Renegade

Renegade Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Wait, what?" Aria exclaimed.

She was stunned. For six months, no one could find a lead on where Rex might be, and now her cousin Dacia, whom she wasn't even close with, claimed that she knew, by connection to whoever she worked for, where Rex was. Emotions and questions flooded through her brain.

"How long have you known?" she asked.

"Aria, my boss doesn't tell people things like this unless he is absolutely sure that the information is correct. I found out two days ago."

"Okay, so your boss wants us to meet him in Chicago? So he can tell me what he knows, and then a to find plan gets figured out from there?

"Yeah, pretty much. Also, have you ever been to a nightclub before?"

***

Chicago was a city with a history of people running business empires with less-than-legal aspects on the side. It just happened to be the local base of operations for Adi Balan, a businessman that not only had clubs and other businesses, some not so legal, in every major city on Earth and in the rest of the Terran Empire, but also commanded the largest intelligence network as well. He could get information that the Intelligence Service couldn't, because his agents, some of which, like Dacia, once worked for the Intelligence Service, and could get places official government agents couldn't.

Alice's Kingdom, the nightclub Adi owned in Chicago, was busy that night. The common people stood in a long line that trailed around the block, but thankfully Dacia, Aria, and James and Caleb, who had accompanied the two girls to act as escorts, were able to wait in the much shorter V.I.P. line because Dacia worked for Adi.

The two girls were dressed as colorfully as the rest of the crowd and showed about the same amount of skin. Since Aria didn't make a habit of going to places like Alice's Kingdom, and they wanted to blend in and not be noticed, she had to borrow clothes from her cousin. Her outfit was a white crop top held up by a strappy halter neck and matching skirt that just barely covered her underwear. Dacia wore a bodycon dress with a plunging v-neck that was also white and somehow held up by straps made out of rhinestones. Both of them had swirling neon designs painted on their skin and faces. Caleb and James wore simple black pants and button-down shirts with the top few buttons open.

Thankfully the bouncer at the V.I.P. door didn't give Dacia much trouble when it was their turn to enter.

"I.D., please," the dark-skinned man asked in a deep voice. He was holding a clipboard with the club's logo on the back.

Dacia showed him her card. "You know me, Knox," she said.

"Welcome back," he replied, moving aside to let her through the door.

Caleb, James, and Aria moved to follow Dacia, but the bouncer moved in front of them before they could enter.

"And you three are?" he inquired.

Dacia called out from behind him, "They're with me."

Knox quickly realized his mistake and stepped aside. "Sorry, Miss Blaythe," he muttered quickly.

On the outside, Alice's Kingdom looked like any other plain, gray warehouse on the shady side of town. Inside the club, Aria saw it was a different story than what the outside told. A dance floor lit up with neon colors that pulsed and changed along with the beat of the pounding EDM music a DJ was playing from a booth on the far wall. Pillars of clear acrylic that were also lit up with colored lights dotted the floor. Club girls, wearing either tight leotards or super short dresses in the same neon color scheme as the rest of the club, danced on top of the pillars or took food and drink to patrons that sat at the booths and tables that were on the left wall.

Caleb and James stuck close to Aria as they followed Dacia to the bar that took up the right wall. Their instincts as bodyguards were on edge. Bounty hunters and other denizens were looking at Aria as if they recognized her, but weren't quite sure if it was her.

When the group got to the bar, which was also made up of clear acrylic and mirrored glass, Aria sat down on a stool, and her two guards stood behind her watching the crowd. Dacia just leaned on the bar and pulled the sleeve of the nearest bar tender.

He turned around, still drying off the glass in his hand. "What'd you want, Blaythe?" he asked gruffly.

"I need to speak to the big boss," she replied.

"You know procedure," the bar tender countered.

"Yeah, I do, but I brought her." Dacia pointed to Aria, fully extending her arm.

The bartender looked at Aria for the first time. "Oh. I tell him right away," he said.

He left, and Dacia turned around to look at Aria and her guards.

"So is that guy a friend of yours?" James inquired, raising one eyebrow.

Dacia replied, "Eh, not really. More like a coworker that you hate but still have to deal with. We keep it civil." She picked up a drink that was just on her left side, half finished, and drank the rest in a second.

A moment later, a small woman of Indian descent in a orange and red sari came up to the group.

"My husband will see you now," was all she said. She motioned for all four people to follow her. Dacia went without reservations, and the other three didn't really have any other choice but to follow.

A wide staircase lead up to the door in the wall opposite of the DJ's booth. The bouncer standing next to it opened it right away when he saw the woman coming with Aria, Dacia, and the two bodyguards coming.

"He's waiting inside," he said as they passed.

"I know that," snapped the woman.

A small corridor was behind this doors with two more doors on a wall inside of it. The woman went and knocked on the one on the right.

A man's voice with a noticeable Indian accent called out, "Come in, Come in."