by Romi Hart
Colonel Weeks pointed at his paper. “Our scouts located a group of whores downtown. They operate out of one of our brothels: the Georgia Peach. The madam caught them questioning some New Breed girls about the services they provide. Upon further investigation, she discovered these girls weren’t actually working at all. They were going around canvassing sex workers of every sexual orientation and gender identity in the district. They were asking a lot of detailed questions about exactly how they performed their functions. They were trying to figure out if any of these workers used paranormal abilities to service their clients.”
Riley grinned in spite of herself. “Hey, you couldn’t blame them if they were. I say more power to ‘em for getting some advantage over the competition.”
The Colonel looked up to cast a withering scowl at her. “Is that all you can contribute to this discussion, Lieutenant?”
She bowed her head, but she barely succeeded in wiping the grin off her face. “Sorry, Sir.”
“The madam lifted these girls’ fingerprints from glasses and cutlery and makeup tubes at the brothel. We discovered that, yes, in fact, all six of these women worked for the military. They all have high security clearances with multiple levels of encryption around their service records.”
Riley frowned. “How did you run their prints and records if you don’t have computers?”
Colonel Weeks’s upper lip curled, but Riley couldn’t call that expression a smile. It reminded her of a snarl. “We have friends in key places. We have New Breed working at the DMV who run fingerprint checks when we need them. We also have people who work in unobtrusive positions at banks and the Police department. We can get the information we need when we need it.”
Victor cut in. “So you found these six women. What are you going to do with them?”
“The madam is keeping them under observation. She reprimanded the girls for not doing their job and threatened to throw them out if they didn’t bring in their quotas. That should straighten them out pretty quick. They don’t want to spoil their cover and, up until now, they’ve gotten away with not blowing a few dozen guys a day. They’ll have their hands and mouths full from now on. They won’t have time to talk to anyone.”
Riley blushed at the picture he painted. She could just imagine six government operatives getting into a bind like that. She thanked her lucky stars she wasn’t one of them. “Did the madam find out if they reported anything? Did they learn if any of the other sex workers were using paranormal abilities?”
“We don’t know,” Colonel Weeks replied. “They say they didn’t—at least, they deny they were doing anything of the sort. They claim it was all innocent curiosity and they were just trying to make friends. They won’t say anything about New Breed or mutants or anything and neither will the madam or the other workers. As far as they’re concerned, there’s no such thing as mutants so we can’t know if they reported anything.”
“We should act as if they did,” Riley remarked. “If we really want to protect Anarock, we should assume they found out something incriminating and it’s already gone up the chain of command. We should assume the military knows everything there is to know about us.”
Colonel Weeks straightened up. “That’s exactly right, Lieutenant. That’s exactly what we’re going to assume.” He crossed to his display board and pointed to a map of the neighborhood. “We’re posting some of our defense squadrons here and here.”
“Those are civilian locations, Sir,” Riley added. “The first one is a carnival and the second one is a live music club.”
“I’m well aware of that, Lieutenant. What better place to hide New Breed in plain sight? Victor, I’m assigning you to Squadron 5 here at the club. Lieutenant Strickland, I’m assigning you here.”
He pointed to an intersection Riley knew only too well. She gulped before she dared to speak. “That’s the Red Light district, Sir. You’re not seriously suggesting I….”
“Of course not, Lieutenant. Besides….” He cast a glance at her clothes. “I don’t think you’d pass for a working girl, anyway. I want you to take a first aid kit and go talk to the girls. I want you to pose as a public health nurse and find out if any of our girls have noticed any military men moving into the area. If the brass planted spies in the Red Light district, they’ll move their advance operatives there, too.”
“How will the girls know if their customers are military?”
He peeled back his lip one more time in that toothy snarl of his. “They know. You might not, but they do. Just ask them.”
“How will I know if the girls are New Breed?”
“I’m sending one of our people with you. She has a medical background, so she can help you with that side of your cover, but she has no military training. She’s…. well, she’s kind of what you would call innocent. She doesn’t have any combat training and you obviously do. If anything goes down out there, I don’t trust her to get herself out of it. That’s what I need you for.”
Riley’s shoulders slumped. “Oh. I understand.”
“I’m counting on you, Lieutenant,” he barked. “We need that information and you’re the only one who can get it for us.”
“I understand, Sir. I’ll do my best.”
The Colonel dropped his chin once. “As you were, Lieutenant. Good luck.”
Riley turned away in deep thought. How could she question a bunch of whores about their customers? She would have walked away, but Victor stopped her.
He whispered low. “Be careful out there. If you need anything, I’ll only be a few blocks away. You come and find me at the club.”
She could only nod. She had no idea how to complete this task or even where to begin. She exited the war room in a daze and headed for the exit. She got halfway down the corridor when a young girl came tripping toward her. “Hi! You must be Riley. Are you ready to go?”
Riley blinked at her. “I…. I guess so.”
“I’m Malia Weaver. Colonel Weeks assigned me to you this morning.”
