CHAPTER 13
Alex had learned two things so far that night. The first was that his suit was fireproof. The second was that Sergeant Matsuri cursed like a sailor when she was pissed off.
He and Hierro crashed through the third story window of a supposedly abandoned tenement house while Matsuri kicked down the door on the ground level, each blow punctuated by yet another curse. "Son of a bi… Motherfu... there we go!" There were a series of crashes as the door was knocked off its hinges and Matsuri's booted feet stomped across the first floor landing. "Hawlucha Man, you have visual on the runners?"
Alex glared at the unkempt old man huddling in the corner of the dingy room. He muttered to himself and hugged five Pidove close. Alex inclined his head and walked out onto the landing. They weren't here to clear out squatters. The man's door had been broken down, and the door at the far end of the landing was standing ajar. "No visual, but they came through here."
"Damn it! All right, I'm heading out the back."
He and Matsuri were pursuing the leaders of an opiate ring that Matsuri had been chasing down leads for since before the Sins' attack. In the aftermath of Sloth's downfall and the Sins going dormant, the drug suppliers had cut ties with Gluttony and thrown in with the Baron's organization and expanded their Avenbrooke operation. Matsuri had enlisted Hawlucha Man's help in ambushing them in what they had hoped would be a quick sting operation, but Antoine and Thomas Coquille had managed to slip out of their main supply base and had led Matsuri and Alex on a mad chase through their safe houses.
Alex ran across the landing and vaulted out the broken window onto the fire escape. The building across the way had no windows facing the alley, so he had to assume the drug czars had taken to the roof. He called this down to Matsuri and sprinted up the fire escape. When he and Hierro reached the top, he estimated the distance across the alley. He could probably make the jump, but he thought he would need his wingsuit to clear the distance. Antoine and Thomas only had a Breloom and Sabeleye to aid them, and neither would provide much help in crossing the gap. The building stood on a street corner, meaning it was open air to the right and straight ahead, which left only the left neighbor. The building there was flush up against the tenement house, but another story taller. Hierro was already running forward, bounding up the wall with two quick leaps. Alex followed after, jumping as high as he could before dashing up the wall and just managing to grab the lip of the roof. He reached up with his free hand and felt Hierro's hand grab his wrist, hauling him up the rest of the way.
Matsuri reached the roof just in time to watch Alex scramble up the building. "Oh, you have got to be fuckin' kidding me!"
"Can you make it?" Alex called back.
Alex assumed by the stream of curses that she probably couldn't. He scanned up and down the street, but the Coquilles had moved fast. He and Matsuri assumed they were taking a circuitous route to their hideout somewhere in the warehouse district, but they had hoped to head them off before the Coquilles got that far. The sprawling warehouse district was too much ground even for the entire Eleventh Precinct to cover, and too many criminals had vanished into its alleys. Alex had to assume Thomas and Antoine were heading vaguely southwest, and the most logical path for them to take would be up St. Martine Avenue, especially if they were trying to shake a pursuit.
Alex and Hierro turned back towards Matsuri. "I can't see them, so looks like we're going for Plan B. I'll take the rooftops towards St. Martine."
Matsuri swore again. "The night market?"
"The night market," Alex agreed.
The Avenbrooke night market spanned several blocks along St. Martine Avenue, clogging the streets with shoppers and revelers as they sampled food from all over the world, traded wares and got drunk. The night market was a major tourist draw for Avenbrooke in the warmer months of the year, but the bulk of the patrons were locals who just wanted fried, greasy food and to enjoy a beer outside under strings of Solstice lights. The problem with the night market was that between the stalls and the foot traffic, it effectively barred motor traffic and consequently made it very hard to police. An enterprising criminal could shove their way through the crowd and lose a pursuing officer, even if the officer abandoned their cruiser and followed on foot.
But not many criminals counted on a pursuer from the air.
Alex stretched out his arms. "You go back down to the street and loop around in your car. I'll take the rooftops."
Matsuri nodded. "I'll rendezvous with you on Seventeenth."
