“Oh yes. You’re here for the ship theft case. Oh my,” he said peering at the gruesome scene. “Blood spillage and low gravity don’t mix well.”
Henna began circling the body like a vulture. Talon felt her hackles raise. She felt protective over Morten for some reason, even as a dead man.
“They pulled us from this case,” Henna declared.
“We’ll still need to work with your forensics team to process this scene,” Aberdeen explained. “We need to run a full autopsy and toxicology report on the body.”
The body? Did she already forget he had a name? “We’ll have some items we’ll need DNA and AFIS run on,” Talon added. She would add the shoes to the crime scene evidence later.
“That’s no problem,” Henna said.
“Sorry to have to bring you here at this hour,” Aberdeen said to Henna. “We were not anticipating…that. Just wanted a statement.”
“He made a statement all right,” Archie jabbed.
“There was nothing on his person except this,” Aberdeen held up Morten’s wallet, “which we will be taking. Talon, do you want to go check out his apartment now?”
“Sure.” There wasn’t much they were going to get out of hanging around a dead man.
Aberdeen and Talon made the long trek back up to the ceiling using one of the large shaft elevators. As they walked, Aberdeen’s limp seemed worse. How much of a coincidence was it that her partner and the hooded figure were both injured on their right sides? She looked down at Aberdeen’s boots…they were still on her feet.
“Are you OK?” Aberdeen asked. “I saw you…after Morten fell. You seemed like you were having a panic attack or something.”
Maybe she was, but in her line of work, those things could get you taken out of the field. “I’m fine…I just got the wind knocked out of me.”
Aberdeen hummed acknowledgment. “I was trying to rush down to where you were but by the time I got there you were gone.” It was a question hidden as a statement.
Talon internally debated on whether or not she could trust Aberdeen with what happened after that. “Yeah, I just tried to get down to his body as soon as possible.”
They swept Morten’s entire apartment, and like the rest of this case, it seemed to be turning up little. Talon rummaged through his medicine cabinet. There was nothing out of the ordinary…cough suppressant, a digestive aid, pain relievers, and then she came across an unlabeled pill bottle with a purple-grey alien sticker on the side. Talon popped the cap and looked into the bottle. She knew exactly what the little white pills were, because she was taking them every night herself.
“Come check this out,” Talon held the container between gloved fingers. “This is Luminestal…it’s a sleeping medication.”
“Hmm, I bet sleeping pills aren’t uncommon amongst nightshift workers. I’m guessing he didn’t get these from a primary care doctor,” she pointed to the sticker.
“And now we have a breadcrumb.” Drug dealers often left signature logos on their product. Smart for business, good for tracking them down. “Morten took one of these on purpose the night of the theft.” Talon mulled out loud.
“Maybe it was strongly suggested he take one. Did you hear what he was saying? He was terrified that somebody was after him.”
Maybe they were, Talon considered. Was that hooded figure there to take care of Morten? Had the old man become a liability, especially with cops knocking on his doors?
“We need to find out where he got this bottle,” Talon concluded. It was the logical next step.
“I’m sure the LBI have some incarcerated fellows that could point us in the right direction.”
“Never seen it before in my life,” Henna Thatcher smacked her gum later that evening.
“There aren’t any drugs here,” Archie chirped between licks on an ice cream cone.
Henna sighed dramatically and looked at her partner sideways. “Of course there are drugs here. Just the legal kind.”
Talon and Aberdeen passed worried glances. If these two really were representative of the investigation resources that were available, they were in for a rough road.
“You’re telling me you are unaware of any illegal drug-related crimes or arrests,” Aberdeen wanted to clarify again.
“Just the punk kids who buy Vicodin and Ritalin under the table, but no hard core stuff,” Archie said.
“Have you arrested any of these punk kids?” Aberdeen was clearly becoming impatient.
“That stuff is usually handled by the police. Every now and then they’ll do a sting just to keep it at bay, but they’re just a group of pesky kids.”
