+1+
I sprang up when I felt someone try to choke hold me, I go tense push up from my knees then shift my weight and throw Seraphina hard into the floor.
“What the fuck”, I shout.
“I was trying to wake you up for a run. That hurt. What the hell. “
I collapse back on my mattress and glance at my clock, It was 4:45 am.
“Hey, I’m not used to having company.”
She pushes herself off the ground and pulls my pillow out from underneath me.
“Get up, let’s run. I need to run. We can race. First one to West Central Park buys dinner tonight.”
She’d gone through the suitcase I’d packed and had on a pair of black leggings and a tight pink sports bra. “Do you even have a wallet?” I ask.
“I don’t plan to lose, sweetheart.”
“Fuck it.”
I run through the bathroom for a few minutes and grab my sneakers. While she is sitting on the counter waiting for me I grab my keys, snake around her and bolt out the door. I hear her curse and follow me down the stairs. I catch a glimpse of Mrs. Salvatore in the communal kitchen as I blow past.
I knew the path to the park like the back of my hand and weaved through the coffee-clutching crowd and mainlined as fast as I could. I head Uptown and cut through streets that I knew had the least lights. Still. . . Sera was fast.
Then in a fit of inspiration I climb up the first fire escape I come across. I pull myself up the fire escape until I
reach the roof of the building. From the top of the building I can see a clear
path to the park. I kept my feet light and run full speed to the edge of the
building, letting gravity carry me to the next one. I landed on bended knees
at the next rooftop over and feel a thrush of adrenaline. It gets easier after the first 10 buildings. Fun almost.
When I reached a good point I climb down and sprint through Columbus Circle and jog to the west entrance of Central Park. I have time to fish 10 bucks out of my shorts and buy two waters. I let the guy keep the change.
I was halfway finished with my water when Seraphian jogs up to the entrance, she had on her shades, her cropped hair was slicked back with sweat. It was getting long almost reaching the top of her ear. Her mouth is twisted in an unsatisfied expression.
“We’re having steak tonight.” I told her.
“You cheated.”
“You ain’t in Brooklyn anymore. Called a fucking grid, sweetheart. More than one way to get anywhere.”
She gave me the finger, but quickly apologized when a mom with a gaggle of kids glared at us.
“Fine”, I said, “I’m willing to forfeit if you give me one vertical press up.”
She takes the water from me and thinks on it. I just wanted to keep her outside longer, keep her mind off of last night.
“Fine. Spot me.”
We move over to the grass and she managed to push up into a decent hand stand, causing her shades to fall off. When she starts to bend her elbow she loses her balance and topples over into the grass.
“Fuck”, she whispers standing up, “Can you do that ?”
“Fuck no. If we could both do that I bet we could make 10 new sex position.”
She laughs then grabs her water and shades as we head out of the park.
“Manhattan has changed, that’s why I got lost. I lived on this island for nearly a century…but everything looks so different. Fucking Helios.” She whispers his name.
“How you feeling, you okay”, I ask “No more deep dark royal secrets you want to spill ?”
“Paris dyes his hair. It’s turning gray.”
“Alrighty then.” I said not sure how to feel about that.
Already I can see the police out and about getting ready for all the crowds and events. There was a farm to table food festival today and they were cutting the ribbon for the new soccer stadium in Brooklyn and prepping for the parade next week.
“You could have told me Paris was in trouble.” I said.
“New Aeterna is everything to him. If anyone found out he was having a hard time, it would all be for nothing.”
“I told him the assassination was us. It will be one less thing for him to worry about.”
“What the fuck Leon”, she said quietly. Then she hesitated before speaking, “What did he do?”
“He was kind of numb. Isobel and Damien will be watching him. But you need to talk to him.”
“Yeah, I just need some time.”
“You got it. I’ll give you the weekend.”
We made it back to my apartment in an hour. Seraphina started rifling through the suitcase I packed and she was not impressed. I guess I forgot brushes and she had to put her face on with her fingers. I’d also been in such a rush I’d forgotten to pack her underwear.
She looked off her game, but at least her frilly uniform was regulation. Her eyes lingered on me as I armed myself. I kept a NADF regulation glock on my hip and a licensed semi-automatic on my ankle. The knife was a holdover from the old days.
“By the way”, I say and she snaps out of it, “That LeCroix woman has been ringing my office all week. I don’t know how long I can ignore her.”
“Don’t answer her calls, I’m going to take of her.”
