A Shadow in the Flames (The New Aeneid Cycle)

by Michael G. Munz

  Of course, he could always just ask. . .

  Romulus glanced at his mentor again and decided against the insult that such an implication would make. How would he react to that?

  "He'd probably tell you to quit talking and go to sleep," Romulus said to himself. And he'd have a point. Romulus nodded and listened to his mentor.

  In the early morning, Romulus thought he had awoken to find Diomedes checking and redressing his wounds. It was only for a moment before he had quickly fallen back to sleep, and later, he couldn't be sure if he hadn't dreamed it.

  XV

  Felix had made a discovery. He loved doing that, even the small ones, and the one that he now held in his mind like a child with a new toy was a little more than small. It wasn't huge, it wasn't the final piece of the puzzle by any means, but it was enough to make him soon forget—here Felix chuckled at his own thoughts—to overshadow, he corrected—the previous night's unpleasantness.

  The problem that had caused him to leave the freelancer's company so quickly had turned out to be modest. Only a few minor adjustments were required. He had been relieved to find that out, but he was sure that at least a bit of his panic at not being able to remember Albert's name had shown to his companions. With something as important to him as his memory, he had a tendency to assume the worst.

  Still, Felix had never regretted his original decision to participate in the experiment. When they had first approached him three years ago, the initial idea was more than intriguing enough. When they'd discovered the added side effect of a near-photographic memory, he couldn't believe his luck. He was glad they had the time to implement the changes to help him more fully utilize that aspect before the project lost its funding. The occasional side effects were, so far, something he could live with, but it was sometimes difficult not to worry.

  The discovery he'd made was simple: there was a connection to the arsons—or three of the four of them, anyway. After speaking to Albert and doing some poking around of his own, he had found it.

  "RavenTech," he told Albert. It was only fair. The man had helped him, after all. And it wasn't such a big secret that someone else wouldn't have figured it out soon anyway. "Each warehouse had a connection to Raven Military Technologies."

  "What sort of connection?"

  "The third one's obvious. It's a RavenTech warehouse," Felix told him. "Remember what you said about the second one at Oranni Shipping? You said they were just barely able to contain it before it spread to the place next door. RavenTech owns the place next door."

  "And the first?"

  "Had its security provided by RavenTech."

  Albert chuckled. "There's a fact Aegis Security's probably already planning to exploit."

  "I hadn't thought of that," said Felix. RavenTech and Aegis were competitors. While RavenTech was stronger in combat hardware, Aegis's forte was more centered on security manpower and training. Even so, each was trying to carve a niche in the other's specialty. Perhaps there was more merit to a Wraith/Aegis connection than he first thought.

  "So what do you think's the connection to the apartment fire?"

  "Don't know," said Felix. “But since you've already confirmed that was done the same way, I'll bet there is one. For now, I just wanted to mention that to you."

  "I appreciate it. So why're you looking into this, anyway?"

  "Can't tell you that, I'm afraid," Felix replied, and hoped Albert would leave it at that.

  There was a pause. "Mm. Well, let me know if you find anything else."

  Felix nodded, useless as the gesture was over the phone. "Will do." A few moments later, Felix climbed aboard a bus bound for The Dirge.

  It was nearly four in the afternoon. He had spent most of the morning sleeping after maintenance on his memory problems kept him up until near dawn. He had used the time after that to check in with Albert and search for information that led to his RavenTech discovery. He had an hour before he was to meet up with Diomedes and Flynn again. The tight-lipped freelancer had related the fact that they had seen the object of their search last night, and Felix looked forward to picking their minds for details. For now, however, the focus was on their former home.

  The late afternoon sun was shining through clouds of rain and smog when he arrived. It bathed the charred pile of what some used to call home in a dirty, golden light. A stray dog dug through the rubble not far from where a man worked at shaping some of the debris into a shelter. A gunshot echoed from far in the distance, covered a moment later by a boy yelling at his friend as they explored the ashes of the ruined building.

