Cinnabar blew air through her nose in a frustrated noise as she left the administrative office of the apartment building, the spring sun and warm air outside hitting her like a slap in the face after so long spent in the Rift. It was always half-light there... dead air. Out here, the city bustled and vibrated with life, to an extent it was almost sensory over load for the half-youma's finely honed senses.
Sliding her sunglasses onto her face, Cin's lip twisted in a sour expression. The building manager had known next to nothing about the man she had been asking for, one William Kline. Actually, he'd known so little than most of her meeting with him has been getting grilled by the portly brunette about where Mr. Kline might have gone, because he owned them quite a few months back rent, and fees for the removal of all what had been in the apartment when they had evicted him and finally seized the little one bedroom. According to Ms. Abernathy, they'd found a deserted apartment when they had finally gone inside, devoid of the little personal things bug still containing a good amount of furniture and trash seemingly carelessly left behind.
Who leaves behind their wallet, but takes pictures out of frames? Takes half their clothes and leaves behind an impressive collection of books?
Someone who was moving fast and traveling light. Who wanted to keep sentimental things, but divorce themselves from their old identity. In other words; an agent of the Negaverse who had defected and joined Order.
Shoving her hands into her pockets, Cinnabar made her way to the back of the building and let her glamour fall, taking a running step before she jumped upwards. Boots scraped against stone as she alighted on a broad windowsill and chains rattled as she took off again, reaching for a higher floor. She thumped down hard and grabbed for the frame to steady herself before she cupped a hand around her eyes and peered through the unshaded glass.
The apartment of William Kline was bare and empty, showing little more than worn carpet and walls that needed repainted. Even that would be gone soon when they cleaned the place up for the next tenant. The window protested as she tried to open it, but the lock was no match for a Captain's strength, even if she managed to shatter the glass in the process. Whatever... it wasn't like she was going to have to deal with it. Once inside, the dimness was a boon to her sore eyes and the half-youma paced around the large living room, wandering through the kitchen to the thunk and rattle of her boots on dingy linoleum.
There were faint shadows on the walls where pictures had hung, stuffs on the walls where someone had brushed against them a bit too roughly going down the hall to the bed room. That too was empty, painfully so. The cleaners had done a thorough job of clearing out everything that had ever indicated that Kline had been here. Damn. It wasn't the last of her luck, but it was an annoying set back.
Kline had been on the list of missing agents... Opptarine had been his mineral name. He'd gone off the radar three months ago, and no one had any clue where he'd gotten to. His superior officer had been concerned, but only marginally so. She'd had many lieutenants to deal with and seemed a flakey lady anyway... she'd assumed he'd taken an extended vacation. Cinnabar's hunt had brought her to this place, but here the trail seemed to have run cold. Kline had no family still alive, from what she'd found, and this had been his last known address. Curling her hand into a fist, the Captain pounded her knuckles into the window frame in the bedroom and stared out at the too sunny day.
This trail was a potential dead end, but the list of missing agents was long... Opptarine would go into a report as a likely defector and she would move on to the next name. Surely there were some on that list that would not go cold on her like this one had, lacking any connections to anyone she could use to find them. Not everyone was so careful, or so disconnected and their loss unnoticed. Some of them would prove fruitful hunts, and when they did... they would earn her her place in this organization. Prove her usefulness and maybe even improve her standing.
Cinnabar's lips crooked in a smile before she flickered and was gone, leaving an empty apartment, barren even of a lingering ghost of the man who had escaped the Negaverse and his hunter.
Word Count: 790
