Chapter 6: A Nose For Trouble

Chapter 6: A Nose For Trouble

Baddwulf's Office Building, Main Street and Park, The Attison District, Temple City (3040).....

      It was just another day at the office for Jake Summers as he sat at his respective desk mulling over the paperwork for the latest series of cases in a bid to figure out which one to present to his partner that would be interesting enough to pique his interest. The surprisingly thin, slightly pinked younger man, barely out of his teens and still wet behind the ears, had worn a pinstripe white long-sleeve shirt, a loose dark blue tie, and dark blue suit trousers and often paced the hardwood floor of the office wearing black dress shoes. Jake was a good kid, all things considered, he was orphaned after a fire saw his life going up in smoke along with his parents following a gang extortion attempt gone wrong. He grew up in Attison and met the smooth-talking wit-savvy brute known as Baddwulf when he'd taken on the thugs that burned the building he lived in down and pulled Jake from the flames. Much like Amanda Smalls and Don Vincenzo Leonetti, he had been privy to the fact that Baddwulf wasn't as human as the rest of them. He was only twelve when he watched the older man shift involuntarily into his beast form during a fight with the six thugs that caused all the damage.

He'd been stuck to Baddwulf like glue ever since despite formerly being his roommate before his partner in the detective agency. Where Baddwulf had been of the notion to follow his nose and hit the streets from time to time during his line of work, Jake was tech-savvy and often relied on digital files and computers to do his detailed work. He was a definite gadgeteer and kept their agency afloat with many innovations that Baddwulf never bothered with. Growing up in Attison seemed to have made Jake laxer when it came to Tech but he knew better than to use it too often around Baddwulf who had been a firm believer in "The Old School" way of doing things.

More often than not, both of their methods proved to be invaluable to their work on any given day. So much so that neither of them had to worry about clashing styles aside from the occasional bout about office decor. Baddwulf was more a retro kind of man and Jake was into the new modern age. Of course, this was to be expected with a thirty-five-year-old man occupying a space with a nineteen-year-old. The sixteen-year age difference wasn't much of an issue...on most days.

The door to the office opened with intent as Baddwulf stepped inside still quite annoyed from the fight he had in the alley. Jake was shocked to see him with a busted nose and lip as he noted the blood dripping from them and onto the floor.

"Are you alright?" The younger lad asked with wide eyes. "You're bleeding all over the place."

"Just peachy," muttered Baddwulf still very much annoyed. "The blood from my nose was a fashion choice."

"What happened?" asked Jake concerned as he moved about getting a cloth for his partner's bloodied nose.

"Some two-bit hood named Blacky Clay sent thugs after me on the way here," replied Baddwulf making his way toward the brown sofa where they often greeted guests to make them more comfortable about divulging information pertaining to their cases.

"I heard you ran into some trouble with the Callens case," said Jake observing his partner. "Mr. Callens was here making all kinds of accusations about you and his wife...they weren't true were they Wolf?"

"Who's side are you on?" asked Baddwulf annoyed. "He cheated on the dame long before I got there and she decided to give him a taste of his own medicine...an eye for an eye and all that."

Jake sighed as he moved back toward his desk and the case files. He didn't think there was much point in arguing morality with Baddwulf when he'd been bleeding from his just deserts as far as he was concerned.

"Well I've got another case for you...don't know how you'd feel about it after what happened, but it's there," he said tossing the folder onto the coffee table in front of Baddwulf.

The ailing older man looked down at the manila envelope and smirked. He was in need of another case to tide him over and here it was. A bit of a debriefing would get him what he needed before he once more set off.

"Who's the client and who's the schmuck?" asked Baddwulf looking over the information despite trying to keep his nose from bleeding all over the pages. He tilted his head back when he wasn't trying to see what was inside the file. It was more of a formality to have the file and cabinet for Baddwulf's sake, as Jake had already uploaded the data to his computer database.

Baddwulf sighed as he continued to fiddle with his nose and the cloth. It would take a full night's rest to heal, but he'd be wincing for hours before he finally turned in for the day. He had work to do, and he'd be damned if he was going to let a couple of idiot thugs ruin his chance at earning a few extra black pennies on the side.

"I've taken the liberty of sending you the coordinates via your watch," said Jake with a smug expression, as he knew it was the only retro-looking thing he could revamp via tech that Baddwulf would willingly have anything to do with.

It was a nice-looking silver watch modeled after the ones from the old era. The lad had presented it to his mentor as a gift and didn't tell him it was a high-tech gadget until he was well used to wearing it and fond of the thing. Baddwulf had been annoyed about having been duped by tech but he found the watch useful now and again, especially when he landed himself in real hot water and required actual assistance.

Baddwulf looked down at the watch and rolled his eyes. Aside from having it, he was retro all the way. Having finally stopped the bleeding from his nose he took another look at the file before him.

It was another tailing case, but this one was due to some unlucky schmuck that wanted to know if his dear sweet little wife was banging his more charismatic and notorious hound dog business partner and for how long.

"Got the street address?" He asked looking through the file once more.

"16th and Parkwood Blvd," replied Jake casually as he sat down at his desk.

"Highland?" said Baddwulf more to himself than Jake. "I'll be damned kid, I just passed through there."

Jake sighed. Knowing all too well that he'd have an easier time if he just accepted the inevitable use of technology.

"Well, maybe answer your watch next time and you could have gotten the information from me beforehand." He said in annoyance at his partner's technophobia.

Baddwulf growled as he got to his feet and made for the door.

"Don't get cute wiseass," he said before heading out and back toward Highland District in a bid to see about a development in his newest case.

Jake sat back in his chair and kicked his feet up on his desk once Baddwulf was out the door, and pressed the small red button beneath his desk. Almost instantly, the office shifted and a steel trap door made itself known beneath his desk as he smirked and scooted back in his chair. He placed his hand on the strange keypad in the center of it that appeared to scan fingerprints and watched as it opened into a vast staircase that lead a long way down from their building and into the lower wards.

Over the years, Jake had been very busy getting everything in order for their business to run properly so that he could assist Baddwulf with minimal effort and less threat to his well-being. The cheerful younger man hopped down into his secret lair of sorts and set to work firing up the massive mainframe complete with an enormous supercomputer. He kept it to himself how much information he could acquire with the hold of his cloak and dagger nanotech bots and animallike toys as Baddwulf would have a hard time with some machine doing his job.

While Jake respected the older man who had not only saved his life as a teen but given him purpose, he knew it was better to get with the times, technology as they knew it was advancing farther and faster than anything before it, there was even the possibility that the old era tech was on the rise and advancing even still.

The lad was more than content to let Baddwulf venture out with his nose to the grindstone, while he sat back and covered all his bases even if it had been incognito amid thousands of high-tech monitors.

Besides, Baddwulf always did have a nose for trouble, even if he couldn't very well use it properly after it had been broken.