Chapter 77 – Professional Standards

The chef didn’t know anything. The painting was already gone by the time he got here to cook Arnest’s breakfast. He could be lying, ‘course, but I didn’t think he was. Life wasn’t like a radio play where everything got to be tied up neatly in the end.

Thankfully, we weren’t without clues entirely. Harkness managed to get something on the camera feeds. The actual feeds were deleted, but a high class apartment building like Arnest’s naturally had backups to their security systems. Those were also scrubbed, but the backup backups hadn’t been touched.

An Anarch was spotted in the building’s lobby incredibly early this morning, disappeared off the feed just long enough to get up to the penthouse and back, then left like he hadn’t done anything. Oh, and with a painting tucked under his arms. Could be a coincidence, but probably wasn’t.

“You sure this is the place, Reyna?” Quinn asked me. She pushed the door of the SUV shut behind her, and moved around to the trunk alongside me.

”We’re close.” I popped open the trunk and retrieved my gear. We stopped by Harbor HQ to get kitted up just in case. We were in a parking garage off to the south east of the city.

“Lot’s of clubs around here.” Quinn looked past me out toward the street. Just like the north of the city, this place also had a sprawling nightlife. Only—the nightlife here was much seedier. The scent of drugs, bile, and alcohol mixed into a permanent scent that contaminated the air. Even the fresh rain couldn’t push it back.

”The Pikers run the streets here… we should be fine.” Harbor agents went mostly uncontested, even by criminal organizations in most cases. It was one of those unspoken arrangements of if we weren’t here for you, we wouldn’t mess with each other. Assuming the other side wasn’t blatantly trashing the law, ‘course.

I used to hate that when we first started. The PK were technically supposed to deal with organized crime, but if we were there we should do something. Nowadays, it was just extremely convenient. Especially when we were busy enough trying to track down a Beyond, Calamity, or anomaly.

”I kinda hope they make trouble.” Quinn leaned against the SUV next to me, and crossed her arms over her ballistic vest.

“I’d rather not have to write more reports.” I tossed her a file, and tied my curly silver hair into a ponytail where it’d be out of my way. I flipped up a Harbor hat and secured it on my head. “Ryan Conway… or Ghostscale. We ran into him about a year back, remember?”

”Yeah… I think so. He was swiping stuff from a museum, wasn’t he?” She popped open the file and glanced through it. We’d already discussed it in depth on the way here, but a little refresher never hurt. “Still hard to believe this guy isn’t an Apex.”

I checked to make sure the safety was on, and leaned over her shoulder. A picture of a lithe man with a lizard tail sat paper clipped to the front of the file. ”That’d be CE-4143, Gecho.”

He was a Reaver—someone who consumed a Calamity to join the ranks of Beyonders. Reavers were… Well, not all of them were career criminals. Just most of them considering step one was committing a federal crime. They also had a nasty habit of being volatile. And yet somehow Psykers were more hated.

Quinn rubbed at her arms. “You sure he’ll be around here?”

”He’s that way.” I nodded down to the rain-slicked street below us. Thanks to the video feed Harkness managed to get us, it was pretty easy to track him down. Most people didn’t change their clothes during the day.

“You’re as helpful as always, Reyna.” Quinn snapped the file shut, and tossed it into the back of the SUV. She popped the trunk of the SUV closed. ”Sylvie got your mom’s claw Aspect, right? Did our dad have a tracking Aspect then?”

Something about the way she said that made me a bit wary. I side-eyed her for a moment before shaking my head. What was I doing being paranoid of her all the sudden? “It’s not strictly hereditary. He had a better sense of smell, though, so kinda?”

”Interesting…” Quinn mumbled while side eyeing me weirdly. She quickly changed the subject. “Let’s get going.”

It wasn’t all that hard to find him. We slunk down the street entirely uncontested. As expected, to be honest. Most of the rats went scurrying back into their hidey holes once they realized Harbor was stomping around.

A duo of gangers wearing masks leaned against the mouth of an alleyway with a flaming barrel in between them. The area right around them was covered in piker graffiti, and even the two ment themselves held the weapons associated with the Pikers. They suddenly found the flames very interesting, and bowed their heads in prayer.

We found him standing in an alley with his arm caged around a woman nervously looked up at him. Her shoulders trembled, and it looked like she would bolt at any feeling. Deep within her eyes, though, there was a hunger as his tail wrapped around her thigh.

“The lady looks uncomfortable,” Quinn called out into the alleyway.

“Looks can be deceiving.” The lizardman’s shoulders tensed up, and his arm dropped to swing by his side. The woman, now no longer caged in by him, took one look at us and scrambled past us out of the alley. “Teressa just likes to play hard to get. Make her feel special like I hadn’t just wasted a hundred credits on her.”

“Conway?” I asked with one of my ears cocked to the side. Last time he had on tac armor and a mask. This time, he just had on a puffy tech jacket and shades. What a maniac to be wearing shades while it was raining.

“Who’s asking? Wait, let me guess. One.” He lifted a finger toward us as if telling us to wait a second. His other hand popped up and mirrored the motion. ”And that makes two. To what do I owe the pleasure of a Harbor visit? Other than blue balling me, ‘course.”

“Why do you think?” I asked back. We had on Harbor jackets, so it wasn’t like he was a master of deduction. Still, I watched him warily for any sudden movements. Something told me he had more tricks up his sleeve compared to the last time we dealt with him. He looked more… confident?

”Well, I just paid you dogs off—“ He cut himself off with a sharp laugh. “Ah, wait, no. You don’t seem like normal collectors.”

