Brillian clutched her belt in the passenger seat and watched the buildings go by as the AV took off toward Shanghaitown, her hair was too noticeable especially with those amber tips at the end of the autumn brunette. She turned to look at him and tilted her head.
"We're going to have to get you some contacts and dye then tie up your hair to make you look more dull." Locke took out a pack of cigs but decided to stuff them away and chewed some nicotine gum instead.
"Why?"
"To make you less conspicuous." he sat down, "What do you know about you that most people don't?"
She muddled over thoughts in her head, "My parents are still alive?"
"That is odd." he said, "In Ludari?"
"No... Irine made them fly all the way back to Europe." she mumbled.
"Sorry to hear that."
"It's fine." she looked out the window.
"What fashion you into, bird?"
"Harajuku." she said excitedly, "and I like rap songs."
"Right." He said dryly, "We'll get some new clothes, first we'll stop off and get some food."
She looked at him accusingly, "What?"
"Girls don't usually go for their brand of techwear, netjockey and hackerjack fashions these last few years."
"It's cool, and feels good to wear... Irine let me try some on, Uldarin didn't like it but he's a weirdo."
Locke raised an eyebrow, "How's he weird?" *He'd suspected, heard a whisper or four on that wanker.*
"Sh- my friend says he's not a nice person, I should stay away because if I kill him the TPSB will kill me or worse."
"Your friend's clued up." he popped another nicotine gum.
She clicked her knuckles, "There's a storm coming... in two days.." she said absently.
"Storm yeah?" he pulled up his phone to a message from Irine. Attached was an encrypted file that his phone couldn't open. "Wait here." he went back to the driver's seat and stuck his phone in the dock. Yama's micromachine came, he opened the storage compartment to take out the tablet and dragged the file over. It contained a short history of what the knew about Brillian.
The usual crap, born sixteen years ago, parents ethnic origin being English, Irish, mixed European, Peruvian and the list went on. She was brought in by her parents after she *contained a Reignpainter Vent suicide attack.* He looked at the girl again, delicate, innocent but with that odd bloodlust. Maybe the Vent caused her to develop odd tendencies. No, he hoped that. Because some people in this world are just born with the wrong marbles. Her history is of tests done, attempts to collar her, she exceeded every test and the collars did not work unless they had Sadustone inside of them which was a no. Meetings with executives were cancelled forcibly by Runan Turq and Jin Zhen. So allies sat at the top, not just with commissioner Turq.
"In retaliation an executive suspected to be Caroline Kara dropped Brillian from the stratosphere so see if she could survive the fall. We are transferring her to field operations and will keep the officer in charge of her on the move."
The file finished with: "You fucked up. Play it cool and work your way out of it. If you have to leave the city we will need to quietly arrange a one way to London. That'll take a shitton of time. Play it cool."
He looked at the girl who absently stared outside again, they tried to kill her and somehow did she feel comfortable in his presence? He'd have to consult another Reignpainter to detect. He was tempted to reach for the Sadustone chain in the compartment but would she realise? And how would she react?
He put the file in Yama's vault and turned off the tablet. "Are you hungry?"
She shook her head, "I don't need to eat, sir."
"Bloody ashes you do, you're a growing girl."
She tapped her mask with a dainty finger, "I've never needed to and food tastes horrible."
He chuckled, "Vampire?"
"That's not funny." she folded her arms.
"Relax." he said, "Do you know why people have treated you so badly in the TPSB?"
"Irine said that some people out there should know, but she said she doesn't know them and they're too dangerous to be around."
"Any idea who?"
"A Ghost?"
Locke spat tobacco gum in a bin, "Mind if I smoke?"
She shrugged just like Irine, "I can light it for you."
He held up the cigarette.
A swipe of razor thin Reignpaint brushed against the tip of the cigarette. "Nice." he took a fat draw on the cig. "You're well practiced, good at your thing."
She nodded, "I'm not as good as Dubchek though..."
"You'll soon surpass that moody old lunatic." he sat down opposite her as the AV came to a stop and landed in Lady Abigails' roof parking. "What are you deviations and abilities?"
"I can absorb Vent, I'm really strong in Painting and physically... I dunno the rest."
