by D A Rice
Eli turned his head away from the window, hitting the back of it against the wall behind him gently. He had no idea, yet, how things would progress from here. His ability to know these things only came when it was necessary, but it didn’t always quench the fear he had in between. His knees were drawn up, his forearms resting on top of them. His tablet sat between his legs on the floor. It was still searching through the detective’s phone as Jackson updated the precinct on his whereabouts.
According to Jackson, Rei hadn’t been home, which meant that Rei and Damion had escaped in plenty of time. Eli was glad; he didn’t want them talking to her more than they had to, especially with her friend hovering nearby. Eli couldn’t explain why he’d warned Damion instead of letting him get caught in his lie. Something had just told him, in the way it always had, that Damion was a potential ally. Damion was someone who was as much a victim as Eli’d once been under the Wolf’s influence.
He was wary of Damion’s true purpose, though. Eli had to make room in his mind to figure that out soon. He was in a hard place. Damion was Rei’s best friend, someone she’d known for years. How did Eli tell her about everything he needed to? How did he tell her that Damion wasn’t who she thought he was? How could Eli explain how much his own past might come to haunt them both?
It didn’t help that Eli had been able to see in Damion’s face how much he actually cared about Rei. Even if Damion didn’t want to admit it to himself, the fact remained that no one could pretend to care for so long without some of it leaking through into reality. Eventually, Damion would realize he had a choice to make. As for Eli, he wouldn’t leave Rei if he could avoid it.
His chest tightened. He couldn’t imagine being without her at all. Eli hadn’t even known he needed someone like her, like himself, until he’d met her. He was finding even the thought of letting her go to be hard. Eli didn’t want to lose her. His life was lonely, and he found himself trusting her like he had no one else. But if Rei told him to go, he would, and he wouldn’t blame her for it.
The truth of who he was would blow up the media. It was only a matter of time before his life was thrown into the spotlight yet again. Was he ready for that? Eli sighed, his eyes closing. It didn’t matter if he thought was ready or not. Someone else was directing him now. He would listen to that inner most voice and trust the God he’d come to know. He would do anything within his power to protect Rei.
Even if it meant rising from the grave itself and possibly losing her forever.
His eyes opened with determination. He had a meeting to set up.
…
Jackson’s phone vibrated in an odd way and his eyes narrowed. Pulling the phone out, he froze in mid-stride. He’d left Agent Montoya for the night and was on his way home, opting to walk instead of taking a car. Sometimes he needed the peace that came with it, tuning out the noise of the city as he went. It was his chance to lock up the work half of his brain, even if it didn’t always happen before he got home. Sabrina was patient with him, even then. Sometimes she would sit there, listening to him as he worked it out, or being silent when he said nothing.
Looking down at his phone now, he found his mouth snapping shut. His jaw tightened as the screen blinked once, then came back with a message that wasn’t a normal text or e-mail. The message was an address with what looked like military time at the bottom. With no date, Jackson assumed the Recluse meant to meet tonight. It was also clear he wanted to meet with Jackson alone.
The screen flickered back to Jackson’s normal background. The detective had no doubt that, if the Recluse was sending messages to his personal phone, his work phone was equally at risk. Could he take the chance of meeting with the hacker alone? Jackson thought through his case files. The Recluse had never threatened anyone. In fact, the only thing he’d ever done that could be construed as dangerous was wipe out the Genesis Project.
Jackson had a gut feeling that meeting with the hacker alone would pose no danger to him. The detective was aware, too, that he wouldn’t be able to chase the hacker down as easily if the Recluse ran from him. If Jackson could convince him to come without a fight, the detective would do everything he could to bring the hacker in. But this was an opportunity Jackson couldn’t pass up.
Making up his mind, he pulled out his phone again.
A few hours later, the detective was pulling up to an old church in a taxi. Jackson could see the stain-glass windows, beautifully-colored, but with no real picture in them. The church itself looked like it should be abandoned, but Jackson could see it wasn’t. Someone had taken great pains to put the old building back together without it standing out too much from the broken-down neighborhood around it. Jackson had heard of this nameless church; everyone had.
The church had been purchased legally, then forgotten until it was renovated on the inside to suit the needs of the homeless who made it home. Whoever had purchased the church had done so through a charity, keeping it anonymous. That same charity had set up a routine of soup kitchen staff during the day, but left the homeless to their own devices at night. This was an agreement between the owner and the charity itself. Jackson had never thought anything of it.
Until now.
He stood before the front steps of the church, his eyes fixed on the beautiful windows above the doors and to the sides. The doors were open, and people were shifting around looking for an open bed, or just lounging against the walls. The place was packed. Jackson didn’t move, hands in the pocket of his long coat, face thoughtful.
This was where the Recluse had messaged him to meet, but Jackson wasn’t sure how far he was going to get. He could call in his team or even SWAT and lock the place down. He had probable cause to do it. The detective glanced down towards his pocket, cringing. Except that he didn’t. The message he’d been sent disappeared without a trace. No one else had seen it but him, and that was hearsay in a courtroom. He would need solid proof to even touch this place and everyone in or around it. They had their rights, just like anyone else.
