Chapter 32

After my search of Marduk’s corpse yielded nothing else of interest, Victoria convinced me that her forensic team would do a much better job in investigating the necromancer’s origins than I could. As to whether I would have access to such findings, that was another matter altogether.

My heightened sense of smell allowed me to detect the faintest hint of fresh air, allowing us to find the nearest exit to the sewers that didn’t involve wading neck-deep into zombies. No words were exchanged as we swiftly made our way through the damp, still tunnels. With every step, I could feel Dexter’s eyes prickling the back of my neck, though his eyes still gave that same relaxed, friendly smile whenever I turned my head around.

It was an uncomfortable silence, to say the least. It made my skin crawl.

On the other hand, I was surprised by how grateful I felt towards Victoria’s nonchalant attitude, almost as though she’d forgotten all that had transpired down in these zombie-infested tunnels. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Still, this pleasant fiction allowed me a welcome respite from the storm assaulting my sanity as I grappled with too many questions that had no easy answers.

When we emerged back into the streets, I breathed in the world again with a grateful sigh. The pervasive stench of decay still followed me like a second skin, but I could do without all the refuse and sewage, thank you very much.

It all came to a boil as Victoria calmly wiped her MP-5 submachine gun and stowed it in the weapons locker at the back of the SUV. Dexter suddenly placed his hand on the door just before Victoria snapped it shut. A mild suggestion that keeping her weapons within easy reach might be well advised under the circumstances was met by a frigid glare from Victoria.

It quickly went downhill from there. Victoria pointed out that at least one of them should guard the sewer entrance while reinforcements arrived. Warnings about the very real zombie menace needed to be given. Evidence would have to be secured. Paperwork would need to be filed.

“I don’t give a damn about the fucking paperwork, Agent Song! That’s not what this is about and you know it!”

Nonsurplused, Victoria just raised an eyebrow. “Then clearly state your objection, Agent Kelly - and be quick about it, if you please.”

If Dexter’s scalp wasn’t shaven bald already, he’d be pulling at his hair right about now.

“I can’t leave y.. He’s not.. Damn it, it’s too dangerous for you to do this alone!”

“I’ll be escorting Kai to the safehouse and rendezvous with you once the situation stabilizes. I hardly see the problem.”

Dexter growled under his breath before whirling on me and pointing a quivering finger in my direction.

“The problem? You know damn well what the problem is. The whole fucking world is the problem. Every federal agency is on the hunt for him and his girlfriend, including our bosses. Hell, we’re not talking about just losing our jobs. We’re talking conspiracy and treason, just to start. That’s enough for serious jail time, and you know what they do to feds in-”

“You knew the risks and what was involved all along, yet you still came - against my wishes, if I recall correctly. So just say it. Tell me what’s really bothering you.”

“Fine. Fine!” Dexter said as he threw his arms up in the air, his expression twisting into a pained grimace. “I just don’t trust him. There, I said it. I was supposed to be adding the final coat of paint to my Gundam Wing S limited-edition figurine tonight. Instead, I’m wading through rat-infested sewers, suplexing zombies, and playing dodgeball with acid-lobbing necromancers with a fetish for freshly decapitated heads. And you know what? The most dangerous part of the night is this bastard right here - no offense.”

“None taken,” I replied impassively.

I noticed the dangerous glimmer in Victoria’s eyes and so must have Dexter, because he quickly continued before his partner had a chance to cut him off.

“Agent Song. Victoria, please. You of all people should realize this is completely nuts. You’re not only aiding and abetting a known fugitive of the law, he may also be a danger to himself and those around him.”

“So, it’s about Kai.”

“Of-fucking-course it’s about Kaizer! Who else? What other most wanted, supernaturally endowed, ominous non-human creature do you see around here?”

“So Kai’s gotten a little stronger-” Victoria said calmly.

“He ripped a parking meter off the concrete sidewalk with his bare hands. Then he used it to casually bat zombies away like he was at Dodger Stadium. He single-handedly smashed through a magic shield both our guns couldn’t leave a dent on. Need I go on?”

“So what’s your point?”

Even I was taken aback at how blase and matter-of-fact her tone was, as though all these things were normal and to be expected - like talking about the weather and the price of gas over morning coffee.

“He’s dangerous and you know it.”

“I do, as a matter of fact. More than you could ever know, Agent Kelly.”

