Lonely Thieves

Act II, Part II

Daryl's Side (April 8, 3:00 pm)

In a dark alleyway shielded from the rays of the sun by giant towering buildings, Daryl crouched low to the ground as he tried to meld in with the shadows as much as possible. He took a glance at his apartment complex from across the street to see men in dark black suits swarming the area. The Overman agents had already broken down his door, and were searching not only his home, but the surrounding rooms as well. On the level below, his distraught landlord was arguing with an Overman handler to no avail. Inwardly, Daryl felt apologetic about troubling the people he was living next to. He'd probably have to move out even if he got out of this situation without getting arrested.

Daryl turned away and glanced at the woman who was hiding in the alleyway with him. She was apparently a private detective named Norah Albert, but at the same time she was a Night Hunter who tried to steal the emerald necklace at the Hayasaka mansion. Of course, she failed at doing so, and the one who actually managed to steal the necklace was his acquaintance Megumi, who he had lost track of when they were running away from the square. Overman agents had somehow determined his identity and tracked him down.

"What do you mean, how?" Norah asked incredulously as she drove him down to the Sunset District. "You were caught on the security cameras, obviously."

"Seriously?" Daryl scratched his head awkwardly. "But they didn't seem to know who you were."

"That's because I had an obscuring implant keeping my appearance hidden from the cameras. You didn't have anything like that, so you just let yourself be caught on camera like an idiot."

"Harsh." Daryl sighed as he glanced out of the window of a car. "Implants are pretty expensive. Can't expect a poor guy like me to shell out the cash for one."

"Don't make it sound like they cost an arm and a leg. If you could buy a car, you could buy an implant or two. Rather, shouldn't you have at least an obscurer if you're going to be a Night Hunter?"

"It's not like I wanted to be a Night Hunter. I had no choice. And I didn't really have much time to prepare."

"Whatever you say. We're here, so get out already."

Daryl realized that the car had stopped in front of a run-down looking office. He got out of the car and glanced around the place. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years, and the sign, which was covered in dust and dirt, read "Albert Investigative Services".

"Don't just stand around out in the open," Norah grumbled irritably. "Did you forget you're a fugitive right now?"

Daryl nodded awkwardly and walked into the store. Much like the outside, it was incredibly dirty and completely cluttered with stacks of old newspapers and bags of garbage. A rancid stench permeated the air, making Daryl crinkle his nose in disgust.

"I've closed up shop for the day, so no one should be coming in," Norah said as she walked past the bags and papers to her desk, which was similarly covered in garbage. "Not that anyone ever comes anyway."

"I'm a little worried about Megumi," Daryl murmured. "I have no idea where she went."

"Don't worry about her. I'd have been worried if it was you out there by your lonesome, though."

Daryl scoffed, but he couldn't really argue otherwise. He watched as Norah pulled out a chair from below a stack of discarded papers and books and offered it to him. He sat down awkwardly as Norah sat down in her own seat.

"Sorry, I don't have any coffee or tea to offer you."

"It's fine. I'm not thirsty anyhow."

Norah took out her phone and began looking through her messages. Daryl sat awkwardly in silence as she did so, not sure what to do with himself.

"So, what should we do next? I don't think laying low until the heat dies down is gonna work for us. There's gotta be some way to lose them, right?"

"Don't be a moron. How do you think the Overman Foundation would look if they gave up on trying to hunt down a mere thief? They're not going to stop until we've all been caught, and it's delusional to think otherwise."

"Well, what should we do then?" Daryl was trying his best not to show that he was terrified, but he knew that his shaking fists were giving him away.

Norah sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Look, things haven't gotten too bad yet. There's a guy I've been working with... I talked about him before. He's got way more experience and know-how about this kind of stuff than either of us. If we talk to him, we can find a way out of this."

"And? Where is this guy?"

"I don't know. But I am in contact with him. For now, the best thing to do is to relax and calm down. Going crazy isn't going to help matters, all right?"

Daryl took a deep breath and nodded. He didn't really want to admit it, but she was right. He was panicking due to the weight of his debt, as well as his worry over Megumi's disappearance. But he could do nothing by trying to do something about either, and he might even make things worse.

As he sighed and tried to get a hold on his nerves, he noticed that Norah had gotten a call on her phone. She seemed surprised by the caller's name, and headed into a back room to answer it. As he waited for her to return, Daryl glanced around the room once more. Norah seemed like a put-together person, but it seemed like she was rather messy in reality.

