His sister's house was empty. The blue walls and light floors showed no signs of habitation. It'd been days since that message was left for him. And it was still there. The police hadn't investigated the house, because Aiden messed with their computer system giving them the wrong address. He was glad no neighbors had spotted him entering the apartment. They had been suspicious and concerned about Nicky, but they knew nothing so they said nothing. Aiden searched the whole place. Nicky's room looked to be intact. The closet was a little emptier than he would have expected. The same was evident in Jackson's room. He went to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator. No milk, no eggs, no yogurt, juice, mayonnaise. They removed all the things that would have started to stink after a couple of days. He closed the metal door of the appliance and looked on the coffee table, no fruit to rot. This Benevolence person was clever. He or she was thorough.

This Benevolence person had his sister and son. Wait, son, nephew. Jacks might have well have been son. He loved him like he was, and his asshole of a dad was in the picture and just hopped out like his life was a TV show. Now he had to find the Roach. He knew the leader of what used to be DEDSEC was in this city. He exited the apartment and called Benevolence.

"I'm here in St. Louis." He started with that simple statement.

"I know," said the filtered voice.

"Where are Nicky and Jackson?" He was calm as he inquired.

"We have them." Almost as soon as the person finished saying that their hand went over their mouth.

"Who's 'we'?" He asked starting to clutch the phone in his hand.

"I meant me, I," said the voice, sounding pitchy even through the voice filter. "Did you crush the Roach yet?"

"No, but the deal was take down DEDSEC," He was on the verge of screaming.

"But things changed, that vermin is a threat to your family, and to me," Benevolence was trying to rationalize the situation.

"Fine, I'll take out this last threat and we're done." He always had to do extra in his life. That's what he was dealt.

The fox decided to stay in a hotel room. It wasn't dissimilar from the one he had before. It was on the second floor of a hotel whose rooms faced outward to a terrace. Aiden could tell that the manager was glad to have a guest, especially a guest who paid in cash for a month long stay. Aiden sweetened the deal even more, insisting that his room be untouched by whatever housekeeping staff the establishment employed. The manager, an older, short black man with gray hair and an all-around pleasant disposition was grinning ear to ear. The housekeeper, Beulah, a tall white woman with blond-turning-white hair, blue eyes and a friendly smile, hugged the fox with affection and kissed him on the bearded cheek. He blushed.

The polar vortex and its extreme cold scared off any tourists who wanted to visit. People, after this extreme weather started last year, had become acutely aware that the whole Midwest could and would, if provoked by the weather gods on high, would freeze. Aiden was only one of six guests in the hotel. His room was away from all of the others. The Glass Hotel was its name. It wasn't a particularly special piece of architecture. It had a television, microwave, mini-fridge, shower, sink, a king sized bed, and good drapes. The drapes covered the view of the street. It was a secondary, more like tertiary road that only saw a plow a few hours after the snow would stop. Well, he could only see the road through the gaps in the tree's bare, brown branches. It was a moderately sized specimen, which no doubt created headaches for Samuel, the manager, and Beulah in the autumn, with all of its orange leaves and other droppings off. Aiden could also see the house across the street. It was like one of those houses in Scandinavia, one of those dwellings with the sharply pointed roof. It was helpful he supposed, as there was no snow on top of the roof.

He had brought his laptop down from Chicago. It was, on second to his more portable phone, the best tool. With no CTos in this city, or in any city anymore, Aiden was going to have to track this Roach the hard way. Well, he was Aiden Pearce, so not the hard way, but the less easy way. He turned it on and started his tracking program. It pinged immediately. This asshole is trying to get him to go to that spot. The roach was trying to dare the fox. He would. He would go to the location, looked like a warehouse. Aiden was going to be well armed. He knew that there were some gun stores nearby. He was about to take the Roach out of his misery.

Whether or not the State of Missouri monitored the amount of guns Aiden purchased, was of little consequence now. Aiden had enough guns and ammo to defend the frontier. He was going in prepared. He was getting his revenge on this man. All of the people in Chicago he stole from. All the hospitals he stole from. All of the children's social security numbers he stole and sold.

Aiden parked his newly 'acquired' car outside of the warehouse. It had some huge red Chinese writing on top with smaller also red, but faded, lettering in English. It read 'Fu King Yoo Distributors'. Any other time Aiden would have taken the time to chuckle at the silly sign. Right now he had a mission. He was going to kill this prick. He walked into the place, after having kicked down the door. No light, of course. He turned on the flashlight in his gun as he walked down the hallway. It was a bleak place. The walls looked like they were white when they were painted, but the years of neglect and exposure had turned them into filthy proofs of abandonment. Those walls were probably painted when lead paint was 'in'. Roaches and water bugs climbed the walls, and the scurrying footfalls of rodents reverberated in the hollow corridor. The hallway turned right, so did he that was walking down it. Stairs appeared, and Aiden descended them. He turned quickly when he thought he heard a suspicious sound, a creak. In a millisecond, he trained his light on the source of the sound. It was a rat, with what looked like a piece of wire, blue wire, in his mouth. It ran away.

He continued down the stairs. They ended after two more landings. The hallway now looked clean. No rat droppings, pristine floor. There was a mechanical hum coming from the door that just entered his vision as he turned left. The metal double doors, not being flush to the floor, let some of the bright artificial light escape from under.

Aiden took a deep, silent breath. He prepared himself and kicked the leftmost door down.

This story is about to wrap up.