Jackson also didn’t want to scare the hacker off before they could talk. If the Recluse was here, which Jackson was beginning to doubt as he looked around, why now?
“Don’t be alarmed,” came a soft male voice from beside him, making Jackson barely contain a flinch. The detective’s eyes shifted down. It took him a minute to figure out who’d spoken. There was a young lad sitting right next to Jackson on the steps. His head was down, his face covered with a hood. He had on a worn leather jacket and blended in so well with this environment that Jackson would’ve never found him had he not spoken.
This was the same man who he’d given his bagel sandwich to the other day, Jackson was sure of it now. The young man shifted as Jackson knelt next to him. He was grinning under that hood, but he didn’t meet Jackson’s eyes.
“I thought for sure you’d send me on a wild goose chase.” Jackson admitted, his voice low as he lay his arms on his knees, palming one of his fists.
The young man huffed a small laugh of amusement. “Are you sure that I’m the one you’re looking for? What if I’m just the messenger he sent?”
“True,” Jackson conceded with a nod, “are you?”
The young man’s smile grew a fraction, “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Ah, well while you are deciding that, maybe you should tell your friend I debated a great many ways to surround this place. However, I came alone as requested.”
The man shifted, then finally looked up, meeting Jackson’s eyes with a golden pair of amused ones. “I know. I was watching.”
Jackson lifted an eyebrow. Even though he’d suspected it, he was slightly stunned at how young the Recluse actually was. He couldn’t see enough of the man’s face to be sure of anything else. “Are we to have our chat here then?” The detective asked, keeping his face neutral as he glanced around them warily.
The Recluse’s smile grew, and he stood slowly. Jackson followed the hacker’s movements as his head turned to the direction of the building next to them, hi
s eyes scaling the fire escape. “How do you feel about a climb, detective?”
18
Damion paced Rei’s living room.
They’d watched the detective leave with Agent Montoya from the parking garage, and then they’d waited some more. When Damion deemed it safe to re-enter the apartment, only then had they made the journey back. By that point, it’d been dusk.
Rei sat on her couch, the knuckle of her finger in her mouth as she watched him, arms circling her knees. She’d stayed silent until it seemed she could take it no longer. “Damion,” she said, not raising her voice.
Damion halted with a start, stuck in his own head. Finally, he looked at her, then his eyes softened and his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry,” Damion sat on the floor by her feet, leaning back against the couch, taking a deep breath. “I can’t help but be anxious. I don’t want to leave you here alone after what just happened. I should be comforting you.” He glanced back at her, a smile pulling at his lips, “but look at you! Calm as ever. I would have expected this to trigger an episode.”
Her hand fell from her mouth as she grinned at him. “It was definitely stressful, but,” she shrugged, fingers playing with a small string protruding from her cushion. “I have amazing friends to take care of me. I trusted you. That’s all.”
Damion’s hand fisted next to her feet where he had it draped along her cushion. He turned the rest of his body to face her, “I’m glad you trust me, and I really don’t want to beat a dead horse but…why do you trust him so much?”
She met his gaze, her hand stilling, then she sighed. “I can’t really explain it to you, Damion.” Her chin rested on her knee as she glanced back down, “but, I mean, he could have harmed me so many times. Yet...it seems like he’s always found ways to protect me instead.”
Damion kept his gaze on her steady, but on the inside, he couldn’t help the jealousy that kept trying to overtake him. He had been there first. It wasn’t just that Fenris would kill him if he screwed this up. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, part of him cared about her, about what she thought of him.
He had to distance himself from that, but he had to get Eli away from her first. How could he do that? She seemed determined to trust Eli even above himself. It was infuriating. She’d even trusted Eli when he had engaged Damion at the cafe, taunting him with half-truths. What was this guy’s deal? Who was he to think that he could play Damion like a violin?
Damion needed to find out. He stood, raking a hand through his hair as he turned towards Rei, who watched him, far calmer then she should be. He’d never seen her so nonchalant after something as stressful as this. What was going on? He needed to understand. He knelt in front of her, “are you sure you’ll be ok tonight?”
Rei smiled, her hand finding his forearm and squeezing gently. “I got this, Damion. I have nothing to fear from Eli. If you don’t trust him, trust me like you said you would. And if the law comes by again,” she shrugged, “I’ll talk to them, or I’ll call my dad.”
Damion shook his head, a grin forming on his lips again, “probably both, yeah?”
Rei laughed lightly, “fine, both.”
Damion nodded at her before rising, kissing the top of her head. Then he was leaving her to contemplate his back as he walked out her front door.
…
“This is quite the view you have here.” Jackson commented as he gazed out at the skyline from the top of the fire escape they’d climbed. The Recluse sat on the railing beside him, his knuckles white from clenching the metal.
“I come here when I need to think,” the hacker replied in his quiet tone. He hadn’t said much during the climb up, and he hadn’t pulled back his hood. His demeanor was calm, except, Jackson noted, for the tension with which he gripped the rail beneath him. Jackson waited, pulling his gaze from the man beside him and returning it to the city.
“Sometimes,” the Recluse started again, his voice sad as his eyes contemplated the alley below. “Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I just let go.”
