by M. K. Gibson
“Attack the city?” the Laughing Man asked. “Yes, I know. I know far more than you realize. You think I’m scared of them? No. Let them come. I have more than enough . . . fuel to keep myself protected. And once they are through with their tantrum, then people like me will be there to pick up the pieces, and profit.”
“I—”
“Shut . . . up, Agent DeLeon,” the Laughing Man said, his voice growing irritated. “You bore me. We both know you cannot track me. You cannot locate me. I am everywhere and nowhere.”
“We’ll find you,” Ito said.
“You know, Agent Ito, I believe you think you can. I admire that tenacity. With Agent Messer dead, I’m sure you could use a real job.”
Ito gave Jessie the briefest of looks. “Yeah. Pass.”
“Then allow me to give you an incentive to simply cease your little crusade. One of my technicians informed me of this feed. While it in no way indicts me, I thought you should be aware of it.”
The image on the laptop switched from the Laughing Man’s shadowy form to that of two people bound to chairs in some kind of utility room.
“Cross? Arby?” Jessie said.
“Cass?!” Ito said, reaching his hand out.
“Jessie? Gabby? Kyle?!” Cross said. “Is that you? Can you hear us?”
“Yes,” Jessie said. “We can hear you.”
“Where are you?” Ito asked.
“We don’t know. We went and saw Kilkenny and well . . . ” Cross said, looking around.
“We pooched it and ended up wherever the hell here is,” Arby said.
The screen switched again, displaying a split video of the Laughing Man on top and Cross and Arby on the bottom.
“As you can see, Agents, your friends are fine . . . for now.”
“Can we switch?” Arby asked. “So that Cass and I are on top. I don’t like being on the bottom.”
“That’s not what I hear,” Cross said.
“Really Cass? Crass humor at a time like this? No wonder you’re just my sidekick.”
“You know what. Never mind,” Cross said. “Just rescue me. We can leave Captain Flabby here to rot.”
Gabby gave Cross a thumbs-up.
“Thanks Gabby,” Arby said with a shake of his head. “Hey, would y’all tell Cass she looks like spank material for neckbeards?”
Gabby threw her head back in silent laughter, then mimed giant breasts with her hands.
“Hey Laughing Man, when you decide to kill Arby, make sure it isn’t by drowning. I think he might be too . . . buoyant.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Arby said, ignoring Cross. “Real quick, in case y’all decide to not come for us, and the elves do destroy everything, please cancel all my memberships. Clearly I won’t be needing them. And in case the businesses survive, the last thing I want is to pay late fees.”
“Shut up!” the Laughing Man said.
The screen switched back to just the image of The Laughing Man.
“Agents Ito and DeLeon, Our High Lady Who Walks Between the Shadows of the Leaves, as you can see, your friends are okay, annoying as they are. If you wish them to stay that way, then I suggest you simply hole up and wait out the coming storm. You have been warned. I cannot guarantee their safety should anything, or anyone, come for me.”
The screen went blank and the laptop immediately locked itself.
With nothing more to say, Jessie got up, with Ito and Gabby following. Bradford led them down the elevator and off the premises. Once they were walking back down the path towards their car, Ito paused to look Jessie in the eye.
“You all get that?” he asked.
“Every word, every visual,” Freeman’s voice said over their micro earpieces. “Get your assess back here. We have a lot to go over.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
15 May - 11:52 am
MORTAL Headquarters, Spear of Lugh, District of Axis Mundi
Jessie took out the clear contact lenses and placed them in the playback container on Deek’s workbench. As she did, Deek plugged a small cord into the side of the device.
“Those camera contacts are amazing. But Agne made it clear such devices were not admissible evidence,” Jessie said as she rubbed at her eyes.
“Well, it sucks for her that Alaska remains a single-party consent state when it comes to monitoring or recording conversations. Had she admitted to a crime, we would have more to go on. But luckily for her, we’re not after the partnership, at least not now,” Deek said while he connected the final cord. “But if there is anything to help us find out who has Cross and Eric, then going back over your data, along with their data before they were captured, with a fine-toothed comb will help.”
