The Recluse

by D A Rice

  “I think we need to compare the data we have from this guy to the Arachnid files you have, Agent,” Jackson stood. The commissioner leaned back, folding his hands in front of him as the detective continued. “Jurisdiction-wise this case is all yours. This I do not dispute. I simply suggest that I assist you as the senior detective who knows the Recluse best. I think that there is something bigger going on, and I think that if we put the case files side by side, you’ll find that there is more to this kid than he would have you believe.

  “I don’t think he’s just some random prankster out to prove his worth. I think he has a goal and I am almost positive it lines up with yours. I’m requesting, and the commissioner agrees, that you work with the NYPD on this so that we can put our collaborative expertise towards the same goal.”

  Agent Montoya studied Jackson for a moment, a hand on her hip, before nodding slowly. “You’re the best in the force, Jackson. They didn’t make you a grade one for nothing. Meet me in front of the federal field office at 0600 tomorrow. Bring all the files you have on the Recluse with you, and I mean all of them,” here she glanced at Denbrook. “I also want the hard drives I know you’re hoarding, Denbrook.” She glanced back at Jackson.

  “If I find that anything is missing, the NYPD will be booted from this case so fast you won’t feel the door hit your butt on the way out.” She paused here, giving Denbook the side-eye again, “and I’ll hear your theory on how he accomplished said obtaining and destroying of top-secret research. It should be good.”

  Denbrook raised an eyebrow, “he found a backdoor, agent,” he said candidly with a shrug, “Alpine Research has a security breach.”

  …

  Rei found herself walking onto campus to wait for Damion a few days after her date with her dad. She’d already emailed her professors to let them know she’d be missing classes. It was rare that Rei missed them, even with her mental issues, but her teachers usually understood when she did.

  She was only there to wait for her best friend, knowing that he wanted to see her. She made her way to the tree she always sat under, pulling a book from her bag as she walked. Her dad had convinced her to go to see Dr. Heek today for her normal appointment. It was a good compromise as he looked into hiring someone new. She had taken a cab to Dr. Heek’s office and then hopped on the city transit to get to the school.

  She arranged herself under the tree, leaning back against it, the rough bark pricking her underneath her long black shirt. Rei folded her red-clad legs underneath her and found herself glancing down at her phone again. It’d been almost a week since she last saw Eli. She’d found his code in her notes where he said it would be, but part of her didn’t want to risk seeing him. He’d told her he didn’t want her to feel alone, but that was exactly how she felt. Could she use the code for that? It felt selfish. She didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness.

  Eli had taken care of Rei as a stranger to her madness and hadn’t judged. Instead, he said he saw something more in her. It’d made her feel alive in a way she hadn’t felt for a long time. But now the warmth Rei felt around him had dimmed. She missed him, even as she also felt protective of him. She didn’t want to risk getting Eli in trouble when he was so good at staying out of it.

  Drumming her fingers against the closed book in her lap, Rei found herself biting her lip as she debated. He hadn’t told her only to use it in cases of emergencies, had he? Only that he’d be in contact with her if she did.

  As she studied her phone absentmindedly, the background began to turn into salt and pepper static, pulling her from her thoughts. Her brows furrowed. When her phone vibrated, she jumped, covering her mouth before she let out a squeak of surprise. It wasn’t the sound she usually got with a text message, and it’d been far louder than it should’ve been. She scrambled to check the volume, even knowing that it was a message just for her. Her screen turned black, blinking on and off once before the message appeared:

  I'm your guardian angel:

  I watch you from on high.

  2200

  Then the message was gone, and after another flash of black, her phone returned to normal.

  8

  “Rei!” Damion's voice made her jump as he came running up to her, scaring her out of her thoughts. He paused as he took her in, his brows furrowing. “Rei? What is it?” he asked in concern, kneeling in front of her with both hands out as if to brace her.

  Rei started laughing abruptly, taking Damion aback in confusion. “I'm fine,” she finally gasped out, before sliding her phone into her back pocket as she stood. She smiled at him and held out her hand from above. Damion offered Rei a delayed grin before pulling himself back up using her as an anchor.

  “How’s Dr H?” He asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Damion watched Rei brush off her clothes and swipe up her book from the grass where she’d dropped it. It’d been a while since they’d seen each other as well, she realized. She and Damion had both been so busy that contact had been scarce. They’d checked in on each other, but they hadn't hung out since going for coffee the morning after her chance meeting with Eli. She’d owed Damion for missing so many of his calls that morning. Rei had blamed it on the fact that she hadn't slept well the night before, claiming she must have slept through them all. Damion had taken it with a grain of salt, but she wasn't convinced that he believed her, even if it was mostly true.

  Rei glanced up at Damion now as he studied her and smiled. “Dr. Heek is good, but I won’t be seeing him for much longer.” She pulled him beside her, looping her arm through his as they began to walk. “Dad agreed to let me find someone else. Someone who won’t prescribe me those drugs.” She shivered.

  The surprise on Damion’s face was palpable, “are you sure that's a good idea?”

  Her smile held as he led her through campus and to his car. She wouldn’t let his doubt ruin her mood. Eli had contacted her; she just had to figure out his cryptic message. “Absolutely. I feel it in my bones, Damion. Those drugs are bad for me.”

