Willow Locke - Anarchist Detective

Eitan III

    "We hafta get that page, Robert," Eitan shook his friend's shoulder in the dark, "We hafta know."
    The Dead Rabbits were moving along the roof now, towards the edge. Harry clung to a copper drain pipe and threw himself over, lowering himself hand over hand to the street. The others followed, shimmying down, even Jim with his limp.
    Eitan sprinted to the opposite edge of the roof. The Dead Rabbits had already reached the street when he leapt off the roof with his fingertips spread out before him. He landed heavily on a water tower and skidded down its conical top, slipping backwards off the edge and landing on a pigeon coop on the roof below, shattering the thin boards of the cage. The steel gray birds exploded from the broken cage, frantically beating the cold night air into a tempest of downy feathers. He stood up amid the rubble, the wire tore his wool trousers; a rivulet of blood ran from a scratch on his arm. He recovered his cap and looked back over his shoulder to see Robert scrambling down the drain pipe shouting after him, "Wait, Wait!"
    He couldn't wait. In another moment the Dead Rabbits would be out of range, dematerialized into the labyrinth. Eitan ran for the edge of the lower building and leapt over, rebounding off of a wooden porch and down to the street. He steadied himself then ran flat out for the Dead Rabbits as they dispersed. Only Jim was still visible slowed by his limp. Eitan ran him down. He snatched at his overcoat like a feral thing hunting prey. Eitan grabbed his collar and wrenched him backwards.
"Ger off! Help!" Jim yelled, but the other Dead Rabbits were already out of earshot.
Jim twisted around to face his attacker just as Eitan sprang into the air, striking the larger boy in the chest with his knees.
    He fell on his back into the muck with Eitan straddling him. Eitan had knocked the wind out of him, and he was struggling to breathe as Eitan ransacked his overcoat, searching for the typewritten page. He found it folded in an inside pocket and slipped it into his own sleeve. He sprang to his feet before the prostrate form of the older boy.
    "You rat, Lostch," Jim wheezed, rising halfway up in the street slime. "You won't get away with this. Ever'ting's changing. Dead Rabbits, we rat-killers now."
    "You a killer? I can't even." Eitan laughed and danced away a few steps. He pulled his cherry wood pipe from his coat pocket and lit it, clenching it between his teeth at a defiant, upward angle. "Get out my sight, killer, before I make up my mind to thrash you."
    Jim scrambled to his feet and tried in vain to brush off the fetid slime from his clothes. He glared at Eitan and clenched his fist.
    "You're just a baby rat, Lostch," Jim said, glancing furtively over his shoulder.
    "They ain't comin' back, killer" Eitan said, taking a long draw from his pipe and cracking his knuckles "So what's it gonna be?"
    Jim's shoulders slumped and he turned away, limping as fast as he could through the lamplight.
    Eitan walked back down the block contemplatively smoking. He saw three shadows walking towards him, a boy his age with an older boy and girl. Then Robert waved at him, and he recognized the girl. It was his sister, Talia!
    "Hey, sis!" Eitan grinned. "I ain't seen you for yonks!"
    She ran towards him and held him for a moment, pulling the pipe out of his mouth with one hand and looking into his eyes. Her brown eyes looked just like Reuven's. Her eyes flicked down at the thin stream of blood on his hand.
    "Are you hurt?" she asked, side-stepping into a claustrophobic alley.
Eitan snatched back his pipe and re-lit it, then followed her into the shadow.
"Aww, no." Eitan huffed "Just got a scratch from that wire."
Robert and the older boy gathered around them. A contingent of rats abandoned the overflowing garbage pile.
"What happened?" Robert asked. "I couldn't see."
Eitan ignored the question and turned back to Talia. "What are you doin' sis?" He asked. "Shouldn't you be studying or somethin', instead of out cavortin' with tenement kids? I thought you was all fancy now."
"I came to find you," she said, then gesturing to the older boy, "This is James Whitcomb, we study together."
"Pleased to meet you," said James, squinting at Eitan.
Eitan slipped the typewritten page from his sleeve and handed it to Talia.
"You got it," said Robert, "I couldn't keep up with you."
"Didn't even look when I jumped," said Eitan. "You couldn't've followed."
Talia unfolded the vellum page. It was a long list of names: There was Reuven, Rachel, Eitan and Ayala. She saw her own name as well as a few others she recognized, Ayala's friends, Hannah Zilkus and Zilpah Kohein.
"What is this?" she asked.
"I got it off that Dead Rabbit," said Eitan, blowing a perfect smoke ring. "Picked his pocket."
"We overheard them," said Robert, "The corporation pays the Dead Rabbits for information."
"What corporation?" asked James.
"Don't know," said Robert, "But the Dead Rabbits all live at the Adelaide Childs House of Industry."
"Me and Robert snuck in there," said Eitan, "We saw the opening ceremony. Lots of corporate speeches. We saw the Dead Rabbits getting paid off by a tall, red-haired man in a dark suit."
"Adelaide Childs-" said Talia, "That's-"
"Henry Clay Frick's wife," James rejoined.
"Yeah," said Eitan, "That's the primary donor. Frick. There were others as well, Astor, Belmont-"
"What do the names on this list have in common?" asked Talia.
"The Anarkhos will know," said James.