With Slava’s discovery, they could now see the mayor’s scent, a yellow tinted mist that dissipated within an hour. It was enough to locate him during a pursuit, but not enough to track him daily. His car would have to be bugged for long-term tracking. Lance had a small box that would attach to the mayor’s SUV and transmit GPS location along with the speed of movement. It would be tough to get the box on the vehicle, but they hoped the night would reward their vigallence.
That night, Kandice and Lance loaded up the SUV to head out. Slava had to stay behind because he wasn’t healed yet, but they planned to check in often. It would be easy to stay in constant contact with the laptop in the car because Slava could tap into the GPS system from his own laptop.
Lance looked worried, but it seemed to be more from leaving Slava than the actual mission. He had mentioned earlier to her it would be the first time he would try to get close to a target without Slava for backup. Kandice tried to assure him they would be fine since there was two of them, but Lance made her promise not to put herself in danger and run at the first sign. It was becoming annoying that they kept reiterating this. Like they expected her to not follow the plan. There was nothing in their interactions together that should have given them this impression. The only thing that made sense to her was that they might have had a previous partner that didn’t follow the rules in a previous mission. They were a team, everyone had a job to do, and needed to follow the plan.
The plan was to drive down to the mayor’s estate first. They didn't expect him to be home, but it was the best place to start. If they were lucky, there would be a trail of his scent to follow.
Traffic was horrific; Friday night was always a mad house the closer you got to downtown. Lance used the traffic map to circumnavigate the worst of it. At one point, he had to dart off the highway, almost missing the exit because the map showed a wreck up ahead.
“It’s accurate for the past five minutes,” he said, as they sped onto a side street near downtown.
Kandice gripped her handhold as he turned, he was going twice as fast as she ever would. The laptop slipped, so she grabbed it with her spare hand.
“Thanks,” Lance said. “I’ll go slower.”
They took several left and right turns as Lance worked his way towards the mayor’s estate. The cops were out in force. Almost every major light had a cop either parked near it, or traveling through it. Kandice didn’t understand why there would be so many outside of 6th street.
Once in the mayor’s neighborhood, they slowed down, to not draw attention to themselves. It was a higher-class neighborhood, and chaotic driving would stand out. As they rounded onto his street, the scent was visible.
“Excellent,” Lance said. “Maybe he’ll be home. This might be an easy night.”
When they reached his gate however, there were no cars in the driveway, and the scent stopped. They went to the end of the street and turned around, using the shoulder of the road, rather than someone’s driveway.
“Well, damn,” Lance said. “We’ll have to follow and hope the scent doesn’t die.”
The mist took them onto a major highway which then merged onto a small back highway that led to the aristocratic portion of Austin. They headed towards Westlake. The road twisted and turned as it followed the cliff face. Lance couldn’t resist taking the sharp turns at over sixty-miles-per-hour. Kandice had to hold on, it was too much for her nerves to handle. The SUV hugged the turns and never slipped. Lance was a precision driver, but he had to get many speeding tickets with as fast as he drove all the time.
If a cop stopped them, he could receive a reckless driving ticket. But there hadn’t been a cop since downtown. The scent hung in the air like a chemtrail, and led to a resort. There were several nice cars, like a well-to-do party was happening inside.
They pulled under the front awning. “I’m going to go see if there is a room available,” Lance said. “Stay in the car and leave if you see any Aether Walkers interested in you.”
“Okay,” Kandice said, with zero intention of leaving Lance. If a fight broke out, there would be too many witnesses, and no way for them to get away. There weren’t any cops on the road during the drive here, but it wouldn’t take them long to get here if called.
The valet came to the window. Lance rolled it down. “I don’t have a reservation. I need to check if there is a room.”
“Yes, sir,” the valet said. “Please, pull forward.”
Lance pulled up to where the valet had showed and then got out.
“Remember,” he said. “First sign of an aggressive Aether Walker, leave. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” she said again. She watched as he walked through tinted glass doors. The resort was at least five stories, and the stonework was beautiful. There were an overwhelming number of high-end sports cars, luxury SUVs, and a limo in the parking lot. She’d only seen that many sports cars in one place in music videos. Aside from the two valets standing at the entrance, no one else was outside.
Two men pulled up to the valets in a golf cart. The younger valet grabbed their club sets and escorted them inside. Kandice regarded the men eyeing her SUV until they crossed through the front doors. Lance needed to hurry. It was clear they were out of place, every one that passed gave a questioning look towards the SUV.
He walked out a few minutes later and got into the SUV. “They don’t have any rooms available for the night. There’s nowhere else close to here to stay.”
“What do we do now?”
“We’ll have to find somewhere to wait. He’ll most likely take the same route home. So we wait and see.”
As they pulled out of the parking lot, a high-end SUV with two Aether Walkers pulled in. One looked like a panther on his hind legs. The other resembled and insect, and his bulging eyes made Kandice skin crawl. Bugs were gross as it was, but oversized bugs were too much. They waited a minute as the Aether Walkers stopped at the valet stand.
Lance pulled away. “Can’t get caught watching.”
