‘Excellent.’
‘Thank you for coming tonight Lucian, it was, unexpected for you to visit.’
‘I know Mon. I have other business here tonight.’
‘Anything I can help with?’ Jalen asked.
‘Fuck no. Just do your job.’
Jalen didn’t reply, he knew he had been a little more familiar than he should be with his boss. Lucian didn’t care too much, but he liked to keep his employees on their toes, especially Jalen and others who had attained that stature within his empire. They had access to Lucian that others did not, but Lucian didn’t what them to think he cared about them at all. They were all expendable and there were always more who wanted to take their place and reap the rewards that people like Jalen did.
Coming here tonight and seeing the fairly standard meeting had been vaguely interesting, but it had not been the main reason for the visit. He had other plans, a meeting of his own to attend shortly, and as this building remained one that Ekua did not know about, it made sense to come here.
It also made sense to come here early and see how this branch of his empire had grown.
Jalen backed off from Lucian, his eyes looking at the floor now as he spoke.
‘As you wish Baal Lucian.’ He whispered.
Lucian turned to the 4 rows of rectangular tables arrayed end to end across the large open plan room with workers on either side cutting the white powder with other white powders, diluting the drug and increasing the weight of the final product. He didn’t care what white powders went into the drug, all he wanted was to keep the profits rolling in and his influence over the city to grow. He left such boring details to his employees.
Satisfied that everything here seemed to be going fine, he turned away and marched past the meeting table and into the darkness on the other side of the room. Lucian’s operation only took up half of this warehouse, but its location, hidden away from casual on lookers, made it a perfect fit for his business. This had been Jalen’s choice, he had done well.
Lucian’s magical sight meant he had no need for light or a torch, he could see perfectly fine and he could easily make out the stairs that sat in the corner and led up, to the upper catwalks and the roof in this part of the building.
As he approached the stairs, a side door opened just next to them and a figure stepped out. Shaun stepped into view just as Lucian had requested.
Shaun waited at the bottom of the stairway, dressed in black from the neck down, only the pale waxy skin of his deformed head remained on show.
He inclined his head in greeting and fell into step behind Lucian as he walked up the stairs in silence. He knew all he needed to know for this meeting, and the next part of his masters plan. No need to go into any further detail.
A catwalk and another set of stairs later and they found themselves in a small room on the roof of the building with one small door that led outside. Lucian didn’t hesitate, he walked straight out and into the middle of the roof. Most of the other buildings in this area were of a similar size, mainly warehouses and tenement blocks. Nothing really overlooked this building, which provided another reason for its choice as a meeting place. In the distance the lights of Manhattan glowed in the night like a city of the future. Here in the Bronx, the lights were not quite as bright. Neon signs and lit up billboards dotted the landscape around them, but the warehouse district they were in felt very dark at night as the businesses that used these buildings stopped their activities for the most part.
Lucian’s own business being one such exception.
Lucian looked around, there seemed to be no one else on the roof, only himself and Shaun. Meaning his contact had yet to arrive.
So, suspecting that they were likely being cautious and probably watching him right now, he waited and used his Magical sight to try and spot them. But they must be using Magic of their own to hide their presence from Magical detection.
After a few minutes, and just as Shaun seemed to be getting a bit bored as Lucian could hear him shifting about a lot, a sudden dull thud sounded from behind him.
Lucian turned, as did Shaun to look at the figure who had just landed on the roof as they came to a stand from the crouching position they had landed in.
As the single figure rose up, her gender became obvious, as the woman’s body filled out the strikingly designed tight fitting stealth suit in a way that Lucian appreciated.
This would be the Black Lotus, someone that Lucian had been wanting to invite to New York for a long time, ever since he had found out about Yoh, the one Arcadian Magi that lived in New York and that he had so far, failed to find and kill.
Yoh had become something of an obsession for Lucian over the years. He had kept to himself for the most part and didn’t do much to disrupt Lucian’s plans. But it had become a matter of professional pride that his city should not have any Arcadians living within it.
After a few years of research, he had finally found out where this Magus had come from, and he also found out about the Black Lotus and her hatred for Yoh.
The woman walked towards Lucian, a blank slate in his Magical view. She didn’t even show up as alive. She might as well have not been there.
Her boots crunched on the ground as she walked towards Lucian, and stopped a few meters short of him.
The Lotus stood in her stealth suit, covered from head to toe in pure black, but as they watched, some of the black on the catsuit she wore faded away to white, leaving behind a black and white pattern all over her that looked like stylised Japanese Lotus flowers.
The suit even covered her head, only a ponytail of long black hair gave any hint as to her actual appearance.
Strapped to her stealth suit, tactical webbing held pouches and holsters of all kinds, each filled with weapons or other implements of death. The Black Lotus was an assassin, an Initiated Mundane who worked for a secretive organisation from Japan who took out contract killings that straddled the divide between the Mortal world and the Magi world.
Lucian also knew that the Black Lotus would not be able to resist the lure of finding Yoh.
