Welcome to Bakhtiar Street. It's a white-collar residential neighborhood in the better part of Kabul. The flats on this street are mostly terraced horseshoe arches. The street is a palm alley...and often very silent. OFTEN, understand.
If you live on this street, odds are your life is a bit slower than the norm. This is often the case...unless you're Gōlaka's greatest detective.
This block here is 221 Bakhtiar. Inside, the landlady runs a tight ship. Alas, she usually only keeps one tenant accommodated for. Alas, she's often torn between evicting his ass, and staring at it all day.
In Unit B, a chessboard has been set up. It's ready for war. On its own, the game opens Pawn to King 4.
A local monk in a dark green robe plays white in this game. He's just used Allahforce magic to move that pawn. For now, he grins.
He soon gawks, as one of the black pawns moves itself in a similar fashion.
Confused, Abbas looks around. "I had no idea you were an ex-monk...Mr. Hejazi."
"I'm not," Shervin Hejazi, Apartment B's less-than-humble host, replies. "I've equipped each of these chess pieces with sets of nanites. On my command, they cause the pieces to hover, and move to the spots I command them to. To command them, I've drilled neural implants into my nervous system; hence, all I have to do is think."
Abbas arches his brows. "You're very bold. I'd expect a mind like yours to be uncontrollable."
"If often is. And yet, it often takes more than the government to keep me accountable."
"Yes." For most of the game, Abbas and Hejazi move separate chess pieces simultaneously. Just as often, they take one another's pieces at the same time. For once, Hejazi gets to play the human mind's most challenging game with a worthy opponent..."
"So Abbas," Hejazi invites, "tell me more about this problem your monastery has been having. Is it crabs? Does it make your jock itch?"
"Lucky for our relationships with Allah...no. Unlucky for us, though, it makes crabs look like a very bad joke."
"O, so I've foreseen. That still doesn't explain what it is."
Abbas shrugs. "I don't know that. That's why I'd like to hire you."
"What precisely makes you think that Fenrir Wolf has come to haunt your monastery?"
"We cannot, and will not, swear that it is Fenrir Wolf. First of all, most of my brothers don't know who that is. Second of all, no one's seen him. He's just left traces."
They take one another's pieces at the same time.
"Talk about 'traces."
"It's killed three of my brothers."
"And...their corpses all had bite marks on them?"
Together, they take one another's pieces.
"They were outdoors," Abbas continues, "surrounded by softwood trees...in the forest near the monastery. Blood circled them."
"Theirs, or the beast's?"
He shrugs. "We wouldn't know. Technology isn't really a thing in our neighborhood."
"Funny." They move their next pieces at the same time. "I don't recall you protesting when I mentioned something about 'nanites,' or something else about 'neural implants."
"I'm not like my brethren. I know a bit about technology; just not enough about how to make it. Either way, all three crime scenes were quite grizzly. Whatever killed them couldn't have been human. And if it was human, it was no human Allah raised."
"I wouldn't be so sure." They both move pieces simultaneously. "Sometimes Allah teaches his children to be his enemy with the technology he means to use to teach them how to be his friends. I can honestly say that I'm living proof of that."
"I acknowledge that. But I've known you for a while. Allah's child or not, you would not have done to these poor victims as this beast has done."
"I believe you. As much as I don't doubt my own ability to commit murder, I would never use it. It's already bad enough the government thinks I'm crazy...and that my absentee landlady seems to think that I'm fitter for a mental hospital than I am as her tenant. She sure seems to raise my rent a lot.
"Either way, your brothers' corpses; tell me more about them."
"Well...there are holes in their midriffs. Their small intestines have been drawn out...and severed, in the middle." They take one another's chess pieces. "There are scratch marks...and they come in sets of five claw marks each." They take another's chess pieces. "There are venom-stained holes all over them."
Hejazi arches his brows...while moving another chess piece, simultaneously as Abbas moves one of his. "As inspired as I am...I STILL don't believe your brothers were attacked by Fenrir Wolf."
"We keep their corpses in a dungeon beneath our monastery. We all humbly invite you out to our humble abode...to offer your second opinion."
"I'm not sure if it's worth my time." They move their pieces at the same time. "I've still got to cure this world of its ongoing Stone Age...as well as my landlady of her undying urge to evict me."
"We don't have much. But we've got some emeralds, and a few more doubloons. And if you need somewhere to stay where you'll stand a smaller chance of getting evicted..."
"I appreciate you coming in, Dear Abbas, but if you'll excuse me, I've got an ordinary life to resume."
Right on cue, one of Hejazi's nanite-rigged pawns flies through through a window, shattering a pane.
At this, Abbas grins, and arches his brows. With an Allahforce spell, he corners Hejazi's king, mating with it, and winning the game.
"Your own king could use some mobility," he tells Hejazi, while standing. "But then, you probably already knew that. Surely you know that a moving target is harder to hit than one that moves at the speed of a man's intuition."
"If that was meant to dupe me into sending my own heart into harm's way..." Hejazi hesitates, and thinks. "Hmm... Well now that you've put it THAT way..."
Abbas studies him...
"Fine; I will come out to your precious cesspit, and look over your brothers' corpses." He shakes his hand. "I am NOT, however, promising to take the case. It's far too radical, and quite frankly, your brotherhood believes in magic more than I'm used to believing in it myself."
Abbas shrugs. "You live in the real world. I thought you'd be used to it by now."
"I expect it. That is NOT the same as being used to it."
"Whatever you say. Just a fair warning, though; because you're an infidel, our Abbot might not let you in past the front door...let alone the front gate."
"Please don't worry about that. I can dodge wardens whenever I have to. Most of them are better for giving Allah BJs anyway."
Abbas smiles, and points at Hejazi. "NEVER say that to the Abbott."
Hejazi shrugs. "Why ever not? He needs not take any shame in being gay. Most religious men are. It's one thing for a man of Allah to be selfless; but to lie about who he really is..."
"I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out, Hejazi, but I must be getting back to my flock. My brothers and I wouldn't know, but we can imagine that doubloons and emeralds are worth more than a shiny penny on the FX."
Hejazi grins. "Just the corpses. That is the ONLY thing I've signed."
"Understood. I don't expect the Abbott to be understanding but... Well...I would implore you to wish me luck. But I can only assume that if you don't believe in Allah, you don't believe in luck either."
"That depends, actually. Is the luck excreted by Allah's cock?"
Abbas sighs and shakes his head. "Again; I've got to get back to my flock."
"You monastic folk can be SO underwhelming at times...and OVERwhelming, at certain other times... Mission work, specifically... Standing behind the government when they punish an infidel for his infidelity, specifically..."
"I don't make the rules, Hejazi. I just message for them."
"Clearly, you've never heard of a logocracy."
"If I were a logocrat, I'd look more like Ryan Gosling."
"I swear I have NO idea what you're talking about."
With that, the good monk takes his leave. Now, Hejazi must clean up his apartment...or get cited by his landlady. He is SO tempted to not clean up his space, just to spite her...
In the hallway just outside Hejazi's apartment, a painting of a chimera hangs. It's not Hejazi's, of course; Hejazi is a man of reality. He believes not in chimeras, simurghs, dragons, or phoenixes... And ESPECIALLY not Allah...Mohammed's OR Ali's...