Spades

Chapter 7

One year later

John tugged his jacket tighter around his body and shoved his clammy hands into his pockets. Mason pressed a comforting hand to his arm and he relaxed, shoulders sagging. They walked past a group of clubs, all fussing over a stack of papers that had them looking fairly ruffled. John subtly pointed them out to Mason and he nodded.

For the past few months they'd been coming into town, the Diamonds and Clubs that walked the streets seemed to always have their heads bent in hurried discussion, worry lining their faces. It was quite the shock for John, who had only ever seen Diamonds with an air of untouchable superiority surrounding them. Something was happening. One look at Mason set their plan into action.

When they came up on a lone Club, John moved just enough for them to bump into each other, causing the papers the man was holding to fall to the ground. He was a small, portly man with graying hair that clung sparsely to the sides of his head and bushy eyebrows that sat heavily over heavily sunken in brown eyes. There were beads of sweat collecting on his forehead, and he opened his mouth to shout, but when his eyes met John's his lips clamped shut and he crouched to collect his papers.

Mason crouched down to help him, subtly slipping a few papers into his coat, and the man apologized profusely for knocking into John. John, still in character, just scoffed and tilted his nose in the air, making sure to look at the man though slit eyes. He didn't speak, just patiently waited for the two Clubs to stand and nod to each other. The man slipped away and John'and Mason continued their stroll, checking the coast was clear before slipping into an alley way between a shop and an apartment building.

The smell of dirt and mold sat heavily in the air and the sound of something dripping interrupted the silence every few seconds, interrupting the silence. Mason's eyes skimmed the papers he'd grabbed quickly, while John scanned the mouth of the alley, making sure nobody appeared.

"Holy shit," Mason whispered and John raised an eyebrow. Mason saw his expression and his face dropped. John felt his chest clench, but he shook off the disappointment. "Nothing about them John, I'm sorry, but this is some big stuff. Apparently there's been a few cases of arson. Experiment labs have been burned to the ground. It says here that every single time, all of the occupants are killed, even the Spades inside. There's also some stuff in here about Diamond's being killed in their homes, but they haven't found the killers yet."

"Wow." Mason nodded, folding the papers and hiding them in his jacket. "Wonder who's behind it. I mean, if it were Spade's don't you think they'd get the Spades inside the labs out before burning them to the ground?"

Mason was already shaking his head.

"Not necessarily. Look, Eric was lucky to come out of the labs the way he did, but most people aren't like that. He told me about them once." Mason looked up, eyes shining. John's eyes flickered down to the Club shown proudly by his button up shirt, which was tailored for Clubs to show their mark. "Most of the Spades that end up there are never the same. They're treated like animals so they become animals. I imagine whoever did this, if their on our side, they knew that and it was more of a mercy killing."

"It's kinda shitty though. I mean, those people didn't even have a chance." John sighed and grabbed Mason's arm, dragging him out of the alley so he couldn't continue to argue. John had never had a stomach for such mindless violence. The fact that diamonds were being murdered in their own homes sent something whirling in his chest, that made him distinctly uncomfortable. He shook it off and settled on watching their surroundings as they walked. "You said it was this way, right?"

"Yeah, that's where his tracker went off. I don't know how it suddenly came online after being disabled for so long. We have to be careful, this could be a trick." John nodded, eyes never finding Mason's.