It took Tristan and Rogue some time to locate Elijah again. When they did, it was thanks to Rogue.
After he and Tristan discovered the plan to kill Harley, Rogue had gone back to visit the Drifter. With a promise to play Gambit more often, along with some smooth-talking, Rogue was able to get the Drifter to notify him if he saw Elijah.
Tristan had been worried that Harley would be killed before they heard anything, but two nerve-wracking days of waiting later, it had paid off. As soon as Rogue got the message, he leaped up.
"Got him!"
Tristan had followed the Titan out of the apartment and over to the staircase leading up to where Hawthorne liked to hang out. After the Red War, she had been offered a place in the new Tower as a facilitator of Guardian clans, as well as an occasional helping hand to the Vanguard.
Tristan and Rogue hid just inside the entrance to her perch, their eyes glued to the alleyway where the Drifter conducted his business. As they watched, Elijah emerged from between the buildings and turned left, heading toward the Courtyard. After a few moments, the pair followed.
"I wonder what he was discussing with the Drifter?" Tristan mused.
"Who says he's 'discussing' anything?" said Rogue, "Might just be turnin' in Gambit bounties."
"Does he play Gambit?"
Rogue shrugged. "S'what the Drifter said. Apparently, he likes invading."
Tristan considered it. He supposed it wasn't surprising that Elijah would play Gambit. He may be working for a shadowy organization with nefarious purposes, but he was still a Guardian who probably looked for chances to blow off steam.
Rogue elbowed Tristan.
"Heads up, where's he goin'?"
Tristan refocused on Elijah and frowned as the Warlock ducked through a doorway.
"If I'm not mistaken, that is one of the paths leading to the headquarters of the Praxic Order… Why would someone conspiring to commit a crime go there?"
"Maybe we're right and he's in cahoots with someone in the Order," suggested Rogue.
"Either way, we have to follow him. It's the only way to learn his intentions."
"Lead the way, Brainiac."
As they followed Elijah's path, they took care to stay on guard and not walk too fast. It wouldn't help for Elijah to discover them following him. They rounded a corner just in time to see the door to the common area close. Through a small window, Tristan was able to see Elijah cross the room, making his way toward a door labeled "Evidence." He also noticed that none of the Praxic Warlocks questioned Elijah's presence.
"Well shit," said Rogue.
Tristan agreed with the sentiment. Following Elijah had just become much more difficult.
"We're unable to follow him any longer."
"Whoa," protested Rogue, "We ain't giving up that easy, wise guy. Ace's in there. What if today's the day they're makin' their move on him?"
Tristan sighed. The Exo made a good point. But it didn't solve the problem of how they could follow Elijah.
"What do you suggest we do?"
"We can't follow him. But you're a Warlock, so you can. Just stroll on in there like you own the place and no one'll look twice."
Tristan was skeptical, to say the least. "I highly doubt it will work as well as you predict."
"Listen, Mr. Genius. If Joviac made it through there, you can too. If ya really want to sit here and wait for him to come back out, we can do that, but I hope you're willin' to bet Ace's life on it."
Tristan shot him a look.
"Fine."
Squaring his shoulders, he pushed open the door and strode into the Praxic Order headquarters. The room inside was large and relatively uncrowded. He could see a few hallways branching off to different areas. For a moment, he was tempted to follow the sign labeled "Holding Cells," but swiftly refocused on the task at hand.
Strolling past reception as Elijah had done, he crossed the room, fighting the urge to look around. When he got to the door marked "Evidence," he cautiously opened it to scope out the interior. Thankfully, it was larger than he'd anticipated and he was able to slip inside.
From somewhere behind a shelf, a voice called out.
"Hello?"
Tristan felt his breath catch. It was the same voice that he and Rogue had heard in the Annex. Elijah. A set of footsteps sounded out, approaching him. Fortunately, he was able to duck behind a stack of crates. Peering between them, he was able to see Elijah looking around in confusion.
Suddenly, the door swung open, causing Tristan to tense. A young woman entered the room, dressed in red and gold robes. She was small in stature, with shockingly white hair and brown eyes. She seemed wary and scanned the room.
"I can't believe you chose this place," she said accusingly, "Do you know what the Praxic Order would do if they found you?"
"They won't even know we were here," said Elijah.