Alex and Hierro ran to the edge of the building and took off, soaring out over the street. The rooftop had been the tallest for several blocks, and a steady, favorable wind was blowing. Alex angled his body west, towards the gentrified neighborhoods that slowly gave way to the lights and revelry of the night market.
Rooftop gardens and elegant backyard patios flashed by below Alex and Hierro as they shot overhead, occasionally dashing across an empty rooftop. Alex could see the glow of the night market, even from several blocks away, a golden haze bleeding over the tops of distant buildings.
As they closed the gap, the wind shifted, and Alex felt himself quickly losing altitude. He spread his wings as wide as he could, but they couldn't catch enough drag to keep him aloft. He angled himself so that he drifted over the brownstone apartments on the side of the street so he wouldn't fall quite so far and lose precious time. The rooftops rushed by underneath him as he scanned for a place to land, but the buildings all had jumbles of machinery and HVAC equipment on the roofs, and he had no safe place to come down.
Three buildings ahead, he saw a well-lit rooftop with a terrace garden, and knew that he would reach it just before he crashed. He prepared to land, and then saw that the rooftop was occupied. A long table stretched across its length, and a dinner party seemed to be in progress. "Oh crap," Alex muttered.
He landed on the table with a bang, and was immediately off and running. The party guests shouted in alarm and indignation as he sprinted down the length of the table, doing his best not to step in any of the food as the diners hurried to snatch up their plates. "Sorry! Really sorry! Oh, watch your wine!" He stumbled and nearly face planted into the main course before righting himself and continuing onward. "Sorry again! This all looks really good, by the way."
When he reached the end of the table, the man sitting there stood up in a huff. "Now listen here, you—"
Alex jumped off the edge of the table onto the lip around the building's edge and sprang off. "Kind of in a rush right now! Enjoy the rest of the party!"
Hierro drifted down to glide beside him and silently shook his head. Evidently the Hawlucha had managed to remain aloft and had watched Alex's mishap from above. At least Hierro had the grace not to laugh in Alex's face about it. Or at least, he didn't laugh now, but Alex was sure he wouldn't hear the end of it later.
They reached the night market without further mishaps, and paused on a rooftop to scan the crowd. The market itself stretched for seven city blocks down St. Martine Avenue, with tents selling food, booze, and virtually everything else under the sun on each side of the street. A thick press of bodies drifted up and down the avenue, filling the night air with chatter. The shifting sea of people and pokemon made it too hard for Alex to focus on any one individual, but Hierro's eyes were far sharper. "You got something?" Alex asked.
Hierro nodded and pointed off to Alex's right. Alex couldn't make out anything specific in the undulating crowd, but he backed up a few paces from the lip of the building. "Lead on, partner." They shot out over the night market, and Alex heard several gasps down below.
"Hey, is that Hawlucha Man?"
"Hawlucha Man! Hey!"
"What's going on? Should we be worried?"
"Look, it's Hawlucha Man!"
Hierro stooped into a dive, and the crowd parted around the flying type as Alex alighted behind him. "Antoine Coquille. Don't make this any harder than it needs to be."
Antoine whirled. "You don't know when to quit, do you?"
"Never have," Alex quipped back.
Antoine snarled and whipped out his left hand. Hierro shrieked as a Sabeleye burst from the shadows and Thomas Coquille rushed out of the crowd, a wicked-looking knife clutched in his fist. "Eyes on me!" Alex barked, and he saw Hierro tense. Alex swept low and drew his batons while Hierro jumped up and launched off Alex's back, driving his taloned foot into Thomas's chest, sending the man flying back into the night market crowd. Alex activated the electric current in his batons and clubbed the Sabeleye as it lunged. "Everyone stand back!" Alex commanded as a few men made to grab Thomas's arms. "The CCPD and I have this under control. I don't want anyone getting hurt!" The crowd withdrew as Antoine commanded his Breloom to attack. Alex swept his leg up into a roundhouse kick, knocking the grass type into Hierro's fist.
"Yeah Hawlucha Man! Show 'em how it's done!"
"You can do it!"
"Teach 'em not to mess with Avenbrooke!"
"Kick his ass, Hawlucha Man!"
