Five
992 Words
EDGE
Once we’d had some sleep, I met Edith and Clara at HQ, with the intention of debriefing after last night and planning the next job, but I knew fully well that Blade would be a topic of conversation.
I hadn’t even sat down yet when the first line of questioning came.
“So, Em, who was he?” Edith’s voice was teasing. She was loving this.
I rolled my eyes at her. “I only got a codename. Blade.”
“Did you give him your actual name?”
“No, Edith, I didn’t. If he wasn’t going to trust me with his, I wasn’t going to trust him with mine.”
“Blade and Edge is a good combo, boss,” Clara giggled. “What does he do?”
“This is where it gets… interesting.”
“In what way, Em?” Edith’s voice was suddenly suspicious.
“He works in security,” I looked up, my eyes glancing between the two of them, watching their reactions.
“Em… security, or security?” she motioned quotation marks around the second ‘security’.
“I don’t know,” I replied, voice low. “Clara, can you do some digging for me?”
She nodded. “Of course. So he goes by Blade, is he human?”
“Something smelled off, like he was using a scent blocker, and not a very good one. A shifter of some kind. Either that, or he’s spent a lot of time around them lately.”
“What kind of shifter?”
“Unknown.”
“There are packs of just about everything around here, that doesn’t really narrow it down much, boss.” Clara sighed. “Age?”
“Looks between 25 and 30. But if he is a shifter, that doesn’t really mean anything.”
“Okay, so,” Clara glanced over her notes. “Goes by Blade, possibly a shifter. Looks between 25 and 30, but could be well over 100 really. Works in some kind of security, but we’re not sure if that’s 100% truthful or a variation on the truth. About six feet, tanned. Black hair. Eye colour?”
“Brown.”
“Brown…” she added that to her notes. “I’ll see what I can find once this next job is done and dusted. I think it’s safe to say though, until we know more, you need to use scent blockers religiously, boss. You both used a codename. If we’re suspicious, he’s suspicious.”
I nodded my agreement. I used scent blockers regularly, but there were times I slipped up. “Right, let’s get down to business. What have we got, Edith?”
She stood, pulling the whiteboard over, sticking a photo right in the middle.
“This is Nathan Bryce, 35. He’s a lion. Fortunately not a ranked lion or anything like that, he’s actually a loner.”
“What has he done to come across our desk?” I ask. Lions are rare in public, and even rarer across our table. This is only going to be the third in over a hundred years.
“Kidnapped the daughter of one of the ranking members of the local pride.”
“Have they got the daughter back?”
Edith shook her head. “We need to rescue her and take him out.”
“Roger that. Clara, what have you got?”
“He owns a sketchy old warehouse, I have eyes on it already. If I was going to hide someone I’d kidnapped anywhere, it would be there. The place gives me the heebie-jeebies.” She shuddered. “But, I need someone to get up close and personal with him. We need a thumbprint. Since we can’t be 100% sure this is where the girl will be, we kinda need him alive for now.”
“Okay then. Where are we going to find him to try to get this thumbprint?”
“I think off a glass, boss,” Edith replied. “If one of us gets up close and personal in a bar, we can get a glass off him, and dust it for prints.”
“Are you volunteering, Edith?”
“I can do it, boss.”
“Perfect. Well then, let’s get to it, shall we?”
Edith nodded.
“Have you got a plan?”
She nodded again. “Of course, boss. We have the address of where he likely is, it’s a nightclub in the middle of town. I’m Freya tonight. I’ll get in there, have a couple drinks and dance a bit so my cover is believable, and then coincidentally bump into him, and go from there.”
“Sounds like a plan then, Freya. Make sure you call it in if you need backup, and keep us posted. Take your earpiece,” I paused for a moment before shouting after her. “And don’t forget a gun!”
“On it, boss,” she smiled, heading out of the room to get ready.
Clara and I sat going through information she had pulled when looking for an individual going by the name Blade. Sadly, Blade is an incredibly uninventive name used by biker gangs and all sorts. Even based on his description, we were struggling to whittle the list down.
“I have eyes on the target, Edge,” Edith’s voice suddenly came over the radio.
“Perfect. Leave the line open so we can hear what’s going on.”
“Will do.”
Nothing really happened for the first ten minutes. She had a couple drinks, flirted with the bartender, and danced with a couple randoms. Right up until she whispered “I’m making my move, boss.”
Within less than thirty minutes, she was coming back over the radio to tell us she had it. The glass was wrapped up in a bag to keep the air off, and she was heading back to HQ.
- Writer
