June 1992

  Seth checks his watch and makes one more round of the TalCorp grounds. The night was quiet. The way he liked it. If anyone was out there, he’d surely hear them. Unless they learned the skills that he didn’t have time to do in the past. He just had to go surfing instead. Oh well. Last month’s championship win was so worth it. Plus, being back home in Venice Beach was just what he needed. Especially after that shit with the Director and his little demon child. He only wishes he could have been there to see him get what was coming to them. Even give them a little of his own back.

  Oh, well. He was back to his old self and continuing his own training. He’s started going in another direction. Using the Spirit power to boost what he already knows. And it’s been working pretty good too. Now if he can only learn how to fly. He’ll have to ask for that as his raise. Simon and Larry were the best bosses he’s ever worked for. Flexible hours, great pay, lots of vacation time. Not to mention a personal bodyguard to the kids. Yeah, right. Like they need protecting. But they were also good friends as well. And always good for a ugh.

  “Hey, Seth. How’s it look out there?” His partner calls on the radio.

  “Quiet as can be. How’s it inside?”

  “Quieter. This pce is kinda creepy when the lights are out. Not that many windows.”

  Seth ughs. “Hang in there. We’ll switch in a few minutes.” Seth hooks his radio back on his belt and heads around back.

  This pce was enormous. Reminds him of that movie from st year, Terminator 2. That one was great, better than the first, Seth thought. Even if it is a cssic. It made him think about that as being possible. Machines taking over the world. He shakes his head. A world of machines, right? Robots and androids and machines, oh my.

  Some movement catches his eye. He stops his mental ramblings and focuses.

  He moves silently toward the shadow. The part of the building that’s still under construction, the huge basement. The pit itself was four stories at its deepest, with several levels. He even heard of them digging more outward and deeper.

  Another shadow. Moving…up? The roof.

  Seth checks the surroundings. The construction equipment. Seth goes over and hops up on top of the bulldozer and then to the crane. Using his Shade skills, he climbs to the height of the roof and looks over, making no sound. He scans the roof and finds two figures sneaking around. Looking at the air vents and roof access doors. Seth uses some of the Shade powers and leaps over to nd without a sound. He moves from vent to vent. Until he can hear two women talking, though he can’t understand what they’re saying. He moves closer. Another shadow joins the two. Seth’s radio squawks.

  You idiot. Calling himself an idiot for forgetting to turn it off. The mysterious guests stop and look in his direction as Seth turns the radio off.

  Time to figure out if they’ll fight or flight. Seth is about to check when a dagger sticks into the vent with a ‘dink‘. Guess it’s fight. Seth takes his club, courtesy of Frank inside. He’s not being beaten down this time. These are his kind of opponents. He moves.

  Seth darts out away from the trio, then quickly spins and changes direction toward them. Another dagger flies by him. He dodges and shadow glides up to the trio, who scatter. The shortest of the three sets and unches a series of ssh attacks with her dagger. Seth dodges, being mindful of the other two. He catches one of her over-extended lunging strikes and flips her hard onto her back. But she retaliates by bringing a leg up and catching him in the side of his head.

  Damn, they knew how to fight against a Shade practitioner. Better step it up a notch.

  The other two join back up with the short one as she kicks up. Seth sets ready.

  “Whoever you are, you had better leave. If you choose to fight, this could take a while.”

  “If we choose to fight, you would not even know you had died.” One of them whispers hoarsely. A technique he heard his old master use. It was supposed to throw off the opponent.

  Seth tenses, ready for them to strike. They scatter. Seth moves to get them in sight. But two of them grab their daggers and leave the roof. The third, the one he flipped. Stops for a moment, then hops off. Seth runs to the edge and looks down…nothing. He hops down the way he came and scans the area. They’re gone.

  He sms his fist against a tree. Oh, yeah. He knows someone is after something now.

  Seth turns his radio back on. “Seth!” He turns it down a bit after being bsted in the ear. “Man, I’ve been trying to call you.”

  Frank waves from the far corner of the building. Seth holds up a hand. “Come on, we have to call Larry.” He talks into the radio.

