by B.A. Savage
Chapter 9
It’s been an awkward hour. Shadow and Archan are sitting on a grassy hill in the dark. Archan attempted small talk once, but Shadow shot it down fast and it’s been silent ever since. Archan spent most of his time playing around with some of the park’s smaller animals. Shadow still doesn’t believe he can talk to them, but can tell something about him attracts them to him.
A man in long black trench coat and Stetson hat covering his face approaches.
Archan says, “That’s him.” Shadow feels a chill go up her spine. If her suspicion is correct, this advancing man is another person from her past, her more recent past. They stand up as he closes, he lifts his head.
“You,” she says .Archan looks at her.
“Shadow,” replies the man. Archan looks at the man, then back to her, “What? You two know each other?” Archan asks.
The man says, “If you call playing lethal cat and mouse, knowing each other,” Referring to the last time they saw each other.
“It was my assignment, nothing or no one stops me from completing an assignment.”
Archan is thoroughly confused, “Are we going to have a problem here?”
“Not if he’s done trying to catch me,” frowns Shadow.
The man smiles slightly, “Considering my employer is dead. I think my job is finished.”
For a minute there’s a strange silence. The man breaks the silence, “So, did you ever find your mother? I figure it would be the next thing you did after you...rested.”
Shadow is impressed with his memory. The last thing she told him was she was going to rest and she only mentioned her mother the very last time they encountered each other.
“Well, Century...”
Archan interrupts Shadow, “Century? What happened to Bob?”
The man turns toward Archan, “Yes, that is what some people call me.”
“And you never told me?”
“I said ‘some’ people call me that. Some people call me other things.”
Shadow interrupts them, “That’s not the issue. My mother is the issue.”
She explains the situation to Century. “So you got the blood?” Century asks.
“Yes, on this purse.” She hands him the now empty purse. He looks it over, then puts it inside his coat.
“Okay, give me a few hours. I’ll meet you at our other usual spot.” He turns to leave.
Shadow says, “Wait. How good are you at getting information about people?”
“Depends on how much you need and by when,” he replies.
“Two people, basic information about their past and present.”
“Such as?”
“Where they have lived or live? Jobs they’ve had or have. Any criminal history, the basics.”
“Okay, the names?” Century asks. She tells him the names, he acknowledges them, tells them it’ll take about 3-4 hours, then turns again to leave.
After Century has departed, Archan sets down on the grassy hill again. Shadow sits also. Oddly enough, Shadow starts up a conversation, “How do you know The Host, and what do you know about him?”
Archan decides to take full advantage of this opportunity by telling her all he knows, after all “four hours of silence is a long time,” he thinks.
“The man is a demented mad scientist type that seems near invincible. I’ve seen him shot with something that ripped apart a man seconds before and all he did was get up and dust himself off.” He paused briefly to see if she looks interested, he can’t tell. The revealing part of her mask, nose downward, reveals no emotional change.
He continues, “I believe this creature that’s been killing people and attacked your mother is one of his creations. I ran into a few before. The most annoying one is the Chee-Chee series, these little critters look like some kind of insane teddy bear, spliced with so many different types of animal DNA that they all evidently went crazy.”
Archan sensing she’s bored, deeply listening or not listening at all and if it’s the first one, then he’ll never get to the question he wants answered the most, so he asks, “So how’d you and Century meet?”
Shadow looks down as she decides if she should tell him, “Well if I tell him, he’ll know what I don’t like people knowing, but it’s not like he can’t find out from Century, whom I hate to admit I don't know how to kill yet. Despite my numerous tries, he didn’t die, but if it lives, it can be killed.”
She decides to tell a brief summary of their few encounters.
“He was hired by my former employers, the Katsuya Corporation, to hunt me down and bring me in. He was unsuccessful,” she tells him.
Archan jerks his head suddenly when he heard the word, “Katsuya?!” he mumbles.
“Yes,” she replies.