  The investigative crews were long gone, most likely having wrapped up the previous night as quickly as possible. Most people didn't linger in The Dirge if they didn't have to, even if it was just on the edge. Most of the caution ribbon had already been stripped away by vandals or collectors. Felix hoped he could find what he was looking for.

  He stepped across the blackened bricks near to where he guessed the entrance once was, brushing debris aside with his feet as he searched. Most, he knew, if not all of anything worth taking would have already been plundered by looters, but the thing he was searching for was something he hoped no one would have cared to take. It was just a cheap piece of hardware—cheap, but usually designed to take a pounding from would-be vandals. Felix hoped it managed to withstand the building's destruction in some way that was salvageable.

  After just over five minutes of searching, Felix found it. He pulled the book-sized piece of hardware from the rubble and examined it. It wasn't much to look at. A computer in the simplest form of the word, it was really nothing more than a common I.D. card scanner that had been linked to the lock on the building entrance. Simple, but solid, and from the look of the neighborhood it was probably older than Felix himself. It would never open a door again, but it might still hold the list of the building's tenants in its memory.

  That was what Felix wanted. He was guessing that the RavenTech connection here lay in one of the people inside. Once he learned who they were, he could start that search. It had crossed his mind that Diomedes did have his own link through Wallace, but he wasn't ready to highlight that as the connection until he had had a chance to rule any others out. So far as he knew, the connection might even be with Flynn.

  "Little late for lootin', man," came a voice from behind him. "Didn't think you were the type."

  Felix turned, recognizing the voice. It belonged to Charlie Hobbes, a man who he had consulted on more than one occasion for info about The Dirge. Charlie had his ear to the ground as much as Felix did, but Charlie prided himself on learning as much as he could in the small, dangerous part of the city he lived in. Felix didn't exactly trust him, but he trusted the man's information. He decided to take the opportunity.

  Felix turned. "I have unique tastes," he said.

  "What tastes?" Charlie asked. Though weatherworn clothing covered most of his thin body, his face was gaunt and unshaven, giving him a presence that was reminiscent of a skeleton. Even his eyes were slightly sunken. His entire bearing appeared meager, perhaps why so many allowed him to overhear the things that he made a living on. Felix knew there lurked craftiness behind the façade.

  "Tastes?" Felix repeated. "I like piña colodas. And getting caught in the rain." After giving the reference ample time to go over the man's head, he said, "Raven Defense Technologies."

  Charlie walked closer. "RavenTech?" He laughed. "Man, if you're scamming for anything RavenTech in that ash heap you really should've come sooner. This is The Dirge, not some damn sidewalk sale."

  "Oh, so this is The Dirge? I thought we were in Disneyland!" Felix joked. "That's not entirely what I mean."

  "So say what'cha mean, man! Yer always talkin' riddles."

  "Of course I am! How else can I keep you from selling every word I say without paying for it first?" He winked.

  "Don't know. Fuckin' honor system?" Charlie joked. He flashed stained teeth.

  "How much do you know about the people who used to live
here?"

  "Might've heard a thing or two once in awhile. You lookin' for someone who's worked for RavenTech?"

  Felix gave his best noncommittal nod. "Worked, played, whatever. Anything that might be a connection."

  "Why?"

  "Make you a deal, Charlie. You tell me what you know, maybe do a bit of poking, and I'll tell you the why. Which is worth a little bit on its own."

  "The man knows what he's talking about," Charlie said to himself. "I'm in. What's the biz?"

  "I'm looking for a RavenTech connection here because there've been a few buildings out there that have had similar, ah, structural difficulties. All of them had some connection to RavenTech."

  "You're searching for who did it, eh? Who's payin'?"

  "Depends on who did it, don't you think?" Felix shrugged.

  "Blackmail, eh?"

  "I don't blackmail, Charlie. Or haven't I advertised my shining reputation?"

