The Moros Murders

Cassius

When she fell, instinctively, I caught her. I felt an intense need to stop the blood pouring from her nose, eyes and ears. I wanted to help her. I owed her. The goblin at the table closest to me started muttering something in a language I didn’t understand. He and the Rakians across the room, along with most of the bar’s other clientele, began to move in on us. I wasn’t sure why until I saw their Tycoon bracelets flashing. My own began flashing, and I started to sweat when I realised who the bounty was. A hologram of Medea, shone from my bracelet, underneath, there was a 100,000 credits bounty on her head. Someone had sent the biggest bounty I’d ever seen out to every bounty hunter and assassin with a Tycoon bracelet. Half the Dregs would be after her.

I drew my pistol, draping one of her arms around my shoulder. “We’ll be on our way,” I said, confidently in an attempt to get them to back off.

“I don’t think so,” A scarred up Rakian said, licking his lips whilst pointing a shotgun at us. I looked around calmly trying to figure out what to do. My eyes landed on the half drunk bottle of rum on the bar. I holstered my pistol and the hunters seemed to relax a little. Discreetly, I clicked the button on the side of my wrist crossbow. This changed the ammo to magic fire needles. Swiftly I swiped the bottle off of the counter and flung it at the group of hunters, straightening my wrist and shot at the flying bottle. As the needle pierced the bottle, the alcohol ignited and it exploded. The hunters dived for cover, giving us a window to escape.

I swept a still unconscious Medea Moros into my arms and headed towards the back door. The smoke began to clear and some of the hunters had gotten their bearings back. As I got to the door, they began shooting and a bullet grazed my shoulder as I passed through. I pushed a shelving unit and it fell down in front of the door. I narrowly avoided a spray of bullets as I searched for the exit. I came to a bolted door deep in the alcohol cellar. Keeping one arm around Medea to keep her from falling, I let her feet down and slid the bolt across, opening the door.

I exited the grungy room into the chilly night air. I heard footsteps and voices coming from the end of the alley I was in. I knew it was just moments until we were surrounded, I didn’t have a choice, I lay Medea on the floor gently. I took a few steps away from her and focused my mind, taking a deep breath. The pain came before the smoke. It seared through my veins, boiled in my chest and made every muscle tense. I felt it sliding beneath my skin and tearing through me like talons. I doubled over as black smoke spun from my fingertips and swirled around me. My vision seemed to blur as wings shot from my back, pushing me forward onto all fours. The smoke continued to pour from my body as a glossy, hard shell encased me. When the transformation was complete, I dared to glance at myself in a nearby puddle and what stared back at me wasn’t human.

Where I had been standing, a black dragon figured itself out. Its scales were smooth and glinted in the sunlight streaming through the window, and its large green eyes studied me curiously. It was about the size of two large horses, with powerful wings that promised speed and agility. I inspected myself in the reflection, forgetting the impending situation of doom. I’m a shifter, class A. I’ve been a lot of things, but never a dragon. I didn’t even mean to do it, I wasn’t aware that it was possible. I caught sight of Medea, and was dragged back to what was going on.

The hunters were close, the shadows of their silhouettes protruding from the alley’s entrance. I inched forward and carefully picked up Medea in my front paws, silently praying they could not see us. Quickly, I leapt forward and beat my wings once, vigorously enough to propel us into the air. I heard them scream as my shadow passed over them and stopped myself in a hover, towering over them with fully extended wings. My jet black scales sparkled a brilliant sapphire hue in the light of the moon. I let out a horrifying screech that made the hunters cower in fear. They all began trembling and stepped back as I opened my maw to unleash a powerful ball of white-hot fire at their feet, the blazing light so hot it lit up the whole clearing like day. The force of the blast sent them flying back, and set a brilliant green flame burning between us.

I propelled myself into the sky with such force and speed, the fire ceased to burn. My colour and speed made me near invisible in the night sky. I didn’t have too much of a problem with getting used to the mechanics of flying as I’d done it before, as a bird. I arrived at the apartment in less than a minute. I landed on the roof and shifted back, I was happy to see my clothes and weapons as I’d left them. I lifted Medea from the floor and entered the building through the door on the roof, which opened to a small shabby, one bedroom apartment on the top floor and set her down on the bed.

This was Mory’s house, he would usually let me stay if I couldn’t handle my mum anymore. He left it to me in his will. It’s actually where I was planning on going that night so luckily I had the key. This was Upper Dregs, no one would come looking for her here, and no one knows that I’m here. I took a bowl from the cupboard and filled it with water, and took the cleanest cloth I could find from the draw.

Her once golden, tawny complexion had turned grey. The blood had begun to dry, spattered on her face. With her colourless clothes, she looked like one of those black and white cartoons, where the only colour is the blood. I wet the cloth and began cleaning the blood off of her face, somehow, she’d already developed a fever. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but I did know that if those bounty hunters found her like that, she’d be feckless.

I was curious as to why there was suddenly a hit on Medea. From what I heard, the client wanted her alive. But to put that big of a bounty on her, she must’ve done something that really spooked him. My mother wouldn’t have put that high of a bounty on her, besides she’d just ask me to do it. This must have come from the client: maybe he knew that she was getting close. But how would he know? I didn’t even know. Unless they know each other.

My guess was that Medea didn’t want me, well she had made that obvious by the fact that she didn’t kill me, she wanted the one who paid the bills. If I knew, I’d tell her the second she woke up. But I didn’t and this job was so high profile that my mother didn’t even trust me with the clients name. Medea would never know his name. Unless I found it for her.

