Four: A Hot Trail
A heavy black plume of smoke and ash continued to rise from the remains of the Two Dragons Hotel. Despite the best efforts of the city's firefighters, with both waterbenders and firebenders working in accord, the flames continued to rise and fall of their own accord from the wreckage. This only complicated the work of the metalbending police, who ripped away melted steel beams and organized the last of the survivors as the night wore on.
From her position in the MPF command center—little more than a tent erected across the street—Korra stood with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. She ignored the presence of everyone around her and trained her senses on the slow-burning hotel fire. With every moment, she felt something stirring within the ashes. A hideous laugh, a cruel smile—some peculiar trace that no firebender could leave behind, no matter how powerful they might be. It teased Korra, slipping in and out of her grasp like a stubborn otter penguin.
Kaigo was known to be many things, but as far as everyone knew, he was still human.
So what was this other presence she felt?
"Chief!" Lieutenant Zhen's arrival in the tent interrupted Korra's scan of the hotel. The officer gave a hasty salute to Lin, then to her. "Avatar Korra. There's been another fire. Looks like the Terra Triad headquarters."
"And the one at the Triple Threats makes three," Lin remarked. Running a hand down the side of her face, she shot Tenzin an irritated glare. "Still think Kaigo's not a threat?"
"He's certainly more powerful than we expected," the airbending master replied. He turned to Korra. "Have you found anything?"
She shrugged. "Possibly. Something spiritual in nature, but I can't put my finger on it yet."
"Well, we don't have time for navel-gazing." Lin spun back to face Zhen and jabbed a finger at her. "Take two squads to the Terra den and lock that street down. I'll be there shortly."
The lieutenant nodded and stepped out of the tent without a word.
Silence in the command center as Lin went back to the radio station, where another officer was posted. Tenzin closed his eyes, lost in his thoughts and leaving Korra to poke her head out into the dreary night air.
From across the street, she could feel the heat coming from the distant fires. She'd pitched in with her waterbending, but her efforts had only accomplished so much. Still, Korra had managed to reduce the worst of the fire and smoke, allowing another thirteen ill-fated guests to make their way outside. But it was during that struggle that she first sensed that dark aura around the ruins of the Two Dragons.
Kaigo wasn't just back in town. Somehow, even if she couldn't prove it yet, Korra suspected that he had company as well.
She was halfway across the street, already steeling herself to sift through the wreckage again when she heard a peculiar warble down the block. Turning around, Korra realized that there weren't, in fact, only humans out on the street that evening.
"…But it's not our problem!" The protest came out the throat of a large, semi-translucent frog spirit that crouched over the short police officer. While the metalbender tried to placate the spirit with a firm tone and clear gestures back the way he came, the frog spirit's throat sac swelled in and out. He let out an agitated croak that gave Korra's skin plenty of goosebumps.
Taking a deep breath, she cleared her head of all lingering doubts and made her way over to the spirits. A smile came over Korra's face as she bowed at the waist toward the giant frog.
"Avatar!" The spirit shuffled around on its hind legs, letting out another warble. "There's been an outrage! You must address it, you really must!"
The metalbending officer nodded in turn. "Yes, please help, Avatar. I'm not sure I can reason with…" He glanced aside at the frog's massive throat sac. "Him…?"
"What can I do to help?" asked Korra.
The frog spirit pointed a leathery green finger down the road. "You can get rid of the human that has been littering the ground outside the portal! Honestly, I don't know how you put up with a smell like that!"
Korra tilted her head as she pondered that statement. "Humans are free to come and visit the portal as they please. It's hardly trespassing—"
"But he hasn't moved once!" The frog spirit's sickly yellow eyes narrowed. "And now his stench fills the air! It's abominable, I tell you!"
Now Korra began to worry.
She turned to the police officer, already plotting out in her head the fastest way to fly across town to the Spirit Wilds. "Officer, please go to Chief Beifong and tell her that I'll be back shortly. I need to check this out for myself."
Swallowing, the officer gave her a salute. "Right away, ma'am."
Korra watched him go before turning back to the still-fuming spirit. She offered him another smile and said, "All right. Let's go."
The frog spirit harrumphed, but he turned and leapt through the air, landing on the street half a block away before making another mighty jump. Korra tracked his progress, then snapped her glider open and took a running leap to follow him, drifting far away from the heat of the smoldering rubble.
When she reached the Spirit Wilds, Korra's discomfort only increased. And she wasn't alone in that feeling either. Everywhere she looked, she saw spirits of every size, shape, and color ducking their heads out from behind the massive trees and underneath bundles of spirit vines, filling the air with their anxious chatter. Only the frog spirit was unperturbed, sitting on his haunches near the entrance to the Wilds.
