Evenfall (49 page)

A follow up report noted that Boyd's wound had not been fatal and he hadn't had any damage to major organs. However he returned to the hospital a few days later with severe chest and stomach trauma from numerous stab wounds. Despite Vivienne's insistence that they'd been from another attack, Boyd's despondence and instability had hinted otherwise. Barely a day after he'd been released he had shown up at another hospital due to an obvious suicide attempt.
This information gave Sin real pause and he stared at the screen contemplatively. His mind jumped back to the mission in Seattle-- Boyd's bleary insistence that his shirt remain on despite his injuries. Sin pictured the frightened look on Boyd's face at the idea of his torso being exposed.
Was this why? If he'd had severe stab wounds, there would be scars unless Vivienne had paid to have them removed. Although, he supposed, that was entirely possible. It was also possible that Boyd simply didn't like the vulnerability of being naked when he was barely conscious. It was a sentiment that made sense.

The hospital report noted that it had been recommended for Boyd to receive additional psychiatric help but there were no further reports. It seemed that Boyd had been taken out of the hospital early and had never returned. There were no further reports or follow ups by authorities and it seemed for one reason or another, they'd decided to stop investigating.

Sin's long, slender fingers tapped against the table impatiently. There had to be more information somewhere. He scowled and looked at a couple of other files before coming to another video clip. It was also inside the surveillance folder and was labeled "First Bank-05232016." There was no sound but the video quality was excellent. It was a nice day. A little bit of water was still trickling along the gutters from a recent rain. The sun was bright behind a layer of the ever-present ash that blanketed the sky. The sun was intense enough that it lightened the dull grey to an almost white. A sign hung just in the lower portion of the screen, proclaiming 'First Bank' in bold letters.

Sin immediately recognized the street the surveillance camera was taping. It was outside First Bank on Dauphin Street in Vickland neighborhood. The area that Boyd seemed so intent on avoiding and the street where he'd reacted so strongly on that first mission.

At first Sin didn't see anything of interest; the street was empty and judging by the foliage and light, it seemed to be mid-day in the spring or summer. Then he noticed two teenagers walking into frame from the side.

One of them was unmistakably Boyd, although he was a few years younger than he'd been when Sin had met him. The other was Lou. He was taller than Boyd but not by much, and had a similarly lanky build as Boyd although he was filled out a bit more.

Sin couldn't hear anything that was being said but there was no mistaking the way Lou's hand kept trailing along Boyd's skin. As they passed an alley, Lou suddenly tugged Boyd into the alley and turned him so they faced each other. He backed Boyd up against the wall, his fingers curling around Boyd's arms while he looked down at his face.

Boyd looked surprised at first and glanced around as if searching for witnesses. He started to say something but Lou leaned in, capturing his mouth in a kiss that cut off any of Boyd's protests. Boyd's stiff back gradually loosened and soon their jaws were working as the kiss deepened. Boyd's hands moved up Lou's back while Lou buried his hand in Boyd's blond hair and wrapped his other arm around his waist.

The video froze in place as Sin automatically paused it, more out of shock than anything else. His eyes were focused on the two boys, their lips and the placement of their hands. For a moment, his breath caught and he swallowed hard.

Some distant part of him told him to shut it off. Boyd wouldn't want him to see this. Why was it even here? Why was this intimate moment captured in time? But he found himself incapable of stopping it now that he'd started watching.

The video un-paused.

Lou's hips rolled against Boyd's and soon they were moving against each other, their actions growing more intense. Boyd pulled away from the kiss to tilt his head back, his mouth falling open and eyes sliding shut; his cheeks flushed as he clutched at his friend. Lou moved down Boyd's jaw and sucked on his throat.

Boyd was saying something, his lips moving increasingly urgently. His hands slid up and then gripped Lou's shoulders, shifting from trying to pull him closer to trying to push him away. Lou seemed uninterested in complying and Boyd's knees seemed to buckle as Lou's mouth moved to the place where Boyd's neck met his shoulder.

Even without sound, Boyd's curse was unmistakable. His expression was partially pained, partially ecstatic as his head was pushed back against the brick wall. There was nothing of the blank-faced, terminally controlled boy that Sin was used to seeing. This Boyd seemed passionate and caught up in the moment.

In the end Boyd won. He was able to push Lou away and the two of them stood panting, hands still on each other, faces tilting forward until their foreheads touched. Sin couldn't see their expressions with their faces so close together but he did see them move in for a few short kisses. Their hands roamed along each other's body languidly before they finally pulled apart.

