The Art of Madness

by A. J. Mayall

  “It has been three months for you. Gypsy Moroux says she has the information you requested. She only awaits meeting you for the first time.”

  “She wanted to warn me before I got in trouble; she tried to fix this…if only I had gone when the call arrived…”

  Phoenix winced and fell into unconsciousness, letting the energies of the Cloister repair his battered body.

  Jack and Suzette smiled as they tucked into their meals; Jack chose a stack of strawberry covered Belgian waffles, Suzette, a chicken-fried steak with a side of potatoes. She held her purse close to her side as she gazed into the eyes of the officer across the table.

  “Suzette, breakfast for lunch needs to be our new thing. This is the best. You’re the best.” He filled his mouth with a juicy strawberry, red syrup and juice dripping down his chin.

  “Yeah, I’ve always been a fan of it, personally. I never get a chance to enjoy breakfast, dealing with the office hubbub every day. Unlike Phoenix, I can’t live on slawdogs alone.”

  “So, we have all day, anything you want to do?” he asked. He dipped each bite into a dollop of whipped cream before consuming it, making the stream of liquid food dripping from the corner of his mouth turn a thick frothy pink.

  “I think that’ll be up to you,” she said, using her knife to scrape off the gravy from her steak, only to stab and bisect it. She focused on it, like a surgeon, keeping her gaze averted from Jack.

  “There’s something on your mind.”

  “I know. I’m thinking.”

  “Mind letting me in?”

  “I usually do.”

  “I sense a but.”

  She looked at him, scowling. “That had better not be double entendre.” Suzette sipped her coffee, making a face and adding in sugar and cream until it was the color of faded wood grain paneling.

  “It’s not. C’mon, let me in.”

  Suzette sighed. “We’ve not really been going out that long, but we’ve had a lot of connections, you know?”

  Jack nodded, smiling. “Yeah, we kinda did hit it off.”

  “There was something about you I couldn’t put my finger on. Something elusive. Something I knew about you deep down that I didn’t want to tell myself, because I wasn’t sure what it would mean for this relationship.”

  Jack patted her hand. “Suzette, I feel strongly for you too. If you think we’re rushing things, I’ll give you as much space as you want.”

  “It’s not that, Jack. I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to be honest.”

  He matched her gaze, breathing in rhythm with her. “Ask me anything you want.”

  “Are you sure? If I do this, things will change. I know you can live with things as they are but I don’t know if I can.”

  “Suzette, nothing you can ask will push me away. I’m an open book.”

  Suzette DiMarco paused, the sunlight filtering through the few dust motes in the diner, framing the area between them, leaving them both in shadows gazing across the table, a bridge of their hands connecting them.

  “How long have you been an AGI plant?”

  CHAPTER 23

  “Excuse me?!” he choked, sputtering wet crumbs and crimson syrup between them.

  “I had suspicions weeks ago. You’ve done nothing but confirm it since.”

  “This is insanity,” he said, the lycanthrope hissing his breaths. “I’ll pay the bill and get you back to your scooter.”

  “No. You answer me this. I need to know why.”

  He snarled and rolled his head. “What makes you think I’m working for AGI?”

  “No Pack Mentality. I noticed it a long time ago, how you wouldn’t yield to Maxwell, but I had an idea long before that. It’s why I took you to the Gerard Suite. I had to test you. You failed.”

  He growled.

  “Feeling cornered, Jack? If I was wrong, you’d laugh this off. Your instincts are your fucking tell.”

  He looked side to side, watched as Suzette moved toward the end of the table, keeping her gaze on him, forcing him back to the corner. He balled his fists and looked at her.

  “This isn’t funny. We’ve cleaned out the riff-raff from our Pack.”

  “You’re deflecting.”

  “This is ridiculous and asinine!” he said, causing the other diners to look their way.

  “Everyone’s looking, Officer. Maintain and tell me the fuck is going on…” she whispered to him. “I have no problem with AGI, but I wanna know why they have you in the police for them.”

  “You got no proof.”

