Feargus

  Days Until Rhian Returns: 6

  Crew and Company Placement:

  With me ? Adeline

  The base ? Michael, Strauss, Evelyn, Alex, Peter, Teeth

  The lair ? Rhian, Rhydian, Riz, Bells, Sebastian(?)

  Man-cave/old theatre ? Zack, Jakob

  Everywhere ? Everleigh

  Nothing like sorting out what to do with a corpse to cap off a great night, am I right?

  Before straightening out, Adeline cleaned her knife on the dead stranger’s pants, and then she stuffed it back into her coat. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought she’d done this before. But I could tell: the lass wasn’t processing yet; she was functioning. And as much as I was ready to be there for her when her brain finally caught up with her body, I really needed her to stay like that for a minute or ten.

  The fastest and most obvious course of disposal would be the age old paperweight method—weigh him down, dump in the sea. But I wanted to examine the fellow first, and doing that in the middle of an alley with dawn at our heels wouldn’t work.

  “You all right to keep moving?” I asked.

  Adeline nodded quickly, and I nodded, too.

  “Come on, then,” I said. “I have an idea.”

  After hoisting the lad over my shoulder, we scurried through the back alleys we’d both become familiar with. We went around the side of The Steel Needle.

  “Can you hold him?” I asked.

  Adeline nodded again.

  So, I transferred the body to her while I made my way through to the front. I glanced up at the crooked, snowy sign hanging above the flower shop, took a deep breath and released it slowly while I worked the lock open. It was an easy pick, and I had the knack already considering I’d broken in once before to steal some flowers for Zack.

  When the door was unlocked, I waved Adeline around the corner, and we hurried inside, immediately locking the door behind us.

  Like most shops in Jaska, the flower shop had its share of stained glass windows, but the glass for the empty flower displays were clear, so certain parts of the shop were exposed. While she was still carrying the dead, I asked Adeline to wait at the top of the stairs, out of sight, while I went down to the cellar to check things out.

  As much as I’d been itching for an update, with Jakob around, I hadn’t had the chance to ask Zack about Florea, so I had no idea what to expect in the basement. Except, if anyone knew how to keep someone contained, it was Zack. And if there was ever a time I needed to hold it together, it was right about then.

  The surprise in the alley had sobered me up right quick, so after traveling down the stairs and reaching the door at the end of the short corridor, I took a sip of Hocks from my flask. I felt the chill coming through the cracks while I worked. And while the locks leading into the cellar room looked new, and were a lot more complex than the one on the front door, I managed.

  When I entered the room, I hadn’t realized my eyes were closed until I had to open them to see.

  The space was filled with a frosty haze, making it almost painful to breathe. The walls were still frozen solid, icicles still hanging from every corner and from every shelf. The flowers that had been preserved in ice were still cold and frosted over, but they looked sad and colourless sitting on the floor, and the dozens of blocks of ice containing the poor lads were all gone. The only one that remained was the one with Florea trapped inside.

  Whatever Zack had done to him was preventing him from using his powers, because if he could use his powers, he could have melted himself out. His eyes were still open, and if he was frozen in time the way Zack tended to do, I knew he could still see, and he could still understand what was going on around him.

  I must have been in a bit of a daze, because I don’t remember stepping up to the ice block. I don’t remember wiping the ice in front of his face clean with my hand. All I remember is suddenly standing there, looking up, face to face with Florea. I had so much to say, but now wasn’t the time. So I just shook my head, tossed my cloak over the top of the ice block, took another sip of Hocks, and climbed the stairs to help Adeline.

  We propped the door open so we could carry the body down together, and when we turned the corner into the frozen room, Adeline responded to the scene with a quiet gasp. I wasn’t sure if Florea could hear us through the ice.

  “Zack must have already taken care of the lads,” I said, quite glad to have been able to spare her that particular horror show. Aye, I’d told her all about Florea's collection in the peepshow, but seeing his work for yourself was a whole other brand of messed up, mates.

  We set the body down on the ground a good distance away from Florea.

  “Is that…?” Adeline gestured to the cloak-covered ice sculpture.

  “The one and only. You can go stare at him if you want while I check this one out.”

  “I must admit, I am quite curious, but—later,” Adeline said.

  I nodded, and first thing, I flipped the body over and checked the back of his neck for a Palisade identification tattoo. Nothing. He was dressed in all black, with no coat or anything else with pockets. He had no bag, and no belongings.

  “His thought processes were blocked,” Adeline said. “Not the way yours and Enforcer Rhian’s are, but my access was denied entirely.”

