Legendary Detective at the World's End (Volume 1) (10 page)

   “To who?”

   “To whomever. Now let’s go.” He said anxiously.

   “Just tell me! Who?”

   “Some rich cook from the High-End Sector, it’s like some aphrodisiac or something, I don’t know. I got a pretty good amount of coin too.” He smiled through the blood dripping down his mouth. “Happy now? Now let’s go.”

     Kirin moved to the side. “Go.”

     Lee rushed ahead and hurried down the fire escape while Jake followed, but as he hurried himself down, he looked up to see Kirin standing still inside the building.

   “Hey,” he shouted out to Kirin. “Aren’t you coming?”

     Kirin turned and smiled at Jake deviously. “You go on ahead, I have an idea.”

     Noticing his devilish eyes, Jake felt he should heed his words and hurry down.

     Kirin still inside, waited until the gunfire had reached the door, revealing the bouncers, bloodied and injured as they struggled to shoot their guns while entering the room.

   “Stop firing!” Kirin shouted, immediately grabbing their attention. “Go down quickly.” Kirin said walking towards a brand new portable stove with a propane tank attached to it. Grabbing on to its neck, he kicked of its lever, letting its gaseous contents stream out of its container. The bouncer’s eyes widened as they flew into a panic, hurrying their injured bodies out the window and down the fire escape as fear struck them from Kirin’s actions more than the gun battle they were in.

     Kirin, after kicking the valve off the propane tank, hopped out the window and dangled himself on the edge of the fire escape, hovering over the hardened pavement a story below. He briefly looked down to see the bouncer’s reaching one of the jeeps below where Jake and Lee looked upward at him in shock and confusion while Lace seemed to understand something they didn’t after the bouncers had reached him. Kirin smiled at the disarray that surrounded him and patiently waited on the ledge of the fire escape, facing the window and towards the doorway where armed men had finally reached the open door of the room alongside a hobbling Kray.

   “You damn kids!” Kray said wielding a shotgun. “You think you can tear me down?! You think you can trick me?! Well who’s the one being tricked now?! Give me my money or die!”

   “Hahaha…” Kirin laughed aloud as he twirled a finger in the air while whistling a melodic tune. “Can you hear that?” Kirin said. “It’s the hum of your slow death Mr. Kray, and I’m its conductor.”

   “Shut up!” Kray said cocking back his shotgun before pulling the trigger. As he did, Kirin let go of the side railing and fell blindly downward as a shot rung off to the pleading screams from Kray’s henchman shouting at him not to. However, with his blatant disregard for their words and will set to fulfill his anger, he fired anyways into an explosion he could not see or fathom being there, but was there all the same, encompassing him in its flames as it shattered the walls of the room, bursting them from their concrete place into the open air.

     Kirin, falling down with big a grin on his face, felt his back smashing on the comfortable padding of a blanket of yarn and cloth along with the shouts of terror and confusion of the passengers of Lace’s jeep. Looking past Jake and Lee’s chastising shouts, Kirin saw Lace switching gears at a slow rate.

   “Hey,” Kirin said breaking through everyone’s frenzied motion. “Better hurry or this debris will get us.”

     With those words, Lace sped up his hand and switched from reverse to drive as he began to accelerate through the alleyway while pieces of cement and wood tumbled down from the second floor of the Magic Lady dance hall. With its explosion still ringing out as they left, Kirin laid comfortably in the cab of the jeep along with one bloodied bouncer who looked at him in quiet shock. Kirin, uncomfortable by his stare, picked himself up as they weaved out of the alleyway into the main streets where people looked around in wonder what was the loud ruckus they heard a distance away. Driving under the bright lights of the city as a melodic pop song played on the radio, Kirin leaned into the backseat of the jeep, his head resting beside the panicked face of Jake as he watched the road fill with the grey and white stripped jeeps.

   “Who are they?” Kirin asked.

   “What?” Jake said. “You mean, you don’t know? Where’ve you been all this time? They’re the City Guard and they’re swarming this place because of the ruckus we’ve caused.”