His tone was probably meant to sound reassuring, but he couldn't keep a note of anxiety from showing.
"Did you bring the file?" she asked.
Elijah nodded. He reached into his robes, withdrawing a folder. He offered it to the woman, who wasted no time in opening it to read the contents. A satisfied expression appeared on her face.
"Excellent. My boss will find this very interesting. Good job."
Elijah didn't seem to register the praise. "Do you know if I'm needed for anything else?" he asked.
The other Warlock shook her head. "Not as far as I know. The rest will proceed as planned. But make sure you stick around just in case." Elijah nodded. "And don't worry, I won't tell my boss where I got this from."
"I don't understand," said Elijah with a frown, "Wouldn't he want to know. I'm supposed to report my progress-"
"My boss is not whoever you're thinking of. My boss is different from yours. Don't worry yourself over it." She slapped the folder against her hand. "Thanks again, kid. Who knows? Maybe we'll work together again in the future."
She winked at Elijah, leaving the room. The other Warlock remained in place for a while longer, seemingly deep in thought, before he too left the room.
Tristan emerged from behind the stack of crates, processing everything he'd just learned. After a few minutes, he left and made his way out of the Praxic headquarters.
As he stepped into the hallway once more, a hand grabbed his arm.
"What'd you find out?" asked Rogue excitedly.
Tristan frowned and looked past the Exo. Elijah was nowhere in sight.
"You lost him."
Rogue waved him off. "Eh, we'll find him again. C'mon, tell me whatcha learned."
Tristan sighed. "Very well. Elijah met with another Warlock in the evidence room."
"Was she Praxic?"
"I assume so but I can't be certain. She wore red and gold robes. Elijah gave her a file."
"A file about what?"
"I don't know. Both of them mentioned a boss, but it sounded like they were speaking of two different people. Almost like an alliance of some sort."
"Well that's just great," griped the Exo, "First, there's a group out to kill one of our friends. Now we got some sorta handoff and maybe even another group to worry about. This just gets better and better."
"We need to find out what was in that file," said Tristan, "The fact that it was a hard copy makes things difficult. It also points to criminal intent."
Rogue's head tilted. "Whaddaya mean by that?"
"People only create hard copies if they're afraid of losing digital ones or if they don't want others to know what is in them. I suspect Elijah made it for the latter reason."
"We've got no way of gettin' to it 'less we could ambush that other Warlock. But if she's Praxic like you said, she'd have the law on her side."
Tristan nodded. "I agree. We would be no benefit to Harley if we too were arrested. We must find another way to recover the file."
"How?"
"It's possible that we could have found out by following Elijah further," an accusatory note crept into his voice, "But you neglected to do so when he left the Praxic headquarters."
Rogue held up his hands. "Alright, jeez. No need to get your robes in a bunch, wise guy."
Tristan sighed. The fact that they had lost Elijah was far from ideal. He wasn't sure what the timeline of Elijah's plan was, which made it all the more urgent that he and Rogue put a stop to it. For all they knew, the attempt on Harley's life could be made tomorrow.
"How do you wanna do this?" asked Rogue.
Tristan gave it a moment's thought. "We must find Elijah. However, I would also like to know what's contained in that file. There are two of us, so we could do both at the same time. You can attempt to relocate Elijah while I access the Praxic Order's database to see if that other Warlock is a member."
"Hold up. You can do that?" The Exo sounded astonished.
Tristan nodded. "I will search for her that way while you look for Elijah. I suggest enlisting the Drifter's help. He helped you find Elijah before. We'll meet up at the apartment this evening to exchange information."
"Sounds good," said Rogue, "Imma go see if I can find Drifter before he starts up a Gambit match. See ya later."
Tristan let the Titan leave while he considered the best way to access the Praxic Order's database. If the other Warlock was a member like he suspected, he would find her file in the employee records. The records wouldn't be as protected as some of the other information the Order protected, but getting to them would be no easy task.
The Praxic Order was essentially a police force for Guardians - an important part of the justice system. But what made Tristan's task daunting wasn't the security of the Order's database. He was fairly sure he could access it with minimal difficulty. The problem was that the Praxic Order would know he had accessed it. He didn't have enough time to make his infiltration undetectable, so it would only be a matter of time before they traced the incursion back to him.
