PRESENT DAY

The sirens of the ambulances and firetrucks pouring into the Port of Stilts could be heard miles away in Red Cape, which was along the way to Sukuyaa’s destination. Thomas was coming to just as she pulled into what looked like a rest stop. He had a nasty pain pulsing through his head, and it took quite a bit of energy for him to simply lift his head. Sukuyaa clocked his movement in her rearview mirror.

“He’s awake! How was your rest, gorgeous?”

The high pitch Sukuyaa spoke in did everything to make the pain worse for Thomas, who winced at the increased pressure.

“Aww, my darling is unable to speak right now, isn’t he?”

Thomas finally gathered up enough energy to open his mouth. “Where are we?”

Sukuyaa parked the van, turned the engine off and got out of it. Thomas instantly started to panic. The pain was too strong for him to really do anything if Sukuyaa had bad intentions towards him. If she did nothing, but also just left him there, he would be fair game for whoever she was working for. Either way, none of this augured well for him.

The door to the back of the van opened, and Sukuyaa jumped right in. Thomas flinched at her move, but then she raised her hands to show she had no weapons. Then she reached into her pocket, and Thomas’ slowly disappearing sense of fear quickly returned, but then she pulled out a medication bottle. She took two pills out of it.

“Here, this will cure the pounding headache you must have.” She tried to give it to him, but he pulled back, clearly wary of her. She took out a bottle of water from one of the three coolers in the van. “I promise you, Thomas, I have no plans of hurting you. Why would I save you from the madness that just went down at the Port?”

Thomas still looked wary of her.

“Tom, look, either you’ll trust me, or you won’t. Either you’ll live today, or you’ll die. But refusing help just because you don’t trust me is as boneheaded as turning down work for the Hula-Roos syndicate.”

Thomas’ eyes screamed panic, but he did not move and actually looked defiant.

“Relax, I’m not a part of the ring. I’ve been where you literally are right now, though, and I know this will help your head. So please, take the damn pills.”

Thomas reluctantly took the pills but didn’t take the water, opting instead to chew them. He had barely finished chewing one when he started to feel immediate relief. He quickly chewed on the second one, and it was as though nothing had happened.

He immediately pulled Sukuyaa’s leg and tried to climb on top of her, but she pushed him off and tried to do the same, which resulted in a tumble out of the van and onto the grass. Before Sukuyaa could gain her bearings, Thomas had pinned her wrists to the ground. He climbed on top of her, his fist looming over her head. “Who the hell are you, woman!”

Sukuyaa smiled at him and shook her head. “Poor guy, I gave you an antidote to your pain, and you thought of it as a goddamned gun. Check your right leg.”

Thomas looked and saw a very small bleed close to his ankle. “What the hell did you do to me? Who the hell are you? Who do you work…”

Thomas fell like a stone right onto the grass. Sukuyaa pushed his legs off of her, got up, and dusted herself off. “I knew I shouldn’t have worn a goddamn white shirt. Guess we have to try this again later.”

*****

PRESENT DAY

The zoo that was currently the Hildenstad police department was buzzing with activity. Landlines ringing off the hook, people yelling out different incidents and different actions that were all emergent, people running in and out like the entire city was on fire. No one had gone home since last night, not that they even could; traffic out of the port was worse than Christmas eve. Between the first responders and firetrucks coming in and out, it was a more prudent choice to stay anyway. The rate at which the coffee pots were made and emptied would’ve convinced any outsider that these men and women were just addicts.

Harbormaster Captain Les Crankson walked in and headed straight for the police chief’s office. The chief’s secretary was on the phone, but she clocked the six-foot-three behemoth that was barreling towards her boss’ office. She instantly went and stood in front of him to try to stop him, but he simply went past her like she was a mannequin. She rushed to try to get in front of the door but was too late; he was already halfway through it.

“I’m sorry, chief. I tried to stop him, but he just-”

“It’s fine, Dora. I was expecting him.”

Dora’s face went from apologetic to mildly irritated, but given the crisis at hand, she opted to let it go and closed the door behind her.

“I was not expecting you, captain. I thought you had enough on your hands with your end of this massive sh*tshow.”

The high level of concern on Les’ face matched his next words. “The sh*tshow’s not as massive as the problem we currently have, Barry.”

The police chief raised his eyebrows and leaned back in his chair. “There was a series of explosions at your port, which could render it damn near useless for the foreseeable future, and you think there’s a bigger problem than that right now?”

Les remained quiet, and the look of worry on his face remained. Barry finally noticed, and sat back up. “What happened, Les?”

“Thomas Soumane is gone, Barry.”

The worry Les had was now copied onto Barry. “What do you mean, ‘Gone?’”

“There was an all-hands yesterday because of the work load. We got special instructions to move up the timelines so we could clear out our backlog once and for all. I was with customs, Thomas was supposed to be in charge till I got back. When the docks blew up, I rushed back, and Thomas was nowhere to be found. One of the secretaries said she saw him leaving with a woman, and he had a folder in his hand.”

Barry went from worried to irritated. “Les, really? Your man went off with his open secret of a hooker, and you are losing your marbles? You know it’s perfectly legal to fire a guy for neglect of duty, right?”

“Barry, who the f*ck do you know that goes to a hooker with a folder in his hand?”

“Maybe he’s trying to go steady with her. Maybe he’s showing her the tickets he bought for them to get away, and he just doesn’t need nosy ass people in his business. Les, you’re really making a case for me to kick your ass out of my office on account of paranoia here.”

Les went around the table, took a flash drive out of his pocket, and plugged it into Barry’s computer. Then he clicked a few folders and played a video from one of the files. It was the video of Sukuyaa at the gate with Thomas, right when he collapsed. As Barry watched, the worry came rushing back to his face.

Les looked at him, and once he was satisfied that Barry would now take him seriously, he said, “Does that look like a man going steady with a chick? Do you still think I’m being paranoid when I tell you that my number two is gone?”

“Does anyone know who that chick is?”

Les came back around the table and sat back in his chair. “That’s the thing. Everyone does, but no one does.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they’ve all seen her before, they’ve all ‘partaken’ of her before, but no one knows her actual name, and her face doesn’t come up in any searches. Some say she’s Monica, others say she’s Erica, some called her Jerricka, some called her Marissa. Apparently, her policy is that she only hooks up with a person once, and never again.”

“Let me try to find her.” Barry ran the video in his highly sophisticated facial recognition program, and nothing came up.

A frustrated Les threw his hands up. “Told you. We can run our own investigation, but it’s all going to end up on your desk anyway.” He then leaned forward and lowered his voice, almost to a whisper. “And I don’t think I need to remind you of how important it is that you find him. He’s your responsibility.”

“Yeah, which I handed over to you based on instructions I was not in favor of!”

“Go ahead and tell the bosses that to their face, if you feel so strongly about it. Look, my ass is on the line too, so let’s just work together here. Oh, and you know the protocol; only our guys.”

Barry looked at the video again, and noticed the plate number on Sukuyaa’s van. “She most likely abandoned the van somewhere, but we have software that can trace where it went, if it was caught by any cameras.”

Les stood up. “Pursue that. Meanwhile, I have another issue to deal with. A body was found by the firefighters, burned in one of the warehouses we decommissioned.”

Once Les reached the door, he turned around. “Hey.”

Barry looked up.

“Godspeed, Aquarius.”

“Godspeed, Leo.”

Then they both said, “Hail Hermes,” and Les left.

Barry muttered under his breath, “Goddamn Hermes.”

Looks like these men and Thomas are all a part of the ring that had Mina’s parents killed. What’s the next piece of intel we’ll get as we go along?