  “What? What happened?”

  Seth has a bad feeling about this. Those girls…women, whoever they were, were good. If they fought all out, he might very well be dead, before he knew it, like they implied. He had to let Larry know, even if it was in the middle of the night.

  **********

  The phone rings. Then again. Larry winces and turns over in bed and grabs for the phone. Ariel shifts beside him and groans. He answers the phone, his voice obviously light and weary.

  “This is Seth. I’m so sorry to call you in the middle of the night, but some intruders attempted to break in a few minutes ago.”

  “W-Who is it?” Ariel moans.

  “Hold on a second.” Larry flips on the light on the nightstand. “It’s Seth. Someone tried to break in.” He swings his legs out over the edge of the bed. “All right. I’ll be there in a few. How many was there?”

  “Three women.”

  “Women?”

  “Yeah, and extremely skilled. They ran off, but if they had stayed, I doubt I’d even be around to call you. They were good.”

  Larry, a little more awake, holds the phone between his head and his shoulder. “Where did you spot them?”

  “On the roof. It kinda looked like they were looking for a roof entrance.”

  Great. He knew they should have put up those taller security lights. He pulls up a pair of pants. “Okay, I’ll be there shortly. Call the police.”

  “All right. See ya soon.”

  Larry hangs up then hands the phone to Ariel. “Call Simon. “Tell Simon the b was nearly broken into. I’ll pick him up and we’ll head over together,” Larry said.

  Ariel sits up and takes the phone. “All right.”

  Larry puts a shirt on and heads downstairs. He knew someone was trying to get to them. Were they after the cybernetic technology? They tried to get Elle before; he was sure of that. He grabs the keys to the SUV and goes to the garage.

  Maybe they shouldn’t have made the procedure public. Maybe that live news interview was too much. The newspapers too.

  Larry pulls out and drives up the street to the Prowman’s. Simon greets him, yawning.

  “Sorry to wake you. Thought you would want to head to the b with me.”

  “Yeah, no problem.” Simon yawns again. “So what happened again? I was still out of it when your wife called.”

  “Some women, skilled women, tried to break in via the roof. Seth said they ran off.”

  “The roof? Guess we’ll need more security lights.”

  Larry smiles. Yes, we will.

  They arrive at the b. Several cruisers and Detective Moore’s car sit by the entrance. Several of the cops are already walking the perimeter. One of them with a police dog. Detective Moore greets them as they get out.

  “Evening gentlemen. Seems our mysterious interlopers have another target.”

  “Yes, or maybe this was their target after all.” Larry says.

  “You think so?” Moore asks.

  “It’s just a hunch, but I think they were first trying to get Elle to extract the impnt, or at least figure it out that way. But it would make more sense to come here to where the pns and the device is. That’s what I would think.”

  Detective Moore makes some notes. “I agree. I’m more concerned about who these people are. I got that check on that Mr. Vega guy. No flights had an Antonio Vega on board. There were a couple of flights from Spain, but none of them had an Antonio Vega.”

  “Perhaps this Mr. Vega is an assumed name. It has to be.” Simon tells them.

  “I thought of that. I had background checks on all possible people. We came up with four names. Each one could be a candidate. Cause each one is extremely rich. Each name is being looked at right now.”

  “Great. This has gotten me even more curious now.” Larry says.

  Simon yawns. “I’m gonna go make some coffee. Want some detective?”

  “Yes, please. That would be great.”

  Larry goes and talks with Seth. He leads him up to the roof and shows him where the daggers stuck in the vents. They were clean.

  “Bet you anything, the dagger we found at Simon’s will fit in here perfectly.” Larry says, more to himself than Seth.

  “Huh? You found another?”

  Larry fills him in. “I’ll be right back. He leaves to talk to the Detective. The Detective asks one of his men to go back to the station and retrieve the dagger from evidence.

  About fifteen minutes ter, the officer returns. Larry, Simon and the Detective go to the roof and test Larry’s theory. Perfect fit.

  “Damn.” Is all the Detective can say.

  Larry thinks the same thing, amongst a few other choice expletives.