2024-12-14 16:21:34Chapter 7: Hidden Fangs
The sun was up, casting long shadows across the city. Noirhaven was quiet. Lance stood on top of a abandoned building, a great view of the city below. The hum of the city was a cacophony of chaos. Perfect background music for the storm brewing in his head.
Evelyn stood beside him, scanning the horizon. Her usual calm was cracking under the weight of what they had discovered. The documents were a mess of corporate power plays, secret experiments and a shadowy organization pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The name “Helios Syndicate” loomed large in the files, a monster of unchecked power.
“What’s our next move?” Evelyn asked.
Lance didn’t look at her. “We bait them out.”
“And how do we do that without getting killed?”
He turned to her. “Simple. We give them something they can’t ignore.”
Hours later they found themselves in the heart of Noirhaven’s underground—a maze of tunnels and forgotten spaces that was the city’s black market. The air was heavy with the smell of damp concrete and the faint tang of ozone from the neon lights flickering above. Traders were selling everything from rare artifacts to illegal tech, their voices a low hum beneath the steady drip of water echoing through the tunnels.
Lance and Evelyn pushed through the crowd. Their destination was a notorious information broker known only as “Shade”, a ghost of a man as deadly as he was elusive. If anyone could help them understand the full extent of the Helios Syndicate’s plans it was Shade.
Shade’s lair was a contrast to the chaos outside—a clean, high tech hideaway behind a plain door. Monitors lined the walls, each showing a different feed of the city above. Shade, a wiry figure shrouded in shadows, spoke in a voice like silk over steel.
“You’ve been busy,” Shade said, their eyes sparkling with interest. “Noirhaven’s most idle genius and his fiery sidekick in my neck of the woods.”
Lance grinned. “We need answers and we know you have them.”
Shade leaned back and steepled their fingers. “Answers come at a price.”
Evelyn stepped forward, her eyes flashing. “Name it.”
“A favor,” Shade said. “One I can call in at any time.”
Lance’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t trust Shade but he had no choice. “Deal.”
Shade’s info was not good. The Helios Syndicate wasn’t just a corporation—it was a paramilitary organization with connections to global politics and a presence in Noirhaven’s upper echelons. They were creating a new class of superhumans, people who could swing the power in their favor. And Evelyn’s parents were at the heart of it.
“They were working on the Catalyst Project,” Shade said. “Unlocking the hidden potential in human DNA. But they vanished before they could finish. Rumor has it they took the key with them.”
Evelyn’s heart dropped. The “key” Shade was talking about had to be the artifact she had found after Lance. She’d been carrying it around ever since without knowing what it was.
“What if they get their hands on it?” she asked.
His face turned dark as Shade spoke, "The world will turn out to be in their character. You won't want to live in that world."
They left Shade's lair, and then Evelyn turned to Lance. "What now?"
Lance's smile returned but his eyes were frosty and calculative. "Now we move. Time to show the Helios Syndicate that they are not the only ones who play this game."
The chilly mist of early morning wrapped around the streets of Noirhaven like a blanket, muffling even the sounds of battle as it lay before Lance's feet. Lance sauntered through the quiet alleys, where echoes of his lazy steps bounced off the damp walls. Absent-minded, he was walking around, still intentness of his mind showed in every step as he played a game no one knew they were playing.
A buzz from his pocket broke the silence. Lance took the phone out. He had memorized the number on the screen but never saved it. He answered, his voice lazy. "Morning, Shade. Couldn't resist my charm?" "We have a situation. Meet me at the usual place. Bring the girl."
Lance's smile grew wider as the line went dead. Shade was many things but friendly wasn’t one of them. This was going to be fun.
Evelyn had been up for hours. She sat cross-legged on the floor of her empty apartment, the artifact from her parents’ lab in front of her. Its weird, pulsing glow had kept her awake for nights on end, its secrets a constant reminder of her family’s vanishing.
When Lance showed up, he found her still staring at the device. He leaned against the doorframe, looking relaxed. “You’re going to burn a hole in it if you keep staring that hard.”
She looked up, her eyes tired. “I need answers, Lance. This thing might be my only lead left.”
Lance picked up the artifact and Evelyn’s hands closed around his wrist. “Hey.”
He waved her off. “Relax. We’re meeting someone who might know more.”
Her face changed from annoyed to wary curious. “Shade?”
Lance’s smile was feral. “You’re quick.”
The meeting place was a abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city, as unobtrusive as it was perfect for secret business. Shade’s network of monitors and data streams had turned the ordinary space into the hub of Noirhaven’s underworld.
Shade’s voice spoke before their eyes adjusted to the dim light. “You’re late.”
Lance shrugged. “Traffic.”
Evelyn stepped forward. “What do you have for us?”
Shade’s skinny frame emerged from the shadows, their eyes sparkling with barely contained mirth. “Get to the point. I like that.” They gestured to a holographic display that flickered to life, showing a stream of images and data. “The Catalyst Project wasn’t just about superhumans. It was about control. Your parents…” Shade looked at Evelyn. “They were close to a breakthrough when they disappeared.”
Evelyn’s voice was calm, but inside she was a maelstrom. “What kind of breakthrough?”
Shade leaned in, their voice a whisper. “A genetic sequence. Something that would unlock human abilities. But it needed a key. A specific artifact.”
Lance raised an eyebrow. “And I bet everyone’s favorite shadow organization wants that key.”
Shade’s smile didn’t reach their eyes. “They’re not the only ones.”
As they left the warehouse, Evelyn turned to Lance. “They’re talking about the artifact, aren’t they?”
His smile roused anger within her. "Guess you are carrying the most wanted item in town."
"This isn't funny Lance," she said. "If what Shade said is really true, this might even be bigger than my parents. The whole bigger picture is hovering over our heads."
"Exactly," is when his right leg crossed over the other and the lazy mask started slipping to show the sharp edge within. "That's why we need to make headway ahead of them. And, for that, we'll need allies."
Some of the painful sacrifices through which they crossed in search of allies took them deeper into the Noirhaven underworld; the reputation of Lance got them through doors that almost all others would have found locked against them. Evelyn proved herself and earned somewhat begrudging respect from those whom she made fallaciously believe her guts to be insufficiently tough.
Their boldest interview to discuss business was with a man called Vex. Ex-soldier and private mercenary, he was a force of nature: brutal, sharp-edged, and loyal to the highest bidder. If they were going to convince him to fight for them, they'd have to prove their strength; money wouldn't do it.
The fight in the underground fighting pits was a showcase of Lance’s cleverness. Vex thought him a lazy upstart and dismissed him. Lance used that to his advantage, playing on the man’s arrogance to outmaneuver him. The win was narrow, but it secured Vex’s loyalty and started a tentative alliance.
Now, the stakes had risen steeply. The Helios Syndicate's grasp had become clearer, and their machinations darker. For Lance and Evelyn's quest to unearth answers, it has bewitched him with danger and deception along avenues that went as far as revealing allies as unreliable as those faced in battle. Lance's smirk only appeared to endure; somewhere, somehow, it would end up actually proving silent, promising the game was not over yet.
"Do you think," she asked him, while holding on to the artifact, "that we may be a little involved here?"
"Only when it stops being fun," Lance replied, as infuriating as it was comforting.
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