He nodded, "Right, we're gonna go see Chelaise. Stay close to me and stay quiet, she's a peculiar woman."
"Oh, I can see storms, people, weather, anomalies. The storm I see is out at the south see, hundreds of miles away."
He squinted his eyes at her, "Let me know every time you see a storm, any kind."
"Yes, sir."
When he turned from her something felt off, like a whisper in the back of his head that drew his attention toward her. He looked back at her when he felt a warm sunlight radiate off the kid, she got out of the chair and stretched her legs. He looked away before she noticed. Locke felt like he'd gotten himself tied up with some anomalous strings, but the threads were warm comforting rays of sunlight. This can't be a bad thing. He stole a glance at the sunlight again.
Locke had his mission, he clipped the mask into place.
He shut the door to the AV behind him and looked up at the clouds of Gibmen smog that formed above skyscraper height. He locked up the AV and took a breath through the filtration mask. Stepped over cables from the rooftop network box, some broken glass from bottles of beer and shattered ceramics infused to the concrete that made the building. One of the last signs Chelaise hasn't had reconstructed to indicate that this was a high end club.
He and Brillian walked across the park and around the holo display of Mika's fine figure. He pressed on the elevator to go down. The doors dragged open with a chime and sultry sax licks. A man dressed in a ragged hoodie and drug glazed eyes was forced out by a bodyguard, Locke stepped out of the way and showed some handcuffs. The bodyguard smirked thanks and took them, then proceeded to hang the drughead by the sturdy links of the cuffs off the side of a railing with his feet dangling over the edge of the four story building.
"Nice to see you again, San." the hired Rickman said, "Bringing Chel a girl?"
"Nah, she's my partner. Need Chel's help in an investigation."
"Fair." the guard said, "I'll take you straight in."
"Cheers fella."
The doors slipped open with a breathy sound as he heard a Yabbler shout:
"CEB material for sale, get it at Fanny Street Lot! Aggregates, all aggregates-"
The doors shut the noisy man's voice off, poor guard would be stuck listening to the yabble.
They swung down the stairs toward the sound of dark rhythm and beats crafted by Caribbean and African Americans, mixed by Koreans. Locke froze at the sound of ethereal singing and peeked to the lower case of steps. A blue shadow of a pale maiden walked upside down through the air with a song that invoked memories he shoved back down. He picked up his pace and went down the steps, ignored the maiden as Brillian ran to catch up to him and matched his speed.
"Wait." she whispered, "Chelaise is watching us."
He remembered what Ruruen had said earlier. "Alright, let's head inside. No fighting."
"She's not looking nicely."
"This is Oriphi, keep your passions with the criminals and magicians reserved. Move too fast you break your neck, move too passionate you get your head lopped, move too slow your legs get chopped and fed to the homeless. No fighting this bloody witch."
She shut her eyes and sighed, "No fighting Chelaise."
"Good. Is there something I should know about you and witches not getting along?"
"They make me feel sick... it's not bad bad, but I don't like them." her fists were clenched.
"Can you feel what they are?"
Her eyes flitted, "Not now." she whispered.
The doors to the club swung open. A man dressed in a longcoat with jeans and military boots stepped out with a bulletproof vest under a button up shirt. He had ginger hair and Locke almost drew his gun but he didn't have that glint of murder about him, the dark passenger within wasn't present.
"Who are you?" Locke asked.
"My boss said if you're gonna come to the club you leave the kid at home. Take your vehicle and leave Wiretown."
"Why?" Locke growled.
"Chelaise's says so, that's why, bluefoot."
Brillian stepped forward but Locke thrust his hand in front of her, "We're leaving."
On their way up Locke turned over the facts in his skull, *she was never wary of Ruruen or Dubchek. Why's this girl such a problem? The warmth she outputs and Ruruen called her Sunstar...*
When they reached the door Locke stopped her as the Yaga's singing reached its highs, "Who did you say knows about you?"
"People like Aea Fukuroudani, The Ghost of Christmas Past." Brillian opened the door and gestured.
He walked by her, she shut the door too kindly for someone who wanted to fight the owner.
The bodyguard shook his head, "It ain't right."
"What?"
"This kid, and her... sunlight." he said the last word with disgust.