“How do they hide?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“How does no one notice their odd behavior?”
“They’ve had years of experience blending in with society,” he said. “They keep appearances of being normal productive citizens.”
At the end of the road, they took a right, heading back towards Austin. There was a gas station a few miles down that had a dark side of the building next to the dumpster. Lance backed into a spot and killed the lights. From the location, it was impossible to see into the gas station, and more than likely no one saw them.
“I’m not sure how long we can stay here,” Lance said. “Tonight might be a bust. Getting the tracker on his SUV will be harder than I hoped.”
“Why don’t we sneak onto his property tonight?” Kandice asked.
“That’s a good backup plan. But that’s the most dangerous option. We have to try everything else first.”
Not even fifteen minutes later, a cop pulled into the gas station. The officer parked his squad car in a way that blocked them from leaving while keeping the driver’s side away from them.
“Let me do the talking,” Lance said.
The officer walked towards Lance’s door, hand on his gun. He was a tall man with no hair. Kandice smirked, because the officer's head reminded her of a penis.
Lance rolled down his window. “Good evening officer.”
“Hello,” the officer said. “We received a complaint about a suspicious car parked out here. Where are you two coming from?”
“We were just down the road at the resort. They didn’t have any rooms, so I was trying to figure out a good place for us to go.” Lance showed the officer his phone with a search for luxury hotels.
The officer shone his light into the car. “Are you okay, mam?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “Sorry if we caused a problem.”
“No problem,” he said. “But I will need to ask y’all to move along.”
“Yes sir,”
Lance said and started his engine.
The officer looked towards the back seat and then went back into his patrol car. Lance drove back towards downtown.
“That was weird,” Kandice said.
“Not really,” Lance said. “I’ve been stopped by cops often when I’m in nicer neighborhoods. Luckily, I had a good story, and the SUV looks nice enough.”
♦ ♦ ♦
As they drove back to downtown, the traffic got worse. Soon, vehicles surrounded the SUV, and a few of the drivers were more than a little drunk. There were loads of people out having a good time. Kandice hadn’t enjoyed weekends for a while, the whole prospect of people out drinking was appalling. The desire to get drunk and make a fool of herself wasn’t appealing.
As they got close to Mopac, the traffic became so dense they had to sit through what seemed like every red light. After merging onto the highway the traffic flowed seamlessly. Instead of cutting across 1st street, they exited after the river and cut back through the park taking their time. The mayor would not be home soon, so it would give them time to scope out the property again before trying to sneak in.
When they reached the first light, Kandice noticed the mayor’s scent vanished on the other side of the road. Lance figured that meant the mayor would be at the party for at least another two or three hours. There was plenty of time to get set up for infiltrating his compound, provided a limited amount of guards remained, and the security system didn’t go off.
It was impossible to find parking on the street. A car sat at every parking meter, and several cars had parked in no-parking zones. Lance settled on a parking lot behind some bars where he had to pay by placing a five-dollar-bill into a slot on a board. It was over a mile away, but the walk would be better than the SUV getting towed.
“Remember,” Lance said. “Leave everything but the backpack in the SUV.”
They both emptied their pockets into the glove box of the car. It was pointless in her mind, what would anyone discover from their pocket belongings. It was more plausible that the stuff would come in handy. Heading out each with a small backpack, it looked like more like students going to a coffee shop than the infiltration about to happen.
By time they reached the park, Kandice was sweating. The air clung to her like a warm blanket and made her breathing labored. The park was empty, and there were no cops in sight. They walked deep into the park to get out of the light from the street lamps before heading towards the mayor’s neighborhood. At first, they were in an open field of grass, but soon, trees surrounded them until they were having to watch their steps to avoid all the tree roots.
The walk was in silence, even the trees were quiet. In the early evening hours, she expected a jogger or two, but no one crossed their path.
The same ridge they had been to came into view. Through the tree cover, the house and front gate entrance was visible. Lance pulled out a pair of binoculars; after looking for over a minute, he handed them to Kandice.
She glanced around the gate and to what was visible of the perimeter of the property. There was no one outside. The light in the mayor’s office was off, but the inside was visible somewhat due to the ambient light of the city. There didn’t seem to be anyone at home. A light was on above the entryway, and maybe another inside.
“Looks clear,” she said.
“Yeah,” Lance said. “Maybe a little too clear. I expected to see at least one or two people.”
“Why?”
“Because if I were him, I wouldn’t leave my home unguarded. It makes me worried that the security system inside will be even worse than I anticipated.”
“What do we do, then?”
“There’s rope in each pack. We throw it over the brick wall and climb over. From there, we try to hide, and wait for him to get back.”
Lance handed Kandice a pair of gloves to put on. After putting on his own, he tied off the rope to a large tree trunk, and they both shimmied themselves down to the street. There were only two street lamps, both at the bends in the road. They found a part of wall shrouded in near complete darkness.
Kandice took her rope out and handed it to Lance. He pulled a large metal hook from his bag and tied it to the end. When he threw it over, he had to grab the end of the rope to prevent it from slipping away. He pulled the rope back, and the metal hook came back over the wall and fell to the ground.