Boyd turned to leave the alley and Lou's hand slid from his elbow down along his forearm to end at his hand. For a moment they walked with their fingers intertwined, Boyd leading the way with his arm stretched back and Lou moving in closer behind him. When they got back out onto the main street, they seemingly reluctantly released their hands and started down the street again.

Shortly after, they both seemed to hesitate. A sound must have caught their attention because at first Sin didn't see anything.

Then he saw the five teenagers strolling into view. They had the sort of slouching stride that was prevalent among the thugs who roamed the street. It was obvious that they were in a gang; each wore a green bandana in some fashion. The tallest of them glanced at the others with barely a nod of his head, but the four seemed to understand. Without saying a word the group closed in on the two ahead of them.

At the sight of them, Lou muttered something to Boyd and looked irritated. Boyd just looked confused and a little concerned when the gang members moved closer. The tallest boy had black, slightly oily hair that fell into his eyes. Judging by the way he held himself and the way the other four kept glancing at him, he was in charge. He called out something to Boyd and Lou and the arrogance in the way he tilted his head was clearly visible.

Lou shot something back, his expression mocking. Boyd stood at his side, his eyes darting around between the teenagers and the exits he and Lou still had. He said something to Lou but whatever he said, Lou ignored it and continued to stare down the other five.

What followed was several minutes of arguments. The leader had the other gang members fan out and surround Boyd and Lou. The leader punched Lou in the face and the fight began. The leader and Lou clearly had some kind of history that had resulted in animosity between the two. The leader repeatedly mocked him and, at times, Boyd, who visibly grew increasingly alarmed as everything progressed.

Two of the teenagers held Boyd between them while the leader and another stayed by Lou. The youngest kid seemed uncomfortable and soon turned to be the lookout. He only occasionally looked behind him at the others.

The minutes that followed consisted of the five boys beating Lou and Boyd mercilessly although most of the violence appeared to focus on Lou. Whatever vendetta the leader had against the blond teenager seemed particularly severe. He seemed intent on making him suffer, and when it became obvious that Lou was more disturbed by the violence that was being inflicted on Boyd, the leader used it to his advantage.

Boyd and Lou called out to each other at times, desperation to get to each other obvious in their faces. The leader only seemed to become more disgusted by the spectacle and continued mock them. Sin couldn't understand most of it but he clearly read the word 'faggot' on the leader's lips.

At some point, a boot slammed into Lou's mouth and Sin had no doubts that teeth were knocked out or broken. The violence only advanced from there and after watching Boyd struggle once again to get to his friend, the leader's expression soured. He shouted an order and Boyd was yanked upright between two of the other teens. At first Sin thought the leader would advance on Boyd but instead, he turned to Lou.

Boyd's eyes widened in horror and he began struggling anew as he seemed to beg the leader to let them go. The leader ignored him and went over to Lou who was still struggling in vain. It wasn't until they were at a particular angle that Sin saw the knife glinting in the leader's hand. That must have been what frightened Boyd so much.

Without any hesitation, the leader slammed the knife into Lou's side. Lou's shirt quickly stained with blood, and he appeared to shout in pain. Boyd seemed to freeze in shock, tears tracking down his face. Sin could read the words 'no' and 'Lou' and 'help us' on his lips.

The lookout was turned toward the camera, and the highly uncomfortable way he looked at Lou and Boyd was clearly seen. The other gang members just seemed amused.

Boyd was struggling vehemently now, throwing himself forward like a dog gone insane and surging at the end of his leash. He was screaming at the leader, who didn't even flinch. The leader's mouth spread in a twisted smile as he reared the knife back again and slammed it deep within Lou's stomach. Lou's mouth dropped open and his eyes rolled.

Boyd was able to twist and jerk until he got away. Sin thought it seemed as though the two holding him were playing with him and let go of him on purpose to make him think for a moment he had a chance to react. He ran at the leader but they easily caught him by the shirt and jerked him back so abruptly he looked like he was half choked by the movement.

The two gang members fell on him with casual violence; hitting him and throwing him back and forth between them as they traded blows on him. He fell to the ground and they kept kicking and punching him until he collapsed. One of the two teenagers holding him sneered and flipped Boyd onto his stomach. He sat down on Boyd's back, making him unable to move. The other one grabbed Boyd's hair, yanking his head back at an angle so that he could see what was happening to his friend.

