by A Clarkson
And to top it all off, this man tested her patience like no other and she could feel her usual calm slipping away.
He would break the silence soon. Any second now.
“Well?” She caved. “Can I help? I know this city better than you, I know how to find out any information you could possibly need, and I know - knew - Clarisse and Bill.” She paused, the weight of that admission sitting heavy on her chest. “I am an asset to this investigation and you know it.”
He leaned forward in his chair, elbows resting on his knees, and held his fingers together resting on the tip of his nose, as if praying for some kind of wisdom.
“There will be rules.”
She nodded. Fine. Rules were fine. She could live with rules.
“You will share anything you learn with me immediately, no matter how small a detail. I have been hunting this man for months and there may be patterns I recognise that you would not.”
She continued to nod. That seemed reasonable. She was piggy-backing off his information after all.
“Fine. But you have to share everything you have discovered up to this point with me. I need to be brought up to speed.”
“Very well,” he agreed. “Second, you will not look for him alone. This is an exceedingly dangerous man, and if you discover his location you will wait for backup.”
She could live with that. She may want to gut the person responsible for taking Bill and Clarisse from her, but she did still have a healthy dose of self-preservation, and she wasn’t on a suicide mission.
“Okay. But in exchange I will be called to assist when he is ultimately located. I won’t be left behind if another finds him. He is mine. No one else can have my kill.”
“You have my word.”
She nodded her thanks.
“Finally, you will need to move here to the barge for the duration of the investigation.”
Ira’s thoughts ground to a halt. What? Why? “My home is perfectly safe and vastly more comfortable than this place.” Ira eyed the walls with a sneer.
He looked at her in that infuriatingly condescending way, an eyebrow raised and lips pulled into a smirk.
“If you wish to participate in this manhunt you will stay here. The moment you start looking into him you will become a target, and I won’t risk my team by splitting them between two locations. Doing so would simply reduce our efficacy and put everyone’s lives at risk merely for your delicate sensibilities.”
“You don’t need to split the team. I’m fine on my own. I don’t need to move into this man-cave with strange men who I don’t even know!” Ira interrupted his lecture. This was not happening.
The hazel-eyed man stared at her for a minute. “This is non-negotiable Ira. You either move in here with the rest of the team, or you’re out. Take it or leave it.”
She stared at him. He was utterly serious. He wanted her to move in here. With him!
She wasn’t sure she could do it. Guilty of the death of her parents or not - and truth be told, she was leaning toward not - this man pushed her buttons in all the wrong ways. He was arrogant, self-righteous, condescending, and too damn pretty for his own good. She might just kill him. It would be an understandable act. Everyone would agree.
“Are you truly such a spoiled princess?”
Gah! Arrogant condescending self-righteous ass!
“Fine,” she gritted through teeth clenched so tightly she was sure they would crack. If looks could kill, he would be bleeding from his eyeballs right now.
“And my name is Magnus.” He said as he winked at her. Winked! “Now you can’t say you don’t know me.”
He grinned at her again.
She was starting to hate that fucking grin.
Chapter 6
The Murders
Ira begrudgingly accepted the offered meal on the condition that they leave the barge. These dark rooms were making her claustrophobic.
She took Magnus to a small cafe perched on the seventh story of a high-rise. Skyscrapers were almost extinct in the post-Drought world. Valverna was one of the few cities able to construct tall buildings, and proudly did so regularly in a garish show of wealth.
Most buildings were now built in more traditional styles, using almost exclusively wood or stone, as forging steel into framing was prohibitively expensive for most people. When possible, builders would salvage steel from structures in the old abandoned cities, places that turned into ghost towns the decades following the Drought.
In spite of its height from the ground the cafe was a cosy hole in the wall. The exposed wooden framing was warm and inviting and the glass windows were slightly warped as was common these days. The rybrum burned hot, but not as hot as natural gas, so modern glass could never achieve that crystal clear finish of older window panes.
They were seated at a small round table overlooking the city and green fields beyond. Having been here many times, Ira ordered a cup of tea and sandwich from memory. Magnus took his time reviewing the menu, and Ira used the opportunity to properly look him over.
In the sunlit cafe the dark caramel colour of his skin almost radiated warmth. His cat-like grace showed in every movement, from the way he crossed his legs to the way his long slender fingers flicked through the pages of the little booklet before him. He seemed at home in every environment, remaining unaffected and relaxed at all times.
She realized he had finished with the menu and had simply been returning her gaze with a small smile.
Coughing slightly to cover her embarrassment at being caught admiring him for a second time in so few days, she brought them back to their earlier conversation.
“You mentioned there were other attacks.”
Magnus leaned back comfortably, his ankle perched on his knee, elbow resting on the seatback behind him. He should have looked ridiculous perched on the small wooden cafe chair, but instead looked perfectly at home. The jaguar was lounging in a tree.
“Prior to this morning there were three murders this past month, bringing the total death count to twenty one. My team did a preliminary visit to the most recent sites this morning, and followed the murderer’s trail to your parent’s house.”