He gestured with his sticky hands toward a small path, the same one that the airbenders had laid out years ago for their tour groups. "He's down there. Please, do something about that smell!"
"I will," Korra promised and turned to walk down the trail alone.
She felt a strange peace being back in the Wilds. It was here that she had stopped Kuvira's weapon from destroying the city, where her efforts had led to the creation of a new spirit portal and her mercy had ended a tyrant's savage campaign. And, Korra recalled with a smile, it was here that she and Asami had walked hand-in-hand across the portal for their first vacation together. The two of them alone in a world of paradise.
Looking around the vine-covered walls of old apartment buildings and shops, Korra made a promise that she'd take Asami across the portal again. Once time permitted, of course. But if she could bring her girlfriend a little more healing after this nightmare of a case, then she'd take any opportunity to make it happen.
Using her staff to push away a cluster of low-hanging vines, Korra stepped around the trunk of a mighty spirit tree and looked upon the portal. Her eyes drifted downward, adjusting to the intense light it gave off, and when she saw what lay on the ground, her throat tightened.
The man lying facedown on the spirit vines was old, perhaps even older than Lin or Tenzin. His suit was cut along Fire Nation lines, with a strong red and black motif. Korra knelt beside him, checking for a pulse, but she knew it was pointless. And when she turned him over, she crinkled her nose at the overpowering smell and sight of his face decomposing. Earth-born maggots and flies had already collected around the soft tissue of his cheeks, giving his face an unnatural bloat.
Korra took note of the blood that crusted around the man's nostrils and lips. When she leaned in closer, she noticed blood—or something like it—leaking from his eyes as well.
"He wasn't attacked from the outside," she remarked, not caring if any of the nearby spirits were eavesdropping. As she leaned back on her knees, Korra closed her eyes and extended her senses across the man's body. Her waterbender training was useful here, but she imagined that Katara would never have taught her to use healing like this.
An ordinary waterbender would only see the damaged tissue and decomposing blood inside the corpse. But Korra had spiritbending as well. She linked it with the fluid motion of her senses, letting her see not only the man's remains but the traces left within them by an otherworldly presence.
She froze.
That laughter was back, ringing in her ears with raspy malice.
"Who are you?" Korra whispered.
"Oh! Oh!" A tiny, flute-like voice caught her attention. Korra looked over her shoulder at the tiny creature bounding across the spirit vines. It had a small, oblong body, with a pig's snout under two beady eyes and something like an eel's tail at the other end. "I know! I know who he is, Avatar!"
Korra blinked. She kept still, letting the spirit approach. She remembered Iroh telling her and Asami during their last visit about the kind spirits that Avatar Wan had encountered in the oasis, and how their descendants never forgot that first meeting. Smiling, she extended her hand and let the serpentine pig-spirit jump the front half of its body onto her palm. "I'd appreciate it if you told me, little one. And what's your name?"
"Poaka!" the spirit answered. Korra could've sworn she saw it blush. "And the spirit who hurt this old man is called Indri!"
A breeze rustled the nearby vines hanging from their tree branches. At the same time, a shiver went down Korra's spine. She didn't need to look up to know that the other spirits inhabiting the Wilds were terrified, too. Even speaking this creature's name was enough to upset them—and by extension, their environment.
Korra frowned. "Tell me what happened, Poaka. As best as you can remember."
"Well, the old man showed up last night with another human. They talked about something important—I dunno what—but then the old man fell down! And there was Indri! He argued with the other human, and then he jumped inside him! And now they're both gone!" The little spirit was bouncing up and down on Korra's palm as it spoke. "Are you gonna find them, Avatar? Huh? Are you?"
She was still processing the mental image of the dark spirit—Indri—possessing Kaigo by force. It explained so much about the unnatural hotel fire, but she shuddered to think what a creature would want with an old gangster.
With the man who killed Asami's mother, a gentle voice inside Korra said. Do not forget that.
Korra smiled. It had been a long time since she'd heard that voice in particular.
"Hello, Raava," she replied, turning her focus inward. Her mind throbbed with the hum of the ancient light spirit's power and grace. "What can you tell me about Indri?"
I do not know him by name, but I know his kind. Many spirits remained in darkness even after Vaatu was first imprisoned during Harmonic Convergence. They played tricks on their brethren, attacked humans, and spread their deception wherever they pleased.
"Like Koh the Face-Stealer?"
Indeed, he would be one of their kind. Indri is another. You must show the same caution when dealing with him, Korra.