“Shit,” he said. “The wall might be too smooth.”
He tried it again. This time, the hook caught onto the top edge of the wall. He pulled with all his might, then jumped up against the wall. The rope held.
“I’ll go over,” he said. “When I drop, wait five seconds. If I don’t call out, climb over.”
Kandice said okay, and Lance scurried up and over the wall. There was a small thud.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
She tried to jump up on the wall like Lance had done, but only slammed her side into it. Her arm burned from scraping the rough wall, but she ignored the pain and made her way over.
Once on the other side, Lance crouched a few feet away, looking through the binoculars.
“Looks clear,” he said.
He pointed to the back of the property where there was a large garden of hedge bushes. “We can hide there.”
She agreed. It would be hard for anyone to see them inside those bushes.
They made their way to the bushes. Right before reaching them, a spot light came on. Lance leaped into the bush. A moment later, Kandice followed suit.
He pulled her closer and deeper into the brush, placing his hand over her mouth. He took his hand away and placed a finger over his own mouth.
They sat in silence, staring into the yard that was now bright as day.
There was a click of a walkie talkie. “Back yard. May have been a raccoon,” a man in the distance said.
An Aether Walker turned the corner from the far back of the house and walked up with his back to the wall. He was almost seven feet tall, with large hairy arms that looked like they could snap a man in half. He looked like a larger version of a Gorilla who learned to stand up-right. When he spoke, Kandice saw his teeth were long fangs.
“All clear here,” he said. “You can turn the lights off.”
Kandice heard Lance take a deep breath. They both had been holding it without realizing it. It felt good to let it out.
The Aether Walker stopped walking and turned in their direction. His eyes reaching out through the darkness for them. He would spot them, there had to be a plan for this. Her mind was blank and racing at the same time with potential solutions that wouldn’t work. Lance pull a sheet of paper out of his pants pocket.
The dark, hairy arms of the Aether Walker moved out towards the bush. In a second, Lance ripped his button-up shirt open and slapped the sheet of paper against his bare chest. As his hair turned lightning blue, his arms grew out and grabbed the closest furry arm of the Aether Walker. Before he could react, Lance grabbed the walkie talkie earpiece and threw it aside.
Kandice willed herself to do something, anything. While grabbing a hold of both backpacks, she ran from the bush and grabbed the walkie talkie off the belt of the Aether Walker. She wasn’t quick enough, and an arm caught the back of her shirt, throwing her to the ground.
Lance flipped his whole body around behind the Aether Walker, and with one quick twist of his arms, tore the head off. Blood fell down on Kandice like the rain of a hurricane.
A man came running into view from the front side of the house. He was only human. The sight must have caused him to pause because Lance picked Kandice up and darted for the wall without him reacting. There were gunshots as Lance climbed over the brick wall with one arm, Kandice still in the other. When they hit the ground, Lance let out a high pitched howl. He switched Kandice’s weight to his other side and ran to the cliff. As they reached the top of the cliff, Kandice saw the man’s head peeking over the brick wall.
There was more gunfire, but they already cleared the line of sight and ran throu
gh the park. Lance moved faster than she could have pedaling full speed on a bike and didn’t stop until they reached the river.
“Strip!” Lance said, as he pulled off clothes.
Kandice didn’t have time to be embarrassed and stripped to her underwear.
“No, strip.” He dropped his own boxers.
Kandice hesitated, so Lance ripped her bra and panties off with a quick flick of his hands. After stuffing the clothes into the backpacks, he grabbed her tight against his chest and jumped into the river. It was awkward to paddle with one arm, but his kicking seemed to make up the lost speed.
Kandice noticed that his arm was bleeding. There was dark, almost black, liquid pooling up every time his shoulder raised out of the water.
“You’re hurt,” she said. “You need help.”
Lance stopped swimming. “Hold onto my neck.”
Kandice did so, and Lance took off at an even faster pace. It took less than four minutes for Lance to reach the other side of the river. The street above them had cars roaring across.
“Fuck,” Lance said. “I forgot where the statue is.”
“What?”
“There’s a statue.” Lance wobbled.
Kandice caught him as he lost his footing, and he fell to his knees. He reached up and pulled off the seal attached to his skin, almost embedded. In an instant is hair lost some of its color, and his arms shrunk.
Kandice didn’t know what to do, so she pressed her hand against the wound in his shoulder. She grabbed his shirt out of the backpack and tied it around his arm.
“There,” Lance said, pointing behind Kandice. “Under that statute is a bag. It’s under the tree roots.”
Kandice didn’t wait for him to finish before running over and looking under the tree. There was a small hole filled in with loose dirt. After a little digging a black bag emerged from the hole.
The bag had everything they needed. She wrapped his arm with the bandages and then pulled out two shirts and two jogging pants. She helped Lance with his shirt and then slipped her pair of pants and shirt on. The clothes were loose, but the drawstring helped keep the pants up. Lance had trouble with his pants, but got them on without Kandice’s help.
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