+2+
Venice Scott waved a New Aeterna flag like she’d already drank the Kool-aid. On an elevated stage a gaggle of grown men in bright red football jerseys took a photo op with their king. Somehow he wasn’t even sweating in his black paisley three piece and stylish red scarf.
The team captain started to dribble the ball while he was being photographed, and smoothly kicked it over to the king. It threw Mr. Prince off his game a little, but somehow he managed to hook the ball with his shiny loafer before kicking it back to the team captain who managed to catch it in similar fashion before going into some fancier tricks. Smiling came surprisingly easy to him.
I’d needed Venice to be my buffer today, but she was more
work than I thought. She was really into this New Aeterna shit and loved dragging me along.
“Let’s go”, I said to Venice.
“Go where? They are raffling off home game tickets and I don’t want to miss the spotlight on Helion Regime survivors.”
“You live in California, you won’t make the game. Also they are streaming all the sessions online… Don’t you want to see some of the country instead of hearing about it?”
“I’m signed up for a bus tour later-”
I rolled my eyes and dragged her away from the crowd.
“Look I have a friend I want to see and I don’t want to go out alone. I bet being out and about in the city will give you an idea for what kind of TV shows to shoot here. Location scouting. That’s a thing right?”
She stuffs her flag into her bag and follows behind me.
“You know how to get around?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
We walk out of the City Center and down to the subway plaza, it was pristine. Oak floors and soft murals were on the walls. I felt like I was in a museum of contemporary art and not a subway. Even the trains were sleek clean metal.
“This used to be the H train subway. One way to Helion City and back. Mussolini made the trains run on time, Helios made the subway gorgeous”, Venice whispered
“Just this part”, I reminded her.
The ride from Brooklyn to the Upper East side was longer than I thought and the farther away we got from Brooklyn the more the city started to change. The people on the train got younger and each station is grungier than the next. Most of them had been out of use for 10 years.
When we got off the train at 80th street it's
quiet. Several former apartment buildings were collapsed and falling down. What
had been million dollar condos had been abandoned for nearly a decade. Almost
all the businesses were shuttered.A few buildings had
government signs on it proclaiming new housing to come, but who’d want to live
up here ?
“What is this place” Venice asked
“Oh, it’s not in your guidebook? People are still struggling here. Not enough jobs to go around.”
“There is plenty of work.”
“Right. Wage, physical labor or government work. When people get those jobs they move Downtown. With less people living Uptown all the small restaurant and business owners are struggling. Do you know how hard it is to get a small business loan in this country?”
Venice nodded and started taking notes on her phone.
I’d memorized the address of where I needed to be to meet my contact. I found the building at the corner. A bunch of kids were hanging out outside. They had to be truants or orphans. Some caught my law enforcement stride and tried to hide themselves.Venice was distracted by the New Aeterna Government Relief trucks handing out soup, clothes and brochures about so called upward mobility.
“Your friend lives in this building?” she asks as we take the steps. The high rise building is dated. Like 1990’s dated. Most of the windows are blown out and the front door is covered in graffiti.
“Yep.”
I jog up to the third floor and knock on apartment 3F
The door slides open and Ravi, the infamous Anti-Helion freedom fighter looks at me then at Venice. I’m afraid Venice might know who he is but she doesn’t. I’d just bought her along as my excuse incase things got bad, I hoped that wasn’t a miscalculation.
“Not her.” He says to me.
“She’s—“
“Not. her.”
“Um”, Venice cut in, “I’m going to talk the relief workers. Maybe I can take some more notes.”
“This won’t be long.” I assure Venice, “We’re old friends from New Orleans.” I lie.
Ravi opens the door and the smell of marijuana and bacon
hits me. It looked like he’d knock the walls down for two other
apartments. There are bean bags and cots
everywhere. People were hanging out in the living area and I feel like I’m in
stoner’s crash pad. save for the bank of computer monitors, the map of New
Aeterna and a map of United States on the way next to a New York state flag. They have disfigured pictures of Helios and Paris Prince on the walls, and a sketch of them in a crude act. Well, then.
Ravi used to be Ben Schwartz. A loud, smart and opinionated teenager who came of age during the Helion regime. By the time he was 16 he was recruiting other kids and teens into his often deadly and destructive Anti-Helion demonstrations. He was a master at making Improvised Explosive Devices. He was the most wanted person in New Aeterna under the Helion Regime. When the Helion Regime fell he laid low. But we found him
“ Ravi ?”, I confirm
“Yep”, he sets down his cereal bowl and we move into the kitchen where it’s more private, “So you’re from the Unification Party.”