She didn't respond right away. Back during the Great Spirit Vacation, Korra had told Asami about Koh. She heard from Tenzin, who'd heard it from his father, how Aang had ventured into that creature's lair to learn more about the Moon and Ocean spirits during the last war. Even Tenzin had looked hesitant when he told her about the fates of Koh's victims, like he was reliving a childhood nightmare. And the thought of seeing her girlfriend without her face, wandering outside the caves of Koh's domain, had upset Korra for a long time, even after they'd returned to the human world. And now Indri had come, stealing another face to torment Asami further.
Raava had urged caution, however, and Korra chose to heed that advice, even if the thought of Asami being targeted got her blood simmering.
"Ooh, what's that?" Jumping off Korra's palm, the little pig spirit pointed a minuscule hoof at the night sky.
Korra looked up and saw the familiar silhouettes of metalbending police officers swinging across the treetops of the Spirit Wilds. She stood and picked up her airbender staff, keeping her distance from the old man's body on the ground.
"There you are!" Lin Beifong came to land on a bed of spirit vines. She grimaced when she looked down at the body.
"My officers told me I'd find you here," she continued, "but I'd never have guessed I'd find this." She knelt down and examined the body. "After all these years, Chen Li finally got what was coming to him." Her eyes shot up toward the Avatar. "Not that I believe it, but did he make a move on you?"
"He was already dead when I showed up," said Korra. Her eyes scanned the sky, watching the rest of Lin's squad descend from the treetops, retracting their steel cables to land sure-footed on the ground behind her. "And you're not going to like what I found out either."
Fresh clouds of steam rose up from the mechanical presses, which fed plate after plate down the assembly lines. Over three dozen metalworkers and firebenders labored on the vast factory floor, riveting plates together into streamlined ocean vessels one section at a time. Their gestures and shouts were rhythmic, carefully choreographed from one end of the production stage to the next. And high above the factory floor, inside a tiny mezzanine sealed off by platinum-lined windows and safety railings, was the observation deck reserved for VIPs like Asami Sato.
As CEO, Asami paid close attention to the factory floor, looking for areas to improve efficiency and worker safety, or perhaps for an enterprising young man to promote. But even so, she felt like a young girl on her first tour of her father's business, watching in awe as benders of every nation came together to create such technological marvels.
She took immense pride in this latest project. After the brief civil war between the Nothern and Southern Water Tribes had been resolved, Chief Tonraq had expressed an interest in integrating the ways of his people with the larger modern world. To that end, Asami had spent a few years studying Water Tribe designs when she wasn't fashioning new wingsuits for the reborn Air Nation. While her late father had preferred more innovative and pragmatic vehicle designs, she preferred something that had a classical homage. Which was how Asami had won the contract for a fleet of lightweight, steel-reinforced fishing boats and ice cutters for the entire Southern Water Tribe—at a diplomatic discount, of course.
Korra had been thrilled to see Asami working with her father, which pleased Asami as well. But in the observation deck, she crossed her arms and tried to ignore the doubt curling up in her chest.
"…Which is how we're projected to reach completion by the end of the month," said one of the foremen. He tipped his cap to the other gentleman—if he could be called such—in the VIP area. "It's lucky that your design is a lot less complicated than we anticipated."
"That's because it's patented for success!" Varrick snapped his finger and pointed in the air, posing like he was a star in one of his movers. "The Iknik Blackstone Varrick Automated Production Line—ahem, trademarked—can be applied to any major task, from the factory floor to the corporate boardroom!" He leaned over and gave the foremen a nudge with his elbow. "Though, word of advice: it's not recommended for use in the bathroom."
Asami spared the employee an awkward response by turning away from the windows. "Varrick, don't you have something else you need to be doing?"
"Lucky for you, no!" Varrick replied. He slid over to Asami, his arms wide. "Zhu Li's got my rocket otter penguin sled design with the lab boys downstairs, and I beat my personal record for full-body stretches—eleven minutes, fourteen seconds, by the way …"
Such was her penance for allowing Varrick back into the company—into the very business he'd once tried to steal right out from under her feet. Asami had needed his mad genius, and to prove that he could have a second chance in life just as Korra tried to do with Kuvira. She could hardly complain about her business partner's antics when the results he delivered were consistently good. And it helped that his wife Zhu Li could keep a tight leash on the worst of his "creative endeavors" when they ran too far and too fast.
Asami was about to ask about Zhu Li when the door to the observation deck opened. Everyone looked up as Korra entered the room, followed by Lin Beifong, Mako, and two metalbending officers.
"Korra! Is everything all right?" Asami clasped her hands together. "And… Chief Beifong, it's good to see you again."
