A Host of Fallen Dreams - After the Rising Book 1

Chapter 13

Elian

The City

Rooker was waiting for Elian in the car outside the building.

'Where to, boss?' he asked.

'The barracks.'

Elian was still not happy with how his meeting with Vilk had gone. Discussing Lyra with anyone felt wrong because there wasn't anything going on, but to have his superior make fun of him was simply humiliating. Then there was the issue with AsterSix.

'Tell me, Rooker,' Elian began. 'Have you heard any rumours about the change of policy towards Luke Ridgeway?'

Rooker pulled up at a set of lights and watched as a handful of pedestrians got safely from one side of the road to the other. It wasn't until they were moving again that he asked, 'Change of policy?'

Nyks took the opportunity to fill his assistant detective in with what happened with the assistant director, naturally leaving out anything to do with his visits to Lyra Ridgeway.

'AsterSix.' Rooker whistled through his teeth. 'Something doesn't sound right with that, boss.'

'My thoughts exactly. Why do the powers-that-be want him dead? How much can an eighteen-year-old know about, well, anything?'

Rooker moved the car into the lane of traffic trying to cross the West Bridge. 'Some think he must be part of the underground and that's why he's not been caught. Given who his mother and father were, they think the type of political philosophy they peddled makes him more dangerous than most.'

'I would understand that if he were older, Rooker. But he was fourteen when The Rising occurred. Tell me, were you paying attention to your parents when they were force-feeding you their own political thoughts at fourteen?'

'Nope.'

'Me neither.'

Rooker adjusted his rear-view mirror before he next spoke. 'Some people think it's time to let things go. You know, celebrate the good of The Rising...forget some of the more upsetting parts. Chasing after kids whose parents were on The List leaves a bad taste in the mouth after all this time. We need to move on.'

Elian nodded slowly. As much as he wanted to capture Luke Ridgeway and close this case, he was all for moving on. The City couldn't rebuild like it needed to when there was so much animosity still on the streets.

'Sometimes it feels like The Rising has been going on for more than four years,' Elian commented. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Only last week a woman who been living in a shelter had had her three kids taken away and put in an orphanage. The woman had blown herself up outside the barracks, killing three bystanders.

'Yep,' Rooker commented.

They were over the bridge now, turning into the military compound that housed the barracks. They showed their credentials at the checkpoint and were waved through. It was time to send AsterSix out into The City to cause havoc and Elian was not looking forward to it.

It took ten minutes for the task force to be ready. A line of three vehicles, full of men in body armour and carrying an eye-watering number of weapons, started the procession back to the city. Elian and Rooker followed behind in their own car.

As they followed the convoy, Elian watched the reaction on the faces of those they passed in the street. No-one seemed particularly pleased to see the cars. In fact, most of the faces showed wariness and fear, and he couldn't help but wonder if this was what The Rising had had in mind when they had made their move on the previous government.

Ten minutes later and the cars pulled up outside a five-story shelter that in the old days had probably been an office block, given the architecture. Elian and Rooker got out of the car and went to speak to the task force captain.

'Who are you looking for?' the captain asked, straight to the point.

'His name's Liam Rezzo, but he might not be in there,' Nyks said.

'What's he done?'

Elian and Rooker exchanged a look. There was no way they were dropping the Ridgeway name into conversation. Everyone knew Luke Ridgeway was being hunted by the authorities.

'He might not have done anything,' Rooker said. 'It could simply be a case of mistaken identity.'

'Yeah, so go easy in there. All right? We just need a quiet chat with him. See if he is who he says he is, and we can't do that if he's dead,' Elian added.

The captain gave them both a look of disbelief. 'The way you two are talking you expect us to kill everyone inside. We're professionals.' He shook his head and walked away.

The detectives crossed to the other side of the street to keep out of the way of the task force, and to do what they could to keep people on the street from walking into a situation they might not walk away from. The captain's word, though clearly meant with sincerity, did nothing to settle Nyks's nerves.

Snow had just started falling again when the task force entered the building. It wasn't long before the noise of confrontation filtered out on to the street.

'All right, boss?' Rooker asked, as Elian started pacing.

'Hmm? What? Yeah, I'm good,' he muttered distractedly. He was wondering if tonight was the night he would have to pass on the worst kind of news to Lyra, that her brother had been killed.

It took just under an hour to secure the whole building. When the task force had attained its primary objective: the pacification of the shelter, Elian and Rooker were called inside. None of the occupants had answered to the name "Liam Rezzo", and no-one seemed to know who he might be or where he was. AsterSix remained on alert while the detectives scanned the faces of people as they exited the building, but they saw no-one they recognised from the photo in the Ridgeway file.

If Liam Rezzo had been there, he wasn't now. If Liam Rezzo was Luke Ridgeway, he had escaped again.

Elian and Rooker thanked the task force captain and his team for their help, and they got back in the car. Neither of them had wanted to see how many people AsterSix had killed this time when they carried the bodies out. The captain had already explained that none of the victims were young men.

Rooker started the engine. 'What do you want to do now?'

Elian looked at his watch. It was the night he usually visited Lyra, and the sun was just beginning to set. If he went back to headquarters before heading over to see her, he would be late.

'It's early, but I think we'll call it a day. Drop me off at the Jamieson house. Then get yourself home. We'll start our search again in the morning.'

* * *

Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please feel free to press that magic star and vote for it. Or share your thoughts and leave me a comment.

A nervous afternoon's work for Elian and Rooker. They were not happy with being assigned AsterSix, and the reception the task force had from the public seemed to suggested they were not trusted in the city. What were your thoughts of the task force captain's words? Could he see how they did nothing to stem the anxiety in Elian?

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