Chapter 226 B4. 18.1 – Cop Hunting Trio

Marlon narrowed his eyes, oozing interest in what I had to say. But he pressed his lips together and kept silent. Maintaining that customer-privacy thing? I already expected that.

“Fine, you don’t have to tell us,” I said. My mask muffled my voice somewhat. “But let me guess. You don’t need to confirm or deny. Yesterday night, a client of Big Marcy died in Summerlin.”

“Parts of that sentence are news to me,” Marlon said, his cheeks tightening. “Summerlin…?”

I got him now. Quick on the pickup, this guy. It was much easier to hook attentive and intelligent people. “Oh, your Tea Party customer didn’t include that in his story? I’ll tell you about it since I’m sure you’ll appreciate the info. The killing… wasn’t normal.”

Marlon nodded. “It wasn’t.”

I didn’t look at Deen; I could feel her stern eyes on me. She must be wondering how I killed Adrian. As much as I wanted to gloat about the petrification, I didn’t want Deen and Cecilia to know about it.

“Here’s another thing that you don’t know, Marlon,” I said. “Though you must’ve guessed it by now—the dead guy was staying at the Roost. He didn’t die there, though. He went outside.”

Deen didn’t say anything. I looked at her because I wanted her to be on board with this. No signs of disapproval in her eyes. I didn’t need to remove her mask to read her expression. She must’ve realized that Marlon would eventually discover that we were responsible for the killing, so we should control the narrative now.

“Did you kill him?” Marlon asked.

“Not us,” I said. “We passed on the information about the Roost to more senior members of our group. Red Hood sent someone else to do it.” I could say I fished out Adrian, but that’d lead back to me. I couldn’t claim credit. Too bad.

“Why didn’t that ‘someone else’ come to me for information?” Marlon wasn’t about to immediately buy the bullshit I was selling. He suspected that I killed Adrian. “You girls surely are busy with other matters.”

“This is our assignment from Red Hood,” Deen said. “The more powerful members of our organization couldn’t move as freely as we.”

Deen sucks, I thought. Her story had holes in it. She should’ve just shut her mouth and let me handle this.

“Freely move,” Marlon repeated with a tiny smirk that instantly disappeared. “This senior member of yours didn’t have any problem infiltrating the Roost, did they? But it’s too much of a problem to come here. My little corner of the Understrip is quite welcoming.”

“There’s a difference between the Understrip and Summerlin,” I said. “There’s a… Corebring here, in downtown Vegas, who might detect a powerful Adumbrae.”

Marlon straightened in his luxury leather chair. Deen also shifted, turning her body towards me. She shouldn’t act so surprised that I’d escalate my story. Cecilia let out a small chuckle, just enjoying the scene.

“What are you—?” Deen started to ask.

“It’s much better if Marlon knew,” I cut in before Deen could mess with my new tale. “I’m sure he has plenty of customers who’ll appreciate the heads-up. Am I right?”

Marlon wouldn’t easily believe us. However, he’d search for Corebrings in the city to verify my claim, asking around and stuff. The act of looking for Corebrings would spread my lie. Soon, the rumor would become the truth, and our enemies would be scared to act because there was a Corebring in Vegas.

It sounded like a good plan to me. And I improvised it to fix Deen’s mistake. I’m super proud of me.

“How accurate is this information?” Marlon asked.

“As accurate as anyone can monitor the Corebring’s movements,” I said. “Which is to say, not very. But we had spotted a Corebring roaming around the Strip. If he’s still here, we’re not certain. That’s all I’m allowed to say.”

“Very helpful information, nonetheless,” said Marlon. “I suppose you’ll ask for information in return?”

“Before we move to that,” I said, “I must ask—are you going to tell the Tea Party that the killing was on Red Hood’s orders? Your customer privacy thing applies to us, too, doesn’t it?”

“Of course, it does,” said Marlon. “Even if I didn’t have such a policy, I won’t say anything… because you’ll kill me. I wouldn’t dare betray your confidence, especially with the stringent surveillance you have on me and the Tea Party.”

Surveillance? It was just coincidence that we came while a Tea Party member was here! Marlon, with a brain suspicious of everything, could only assume we were watching him.