With Lou's blood staining the ground just in front of his eyes, Boyd seemed incapable of looking away. Lou barely seemed alive by this point and the blood seemed to be flowing steadily from his wounds. Boyd looked devastated and Sin read on his lips that he kept murmuring 'no' and 'I'm sorry.'

The leader stared down at Boyd in disgust. He said something, punctuating his words with another attack. He plunged the knife into Lou's stomach again, then yanked it out and repeated the action. Blood flew everywhere, spraying in arcs around Lou, splattering the leader.

Lou collapsed completely on the ground, convulsions violently taking over his body. He could not seem to control any of his actions, but he did not look away from Boyd. Lou choked and gagged, his mouth working uselessly as blood poured out. He struggled and extended one arm weakly toward Boyd, trying to reach him.

The leader snapped something and jerked Lou up by the hair. A gold chain with a ring on it fell out of Lou's shirt. Blood had coated parts of it, but the leader casually tore it from Lou's neck and stuffed it in his pocket. He turned and nodded at the two holding Boyd, who stabilized his head so he could do nothing but watch in wide-eyed hysteria as the leader finished what he started.
Yanking the knife clear across Lou's throat, the leader destroyed Lou's throat so terribly it was almost unrecognizable as a human neck. Without losing the momentum, he followed it up by slamming the knife savagely into Lou's heart. The weapon disappeared into Lou's chest nearly to the hilt.

Boyd was staring at Lou's eyes when they went blank in death. At first he stared in disbelief at the body that had fallen in front of his eyes. But then his breath visibly quickened and what had just happened seemed to hit him at once.

He went wild, struggling against the ground. He was screaming, his mouth open wide. Tears coursed relentlessly down his cheeks. Sin read Lou's name on his lips, over and over like a helpless prayer. He couldn't seem to look way from his dead lover.

Although he had to have been screaming loud enough for his voice to echo, not a single soul came to investigate.
The leader stared at Boyd silently for a long moment and let Lou's face drop into the dirty water of the street gutter. The puddle steadily curled and twisted with the blood spreading into it. Dirty brown became clotted crimson. The blood spread further, a pool growing around Lou that crept closer and closer to Boyd's face. The leader smirked and stepped over the corpse, boots splashing in the deep red puddle. He sauntered over to Boyd and stared down at him coldly.
He ordered something to the other two, who unceremoniously yanked Boyd up. He laughed as Boyd continued to thrash and scream. He reached up and pulled Boyd's head back with a hand in his hair. At that angle, Sin could clearly read the words on the leader's lips. "I want you to remember this."

The knife was still wet with Lou's blood when it plunged into Boyd's lower right stomach. The leader yanked it out, dropping Boyd's hair so he could get better leverage. With more force than was necessary he slammed the knife into the same spot. Boyd appeared to cry out, going slack in their hands. Even so, the leader yanked it out again, rearing back for a third strike. The blade was just arcing toward Boyd's stomach when the lookout suddenly turned and yelled something.
There were hurried, confused motions and the leader reluctantly stopped his assault. The leader looked annoyed at first but then they must have all heard a noise because the gang members all looked over at the same area. The leader flipped his bloody knife out of view and immediately ran away, seeming to completely forget Boyd and Lou's existences. The others were close behind.

Alone, Boyd dropped to the ground. By now it appeared that the fight had gone out of him. His face was blank with shock. He held a hand to his stomach almost absently as his eyes once again sought out Lou's ravaged body. Boyd dropped his hand and crawled toward him, leaving a bloody print smeared across the pavement every time he set his hand down.

He started to reach out to touch Lou but his fingers came away completely coated with blood and gore, and he held them up. Sin got a glimpse of a shocked, deadened expression and distant eyes before Boyd suddenly turned from the camera's view. He began heaving violently in the gutter behind the bloody scene.

Within seconds a young woman with dark brown hair appeared on screen. She seemed a little distracted, looking down at something in her hands, but when she looked up she saw the two immediately. Stumbling back, her mouth opened wide. She ran over, screaming with as much terror in her face as if she were the one hurt. She appeared to speak to Boyd before pulling out her cell phone.

Although the woman appeared hysterical, Boyd just stared at Lou's body. He didn't move any longer and any traces of emotion had drained away from him. His face was slack, eyes blank, as the woman called out to him frantically. Boyd didn't respond-- he didn't react, and didn't even attempt to pay attention to his own wounds. He let the blood soak his shirt and pants; his stare centered on Lou's face, bloody and twisted to the side. Staring at Boyd with sightless eyes.