‘You’ve found him, Lucian-San.’ She said. Her voice carrying a strong Japanese accent, even though she spoke excellent English.
‘I have. He’s here in New York. Shaun here can show you where you can find him.’
She looked over at Shaun, before glancing back to Lucian to offer a brief bow of thanks. ‘Hai’ she said, before turning back to Shaun and stepping closer to him.
Shaun stepped forward and offered her a slip of paper.
‘Meet me in the city in an hour at this address.’
She took it and looked at it, before she bowed briefly to Shaun and turned away from the two men and moments later, jumped off the roof.
Satisfied, Lucian turned to Shaun and nodded at him before Porting off the roof and appearing instantaneously in a corridor of The Pit Club. His Magic allowing him to pass through the ‘backdoor’ built into the clubs Aegis.
Lucian started to make his way through the corridors, looking for Raal, Lex and Aneurin to update them on the latest developments. Instead, he found himself running into Ekua as he rounded the corner and looked into one of the communal rooms.
‘Lucian. Wha gwaan. I’ve hardly seen you mon. Hey, how dem latest Arcadians die?’
Lucian kept his face neutral. He didn’t want his thoughts and feelings betraying him to Ekua. They were coven mates, but their rivalry had been simmering for a long time, and Lucian knew that Ekua had progressed in his Magical ability in recent years to the point where he could potentially best Lucian, if he wasn’t careful. Lucian also knew that Ekua’s comment had been designed to bait him. Lucian had made sure that Ekua heard of their failed attempts to find the Arcadians. Lucian fed these stories out through the Coven, as an attempt to stall Ekua for as long as he could.
The moment that Ekua knew something concrete about Lucian’s dilemma, he would almost certainly go to straight to Nymira and then Lucian would have some explaining to do. At the
very least he suspected that Ekua would be promoted to Coven leader, and his life would be made much harder, and probably more painful.
‘Ekua mon, these fucks will be crushed. I have my crew on it. They can’t hide forever.’
‘You ain’t found dem yet? What da fuck you doin? If Nymira…’
‘She knows.’ That much wasn’t a lie. He had sent word to his master that Arcadians had entered the city and he had been hunting them down. Better it come from him then Ekua.
‘Chill mon. I know you on it.’ He said, and eyed Lucian carefully.
Lucian left the room, his face a picture of calm, but inside he felt in turmoil. He had to get these Arcadians out of his City and soon. They could ruin everything.
He hoped that the Black Lotus might be able to kill two birds with one stone. Maybe killing Yoh, who Lucian knew had befriended Amanda, would force them out. He wasn’t sure if Yoh would be included in the protection of Yasmin or not, and he had no way to check. But rather than get his own hands dirty, by using an assassin he might at least have a bit of plausible deniability should Yasmin be unhappy with Yoh’s death. Also, by killing him, it removed that particular thorn in his side and would give him some leeway with Ekua and Nymira again.
He shook his head as he walked away from the encounter with Ekua. The mental gymnastics he was having to go through to keep things straight with Ekua and his master, while at the same time, trying to find a way to scare Amanda off of Manhattan for good took its toll on him.
He headed back towards his quarters and dropped himself into his couch with a grunt born of frustration and exhaustion.
Soon, he thought, soon the Black Lotus would confront Yoh, and with a bit of luck, his problems would sort themselves out finally and he could go back to running his business.
- Online Chat between Chronos and Edge dated April 8th
Chronos: You’re close, so close to the truth.
Edge: Excuse me? Who is this?
Chronos: You can call me Chronos. I have read your blog, and the conclusions you have drawn are, close. How do you know all this?
Edge: Investigation. I follow the rabbit hole wherever it takes me.
Chronos: Matrix reference.
Edge: Well spotted.
Chronos: You’re in the UK right?
Edge: Correct, how did you know?
Chronos: You’re good, but you have a lot to learn.
- Online Chat between Chronos and Edge, dated April 16th
Edge: What’s this?
Chronos: An address.
Edge: And what’s there?
Chronos: If you’re careful, your first steps to learning the truth.
Edge: Is it dangerous?
Chronos: Of course. Watch, at a safe distance, and don’t get caught. Got it?
Edge: Got it.
Surveillance
May 18th
The Bronx, New York
With a whip crack of the night air, Lucian disappeared from the rooftop, leaving Shaun stood on the warehouse roof alone.
Lucian had asked Shaun to be here for a meeting, he had known they were meeting someone that needed to know where Yoh could be found. But he had not known why. But after that little encounter, Shaun had a good idea why this woman wanted to find Yoh. You don’t go to a meeting with Katana and knives and guns strapped to your body just for a casual chat.
Shaun guessed she had been brought in to assassinate Yoh, and the impression he took from that meeting was that it seemed like she might have a personal stake in this as well.
The meeting had ended, and now he needed to get back to Manhattan and meet this woman, whoever she happened to be, in 1 hour. He wandered over to the edge of the roof and looked down. A short way up the road he saw the car he had been driven here in. It idled next to the side of the warehouse with Ben still in it. Shaun glanced around briefly to make sure no one happened to be watching, before he stepped off the roof top and dropped about three stories to the ground, landing easily without hurting himself.
