When Rain Rises

Chapter 21

"Why does it matter that he doesn't recognize you?" Davis asked. "I mean, he's always been observing from a distance, right?"

"He would've been shown a picture of my face, at the least." Aiden shook his head. "No, the spy has been crafty up to this point, and was even able to disguise his trail from the Dianists. He is well-trained. This is not a well-trained man."

"He did give off that common criminal vibe," Rain nodded. "And he did drop his weapon just because he was startled. So then, he's just hired help?"

"Yes. An expendable pawn."

The man just now began to stir. His eyes went wide as he saw them all staring down at him. He was young, probably around Rain's age, and he even looked sort of familiar. "Oh, shit," he muttered to himself looking down. "You got me."

"Yes, we did," Aiden affirmed with a nod.

"You did run like hell, though," Rain added.

"Could've run a lot faster without all that garbage in my lungs." His voice sounded familiar too.

"Yeah, no kidding," Rain laughed softly. It was sort of odd talking to a teen who had just moments ago tried to kidnap and then shoot him. He didn't really know what to think about him. He seemed just as normal and human as anyone else he had talked to.

"You used your CS smoke on him?" Aiden caught Rain's gaze. "Very impressive work. And here I thought giving you your equipment was—"

"He CS smoked himself—the criminal just so happened to get caught up in it," Alyse butted in.

"Gee, thanks, Alyse," Rain growled. "And no, I did mean to use it on him. I just used the wrong one."

"Well, your intentions were correct, at least," Aiden offered before turning back to his captive. "So, you seem of the reasonable sort. I have a few questions for you to answer. You can answer them by choice, or I can inject this very unpleasant needle into you and extract the answers by force. I will allow you to choose."

"Ah, what the hell, I'll talk—the guy's not gonna pay me anyway without bringing Vivian to him."

Rain's internal alarms went off. He had called him by his last name. He had hardly told anyone his last name except when he was boasting, and it definitely never came up in conversation while the spy could've been eavesdropping. It seemed Aiden was similarly interested.

"Did he tell you Vivian's name?" Aiden asked.

The teen nodded his head. "They did, but I've met him before, and he said he was a Vivian, so I figured out who they were talking about, even before they showed me a picture."

Rain gasped as he put two and two together. "You were from that group I talked to at the Merchant compound!" he exclaimed. "Oh, my gods, I can't believe it! But what the hell, why are you here trying to kidnap me?"

"I didn't get in," he replied slowly. "The money they gave for you would've been enough to pay off conscription. They demanded that you couldn't be harmed, so I didn't think they were going to do anything bad to you...but I didn't ask questions."

"An unusual request," Alyse noted.

"And a small world," Rain muttered.

"So, what did this man look like?" Aiden pressed.

"He approached me in the dark, it was almost impossible to see his face, really, but he was in pretty normal clothing Sorry - I really don't know much, but there was one thing about the picture he showed of Vivian. He—"

A loud gunshot rang out, echoing through the narrow alley and causing Rain's eardrums to almost burst. Rain watched as bright red blood and brain matter splattered against the wall the teen was leaning against. His eyes, filled with intent a mere moment ago turned to a glassy, empty stare as a gory bullet hole appeared between them. He slumped over, leaving a trail of blood on the wall behind him as he fell with a thud. More blood slowly seeped from the gaping hole where the back of his head once was, and began to pool around him.