  “Wanna bet? Maybe I’ll make your little plan come crumbling down if you don’t talk now.”

  He looked around, trying to calm his inner rage, knowing that showing his inner beast in public and in uniform would be the end of his job and livelihood.

  “Not here,” he said. “How about the truck?”

  Suzette stood and looked him over. “I’ll find my own way back, Jack. Last chance to fess up before I go public.”

  “Are you trying to tell me you’d throw everything we have away because of a ruse?”

  “Rookie cop comes on and, within weeks, becomes the Beta in a damaged department? You’re a chess piece, and I want to know what Gemini has planned.”

  “Suzette, I saved your life from Basseri. He would have shot you, dead in the face.”

  “Bullshit, you saved him. I was about to crush his skull in. You were happy to lie down until he was about to meet the business end of my boots.”

  He stared at her, dumbfounded. How the hell had she seen it all? “I helped you and Phoenix…”

  “You helped get Maxwell out of the way. You got one of Basseri’s men out of the precinct, and took his place. This isn’t honor, it’s chess. I wasn’t sure who you were working for until the courtroom, though.”

  “What the hell gave it away?”

  “Making sure Gemini had protection on both sides. If you were so loyal to me, you would have been on my side. You still have a strong pack instinct, but Gemini is your Alpha. Funny, considering he’s not even a werewolf.”

  “How long have you been sitting on this?”

  “A few weeks, but I wanted to be sure. Every time I mention AGI, you hop like a happy puppy. These haven’t been dates, Jack, they’ve been interrogations. I’m going to go now.”

  “AGI will make things better, Suzette.”

  “I’m sure they are, but I’m also pretty sure Basseri was innocent. I want him to suffer, Jack, but honestly. You fuckers took my vengeance for the events of two years ago from me, which does not put you in a good place. It means everything that’s been going on, everything, has been part of a bigger game.”

  “You can’t prove it.”

  “I already have.”

  Jack looked at the cold gaze she returned to him. “What does that mean?”

  “I have the information compiled and it’s waiting to be read. It’s too late, Jack. Checkmate.”

  She walked out, leaving the half-eaten meal on the table. The other diners looked at Jack, who was sweating profusely. His mind raced, trying to keep the beast under control as he threw a fifty on the table and ran after her.

  Suzette was already on her phone, walking down the interstate, trying to find reception to get a call. He rushed after her, yelling at the top of his lungs.

  “I loved you, Suzette!”

  “That’s nice,” she said, walking away, a tear forming in her eye. She couldn’t deny, and hadn’t denied, that she had feelings for him too, but honesty had to prevail. She doubled down on her rage, even as the dry heat of the midday sun beat down on her, the sweat mixing with the few tears she allowed herself.

  “Suzette, please! I want to make this right!” he said as he ran in front of her, a pleading look on his face.

  She gave him a glare that could have frozen the desert sands. “It’s nice to want things, isn’t it?” Suzette responded, moving past him. “People get one chance. That’s it.”

  Jack growled, stepping away, his
inner beast under the surface. “Have it your way; walk back for all I care.” He headed to his truck, knowing he had to plug this leak as fast as possible.

  He hopped into his truck and put the key in the ignition, sitting in wait, stalking his prey. He let his rage build and build, staring at the figure of Suzette on the road, walking back toward the city proper with her thumb out for a ride. Hitchhiking meant no reception, and there wasn’t much traffic out.

  No witnesses.

  He shook his head; he did care for Suzette, but he had a job to do that was bigger than just her. His inner beast lashed out, causing his muscles to swell as he was on the verge of losing control. He maintained just enough to make sure there was no one coming or going, and that they’d be out of sight of the diner. He sped out of the parking lot toward her. He kept her in his sight, guiding the truck closer to her, putting the pedal flush to the ground.

  Suzette stood there, back to the diner, arm outstretched, purse on her opposite shoulder. She knew Jack would be dangerous, but not until she heard his truck rev and the squeal of rubber did she realize how low he might go. She did her best to dodge, but the sand and loose rubble made for poor traction.

