"Drake looked up and found himself in a small apartment in j.a.pan. The couple he"d grown vicariously close to sat together on a small sofa in their living room. Yoshiko leaned back against her husband who wrapped his arms around her and rested them on her womb.
He blinked and saw Hiromi before him once again. All he could do was thank her for her concern and look away.
7:43 PM.
Seattle, Washington Nick and Lauren walked through a small grocery store in the International District of Seattle. They each carried their own hand basket, selected items they each thought they would need and at times would wander away from each other, but Nick and Lauren never let the other vanish from their sight.
The hideout they stayed in didn"t have any appliances, so they were forced to only buy items that could keep without the need to be frozen or refrigerated. However they lacked a stove, oven, sink, and toaster, so anything that needed to be cooked was also out of the question; as such a majority, if not all, of what they purchased const.i.tuted snack food. (Lauren picked up some feminine hygiene items that Nick tried his best to ignore).
As they walked past the wine section, Lauren stopped and asked if Nick thought Strom might like some wine. He was sure he wouldn"t mind some, but told her he didn"t know what type of alcohol he might want. She examined the bottles, didn"t find any of them to be greatly unique, selected one she favored, set it in her basket, and walked on.
Nick hurried along to catch up with her and asked if she drank a lot. She shook her head, "No, not much. I did it more as a social thing, but..." she stopped and claimed she didn"t care much for it.
"How are we going to buy it? You mentioned you"re nineteen, right?"
She nodded, "David made me a pa.s.sport that said I was twenty-one before I left." They walked into an aisle filled with cookies, crackers, chips, and other snacks before she asked what David was really like. "I"ve known him for a few years," she told him, "But he never mentioned any of this."
Nick cleared his throat and asked if the two of them dated, which she said they never had, which then gave Nick a false sense of ease. He mentioned that David spent a good deal of time with Melanie and Alisa, though he wasn"t certain if he dated either of them.
Lauren frowned, which Nick noticed and asked her if she was alright. She shook her head and said it was nothing. "I just...I don"t know, I thought he was a nice guy, but apparently I don"t really know him at all."
Nick felt a sudden sense of his error and tried to console her by saying that David was a great guy, a valuable member of the group, and that he cared about her, but nothing he said resonated with her. He apologized and admitted that he didn"t know who he was either. She wiped a few tears from her eyes and asked if he was ready to leave.
There was only one bag and the bottle of wine wrapped in a thin paper sleeve between them. Nick carried the bag while Lauren held the bottle by its neck in her right hand. They hadn"t said two words since the store and were halfway home before Nick realized that they needed to stop somewhere and order takeout (which made up the rest of their lavish meal). He walked on her right side, next to the oncoming traffic, and watched for cars. She stared despondently at the sidewalk, quietly shifted past other pedestrians, and kept a rather loose grip on the bottle.
"Where do you want to go for dinner?" he asked her. She didn"t reply, so he tried again, "What sounds good?"
She told him she didn"t care and asked him to make a decision.
He cleared his throat and tried to apologize for what he said about David, "I really don"t know anything about him Lauren, but he seems like a good guy."
She slowly came to a stop next to him at a crosswalk and asked him to stay there with her for a moment. "You know, when I...we, he and I, were still in Paris, I heard rumors that he slept around with a lot of people, but I didn"t believe it. He was really kind, strong, charming, and protective even. I thought I..." she let out a breath, "I really thought he was perfect."
Nick scratched the back of his head and said David might still be that guy. "We don"t really"
"Nick," she stopped him, "What were your parents like?"
He felt a twinge of anxiety in the question. He wanted the signal to change so they could keep walking, or for some event to change the subject, but he doubted she would let it drop. "Why are you asking me that?"
Lauren frowned and just asked him to talk about them. Her eyes were fixed on the sidewalk, her hands shook, and Nick guessed it was the last thing she wanted to talk about. She took him by the hand and walked over to the side of one of the buildings, took a seat on the sidewalk, asked him to join her, and waited for an answer. She still didn"t make eye contact with him, but listened intently in antic.i.p.ation.
Nick looked away from her and asked why she wanted to know.
"Isn"t it obvious?" she said with a scowl. "Strom and I talked for a minute and he told me you probably understand what I"m going through..." Lauren glanced his way and saw his dispirited demeanor, which nearly caused her to retract her entire query. But she only added that she wanted to know what he did about all of the strife he"d dealt with. "I...I just want to know what this is like for you." She looked at him again, and even though he didn"t look at her, she asked about his parents one more time.
Nick wiped off the corners of his lips, took a breath, and started by telling her he didn"t know his father at all. "He died in a car accident before I was born..." He paused for a moment before he added that his older brother Victor didn"t even know him that well. "But my mom was..." he shrugged, "She was a great person, she loved and took care of us as long as she could and hardly ever did anything for herself." Nick frowned and felt guilty in admitting that his mother sacrificed so much for him. "I remember my brother and I wanted a bunch of fireworks for the Fourth of July one year, but we didn"t have any money for anything like that. We didn"t end up getting any, but she took us out to a fireworks show over Lake Washington and watched everyone"s fireworks go off for hours." He smiled and added that he didn"t even stay up through the ride home.