“All you have to do is go undercover in one of the college bars…maybe not you,” Archie scrutinized Aberdeen.
Talon couldn’t help but bite her lip to hold back a smile.
“Can you name us a couple of bars,” Aberdeen said flatly.
“Hmmm…Piedmill and The Crazy Horse are usually packed with them. Do you guys need our help?”
“No!” they both replied a little too loud.
“Do I look like I could pass as a college kid?” Aberdeen asked later, turning in a tight black dress. Her eyes were painted green and her black hair looked stunning in loose curls.
“Maybe a graduate student,” Talon joked. Aberdeen must have taken Archie’s comment a little too much to heart.
“Well, then, all the more reason I would need Adderall,” she raised a brow.
“So you just had that dress in your suitcase?” It was pretty spectacular and fit her like a glove.
“I always over pack,” she admitted as she checked her ass out in the mirror. “You never know when you’ll have to do an undercover operation.”
“Yeah, but what if you need to like…chase someone down.”
“Don’t let this dress fool you,” she said pulling the straps down and hooking a gun holster in the middle of her bra. “No one ever gets away from me.”
“Hey, I always say that.” Talon studied her own appearance. She wore a pair of skinny jeans and a black leather jacket, where her weapon was concealed in a side holster. Her thick hair was pulled into a long braid at the nape of her neck. “How do I look?”
Aberdeen squinted. “Like an undercover cop.” Her partner undid Talon’s braid and fluffed it out. “Red lipstick will transform any outfit, here,” she painted Talon’s plump lips. “Much better!”
“Thanks.” Who knew that’s all it took.
“So, again, I’ll go to the The Crazy Horse and you’ll go to Piedmont. We meet back here with any intel.” Piedmill was a large dive bar, or rather hive bar, and it was located in the lower quarter of the rafters. The establishment had the feel of a pub in the Underground of Ohmani – dark, packed, and full of energy.
“Can I have a vodka soda with a splash of lime?” When in Rome…
A group of college girls were hanging out in the back corner of the bar, probably validating each other’s problems whilst praising each other’s appearance, she assumed. Don’t be so bitter, Talon, she told herself. Maybe if she had lived a more normal life, she would have ended up one of them. She had to at least pretend that had been her fate now. Talon forced herself to the perimeter of their flock and bounced lightly to the loud music.
“Oh…my…God. I looove your hair,” one of them cooed. The girl took one of Talon’s locks without warning or premeditation.
“Thank you,” she forced a smile. What would Kierra do? “I deep condition once a month.”
“You must be a Sydces.”
Talon nodded.
“Some people assume I am too…I take biotin once a day but it’s all human.” The brunette laughed for some reason Talon didn’t understand. “I’m Natasha.”
“Scarlet.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you!” she squeezed Talon in an embrace. “You seem shy, are you new to Delta Theta Psi?”
This was more exhausting than chasing down people. “I’m thinking about pledging.”
The girl yelped wit
h excitement. “You have to. The girls are so awesome! No drama…except Emsley,” she rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Oh, and Trista. What’s your major?”
“Engineering.”
“Whoa! You’re pretty and smart! How do you keep up with all the classwork?”
“Barely. I want to be a sister but I’m scared I won’t be able to keep up with school and all the social events — ”
“And a wedding it looks like! Where is the lucky guy?”
Talon had forgotten to remove her ring. She didn’t see any harm in telling the truth. “He’s on the ground in New York City this week.” Talon had memorized his tour schedule.
“You must be so worried!”
“Why?”
“Because of the CME storm. They’ve been saying on the news that it’s stronger than they thought and that magnetic layer thing that protects the earth is the weakest it’s been in like, forever. Peoples’ electronics are going crazy.”
Another girl overheard and joined in the conversation. “My mom says its Jesus coming again.”
“Emmalee don’t be so dramatic. Nobody’s dying,” Natasha dismissed and turned back to Talon, “Don’t worry, Scarlett, it’s not that big of a deal.”
