened the door. “Come in.” His face was pale, khaki pants and hoodie dirty, and dark bags hang under his eyes, visible under the hood’s shadow.

  They couldn’t track me, could they? That’d put them under extreme pressure, because I’ve twice proven I could appear at any time.

  I entered and he closed the door behind me. The power of the word promise apparently worked in Japan the same as it did here. By having to keep themselves combat-ready, they had no good opportunity to rest. When I looked at it through their eyes, they were trying to escape a hunter that always found them and was stronger than they were. Yeah, that must’ve been pretty harsh on their psyche.

  Susanoo led me to the living room with closed curtains. On the two beds they moved here lay his companions. There was little other furniture. They both jerked up their heads, staring at me with wide, terrified eyes.

  I showed them open palms. “I’m only here to talk.” The girl was mostly wrapped in bandages pale as chalk and had unfocused gaze. The man I fought first had a splint over his shattered shoulder and knee. Upon the fast move, he grunted with pain and fell back down. Neither of those two was in a condition to fight me.

  I took a chair and sat down in five feet away from them.

  The man who brought me, still wearing the strange rollerblades, stood between the beds of his companions. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Let’s start with introductions,” I said, forcing my voice to remain calm. “I’m Lucas Johnson, a private investigator hired to find the statuette you stole.” Since I needed them to cooperate with me, giving away a bit of what would normally be private information was the fastest approach to build trust.

  They stared at me for a moment. “Aiko Amaterasu,” the woman said.

  “Yoshiro Tsukoyomi,” the man with shattered shoulder added.

  “Kenji Susanoo,” the standing man said.

  Okay, so I had the new demigods part right. “Why do you need the statuette?”

  “That’s none of your business,” Kenji snapped. “Tell us what you want first.”

  Fair enough. I nodded. “A year ago, the soul gems of the old gods, the ones that gave you the powers you possess, were scattered across the world. That wasn’t a random occurrence. A woman took these gems from the Void, and when she saw her plan to escape this world failed, she threw them into a portal set at random.”

  “What does that have to do with anything? And how do you know that?” Kenji asked, his voice sharp.

  “I was there when Evelyn threw the gems into the portal. Last
night, she went missing and I’m looking for her.”

  Aiko’s eyes narrowed. “How do we know you aren’t lying and instead, are hunting her down?”

  “You don’t.” I smiled sadly and a lump formed in my throat. “But she’s been my…” my voice trailed off. Vivian and Lucifer kept calling her my pet, but that’s not who she was to me. She was so much more. “My lover and me finding her is more important than you three and the statuette.”

  They exchanged glances. “I believe him,” Aiko whispered. The other two nodded. They didn’t look like they had any idea of who was Evelyn. The odds of them having her zeroed out, especially since they were in no state to kidnap someone. Aiko and Yoshiro were bedridden, most likely unable to move by themselves.

  The house, just like the previous one, showed no sign of them having any more allies and with only one unwounded member, they couldn’t split up. Not to mention they had no way to move Evelyn around to use her as a hostage.

  “So, you want us to help each other?” Kenji asked. “I don’t see how we could do that since we’re rather busy with our own mission.”

  In the gap beneath the curtains, I glimpsed a black Lexus accelerating away on the street. “That’s why I asked about your goals. They might cross with mine.”

  “Elaborate,” Kenji said.

  Even if they didn’t have Evelyn, they could be useful. “I have multiple suspects, one of which is the Yakuza. If I understand your situation correctly, you’re members of their organization who are launching something like a rebellion. Right?” This theory seemed most plausible since it’d explain why they used the Yakuza infrastructure when trying to get rid of me and, at the same time, stole a statuette and murdered the CEO, Miyamoto Musashi.

  Kenji paused for a moment. “You came here to verify we weren’t the ones who kidnapped Evelyn, didn’t you?”

  I nodded. “If you have her, this is your last opportunity to give her to me. Should I ever find out you indeed kidnapped her and lied to me about it, I promise I will hunt you to the end of the world and kill you by any means necessary.”