"So that was why you and your henchmen were snooping around the cottage?” Ira asked, the accusation plain in her voice. “When did it start?"
Magnus grimaced at her. “My men are hardly henchmen. They are soldiers.”
Ira simply rolled her eyes and stirred her tea.
"A few months ago.” Magnus eventually grumbled.
Ha! Ira thought smugly to herself. Looks like you aren’t the only one who can play the cool and collected silent type.
“As I’m sure you know the world outside of Valverna is quite different from within the city. The southern territories in particular have struggled to adapt since The Drought. That region was always very rich in oil, and when the wells dried up the economy collapsed, forcing businesses into bankruptcy. Many families starved."
She was shocked. Ira knew the energy crisis hit people hard, but she had no idea it was that bad. The Drought happened over one hundred years ago, and the tales of the suffering were the things of horror stories. A lot had changed in one hundred years, but many places were still recovering.
"When the rybrum was first discovered we thought we were saved,” he sighed, the weight of a heavy burden sat like a ghost on his shoulders. “So many things that were lost would return. People would be able to use machines to grow crops, and not have to spend their whole lives toiling in the fields. The medicines that we could produce again would save so many lives.” His gaze darkened, “But the cost Valverna charges for the oil keeps everyone so crippled, most are still only just scraping by." He turned to look out of the window once more, gaze distant, as though caught in a memory.
Ira knew what it was to be hungry. She understood what it felt like to not know where your next meal would come from. It was one of the many reasons she owed Bill. He pulled her off the street and gave her a chance. But more than that, he put a
bow in her hands and ensured she would never again be unable to feed herself.
But Magnus’ statement confused her and she looked at him with a puzzled expression, it seemed like their problem had an easy enough fix. "Why don't you just grow your own rybrum? You said you could grow crops, surely your home could become like Valverna if you planted rybrum in your fields."
His face shut down, hazel eyes flashing bronze and a fierce scowl crossing his features. "Do not mock the struggles of my people. Do you not think we would grow it if we could? Do you not think that if you and everyone else in this wretched city would stop lining your pockets at the expense of starving children, we would not break free from the shackles that bind us to Valverna in a heartbeat?"
Ira wasn't sure what to say, but was fairly certain her face waxed eloquent on her behalf. She was utterly confused. In that one moment he had torn away the calmness he wore like a cloak, exposing the jagged teeth beneath. This man may play the part of a calm gentleman, the reclined cat, but he was a vicious beast underneath.
He calmed as he stared at her, seeing the lack of comprehension that registered at his accusation.
"Could you really not know? You work in those fields every day. How is it possible that you could not know?"
Her outrage at being accused of literally stealing food from the mouths of children finally caught up with her, overtaking the shock and tinge of fear at his outburst.
"Look here pal, you know nothing about me, so how dare you accuse me of something like that. I have no idea what you are talking about, but you have some nerve to accuse me of anything after your conduct today. If anyone is freeing themselves from unwelcome bindings it’s me!"
A wry grin crossed his lips and he huffed a laugh. So glad she could amuse.
"Look below us, out there in those fields." Ira obeyed. "What you see before you is the only rybrum in the world."
She sat silently for a few minutes, her tea growing cold in her hands. That didn't make sense. Rybrum was the only fuel source to be found that showed any similar properties to the fossil fuels of old. The planet ran on the stuff. Without rybrum people only had the power they could generate with wood or their hands. Smaller industries successfully reverted to wind or water, but without batteries to store the energy, everything was on demand.
Ira realised she had never heard of other rybrum producing regions, but she always assumed there were others. The crop was simply too important for the world’s supply to be so small. How was it possible these fields produced enough oil to support the whole world?
"That's impossible," she breathed.
"You know rybrum was first discovered here? In Valverna?"
She nodded, still staring out at what she always considered to be endless fields of the leafy plant. Knowing this was the whole world's supply, it suddenly didn't look like that much. The fields were not endless. She was at the boundary only yesterday.
“In all the years, nobody else has grown it? Why?”
"The Crown and Merchant Guild of Valverna own the patent of these plants and guard them fiercely. They own the exclusive right to grow rybrum, as they developed it. Finders keepers as they say,” he added with a grimace. “It's in their best interest to maintain a monopoly over the oil, it has, after all, made them exceedingly wealthy.”
"I thought the rybrum fueled industry across the world. How is that possible?" She looked back at him, gesturing to the fields below with an outstretched hand as if to say, there isn't enough down there.
Nodding in agreement he explained. “Rybrum is a very efficient fuel source. You only need a tiny amount to power most technologies. What is grown here can be spread over many industries. Only growing a small amount of the plant also ensures that the demand remains very high. If they were to grow more rybrum the supply may outweigh the demand, and the value would decline. That is the very last thing this city wants. To add salt to the wound the merchants in this city are only permitted to sell the fuel in its final state."