  He watched her, pulling out his keys as they stopped, “but on the other side of that, when you took them, you had fewer mental breakdowns…”

  Rei shrugged, studying her fingers. Why did he seem to be so against this? She wondered briefly but out loud she said, “I also had less of myself.” She cocked her head as another realization dawned on her. “Actually, come to think of it. I haven't had an episode in almost a week….” Ever since Eli, she thought but didn't say as she met Damion’s gaze again.

  “Really?” He asked, his eyebrow raising. A shade of skepticism crept into his voice as he leaned over his car, studying her, “is there something you're not telling me, Rei?”

  She held his gaze without flinching, “of course not! I would never lie to you, Damion.” Something told her to leave Eli out of the conversation, even with Damion. She heard the car doors unlock, his eyes never moving from hers as they narrowed in suspicion.

  “Maybe, but you may not tell me something. You know you can tell me anything,” Damion’s look seared her as if he was trying to read her like one would a book. She looked away first, nodding in acknowledgement.

  “I know that.”

  Damion watched her for a moment more, before opening the driver side door and sliding into his seat. She let out a breath before climbing into the car beside him.

  …

  Detective Jackson stared at the girl through the hospital window. She was strapped into the bed with all manner of equipment surrounding her as it kept her alive. She had to be at least 17 years old, with dark skin and black hair. She was skinnier than she should be and much paler. It was as if her very life had been sucked out of her. In a way, he guessed it had been.

  They had found her in the warehouse district, not far from the city. They guessed she’d been in the warehouse they found her in for days. She’d just been standing there with a blank look in her eyes, her own filth saturating her. No drugs had been found in her blood, yet her eyes showed no awareness of anything b
efore she’d collapsed. She’d seized as they’d tried to load her into the ambulance.

  Her eyes had rolled back into her head, her arms and legs violently lashing out. His fellow officers had said it was the weirdest thing that they had ever seen. It was as if she had been possessed and moving the girl had pissed off whatever demon claimed her. Jackson didn’t know what to think from their claims.

  “Nicole Wilkins,” said a voice beside him and he glanced over at the man who had called him in. He was a good cop, a little younger than Jackson, and his name was Detective Henderson. “Reported missing when she didn't come home from school, found like this,” Henderson waved towards the glass, “a few days later. Her parents have been and gone, but they don't know much more than we do. I've set up a detail around their house though, just in case. The last person to see her was her teacher, one Mr. Fenris Lovinski.”

  “Did you question the teacher?” Jackson inquired, moving his eyes to the girl’s face again. He could feel the few days he had gone without shaving on his face as his hands clenched in his long coat pockets.

  “Yeah. The teacher said the last thing he saw of her, she was walking out of his classroom. He said she came back after school hours looking for a book she‘d left.” Detective Henderson grimaced as his light blue eyes moved studiously over the hospital room they both observed. “Whatever happened to this kid, she had no visible reason to be in a standing comatose. There were no drugs in her system that they could find either. She was clean as a whistle.

  “The doctor even said that her body is perfectly healthy outside the obvious dehydration and malnutrition. Supposedly, whatever is going on is in her head. She can’t seem to think enough to feed herself or tend to her own basic needs. Her parents state she’d been perfectly capable before. I can’t help but think...”

  Henderson paused, glancing at Jackson, eyes disturbed in a way Jackson had not seen in a while from the detective. His voice softened, “I can’t help but think something broke her mind, Jackson. I’m not sure where to begin here. I’ve seen a lot in this city, but this?” Henderson glanced back towards the window and Jackson followed his gaze to the girl.

  IV tubes carried nourishment into her body while an oxygen mask covered her face, forcing her to breathe. A catheter bag hung over the side of the bed, catching what she could not dispose of herself. “This is something entirely different than any trauma victim I’ve ever encountered. And, Jackson, that terrifies me.”

  …

  Figuring out Eli’s message had been easy enough. He’d told her once that he liked to lay on the roof of the church and listen. Whatever that meant for him, she knew that it was one thing that brought Eli peace. The rest of his cryptic message suggested that the church where they’d first had a conversation was the best place to find him.

  Finding her way again in the dark, however, made her a little nervous. How was she supposed to get up onto the roof? The first time she’d gone to the church had been on pure accident, lost in her thoughts. She could probably find it in the day, but 2200 was military time for ten o'clock at night.

  She wasn't about to wait around that part of town for that long. Rei had a feeling that Eli may not be there anyway. So she donned her coat, pulling the hood up, walked outside her building at 9:30, and hailed a cab. As she slid into the backseat, Rei told the cabbie where to go. The driver raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask any questions as they left the curb behind.

  It took about fifteen minutes to get to the church. The streets were relatively busy this time of night, but she wasn't in a rush.

  She asked the cab driver to park down the street from the church, paid him, and then walked the rest of the way. Her head tilted up towards the top of the building, looking for any sign of the hacker. She hoped she’d interpreted his message right. Rei shivered, pulling her coat tighter around her before stopping at the front doors of the old church. Then she wondered again how she was going to get onto the roof. “Here comes the fun part,” a soft voice whispered over her shoulder, barely touching her ear. Rei jumped with a start, spinning around.