   “I know that.” Kirin shook his head. “But who do they work for?”

   “For the citizenry of Teigen.”

   “No, you’re misunderstanding me, who do they report to? Who sets their principle, the guiding hand of their group?”

   “Ah,” Jake said with his mind barreling in every direction.

Kathy, sitting in the passenger side beside Lace, looked over to Kirin. “They’re under direct orders of the City Magistrate, or Lord Barron, loyal servant to the noble family Dunrobin.”

   “Dunrobin, Hmm…” Kirin sat in thought.

   “How?” Kathy asked. “How did you know I had cloth in the back seat? You know you could have fallen into a bed of nails, right? Even worse, DJ equipment.”

   “Huh?” Kirin looked on confused. “But isn’t this your jeep?”

   “And why would it be my jeep?”

   “Well, judging by the callouses on your thumb and fore finger, I can tell that you’re a wonderful seamstress with a distinct style—a style so unique and skilled that it’s obvious when two people are wearing clothes made by the same the designer.” He said looking at Lace.

     Kathy then looked up ahead to the jeep in front of them where Karl was driving before looking back at Kirin with a pleased smile. “So that’s how you could tell he was an inside man?”

   “Hey, you should know, there’s nothing more distinctive about a person then what they wear. And about the Jeep, you seem like the one that drives in this relationship.”

     Kathy smiled for a moment before laughing under her breath, a laughter that grew louder with every passing moment until she smacked the side of Lace.

   “Ow!” Lace groaned. “Control yourself, woman.”

   “I can’t, I really like this guy. We must have him.” she giggled looking at Kirin who slinked away from her gaze into the back seat as he blushed. Lee shook his head in annoyance at their banter.

   “I had enough of this. Hey,” Lee said leaning between the passenger and driver seat. “Can you take me home? Just drop me off in the lower Downtown Sector.”

   “Before any of that,” Lace said. “I need to take my bouncer here, Gregg to a doctor, so hold off till then or walk your own way now.”

   “Ah,” Lee noticed the standoffish behavior of Lace and pulled away. “Okay, okay. I’ll wait then.” He scoffed a bit as he reclined in his seat beside Jake.

   “You need to calm down.” Jake whispered in Lee’s ear.

   “How can I be calm?” Lee replied. “Have you been sleeping or am I just the only one a little frightened with the direction of this night… I mean, all praises to the detective and all, but I just want to get home and back to Jade.”

     Jake sighed, understanding the anxiousness building inside Lee. “I know, I know. Just sit tight, at least it’s all over.” He said patting him on the back.

   “It’s not over yet.” Kirin said slouching in the back cab. “It’s only just begun…” he sang in a beautiful tenor that caught everyone’s attention. “It’s only just begun… You and I…”

   “You and I…” the bloodied bouncer Gregg began singing along with Kirin and the song playing on the radio.

   “It’s never over.” They sang in unison. “Until it ends… It’s only just begun…” Kathy began to sing along, turning up the radio’s volume. “You and I… What we hold true is breaking… Can’t ever find the feeling again… Can’t hide this burning for you. Oh, I need you in my life… Can’t get you out of my life…” Jake sang joining in the song, laughing to himself at the change of mood while Lee and Lace looked at everyone awkwardly. “It’s not over yet…” they continued. “It’s only just begun… Between me and you, life will always go on…”

     Reaching the song’s end, they all laughed together, through the pain, confusion, excitement, and tension.

   “We’re here.” Lace said parking in front of a dimly lit shop just outside the Downtown Sector by the Lower City Sectors where all the seedy parts of the old underdeveloped city of Teigen had found itself isolated and away from the cities newfound wealth. As Lace slipped out of the driver’s seat, he walked towards the descending street craft belonging to Karl that had parked in front of them. Kathy followed him while Jake and Lee simply got out of the car and just waited by its doors.

     Lee turned to Jake. “What do we do?”