Talon regretted ignoring Levi’s calls. She buried her guilt for the moment, trying to stay on task. “Yeah, there’s just a lot going on right now. I’ve got three exams coming up next week alone and I’m all stressed out about my fiancé.”
“I’m sorry you’re so stressed out. Don’t professors know how much they ruin our lives? Look…,” the girl peered around her vicinity and bit her lower lip, “I can get you something to help…but, you have to promise to pledge if I do?”
“I promise.”
“OK, so there’s a guy coming tonight that can get us Adderall. A lot of the sisters use it.”
Bingo. “That would be awesome. Does he sell other stuff too?”
“Like what? We have a no drug policy.”
Talon decided not to educate Natasha on the definition of drugs. “I’m having trouble sleeping with all the stress. Does he have something to help with that?”
“Oh, that’s totally fine. Yeah, he can get us that I think.”
“My friends told me about some guys that put a purple alien on their pills. Is this them?”
“Yeah. They have a good reputation.”
So much for the moon being some puritanical oasis. “Awesome, thank you! Where is he?”
“Well, the guy isn’t actually here. You have to talk to his liaison, give him the cash, and then he leaves to get it.”
“How long is he gone?”
“You only have thirty minutes to get in your wish list, then he goes to get it and is back in another thirty minutes or so. You can trust him, he’s never flaked.”
While Talon waited for this contact to show, Natasha took her arm and acted as her social guide. Perhaps it was the drink kicking in, or maybe it was just because the sisters were unquestionably inclusive, but Talon was really starting to like them quite a bit.
“There he is,” Natasha whispered in her ear. “His name is Vince.”
A young man showed up in a brown leather jacket and jeans threatening to fall off his hips. Talon guessed he wasn’t much older than eighteen, though he acted like he was God’s gift. Vince’s hair was spiked like a hedgehog and pimples riddled his face. Several people had already approached him, and if she wasn’t trained to notice the subtle, she would have missed the three transactions that already took place. Talon didn’t mean to judge, but the kid seemed pretty expendable. It was whoever Vince took orders from that pulled the real weight and could possibly lead to answers. Talon began to approach him when she felt someone grab her arm.
“You can’t just go up to him,” Natasha explained, “You have to have someone vouch for you.”
“Well, aren’t you going to vouch for me?”
“Yeah, but I need to talk him first…tell him where I met you and how long I’ve known you and stuff…don’t worry,” she reassured after Talon began to protest, “I’m not an idiot. I’ll lie and say we’ve known each other forever. Or you can just give me the cash and I can get them for you if it’s a one-time thing.”
If Talon was going to be tailing Vince, she certainly didn’t want to be known to him. “Yeah, can you? Here,” she slipped Natasha her fifty. “Whatever I can get with this.”
Natasha sashayed over to Vince and gave him a hug. He accepted willingly and had the nerve to openly stare at her cleavage with an approving nod. “Hey, girl,” Talon read his lips from afar.
The deal was short and eventless like the others. As Natasha walked back over to her flock of perfectly groomed friends, Talon saw the unmistakable red hair of the engineering supervisor, Chris. He stumbled through the pub, clearly drunk already, and ended up at the bar ordering another drink. Slipping back into the group of women for cover, Talon watched Chris eying Vince from across the room as he sipped his beer. He wasted little time meandering his way over to the punk. The two men shook hands in a way that confirmed their connection was already established.
“Recording on.” She would catch the transaction on record.
Unlike the other interactions the drug dealer had that night, Chris and Vince seemed to be engaged in a lengthy discussion. It wasn’t long before their mannerisms indicated a heated argument had ensued. Talon wished she had an audio enhancer, but moving closer could risk blowing her cover. Chris threw his empty glass on the nearest surface and headed for the door under the scrutiny of curious onlookers. Talon decided to let him go – she knew where to find him tomorrow. Vince seemed visibly upset and continued taking orders, although without the same affability.
“Shots!” a fraternity brother she met earlier yelled.
