Uno and Fog: Luminary Asks For Help

The journey back home was mostly in silence.

Finally, as we approach the airport I ask The Fog something that had been nagging at me.

“Did you know?”

“Know what?”

“Who my mother was.”

“No.”

“Seriously?” I shake my head, “you are always going on about a shadowy cabal running everything and up pops Monarch who runs a shadowy criminal organization which my mother worked for and they want me on board.”

“Monarch might be connected to the cabal, and they are certainly using him for their own ends, but he is at most a tentacle of the monster, not the actual monster.  Further, your mother’s exploits were well before our time.  It certainly is something I will explore further, and I’m going to delve into what she was doing at Norte Corp, but those records are mainly paper back then.  Its going to take a lot of time.”

I’m not sure I believe him.  As the silence stretches out, he says something else, “I have never lied to you, Uno, I have never deceived you even by omission and I don’t believe you have ever done that to me either.  I have to be able to trust you when it matters most, and trust is something that has to go both ways.”

I nod.  He has been my friend for years, he has had my back for years and I have had his, but there is a seed of doubt.

“It does open up avenues for finding your mother, we can start focusing on the places where The Black Death was last seen, I suspect that will change our focus considerably and we now have a list of possible suspects.”

“People that had a grudge against her, that’s a long list.”  I point out.

“It’s still narrowed, and we can narrow it down further to proximity and opportunity.  It is more than we had before.  Are you going to broach this with your father?

“I’m trying to figure out how to do that.”

The Fog got clearance and proceeds to his final approach for landing and I leave the conversation for now.

As we head back to our building in the limo, I feel relief at being back in my city.  The tall buildings on either side of us, the heavy traffic, the lights and garish advertisements all feel like home.  The south is fine, but this is my city, this is where I belong.

“Trying to find your mother is what the Monarch wanted.”

“Yes, and I’m sure he figured I would do it anyway, sometimes peoples interests align.  Whoever is responsible for my mother, might be holding a grudge that would but me at risk.”

“Possibly, if they knew who she was in her private life as well, but there would be no reason to wait all these years if they knew that.”

We get to out building, The Fog goes down and I go up to the penthouse.  Its quiet up there, through the windows I can see the greensward, even at night, knowing that bad things happen there all the time at night, it is still beautiful.

Despite the light pollution from the city, one star shines bright in the sky, I wonder if it might be a planet.  I was never one to spend much time studying astronomy so I had no idea, but it was pretty none the less.

The mark on the wall is still there from the fight with the Shade.  I remind myself, again, to call and get it repaired in the morning.

I just want a shower and to get to bed, but the light in my penthouse seems off somehow.  I glance outside.  The star is brighter and larger.  Its headed right toward me.

I watch it, I think about calling The Fog, but its still a ways away, but I can see within the golden glow the outline of a man forming and I know who it is.

He lands outside my penthouse.  Man is he fast, and he glows like the sun itself.  Its hard to look at him, which is annoying because I know he can tone it down.  I don’t know if he’s doing that for the intimidation factor or to mess with me, but I leave my penthouse through the glass doors.

“You want to tell me why you’re broadcasting your presence to the entire neighborhood?”

The light recedes to where he’s just shining like a nightlight.  “I wanted to make sure you knew it was me that was approaching, its my understanding you have been attacked recently and I didn’t want to alarm you.” I swear he stands even taller when he says that. Perfect posture, perfect physique, model perfect face and a voice that’s used to people listening to him.

“So instead you’ve put a target on my back as a possible associate of yours?”  The Fog and I have a low opinion of the guy, whatever his gifts foresight and wisdom aren’t among them.  If you read between the lines in a lot of his exploits he gets in trouble most of the time for charging into situations with any kind of recon at all.

“Ms. Teri said you could handle yourself.”  He says as if that explained everything.  So self assured, so self confident.

I try to maintain my composure, “Ms. Teri is wrong, and you’ve got the wrong guy for whatever it is you’re here for.”

“Please, Uno, I don’t have time for games.  I need your help.”  Does everyone know who I am?

“You know Luminary, I would be extremely annoyed about all of this and Ms. Teri outing me if I wasn’t surprised by you asking for my help.”

“I need . . .” and I swear he seems uncomfortable for just the tiniest moment, I wish I had this on film, then I remember the security cameras and almost smile, “both of your help.” he finishes.

“You’re kidding me.”

“I do not kid,” he says with a hint of sternness in his voice, “Ms. Teri is in trouble and I believe you know why.”

I mutter a curse.  I thought I would have more time.