Daryl looked around the area, fidgeting irritably as he looked at the mess around him. Finally, he got up from his seat and began cleaning up the garbage. There wasn't much he could do to make a dent in this mess that had piled up, but at least he could clear up the area around the desk and make things more comfortable. Maybe then Norah could start getting more clients.

As he cleaned up discarded food cartons and empty bottles, Daryl noticed a box placed next to one of the many bookshelves lined up near the wall. Curious, he popped it open and found, to his surprise, a number of framed awards presented by the Twilight Police Department. The name written as the recipient was Norah Albert.

While looking through these awards, Norah suddenly walked back into the room. Daryl, surprised by her sudden reappearance, tried to put back the awards before she could see them, to no avail.

"You're such a busybody," Norah said with a sigh. "Was sitting still too hard for you?"

"I just wanted to clean things up a bit," Daryl replied meekly. He looked back down at the awards as he quietly closed up the box and put it back where he found it.

"So you were a police detective, huh? What made you decide to go solo?"

"I didn't decide anything. It was the higher-ups who decided for me."

"I see. I'm sorry about that."

"Well, don't worry about it. I got a good look at the rot deep within this city, so you could say it was a chance for growth."

Daryl sat back down in his seat, not sure of what he should say. "Who was it?" he finally blurted out. "The person who called you, I mean."

"The associate I was talking about. He wanted a status update, and I told him about our current predicament."

"What'd he say?"

"That we needed to find the girl as soon as possible. At nighttime, the patrols should lessen, so we shouldn't head out until it gets dark."

"That's all? I thought he'd have more to say than that."

"He's a man of very few words. Don't worry, I have a good idea of what we can do."

"For real? I'll leave it to you for now. I don't want to mess up and get us in trouble."

Norah smiled wryly. "In any case, how about an early dinner? I'll warn you, I don't have much."

The time passed quickly as the two of them made a meal out of ham and cheese sandwiches with a side of boiled veggies. The two talked idly about mundane subjects until the sun sank below the horizon. When the city began to grow dark, the two of them put on some coats and drove back to the Sunset district in Norah's car.

The two of them made a beeline for the lockers in the square, taking care not to look to conspicuous. Unfortunately, the girl that they were looking for was nowhere in sight.

"Well, it was a good first guess," Norah grumbled as she scanned over the rows of lockers, which were illuminated by the streetlights. "I suppose there's no way she would hang around the place where we first got caught."

"Is there any way to tell if she dropped off the necklace?" Daryl asked.

"Maybe if I had x-ray implants, which I don't. They're illegal anyhow."

"That hasn't stopped you from Night Hunting, has it?"

"Shut up," Norah hissed, noting a couple of Overman agents walking in the distance. "Can you think of anywhere else we can go?"

Daryl hummed to himself as he followed Norah to a less conspicuous location. "Now that I think about it, she once mentioned to me about an orphanage that she used to live at when she was a kid."

"An orphanage? Do you really think she'd hide out there?"

"I don't have any other ideas, do you?"

Norah gritted her teeth and sighed. "Fine. Let's get out of here already."

The two of them cut through the square and headed back to the lot where they parked the car. As they rounded the corner and began walking down a side street, Norah suddenly gasped and pushed Daryl into an alleyway.

"What the hell?!"

"Shh!" Norah put a finger up to her mouth as she glanced warily at something in the distance. Daryl turned to see two Overman agents standing across the street.

"Those guys are on the other side of the road," Daryl complained under his breath. "There's no way they'd be paying attention to us here!"

"You moron, look at them!" Norah growled under her breath. "Those aren't normal Overman agents!"

Confused, Daryl took a closer look at the agents across the road. Sure enough, they looked quite different from the usual Overman agents that had been chasing them all day. Instead of their signature black suits, Daryl noted that they were wearing form-fitting riot gear made of synthicine fibers. A half-helmet covered the top parts of their heads, and their eyes were covered with a visor that seemed to be scanning the area around them.

"You're right, they look a little different. But what does that mean?"

"Are you serious? Those are Overman Dogs! Agents with enhanced hearing and smell, perfect for tracking down fugitives like us!"

Suddenly, Daryl noticed that the agents had suddenly honed in on their location. He'd thought it was just his imagination, but that thought was dispelled when they began to walk straight towards where they were hiding.

Norah clicked her tongue and kicked Daryl out of the alleyway, nearly knocking him onto the floor. She pushed herself out and ran off towards the parking lot, grabbing a bewildered Daryl's hand in the process.

"Come on, they've caught on to us!" she shouted. "Run like your life depends on it!"