Locke opened the door once they landed in the parking spot in Soran Leifer on Weast Markets. He stepped out with Brillian behind and walked to the lift. Pushed the button on the broken interface for down. The doors scraped open after the ding of arrival. They stepped inside. Brillian seemed to enjoy the pissy dub dishwasher music. Once they landed, they made their way up the street populated with commuters, street workers, doxies doing shopping with obvious guns on their persons and more caution than usual. At each alley and corner, a few men from Black Cloud, Mountain Eagle, Kiisiner and surprisingly Snow Maiden hung around. The groups observed each other with weapons clutched. Gangs being this close in one area indicated a deal was going down nearby. Greenthorne was in Niji's pocket, so he'd be messing with Niji's interests here, where doxies were involved. But who brought all of these forces together and why was it happening now? Too much to be a coincidence.
He walked a couple blocks up the street and turned down Maple Alley, where less well-off shops could survive on the black market and red light sales. The place smelled lightly of piss and sex, but they at least had some hired muscle stood outside. Further up the wet floor of the alley, they passed a few blocked drains and reached the American-imported cinderblock building of Club Ibu.
"Stay close, don't wander off. I can't have you killing anyone on this job."
"Yes, sir."
Her small hand wrapped around his own with a grip strength that surprised him. The smell of piss had vanished due to the air unit outside the brothel. The bouncers out front signalled for them to approach, both wore digis that ran a scan over them. When the gun was questioned, Locke showed his badge.
"From Niji?" one of them asked.
"Yes." he curtly replied.
"Nice piece of ass." The bouncer glanced at Brillian, surprised she gave no reaction, and he stepped aside for them to pass. Locke scanned his card for a friendly entry fee of ten instead of twenty-five. Through the automated security doors, they stepped into the sound of dark, sensual R&B and the smell of alcohol in the air. They walked across the artificial wood floor to the bar, around a group of people obsessing over a doxy, and noted that a few obvious businessmen around the restaurant floor enjoyed the company of other doxies while they ate lunch.
The bartender gave him a glare reserved for feds.
"Here on business, preg-show." Locke placed a few Wuyas on the bar.
"For this? You punish Reignpainters like that big man?"
Locke sat on a barstool. "She's not for sale."
"Then you want some doxy this early? Shit. You're more horny than Fushee."
"Fushee?" Fuscian?
"Yeah, big Asian fella, lamppost. Horny as hell, loves the young ones we get in." He smirked, "Go on, back over there, you get your first free as TPSB."
"Young ones?"
"Yeah, about your girl's age there."
Locke's lips thinned to a line, and he shook his head, "Nah, milfs are better."
"My man!" the bartender poured a neat Mountaineer vodka, "Someone who understands the appeal of the mature body."
Locke nodded, "Someone named Greenthorne came here?"
"Yeah, he messed around here a few times, but he loved being over in Orlaith, Ridgeway." he shrugged.
Locke took a sip of the vodka, "Not having more than that on the job."
"Suit yourself, I'll fall on my sword." The bartender downed the drink. "You wanna get some?"
"Nah. Not gonna intrude on my boss's favourite spot without explicit permission." He stood up, and they shook firm hands. He led Brillian back out of the bar and to the front, he lit another cigarette and mildly coughed. He continued his way up the alley where a few hooded dickheads crowded around them and drew knives. One of them had a gun.
"Give up the girl," they said.
"You know she's a Reignpainter and I'm a Warden." he lost a cloud of smoke, "Walk away now, kids, and we can go about our business in peace."
Brillian clicked her knuckles.
"Girl's shook, kyo. Just give 'er up and we can walk away clean." he raised his gun.
"Come on lads, she's a Reignpainter from the TPSB. You know how this goes, you know the name Dubchek? Ruruen? Heinrich? Johan Arno?"
They continued to close in around Locke and Brillian. Knives brandished, gun turned sideways.
Locke made a final effort, "You lads know the name Fushee?"