She did? Then why did she treat me as though I were a toddler waddling around in the big boys’ playground for the first time?

“Then why? Why take all these risks? Why go this far? Just give him the keys to one of our supply stashes and point him to the safe house. So why, Victoria?”

Victoria just looked back at her partner without a word.

“I could just rat you out, you know? Tell Chief Pascal that his protege has finally screwed it up big time.”

Still silence.

“I could have the both of you taken into custody, get the credit for capturing a most wanted fugitive, hell, even have a crack at what the hell is happening to the world.”

Dexter matched gazes with Victoria for one final moment before his chest deflated and his shoulders slumped.

“They’re gonna take away our badges, lock us up, and throw away the keys, you know? We’ll watch the whole world melting into a puddle from behind bars.”

Victoria didn’t even crack a smile. “Is that all you needed to get off your chest?”

Dexter shrugged. “Suppose so.”

“Good,” Victoria said, tipping her head in my direction. “We can’t afford to be spotted, so we’ll rendezvous at the safe house at 0200.”

“Shepherd the SWAT team, sweep the sewers, search for evidence, file a gazillion pages of paperwork - all in just under 5 hours? Sure, why the hell not.”

Finally, Victoria smiled. “See you in 5. Let’s go, Kai.”

Dexter caught me by the shoulder just as I began to turn away.

“Don’t fuck this up, you hear me?”

“Huh?”

“Shit, why do I even bother? Just watch out for her, alright? She’s clearly not at her best when she’s around you. It’s been.. Tough for her, these few years. And she deserves better. Much better.”

“She does,” I agreed.

The concrete jungle that was the heart of Los Angeles didn’t seem much different in a physical sense. The bright orange lights lining up the sides of the road like an endless low-budget afterparty celebrating just another night alive; the pock-marked roads, uneven from years of continuous patching to keep the arteries of the city from clogging up; even the shopfronts with signs new and old, blending into a collage of human dreams, desires, and temptations that peddled everything from vintage clothes to Italian supercars.

It was all still there, but there was just one thing missing: the people. It was as though I were gazing upon a desiccated corpse that had long been leeched dry of the vital lifeblood that sustained it. Without it, the city lay vacant and hollow, a fragile husk of its former self.

Even the silence was unsettling and eerie, only cut off by the occasional siren or alarm wailing in the distance, which only served to lend a more urgent feel to the near-palpable state of fear that seemed to have settled upon the City of Angels.

Then again, maybe it was just me suffocating under the still silence that hung between us as Victoria sped us past hauntingly empty roads and intersections. We hadn't even exchanged a word when we switched cars half-way through the trip.

“We’re here,” she said simply as the car finally pulled to a stop.

We’d just entered the garage of a nondescript building in the industrial part of East LA. From the outside, it was hard to tell whether it was just another abandoned building or the grimy storefront for an illegal drug trafficking operation.

“Hey, are you alright?” Victoria asked when I didn’t respond.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. Just trying to take it all in.” I ran a hand through my hair and suddenly remembered I’d never worn my hair this long while I’d still been.. Alive? Was this even my hair? Even Victoria must have found the sight of me staring at own my own hair strange.

“Kai, let’s get you a hot shower and a fresh change of clothes. That always helps.”

Her voice was softer and gentler than I could recall, and the offer was more tempting than I cared to admit, so I nodded without a word as I followed her out of the car.

Minutes later I was standing naked as piping hot water scalded my skin but wasn't enough to produce any pain. Its absence was an unwelcome reminder that I was no longer just me, just Kaizer Lee. I’d become something more - or less, depending on your interpretation.

I was startled out of my own thoughts by a quiet knock on the door.

“Hey, you alright in there?”

I nearly jumped, but still managed to keep my voice even as I answered.

“Yeah, fine, fine. What’s up?”

“You’ve been in there for almost 20 minutes, which is 10 minutes is longer than you’ve ever spent for a shower. I figured I'd check up on you.”

“Oh, thanks. I’m alright, I’ll be out right away.”

“No, it’s fine. Take your time. I’ll be waiting- ah, clothes. I mean, there are fresh clothes waiting for you just outside the door.”

“Okay. Thank you, Vicky.”

“No problem.”

My hands curled into fists at my sides as I gazed at the door, feeling lost and miserable, but suddenly not so lonely anymore. That’s when I heard the soft thump of flesh landing against wood at the other side of the door. It would have been inaudible to human ears, but for me it was as clear as the knocking earlier had been.