“I am. Solstice LeCroix.”
He smiled
“Somehow when the Unification Party contacted me about helping to topple the monarchy. I didn't imagine you. . .”
I don’t know if he means because I wasn’t a middle aged politician in a suit. I’d stopped dressing G-woman and went back to my plain clothes cop attire of jeans, flannel and leather jacket.
“I’m just an associate from the party. I'm not on the board or anything. To be honest we were surprised to find you weren’t a fan of Paris Prince.”
“I wasn’t anti-Helion. I was pro-New York City. If that king of ours was really against Helion he didn’t invite me to join his resistance. He doesn’t even acknowledge the work I did against Helions. No one invited me to any parades or balls. I didn’t get a bronze heart.”
“Well, your tactics did involve blowing shit and people up. Kings don’t usually associate with terrorist.”
“But the Unification Party does?”
We do now. Not that I had any choice in the matter. When I told the board I was coming to New Aeterna to investigate the assassination they thought it was the perfect time to make real contact with this . . . kid.
“You are an asset. You grew up in New Aeterna you know this place.”
“I just don’t see how the Unification Party can do anything. You haven’t been in the news since Giuliani died.”
I tried to hold my tongue. He didn’t know Giuliani.
“The Unification Party didn’t end with Giuliani. We just recalibrated. Right now I’m working the assassination. Something about it gets me.”
“I heard it was staged anyway. It was probably fake to get Paris Prince sympathy. Why do you care.”
I shook my head, I was going to have to ante up with this kid.
“I used to work at the Unification Party headquarters in D.C. when it first started. I believe in the cause. We can’t just give Supernatural winged creatures whatever they want. I joined ASAP. Bart Giuliani mentored me for a year. A few months ago he started working on this top secret mission. He wouldn’t tell me anything about it. Then he told me he was going overseas. His convoy was hit by IED. He died.”
“That’s too bad. I thought I heard something about him dying. What kind of IED was it ?”
“What ?”
“What kind was it ? Bet it wasn’t good as mine”, This kid was fucking psycho.
“The point is”, I continued, “ Giuliani died the same day Paris Prince was assassinated. The NADF took custody of his body and it was cremated. Why would they do that ? Also, the location of the attack he encountered was near Al Khasik. That’s near the base the NADF was stationed at.”
“You think the NADF killed Giulinani ?”
“I think something happened to my mentor, he had a vision for bringing order back into the world and it died with him and no one cares. The new Unification party. . . just isn’t the same.”
“Look. . . whatever you need. Let me know.” He said. The look on his psycho little face. Like he’d lost a mentor too.
“I need access.” I said, “Anything you can get me.”
“I mean I got some friends posing in the NADF, maybe they can get death records.”
“Good”
“RAVI”, Someone who is clearly stoned shouts, “You got a guest here.”
“What’s going on?” I said. This was supposed to be a private meeting.
“… You don’t know?” He said
“What ?”
I followed him out the door to see Bart Giuliani’s perfectly manicured successor. The new Unification Party Chairman, Chairman Lynne. Chairman Lynne and I hadn’t fostered the same relationship Giuliani and I had. But I didn’t know Lynne was in New Aeterna.
“Solstice”, Chairman Lynne said, “Glad you could join us.”
“What’s going on, Chairman?” I said. Such a dumb title. Giuliani was always just Giuliani.
The chairman sits down and Ravi follow suits..
“I’m showing goodwill toward our new ally, Solstice”, Chairman Lynne says.
The Lynne slides over a check to Ravi and his eyes go saucer sized.
“Is that enough”, The chairman asks.
“Hell, yes.” Ravi says grabbing the check
“I’m out”, I said, “Unless anyone has anything that can help me find out what happened Giuliani”
“Stay”, the chairman says, “Ravi hasn’t told you about our little plan.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will”, says the Chairman, “Because it’s time to reintroduce the world to the Unification party and you are going to help.” Chairman Lynne says
“How ?”, I asked sitting down.
Ravi smiles and pulls out a paper
map of New Aeterna. There is a menacing glint in his young eyes. This guy loves his work to much.
“You’re going to like this one.”
+3+
I didn’t like it.