One of them shouted, "Bullshit! He ain't with Fushee!"
"I'm here on his orders, I'm looking for another TPSB officer who made a fuckup."
"Shut the fuck up and give us the bitch."
Brillian severed the thug's leg with an axe.
"Fuck!"
"GET HER!"
A thin wire of orange spun around them at knee height. Expanded in a flash and sliced them from the middle of their knees down. Brillian had a smile in her eyes.
Locke called an ambulance and left a few hundred Wuyas on the ground behind him. Brillian hissed, but he grabbed her by her hand and dragged her away.
Brillian tapped her foot in the AV he could see the words boil in her skull.
"You gonna say something?"
"We should betray them," she said, "I've been seeing a man in my dreams who can help us."
"Is he in Ludari?"
"No."
"Who is he?"
"I don't know..." she stared out the window.
"So you want me to fly to some other country with you and toss my career in the dump?" he sighed. "Stay quiet and ease off the killing," he dialled Niji.
His long face appeared on the holo, "Big Locke, done already?"
"Went to Ibu's, some thugs tried to nap Brillian."
"Yeah, I got the call from the ambulance services. Shame that happened, brez." Niji said casually, "Got anything on Greenthorne?"
"He was in the area messing with some girls, but he's usually over in Orlaith."
"Didn't interrogate?"
"You wouldn't go to a place without a strict NDA or privacy policy." Locke started the engine.
Niji smirked, "All ice. Glad I chose the right officer. Contact me when you make progress, I'll look into those thugs."
"He last appeared at Ibu's Bar. You look into that?"
"If that was the answer, I wouldn't have called you in. Someone's fucking up our case, which means Greenthorne uncovered something deep."
Locke nodded, "I'm gonna need more cigarettes."
Niji laughed, "And a shitload of caffeine pills for me."
Niji shut the holo off.
Locke set a course for Ridgeway in Orlaith Hay. The AV tilted to the side in chain of power flickers, then a two-second outage. Locke growled under his breath about the urban legend that refused to be fiction.
"The Yan..." Brillian whispered, "He's active again."
"He's a corporate Reignpainter, no fighting." Locke dragged them back on course. He hoped this legend himself, who supposedly was the most powerful Reignpainter despite that title constantly being in flux, was hunting Rebirthers. Kill them all and kill them good.
"You shouldn't smoke that much," she said, "Your lungs are looking a bit worse."
Locke gave her a hard stare, "X-ray vision?"
She looked out the window, her cheeks flushed. "Sorry."
He landed the AV on a rooftop pad of a high-end car park building. Got out with Brillian and locked it down. Took a deep breath, smelled a distinct crimson iron scent in the air, exhaled through his mouth, and reached for a cigarette but decided against it. He doubted the kid would lie, whatever merit there was there... he still felt that strange gravity that tugged his mind and made him want to help her. The lift was marked out of order, and the maintenance crew cussed ceaselessly as they worked. Looked at him with a glare that relented.
"Some fuckin' deadshit butchered the thing this morning, we're on our day off."
That caught his attention, "Cameras around here?"
"All fucked. Since last week, snowed but no EMP."
That sounded too familiar. He remembered the snowed plains of The Sutherlands. "We'll look into it."
They went down the stairs and reached street level. Clean, much cleaner than bloody Oriphi. The pavement wasn't garnished with ghetto mosaics of old chewing gum. The commercial Oso Bend, shops lined both sides of the street from high-end corporate brands to Alice Akebi's personal brand, inspired by her albums and stage clothing. Cars were forbidden on the market walkway except for TPSB, TA, and high-end corpo, which included stage-floats, celeb trucks, and verified celebrity vehicles either on tour or for auction.