“Kai..”

I almost answered without thinking, but then realized her voice was barely a whisper and it was unlikely that even Victoria could hear her own words.

“Kai.. You’re finally back.. Why now? Why?”

Words that were never meant for my ears rang louder than any shouts could have been, sending tremors down into my chest, where they thumped painfully against my chest.

At least this was a kind of pain that hadn’t been taken from me.

After putting on a fresh change of clothes, I emerged into a starkly furnished living room that I wasn’t sure reminded me more of a typical government safehouse or Victoria’s own austere decorating preference. There was only a single lamp leaning against a corner of the room. Two desks each had several monitors and a handful of devices scattered on their surface. Two corresponding chairs made up the entirety of the furnishings for the room, which was decidedly spartan even by FBI standards.

“I see that someone still thinks coffee tables are a waste of money and space, huh?”

Victoria didn’t even spare me a glance as she continued busily clattering away at a keyboard on one of the desks.

“Not part of my job description, last time I checked. Babysit most wanted fugitives and bust necromantic rings in fetid sewage tunnels, sure. Go shopping at IKEA for an overpriced, glorified stool? No thanks.”

“Shopping? Forget that, we’re in the 21st century. A couple clicks and they’ll deliver right to your door.”

“Which would defeat the whole purpose of a safe house,” Victoria said, still busy with staring at her monitor.

“Never thought I’d see one of these safe houses outside of movies, you know?”

“Yeah? So what do you think? Impressed yet?”

“Oh yeah, the water pressure from the brand new Hydra Shower King 5000 was the next thing to bathing under the torrents of the Amazon River’s flood waters, just like the commercial.”

Victoria finally made a face.

“Dexter’s touch, I take it?”

“I had to sit through a 10-minute powerpoint presentation advocating that the additional water pressure would facilitate a faster and more efficient self-cleaning process. Which is bullshit, and we both knew it. But it does feel nice, doesn’t it?”

“Some of the best used 2,000 bucks in recent memory, if I do say so myself.”

“3,000, actually. Agent Kelly said they’d been imported from Sweden.”

“Oh joy, Swiss showerhead technology at its pinnacle. Lucky me. What’s next?”

“We have an 800 Euro Danish toaster and a 450,000 Yen fully automated espresso machine if you want to really dive headlong into the decadent life of the rich and infamous.”

“Jesus, I guess now I know where all my taxes are going,” I said, whistling through my teeth in order to disguise the sudden pang of hunger that hit me like a kick to the gut.

“Relax, it all came from Agent Kelly’s own pockets. Me, I’m still living paycheck to paycheck while paying off my student loans. Living the American dream and all that jazz.”

“Yeah, I noticed Dexter’s two thousand dollar Armani slacks. What’s the story behind that?” I said as I pulled myself closer, glancing over Victoria’s shoulder and finding an incomprehensible babble of numbers and figures flickering past the monitor at a speed that frankly would have seemed inhuman before my upgraded sense of sight.

“Agent Kelly? It’s no big secret. In fact, he’s almost delightfully blase about the fact that he was adopted as a child by a disgustingly wealthy Scottish couple who have set up several hefty stock options and investment portfolios under his name scattered across a wide variety of industries all around the globe.”

“Then why is he in the FBI?”

“He says it’s the excitement, as one thing he cannot stand is boredom. In truth though, I suspect it’s his love-hate relationship with conspiracy theories and the unknown that really drive him.”

“You mean to tell me he’s a millionaire brat who risks life and limb on a daily basis just because of his curiosity?”

“That’s pretty much it, yeah.”

I was about to comment on the insanity of such a lifestyle, but then my stomach chose that moment to loudly growl its discontent. With the hunger, a pleasant scent of food drifted into my nostrils and made me salivate.

Great, now I was drooling over Victoria?

That’s not what made me frown, however. My food, it smelled wrong.

It was burnt.

I reached out with my hand and laid it on her shoulder. A soft cry of pain escaped her lips before she could help herself and she glared up at me from under furrowed eyebrows.

“What are you doing?”

“That’s what I should be asking!” I growled furiously as I ignored her protests and peeled back her jacket, exposing angry red skin by her neck that was layered with blisters and sores. “What are you thinking, ignoring burns this bad?”

“I’m fine, they're just surface burns,” she said, trying to shrug of me off.