”You’re paying Harbor off?” Quinn asked, though didn’t look surprised. We both knew the waters below Harbor were unfortunately deep. “If you tell us who, we might go easy on you.”

”Tempting, Guardian.” He tilted his sunglasses down, and eyed her from head to toe. “I’d love for you to go easy on me. Or hard? Hard might be more fun.”

“Ugh…” I shook my head in disgust. “Look, you’re a person of interest in a robbery. Just tell us what we want to know.”

”Trust me, the interest is mutual. Hey, I remember you, Canary. Broke my arm the last time we met.” His heavy eyes—chrome I realized after a moment—shifted to me. He chomped in my direction, and winked. “I’m willing to forgive. Being manhandled has its own charm.”

“I’ll break more than just your arm this time.” Quinn shifted, and her halo popped out. The swirling pools of light cast a glue glow across the side of my face. “Or you could tell us what we want to know.”

”Ah, bad cop.” He sighed heavily like the world was out to get him, and his eyes sharpened ever so slightly. Although we were verbally dancing around the matter, Quinn revealed her hand first. “Unfortunately, I don’t know nothing.”

“That’s what you said when we caught you smuggling art out of a museum, too.” I didn’t actually remember him talking all that much back then, but I did remember writing out the report. My laptop kept dying, so I had to rewrite it all again and again. “If you’re willing to help us, we could work out some kind of deal.”

“And you must be good cop?” He grinned at the two of us. “I’m innocent, honest. If I can help my friends at Harbor, though, I’d really love to.”

Ah, there we are. It was all a matter of benefits to this guy. “Do you know Professor Arnest?”

”Can’t say I do?” He scratched his head and leaned against the alley wall. “I’m sure he’s a lovely guy.”

”He’s dead.” Quinn cut to the chase immediately.

“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re after.” He quit pretending to have no idea why we were here. “A professional has to have standards, you know?”

At least he had some standards. As far as his file went, he wasn’t lying either. He had enough charges to put him away for a seriously long time, but murder wasn’t one of them. Or, at least, no murder had been tied back to him yet. “You were last seen at his apartment, and our only lead on his death.”

”He was dead when I got there.” Conway lifted his hands into the air in surrender. His tail flicked up alongside them.

“And you were there for…”

”C’mon. I feel like that’s quite obvious. Ah! Anymore would be violating client-thief confidentiality.” His hands dropped, and he stuffed them into his pockets. “Now, I really must be going—“

“Like we’d just let an Anarch walk out of here.” Quinn stepped in front of him to cut off his escape route. “Who hired you?”

“I don’t know.” Conway sighed, and shook his head. “If I knew this job would get Harbor on me, I wouldn’t have taken it.”

I dropped my hand down onto my rifle hanging from my strap. My ears pinned back aggressively. ”That’s not good enough of an answer. What were they after? The painting?”

“You know I can’t answer that, Canary.” Conway took a step back. “I’m really trying to be amiable. Harbor and I—we have a good relationship. Let’s not ruin that for something so small.”

“Whoever you’re paying off will be brought in too.” We’d talk to Harkness about this and see what could be done. It was only a matter of time—

“Hah! You really believe that?” Conway blatantly disregarded my words. His tail flicked and swayed behind him almost mockingly. “My, what a naive little wolf. If you bring me in, you’ll find me hanging in my cell come morning. Oh, right. I’m not suicidal nor have I ever been. Well, at least not in the past couple years.”

“They’d kill you over just a painting?” He had a point. I couldn’t exactly defend Harbor’s honor and say we had no agents from other organizations. Hell, I was a lieutenant for the Hades Syndicate. Where there was one, there was bound to be more.

”This and that are totally unrelated. You know how it is for those of us who know too much. Probably wouldn’t make it to nightfall.” He raised his hand over his head, and mimed himself being hung. “I’d rather that not happen, naturally.”

”Maybe we look the other way if you just give us information.” I offered. It was the only way I could think of where all three of us got out of this at least somewhat happy.

“Or not. Prostitution, thievery, bribery—you’re running up quite the rap sheet.” Quinn didn’t seem to care about my offer. “This is your last chance before we bring you in by force. We’ll put you in witness protection. There’s programs for people like you—”

”Fuck!” He took a step back, and crouched low. His amiable approach totally shattered. “You sure you want to do this? Even a rat will bite back when cornered.”

“Tack on threatening a Harbor agent.” Quinn’s halo pulsed dimly, and water started to flow from around the alley up behind us. “It’s all up to you. Who hired you? What were you hired to steal?”

”We can still work something out!” I tried one last time. I had first hand experience how demeaning it was to be told there were programs for people like us. ‘Sides, as far as Anarchs went, this guy was just a hired thief. I was willing to be a little more lenient.

If he was really worried about being hung in his cell, I might even be able to pull some strings. If he told me who they were, I could pass that info to Hades. Removing another organizations assets would help all parties.

”I think it's too late.” Quinn stepped in front of me protectively. “‘Sides, this Anarch doesn’t want to come politely.”

“You’re making a mistake.” He hissed, and his eyes narrowed on us. His eyes darted to me, and I could practically see the plan building in his head. Did he still think I was the weakest link? Even after last time?

”You’re coming with us.” Quinn flicked her hand forward. The surging water around us moved violently. “One way or another.”

”I’ll have to pick the other.” He opened his mouth wide like he was about to scream—and it was instantly plugged by a flood of water before he could let out the sonic attack that Gecho’s were known for.

He struggled with the water filling his mouth for only a moment before a ring on his finger flashed red. Glowing runes circled around the gold band in the tell tale sign of an enchantment. A fireball erupted, and slammed into the tide of water rushing at him. Steam immediately hissed, and swallowed the entire alleyway.