Little Hunter
Nanku considered pouring all of Kurt's alcohol into a sink.
Taylor considered doing that once. She was furious and scared. Too scared to act on her fury.
Nanku was annoyed and that was petty.
She waited and waited and Bitch watched an oddly colorful program about talking rescue dogs.
Bitch was right.
Nanku didn't think anyone would believe she could sit and watch a child's cartoon about talking dogs for hours. But she was engrossed. Either she enjoyed dogs that much or she had an inner child she desperately wanted to feed. Maybe both.
"So that cat is going to destroy the city with a meteor?"
"Hm."
"And the only ones doing anything are talking dogs."
"It's a kid's show."
"We're not kids."
"And?"
Nanku narrowed her eyes. "The cat is cuter."
Bitch scoffed. She refused to take the bait. Nanku was sad she'd decided not to hunt her. It would be a poor way to repay Bitch's generosity, but she had a good feeling Bitch would never turn tail and run like a coward.
She'd face death with dignity.
Bitch lifted the remote and tossed it across the room. "You pick then."
Nanku caught it and winced as the extension strained her ribs. "Why?"
"You'll stop whining."
Nanku didn't rise to the bait either. If that was the contest, then she would win.
She changed the channel and started flipping through stations. She'd watch the news but that was too simple. Too straightforward. She needed a surprise.
Opening the TV guide, Nanku skimmed several channels before picking one she recognized.
The screen changed, turning to the repeated image of a cartoon mouse smacking a cat in the foot so that the cat smacked the mouse and swung back into the head of a dog behind it.
Bitch choked on a laugh.
Nanku grinned.
She recalled the cartoons, but she didn't recall the violence being so absurd. No mouse or dog could possibly survive being bludgeoned that many times. The cat meanwhile only took injuries to a leg and side. It would survive just fine.
Nanku threw the remote back.
Brutus tried to close his teeth around the device but Bitch caught it first. She tapped the thing against the armrest and thought for a moment.
She changed the channel, switching the program to some documentary with a smooth-voiced speaker talking about the mating habits of the Southern Philippine flying lemur.
Nanku rolled her eyes and held her hand out.
The remote landed in her palm and she began her search again. Part of her wondered what they were even doing. Something primal. Two creatures who needed to push to understand where the boundaries were and had somehow become embroiled in an odd dance.
Whatever it was it had become some form of contest. Nanku didn't back down from a contest.
She switched the channel to some vapid reality show. Not Cassie's because Cassie had also been generous and Nanku didn't want to insult her plainly.
It was a pretty awful-looking show though. Bunch of fat people wrestling in what looked like spaghetti sauce. Disgusting. What human enjoyed that garba—
Bitch switched the channel and Nanku started.
The two women were in a shower together and they were not bathing.
"Win," Bitch declared when the remote flew past Nanku and landed on the floor.
Nanku had no idea what Bitch had won, but yes. Fine.
She had won.
"Wha."
Kurt stirred and Bitch quickly scrambled to turn the TV off while Nanku retrieved the remote.
The man rose to find Bitch fumbling with his TV on one side and Nanku bent over—painfully—on the other.
"Wow," he slurred. "Took this long for anyone to rob me?"
"We're not thieves," Nanku protested.
Kurt looked at her bleary-eyed, but he was more sober than the last time Nanku visited.
It was also broad daylight.
His lips parted and closed. He blinked. Rubbed his eyes. Blinked again.
Nanku stepped toward him, further into the light of a window.
Kurt shot to his feet and turned away.
"I need to know about my father."
"Finally fucked," Kurt mumbled.
Nanku followed him stubbornly into the hall and snarled as he turned to the kitchen. Without her arms and armor or the Twins, her only option was the swarm.
Or Bitch.
The girl stepped into Kurt's path and blocked him.
"Sit," she ordered.