"So the conversion process can't be duplicated." She understood.
"Yes, but also so that we must fund your industry. By ensuring that only the finished product may be sold, the Valvernan government has effectively ensured that they not only hold the monopoly on the plant growth but every stage of production, while the rest of us are forced to foot the bill."
What Magnus was describing was shocking. If what he said was true, then not only was the city ensuring that it kept most of the world in the dark ages, without access to all the technology Valverna successfully reintroduced in the post-Drought world, but they were also keeping them impoverished, by charging them a huge fee for the small amount of oil they could afford. They weren’t trying to solve the energy crisis, they were trying to perpetuate it. And get rich in the process.
"Do you need to buy the rybrum? I thought more and more industries were finding an alternative to using the oil. What if you stopped needing it all together? Yes you wouldn’t have as many technological advancements as Valverna, but you wouldn’t be bound to pay the high costs either."
"We are trying, but it is slow moving, and success depends greatly on how compatible that particular industry is to alternate power sources. Where I live in Caldessa, for example, there are only two seasons, wet and dry. During the dry season we could rely on solar power for most of our industries, but they would be crippled when the rains begin. It also takes time and money to convert an industry to a different power source. Many governments and businesses do not have the gold on hand to make the change because they are constantly using up all they have just to keep running.”
Ira understood. By keeping everyone on the verge of bankruptcy and starvation, Valverna ensured that nobody had the wiggle room to break free from their yoke.
“This actually brings us back to this case. Caldessa has become the global centre for research. Amongst other things, the labs are trying to replicate the rybrum. Or make a decent alternative,” Magnus explained, bringing them back on track. “Three months ago one of the labs was attacked, and thirteen scientists were brutally murdered. The bodies were so torn apart it took us a week to make sense of all the carnage and realise that two of the on shift scientists were missing: the lead scientist Brian Wick and one of the research assistants Jeffrey Rose.”
Magnus withdrew a folder from his jacket and laid it on the table between them, indicating to Ira to take a look.
Inside she found a series of photographs of a torn apart lab and several ID cards for a company called Ry Industries. They had to be exceedingly successful to be able to provide real photo ID cards for their employees. Ira had no idea what the cost of that would be, the technology to print an image on the card like that was mind boggling.
The top three cards were for John Pimento, Brian Wick, and Jeffrey Rose. Both John and Brian were middle aged men, the former looking maybe a decade older than the latter. John had honey skin that accentuated his green eyes that crinkled slightly, as though he smiled easily and often.
Brian Wick looked to be in his late forties, and already almost completely grey. He wore severe dark-rimmed spectacles that made his face appear crowded. His face didn’t hold the same secret smile of John Pimento, but looked haggard and tired, as though life had worn him down.
Finally Jeffrey Rose would have been in his mid thirties, and still had the jubilance that was so often attributed to youth. He had similar greying hair to Brian, but whereas the older man seemed faded and drained of colour, Jeffrey made his silvery locks appear stylish and edgy.
Magnus interrupted her inspection as he continued his summary.
“A week later Brian was found in an old barn belonging to his inlaws. It looked like he tried running and was hoping to lay low for a while. His plan didn't work. His body was so badly mutilated he didn't even have a face left."
Ira frowned slightly "So how did you know it was him?"
"His in-laws were able to confirm his clothing." He hesitated a breath before adding "And his wife and three children w
ere killed with him."
Ira gasped. "Why?" It was barely a whisper, but he answered all the same.
"The murderer either intentionally targeted Brian when he was with his family, wanting to send a message to others. Or they were simply collateral."
"Jeffrey?"
"Still missing."
"So he's either better at hiding, or he's involved somehow."
Magnus tipped his head in confirmation.
"Do you know what they were researching?"
He shook his head, and wiped a hand across his chin in a gesture of frustration. "Nobody outside of the team working there knew anything other than it was something groundbreaking."
"So everyone we could have asked is either dead or missing." Ira said as she nodded in understanding. "Ok, we can revisit that later. What happened next?"
"After the Wick family's death the murderer popped up about one month ago at a compound in the Blue Desert only a day’s journey from here.” Magnus pulled the ID card for John Pimento to the front of the stack. “Apparently he was one of the original investors in rybrum thirty years ago,” Magnus continued. “It looks like he moved out to the countryside to retire."
"And you're sure the killer is the same guy?"
"Yes,” Magnus confirmed. “Aside from the cause of death matching the other victims, the lab that was attacked belonged to Ry Industries, and John Pimento visited that particular location only a month before the murders started.”
“The cause of death?” Ira didn’t understand. Hadn’t the cause of death been blood loss? Or trauma? Or something? She didn’t know much about technicalities, but surely the cause of death wasn’t particularly unique.
Magnus heaved a sigh and looked out the window with a thousand yard stare. The sun finally dipped below the horizon and the sky was filled with the soft blue that heralds the end of the day. The tranquility of the world beyond the window seemed to mock her racing heart as she anxiously waited for him to continue.