"Sorry to interrupt, but this isn't a social call, Miss Sato." The Chief of Police put a hand on Mako's shoulder. "After a careful review of this case, we believe that the current fugitive Kaigo may make an attempt on your life. We'd like to provide you with a police escort for the time being."
Asami's heart was racing, but she kept her face composed. "I see."
"It's a temporary measure, Asami," Korra added. She sidled up next to her girlfriend, flashing her a cautious smile. "Just until we can catch this guy."
"And you're sure that my normal security team isn't up to the task?"
Mako cleared his throat. "Well, that depends. Do you think they're capable of standing up to an ancient spirit?"
Asami's eyes widened. "Spirit? What are you talking about?"
Korra glanced from Asami to Mako, then back again. She put her hand on Asami's arm and said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "It might be easier if I explained this in private."
On any other day, Asami would've protested. As CEO, she had a right to receive and judge any sensitive information about her security and her company's fortunes. But something in Korra's tone stopped her. Well, that, and the gentle weight of her hand on Asami's arm.
She looked up into Korra's eyes, and it was then she knew that she couldn't fight her.
"Okay, then," said Asami. She followed Korra back into the corridor, but not before turning to Varrick and the foreman. "I'll talk to you about the delivery schedule later today. Please run it through my secretary first this time?"
Varrick responded with a cheerful salute. "Aye, aye, Captain Sato!"
Meanwhile, Korra didn't say a word until they were far enough into the corridor, away from prying eyes and ears. When she came to a stop, she reached out and took Asami by her hands, gripping them tight. Their eyes met, and if not for the urgency of the moment, Asami could have thrown herself into the embrace of Korra's muscular arms. If only to forget all her cares and worries for a moment or two.
"Listen," said Korra. "I've been talking to Tenzin all morning, doing some research based on what I found in the Spirit Wilds last night."
Asami's breath was shallow in her throat. "And?"
"And we think that this dark spirit who calls himself Indri is the one pulling Kaigo's strings. We don't know yet if Kaigo came back to Republic City of his own free will or not, but we're just about certain that he's not calling the shots anymore. Indri's got him as a plaything, and you saw what he already did to a few hotels and restaurants in town."
Looking down, Asami knew all too well what Kaigo could do. She tried not to recall that scream she'd heard outside her bedroom door so many years ago.
"And you think having police protection is going to stop an angry spirit?" Asami asked.
Korra shook her head. "Not just any police officer. You know Mako. You've seen him fight spirits in the South Pole, and you know he'd never let you down." Glancing over Asami's shoulder for a moment, she lowered her voice and added, "Plus, and I hate to admit this, but the two of you being friends also works in our favor."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if Indri tries to possess Mako like he does Kaigo…" Korra looked down, as if ashamed of the words coming out of her mouth. "Well, you'd know if he was acting strangely. Probably better than I would."
Asami had no idea how to respond to that. She and Korra had spoken on a few occasions about their common bond as Mako's ex-girlfriends. Of course, they held him in high esteem for his work as a detective and as a loyal friend of Team Avatar, but at times, Asami found talking about that old relationship a little sore. If only because it had taken Mako dating and breaking up with Korra to make her realize how strong Asami's feelings for her were.
What hurt now wasn't Korra delving into Asami's history with Mako. It was more the fact that she had a fair point.
Stepping back, Asami looked over her girlfriend. After a pause, she crossed her arms. "Using our friends as bait isn't the noblest thing to do, Korra."
"You're right, but it's also an effective trap," Korra answered with a gentle smile. "Once he's in range, all I have to do is use my spiritbending technique to purge Indri's presence from Kaigo. Then the police can take it from there, and you get to stay safe and sound."
Asami quirked one corner of her mouth. "Always looking out for me, aren't you?"
"I don't know what you mean." Korra leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm the Avatar. I'm looking after the whole world's safety."
That got Asami to laugh, but to her ears, that laugh was bittersweet. She took Korra's hand and let her lead the way back to the other room, but her mind was preoccupied. That worm of doubt in her stomach finally had a name.
It was regret. Even despite all the reasons against it, Asami wished more than anything that she didn't have to be another damsel in distress. Despite her father's wishes, she wasn't a princess who needed to be coddled. She could handle herself in a fight. In fact, Asami had fought alongside Korra, Mako, and Bolin numerous times, from the icy reaches of the South Pole to the arid dunes of the Si Wong Desert. And that was what she missed more than anything. That spirit of adventure that kept her by Korra's side, watching her back when trouble was afoot and offering a sympathetic ear when her fears got the best of her.
Of course, she trusted Korra. Asami couldn't love anyone as much as she did her. But it hurt to be kept in a gilded cage, even as the head of a company.