Kurt stumbled. Bitch moved aside enough to let him enter the kitchen. Once he did she crowded him, herding the man like he was a sheep. Kurt stumbled into a chair and Bitch promptly removed all the bottles from the table. The empty ones she tossed on the floor. The few she found full or half-empty she poured down the sink.
Kurt shirked at the destruction and didn't notice Nanku again until she sat down.
He looked at her again, shaking.
"I want to know about my father," Nanku repeated.
Something seemed to finally break, and Kurt leaned forward. "Taylor?"
"Yes."
"H—How are—"
"I am. My father?"
Kurt sat back. His eyes drifted to pictures on the wall. Lacy was in most but one posted on the refrigerator was a picture of Kurt and Daniel Hebert. A fishing trip.
He was slow to come around, bouncing between surprise, confusion, and disbelief. He glanced at Bitch every now and then and watched her. Bitch stared back with the energy of an impatient hound. Brutus sat at her side dutifully and yawned.
Nanku tried to be patient.
"How are you…" Kurt shifted uncomfortably. "Does Anne know?"
"I'm not here about my mother."
"Danny? Why would you want to know about Danny? Wait, Taylor—"
"The shipment," Nanku pressed. "The one that went missing. Tell me about it."
Kurt didn't listen. He started questioning, stumbling over his words, and babbling about whatever. Nothing Nanku cared about or had time for.
"Shut up," Bitch said. "Listen."
Kurt stopped and Nanku repeated her question.
"The missing shipment. Tell me about it. Why was my father at the Union building?"
"That?" Kurt blinked and shrugged. "It was a misunderstanding. Someone misplaces some containers. Didn't file the right papers. We found them that night."
"Did you see them?"
"Yeah. That's why Danny came and went."
"Did you look inside?"
It was the immediate thought. Someone did move the containers. In the process of taking something from them.
"Yeah."
Kurt rose. He cast a cautious look at Bitch, but she didn't move. Kurt moved through the house and began moving boxes and cases around. It took him a while but eventually, he returned with a single file.
"Never got rid of it."
Nanku took the file and opened it. Inside were invoices and manifests listing container numbers, times, and dates. Records of movement so their location could be tracked.
"Some kid just forgot to put in the right files," she mumbled.
"Benny? Yeah. Always screwed up. Why he doesn't do paperwork anymore." Kurt inhaled and shrugged. "Poor kid. Thought it was all his fault. Quit a few days after it happened. Put a gun in his mouth a year later."
Nanku's brow rose.
Kurt shook his head, eyes downcast. "Couldn't live with the guilt. It wasn't his fault, Taylor. He just made a mistake. Couldn't have known Dan would get mugged walking back to his truck."
But he was dead. A year? Maybe his guilt was getting to him. Maybe someone decided to shut him up before he told the truth.
Nanku looked at the papers again. She'd spent days looking at papers. The most annoying sort of trail but the one she had.
Her eyes narrowed. "The times on these are the same."
"Hm?"
"The times." Nanku held the invoice records up. "The time is the same. The date is different but the time is the same."
Twelve-fourteen.
What time was her father killed?
"Who made these?"
"Those?" Kurt frowned. "Would have been Lacy. She filed everything. Tended to do it in big sprints at the end of a shift too. Time's not special."
Nanku disagreed.
Did Lacy enter them? Her health was failing. Was she even in the building that day? And the times. Even if she did it all at the end of the day, what were the odds the times would be identical? Couldn't someone have doctored the papers and inserted them to draw attention away from the containers?
"Are you sure Lacy did it?"
Kurt frowned. "Who else would?"
Then he didn't know.
Nanku could almost smell it. The police gave up on the missing containers too easily.
The invoices were forged. Anyone could have replaced the ones the Dockworkers had on file. Maybe even filled the containers with something after moving them.
Could she find the originals?
"Who would have done it?" she pressed. "Empire?"
Kurt shrugged. "Could be anyone. Everyone was trying to get us to do things for them. Promised all kinds of things."
Well, that wasn't helpful. "What things would criminals want you to move?"