  The hunt was short as he quickly advanced. Suzette swore she saw tears in Jack’s eyes as she felt the impact. He twisted the wheel at the last moment, clipping her with the side of the bumper and sending her rolling like a tumbleweed. The world went black, and still she hoped she had done the right thing.

  Phoenix rose what felt like hours later, the dull ache finally gone. He stared around, the others having decided to give him his privacy, it seemed. He bathed in the energies of The Great Machine, feeling it infuse him more and more. He peered again in the deep distance for signs of any of his predecessors and still found himself alone.

  “Gypsy? You there?”

  The echoless silence was almost tangible. He paused to ponder the recent situation, what was he missing. He knew Suzette had some suspicions, but she kept her cards close to her chest. There had been enough hints in her conversations that Maxwell couldn’t have been acting alone; in his mind, that meant Dorian Franklin. Violent, loyal, aggressive, just the sort of man Basseri would use as an enforcer.

  He played the events in his mind. There was something, something so subtle that he was missing. Finding the bodies, all of the evidence that Basseri was too arrogant to even look at, the John Doe going missing, the Bentons not being the Bentons. There was a pattern here, one he couldn’t see.

  He needed his office, his whiteboard, Suzette. Phoenix looked around for Gypsy or any of the others one more time and focused on the area before him, pulling at the fabric of reality and opening a door to his loft. He took a deep breath to stabilize it before stepping through.

  As he emerged from the gateway, the brightness of the outside assaulted his gaze first. How much time had passed here. He checked his phone, feeling it vibrate and shudder as it synced with local reality. Barely an hour since he left Linville. He flipped through his contacts and swiped over to Suzette, letting the phone ring for a good half a minute before remembering she had a lunch date with Jack and likely had it turned off.

  He peered around the room and grabbed Bouncer from the bed.

  “Sorry for interrupting your nap, buddy, but we got work to do.”

  Phoenix ran downstairs, passing Suzette’s bare desk and setting the plush raccoon on a filing cabinet. He wiped the board before making notes on the situation.

  First up was the timeline, starting from the moment everyone had been saved from that damn cube. He made a circle to the left of it with a small circle and wrote inside “B.S. that already happened”. He stretched the line across the room, as far to the right as the whiteboard allowed. He wanted to make sure he gave himself enough room to get the facts down. He made links to the people in the cube, to the crime lords, to Basseri, to John Doe, to The Pack, to the Bentons.

  He next made an X on the line for the trial. The details of the evidence, the bombs, the plan to turn the crime lords against each other, the theft from AGI, the documents directing modifications each got a line. Finally, the note of the guilty plea, and that Basseri seemed okay with it.

  He moved forward still, to today’s events; the cube AGI couldn’t hack, and the opposing force he had never encountered.

  He noted Dorian was being put on the case, that he was the new Alpha of The Pack. He also knew Maxwell had kept him out of the main plan. Phoenix’s mind began to race.

  “Okay, Bouncer, how’s this for an idea? Dorian is kept out of the plan as a backup. Basseri knows Maxwell is likely on his way out, and makes sure his number two gets the big spot. The info on the cube is going to exonerate Bellacino and O’Halloran. We can remove them from the equation.” He said as he crossed out their names. “How’s that look, buddy?”

  The raccoon was silent.

  “That’s what I thought, too.” Phoenix said.

  He continued to look over everything he had written on the whiteboard. “What have I missed?!” he called out, and then looked to Bouncer.

  The raccoon was silent.

  “That’s it, you’re a genius!” he said and ran over, picked up the stuffed animal in both hands and kissed it on top of the nose before gently setting it back down.

  Dominic Basseri sat in the back of the transport vehicle, chuckling to himself. The driver had been silent, knowing his job, and knowing it well; get the prisoner to the prison. He adjusted himself in his seat slightly, his back still aching from when that damn Pack Omega nearly broke it. The pain meds helped, but he knew if the plan was to work, he needed his faculties.

  “We getting close, Officer?” he jeered to the driver. “Still can’t believe you managed to trick your way into the assignment.”