And I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass.

But Deen spoke first. “What surveillance are you talking about?” she asked in a fake tone. “This is all a coincidence.” She made it sound like she was hiding lies, though she was actually telling the truth. From Marlon’s perspective, we were threatening him.

I had intended to say the same thing as Deen. Was this proof of our best friend's telepathic connection?

“A coincidence? Yes, yes.” Marlon smirked again. “I’ll have to tell the Tea Party that I couldn’t find anything about this mysterious killer they seek. Unless… you want me to divulge certain information to the Tea Party? I assume that’s why you’re here.”

“That and other stuff,” I said. “You can tell the Tea Party that Red Hood is responsible.”

“But don’t point at us specifically,” Deen said. “We’d know who’s responsible if we’re attacked.”

Marlon waved his hand. “The Tea Party wouldn’t dare anger Red Hood. It’s a losing battle, fighting a group of powerful Adumbrae.”

“I’m sure they can wrangle up enough firepower to threaten our boss,” I said. “The Tea Party are mostly humans, but they’re not so helpless. They have augments and weapons. Also, they’re working together with Big Marcy now.”

“Theirs is not an ‘uneasy truce’, as you previously mentioned,” Deen chimed in. “The person killed was a client of Big Marcy. A Tea Party member visited you instead of one of Big Marcy’s underlings. The Tea Party and Big Marcy have formed an alliance.”

I smiled under my mask. Awesome when Deen was supporting me rather than being a pain in the ass.

Marlon shrugged. “They had an uneasy truce. Apparently, the current situation is different. Thank you for updating me.”

“You already knew,” I said.

Marlon raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. His shiny fingers reflected the meager light from a solitary light bulb above us. “I swear that I didn’t know. I never knowingly give the wrong information to anyone. I keep my mouth shut rather than lie.”

“That’s Marlon’s guarded reputation,” said Cecilia. “I think we can say that he’s not lying.”

Marlon grinned. “What scary company you’ve found yourself in, Cecilia. I might meet my end dealing with Red Hood.”

“These girls are quite lovely once you know them,” Cecilia replied.

“Anyway, we need information about the PCM,” I said, before Cecilia could spill anything about us. “The Protectors of the City Movement. They used to be based in La Esperanza.”  

“Cecilia’s former employer?” Marlon leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and weaving his fingers together. He flicked his eyes at Cecilia. “Why don’t you ask her?”

“We’re asking you because she cannot answer our questions,” Deen said. “She doesn’t know what transpired after she had left.”

“You should also know more than me,” said Marlon. “Didn’t Red Hood attack the PCM?”

“There were some… disagreements,” I said, glancing at Cecilia.

I’d clarify to her later that Marlon was referring to Myra. I didn’t want Cecilia to know the truth. Cecilia would put two and two together, and figure out that Red Hood killed her, not the BID. That said, why was the phrase ‘two and two together’, and not any other number? ‘One and one together’ probably didn’t sound catchy enough.

“But it was the BID that brought about the end of the PCM,” I continued. “Agents discovered Cecilia’s experiments. Not a good look at all. And so, BID agents are now hunting PCM members.”

“We want to find the surviving PCM members,” Deen said. “Their hidden communes. Do you have locations?”

“I do…” Marlon pulled out his desk drawer, which was a keyboard. The left side of his desk popped up to reveal that it was a screen.

“That’s fast,” I said. “Did someone ask you to look for these places before us?”

“The PCM communes are not well-kept secrets,” Marlon answered. “Many people come and go there. I have an extensive library of information so I can quickly supply my customers with what they need. As for the payment?”

“We’ve already paid you,” said Deen. “You can complete your contract with the Tea Party.”

“We also gave a lot of freebie info,” I added.

“If I may ask,” said Marlon, “why are you looking for the PCM communes? Will you finally end the PCM on behalf of Red Hood?”

“Nothing like that,” I said. “Red Hood and the PCM weren’t really enemies. We’re looking for a specific PCM member. More freebie info.”

Marlon gestured at his screen. “I can help you find this person.”

“No, thank you,” Deen said. “We don’t want you to know who it is.”