The best way to combat this issue would be to access the database from a public place. The Tower's library was a potential location. However, with the limited number of Guardians in the Tower and increased security due to the Red War, the Praxic Order could still trace it back to him. Tristan began walking back to the Bazaar as he considered the problem.
By the time he made it back, he had thought of an additional problem. If he were to use any of the Tower terminals to access the Praxic database, not only would he be putting himself at risk of discovery from Tower security, but also the group plotting against Harley. One of the men had mentioned the involvement of multiple people and there was no way to identify who could be working with them.
Then, as Tristan stared at the distant City, he got an idea. The City contained many information archives scattered throughout its many districts. The archives were public, open to civilians and Guardians alike. If he were to access the database there, there was a good chance that the Praxic Order would not be able to trace it back to him. But before he committed to the plan, he wanted a second opinion.
"If I were to use a public archive to access the Praxic Order's database, would the probability of my success be greater than if I used a terminal in the Tower?" he asked, glancing at the Ghost at his shoulder.
Trillian blinked, spinning the segments of her sky-blue shell. Then after a moment, she nodded.
"Then that is what I'll do," said Tristan, "Would you mind calculating the course to the nearest archive from the Tower?"
Trillian shook her head. Smiling softly, Tristan began walking in the direction of the elevators that would take him down to City level.
He was fortunate to have a Ghost that was understanding of the situation and would not object to him breaking a few rules in order to help a fellow Guardian. He understood that other Ghosts could be much more uptight about rules and regulations. Trillian rarely spoke and when she did it was always in the confines of his mind. But that didn't matter to Tristan. Their bond was progressed enough to the extent that they could easily read each other's emotions. Verbal communication was often unnecessary.
It didn't take Tristan long to access the Praxic database once he had arrived at the archive. The real problem occurred when he opened the list of employee files.
He was confident that he would be able to identify the Warlock upon seeing her, but he had to open each file to be able to see the attached ID photo. It was monotonous work, to say the least. Tristan frequently found his attention wandering. He had a feeling that the Praxic Order hadn't updated their employee masterlist in a while.
Time dragged by and he began to wonder if he would find the Warlock in time. He had taken a gamble by choosing his current course of action. It was entirely possible that the Warlock wasn't a member of the Order at all and was only posing as one to fulfill a task. He could be wasting a lot of time for nothing. What's worse was the idea that while he was searching through Praxic employee files, Elijah and the rest of his mysterious organization were making their move on Harley. Tristan hoped that Rogue had been able to find Elijah before the Warlock could cause further harm.
Absentmindedly, he clicked on another file, glancing at the ID photo before automatically moving to close it. Then his brain caught up with his eyes and his fingers froze. He looked at the photo again. Same white hair. Same almond-shaped eyes. It was her. Tristan felt his heart rate pick up as he examined the attached info.
The Warlock's name was Miyako Thorne. Stormcaller. Pledged to the New Monarchy faction. Guardian since the City Age and member of the Praxic Order for five years. He took a mental note of her address in the Tower before sending a copy of her file to Trillian.
Now that he had what he'd come for, he needed to get back. Moving quickly, he closed the windows and shut off the terminal before walking out of the archive as fast as he could without drawing attention.
Thankfully, the Sparrow ride back to the Tower didn't take too long. Tristan hurried to the Chasers' apartment.
Upon entering, he found Rogue reclining on the couch.
"I take it you were not able to find Elijah?"
The Exo grunted. "Good guess. Drifter and I looked just about everywhere but the kid was gone. Probably keepin' his head down if he knows what's good for him. How 'bout you? Any luck?"
"Yes." Tristan moved to sit down next to Rogue. "I managed to find the Warlock in the Praxic Order's database. Her name is Miyako Thorne. An address was listed, indicating that she resides in the Tower."
Rogue scoffed. "No surprise there. Most Guardians do. We payin' her a visit?"
"Perhaps. But not at the moment. I doubt she would keep the file in her quarters. We are better off continuing to search for Elijah."
The Titan groaned. "I could go the rest of my immortal life without havin' to hear about him." With a loud sigh, he heaved himself up off of the couch. "Let's go."
A/N: If anyone has guesses as to who's behind all this, let me know in the reviews ;)