Antoine gritted his teeth and drew a gun from beneath his jacket, brandishing it at the crowd. "Out of the way," he snapped. The crowd instinctively parted, and Antoine sprinted through. Hierro tried to snatch Thomas as he ran by, but only managed to tear his coat. The Coquille's Sabeleye melted back into the shadows as the Breloom bounded after its trainers. Alex and Hierro took off after them, but the Coquilles did not make it easy. They overturned small stalls in their wake and shoved people and pokemon down, forcing Alex to leap over them, losing precious seconds.
"Hey Hawlucha Man, over here!" A fruit vendor waved to Alex from the bed of his pickup truck and pointed at the roof of his stall. "Jump on up!"
Alex grinned beneath his cowl as he vaulted into the truck, onto the cab, and then finally pulling himself onto the stall. Hierro dashed up behind him, and together they raced across the top of the night market. The crowd below cheered him on as he dashed over ramen stalls, kebab stands, clothing merchants and grocers. Below him, someone had managed to haul a large industrial fan out into the thoroughfare, and angled it upwards. The fan spun to life with a roar, and Hierro jumped off the roof to catch the updraft. Alex followed a second later, and the two of them shot out over the heads of the crowd.
"Thank you, citizens of Avenbrooke!" Alex called as the wind caught his wings. They blew out over the end of the night market, and saw Matsuri's police car screech around a corner, hot in pursuit of the Coquille's getaway van. She slowed down when she saw Alex and Hierro and stuck her hand out the window to wave them down. Alex landed with a gasp on the sidewalk next to the car, running to keep up. Matsuri reached across the center console to pop the passenger door for him while he threw open the back for Hierro. "Come on!" the sergeant cried and Alex tumbled in. As soon as he pulled the door shut behind him, Matsuri was off, her siren wailing.
Her Raichu chittered in the back seat while Hierro clutched at the upholstery. The Hawlucha had never liked cars, and he especially didn't like speeding cars. They peeled off the main roads and onto shadowy backstreets as the warehouse district loomed. There was a brief moment where they lost the van, but when they shot through the open gates of the freight yard, they saw the vehicle abandoned by the gaping doors of a dilapidated warehouse. Alex was jumping out of the car almost before Matsuri had it in park, wrenching open the back door to let Hierro out. The two of them sprinted across the gravel lot to the warehouse and plunged into the darkness. Alex activated the night vision Jiro Sasaki had built into his suit, but his scan of the warehouse turned up nothing. He switched to thermal imaging, and his shoulders slumped.
"Oh crap."
The sound of their entry had roused the massive colony of Zubat, Golbat, and Crobat that had roosted within. The sound of hundreds of leathery wings filled the air, and Alex could only watch in horror as the poison types descended, their fangs glinting.
A blinding flash lit up the warehouse, and the bat pokemon screamed as electrical current coursed through them. Alex quickly averted his eyes, and when he saw that the harsh light had dimmed, he turned to see Matsuri standing in the doorway. Her Raichu glowed as it discharged power, driving the bats back. Matsuri ran across the warehouse, signaling for Alex to follow. "That won't hold them for long!"
They burst out into the night air again, following the footprints in the gravel. Matsuri broke down the wooden door to the next warehouse with a well-placed kick, but drew up short when she and Alex entered into a quiet, softly lit space lined with wooden bedframes stacked three high. The sergeant scanned the open expanse and scowled. "Looks like we found the main den."
As they stalked down the aisles of beds, Alex saw that many were occupied. All of the sleepers were wan and ashen-skinned, with deep dark circles beneath their eyes. He knew the effects of dream dust when he saw it. It was a powerful and addictive opiate, distilled from traditional morphine, but strengthened with Breloom spores and crystalized Musharna smoke to ensure a deep sleep. Occasionally, one of the sleepers would stir, their body struggling to rise to consciousness only to fall back under the heavy blanket of the drug.
"Are we going to arrest all these people?" Alex murmured as they padded across the concrete floor.
Matsuri sighed. "I don't know. I have to take as many names as I can, it's department policy. The CCPD tries to help, but so many of these addicts slip through the cracks. Sometimes it's easier to just get them off the streets."