Jessie nodded and then looked over at Freeman, who sat at the far end of Deek’s low workbench. “Any news?”
Freeman shook her head. “Mother-1 is trying, but so far the Elvish Conclave refuses to stand down.”
Gabby shook her head, agreeing with the sentiment, then tapped at her wrist.
“Gabby’s right,” Freeman said. “We have just over twelve hours to find and stop the Laughing Man and put an end to the Vitae production.”
Ito slammed his fist against the workbench, drawing a scornful look from Deek.
“It’s not just your ex-wife that he has, you know.”
Ito held up his hand apologetically. “Sorry, Deek. Just . . . just hate feeling useless.”
“I know, brother,” Deek said.
“Well, we have to do something.”
“We are.”
“Waiting and scanning crap we already know is not ‘doing something’,” Ito countered. “We have a homing signal, let’s use it.”
“Right,” Freeman said. “Let’s just give away our one advantage and go in guns blazing. Never mind that someone would sense the homing beacon and kill Cross and Arby.”
“Come on Tasha,” Ito said.
“No, you come on,” Freeman said, pressing the issue. “Cross’s plan is solid. She and Arby confront Kilkenny while packing a lot of magical implements, setting a honeypot trap. They get captured and taken to the one person who would want them the most. We figure out who he is based on intel, and plan accordingly.”
“Yeah, but he already knows everything!” Ito barked. “He knows our names, he knows that we can’t track him. Fuck me, he probably has an inside man.”
“No,” Deek said, while Gabby shook her head. “He doesn’t. At least, not in MORTAL proper. Look.”
Deek played back part of the video.
“So what?” Ito said. “He offered me a job.”
“Yeah, after he said that Messer was dead. So, no one outside of HQ knows he’s alive. Which means?”
“Which means that it isn’t one of us. But there are plenty of officials and high-ranking city personnel who know about MORTAL.”
“Agreed,” Freeman said. “And when this is over, we’ll get to hunting. In the meantime, we have to do everything we can to figure out who he is.”
“But what about—”
“Damn it, Kyle,” Freeman barked. “The Laughing Man is ballsy, but he wouldn’t kill them, not yet. He wouldn’t risk bringing all of MORTAL down on his head.”
Deek leaned forward. “Kyle, even if we activated her beacon, it wouldn’t work. There’s too much magic out there hindering the signal. We need The Eye to be looking in a specific direction to get a fix. Go take a walk and cool your head. If you’re worked up and can’t think straight, then you’re not helping.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Gabby stood up, towering over the man. Her nostril slits flared and she pointed a long finger at the door.
“Fuck you all for being so calm,” Ito said, then left the room.
“Thanks Gabby. He means well,” Freeman said with a sigh, turning to Jessie. “But emotional stress and ambient tension screw with his psychic abilities.”
Jessie shook her head. “Then how did he operate as an undercover narco cop?”
“Eas
y,” Deek said. “When he’s on the job, he’s by himself and isn’t worried about anyone else. Caring about someone else . . . it isn’t easy for him. I think, and don’t hold me to this, I think he liked when he thought she had just cheated on him. Made things easier.”
Jessie nodded. Her own career reflected something akin to that. Knowing someone hated you was liberating. Which was why she’d had a high performance rating following Zombie Squad. Everyone being against her allowed her to focus on herself and on the job. What was Ito going through? Granted, Cross was an asshole, but they had been married. They had, at least at one time, fallen in love. And to know that she’d left him not out of spite, but as a messed-up way of protecting him?
“And how are you doing?” Jessie asked Deek. “With Arby being . . . you know, not safe.”
Deek wheeled himself around the table to face her. “I’m hanging in there. Eric is tough. Tougher than me. I just got the big idiot back and I’m not going to lose him now.”