“Stop!” I said, grabbing hold of her both her hands and glaring into her eyes with all the anger that had come flooding through before I’d realized it. “These are second-degree burns! This is serious, you need to go to a hospital.”

“Fuck tha.. H-Hey, what are you doing?”

Ignoring her repeated questions, I carefully cast off the rest of her jacket away and folded back the top of her shirt’s shoulder, exposing more burned skin. I looked up accusingly at her.

“You told me you were fine!”

“I did, and I am!” she responded, unrepentant.

“God, you’re impossible! At least stay still so I can look at you properly,” I said, just now noticing that the burns were even more extensive than I’d thought. They began at her left shoulder and ran all the way down her arm. It was a wonder that she’d been able to shoot straight back in the sewers, let alone headshot the bastard. “It was that damn necromancer’s fire, wasn’t it?”

“It just clipped me. Maybe it was a little hotter than I would have expected,” she said, finally giving up and resigning herself under my ministrations. “I’m actually surprised the jacket didn’t catch on fire. Maybe it was all the damn sewage I had to roll through to avoid those zombies.”

“You’re surprised you didn’t catch on fire?” I said wonderingly, shaking my head as I searched a nearby first aid kit. “And you’re still saying you’re fine?”

“Because I am. Movement impairment is almost non-existent. I’m still capable of performing at top combat efficiency, given some painkilling medication and-”

The last of it was cut off by an angry hiss.

“Sorry,” I said, biting my tongue between my teeth as I carefully applied some antibiotic gel to her skin.

“It’s fine,” Victoria said, “just get it over with- Ow!”

“Sorry,” I repeated, concentrating harder and finding that superhuman reflexes didn’t help my clumsy hands one bit.

Victoria didn’t say anything as she gazed at the floor, her breathing rapid and shallow. That’s when I noticed that due to some additional shuffling, her bra was now out in the open, exposing the creamy skin of the upper slopes of her breasts.

“S-Sorry,” I blurted out, stammering as I quickly looked up and found Victoria staring at me straight in the eyes. “I didn’t- I didn’t mean to..”

“What’s the big deal. They’re just breasts and you’re a guy, get over it,” Victoria said, matter-of-fact about it. “Can we just move this along? I’ll let you stare at them all you want later, but I really need to get back to the EF systems report.”

“Uh, okay?” My mouth and mind meant one thing, but my eyes kept doing their own thing. Suffice to say, it didn’t help the treatment at all.

“You know, my bra’s not going to come undone no matter how hard to stare at it.”

“What?” I nearly dropped the pack of anti-burn gel in my hands. “What do you mean?”

Victoria just rolled her eyes.

“I was not- I mean, I’m not staring.”

“Uh-huh, sure you were.”

“Fine, I was just, ah, admiring, you know? Like, you have very nice, ah, breasts. Very symmetrical, great proportions..”

My voice trailed off as I promptly realized I was just digging myself further into the hole. I peeked up at her and was relieved to find that Victoria’s eyes were calmly reading the EF systems report displayed on the monitor, whatever that was.

I was just about to let out a tiny sigh of relief when I heard Victoria’s voice again.

“I wonder, just when did you turn into such a pocket pervert?”

She was still working on her computer, displaying not even a hitch to her voice while she casually called me..

“A what?”

“Ow! Watch it!”

“Sorry!” I tried to focus completely on the task at hand.

“I don’t get it, you know,” came her voice a while later, the words soft and low. “You’ve seen me naked before, after all. Multiple times, as a matter of fact. So what’s the big deal about some breasts?”

That brought some memories that I couldn’t afford to think about right now. Not now, perhaps not ever. I raised my eyes only to find Victoria busily shuffling through several still images and video files.

“Stop!”

My sudden cry froze Victoria for a second before she turned to gaze questioningly at me.

“What is it?”

“Go back. No, not that one. This window. The video file from before. Yeah, that’s the one. Now freeze!”

Victoria pursed her lips while her eyes flickered between my face and the monitor before us.

“Is that really her?” I asked, almost breathless.

Victoria’s answer came after a long moment of silence.

“Yeah, that’s her,” she said quietly, then turned to look at me. “You should know that better than anyone, no?”

My eyes were consumed in studying every detail of the image displayed upon the monitor. I was drinking in the sight set before my eyes like a parched man stumbling upon an oasis in the middle of a desert.

“Allie,” I whispered.