"Name it. Drugs. Guns. People."
"People?"
"Illegal immigrants. Kid. Workers. Prostitutes. Could be anything."
Surely that would have been noticed no matter what a piece of paper said, right?
Nanku's brow furrowed and she huffed a breath.
How to figure that out…
"Taylor." Kurt leaned closer. "Does Anne—"
"Leave her out of it," Nanku said sharply. "I have nothing to say to her."
The words were to shield her more than anything. Her mother couldn't get in trouble for what she didn't know. Especially now that the PRT and the Protectorate were after her.
"The other Dockworkers there that night. Tell me where to find them."
Kurt's brow rose. "Why?"
"I want to talk to them."
"No." Kurt shook his head and ran a hand over his head. "I mean… Why do you…"
He trailed off and Nanku stared at him.
A good hunter didn't lie.
"I'm going to kill them."
Kurt paled, and she could see his understanding. She was looking for who killed her father and would kill them in turn. She hadn't even planned on killing the Pure when she arrived on Earth. That was just a necessity born of their own intent.
Now that they were dealt with, it was back to why she'd returned in the first place.
"That won't bring Dan back," Kurt said.
"And they don't deserve to get away with it," Nanku replied.
To her surprise, Kurt's stunned face nodded slowly. "Suppose they don't."
He rose again and went into another room. Nanku kept an eye on him but he didn't move for a phone or any weapons. He started going through boxes of papers and files and Nanku quietly waited in the hope she'd get what she wanted to continue her hunt.
"Why?" Bitch asked.
"Why what?"
"Why do you care if they're alive?"
"Because I don't want them to be."
Bitch scoffed but didn't press.
Nanku doubted she'd understand.
The nightmares had stopped since she landed on Earth but Nanku didn't think she'd resolved their source. Her father's death was unavenged. It haunted what remained of Taylor. She needed the answer. Who did it and why, and she needed the resolution.
"Why do you care?" Nanku asked.
Bitch held her silence at first. Nanku expected she'd keep it, but then she spoke.
"Won't make it hurt any less."
Nanku's brow rose but Bitch didn't elaborate.
Kurt re-entered the room and put a piece of paper in front of Nanku. "You're not going to hurt them, right?"
"No," Nanku answered. She bore no ill will toward the Dockworkers. "I will only speak with them."
Kurt nodded. "You know the police already tried to figure this out."
"I'm not them."
"Your mom too."
"I'm not her." Thank the Black Warrior. "Thank you."
Nanku left and Bitch followed. Kurt went to the door and watched them go. He was still there after they left sight, right until he fell out of the range of her power.
"Thank you."
Bitch huffed. "For what?"
"Helping?"
"Sooner you're done sooner we go back. Time to eat."
"What?"
"Food. We eat it."
"I—"
"Eat it yourself or I shove it down your throat." Bitch grabbed her arm and pulled lightly. "Need calories."
They went to a place that smelled of oils and herbs. Azian fried chicken. Nanku wasn't certain, but she thought the name contained a spelling error. She wasn't sure she trusted food from a business that couldn't spell.
Nanku searched her pockets and realized she'd brought none of the money she'd procured. Not that Bitch asked her for any. She bought two drinks and a bucket of 'tendies' and they left the building with a bunch of napkins.
They sat in a park and ate there.
Nanku reluctantly admitted the chicken was good. Not too salty. Flavorful. Sufficient moist inside with a crunchy crust.
"Don't have to baby me."
"Not."
"Then go."
"No."
"Why?"
"Owe you."
Nanku shook her head and ate her chicken.
Until they reached the last piece.
They both reached at the same time and grabbed it from opposite ends. Bitch growled. Nanku glared.
Producing the spear from her pocket, Nanku ran the tip through the center and the tendie pulled apart.
Bitch huffed. "Fine.'
"Fair," Nanku countered and stuffed the piece into her mouth.
What idiot put an odd number of 'tendies' in a twelve-piece bucket?