Jessie nodded. She too had come to appreciate Arby over the last couple of days. Sitting next to Deek and Freeman, she watched the video footage of Cross and Arby, as well as her own from Draco Leges. When the videos were over, they played them again and again, looking for some clue, some fact they may have missed.
After the fifth viewing, Deek shook his head. “Nothing. There is nothing. Nothing on the digital spectral analyzer. Nothing my ambient audio algorithms picked up. Nothing. This goddamn guy is good.”
Freeman sipped at a cup of coffee. “Okay, so tech isn’t the problem. What about old-school police work? What are we not seeing?”
“You sound like Messer,” Deek said.
Freeman nodded. “Where do you think I learned it from? Okay, so Draco Leges, what do we know?”
“Exceptionally expensive,” Jessie said, seeing where Freeman was going with this. “They only represent high-price clients, choosing to subcontract smaller fish to maintain appearances.”
“And what is the bulk of their business? Criminal defense?”
“Nope,” Deek said as he worked his laptop. “Mostly contract work, business representation, that sort of thing.”
“So we know the Laughing Man is rich then.”
“Drug dealers usually are,” Deek said.
“But smart ones invest in legitimate businesses, to clean their money,” Jessie said.
Freeman raised her eyebrow.
Jessie shrugged. “What? I watched Breaking Bad.”
“Well, you aren’t wrong. Deek, can we get a list of who Draco Leges represents?” Freeman asked. “Might be easier to filter that way.”
“Especially anything owned by a god,” Jessie added.
“Well, it seems we’re shit outta luck,” Deek said. “Their client list is private. Would take a court order to get it.”
“So what should we do now?”
“If you can, get some rest,” Deek said. “If we don’t have anything substantial in the next few hours, we’re going to have to activate Cross’s homing beacon, and pray we get there in time.”
“I should go check on Kyle,” Freeman said. “Make sure he’s ready.”
Jessie stood and shook her head. “I’ll do it. Just let me know if you find anything.”
“Will do,” Freeman said while Gabby gave her a thumbs-up.
Jessie left the room and began walking the halls, her head down, the facts of the case rolling through her head. A god. Someone rich enough to afford Draco. But who? Would they discover who the Laughing Man was in enough time? Would they get there in time to save Arby and Cross? But something else was bothering her.
There was something just beyond the edge of her mind. Something that she should realize. Damn it. What was it? It was something from the video. Something she didn’t catch the first time, or on the subsequent viewings. But what?
Not realizing that she had been walking the whole time while in thought, Jessie looked up. Where the hell am I? The corridors all looked the same. Identifying a room number, Jessie realized she was back in the medical branch. Retracing her steps from earlier, she made her way towards the room where Messer was being treated.
As she approached, Jessie heard someone speaking.
“What are we going to do, boss?” Ito said. Jessie watched as Ito put his hand on Messer’s tube, reaching for him. “If we don’t get to the bottom of this soon, then the elves are going to come down on the city like a nuke. Freeman’s good—you trained her, after all. But she’s not you. She doesn’t have your experience. We need you, boss. We need The Knight of the Knife.”
“What is that?” Jessie said. “The Knight of the Knife?”
“Jessie?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Jessie said, walking in.
“It’s okay,” Ito said. “Just, well, talking to Messer. Stupid, I guess.”
Jessie shook her head slightly. “No, it isn’t stupid.”
“The Knight of the Knife is the name the myths know him by. And when he’s out of the tube, he can tell you the rest himself. But what I can tell you is that he’s been doing this job for a long time. And he’s hard to kill.”
“Freeman said the same thing,” Jessie said.
“Yeah, I guess she would.”
A thought occurred to her. “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but is Messer the . . . boogeyman?”
Ito nodded. “He kind of is.”
“Damn it,” Jessie swore. “There will be no living with Arby now.”
“Lemme guess, karaoke bet?”
“Yeah.”
Ito chuckled. “Well, I won’t tell him if you won’t.”