Promoters and holograms of them yabbled, danced, and played videos for attention, best words and manners, only safe for works before nine. Sometimes with aggressive marketing and the rare breakout of violence between crims who were hollow enough to want to rep a company beyond just the shit pay to stand guard outdoors. People flowed in and out of shops. The street wasn't as crowded as Oriphi's slum markets, but with the higher prices, profits were much better. Employees gave their best smiles to customers, waiting staff played up the peremptory kindness, and all the ladies were given mandatory makeup paid for by the companies. Glows, highlighters and tints. Haircuts, manicures, pedicures, the full works to make the employee into the ideal presentation doll, down to deciding their diets. Big corporations paid the best in retail and did their best to make you into a prettied-up darling to plug features into.
He took Brillian at a brisk walk through the street, and a few heads turned at the sight of her gothic look. He met those heads with a cold stare that turned them away. Crossed over the Oso Bend. They crossed two streets and walked down Yuffen Road, crossed again to Lowic Kale, a known bar that was a whorehouse. They made to frisk, but he said hello with his badge and went inside. Clean air, no smoking allowed, which indicated the owner disliked cigarettes and didn't like money. A few doxies who idled by the door chattered and glanced his way then away once they realised the Warden Reignpainter dynamic. He passed under the dry neon yellow sign where another doxy slept at a table.
He looked around the industrial bar, looking around for Chahof, but couldn't find the half Mex half Israeli features on any woman around.
"You're back?" another doxy asked. He couldn't remember her name. "It's me, "Leana, you don't remember?"
"I have a lot on my head," he replied, "Where's Cha?"
"She moved on to Silverwater, didn't want to take part in the preg fetish stuff here. And Gabriella said she'd make use of her services for other shit." She sat down on a nearby chair. "Buy you a drink?"
"I'm not here for—"
"You need to relax, Speedy, 'sides I'm not into your type. You're still in love with a whore." She slapped a nicotine patch on and stuck a pack of tobacco gum in his direction.
He sat opposite her, Brillian stood by them, and watched everyone in the room. "Know a guy called Greenthorne?"
"Take the gum, asshole."
"Thank you, sweet cheeks." he said drily.
"It sounds so damn awkward when you Brits say that," she chuckled, "Yeah, I fucked him a couple times, he was shit in bed."
"Got any info, what he talked about, where he was going, who he was after?"
Her platinum blonde hair shimmered in the cold fluorescents as she shook her head, "He only ever muttered about some girl called Grashaena while we banged."
Brillian tensed.
"Who is Grashaena?"
Brillian placed a small hand on his shoulder, "Stop talking about this or they'll get rid of you."
Leana's eyes went from one of them to the other, "Information I shouldn't have."
Brillian ruefully nodded.
"Well, he was also after some guy who got caught up in some business with criminals who phile tech. Like the Skullsphere people, criminals who are just fat geeks who are so good they get away with it." She stood up, "This convo never happened, I'd like to enjoy my work now, and seeing you makes me laugh."
"Nice seeing you again," he stood up, and turned to leave.
"Did you do it with her?" Brillian asked.
He pushed the door open and set them at a hard pace to the next spot. On their way back to the AV, Brillian squeezed Locke's arm and asked the same question again.
"Yes." he relented. "That's what adults do."
"I'm not a stupid child."
"You're a ch-"
"Just listen to me," she said, "I just didn't wanna make assumptions."
"What's your point?"
"She's a good person." Brillian said, "She wants to be saved."
"That's too bad."
"She had some hope you'd take her away when she said that girl's name."
They passed a Polish cafe, crossed the street another two buildings down and back up the stairs to the AV. Once they were inside, he couldn't help but notice Brillian's calm stare. That prospecting information gathering stare she had threw him off.
"What are you doing?"
She looked away.
They rode to Yuffen Road and parked on top of Silverwater Shroud. The second the door opened, he was met by a familiar head of grey hair that belonged to a face too young to have it. The long nose, the tanned skin, grey eyes, and full lips that belonged to Chahof's constant death stare.
He froze when he saw her, almost wished he could press rewind on the year and fast forward on the minutes.
"What do you want, dick?" Her typical long red nails clicked, white powder around the edges.