  “Delphi, then.”

  “I suspect a mixture of at least three—Celestian, Delphi, and Strachan. Not Amali, because he wasn’t especially strong. This was how I knew he wasn’t one of the Anima, as well.”

  “That’s some quick thinking, mate, and some quick action.”

  “Well, I’m quite intelligent and I’ve had excellent martial training, after all. But I don’t know, perhaps it would have been better to have left him alive for questioning. Only, I’m not sure how we would have restrained him.”

  My heart skipped a beat.

  “We can go over that some time, but generally we weren’t equipped, so you did the right thing,” I said. “Otherwise, we’ve got nothing much to go on here. I’m not familiar with any defect organizations around the territory, and if there was something Partisan-adjacent happening in the city, I’d have probably heard about it.”

  “It may be worth checking with Captain Kavelin, but I get the impression they were after me specifically. If it weren’t for the fire-spray, we may have been gone by the time you turned the corner. And he didn’t want me dead, otherwise he could have easily killed me at first contact.”

  “He sure didn't seem to be expecting you to rise up like a champion.”

  “No, because if this individual was sent by the Six, or possibly even through my mother, then I’d be sorely underestimated. She likens me to a pebble in her shoe, and while it hurts, I know my worth, and I’ve never been compelled to prove her wrong. This has perhaps saved my life.”

  I nodded. “You might be right.”

  After having a thoughtful look at the corpse on the icy ground, Adeline turned to me. “Agent Finlay?”

  “Aye, mate?”

  “May I cry now?”

  “Aye, mate,” I said. “And would you like a cuddle while you do that?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Once Adeline was finished crying, which she said really helped, I pulled my cloak away from Florea’s ice block so she could have a look at him.

  “Ugh—he is very handsome. I’m not certain I would have been able to resist either.”

  That made me feel a bit better, actually, so I flashed Adeline a small smile before tapping my finger against the ice in front of Florea’s face.

  “Why do you think Zacharias is keeping him like this?” she asked. “Why not just—”

  I cupped my hand around her ear to whisper the parts of the story I’d rambled over during my confession. “Florea is Sebastian’s ex-boyfriend, and Florea still thinks he’s dead.”

  Her eyes widened, and after a moment, she nodded. “That’s quite complicated.”

  It surely was, so I nodded.

  One, two, three and a half minutes, we stood there scowling at Florea. And again, it came out of nowhere—

  Suddenly, there was a hand on my shoulder, and a hand on Adeline’s. Only, I knew that hand, mates. It was one of my favourite hands. We were both able to turn around because Zack didn’t stop us.

  “Now, what exactly should I make of this?” he asked.

  “It’s all right,” I said. “She knows everything, mate.”

  Zack arched an eyebrow.

  “Everything,” I reiterated.

  “Everything,” Zack echoed, tilting his head toward Adeline. “Good morning, Miss Blanchett.”

  “Mister Vonsinfonie.” Adeline squeaked. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she added, looking to me. “He really does resemble a strawberry rhubarb pie, doesn’t he? It’s the colouring.”

  After shaking his head, Zack crossed the room to stand above the corpse on the floor.

  I tossed my cloak back over Florea’s face.

  “And this?” Zack asked.

  I moved to his side, with Adeline not far behind. “We were attacked. Could be part of a defect organization, but he might have been sent by the Assembly."

  “Pity he’s dead.”

  Adeline squeaked.

  “It couldn’t be helped,” I said. “And he’s got nothing on him, either.”

  “I see.” Zack answered, still peering down at the corpse. “Leave it to me, then.”

  “Thanks, mate. Where’s Jake?”

  “He refuses to leave the theatre until Sebastian returns.”

  “Will he be safe there?”

  “I wouldn’t have left him, Feargus Finlay. My son is incredibly powerful.”

  I nodded.

  “Well, I can’t wait to meet him,” Adeline mused. “Does he look like you, mister Vonsinfonie?”

  “Jakob looks like his mother.”

  “Me, too,” Adeline answered. “We’re practically twins.”

  Zack just nodded slowly. “You may go now.”

  “Sure, mate. But wait—I’m dying to know: was this coincidence, or how did you know we were here? Math?”

  “I have Florea Calancea enthralled.”

  “Is that word supposed to make sense?” I asked.

  “No, but you’re both covered in blood so you should get a move on. The sun is rising.”

  Well, Zack was in a mood, but I could tell when he was upset with me, and this wasn’t one of those times. Whatever it was, I’d talk to him about it later.

  For now, we obeyed the Law and got a move on.