Talon had a small glass of amber liquid shoved into her hands. She looked up in shock and was met with a coquettish wink from another brother.
“No thanks,” she tried to hand it back.
“You’re taking it Scar. Can I call you Scar? It’ll help loosen you up. Come on, we have to make living on this piece of shit rock a little fun.”
The group huddled together and held up their drinks. Talon would have opted out but she had somehow been trapped in the center of their raging hormone fest.
“Here’s to staying positive and testing negative!”
Everyone threw back the liquor and Talon squinted to keep it down. Her eyes watered from the fumes travelling through her sinuses and she tried to cough away the burn. A hand gave her a hardy slap between the shoulder blades.
“There you go!”
Talon went to grab a drink of water from the bar and looked around just to make sure she still had a visual on her target. Vince was gone. She sprang into action mode, pulling her hair back into a haphazard ponytail. Luckily the rafters were far less crowded than they were during the day and Vince was on the taller side. She easily spotted his spiked hair heading for the train station and began following him. Remaining incognito was near impossible when Talon had to run to catch the maglev before it shuttled down the lava tube and she lost him. She leaped on board just as the automatic doors were closing – and, to her dismay, Vince was standing at arm’s length.
Luckily, he didn’t seem to recognize or care she was there. Talon grinned as one would do out of politeness to a stranger and then slipped into one of the booth seats. A woman coughed and she looked up to see Aberdeen sitting across the aisle from her. Both women looked at each other judgmentally, and then slapped on casual expressions. Talon knew almost immediately why Aberdeen was there when Vince went to talk to another guy who also looked like he had gotten ready in the dark. They struck up a whispered conversation that was barely audible from her proximity.
“Hey, Blane,” Vince greeted.
“Hey! Business was good tonight, eh?” Blane opened his pack for viewing. He had stringy blonde hair down to his shoulder blades.
“Yeah. I’ve over $600 bucks.”
“Right on. The bosses wi
ll be happy.”
“Not when they hear about that redheaded dude we sold to a couple weeks ago,” Vince speculated. “He came in saying we killed his friend today or something.”
“What? Man, this is why we need to stick to cool people.”
“You don’t think he’s right, do you?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t ask either. It’s none of our business why they wanted us to give some sleeping pills to the guy.”
“So let it go?”
“Hell no. You’ve got to tell them if he came in acting all belligerent. That’s bad for business.”
Aberdeen and Talon exchanged another glance. Vince and his friend were going to lead them straight to the source. On the third stop the young men exited, luckily too engaged in conversation to notice the lone women sneak off behind them. No words needed to be spoken between the undercovers. They stealthily followed the two young men through the rafters. Talon was wholly impressed Aberdeen could do so in heels.
Only a few minutes later they were approaching a swanky residential area filled with obelisk-shaped apartment buildings jutting into the interior of the lava tube. The neighborhood looked like a bed of gigantic crystals growing from a cave floor.
The drug dealers entered one of the apartment buildings and Aberdeen and Talon held back a few moments before following. When they entered, the only thing in the small vestibule was a set of elevators. One was on the lobby floor, and the other stopped at level six.
“You were supposed to meet back at the hotel with intel, not follow a suspect,” Aberdeen snapped.
“So were you.”
Her partner turned and glared down at Talon. “If you didn’t get it already, let me clarify. I am lead on this mission. I make the decisions and it’s my call if I need to deviate from the plan.”
Talon refused to be intimidated. “I don’t remember anybody making you in charge.” Why was Aberdeen angry all of a sudden, Talon wondered? “It doesn’t need to be said, tropy. It’s understood, or at least it should have been.”
Tropy was short for training operative, and it was meant derogatorily, especially since Talon had graduated. She shook her head as a way of dismissing Aberdeen’s outburst and false claim to leadership. Talon decided not to brag about her credentials or whine they had made the same decision to follow the drug mules. Luckily, the elevator opened, postponing their argument.
An Eagle's Revenge (Across the Infinite Void Book 2) Page 9