Soraya

 

It was Tuesday night, two hours before I had a “date” with the vigilante and I was losing my nerve to go. Putting on some Bach, I tried to let that heady and ragged violin music soothe my fractured soul, but I couldn’t think straight.

After an intense four hours of creeping home through the streets of Boston, trying to make sure Evie and her two bear brothers weren’t on my tail, I’d collapsed into bed after peeling off my soaking wet gear. My boots were crusted with so much snow and slush, I’d tossed them into the tub without a second thought.

However, this morning, it had taken me an hour to clean up that mess. An hour in which I told myself sternly I wasn’t going. I couldn’t be listening to a vigilante shifter.

What’s the Order at the end of the day? asked a know-it-all voice in my head. Kai.

My younger cousin had a point. While the rest of us liked to consider the Order of Anubis akin to a police-military force in the shifter world, he’d always said it was more like a ninja-vigilante-soldier combination. Otherwise, why would it be a secret in our secret world?

For one thing, it made sense. There were only a few bad apples in our world. Three, of course, were the Valspar siblings. Evelyn, Henrik, and Preston. They’d grown up to become a trio of hunters going after shifters. Evie even liked to hunt by gun, which was all but sacrilege. They’d been taken in eight years ago.

Again, the vigilante’s words hit me.

I don’t trust the Order. And neither should you.

I’d gone back and forth all day. I knew for a fact that no one knew Valspar siblings were out. I’d texted Enele and he’d texted back “LOL” thinking I was joking.

I’d seen them with my own eyes in prison. And now I saw them with my own eyes in the middle of a major city, Evie with a fancy new gun on her shoulder and her brothers sniffing for blood. If they had known a Lafi was out and about, they’d have come gunning for me.

My uncle on the Lafi side had helped take them down. He still had the scars from Henrik.

Biting my lip, I stared out the window at the dark city streets and watched a car pass by. Sitting in an armchair, I hugged my knees to my chest and pressed my face to them.

I knew I should report everything I’d seen. The strange lab. The Vigilante, who was also a King Cheetah, a shifter kind we’d thought had died out. Three former prisoners of the Order on the loose.

And yet, I’d sent in a laundry list of lies. Withheld information. Making it sound like there wasn’t a vigilante on the loose, but something else was potentially going on.

Why was I protecting him?

There was something about the timbre of his voice that had convinced me he wasn’t lying. And he had a point, I shouldn’t have recklessly run up to that building to spy on Crane without fully assessing the ground situation first.

In a way, I’d been so eager to believe him, I hadn’t thought it through. Not that I could tell him that. He already had me right where he wanted me.

Raising my head, I put a hand to my stomach and frowned. Did I have butterflies?

Uh oh.

I’ve always had a thing for heroes. When I was a kid, I’d adored superheroes, nursing a crush on everyone from Captain America to Black Panther to Batman. The all-American boy to the King of Wakanda to the brooding loner. There was something about a lone wolf trying to do good by a city that I didn’t think anyone could resist.

It also made me want to see how this played out, even though it was the last thing any good Anubis agent should do. You’re going to be in so much trouble, Soraya…

Looking over, I now saw I only had an hour and a half to get ready, then head downtown. It would take at least a half an hour, if not longer, to get there by train.

But I didn’t move for another ten minutes. It was one thing to break a few rules here and there. It was quite another to commit treason. I could be exiled or banished from the SOA for this.

I don’t know what to do.

Mechanically, almost as though I were in a dream, I stood up and went to the closet. Slowly I got dressed in black gear, covering it up with a plain black peacoat, tugging on a black winter hat and draping a beige infinity scarf around my neck. I didn't have white.

Gathering up my resolve, I picked up my phone and keys.

Then, before I could change my mind, I left.

 

Standing by the edge of the reflecting pool, I kept my scarf up past my nose and tried not to stare too hard at every tall man I saw. But 10:00 had come and gone. It was nearly 10:20 and I was freezing now, hopping from foot to foot, bouncing to keep warm.

The reflecting pool was a massive rectangle, capturing the lights of the gorgeous, giant church across from me. Behind me, the city street was quiet and I glanced around. There were a handful of people here, most starting to drift away.

Deciding not to wait any longer, I began to walk, keeping my head down and arms tucked around me, and all but walked into a man who appeared out of nowhere.

“Excuse me,” I said, edging around him.

“I didn’t think you’d come, Ms. Shadow,” came a low, amused voice.

Turning sharply, I stared up at him and saw a brief glint of light off dancing eyes. But his face was hidden in the shadows of a baseball cap and like me, he had a scarf up to his nose. A dark blue scarf, with a pattern of Boston Red Sox logos.

