“They left.”
Agent Wilson said to him as Ford's Operators left the bunker.
Strato and his team got what they wanted from the bunker.
A list full of targets and locations
Now he was Robert as he was with people who knew him as Robert.
“So Kato Lores, eh? I can deal with that name.”
“Still no leads?”
“No. But they’ll start hitting them. You can call me nosey, but there's one thing that these guys have. They have one hell of a righteous fury for bastards like Guzman and Ferric.”
He settled down. Adjusted his bearing while telling that ill-tempered passenger to stay down. He had always had a hard time dealing with children being treated like a product.
It was one thing that Katey agreed with him.
It brings the worst on him.
The worst that Katey had put down.
She hated that passenger. Loathed it with all of her heart when it came out. He put it down. Killed it. But it wasn’t dead. Always ready to come out and take over, drown him in a tranquil fury that left him wondering if he was human in the first place.
“Ferric is meticulous. He’s even more connected than we thought. Looks like he got all these threads that we aren’t able to cut easily.”
Robert squatted and searched his pockets for any smoke. He hated smoking like every smoker, but a cigarette was a good friend.
“Here.”
“Thanks. God, I hate this shit.”
“Every lie that we say, friend. You’ve been very active. But so far it seems like we can’t get a bead on them.”
Careful. A lot of paper trails, but most of them were linked only to one guy. Guzman’s going to get hit hard by Ford’s Operators. Burn everything they have until they come out of their hole and take care of themselves.
It was an MO that forced them to act and come out of their hiding hole. It’s what makes these people dangerous. It’s what he learned back in his other life that kept him active.
“As much as I’d like to throw you back to work. We got nothing to throw at you. And getting you involved with those Americans is going to be real trouble. They like their paperwork and one way or another they’d have a file of you labeled as an Informant in regards to this side of the world. I bet the CIA lady gave you a phone.”
Robert took out the phone and then checked the piece they tried to attach to the phone.
“It’s quite large really. Trackers like this are easy to spot.”
“Are you going to break the phone?”
“I’ll keep it.”
“Uncle Sam’s favors are hard to repay, Robert.”
“I’m not that naïve. But it doesn’t hurt to have friends abroad who might need your help.”
Connections are what make the world run. A number to call for work or for a favor. One thing he learned hard and well. And something he regrets learning.
A phone call can be a fortune or two bullets in the gut and another to the head. He couldn’t trust government types working secretly. Not when he had lost a life because of that.
***
He went to Playfer’s Club in Henbane Street after he got a call from one of the Witches about the three-headed monsters. Because he was in charge of this one he had to make sure that the parts were used properly and CASEs got their commission. He found where they were keeping the monster they recovered. Lucia walked alongside him while swinging her hips as she stood in the work area where the three-headed beast was being dissected.
“Do Witches always buy these materials?”
“We do it because we know how to process them. After we process them, those pesky Alchemists are going to double check our work, make sure that they are fresh and ready to be concocted.”
She checked on the clipboard handed to her.
“That said you’ve been getting involved in this matter. Looks like both sides of the world’s having a hard time finding this Ferric.”
“Well, what did you expect from a man who had made a profitable business? You cannot do something this heinous without secrecy and wit. Bathory’s Wine itself is well-sought by those who wanted to live long. And the rich who cannot allow themselves to die so early are willing to abandon morals for the sake of longevity.”
It was still the same as ever. People will pay for anything that guarantees that they could live long. It was the most basic need to stay alive and having more time means that they could enjoy the wealth they gather.
“But knowing all of this. You’d think that they’d try to be good. Having knowledge of heaven and hell would have made you wonder if it’s damning your soul for this.”
“It’s our nature,” Lucia said. “You cannot take that away. Tell me, have you really seen someone so pure and kind that even if the sky burns, that person would still be so good?”
Robert stiffened at her words. He looked down, laughed quietly, and said sincerely to Lucia.
“I do.”
Lucia raised a brow at that response.
“I’d like to meet a person then.”
Robert’s melancholic smile was all that she needed to know. Lucia turned to the beast and checked on the containers they were using. Harvesting its leathery skin, extracting its bone, they were going to leave nothing left.
“Do you get a lot of monsters here?”
“Not much. It’s more serious in America and in Asia. Asia’s superstitious and because of it, we get more materials from them than here in Europe or America. There’s a lot of our people still active there and they send us many monsters.”
“Is it because of the culture?”
“Yes, because these creatures also feed on belief. Hence why so many are roaming those parts of the world. It doesn’t help that there isn’t much technology to be found in their rural areas so they thrive and hunt properly. Then we find them, kill them, and then leave not a single bone left.”
“Is that why there isn’t any evidence of them?”
“Might. They are useful things after all.”