"It's not like they're hurting anyone."
"I don't make the laws, Hawlucha Man. I want to help but… sometimes it's out of our hands."
"Hawlucha… Man?" One of the sleepers struggled to rise, his pale hands grasping the edges of his bunk with white-knuckled intensity.
"You go on," Alex told Matsuri. "I'll catch up in a second." He and Hierro crouched next to the bunk, and he couldn't help but gasp when he saw Pierre Espalier, his face gaunt, and his veins beginning to blacken with the effects of too much dream dust. "Arceus, Pierre, what are you doing here?"
"The Baron," Pierre muttered, his words slurred. "He keeps me here. Between jobs. Keeps the voices quiet." Alex saw the air shimmer as Pierre waved his hand, a tiny wall forming and breaking apart just as quickly. "I'm all under control. Out of the way."
"This is…" Alex struggled to find the words. "Pierre, this is terrible. It's inhumane. What happened to Mimsy?"
The esper raised his other hand, and Alex saw that a pokeball was tied to his wrist with a leather cord. "Mimsy doesn't like to see me like this. I sleep, he sleeps too. Different sleeps."
"I'm going to get you out of here. I'm going to get you help."
Pierre jerked his hand in a gesture of dismissal. "He'd just bring me back. The Baron. Signed a contract." The esper sighed, his mouth tugging up at the corners into a lazily smile. "You can't… sometimes you can't… not everybody can be saved. Should go, Hawlucha Man. Let me have the dreams. Can't hurt anybody in the dreams." The mime slipped back into the drugged slumber of the dream dust, his face slackening and the tension leaving his muscles.
Alex slammed his fist against the concrete floor and winced at the pain. "Damn it," he muttered. "Damn it, I should be able to save you. I should have…" Hierro put a hand on Alex's shoulder and jerked his head in the direction Matsuri had gone. There was a crash, and Alex jumped to his feet and took off at a run.
He heard a gun go off, once, twice, and more glass shattered. Hierro bolted ahead of him, and he heard the Hawlucha shriek as Matsuri's Raichu cried out in anger. There was another flash, a muffled curse, and then Alex rounded the corner to see Antoine clutching the bullet wound in his shoulder, and Thomas struggling to rise from Hierro's attack. Their Breloom and Sabeleye twitched on the warehouse floor, paralyzed by Matsuri's Raichu. The sergeant stood with her gun pointing at Antoine. "Last chance to come quietly," she barked.
Antoine snarled in wordless rage and lurched forward, his uninjured arm drawing back to strike. Alex was on him in an instant, driving his knee into Antoine's chest, his elbow into the man's injured shoulder. "No more chances," Alex growled. When the chemist staggered back, Alex unclipped the batons from his belt and cracked them across the man's jaw. He twirled them in his hands and drove the blunted tips into Antoine's abdomen as he flicked the switch to engage the stun function. Antoine's back arched as the electric current coursed through him, and then collapsed in a heap. Alex pivoted on his back foot as Thomas moved his hands, and struck the back of the man's head. The second Coquille dropped like a stone.
"Thanks for the help," Matsuri said. "Avenbrooke's a better place now that these scumbags aren't on the streets."
Alex nodded to the sergeant and clicked his tongue at Hierro. Together, the two of them walked past the rows of beds while Matsuri called in for a prisoner transport and medical personnel for all the addicts under the spell of the drug. Alex kept walking through the broken warehouse door and out into the night. He didn't stop until the warehouse district was far behind him, until he could find a quiet alleyway and a sturdy fire escape, until he was on a distant rooftop far, far away from the unsettling quiet of the warehouses and the equally unsettling bustle of the night market.
He didn't need to be there when the police arrived to escort out the somnambulists with their blackening veins and vacant eyes, to watch them loaded into a hospital transport to be whisked away to Metro General, or the detention cells nearby. He didn't need to watch the narcotics division pack up the Coquilles' laboratory and confiscate their chemicals, the chemicals that had ruined Pierre on the Baron's orders.
He didn't need to see it, because he knew what would happened next.