The Janus Project (ONC 2020 - LGBTQ)

6. A Late Night

(Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to EvelynHail whose story, Mind The Gap, is rattling along at a great rate! Written in conjunction with RainerSalt)

~~~

Kai left the party as unobtrusively as a jester could, wearing a vampire's cloak, smiling and jingling his hat as he went.

He walked leisurely down the steps and turned into the cobbled street, wrapping the cloak around himself to hide his costume. Kai smiled faintly, replaying the night in his head. He'd certainly had a memorable evening! True, he hadn't found the man he was hoping to encounter, but he'd found Ash.

It was a long walk back to his apartment and as soon as he was out of sight, Kai peeled the jester's headpiece back from his face and tucked it down inside the back of the cloak. Londa's streets might be safer than those at home but there was no point in taking silly risks.

Street lamps cast pools of gold light between the shadows, enough for Kai to find his way easily. The night was perfect for walking in his opinion; clear, and cold enough that he could enjoy a brisk pace. There was hardly anyone else about on foot, but occasionally a steam carriage would rattle past on the road. And once, Kai stopped to stare as a huge dirigible passed overhead, hissing steam and strung with coloured lights for the New Year, carrying passengers north, maybe as far as Mancha. Kai watched transfixed until it passed out of sight.

He reached the tall house containing his apartment without further interruption. Suddenly weary, he pushed open the door and climbed the stairs to his rooms on the third floor. Looking with eyes recently opened by the grandeur of Ash's house, Kai winced. The small sitting room, tiny kitchen and single bedroom had seemed perfectly fine before, but now they looked... inadequate. Shabby. Poor.

On the plus side—and more importantly—the apartment was safe and secure. Its location on the third floor made unauthorised entry through either window unlikely. The oak door was thick and sturdy, and he was the only one who had the key, having installed a brand new lock immediately after his arrival. Nevertheless, he checked that the fine dust he had carefully spilt inside the doorway was undisturbed. All good, so far.

He locked the door behind him, then went immediately into the bedroom, where he pulled a shabby leather case out from under the bed and opened it. Carefully, he removed the garments he had folded on top. The device was still there, as he had left it. Despite the fact that he knew it would be, Kai couldn't help a quick flush of relief.

Every time he left, part of him worried, worried until he saw it again, safe and sound. Weighing a couple of kilos and resembling an old-style magic lantern, he wished the device was small enough to carry every day on his person... but it wasn't. Keeping it secure was the best he could do.

He yawned. It had been a long day; his personal quest, his job—everything—could just wait until tomorrow. All he wanted to do now was go to sleep, and allow himself to dream of Ash. He was just about to replace the folded clothes on top of the device when he saw the red light flash. The size of a match head, it flashed on and off. Again and again.

Fuck! What the hell had gone wrong?

He pressed his thumb over the light until he felt a tiny pinprick. He waited a second before pulling his thumb away and absentmindedly sucking the drop of blood. The red light stayed dark, acknowledging that the right person had received the intended message.

~~~

Kai entered the small, windowless room without knocking. The man inside looked up from the desk he was seated at and gestured to the chair opposite.

"Sorry to call you back so soon, but we have a crisis on our hands."

Kai seated himself and ran one hand through his short hair. "I guessed there must be an emergency of some sort. What's happened?"

"Our man's escalating. There was another murder last night."

"Ah." Kai couldn't help wondering if that was the very case that had drawn Ash away from his side.

The man opposite, usually so blandly expressionless, looked grim, his eyes were tight and his lips pursed. Kai felt a chill.

"Bad as that is, it's not the worst of it," the other continued. "Last night's victim was a prototype. That's the second one, so far. We could discount the first, given the peculiar circumstances, but this one—it can't be co-incidence. It has to be deliberate."

Kai found himself nodding in agreement. "He's targeting us, isn't he?"

The other man leant forward and crossed his forearms on the desk. "We think so. Your mission is now our maximum priority. You'll have to hunt him down and eliminate him, whatever it takes. He must be stopped!"

~~~

It had been a very long night. First waiting for the photographer to capture the details before the scene was disturbed, then the police surgeon, and finally his own men to gather and label all the available evidence. At least they had found the head. Gruesome as it had been to find in the icebox, somehow that was better than his first thought, that it had been taken away as a trophy.

Dawn had come and gone and Ash was hoping to snatch a few hours sleep before starting work again. He was just about to head upstairs to bed when he heard a sound.

Someone was knocking at his door. Damn. What had happened now?

Expecting a police runner, he opened the door to find a stranger standing there.

"Yes?" he asked abruptly. The last thing he wanted to do was to fend off some importunate salesman. Then he saw his own cloak, draped over the stranger's arm.

"Kai? Is that you?" He took a closer look, taking in the hazel eyes, short brown hair and tentatively smiling lips. Kai looked cute, even without the jester's costume. Ash felt a totally unexpected rush of lust.

"Yes, I thought I'd return your cloak. Sorry it's so early, but I wanted to catch you before you left for work." Kai held out the cloak apologetically.

"It's fine," smiled Ash, taking the cloak and stepping back. "Come in."