  Eli braced her with one hand, his golden eyes amused as he helped her re-balance herself. Her cheeks were burning. “Fun part?” she asked, not bothering to admit how he’d startled her. He held out his hand, his lips twitching into a grin, and wiggled his fingers. Rei eyed his hand warily before smiling and wrapping her fingers around his, confident he’d take care of her. He nodded towards an alley near the church before turning and tugging her gently along. Their shoes scraped against the dirt and concrete as Eli glanced up. She followed his gaze to the building there, then the fire escape.

  “Uh,” she said, voice soft, as he released her, tugging on the old ladder to bring it down with a clang. “Don’t most buildings have roof access that doesn’t require us acting like Spider-Man?” Rei asked, her eyes roving up the building in front of them. Eli smiled at her, leaning against the ladder to hold it down. He had an eyebrow raised in a challenge as he watched her.

  Rei bit her lip, looking up again at the fire escape, before trailing her eyes to the top of the church across the alley. It wasn’t as if the ally was especially wide; in fact, it was quite narrow. If they got up far enough, they could probably jump from one building to another and land with little injury. Rei swallowed as her eyes found him again.

  “Oh, ye of little faith.” He chastised softly, his eyes twinkling, “faith is such a crucial thing.” He nodded towards the ladder again, an arm draped over a rung. “Do you have faith in me, Rei?” He never answered her question about the roof access. She remembered how he had appeared beside her a week ago. There had to be one somewhere, so why this route?

  She turned her eyes from the building in front of them back to his. Rei found that, for how little she knew Eli, she did have faith in him. He’d been there for her when not many others would have. Outside of that, she was innately comfortable around him. Rei stepped forward, finding herself smiling again as Eli gestured one arm up the ladder again. She decided to trust him. He hadn’t let her down yet.

  She began to climb.

  Eli’s soft presence followed behind her as she picked her way up each level. He was careful to keep just enough distance between them to catch her if she should slip without losing his footing. They moved quietly, letting their presence blend into their surroundings as the city came to life.

  Finally, they reached the top landing near the last window of the building, and she glanced at Eli. He nodded towards a pipe that went from the roof down through the fire escape. Rei followed the piping up with her eyes. She could see multiple places to climb it, even from here. She took a deep breath and climbed again. Rei could almost feel Eli below her as she made it to the roof, hoisting herself up and over, before sitting against the wall there.

  Taking a deep breath, Rei collected her nerves. Soon after, a soft thump announced his presence beside her. She opened her mouth to speak, but he put a finger to his lips, his smile broad as he tried not to chuckle. She heard it then, a rustling on the roof, human noises that shouldn’t have been there. She cringed and he held out his hand for her again.

  Slowly, they moved away from what Rei assumed was a couple, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment for them. He pulled her to the wall of the roof a little way down from where they had been and nodded over the side. She glanced over and saw a small window balcony below them. The distance between the balcony and the roof was around five feet, from what Rei could judge in the darkness. Was he seriously expecting her to jump?

  She lowered herself back down beside Eli, eyes wide as she clutched the railing of the wall before her. Rei was terrified of falling from this height, but Eli’s eyes met hers in another challenge. Do you have faith in me Rei? they asked her. She narrowed her eyes and nodded. He grinned and leapt over the ledge in silence. She closed her eyes and rose, then placing both hands on the wall, vaulted over after him.

  Strong hands caught her around the waist in midair and pulled her close before she could mov
e too far from the balcony. His breath was warm in her ear as he whispered, “I have made this crossing every night since I got here at least once. Are you ready?” He nodded up, and she saw it, a small line of wire above them from one building to the next, hidden in the darkness. A zip line, she thought, from the window to the roof of the church.

  She looked up at him and nodded once, and he turned her towards the church. Eli strapped a harness around her, buckling and tightening it, before guiding her hands up to a device above her. When had he set this all up? Or had the line always been there?

  It looked like it was supposed to be a laundry line, but Eli had modified it. Was this his apartment behind them? She’d thought he lived in the church with the rest of the homeless. But it made sense that he would have a place of his own, or at the very least multiple places to hole up in when necessary. She could tell that the line was secure enough to hold her weight. The end was unmoving somewhere on the roof of the church across and a few stories below them. “Don’t think too much about it. Just go,” he released her.

  She took a deep breath and stepped out over the alley, then let her weight drop into the halter he’d strapped her in. It was the ultimate faith fall, and she took it with no second thoughts.

  9

  Detective Jackson studied the phone before setting it in its cradle and glancing up. Agent Montoya was watching him with her back against his desk. They had pulled together what they could of their mutual evidence between Arachnid and the Recluse. There had been a lot to pull from both sides, although some of it Jackson couldn’t see with it being an active investigation.

  However, even with the little they had been able to lay side-by-side, Jackson had Montoya convinced that they were undeniably related. They had been actively investigating with little breaks in between for the last few days. They went back and forth from the FBI field office to the NYPD, which was where they were now. It was about ten o’clock at night.