Within the next few minutes, the scene exploded around him with commotion. Police and EMT workers arrived, but even then Boyd didn't react. They moved him around but he was limp as a corpse, although his eyes never left Lou's body. The video ended soon after, with Boyd being loaded onto an ambulance and sped away. Lou's corpse was left behind to the police and crime scene technicians, in a pool of his own blood.

Sin sat and stared for a long moment before he replayed the video again, and watched with an almost clinical detachment. He observed from under heavy lidded narrowed eyes and picked Lou's fighting technique apart with almost cruel disgust at the boy's inability to defend himself and his lover. The sloppy way the gang leader gutted him was not much better and Sin absently went through several methods of killing that would have been quicker and more efficient.

He'd been a professional assassin by the time he was their age; as far as he was concerned there was no excuse for the lack of skill.

He replayed it again and watched the desperate way Lou fought to defend his friend, and watched the knife disappear into Boyd's body.

The anger that Sin felt at the sight was unexpected. Why should he care, he asked himself dully, looking away and focusing on the window and the dark sky beyond. Boyd had survived the attack. If Lou had lived, it was more than likely that Boyd would have never become an apathetic recluse who'd valued his life so little that he'd agreed to join the Agency. He would have never met Sin.

Even so, Sin's teeth ground together and his fingers tightened around the mouse. He knew why it bothered him, and it was because of the ridiculous, growing infatuation he had with the younger agent. It was the same reason why it pissed him off when anyone on the compound looked at Boyd the wrong way or made one of their stupid comments about him.

It had nothing to do with whether Boyd was alive now. It just bothered him that someone had attacked him in general.

Shaking his head and wondering where he'd gone wrong to be in this partnership, Sin looked back at the screen. He tried to ignore the desire he had to replay the first part of the video. It shouldn't have taken him so aback to see Boyd kissing Lou, to see their bodies grinding together in a mimicry of sex. But it had surprised him, and his body had reacted in an unexpected way. The coil of arousal didn't make another appearance when Sin inevitably re-watched it, but that was only because he now knew what would happen next.

But his mind betrayed him and supplied mental images of himself crushing Boyd against the wall to his apartment. Instead of the memory of what really happened next, he closed his eyes briefly and saw himself ravaging Boyd's mouth and sliding his hands down the younger man's body the way Lou had.

Green eyes snapped open and Sin shook himself. He was being a fucking idiot.

He focused instead on finding out what had become of the attackers but he met with the same irritating conclusion that he'd expected. Lack of evidence, the eventual police file had said, no suspects, unsolved. He reviewed the files again more carefully and after watching the latter part of the video a second time, he focused more on the lookout and read his lips more than once. It would seem that the leader's name was Jared.

And Jared, it seemed, had gotten away with it.

Sin began opening programs and clicking things automatically, face perfectly blank although his eyes burned. He was in mission mode, doing things without thinking; his movements quick and concise. He printed out five pages and erased all traces of his history on the computer. He left the lab with an expression that was a lot deadlier than it had been when he'd gone in.

He took the stairs up to Ryan's apartment again and his fist pounded against the door loudly, enough for the sound to echo through the hall.

Ryan opened the door slowly and stared up at Sin. He seemed to note right away that something was wrong. He took an automatic step back as if wanting to put space between himself and the waves of anger that were radiating off Sin.

"Did something happen?" he asked hesitantly.

Sin stared down at him blankly and pushed his way into the apartment. "Look these men up for me," he said flatly.

"What?" Ryan squinted at him with a bewildered look on his face before taking the printed images that Sin held in one white-knuckled hand. "Who are these guys? Is this all you have?"

Sin stared at him stonily. "Just do it," he said softly.

Ryan nodded hastily and shoved the mass of papers and magazines off his desk before taking his seat at the computer. He laid each photograph out in the newly cleared space and chewed his lip. "Are these surveillance stills?" He glanced up at Sin and pushed his glasses up his nose, professional attitude taking over. "I need more to work with than this," he said almost apologetically.

"They are near First Bank. I think that one's name is Jared." Sin pointed at the picture. "He's the one I want."

Ryan froze for a moment and then nodded. "Uh, okay jussec." He turned on a lamp with an extremely bright bulb.

"I know for a fact that after the war there were only three First Banks that re-opened in the city so…" He trailed off and turned to his computer, fingers flying over the keyboard. "Okay, so these pictures were taken in front of the First Bank on Dauphin Street in Vickland," he murmured more to himself than Sin. "Used to be a nice area, wealthy folks, but it was prime spot for gang activity and looting after the bombings because it was really close to one of the blast sites." Sin crossed his arms over his chest and said nothing.