Lauren asked if he missed her, which she immediately realized was a poor question as soon as she asked it.
He said he did and ignored her embarra.s.sment. "She died on the first of July this year, so yeah, I do."
"Nick, I didn"t mean to"
He told her it was fine. "You"re dealing with more than I am right now." Nick glanced over at her to ensure he hadn"t touched a nerve. He apologized anyway.
"It"s fine," she mumbled. She waited a moment before she told him about a fair her mother and father took her to when she was younger. "I don"t remember very much from it, but I recall going on a Ferris wheel and seeing Paris at night, lit up." She told him it looked like a dream, illuminated in the dead of night. "It was really cold that night too, which makes me think it might have been in November. Anyway, my mother and father bought me a pair of blue mittens to keep my hands warm while we walked back home. I felt too tired to walk the whole way and my father carried me home." Lauren smiled and told him it was one of her happiest memories. She sighed and then told him about her recent years and how she"d basically became a nuisance who lied to them, who snuck out behind their backs, stole from them, how she fought with them, and finally she broke down into tears. "I was a terrible daughter," she muttered bitterly.
"Lauren"
"No," she snapped, "Nick, I"m a terrible person. I complained the whole way here, I told my parents I wanted nothing to do with them, I fought with them ever since we landed...I even walked out after a fight with them to get a drink...right before they were killed." She wiped tears away and murmured that she left a poor memory in her parents" minds. "They must have felt like I was a failure."
Nick wasn"t sure what to say to comfort her, but told her she wasn"t a bad person. "They remember the good memories as well Lauren," he reminded her. "Those moments you love, I"m sure they loved them too and that those are how they defined you in their hearts. And they loved you, which is probably why they wanted you to come here with them, right?"
She shook her head and said it was only because they didn"t want her to get into trouble while they were away.
"That"s because they love and care about you." He told her about how he got into trouble when he and his friend Jordan snuck into their high school after hours to steal a set of tests from one of their cla.s.ses that they both knew they failed. "We weren"t careful and ended up breaking a window and a desk and were caught pretty quickly. I just remember getting home, my heart pounding so hard I thought it was going to explode, how my stepdad yelled at me in front of the officers, Jordan, my mom, and my brother, and how my mom came into my room later and told me she was just happy that I was okay." Nick went on to tell Lauren about how he broke down, cried, and promised his mother that he wouldn"t ever let her down again. "She told me everything was fine, that Paul, my stepdad, would get over it, and that she still loved me." He made eye contact with her and told her that her parents still loved her.
Lauren looked away from him, smiled, and started to tell him about how her mother and father reacted to the first time they caught her out past her curfew.
11:50 PM.
Baltimore, Maryland Mia sat wrapped in a blanket on her couch with all of her lights off. She forgot to pay her bills and because of that lit her room with two candles on her coffee table in the center of her living room. She tried her best to pour over the little information she had about the individual who stole her ident.i.ty, but still didn"t manage to come up with anything.
A small black crow tapped on her window and perched there in antic.i.p.ation of Mia"s eventual willingness to open the way for it. She did as the creature knew she would and the bird, along with dozens of others, flew into her apartment and a.s.sumed the form of a man in rags.
"You don"t sleep much, do you?" he started.
"I"m an insomniac, so no." Mia looked up at him and asked what he wanted.
Twelve remained quiet for a moment and asked what she worked on.
Mia set one of her folders down on the table and told him it was for an ident.i.ty theft crisis she faced. "Whoever stole my ident.i.ty is apparently here in Baltimore." She handed him a sheet of paper with information about a credit card made out in her name and the last three transactions were all within the Baltimore City limits. "They flew in a couple of days ago."
Twelve studied the paper and set it down. "Why are you in the dark?"
"I forgot to pay my bill."
Twelve walked over to the light switch at the front of the room and turned it on. The lights responded and illuminated the room. Mia scrutinized his actions and asked why he paid her bill. He turned her heater on and simply said he was returning a favor. "You agreed to help me, so I want to help you as well."
Mia briefly thanked him while she stacked her ident.i.ty theft papers on her coffee table. Her apartment was still a complete mess, though Twelve could tell she made some brief effort to clean it before falling back into her obsessive work.
"We found the next victim," she told him. "His name"s James Resnik." Mia looked at him, but Twelve only studied the floor and waited for her to continue. "What do you think we should do?"
"What did you do last time?"
"We tried to get him out of the city and we ended up getting the civilian killed, injuries on our part," she recalled the injury she sustained to her wrist nearly a month before, and finished by adding the loss of one of their detectives.
"I gather you don"t want it to end up the same way?" Twelve asked her.
"Of course not."
"Do you have a plan?"
She shook her head, "Nothing concrete. Do you have any suggestions?"