“Those bastards tried to kill me several times. The first time I was ever in their building they beat me to an inch of my life and...”
Shadow finishes the sentence, “...tossed you off the roof.”
“Yes. Let me guess you, tossed your fair share too?”
Shame, another emotion she’s starting to learn to hate, doesn’t allow her to answer this question directly, “So you know about the SDCC?”
“Yeah, the Swan Dive Cleanup Crew. Those Katsuya’s had a great sense of humor, didn’t they?” he states with a hint of bitterness in his tone.
“So Katsuya and The Host are connected?” she asks.
“Well, I don’t believe they are now. I believe The Host is in some prison of some sort. Century told me that he wasn’t dead, but we would never have to see him again. Now talking about the past, yes, they were connected. The Host was supposed to experiment on a creature that I can't divulge any information about for the Katsuya Corporation. Not really sure why, but more than likely to create a creature like the one killing people, but more controlled of course.”
“How long ago was this?” Shadow can feel her insides gripping.
“Hmm...about 15 years ago or so.”
“I knew it! So he was connected to the Shadow project. No wonder they hired me out to him to explore that damn tomb,” she thinks to herself. Not wanting to share her new found info, she changes the subject, “So how did you survive?”
“Survive what?” he asks.
“The Swan Dive.”
“Cana saved me.”
Finally starting to believe him, she asks, “What is this Cana thing?”
“Thing? It’s good he’s not here now and you two can’t interact or we might have a minor battle.” Archan laughs, and then explains, “Cana is my guardian. He protects me while I protect nature. But only we can interact with each other, under normal circumstances. He can see and hear you, but you can’t see or hear him. Also, he can touch me and vice versa. Understand?”
“Not really,” she admits.
“Well, it took me awhile to figure out all the rules too. These guardians have been around for a long time, mainly to protect endangered species. Like I said earlier, I can’t say much, the council would not be too happy if I did.”
Understanding all about the need of secrecy, Shadow simply says, “Understandable.”
Thinking back, Archan says, “Yeah, I’ve cheated death a few times thanks to good ol’ mother Earth, she’s always healing me.”
Shadow has died twice, as far as she could remember, both of these temporary demises were inside Kind Foymama’s Tomb. If it wasn’t for the gauntlet she wears, she would have never made it out of there alive. She stares at Archan, “Someone else who knows what it’s like to live a life in secrecy, to always hide in darkness, to know what death feels like; I thought I was all alone.” She thought to herself.
“So what about your parents? Do they know what you do?” she asks. She couldn’t decide if she would or could tell her mother what she’s been doing over the last few years, but she knows the question would come up.
“Well, my mother and I don’t talk often. She owns a very successful business and it takes a lot of her time. We talk a couple times a yea
r, you know, the holidays mainly. And my father, if he knew what my mother did for a living, it would probably kill him. He hated industrialized society; he’s a nature nut, go figure huh?”
Archan laughs. He continues in a somber tone, “Actually, rumors are he’s dead. Well, if he is, at least he died the way he would have chosen, exploring some dusty old tomb. I guess some tomb of some guy named Foymama or something like that.”
Shadow asks, “What’s his name?”
“David, but he goes by Rugged, do you know him?”
“No,” she says, not wanting to be the one to deliver the news that his old man is dead.
Archan, still looking down, cheers up slightly, “My old man’s probably shacked up with some rich tourist, that’s how my folks met,” he laughs.
The truth is the last time Shadow saw him he was missing two big chunks out of his shoulder and running from a massive boulder to save his life. She doesn’t believe that anyone survived but her, “But I could be wrong. Why should I steal his hope?” she thinks.
Before Archan can say anything, Shadow says, looking at her watch, “I’ll meet you back here in three hours, then we’ll head off to meet Century.”
Archan is thrown off a little by this abrupt end to their conversation, but still agrees. Shadow walks away and soon disappears into the night.