I mean I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t going to help me put Giuliani’s death to bed so I didn’t care. It wasn’t going to help me give his daughter and brother closure. I bee lined out of there, I was never so glad to have Venice as my excuse to leave. Venice was interviewing some people on the streets, not at all realizing she was looking for prosperity in a borough teaming with Unification Party sympathizers.
We split a very expensive cab back to New Aeterna City Center. Thankfully she wants to take a nap before gearing up for the evening events so we say our goodbyes. I pause when I get off of the elevator on my floor. Two armed military men are standing outside my door. I want to run but instead I play it cool. I hadn’t done anything wrong. They look like toy soldiers, dressed identically down to the medals and white gloves.
“Waiting for me boys?” I ask but they aren’t in a flirting mood. They don’t stop me from putting the key in and they don’t move as I open the door.
I let myself into the room and sitting in the cheap squeaky desk chair is The queen of New Aeterna herself. She’s in her NADF dress uniform. Perfectly starched and straightened.. The lighting makes her look older, but those eyes could chill.
“Your highness”, I say trying reign in my attitude. “I’m not a citizen but do I still bow?”
She cross her legs, the fabric rides up on her very long legs encased in cheap looking knee highs.
“I don’t know why you’re here or what you are up to . . . but it needs to stop”, She doesn’t do pleasantries. Fine.
“It’s my job. I keep getting blocked whenever I try to get any records or an interview with the king. It’s too bad you were in Al Khasik during the assassination. Then you could have helped.”
“I wasn’t in Al Khasik, I was on a special operation none the wiser to Paris’. . . situation. Don’t you read the papers?”
“Right. That is what the papers said.” I shrugged off my jacket and tried to act nonchalant.
“You need to stop harassing the resistance and let this
rest.”
“Why ?"
“Because It’s no business of DOJ or The United States for that matter. My husband is fragile and it would be better off if we left this assassination in the past. Baron Fountain was already arrested.”
Why did she keep bringing up Baron Fountain ? I watched her sharp blood red nails skim across the desk.
“You know. . . It was so odd how Baron Fountain got picked up and then killed in your custody, maybe I should be questioning that. “
The side of her lip just barley twitches.
“Fountain didn’t die in my custody . . . he escaped. I’m bad at my job. I’ll give you that.”
“Right, that is what the papers said.”
She stood and put her hands behind her back, her skirts fall gracefully
with each step she took toward me. She was so tall she was almost otherworldly.
“The thing is you don’t fool me, Solstsice LeCroix. I know you are up to something. I can’t prove it… but I will and if you don’t take my advice you might spend the rest of your visit on Riker’s Island. . . with me.”
“I’m just a government worker”, I said trying to sound innocent, “Trying to help the United States newest allies. That’s it. Although I gather you’re new at this?”
“What?”
“Manipulation.”
“I’m not—“
“The truth is I probably wouldn’t be suspicious of you at all if it weren’t for all the personal attention you’ve been giving me.”
She puts her sharp thumb nail near the corner of my lips, once quick move and I could have a smile just like Paris Prince.
She started to say something but stopped. She was probably well aware of how badly she’d miscalculated. Up close I could see she was more severe that she appeared at a distant. She was muscular, a bit stiff and there was this ferocity that came from her.
“The thing is”, she starts, “Well…”
She kisses me. Her lips
are ice cold and slick from her cheap lipstick. She taste like whiskey and mint
which is the perfect combination for an alcoholic. I don’t think she’s armed, I feel what could
be a corset beneath her jacket. I pull it off and untuck her starched shirt. She smells like eucalyptus and spice, and I wonder if I still smell like pot
and bacon from Ravi’s apartment. Shit.
She lifts the dirty black shirt from my body and when she kisses me again, she leaves a trail of red lipstick to down to my breast, and I feel her tongue on my skin. She pulls back. She takes a step back and when she manages to take her eyes off my cleavage she carefully looks me over from top to bottom in confusion.
“Fuck”, she whispers.
“I really hope all the intrigue and misdirection wasn’t to hide the fact that you’re a lesbian with a crush.” I fix my bra and pull my shirt back on. It does smell like pot and bacon.
“I’m not.” She says wiping her lip with her thumb. She stares at me and I can’t tell if she’s horrified or curious
“Well, if you got rid of those nails you could find out.”
She picks up her jacket and stares me down as she heads for the door
“You’re not my type.” she decides and puts her hat under one arm, “Let’s not have this conversation again Ms. LeCroix. Be a good girl and have a nice weekend.”
----