"It really depends on whether you want James Resnik and all of your fellow officers to live, or if you want to stop Cladis."
"Can"t we have both?"
He shook his head and said it might not be so simple. "We"re still fighting an enemy we don"t completely understand. This isn"t a crime lord we just can"t get close to," Twelve reminded her, "Cladis has the power and prowess to possibly hold his own against some of the world"s greatest heroes."
Mia mused to herself briefly and asked if any of those heroes might have an interest in helping them, but Twelve didn"t answer her. She frowned and admitted that their plight didn"t seem to interest anyone beyond their city.
"It"s partly because not too many people are aware of the situation," Twelve said. "Your police force has done a rather impeccable job of concealing information, but because of that people are aware of the serial killer and not the actual threat."
"But couldn"t one of the heroes out there hear about it and come running for the challenge and glory?" she suggested.
He shrugged and said it didn"t matter. "We can"t rely on others to do what we"re expected to accomplish ourselves. So let me ask you again," Twelve locked eyes with her and asked what she was willing to do to save the city.
Mia shook a bit and told him she was ready to do anything.
Twelve nodded and then asked if she was willing to go so far as to kill him. "Would you kill a man if it meant saving this city?"
She didn"t hesitate to confirm it. "It"s one option for sure."
"It could be our only one at this point," he sighed, "But his abilities would make killing him quite strenuous to begin with, seeing as he can become invisible as well as disrupt electronics so there"s really no way of seeing him."
Mia nodded slowly, but looked away from him and gave the matter a second of thought. She quietly rose from her seat on the couch and walked over to her kitchen counter and found a photo of a silhouette of a man pushing Angela Walsh"s car into Mario Evanston"s taxi. She showed the image to Twelve and said, "We could at least see him if we could somehow cover any area we a.s.sume he"s in with a constant flow of something like rain."
He smirked and asked her if she believed rain would be the deciding factor in their battle.
"I hope not," she grumbled, "But it"s something to shoot for."
The ragged man chuckled and said he hoped it wouldn"t come down to that. He headed for the window and let out a breath, "You know, it"s not supposed to rain for another week."
"What are you saying? Our odds are slim?"
He shook his head, "Our odds have always been slim. This really doesn"t change anything."
Twelve said he would contact her again and fled through the window. Mia didn"t move for a moment and simply looked at the city lights. She questioned herself a thousand times and knew her vague queries always ended up proving how inevitable her job was, seeing as stopping Cladis would only close one door while dozens others would be opening. Crime, death, and violence never ceased, and she resented the fact that there wasn"t anything she could do to permanently stop it.
Chapter 25.
September 28th, 2029 7:18 AM.
Baltimore, Maryland "Does anyone have a practical suggestion?" Chief Johnson asked his small taskforce.
Mia, Bryce, Detective Felton, and Sergeant Murdock joined the chief in his office for a brief discussion of their limited options. They only managed to submit the idea for another escape attempt similar to the failed evacuation of Mario Evanston a month earlier. However, upon reflecting on the utter failure of their prior effort the group decided it would be wise to devise another stratagem.
"What if we put Resnik in one of the holding cells, arm up, lock up, and just try to hole up inside the station through the night?" Bryce asked.
The chief gave him a cold stare and asked how they were supposed to shoot at an invisible target. "Not to mention all of the property damage that would ensue."
The group fell quiet for a moment until Murdock asked whether killing Resnik was an option.
"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" Felton asked with a look of disgust. "We"re trying to protect him so why the h.e.l.l would you even suggest that?"
"I"m not saying that we do this," Murdock began, "But isn"t there a chance that killing Resnik before Cladis can reach him would disrupt Cladis" string of murders?"
"Yes, but there"s no guarantee that it would cause him to stop killing or restarting the pattern," Mia answered. "Not to mention, if it was going to disrupt things I think we would have needed to have killed him before today, since today is the day Resnik is supposed to die anyway."
"So you think that Resnik"s death, by Cladis" hand or not, might validate him and his effort all the same?" Felton asked.
Mia shrugged, "It might."
There was a brief buzz on the chief"s desk phone from one of the entryway secretaries, which he quickly took. "Yes?"
"There"s an agent Ryuzaki Miyaza here with a small group who say they"re here to speak to you about...Hey!" the secretary shouted over the line, "You can"t just" Johnson heard her knock on the window at the man before she returned and told the chief that the man and his group walked on ahead without an escort.
Felton frowned and asked if the name of the agent was familiar to the chief.
"What do you mean?"
"If I"m right, that"s the same guy who dropped in unannounced when we held Mario Evanston before Cladis attacked a month back," Felton reminded him.
Johnson"s eyes widened and without a word he left the group to chase after the man. The group followed after him and asked where he was going. "That guy came here to see Evanston last time, right? Then he"s here for" A sudden blindness overtook the entire station for a brief moment before everyone regained their sight.
The whole station was stopped and everyone asked if everyone else felt the same thing happen. Bryce looked about the station and couldn"t believe the occurrence himself. "What the h.e.l.l was that?"