"Are you using again?"
"None of your fucking business," she snapped. Her expression grew even darker. "A child?"
"Reignpainter, she's my bodyguard."
"What do you want here?" she stepped aside.
"I need to ask you questions about Greenthorne."
Her expression softened. "You want sex or information?"
The whiplash made him light a cigarette, and he walked over to her perfect hourglass figure and handed her one.
She instead placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "For old time's sake, cunt." and left her lips open a crack. He placed a cigarette between her plump red lips and lit it. "My room, now."
He wanted to ask if she was still active, but made a better choice. She still smoked like royalty, smelled like the countryside, and talked street tomboy. An urban flower in a concrete jungle.
They passed by the upper room's security without a stare or glare from the Ricks they had guarding the door. She muttered something that sounded Polish to one of the waitresses, who promptly ran downstairs as they crossed the upper walkway that looked over the club. Locke felt something prick at the back of his neck, eyes from downstairs, a witch hidden in the crowd of men and women...
"Over here, you didn't forget, did you, Sanceru?" She opened another staircase behind a blast door.
"Should I wait outside?" Brillian asked.
"No," she said, "The Mistress said she wants you out of sight so she can come see both of you later."
Chahof sashayed up the stairs and all the way to her room at the back of the hall behind more security doors. Girls in Silverwater had two rooms, one for the customers, one for the VIPs, personal interests, and themselves. But Chahof was restricted to one under similar privilege to Mika. And he was up here now. Her room was dimly lit, by Chahof's personality everything was placed perfectly. A large lamp, ornate with Greek carved designs that was too expensive for its own good, cast a pool of light over a large round table. The lights spaced far apart on the ceiling each cast a silver light when she turned them on, which gave the room a twilight feel. The initial impression of her room had him take his shoes off before he stepped onto the fluffy carpet. Scents flowed from a diffuser plugged into a tank behind the wall, a simulated mixture of country fields, bloody explained her countryside smell, that did. She had two sofas, one that doubled as a bed, a dining table in another cut-off section with its own kitchen. A double large king size bed and a holo with two computers, one of which was a server...
"Chahof, did you-"
"Shut up," she said, "The room's isolated, I already heard from lil' Leana." She looked at Brillian, who stood awkwardly with her boots on, "You can take those off and come over here." she said gently.
Brillian shook her head and looked to the right.
"Right... he ever yap about me, kid?"
"No." Brillian said.
"She's not interested."
Brillian stuck a finger in his direction and nodded approvingly.
"You dogs." Chahof inhaled the last of her cigarette and dropped it in an ashtray. "So... what do you wanna know about dumb Greenie homeslice?"
"Any girls here tell stories?"
"Yeah." She put her feet up on the table, "This guy couldn't lick or kiss a fish in a crack pipe, they hated it. But he paid well, and small dicks are easy to deal with for 'em, so they took him on. Cut to sex."
"Need more than that."
"He talked about that girl a bit and how he'd get his hands on her." She shrugged, "Outside o' that, he was investigating some weird shit guys had gotten into."
"What weird shit?"
"Look, Sanceru," she sat up and gave him a hard stare, "There's shit I can't tell you, but I can tell you to get outta here or at least quit the TPSB."
"I'm not stopping."
"Why?" Chahof stood up and walked over to her bar, took out a bottle of wine. "Because of your 'justice?'"
"Because it's the right thing to do," he said, "Because people are going to die if this shit gets out of hand even further."
"And who do you serve, who really?"
"You and every other citizen," he said, "I'm trying to make a change, Cha. I'm trying to improve things now."
"Your mission," she poured herself red wine, left the bottle on the counter, and carried the glass with her to the back door. "You wait here, get some rest. When I come back, you leave with or without a lead and don't come back unless you're dying or quitting. Bye." She shut the door quietly behind her.
"She's pretty," Brillian said.
"What do kids know about that?" he went over to the bottle of wine and took a gulp of it.