Jessie smiled. “Deal. So, I guess Messer means a lot to you, huh? They way you talk about him. Or to him.”
“Yeah. He—he kinda saved me. Gave me a purpose. He got me into the APD. Taught me to be an agent. I owe him everything.”
“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. Deek said he’d be up and running in no time. And we’ll get Cross and Arby back as well.”
“I know,” Ito said, nodding. “Can I tell you something?”
“Sure.”
“I always thought Cass was too good for me. When she . . . did what she did, I really wasn’t that mad. I mean, I was, but I think that deep down, I always assumed it would happen. What with me being what I am. But learning the truth didn’t make it better. It made it worse.”
Jessie wanted to tell him that he was being stupid. That Cross had likely pushed him away so that he wouldn’t be forced to watch her suffer. Or grieve if she didn’t make it. But Jessie didn’t say any of those things. Instead she took a step toward Ito and looked into his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Ito looked at her, and she at him. She leaned in. Her lips met his. Soft and warm. His hand went to her face and she felt herself ache for his touch. His other hand went to the small of her back, pulling her closer. She pressed her body against his, feeling the muscles that played under his clothing. She didn’t owe Cross anything. She respected the woman, but she had made her choice. Several times, in fact, with Ted.
But she knew it was wrong.
Jessie broke the kiss, turning her head away. “I’m sorry. It’s just that—”
“Yeah,” he said. “I know, I know. It was . . . a thing of the moment.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. Then she smiled. “But I liked it.”
“Me too.”
“And it’s clear you work out.”
“Thanks, I get to the gym as often as I can.”
Gym? Realization hit Jessie right between the eyes. She stepped back, her hands going to her mouth. “Oh my god. Oh my god!”
“What?”
“I know who the Laughing Man is!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
15 May - 1:02 pm
MORTAL Headquarters Conference Room, Spear of Lugh, District of Axis Mundi
“Buddha?” Freeman asked, looking at her as if she were crazy. “The living embodiment of peace and harmony?”
�
�I know it sounds crazy,” Ito said, “but hear her out.”
Deek propped his face up with his hand and sighed. “I may have to sit down for this one.”
“Damn Deek,” Ito said. “Dark.”
Deek shrugged.
Ignoring the black humor, Jessie stood up and looked at Mother-1. At her nod, Gabby waved her hand. The room dimmed as the diamond in the table began to glow. Images coalesced into a three-dimensional projection. A shadowy figure from the video conversation floated in the air.
“We know that the Laughing Man is running the Vitae production and distribution,” Jessie started. Images of the deceased appeared. “And that he is willing to kill to protect himself and his empire. And that he has enough wealth outside of his drugs to keep Draco Leges on retainer. Which means he has to have a way to clean his money. Plenty of gods own businesses, but it was something Arby said when the Laughing Man was threatening us.”
“What?” Deek asked. His body straightened. It was clear he was taking her theory more seriously.
Jessie nodded to Gabby. The elf waved her hand, again bringing up the scene where he and Cross appeared to be bickering. Cross looked at the camera, addressing The Laughing Man directly. “Hey Laughing Man, when you decide to kill Arby, make sure it isn’t by drowning. I think he might be too . . . buoyant.” Arby ignored her comment and also looked at the camera. “Oh, that reminds me. Real quick, in case y’all decide to not come for us, and the elves do destroy everything, please cancel all my memberships. Clearly I won’t be needing them. And in case the businesses survive, the last thing I want is to pay late fees.”
Gabby paused the video and Jessie turned to the group. “Arby and Cross have worked together undercover long enough to make their fighting seem natural. That’s why I think Arby was sending us a coded message. Specifically that the Laughing Man is Buddha. When we met with the gods at the support group, Arby mentioned he had a gym membership to Body by Buddha. I think he figured it out but couldn’t say it directly, as they are no doubt being monitored. But I’ll bet that’s where they are being held.”