Chiron Academy

Chapter 30.2 Into the Belly of the Beast

Wyatt fought an involuntary shiver as the frigid wind tore through his thin costume. He was used to using his wings to fight for altitude but tonight it seemed like he was fighting the air itself to stay airborne. The wind was strong up above the city. Without the buildings and hills to slow the movement of air, he was taking the full force of the winter gusts. At this point, he was excited for winter to end as quickly as possible. No matter how bad summer was, it couldn't be worse than this.

He pulled his coat closer around him as he squinted at the streets, trying his best to compare the stale browns of the tired buildings to the flat map that was showing on his phone.

The apartment at the address Lt. Davis had given him, (what he hoped was the building) was one of the few multistory buildings in town topping in at a gargantuan three stories. In Baltimore, this would barely have registered as an oddity. Back home, he'd seen taller parking lots than this.

He flapped his wings hard as he slowly lowered himself down onto the roof across the street from the building. Based on the sign it looked like it was some local Tex Mex place.

He held up the paper that the lieutenant had given him. Comparing it to his map app, it was the right building. There was no room number listed but there was a picture printed on the paper of the south side of the building with one of the windows circled. 

Wyatt presumed that was the apartment in question.

He wasn't exactly sure what to do when he got inside. Look around for anything marked 'evil plans/drugs'? Then again, he'd already checked out all of those other addresses with more or less the same plan and that had led to something. Granted it had taken almost twenty times of him poking around before he'd found something but it had worked.

He wished for a moment that Todd was there with him. He would have liked a second pair of eyes to look around with. Todd wasn't quite as good as Wyatt at seeing details but he was better at seeing the big picture. He probably would have found something by now. If he wasn't so busy with school stuff anyway.

Wyatt sighed.

Well, he might as well get started. He wasn't gaining anything just standing there. 

The report from the policemen that had been watching the place included a picture of the apartment's window marked with a sunbleached plastic sunflower in a pot. It might have been cheery once, but the damage to the plastic left the normally cheery flower a faded white and yellow, its edges chipped. As far as he could tell from the apartment number and the pictures, the apartment in question was on the third floor. An apartment third to the left of the building, he could just see what he thought was the plastic sunflower. 

That would probably be the easiest way in. Faintly glowing wings approaching the building would certainly be noticeable to anyone on the street watching but walking into the building wearing his blue and grey superhero outfit and breaking down the apartment's door was likely to draw even more attention. 

Actually, Wyatt wondered if the town had just accepted Flyerman as part of the scenery yet. He'd been active almost every night for months now. At this point, they might have just accepted him as the new local superhero. 

Luckily, he wouldn't have to figure the window out while in flight; there was a fire escape that wound its way up the side of the building that he would be able to land on. Without a flat surface to stand on, getting the window unlocked would be about a hundred times harder. However, he'd also never met a quiet fire escape. They were made to be emergency exits, not to enable quiet break-ins. Which in ordinary situations, he was all for. 

Still, all he had to do was land softly and no one would be the wiser. Which was fine. He had been doing this for years. He was a master of stealth. He was a shadow wrapped in an enigma. He was as silent as the night itself.