  Charlie grinned. "Your loss, man."

  "So do you know anything?"

  "Might," he said, thinking. "Gotta do a little poking, though."

  "Nothing off the top of your head?"

  "Maybe. But I got a rep to think about, too. I don't want to give you junk without being sure."

  Felix nodded, reasonably sure Charlie didn't know anything and was only trying to save face. "I need to know soon if it's going to be any use. You know how to reach me."

  "You'll be hearin' from me." Charlie turned to go. "Don't dig around in there too much. You'll piss off the rats."

  Felix watched him leave and wondered if Charlie not knowing anything was a good sign or not. He could usually be counted on to know the things worth knowing. Maybe Diomedes was the RavenTech connection, or maybe there was another connection just as hidden. Then again, it was too early to make a judgment. Perhaps, if he could get the tenants' names out of the entry scanner, something else would surface.

  With a glance at his watch, he carried his prize away to find someone able to get those names out.

  XVI

  When he had left them the previous evening, Brian was uncertain if he would return to Felix and his group the next day. It would depend, he decided, on how much information he could glean from the CPMC data. No sense returning to the others if he found what he needed already. Before he had gone through the files to cross-reference the cybernetic data on the vigilante he knew already with the install list, he had considered forcing them to pay him for what he had found out. Brian envisioned that Felix would have been happy enough to deal, but the freelancers, Diomedes in particular, were another matter.

  After picturing just how and where the freelancer would hurt him, he threw out the idea.

  Unfortunately, even with cross referencing the data, he still couldn't narrow things down to a reasonable number of likely suspects—assuming that the vigilante's implants were even legitimately documented. He didn't have much choice in the matter other than to continue to play the tag-along.

  Were he just working with Felix, Brian probably would have been less hesitant. Diomedes's presence in the whole composition had made him uneasy. He already resented the threats the freelancer had made to him. Brian had no intention of saying anything about the freelancer in his interview, even before Diomedes's assurance that to do so would be a deadly mistake. On the other hand, he didn't like the idea of being someone who was easily pushed around, either. Brian had practiced standing up to the man many times in the camera of his mind. As soon as he saw the opportunity, he would have to do so for real.

  Felix, however, was another puzzle. The man's trust in Brian and willingness to help was perplexing and, as far as Brian could tell, genuine. It made him both proud and uneasy. Was he being patronized? He hated being patronized. If so, Brian resolved to prove Felix wrong. Either way, he realized, Brian would have to do more than merely tag along. Perhaps that was why he brought the footage with him for them all to see at the rendezvous.

  Romulus watched Felix study the recorded news footage on the reporter's tablet screen and waited for his own turn.

  "How long ago was this?" Felix asked.

  "That first one is from a little over a month ago. When the first ganger slayings were found in the International District," Brian said. "The first with witnesses, anyway. Typically, none of them wanted to be filmed." Felix nodded silently as Brian continued. "The other two should have dates on them. There's not really much in there that isn't in my file, but it's a visual record and every little bit helps, doesn't it?"

  "Anything could be helpful," Felix agreed. He finished scanning the reports and handed it to Diomedes. "See anything that triggers with last night?"

  Romulus resisted the urge to look over his mentor's shoulder and waited for him to finish. Diomedes looked at the screen as the reports replayed, his eyes shifting occasionally to Brian. Romulus could see he was intimidating the reporter, and wondered if it was intentional. The report finished and his mentor grunted. "Nothing new," he said, passing it to Romulus.

  Romulus scrutinized the video, marking information in his mind as the reports listed it. Diomedes was right, there wasn't much: the places, the times, and witness reports telling of a figure in black. The reports really added more to the sense of mystery than to anything else.

  "Do you recall anything else from last night?" Felix asked. "Anything, I don't know, noteworthy?" The man looked between Romulus and Diomedes.