"And it looks like they're in the same gang… with a green bandana," Ryan mumbled to himself. He focused entirely on the computer screen and his fingers clattered at the keys as he intently studied everything he saw. His mouth pursed in a thin line and he swore several times to himself.

Sin stood completely still, not moving from his position even as time ticked by. He didn't know why it made him so angry-- didn't know why he even cared in any way. It didn't affect anything happening at the present time. It certainly didn't affect him. But even so...

Even so, it didn't stop him from wanting to know if Jared was out and about, enjoying his life.

It was another few moments by the time Ryan sat up straight in his chair and let out an exclamation. "The Outlaws!" he said excitedly. "They're in the news so much you'd think I would have remembered what color they wore," he complained even as he poured over the information he'd apparently found.

Sin's eyes finally dragged away from the photo and trained on Ryan with cold patience. "Yes?"

"Wait-" Ryan said, swept up in his research. "Okay, Outlaws formed before the wars… major beef with the South Side Boys, got worse over the years-" He mumbled as he read out loud and skimmed the information.

"Jared Strickland suspected in multiple murders and rapes around Vickland... but never pinned with any of them. He's a real shitbag. Has a terrible record dating back to 2010 when he was only fifteen. Seems to get off on slashing civilians and has a bad history of rape. It doesn't make sense that he's never been inside a jail for longer than a few months at a time. He has to be protected by someone in the police department or higher. There's even speculation about it in the Journalist Guild although it doesn't seem like they ever found concrete proof."

Ryan looked up at Sin and motioned for him to come to his side of the desk. Sin eyed him for a moment before crossing the space that separated them. He stood behind Ryan and leaned over his shoulder, looking at the computer screen impassively.

"Is uh, this your guy?"

"Yes. That's my guy." Somewhere in the back of his mind he noted absently that it'd been the same corrupt police department that had tried to pin the Vickland murders on him several years ago.

Ryan nodded and glanced back down at the screen. "A lot of his cronies are in jail or dead already but somehow this guy has survived. His crimes have piled up a lot over the last few years but nothing has happened really. Sometimes there has even been evidence that was either ignored or miraculously went missing. He definitely has to be related to someone or else he has some kind of dirt on a big shot in the city."
The comment deepened Sin's frown and he brushed a hand across his face. He fought the urge to ask which crimes exactly had piled up over the past decade. Had it been the serial rapes in Vickland and Crandall Park that they'd tried to pin on Sin? The murders that had seemed mostly gang related although they'd tried to imply that he was behind it after going on some kind of rampage?

He didn't know if any of this was true but at the moment it seemed possible. The man had obviously been an active psychopath for the last nine or ten years so the timing was correct. How ironic that if it turned out to be true the police would have stuck him with Jared's crimes, possibly even including Lou's murder. But it was all speculation.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Sin looked at the laptop again. "There's a surveillance tape of one of his crimes in the Agency database. How could the police not use it against him?"

Ryan shook his head, seeming just as dismayed by the obvious obstruction. "My guess is that the Agency was keeping an eye on Jared since he was obviously a high profile criminal."

"Maybe they wanted to recruit him," Sin said flatly.

The R&D agent gave a disgusted nod. "I wouldn't be surprised. I know they've hired lots of criminals and killers before. I guess sociopaths fit their assassin profile... In the end they don't actually keep people like Strickland though. It seems like he gets too much of a thrill out of doing this stuff."

Sin didn't really give a shit about Strickland's psych profile. "The tape?"

"Oh, right. Well, I'm thinking after the Agency copied it, the original somehow disappeared like all of the other stuff that tended to go miraculously missing with this guy." Ryan scanned whatever he was reading, frowning. "Oh wow, apparently he killed some rich politician's son a few years ago too."

Sin tensed at the words. So far he hadn't explicitly told Ryan that he was looking into the death of Boyd's friend and he didn't plan to. If Ryan saw it himself, it would be out of his hands. Fortunately, whatever Ryan was reading didn't appear to mention Boyd's name.

"That was pretty high profile for awhile so there's some stuff on it here. Apparently he murdered this kid in broad daylight and then went around trying to pawn some jewelry taken from the scene. Several different pawn brokers came forward stating that Strickland was trying to sell a pendant with the Krauszer family crest on it, and even people stating that they saw Strickland wearing it but nothing was done."