Riley cleared her head to study the girl. So this was the medical officer who would accompany her to the Red Light district. The girl barely came up to Riley’s chest. Her silken mouse-blonde hair hung straight down her back and shoulders. Horizontal bangs brushed her eyebrows, but her deep green eyes sparkled with some hidden secret.
“Weaver?” Riley remarked. “Are you related to Isaac?”
“Yes!” Malia hopped off the ground. “He’s my brother. He told us all about what you did in the wilderness. You must be incredibly brave.”
Riley looked away. “Either that or incredibly stupid. One or the other.”
Malia laughed out loud. “I know I’m gonna like you. Let’s get going.”
She took her place at Riley’s side and the two women left the building. Jules appeared at the gate as suddenly as he did the last time and let them through.
Riley cast a glance over her shoulder after he vanished again. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”
Malia laughed again. Her voice sounded strange, but maybe Riley just wasn’t used to hearing these people laugh with such uninhibited mirth. “You’re gonna see a lot stranger things than that. Jules never bothers anybody except that he’s always popping up when you least expect him. Some of the New Breed around here have even more startling abilities.”
Riley nodded. “I’ll bet they do. I didn’t know what to think when I first met Colonel Weeks.”
Malia’s smile evaporated. “You do NOT want to mess with that guy. He can be terrible when he gets really mad.”
“I can see that.”
Riley and Malia talked all the way to the Red Light district, but when she saw the first working girls lounging against light posts, Riley went quiet. She murmured low in Malia’s ear. “Who should we talk to first?”
Malia replied in a whisper. She pointed her chin at a nearby corner. “That’s Luna Kehoe. We can talk to her.”
“Kehoe?” Riley repeated. “Is she related to Levi?”
&
nbsp; Malia nodded. Her eyes widened and she lowered her voice even further if that was possible. “She’s his sister. You want to be careful who you talk to about those two.”
“Why?” Riley asked. “Levi seemed really nice.”
“He is and so is Luna. They’re just really powerful and they belong to NightRage.”
“What’s that?” Riley hated to ask.
“The NightRage Crest. It’s another house Crest of Anarock, but it’s not like the Prometheus Crest. They’re magic wielders and they’re kind of…. you know, volatile. You can never know what they’ll do. Levi’s all right. You can always count on him.”
“What about Luna?” Riley glanced toward the woman. “What’s she doing out here?”
Malia checked over her shoulder at nothing. “She had some problems early in life. People don’t talk about it, but she wound up on the street. She’s…..I don’t know how to describe it. She’s just…. a little off. Be careful around her and whatever you do, don’t mention Levi.”
“Why?” Riley hissed.
Malia chopped her hand through the air to cut Riley off. Before Riley could ask any more questions, Malia hurried away and approached the streetwalker.
When Riley caught up with her, she found Malia talking to a rake-thin girl with shiny black hair. Her sharp features would have been beautiful except for the black circles under her eyes. If Riley didn’t already know Luna and her brother were Choctaw, the slant of her eyes and the cut of her cheekbones would have given it away.
She dragged on a cigarette and blew the smoke in Malia’s face. When she did, Riley noticed black bruises and festering sores on her arms and wrists. “I already told that shithead pimp of mine everything I know,” Luna rasped. “I got nothing more to say to you scabs.”
Malia only smiled at her. “Do you know if Felix rented out that apartment upstairs from the speakeasy? It’s been vacant for months.”
“How the fuck should I know what Felix did or didn’t do?” Luna succumbed to a fit of coughing. She spat a wad of greenish phlegm on the sidewalk before taking another drag off her cigarette. “You ask Felix about his business. I don’t want to get my head knocked off. I got enough problems as it is.”
“Okay,” Malia breezed. “We’ll ask Felix. Do you know where we can find him?”
“How the fuck should I know?”
Malia’s smile broadened. “You know, Luna, Cameron Griffin offers a reward for information on any military penetrating Anarock. If you told him what you know, he might even let you into the Prometheus Crest.”
For the first time, Luna raised her bleary eyes to the young girl’s face. She scowled over her cigarette. “Don’t you come around here talking to me about the god damned Prometheus Crest.”
“Okay. I won’t.” Malia turned away. “Thanks, Luna.”
Riley hustled after her. “Well, that was a waste of time.”
“Not at all,” Malia returned. “It was great.”
“How do you figure? She didn’t tell us anything.”
“She told us in her own way. Come on.”
Malia led her through the Red Light district, but she showed no sign of questioning the other prostitutes. Riley looked around. “Where are going?”
“We’re going to check if Felix Tennant rented his apartment.”
“How can we do that if we don’t know where to find him?”
“Oh, we don’t want to see Felix,” Malia told her. “He’s dangerous. You don’t want to go near him, but we don’t need to go near him to check if he rented the apartment. We can just go straight there.”
“Well, how do you know he won’t be at the apartment?”
Malia cracked a wicked grin and tossed her hair. “He won’t be. If he was, Luna wouldn’t have said she didn’t know where he was. She doesn’t know where he is because he’s not in the neighborhood. He’s somewhere else.”
“What if she’s lying?”
“She isn’t.” Malia got serious and faced front. “I can always tell when NightRage are lying.”