Being a Scion came with certain benefits that he enjoyed, even though it had turned his body into something the Riven masses found horrific.
Everything seemed quiet in the alleyway, so he walked to the car and stepped into the passenger seat, pulling his hood up to hide his face.
‘Back to the stakeout.’ He said to Ben, his assistant, who waited for Shaun to close the door before pulling away.
The roads were quiet and they made good time driving back into Greenwich Village. Most of the drive they sat in silence. Ben didn’t speak to Shaun unless it needed immediate attention, or unless spoken too. Shaun didn’t like being in the car, out in the open, but using a car really was the only way to get back in time, and with a certain amount of privacy. After all, Shaun couldn’t just step onto the next subway train with a face like his.
Hidden in the depths of his hoodie, he watched the world go by as Ben navigated the endless traffic back into the city.
Eventually, Ben pulled into the back alley of the tenement building they were set up in and came to a stop. Shaun opened the door and glanced up and down the street, everything seemed clear so he stepped from the car and shut the door behind him, moving to the service entrance to the building. Ben locked the car behind him and pulled out a set of keys, opening the door with a squeak of metal on metal and waited for Shaun to step through into the relative warmth of the building. Shaun had been here a few times, but usually left this kind of work to his two apprentices as he usually preferred to stay underground. But, Ben had figured out a way for Shaun to get to the apartment with almost no chance of him being spotted by using the service elevator which once on the right floor, exited only a few doors down from their stakeout location. The building might as well have been abandoned for all the upkeep that had been done to it. The service areas were nearly always deserted, apart from the occasional bum who broke in to sleep inside. Tonight, the small complex of rooms that made up the service area seemed empty, so they made their way through without trouble and reached the elevator.
The doors to the elevator car stood open, waiting to be used. They stepped inside and Ben used a key to activate the mechanism that would take them up to the fifth floor. With a bing, the doors closed before them and they started to rise.
After a few moments the elevator stopped and the doors juddered open most of the way. Beyond, a dank corridor led into the building, lined with doors on either side. A short way up, through the flickering light, a stairway on the right hand side led to other floors.
The place looked empty, but they could hear sounds from other parts of the building. Some music, sounds of movement, raised voices, the usual sounds of life.
Ben stepped out, looked left down another corridor, before nodding to Shaun.
‘It’s clear, let’s go.’
Shaun followed Ben out the elevator car and down the corridor just a short distance to the last door before the stairway. With his key ready they were inside the apartment before the elevator doors had closed behind them.
The apartment consisted of just a few rooms, the main living area and kitchen combined, a bathroom and a bedroom and nothing else. It smelled in here and the air felt a little clammy to Shaun, but then his two apprentices had been living here in relative squalor for a few days nonstop, and the whole place was a mess. Food packaging laid about the room, blankets and clothes littered the furniture, but it wasn’t unexpected. This would be a temporary living space while they conducted the surveillance that Lucian wanted.
In front of the exterior wall directly in front of him, a table had been set up with several flat screen monitors hooked up to a couple of computer systems beneath the desk. All the monitors displayed feed from the various cameras they had set up in here and out on the street. DSLR Cameras on tripods stood before the windows, their telephoto lenses trained on the house they could clearly see a little over a block away. The Tenement they were in fronted onto a street down the road and around a corner from Amanda’s house. The other buildi
ngs between the tenement and the house were all one or two story structures, meaning they could look over the top of them to where Amanda’s house sat on the other side of the intersection on the far side of their own block. They had a clear view of two sides of the house, its main front door and its side door and garage entrance. An alleyway ran around the back of the house, where another door had 3 hidden cameras trained on it, recording any movement they picked up.
A couple of other cameras on nearby rooftops made up the rest of the video feeds on the monitors that Vanessa had been watching.
She sat on one of the two chairs in front of the table, her legs stretched out with her feet crossed on the table top. With a nail file in one hand, she absentmindedly shaved down her finger nails.
As Ben and Shaun entered, she turned to look, and on seeing Shaun, she removed her feet from the table and tried to look a bit more attentive.
Shaun saw it all, but didn’t comment, he just stepped forward, looking at the bank of screens.
‘Vanessa.’ He said in greeting. ‘Anything to report?’
‘Just the usual movement. Nothing out of the ordinary.’ She said, and handed Shaun a clipboard upon which a sheet of paper recorded who had been seen, who they suspected to be inside the house and who they thought were elsewhere. They were quite aware that this was all guesswork when any one of them could just Port elsewhere from within the house. They had already seen examples of this, with Amanda walking out the front door, only for her to walk out the same door again a short time later but never having seen her walk back into the building first.
There had been fears that Amanda had discovered that she must be under surveillance and so did these confusing things to throw them off, but after a while they concluded it was just normal Magus behaviour.
Shaun scanned the paper on the clipboard and felt happy with the evenings work. The only movement had been the usual three residents; Yoh had not been seen today.
Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness Page 11