   “We have no choice but to stay. That is if you want to walk back to the Downtown Sector at night.” Jake said looking at the garbage pail bonfires ahead where the homeless gathered for warmth and an unsightly pack of youngsters standing by a dimly lit pole, brandishing their knives and green gang bandana’s. Jake shook his head. “If you think you can survive walking through here at night, be my guest.”

      Lee shook his head. “Nah, I’m fine here with these guys.”

   “Go on ahead.” The bloodied bouncer Greg said standing behind them. “You’d be safer inside.”

   “Yeah.” Jake agreed while staring at his bloodied shirt.

   “It’s not my blood.” Gregg said with a somber face.

   “Oh,” Jake said walking ahead, only then noticing the large body of a bloodied half-conscious man being carried into the open door of a closed restaurant. Trailing away from the panicked crew was Kirin walking up and down the street with a keen eye on his new environment.

   “You better go get him.” Gregg said. “This is no place to roam by yourself.”

   “Yeah.” Jake nodded as he rushed ahead towards the wandering Kirin. Catching up to him, Kirin spread his arms apart like a bird flying with its wings stretched far apart for a generous glide across the sky. He was flying, Jake saw him like that as his footsteps glided over the uneven breaks of the paved road.

   “What an experience.” Kirin said, turning around as he balanced himself. “I can really feel it, you know, lives moving and colliding with each other, this is life.” He said with the excitement of a child learning a new pleasurable sensation.

     Jake was somewhat annoyed by his entertained look. “You know you might have killed people in that building, right?”

   “No, no, no. You got it all wrong Jake,” Kirin said jumping on the edge of the sidewalk, balancing himself with his hands.  “I did nothing of the sort.” He continued. “I simply gave them the option to die, never did I deliver the killing blow myself. I merely created a situation where they could not kill me, and even if they tried, it would mean certain death. It’s all just leverage in the end, and for Mr. Kray, he lost every bit of it today.”

     Jake smiled in disbelief at his words. “You’re mad, aren’t you? You’re no detective—you’re just some raving mad man looking for something to do”

   “How rude.” Kirin said stepping up to Jake. “I’m a mad genius, not a man, and if you want, an occasional detective.”

   “Why do you even want to be a detective so much?”

   “Well,” Kirin said looking off to the side. “It’s fun learning the difference between what is real and what is fantasy.”

   “And what is the difference to you?”

   “There is no difference really.” He said with a wild look in his eyes, almost confirming Jake’s description of him.

   “But oh,” Kirin continued. “That’s where the problem lies. Mistakes can be made in both. If they were separate, the fantasy could always be perfect, but that’s never true since a fantasy can’t become real unless it’s blemished in some way. And there lies the tragedy of fantasy.” He said biting down on his thumb with a disturbed look on his face.

   “What?” Jake said feeling uncomfortable after seeing the change in looks from Kirin. “What is it?”

   “I made a mistake.”

   “What mistake?”

   “I knew something was bothering me ever since we left the den. How could I overlook such a simple fact?”

   “What is it?” Jake said growing anxious as Kirin spoke more intensely.

   “I should have never exposed Kray.” Kirin continued.

   “Well, yeah, then we wouldn’t have been shot out of the club.”

   “No, that was fine. Actually fun.” He smiled. “His actions were typical. But I forgot to calculate the actions of our second den boss, Mr. Davos.”

   “Davos?”

   “Yes…” Kirin said pacing back and forth under the dimly lit streets. “What sort of person do you think Davos is?”

   “What sort of person?” Jake said thinking for a moment. “I don’t know, he’s… he’s a conman, an underhanded guy, always using tricks to get what he wants. A rather tenacious conman I suppose, he’s always wanted to be a boss of his own, walks and talks like he’s already one, except for whenever he was in front of Kray, that was his ticket to Union ranks after all. But… You kind of pulled the veil for that dream, didn’t you?”

   “And how would he react to having his ambitions torn down?”

   “I don’t know.” Jake shook his head with uncertainty. “I really don’t see him taking revenge or believing his chances of survival are gone. More like, I see him trying his best to escape and maybe…” Jake stopped himself mid-sentence, realizing what he was about to say. He then looked towards Kirin knowingly.