  Sam Maxwell turned the transport vehicle onto the freeway. “I know who my friends are, Mr. Basseri.”

  “Damn right, you do.”

  Basseri grinned, as he peered out the windows. They had already passed the solar farms a half-hour ago; he wasn’t due to arrive at Zigratsky Penitentiary, or as it was more commonly known, the Ziggurat for another ninety minutes. It was the only maximum-security prison nearby built that specialized in Omnus and Stygus inmates. While Dominic possessed no special powers from either end, his notoriety was enough to designate the special treatment.

  “Kinda shocked about the text,” Basseri broke the silence after a moment. “I seriously thought I was up shit creek without a paddle.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean they had enough on me to pin me for life. I mean technically, I’m supposed to be going there for life. Ain’t no way I’m being released any time soon.”

  “Then why did you agree to it?”

  Basseri scoffed. “The text, you idiot.”

  “Yeah, I know. I saw the text. I did as I was told.”

  Basseri turned his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, ‘as you were told’? You texted me.”

  Sam paused and looked over his shoulder, “Boss, you texted me that you needed me to be your escort to the prison, had to knock a few guys out and pose to do it.”

  Basseri went wide-eyed. “Sam, you texted me the code phrases that you had an exit for me, to go with the flow, and that my assets overseas were being tapped. That I had a new identity waiting for me.”

  Sam Maxwell and Dominic Basseri looked at each other in horror.

  “Set up. We been set up!” they screamed, Sam screeching to a halt on the empty stretch of highway.

  Maxwell looked around on the horizon, sweat beading on his brow. Basseri snarled and punched the mesh screen separating the rear and front of the vehicle.

  “You gotta get me outta here, Sam!”

  “Where the hell am I supposed to take you? They’re expecting you at the Zig! I thought you had an escape plan set up there or something.”

  “I don’t have anyone on the inside at the Zig! Most of the people I’ve set up are there.” With that, Basseri went pale. “I’m be
ing erased. Whoever is doing this is trying to erase me…”

  “Ain’t no one trying to erase you, boss.”

  “That evidence?! I never bombed no house! I never set up a kidnapping, none of it! I wish I had, sounds brilliant, honestly.”

  “Dominic, you’re serious, aren’t you?” Maxwell said, cranking the air conditioner as he started the car and pulled to the side of the road. “I kept those people alive on your orders.”

  Basseri sat up and pressed his face against the mesh. “I’m telling you, I didn’t have anything to do with it. I don’t know who gave you those orders, but it wasn’t me, Sam.”

  “You trying to tell me, we’ve been getting played since the start? Who the hell would do that?!” Maxwell yelled as he punched the steering wheel, making the horn beep a few times, it echoing in the quiet distance.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time, you dumbass mutt!” Basseri muttered and looked forward. “Who? I mean this sort of stuff, I don’t deny it. It looks like the sort of thing I’d do. It’s why I got interested in this; I wondered who was playing the field. I didn’t mind those idiots thinking it was me.”

  “Boss, if I don’t take you there, more cops will be sent. How’d they get access to your code phrases?”

  “Hell if I know! No one can crack my security, far as I can tell.”

  Maxwell listened to the idling engine for a few minutes before he put the car in gear and began to drive, Basseri starting to yell.

  “Maxwell, you turn this thing around! I need to get to an airport, something”

  “These cars got tracking systems on them, if I deviate, they’ll know. You’re the brains, right? Figure something out on the way. If I don’t keep moving, we’ll have serious heat on us.”

  “I hate trying to figure out stuff on limited time. You got your phone still?”

  Sam fished out his smartphone, then pulled to the side of the road and stepped out, cracking Basseri’s door open to hand it over. Basseri had pondered rushing the door, but he wasn’t foolish enough to go running in the desert, with miles of nothing but heat and eventual freezing temperatures between him and something nearing civilization. On foot, he’d be useless. He also knew Maxwell wouldn’t take being attacked well. Say what you want about the lycanthrope’s loyalty, if you strike a dog when it’s doing as it’s told, it will snap and turn on you. He booted up the phone and looked over it, cursing.