167. Hand and Dagger part 4
Thursday.
November 4, 2004.
2:12 pm
The City.
One hundred and ninety square miles.
Four million people.
Six major districts.
An urban sprawl stretching out in the Sun.
Shadowed by coldly drifting clouds above the granite landscape.
The sounds of traffic, pedestrians, and machinery commingling in tiny pinpricks far below formed an ambiance of white noise the rose thin and listless in the autumn sky overhead.
Cold.
Silent.
Silent……
……..
-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Lindsay! You made it!"
"Finally!"
"And do you have—oooh, hello again!"
Lindsay smiled as she and Tempest walked to the table in the Bayside Plaza. "He decided to join us again."
"He decided to join us?? Or you pressured him into it??"
"Hehehehe!!"
"Heh heh heh…."
Tempest smirked. He was dressed in a black jacket, white t-shirt, and dark jeans. "I assure you…I came of my own good intentions. I hope this flatters you…but you gill-less juveniles are the best 'vacation' I can get from running blind circles through this City with the other Titans."
"Gee…thanks."
"Are all Titans so frank?"
"Only those born into salt," Tempest winked and sat down.
"Nice of you to join us. We were busy…..oh…..doing nothing."
"Ha!!"
Tempest shrugged. "I can do nothing. There's this green elf in the Tower that's taught me the fine art of that."
"Hehehehehe."
Lindsay sat next to him at the courtyard table, smiled, and pointed to the others at the table. "You remember these guys, right?"
"Run me through one more time for Alzheimer's sake."
"This genius is Antoine. He sacrificed a good Star Trek marathon to be here."
"Heh heh heh."
A black teenager with glasses smiled and nodded. "Hello again, Fish-dude."
"Back at you."
"And you remember this is Jack."
"Hey there…," a dark-haired teen in a preppy shirt shook Tempest's hand.
"And the girl clinging onto him is Bonnie."
"Hehehehe…stop ittttt….," a blonde thing giggled.
"And that over there is….uhm….Lillian?"
"Very funny, Lindsay."
"Right. Lillian. Hehehe."
The redhead with glasses nodded her head. "It's cool to see you again."
"Uh…thanks………so this is your place to hang out, huh?" Tempest scratched his neck.
"Yeah. When the pigeons permit."
"I guess that's where I come in," Tempest shrugged. "I can send them off."
"How?"
"Telepathy."
"You're a telepath?!?!"
"Why's that so startling? Are you an albino?"
"Hardy har har."
"Wow…you're a lot quicker than last time, Mr. Titan!"
"Quicker than what?"
"Hehehehe….never mind."
"So what were you guys planning on doing?"
"Well there's a moving showing…..and—"
"Uh uh! We are not seeing that stupid James Bond clone flick!!"
"But it's got Jude Law in it!"
"Everything's got Jude Law in it these days! Open a frickin' window!!"
"Hey! Did I tell you that Anne Vann saw Jude Law in person last week?"
"No way!"
"Anne who??"
"Anne…ya know….from Wednesday Fellowship?"
"Ohhhhhh…..wait…I thought she moved!"
"Nah, she's still in the congregation."
"She saw Jude Law, huh? A gift from God?"
"Pfft…hardly. That would have been a visit with Nicole Kidman."
"Dream on, Jack."
"I'm just saying!"
"Hehehehe…"
Tempest rested his chin on his hand and just….listened. Humored. Smiling softly.
Lindsay leaned in besides him, engaging cheerfully in the conversation.
"…….," Tempest glanced down.
Her right hand rested on the table…her fingers barely an inch from his left elbow. The dolphin bracelet around her wrist rattled with every giggle of her form.
He exhaled gently.
Dark eyes narrow.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Over the Western District of the City….
Over the trees…
The suburbs and the edge of the City Park….
The air was thin.
The air was cool.
The asphalt of the roads seemed to glow as if reflecting the crystal blue sky on the opposite side of the overlapping spheres.
And all was silent.
……….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Robin drove the R-Cycle the long way to the Police Department.
He passed by an old section of the City in the Western District.
One-story shop fronts blurred gently passed him as he cruised along.
Leisurely.
"……….."
He turned his helmet behind him and gazed at Starfire.
The Tamaranian was riding on the back of the R-Cycle with her arms wrapped gently around Robin's waist.
She gazed at him glancing back at her.
She grinned and giggled for some quietly idle reason or another.
He helplessly smiled and glanced ahead.
A streetlight was up ahead.
People were crossing the street.
Friends chatting.
A mother guiding her child.
Kids with balloons and skateboards.
Robin puttered the R-Cycle to a stop.
He waited at the intersection.
A few citizens caught sight of the Titans and—obvious fans—waved ecstatically.
Starfire happily returned with a wave of her own.