Jackson tensed, leaning on his forearms next to the hacker. The Recluse’s muscles relaxed as his unwavering gaze tilted towards him. It was as if the hacker was testing the detective. Jackson wove his fingers together thoughtfully. “I think the world would be lesser without you in it.”
The Recluse’s golden eyes flashed with amusement, “lesser, Detective?”
Jackson leaned on one elbow, meeting the young man’s gaze straight on as he shifted his body to face him. “Yes, Recluse. I think that you’re a very talented individual, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long while. Even in Arachnid. I think that, given the right resources, your skill could save a lot of lives. I think, even without those resources, you probably already have.”
“Or kill more people, maybe kill those we love most,” the Recluse replied softly, his head moving again as his eyes focused on the church in front of them. Jackson watched him, waiting for him to speak again, sensing he wasn’t done. “Nevertheless, it’s time to speak with you both.”
“Us both?” Jackson clarified.
“You and Agent Montoya.”
“Then come with me,” Jackson leaned towards him. The Recluse shifted his eyes to meet the detective’s again. “Turn yourself in, restore the Genesis project. Do the right thing.”
A hint of a grin underneath that hood, “do you know what the Genesis project was, Detective?”
“A chance to grow, Recluse.”
“A chance to destroy,” the Recluse submitted. He glanced behind them. Jackson followed his gaze, “in there.”
Jackson side-glanced the man beside him before re-focusing on the apartment, taking a step towards it, “what’s in there?”
The Recluse smiled at him, “me.” He stood on the rail he’d been perched on moments before. Jackson flinched, shuffling back towards the hacker with his hands out.
“Steady! Don’t do this, Recluse!”
The man pulled his hood off, revealing a face that pulled Jackson up with a halt. His mouth clamped shut in shock as the man met his eyes, and grinned. “Don’t worry, Jackson. You’ll see me again,” and then he was tumbling backwards off the rail. Jackson rushed forward, too late to snatch him back. The other man’s eyes sparked with amusement. He landed in the dumpster below Jackson with a bang.
…
Damion stared at his computer screen in disbelief, eyes wide. No way, he thought over and over again. No freaking way. He was younger, much younger, with no tattoos, but the handle was there. Right there in the FBI database, along with his picture.
Eli was B3oW0lf.
So many things clicked and Damion almost felt stupid for underestimating the other hacker. B3oW0lf was supposed to be dead and the Recluse’s hacking style had been so different. Damion would’ve never known they were the same person if he didn’t have the proof right in front of his face.
Something flashed on his monitor, drawing him out of his shock. It was Fenris checking in. Damion grinned, taking a screenshot of what the FBI facial recognition had shown him. Then clicking on the icon to bring up the encoded chat, he sent the image to Fenris.
You are never going to believe this…
Ezekiel…He’s alive?
Not only is he alive, he is the Recluse and Rei’s new best friend.
There was a pause as Fenris processed this. Damion shivered with Fenris’s next message, imagining the wolfish grin that likely came with it.
Excellent.
…
A knock on her door startled Rei into a sitting position. She had been laying on her couch, zoning out to the TV when it came. She stood slowly. “Rei,” came a quiet steady voice from the other side, “it’s me.”
Rei scrambled across the room, leaping over the couch in her haste. Yanking the door open, she pulled Eli inside. “What are you doing here?”
Eli’s eyes sparked in amusement as he brushed his hood back from his face, a beanie covering his hair. He moved to unzip his jacket next. Rei put a hand on hi
s, covering one of his ratty gloves and halting him. He met her gaze, then spoke, “I came to tell you that I don’t think the police will be bothering you again, at least for tonight.”
He moved around her, taking off his coat and his hoodie. He draped them over a chair next to her island. Eli had a ragged T-shirt on underneath and dark, hip-hugging jeans. He looked so normal that Rei almost laughed...until she remembered the tablet in Eli’s coat and the things he could do with it.
She took a step forward, arms crossed at her PJ-clad stomach and loose thermal bottoms. “You felt safe enough using my front door I see,” she smiled at him.
He shrugged, tracing a finger over the back of the chair he stood beside. “I had nowhere else to go,” he whispered, his gaze dropping to the floor.
Rei took another step forward in concern, “what happened?”
He smirked, before meeting her gaze under his lashes, “they found my home.”
Rei gasped, her hand coming to rest on his arm, “how? You were so careful.”
“I led them to it, Rei.”
She jerked her hand back in astonishment, “you did what?”
His head tilted as he watched her in that childlike way of his, his grin twitching his lips again. “I contacted the detective and invited him to my home. I showed him where he could find everything about me.”
“Why would you do that?” Rei asked, taking another step forward, voice clipped in panic. “What’ll happen to the church?”
Eli’s fingers came up to tug on her hair teasingly. “It was time,” he said softly, “and it wasn’t the church that had what they need.”
She watched him as he twirled his finger through her hair, mesmerized. Then he was dropping it and taking a step back, putting space between them. “Besides,” he continued, moving around the island, “with them going through everything I left for them, they won’t come back here. I needed to see you one last time.”