“Anything else I can help you with?” Marlon asked as the stuttering hum of his printer filled the room.

“Project Defiance,” I said. “Can you search stuff about it? It’s supposedly a secret government project. Human experiments and all that.”

“The government has plenty of illegal experiments,” said Marlon. “You’ll have to be more specific than that. Also, what’s the payment?”

“Quote us the amount for your efforts once you have the information,” said Cecilia. “I’ll pay for it.”

Deen and I looked at her. Shocked was the least to describe our reaction. “Is this some kind of scam?” I asked. “You don’t need to pay for this.”

“I’m contributing to the team,” Cecilia simply said.

“Acceptable to me. I’ll see what I can find about Project Defiance. Come by from time to time so I may update you.” Marlon placed a piece of paper on the desk. “Here are the locations of three PCM communes.” The tip of his finger transformed into a pen. He placed a checkmark beside the third item.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“This commune is near a small town sympathetic to the PCM’s beliefs,” said Marlon. “It’s possible that this PCM member you are looking for is staying in the town, camouflaged amongst its populace, instead of at the commune.”

Deen stood up and took the paper. “Thank you. We’ll visit you again.”

“Wait,” I said. “I want to ask about—”

“Some other time.” Deen pulled me with her. Once we exited the clinic, she asked in a whisper, “Was your question about the location of Red Island?”

“If I say no, will you believe me?” I was starting to suspect that Deen could really read my mind.

Deen held up a finger. “One, we’re not going to look for Red Island. Two, don’t make the 2Ms think we’re searching for Red Island. They’ll let Adrian’s death be, but they might attack us if we target their secret base.”

I rolled my eyes. “I won’t look for Red Island, Mom.”

“And lastly,” said Deen. “Cecilia, why did you offer to pay?”

“If I didn’t,” Cecilia said, relaxedly strolled through the street with her arms behind her back, “you would’ve told Marlon about the artificial Cores. Correct?”

“That was the plan,” I replied.

“A similar logic as not looking for Red Island applies,” Cecilia explained. “Marlon can discreetly investigate Project Defiance. Once information about artificial Cores entered the picture, it’ll be an entirely different search. We don’t want others, whoever they may be, to know that we know about artificial Cores.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the quick thinking, Cecilia.” Not sure if compliments worked on her. “Shall we go shop for burner phones?”

-----

The following day, before the sun had risen, I was already preparing for our trip. I packed a couple of outfit changes into a small bag. It wasn’t like we’d be gone for a long time, but I had a feeling my clothes would get ruined. That was the curse the universe had placed on me.

I smiled at the corkboard on my table, filled with notes connected with strings. I made no attempts to hide it. If someone broke into this unit, they could bug the place without our knowledge and listen to all the damning things we’d say. It wouldn’t matter if they found the corkboard or not.   

It wouldn’t fit in my bag anyway.

“Erind?” Deen knocked on my door. “Are you awake?”

I opened the door. “Good morning to you, too. You know that I wake up earlier than you.”

I thought that Deen would engage in some early-morning banter, but her worried face cued me to some incoming headache.

“Come quickly,” Deen said, pulling me out of my room. It seemed to be her hobby to drag me around. “I was watching the news while making coffee and…” She pointed at the TV.

An odd-looking picture. “A sketch of a missing woman? Jane Doe. I don’t know who—” I stopped as I read the caption below.

“If you have any information about this woman,” said the reporter, “you can contact these numbers. The Corebrings request our assistance in finding her as soon as possible.”

“Who might she be?” Cecilia was sitting by the stool next to the island counter, drinking her Adrian-flavored serum. “Someone connected to Red Hood? Or is she Red Hood?”

“I’ve never seen Red Hood’s human face,” I said.

“Have you met her before?” Deen asked.

I shook my head. Deen probably assumed that I had kept secret some shenanigans that involved the Corebrings. But it was the truth that I hadn’t seen this woman before.

“This woman was last seen Saturday night,” said the reporter, “after the Corebrings have defeated the Adumbrae that appeared in Riverly Heights area. She disappeared from the triage tents after she was examined by emergency responders to the—”  

It clicked.

This was my first disguise, right after I wore my third mask.