"…………," Robin leaned against the handle bars. He exhaled. A beat. "…………," he glanced at a storefront immediately to his right. His eyemask narrowed beneath his visor.
A floral shop.
A wooden stand rested before the old windows.
Roses, daisies, babies' breaths, and dandelions lined up the front.
A colorful display.
Bundles of blooms.
"…………..," Robin swallowed. He slowly, quietly, turned his gaze away from the storefront and back at the intersection.
The light turned green.
Starfire held tight to his waist.
He throttled them gently forward and cruised in the direction of the Police Department with traffic.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Downtown.
The central district of the City.
Cold air drifted down between the concrete and steel spires.
Cars rested nose to nose in thick traffic.
A quartet of yellow school buses slowly returned from a field trip across the county. The elementary school children inside giggled and laughed while the traffic took its molasses time.
People walked in heavy clusters up and down the street.
Rushing to and fro, busily migrating for a late lunch.
A few birds flapped through the ambiance warbling upwards and were gone.
And then.
In the cold crispness.
Silence…..
…….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside the hustle and bustle of the lofty Police Department offices….
The Lieutenant was on the phone with someone. He nodded his head and rambled on and on into the receiver.
As a worker streaked by, the Lieutenant held a bundle of half-crumpled papers to her.
The worker took it, listened to the half-words of the Lieutenant, nodded, and made an impromptu bee-line for the copying room.
The Lieutenant returned to his phone, at the same time picking up a thick notebook of names and thumbing through the lists.
Across the sea of cubicles, cigarette smoke, ringing phones, and heavy typing noises…Decker stood in the doorframe of his office.
He finished a cigarette, staring at the Lieutenant's business across the way.
"…….."
He smiled for some reason or another.
He grinded the cigarette into an ash tray.
He gathered a coat.
He walked over to the elevator.
He blindly waved at the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant blindly waved back.
Decker walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.
And he was gone.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The City streets swam southeast.
The buildingtops lowered and lowered till they met the commercialized districts.
Buildings, theatres, dance halls, and plazas bathed in the shadows of the distant Kobayashi Tower and other scrapers.
The concrete met the sea with a tiny sprawl of beach side pavilions and boardwalks.
And between the crashing of the waves.
The tiny splashes of seawater….
The coldness of the autumn wind took over.
And it was silent.
………
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"I'm frankly sorry that he's gone….dude….that guy was a riot," Beast Boy said.
He and I rested at the bottom of the Police Department's steps.
He squatted froglike on the concrete 'banister' of the building's entrance.
I leaned against a lamppost, subconsciously shuffling playing cards in a metal hand.
Decker's car rested in a parallel parking space a few feet away.
"I mean…I know he's more important to you than some jokester and all," Beast Boy sweatdropped…but then smiled. "But that guy was cool. I wish you introduced us to the Messenger ahead of time, Noir. We all would have digged him! I just know it!"
I looked at him.
I smiled weakly.
I felt good as long as Beast Boy kept talking…….
"I think Robin and Decker were a little too short with him. Dagger sounds like a really hard-as-nails creep. So what if the Messenger made a little mistake here or there?"
"…………"
"We all trip every now and then….r-right?"
I nodded numbly.
I shuffled the playing cards.
I paused.
I looked at the top of my deck.
But it wasn't the Joker card.
I exhaled.
The two of us remained waiting.
For Robin and Starfire to show up.
For Commissioner Decker to show up.
For perhaps both at once.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the Northern District.
Across the sprawls of industrial complexes…
The smokestacks were quiet.
The air was less polluted.
Workers seemed few and far between.
The business of the urban system slowed down.
The air cleared.
And the largest…most provocative building stood out among the rest.
The radioactive depository.
Its concrete, clamshell sarcophagus resting open around it.
Like a huge beartrap.
Or an unfinished tomb.
Plastic, yellow police tape flickered and shook around the tiers of the depository.
And the air grew thin.
And it was deadly quiet.
Silence.
………..
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Lisa walked down the hallway to her apartment.
A backpack made heavy with her drawing journal hanging over one shoulder.
She no longer wore her glass eyes…instead wearing her black, left eyepatch to and from school without inhibitions.
She stared through the floor as her head was in another place.
And she fumbled with keys.
Approaching her door.
When…
Th-Thump!
"???" she glanced up. She blinked. "Mr. Knight?"
Howard Knight was her next door neighbor. A man in his early forties. Husband. Father to two middle-school children. He had half-collapsed into the apartment door a few feet away from Lisa's and her sister's. He looked pale. Out of breath. His eyes cold and green.
Her one optic narrowed. "Are you….okay? You look like crap!"
He panted. Swallowed. And managed a weak smile. "Must have been something I ate…," he wheezed.
"God…I hope so," she smiled confusedly.
"I….h-had to call in sick in the middle of work…," he said. "Almost all of the boys did."