  Romulus opened his mouth to speak, glancing over to his mentor for approval. Diomedes gave a nod, so Romulus said, "There wasn't really much time to notice anything. He was already fighting the gangers when I got there. After that I guess I was too busy to look, and when I finally made it over to him— Well, I didn't even get that far. Next thing I know he's gone. Like Diomedes said, we got out of there pretty quick afterward."

  "Did you?" Brian spoke, addressing Diomedes. "Have much time to notice anything, I mean?" Romulus actually winced from the reporter's own discomfort as his mentor answered, for a moment, with merely a dead stare.

  "Long enough," Diomedes said finally, and mostly to Felix. "The face was the same as in the video."

  "Did you hear anything, or see anything of him before he attacked?"

  "No," Diomedes answered. "He jumped from the roof. No guns. Slashers and fists. When I closed on him hand-to-hand he was already done with the others. Good fighter. Knew some sort of martial arts."

  "What kind?" Felix asked.

  "Don't know."

  "Describe it."

  Diomedes gritted his teeth. "Lots of blocks, dodges mostly. Kept me from getting to him."

  "Sounds like Aikido, maybe a form of Karate," Felix said, thinking. "Hmm."

  "Hmm, what?" Diomedes asked.

  "How long was he fighting the gangers before you got to him?"

  "Maybe a minute or so."

  "Yeah," Brian cut in with a nod to Felix. "He takes out five gangers that quickly and then goes defensive when he fights you? Something's a bit weird about that, don't you think?"

  "Diomedes is a little more dangerous than a few gangers," Romulus told him.

  "Even so," said Felix. "What do you think, Dio. . . medes?"

  "Defensive." Diomedes nodded. "For the most part. And he ran when Romulus came."

  "Think he knew who you were?"

  Diomedes shook his head. "If I was him and I knew who we were, I would've tried to kill us."

  Felix shrugged. "Maybe he knew something you didn't."

  "Talk straight, Hiatt."

  Felix shrugged again. "I don't know. Just brainstorming."

  "There are worse ways to stun someone than with a flash," Brian said.

  "I've never seen one of those before. It was like his whole hand lit up," Romulus mused. He left out the obvious fact that there were probably a lot of things he hadn't seen before.

  A moment of silence passed before Felix spoke. "Wait a minute, Flynn. You're sure it was his hand that flashed?"

  "Pretty sure. I mean—" Romulus paused to check his thoughts. "
Yeah, pretty sure."

  "It was from his palm," his mentor confirmed. The two waited for Felix's reaction.

  "It's just that there's no standard stun flash on the market right now that's in the palm. Never was, to my knowledge. Had to have been a custom job."

  "Why put it in the hand, then?" Brian wondered.

  "Not sure. From what I gather, there's problems with hand-mounting that sort of thing that makes it either too difficult or too expensive. That's why it's not really marketed. Either this guy's a tech himself, or he's close with someone who is."

  "If it's that hard to put in, wouldn't there have to be a pretty good reason to do it?" Brian asked.

  Felix shrugged. "I can't think of a single good reason—except just to see if they could," he chuckled. "One of my favorite reasons, actually. I wonder if we're looking for me?" The small man looked around in mock alarm. Romulus couldn't help but chuckle.

  "Are we?" The question came from Diomedes.

  Felix blinked. "I'd say you're joking, but to my knowledge Hell hasn't yet frozen over," he said. "So I'll just answer you straight and say no, we're not." Diomedes said nothing. "Besides," Felix continued to Romulus, "black's not really my color. I'm more of a spring."

  Romulus smiled, then flashed on something. He pulled the pocket screen out again and replayed the reports.

  "There's a lot of things that aren't making sense here," he heard Felix say.

  "Tell us," Diomedes ordered.

  "The RavenTech connection I told you about. Mostly it seems like our guy has it out for them, but why hit the second place, then? The only connection's its being next door."

  "Maybe he's got a problem with addresses," the reporter joked.

  "Shut up," Diomedes said. Romulus continued to slow-motion scan the reports.