“How?”
“You know Isaac’s a puma, don’t you?” Riley nodded. “All the Weavers are cat shifters. I’m a Manx. I can always tell when someone’s lying. I can hear their heart rate change. It works every time. Maybe that’s why Colonel Weeks assigned me to this position.”
She stuck out her arm. Riley ran into it before she realized Malia was trying to stop her. “This is it. This is the speakeasy.”
“Speakeasy!” Riley snorted. “I didn’t think anybody used that word anymore.”
Malia didn’t answer. When Riley checked what she was looking at, she realized there couldn’t be a better name for the establishment in question.
No windows opened on the ground floor. A huge Asian sumo wrestler-type crossed his tree-trunk arms in front of a door painted solid black. While Riley watched, a white man approached him and they exchanged words.
Without any sign from the big bouncer, the mail slot jiggled and a voice whispered from inside. The bouncer opened the door and let the person in.
Only after he shut the door did Riley remember that the customer. He was a blocky, buzz-cut man with rounded, muscular shoulders and a squarish jawline. He wore crisp khaki pants and a short-sleeved, button-down shirt. He had OFF-DUTY MILITARY written all over him.
White lace curtains fluttered from the building’s second-floor windows. Female laughter and jumpy dance music issued from inside, along with several male voices talking and shouting.
“You see?” Malia whispered. “He did rent it out.”
Riley blinked at the scene. “Are you telling me a bunch of military guys rented that apartment so they could be close to Anarock when the time came to….” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Malia turned away. “We should get back to the girls.”
Riley grabbed her. “Wait, Malia! We have to report this. We have to go back to Ogru-Kuche and tell Colonel Weeks. We have to tell him that we confirmed his suspicion that the military is preparing to invade.”
Malia shook her head. “He didn’t order us to do that. He only ordered us to question the girls. That’s what we should do.”
She started to leave again. Riley lunged at her in a panic. “Wait, Malia! What’s the point of questioning the girls when we already found out the crucial piece of information the Colonel sent us here to get? We can’t sit on this. We have to go back.”
Malia broke away. All her friendly cheerfulness evaporated in a heartbeat. “If you want to disobey a direct order, you go right ahead. I’m going to do the job I was ordered to do.”
21
Victor took a tour of the club. The band played on the stage even at eleven o’clock in the morning. The rocking Zydeco music floated through the door and made passersby stop and listen.
He wandered to the entrance and took a look outside. He didn’t like being apart from Riley, but orders were orders. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary beyond a few random New Breed hanging around.
The band’s accordion player, for instance, sat on a large square box resembling an instrument case. The man’s shirt draped over the top to conceal what might have been tentacles. The box hid them from the untrained eye so he just looked like a dumpy old man playing the accordion.
Another guy slouched against the building’s outer wall. He flicked his cigarette ash into the gutter with one hand, but he hugged his other arm clasped over his stomach to hide something. Every now and then, he loosened his stance and Victor spotted a flash of light coming from under the man’s shirt.
Victor surveyed the establishment one more time. A dozen normal-looking guys sat at the bar eating fried okra and joking with the bartender. Lincoln Manning raised his beer glass and took a sip. When he caught Victor checking him out, he elevated it with a questioning arch to his eyebrow.
Victor shook his head and turned away. Lincoln could drink all day and never get drunk. Victor had to be more careful especially on assignment like this.
Nothing
was going on inside the bar or outside it, so he ventured onto the sidewalk to get some fresh air. He sauntered to the corner, but when he turned to come back, he froze.
Alexa Weeks approached him from another direction. None of the other guys could see her. He braced himself for the inevitable. She sidled up to him with a honeyed smile on her face. “Well, hello there.”
“What are you doing here, Alexa?” he growled through locked jaws. “Don’t you know this is fit to be a warzone?”
She feigned a surprised look around. “It is? It looks peaceful enough to me.”
“You shouldn’t be here. Go back to Ogru-Kuche.”
She advanced until she stood right under his nose. “But I came all this way to see you. Don’t send me back. I never get to see you anymore.”
She purred with a disarming smile lighting up her features. On any other day, that smile would have told him all he really needed to know. Now it turned his stomach. “You know I don’t want to see you anymore. I’m with Riley now.”
“Aw.” She waved her hand. “Don’t talk to me about Riley. She don’t mean nothing.”
“She means a lot more than you think, but you won’t listen to me even if I tell you that. Just get out of here. The Colonel will be pissed if he finds out you came down here.”
She jumped at him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Don’t leave! Come on. Just talk to me for a minute. What harm can that do? Riley’s not here. Just talk to me.”
She turned him around to face her. He ground his teeth. He didn’t want to make this any more unpleasant than it already was. “I don’t want to talk to you. How many times do I have to tell you? It’s over between us—not that there was ever anything going on. We had a good time and now it’s over.”
“Come on, Victor,” she breathed. “You know it was a lot more than that. We could be great together. What do you think you can accomplish with that piece of trash? Huh? She can’t ever make you a good wife. You need someone as powerful as you.”