Path of the Necromancer - FACTION WARS

Chapter 3.3 - Ian

Observing the boy who'd plagued her thoughts these past few weeks, Sarah took stock of his health and wellbeing. He didn't seem the grubby street urchin she'd expect of the homeless. His personal hygiene was way beyond that. His face was clean shaven, his hair - though thick and unruly - was glossy and he seemed supremely at-ease despite his predicament. Discounting the scuffs on his jacket, the dust on his battered jeans and what 'might' have been blood on his fingers; he looked completely fine. Although she could tell he was exhausted - and her instincts were screaming at her to get digging - that ran headlong into the confusion of finding him..., 'here.'

"What are you doing here, really?" Sarah felt obliged to ask.

"Sightseeing, what else?" He teased.

"Are you going to answer any of my questions?" She frowned.

"Depends. You going to ask any questions you truthfully want an answer to?" He countered. Damn him.

"Fine. Are you in any sort of danger?"

"Nothing you can help me with," He sighed.

She took her eyes from the road to examine that statement. She'd always been good at reading people, that's what brought her into her current taskforce and law enforcement in general. She wanted to mock him, to remind him who he was dealing with... Yet the tired acceptance she read from him stilled her tongue. What he said was stupid, so why wasn't he lying?

"I'm a Federal officer," She baited him. "You can trust me."

Ian's bark of laughter was unexpected. "Detective, don't insult my intelligence by lying to me and I'll try to do the same."

"I'm no-" She tried to defend.

"If you were a Fed then you would already know what's going on." Ian sliced through her deception. "The fact that you don't means this goes above your pay grade," He said with direct eye contact. The echo of those same words made her skin crawl. "I know you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart, but thanks for your concern nevertheless. I'll handle it."

"If I'm not with the FBI, who do you think I'm with?" Sarah challenged.

"Not sure," Ian admitted. "Local PD?"

"Then don't presume to know what I can and can't do," She laid down the law.

"Fair enough," He acknowledge while closing his eyes.

That effectively ended that line of inquiry.

It was an oxymoron to find him equally as obstinate as the first time they'd met. On one hand it was a relief: she hadn't known if he was still alive or what had happened to him, yet on the other hand it was incredibly vexing. She desperately wanted to get around the curtain she'd been kept behind. The things she'd seen and heard that night had changed her path in life. Then, of course, she'd joined the special task force her Chief had organized. Grumbling in annoyance, 'Three people, a task force did not make.'

Her Chief assured her that he'd just started recruiting, but she could tell they'd be stretched tight for a while, not to mention suffering an extreme lack of funding and resources. He'd essentially put them in the basement of the precinct that was packed with boxes of suspicious reports, most of which were copies of ones the FBI had come in and ordered burned - not shredded, but actually, physically incinerated. She'd spent all of last night skimming through them. The more she read, the more uneasy she felt, convinced that there were some seriously strange things going on.

They arrived at the precinct and Ian made a show of noticing that she had her own parking space. Walking through the station lobby, she got nods of greeting and he didn't see any signs of the usual 'hazing' he would have expected shown towards a newbie. He whistled in appreciation. "This is definitely a step up from your last post," He remarked, looking around at the busy office setting.