I received a lot of concerned glances as I strolled through the lobby of the Syndicate headquarters. I can only assume that they all heard about my fleet of breakdowns yesterday. I think it’s fair to worry that your company’s top assassin - and probably the most dangerous person in the building after the big dog - is a head case. I tried my best to avoid eye contact with everyone, I didn’t need to feel any worse than I already did. I reached the elevator and had to wait for what felt like years, before I could escape behind the brass doors.

I pressed the down button to go to the cellar. A red light flashed on the screen. I took off my necklace, a two inch long metal cylinder with various engravings on a leather thread. I inserted the free end of the cylinder into the hole on the panel and a voice spoke. “Hello, Sicarius. Enter password.” I entered my seven digit code into the keypad. “Thank you, confirm identity.” I looked up at the camera in the corner and saluted to her. “Identity confirmed. Greetings Sicarius.” The elevator began moving.

“How are you Diedre?” I asked the A.I, after all, she was the most human person in this building.

“I’m excellent Sicarius, thank you for asking. My scanners are saying that your heart rate is elevated and that you’ve lost roughly 5 kilos since last week. Have you been eating properly and getting the recommended hours of sleep?” The robot is the only one other than Mory that ever checks on me. Sad, right?

“I’ve been having a hard time with sleep this week Dee.”

“If you need to talk to someone because of last week’s job or to help you to deal with Mory’s death, I can book you an appointment with a local councillor under the radar,” she sounded concerned.

“Thanks for the offer Dee, but I’m fine,” I turned her down. I hadn’t the time to be seeing shrinks.

“Why did you lie to me?” she questioned.

“I’m not lying Dee.”

“With your history, and with all that’s happened this past week, also the rate that you have been devolving the last few days. I estimate that there’s an 83 percent chance that you are a suicide risk,” she stated.

“I can’t die yet, I’ve got things to do first,” I reassured her and I suppose myself. I stepped through the doorway into a long, narrow room lined with steel shelves overflowing with boxes of paper records. At the centre of the room was an imposing computer system complete with large monitors. My heart raced as I sat down at the desk and logged into the computer. My hands trembled as my fingers hovered over the keyboard while I searched for the file I sought. When I found it, I clicked on it and held my breath as images flashed on the screen— the ghastly images that haunted my dreams every night. The dead.

I clicked from the pictures to the brief. On the file was my code name, a written statement of how it went down. I was supposed to write it but I was in such a state after the job, I could barely hold the pen. Mory wrote it for me, while I explained. Under where the client’s name should have been, was a black box. For some reason I wasn’t surprised, but it was weird. We keep all kinds of information about our clients, in case they get cold feet or panic after the job. Blackmail material to ensure that if they did try to turn us in, it would be mutually assured destruction.

“Dee, get me everything we have on the Moros Murders,” I commanded, spinning in my chair.

“You’re looking at it,” she spoke back near instantly.

“What do you mean? This is all there is?” Normally, case files would be a lot more padded.

“I’m sorry Sicarius, I’ve searched the entire database, that’s the only file.”

“That’s not possible, what about the client?” Confusion was painted over my features.

“Whoever the client is, they’re not in the files,” Diedre spoke apologetically.

“Why is nothing ever easy?” I said angrily to no one in particular. I rolled my chair to the file locator and typed in the file number. I found the box containing the file and began sifting through it.

“Sicarius, maybe you should leave this alone. If his name isn’t in the file, that might mean he’s dangerous. You need to move on from this job.”

I found the file, but it was exactly the same as the computerised one, no client. “Dee, I want you to search through the entire database, how many jobs are missing the client’s name?”

“Three,” she responded after a moment.

“Pull them up on the screen.” Three cases: a teenager made to look like suicide; A teacher made to look like an accident; and the Moros’. “Dee, what’s the connection?”

“There isn’t one, they seem like routine jobs.”

“If they were routine, the client’s name would be on there. Can we get access to the P.C.G.A files?” I chewed my thumbnail anxiously.

“There, on the screen.”

“Thanks luv.” The student had been killed earlier that year, he would’ve been in the same school year as Medea. “Where did the kid go to school?”

“The Shelves,” Deidre responded.

“Dee, Medea goes to The Shelves. I remember from when I was researching the job. The teacher, did he work there?” I asked hopefully.

“For three years.”

“Oh my gods, the benefactor’s a student. If Medea was at school yesterday, they might have talked. If so, whatever she did or said must’ve spooked him. That’s a big bounty. Dee, the guy we’re looking for has money. Look for anyone with a bank balance big enough to pay it and not make a dent,” I instructed.

“It’s a private school, many kids there are lords and ladies, heirs to fortunes,” she explained

“Dammit!” Furiously, I threw the file off of the desk, “This guy must have a go between, he wouldn’t have dealt with us himself. Uppers tend to have rats in the Guards Alliance. Who were the responding detectives at each scene?”

“Detective, there was just one. Detective Ivan Reickon was the first on each of the scenes.”

“Who was Mory meeting that night?”

“I’m sorry?”

“The night he died; he was meeting someone. That’s how she found him; she followed the person he was meeting. She must’ve.”

“Who?”

“Medea! Who did he meet?”

“It was Detective Reickon.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t say.”

“Thanks Dee,” I said as I walked towards the elevator. It was time to pay Detective Ivan Reickon a visit.