Six
1144 Words
BLADE
“What do you mean they went with another contractor?” I growled at Bite. “They agreed to our deal!”
He winced at my tone. “The contract wasn’t in place yet, boss. They won’t get their first payment back, but they don’t seem to care. I don’t know who this other contractor is, but maybe it is who took out the delta.”
I nodded. This was a big job, a big paycheck that we’d just lost out on. All because of some ‘other contractor’.
Someone’s daughter had been kidnapped, and the bloke in question had a big enough bank balance to pay a private contractor to not only find his daughter, but to take out the person (or people) responsible. This was a six-figure job, and we’d lost it.
I stood, walking to the other side of the room to pour myself a whiskey, offering one to Bite, who took it gladly. It had been a long day for everyone involved, and it had hardly started.
“What do we know about the target in this case, Bite? I’m curious to see how this goes down. To see if we know the ‘other contractor’.”
Bite nodded. “Nathan Bryce. Member of the local lion pride. He’s not a ranked member, which is probably for the best. The girl he’s kidnapped is the daughter of one of the ranking members.”
“Do we know where he likes to hang around?”
“Sunshine was doing some digging, boss. He likes the nightclub down on the old highstreet. We can always send someone along to keep an eye on what he gets up to.”
I nodded my agreement. “Can you handle this one?”
“On it, boss. I’ll get changed and head over now.”
“Thanks, mate. Can you send Sunshine my way if you see him?”
Within minutes of Bite leaving, Sunshine was knocking on my office door.
I offered him a drink, motioning for him to sit.
“Did you hear about that contract?”
Sunshine nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“Do you have any ideas about who might have taken it?”
“No, but I am in the process of finding out. I’ve been working on finding the client’s phone records, but of course without a legal backup, I can’t use my normal contacts, so it’s taking longer than I would like.”
“Thanks mate, I appreciate it. Have you got any other info on the client?”
“I know he’s the second in command, and the reason his budget is so enormous and losing the upfront payment doesn’t matter is because he’s using pride funds to pay for it.” He was tapping his fingers on his glass.
“Blade… I’ve been doing some research looking for whoever this other contractor might be in this area, I’ve been coming up blank for the most part, I’ll be honest.” His face was stressed. Sunshine didn’t like not finding information he needed. “There is talk of another group that mostly works with supernatural targets, but information on that is really limited. There’s a rumour that they are vampires, but there’s absolutely no evidence to back that up. All I’ve found out so far that is certain is that this group exists.”
“So this group could be the ones responsible for the delta’s assassination, and for us losing this new contract?”
Sunshine nodded. “I would make that assumption, yes. Unfortunately they’re obviously very good at what they do because all the information I can find is essentially just rumours and Chinese whispers, which makes this even trickier.”
“Thanks, Sunshine. What about Edge? Any luck on her?”
He sighs. “No good news here either, boss.”
My face dropped. “What do you mean?”
“She’s essentially a ghost, Blade. I can’t find any trace of her existing. I’m waiting for the security company that looks after CCTV for the bar to come back to me so I can run facial recognition for the rest of the city, but that’s not a ten second job. If you somehow got a photo of her, that would work too.”
Sunshine was good, really good, and if he couldn’t find someone, that meant they were either better, or being helped by someone better. Both of which were a concerning prospect.
“Nothing on her at all?”
He shook his head. “I don’t suppose she told you anything about her bike? Make, model, age, etcetera? If we had that, I might be able to whittle it down through the vehicle tax records.” His face looked thoughtful for a moment. “Of course, assuming the bike is actually registered in her name, or registered at all.”
“Basically, Frank, what you’re telling me is that you’ve got f**k all.”
I saw his wince. “Unfortunately so, boss.”
I growled under my breath. “If we still have nothing after the CCTV comes back, let me know. I’ll try to find her again and we can go from there.”
He looked surprised.
“My wolf likes her, Sunshine. He really does. Otherwise I wouldn’t be even thinking about this.”
“Roger that, Blade. I’ll let you know when the CCTV comes back.”
I sat in my office throwing darts for what felt like hours, waiting for an update from either Bite or Sunshine.
Bite came back first.
“Please have good news, Bite…”
He smiled.
“Well I saw our guy, boss. He was flirting with some woman, her hands were all over him. Short lass, ginger. They didn’t leave together or anything, she kissed his cheek then left.”
“What does that tell us, Bite?”
“Well… she took his glass. I don’t think he noticed, but I was watching the pair of them pretty closely, and she slipped his glass into her bag.”
I stared at him, confusion on my face until… the penny dropped.
“Fingerprints. She wanted his fingerprint.”
Bite nodded, a smile on his face.
“Do you think you could give Sunshine a description? She might be part of our mystery competition.”
“I can go one better, boss. I got a photo.”
“Bite, I could kiss you. Sunshine has been all bad news tonight, I needed something positive.”
I called Sunshine back down to my office, motioning for Bite to catch him up. Once he was up to speed, Bite sent him the photo, and Sunshine got to work with facial recognition. He was looking over a week’s worth of footage, it most likely would take a while.
Regardless, it was a good moment. We had a lead!
- Writer