“Nice scarf,” I said, moving to stand next to him.

He was staring out across the Reflecting Pool at the church, studying the massive dome and smaller domes around it. His posture was easy and relaxed. I found myself wondering how easy it would be to take him out. Knock him into the pool and cuff him before he could blink.

“Don’t even think about it,” he suddenly said. “I’m faster than you. You’d be the one in the pool, not me.” I opened my mouth in outrage and he chuckled. “Besides, this is Switzerland.”

“Neutral territory, gotcha,” I said. “Everywhere else is fair game, though?”

“If you can catch me,” he said. “Or perhaps if I catch you first.”

“There isn’t a world where I’m the mouse and you’re the cat, buster,” I retorted.

“You’re the one who’s breaking the rules to be here, not me.”

“Oh, no, you’re just breaking every other rule.”

“Maybe they need to be broken.”

“Ugh, you know what – I'll give you till tomorrow to get out of the city," I said. “As of yet, you haven’t actually done anything wrong. Do yourself a favor and take this.”

“I don’t know whether to feel flattered that you care enough to try to keep me out of prison or insulted that you want me to leave the city five minutes into our first date.”

“I’m leaving now.”

“You’re not. You came because you know deep down that I’m right,” the enigma next to me said in a tone that made me want to slap him. “You want answers. I might not know your name, but I can tell you’re a good person with a good heart. If sometimes, impetuous.”

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “But I don’t see you giving out your real name, King.”

“Not yet,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. I eyed him out of the corner of my eye as he dug into his jacket and pulled out a manila folder. “First, a present for the lady.”

“What they were out of roses?” I asked and I thought I saw his eyes flash.

“Next time.”

Opening the folder, I saw there were Xeroxed copies of documents. A veritable stack, including a shipping manifest, lists of chemical structures, names, addresses. Underneath were photographs. The Valspar siblings at a dock, talking to Rasoir. My eyes went wide.

“Rasoir is in Boston?” I demanded.

“Not anymore,” he said in a low voice, stepping a little closer. I could feel the warmth radiating off of him, steady like a sun. “He went overseas yesterday.”

My finger brushed over the other man, his back to the camera. But then I flipped to the next photo and sucked in a hard breath. There, presiding over a lab, was Crane.

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered.

“Neither could I,” King admitted, something in his voice tickling something in the back of my head. But I was too busy flipping through the rest of the photographs. “This is their lifeblood.”

“What?” I asked, turning and staring up at him.

A gloved hand tapped the stack of paper. “Their money, Shadow.”

Suddenly I understood and my fingers gripped the folder as they began to shake.

For years, we’d tried to pinpoint the way TLO made money. It was a combination of dabbling in illegal and legal pharmaceuticals. Off-shore accounts. We’d never even gotten close enough to see what they were selling and now it was in my hands.

“I have to report this,” I breathed. “This could stop them, it could end them where they stand.”

“You can’t,” King replied in a calm, dismissive tone. “Hence why I’m here.”

"Like hell, I can't, vigilante. You're not Anubis, you have no idea–"

“You go running to the Order, they’ll vanish in a matter of seconds. There is a reason they have never been able to track down their funding, one I’m getting closer and closer to finding. They can be stopped, but not by the Order.” He paused. “Unless you want to help me.”

“What?” I gasped.

“I gave you proof,” he whispered. “And that is a mere handful of pages. There is so much more that you don’t know about. If you work with me–”

“If I what?” I now snarled.

“If you work with me, maybe we can take them down faster. I have my plans and they are working. I am getting closer by the day to throttling off their cash. But then you show up–”

“I show up and what, mess up your superhero-ing?” I snapped. “This is ridiculous!”

“You can’t honestly tell me you’ve never wondered why the TLO has been able to flourish for so long, unchecked. How they manage to slip through your fingers every time. How they know about the families of shifters around the world!” he said, his voice becoming harsh.

I stepped back and stared at him, heart pounding. “How do you know about that?”

My voice was unsteady, my knees buckling and hands shaking.

The people who’d found out about that were Roy and Faye. A hand went to my chest as my heart squeezed. Faye, one of my best friends, my sister, now gone.

“Shadow, I can’t tell you how I know, alright?” He hesitated, his voice a little warmer and rougher. “Are you okay?”

I swatted at his outstretched hand. “Fine. What are you not saying?”

“The thing you don’t want me to,” he said in a grim voice.

I looked away and squeezed my eyes shut, insides burning. No, if that were the case…

When I opened my eyes again, King was gone and there wasn’t even a track in the snow. He’d left me the folder and I glanced through it again.

There was only one explanation that made sense.

Traitors within Anubis. The Order is compromised.