"You could listen to her, settle down, marry her."
"Go to sleep." he walked over to the bed and sat down in the chair beside it.
Locke stared out through heavy snow, and the goggles dimmed the sunlight. Above him the clouds blossomed into existence under the anomalous bubble and rose up beyond sight again. Locke, across the Sutherland's snowy plains, still felt the cold despite the scarf and goggles as the temperature took another drop. He had his goggles zoom in on the forest a few miles away, then back out.
"Yo, Big San," Hayne called, "Who'd you think the strongest Tengu is?"
"None of our business, mate," he replied, "Probably a misleading thing they use. Say he or she is the strongest when they're the weakest."
"Makes sense, makes sense. But what if they just wanted to flex?"
"Then if we could hear TA comin' for us, we wouldn't be the target."
"Yo, what the fuck is that!?" Zach pointed to the right.
A girl walked through their camp past all the guards and tank crews. She skipped and hopped by them like a pixie in her bloody world.
Locke spasmed awake in a cold sweat when he saw her emerald green eyes bore into him. He grabbed a cigarette- there was a pack of cigars left on the table. He popped the Castletown pack and clenched the fat roll with his teeth. Flicked the trigger on the lighter over and over to only sparks.
"Fucking thing..." he grunted.
He leaned back in the chair and stared at the porcelain ceiling. A flash of yellow flicked by his eyes, and the cigar was lit. He watched the smoke lift to the ceiling with the vague impressions of the dream, and into a small vent he hadn't noticed before. Slowly through the cigar's burn, he felt the tiredness in his head fall away like old scabs until he lowered his head to spot Brillian on the sofa. She brushed her hair with rumination in her eyes.
"Sleep well?" she said without looking.
He took a long drag off the cigar. "Yeah... You?" he tapped the ash off the edge of the cigar.
She nodded.
"We'll head back to my place tonight, you and Yama can have fun again."
Brillian abruptly stood up, "Three people are coming, two of them touched by a witch. Chahof is the third."
The back door unlocked and opened. Chahof stepped in first, and a chef and a doxy followed behind. He almost went soft in the head at how gorgeous Chahof was, a real glamour girl that he could barely resist. The purity of her behind her layers, the makeup, the face that was better off without it, and under the filth she forced herself to live in.
"Sleep well?"
It sounded like a question, but from Chahof to him it wasn't one.
She nodded to the chef, who walked back to the door and pulled a trolley with food on it into the room.
"Kyo, this case is really dangerous, we've had girls go missing over it." Ellen said, "You sure?"
"He's sure." Cha said dismissively, "Get on with it."
"Alright, so I know this girl, Lucy, she went and got herself pregnant down in Shurin," she said, "I think we shouldn't solve it, you know? Stop the commodification of kids. At this point, some of the pimps don't be givin' us a choice because most of those kids become their new doxies... or get sold off, or worse."
"I'm after Greenthorne."
He heard Cha mutter something.
"You're involved in this life, too?" Ellen raised her eyebrows, "Cha?"
"He's not, not anymore. He's just a cop with a pet Reignpainter dog."
"Shurin, down in the wreckies is where lots of girls vanish, the club there, Vantara is a suspect along with Kutira, you know the anomaly place." Ellen said, "I agree with Cha, you should just quit and be a merc."
"No." he said, "Anything else?"
"Nothing we're allowed to tell you 'cuz o' your rank." Ellen stole a few chips from the bowl and left the room.
"Stop pretending to be justice." Cha waved the chef off with a fan, he left behind Ellen. "Eat your breakfast and get outta my sight."
"What's got you so bitter?"
"With a powerhouse like her, you can leave and almost nobody can stop you," she said, "There's groups coming from foreign factions, when they get here they're gonna turn this place upside down, Locke. Shit's gonna be ramping up because something in the city is more wrong the the syndicates of crime all over."
"What do you mean?"
She snapped her cigarette and whispered, "I'm tired, I'm going to bed. Eat and get out."