She leaned her head to the side. "Nearly all the factory workers were sick too?"
"Yeah…damnest thing I've seen in years….not that I care," he grumbled. "I need to take a shower or something."
"Yeah…and sleep, sir."
He chuckled. "Yeah….th-that sounds good…," he panted.
She winced…but tried to hide it. "Uhm…say hello to little Ashley and Greg for me."
"Will do…," he fumbled with his own keys, unlocked the door, and practically stumbled into his apartment. "Honey??? Gladys??? Yeah….I-I'm home early……ugh….long story, hon. Where're the kids?"
And the door closed behind him.
"……," Lisa stood alone in the hallway. She shrugged. "Wyrd….."
She unlocked her own door, walked in….but paused halfway through the frame.
"……….."
She glanced out into the hallway.
The girl mumbled to herself: "I thought Mr. Knight's eyes were brown….."
A beat.
She shook the day off, walked inside, and closed the door.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The Eastern District.
The shipyards.
Boats bobbed up and down.
Moored.
Docked.
Loading and unloading shipments.
Fish.
Cargo.
A few of the warehouses were less busy.
Much like the industrial complexes.
It was like a holiday.
With the blue sky calmly stretching above.
With a few clouds.
And a cold breeze.
Gentle.
Silent.
Silence…..
………
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In Phaser Labs, a trio of scientists crowded around a glass chamber as they observed a cactus turning to stone in a flash of yellow light, glowing, and turning back.
A few of them jotted notes on clipboards and muttered enthusiastically.
The test was repeated…repeated…and repeated.
Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair watched from a bench in the corner, smiling. They shared a casual conversation….looking calm……looking happy……rehabilitated.
The life-sized hologram of Simon Stone stood atop a pedestal in the corner, his arms folded.
He grinned pleasantly at the sight.
As the experiment continued, a yellow glow passed through the room.
He gazed to the side with flickering, chocolate eyes.
A yellow light reflected off the plastic cylinder surrounded a frozen girl made of stone.
A bundle of flowers rested at her eternal feet.
A faded petal or two had fallen loose overnight….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The Northeast District.
The slums.
The L-Train.
The bazaars.
Ragged children chasing a ragged ball across a ragged building site.
People making the best of the cold air by standing out in droves in empty blocks and balconies and rooftops.
Old black women and wrinkling men.
Teenagers gathered and chatting and laughing under the roar of a moving train or two.
Shaded by the browning towers overhead.
Clouded in the ambiance of autumn.
Silent.
Silence…..
………
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside the pawn shop, Daniel was having a pleasant conversation with two regular customers.
They turned over and examined an engine to a fuel-dependent leaf blower.
Deals and exchanges were made.
A light banter.
A chuckle.
A proprietor giving in.
Hands shaking.
Another customer walked in, the bell above the door ringing.
She had a few things in her hand.
She craned her neck, smiled, and waved as she called to someone over the counter.
Renee walked out with a book. She rested it to her womb, looked out onto the shop, and smiled back.
Greetings were exchanged.
The interior felt warm.
The sunlight kept bathing its way in through the front windows.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The Bay.
Cold waters lapping the shores.
The rocks.
The bluffs.
An island rested in the center of the murky waves.
A tall, glistening Tower.
Its concrete and steel arms stretching outwards.
Embracing the City.
The autumnal horizon.
The silence.
Silence.
………..
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside his laboratory, Cyborg flurried across stretches of blue prints and sketchy diagrams.
He rolled back and forth ghetto-style on a desk chair.
He held one of three pencils in his mouth, and he interchanged between them and a straight edge as he continued drafting a working design of his imaginary 'T-Ship' further and further into fruition.
The automatic doors behind him opened with a soft swishing sound.
Raven ruffled in with a plate of sandwiches.
Two.
One for him.
One for her to watch him eat.
He turned, saw her, grinned, and muffled a single address with a mouthful of pencil.
She rolled her eyes and zapped him once with a black spark of energy.
He chuckled and offered her a seat on a nearby stool.
She sat down and handed the plate to him.
He nonchalantly took one sandwich and pointed at her to have the other one.
She resisted at first…but eventually gave in.
She daintily munched on her own meal as he scarfed down his and began furiously, energetically rambling while pointing at all his drafts.
He pointed out diagrams of thrusters, weapon panels, armor platings, and emergency landing gear.
And somewhere in the middle of it….ever so slightly….Raven smirked.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
……
Silence.
The air over the City was thin.
The sky blue and crystal clear.
Save for a few pale clouds that crossed over high above for a few lingering minutes before dissipating in soft, soundless sighs.
The urban sprawl glinted majestically in the sunlight, and slowly started to fade as the day wore on.
Six major districts.
Four million people.
One hundred and ninety square miles.
The City.
2:22 pm
November 4, 2004.
Thursday.