She handed a form to Robert. It was a form that made it clear that Robert, as a representative of CASE, had witnessed the process of acquiring materials.
After signing the form, and calling his superior, he walked back to the club to take a rest. He got himself some fried food and an iced tea. It was different from what people ordered in their club.
Lucia, who found him eating peacefully, couldn’t help but slide into the booth he was sitting on and asked why he was eating instead of drinking. Robert looked her in the eyes and chewed.
“You had a menu for it.”
“But no one orders it. You come to Playfer to make deals. Besides, have you thought of drinking with a single, sultry, curvaceous young lady attracted to robust men?”
“No.”
He cut a piece of his fried food and ate it alongside the beans. She leaned forward. Smoke rose out of her pipe. It was different from the usual smoke —- it had a strawberry flavor.
“That flavored vapor?”
“Hmm? Have you heard of it? It’s what we’ve discovered lately. You see there is a Chinese person that we met that introduced us to this concept. He calls it an electric cigarette. He’s still experimenting but he said that it might be an alternative to smoking.”
“Sounds like it will be. How are you smoking it?”
“We have the fluid inside our smoking pipe, silly. Do you like to try?”
Robert plucked her smoking pipe from her lips and smoked it. The strawberry-flavored smoke was a very familiar taste. He took the pipe off his lips and looked at Lucia grinning at him.
“How did it taste?”
“Like strawberries?”
“The other taste?”
“Oh, I forgot to wipe it.”
Robert wiped the tip of the pipe with a handkerchief. She looked at him dumbfounded, wondering if he was just ignoring her. She took the pipe back and leaned with her right hand.
“You are no fun to tease. Am I not pretty?”
“You are pretty. But I just want to eat. It must be boring here since you’re acting like there’s no fun around.”
“We are Witches and our existence usually comes with a stigma. It doesn’t help that the title we wear proudly can be a slur to discriminate against us. The lower class of my kind, who cannot discipline themselves properly tend to follow the easier path.”
She licked her lips.
“But I wonder how you’ve been able to resist so far. I did hear that you only got shook by the devil’s words and Lesnik’s presence. Have you ever thought about it? Maybe I am trying to seduce you so hard right now through my presence alone. And you are not making a move on me. I thought we’d be in bed right now. Sweaty, messy, and my legs locking you from pulling out.”
“I think you need to relax. And that’s one scary remark you have there. Do you usually have a problem like this?”
“Why is that a problem? And I’m not so docile I’d just sleep with any man.”
“You should really not say this to the impressionable and lonely. They might think that you’re serious.”
She leaned back and played with her smoking pipe.
“That would be their fault. If they fall for it knowing that Witches who give their bodies require a price.”
“A price that isn’t easy to pay, I assume.”
“Indeed.”
Robert drank his iced tea. Her eyes remained on her.
“But truthfully, Robert. If the day that you seek something. And you need to ask for something. Come to me and no one else. I am willing to grant you my favor for a price.”
Her face was serious. This time Robert could tell that she said those words without playfulness. This was a Witch whose words could be gold or curse.
“I’ll think about it.”
And from what he could recall in his memories. It would be best not to make any promises that would earn him the ire of a witch.
And despite that thought running in his head. He really wanted to eat his meal in peace.
Grudges and impressions are one hell of a thing to remember. And he still couldn’t forget the favor that made him hear the devil’s words. Marbas’s Play had ruined all good impressions he had of Lucia.
She was indeed pretty enough to make men swoon. If it was Robert sitting down. He would have been fooled into really thinking that she wanted him. A Witch plays and teases until she gets what she wants.
He finished eating and left without a word. He drove the car that they let him borrow and went back to his apartment. He sat in the living room with a blank stare before turning on the television.
Switching to the music channel. He froze at the classic playing. It was a 1955 music video of four black men and one woman singing.
Only you can make this world seem right~
Only you can make the darkness bright~
Only you and alone~
"I'm glad that you guys exist here!"
It was a nostalgic song that brought out memories. His face loosened and his shoulders sagged as he asked himself.
“Why are you still fighting? Really, what’s the point? Then again, you’d be angry about it. Scold me for thinking like that again. You brought the good out of me. Always bringing me to feed little kiddos who don't have much. You’d hate it if I ignored this. You always have a sore spot for children. Always wanted one. Always cherished those who needed cheering.”
He recalled that one time he went with her to one of the neighborhood meetings about missing children. How for the first time they had been together, he saw fury in her.
She couldn’t be angry or look angry even when she tried.
But that anger was something he could agree with.
“I can live with that, you’d want that,” he said to himself. “Make this my reason and motivation to keep on chasing down these pieces of shit.”
Robert, no, Kato needed the reason to keep on chasing after them.
