Page 16 of Black to Light

“Absolutely not!” Mr. Gold cut in, even more forcefully.

Black didn’t voice his own thoughts on that, or on their supposed offense.

He knew Rucker well enough to know he was capable of much worse.

He closed the file, and stared at them flatly.

“Then what is the motive?” He kept his voice pleasant, still polite. “Isn’t the Lion’s Academy usually filled with people with the exact same profile as your newly-late Mr. Rucker? And Archangel doesn’t generally go after civilians. Not unless they see them as a major threat to their interests… or to the stability of the world… or if that civilian majorly pisses them off, steals from them, or tries to blackmail them, as I said. So if it’s not the blackmail or the theft, which one of those things do you suppose motivated Archangel to kill your boss?”

He held the file out to her, his demeanor still polite.

“Oh, and I don’t need the money,” he added pleasantly. “So compromising myself and my company by putting either or both into the path of a highly dangerous organization like Archangel would definitely require a far more meaningful incentive than that, I’m afraid. I doubt such an incentive exists, to be honest. I have no ambitions like you seem to imagine. I seek the quiet life as C.E.O. and lead investigator of a fully above-board private investigation and security firm. I’m not keen to end up dead in a ditch because I pissed off a group of over-trained mercs, or in trouble with the authorities after being set up by some of the richest sadists in the world who run the Lion Hunter’s Academy…”

There was a loaded silence.

Neither of Mr. Gold nor Rania Gorren made a move to take the file back from Black’s outstretched hand.

Eventually, Black lowered it.

He tossed the file back on the coffee table between them.

He watched with growing impatience as the two suit-wearing fucks exchanged more meaning-laden looks. One thing he was fairly certain of now: he actually believed them that they worked for Rucker Enterprises, not Archangel. He’d been a little worried about that initially. Really, he’d been worried about it since the mercenary group’s name came up.

“What is this really about?” he asked. “Is that in your file, too?”

“We were clear what this is about, Mr. Black,” the one called Mr. Gold said, his French accent more prominent. “It is about the brutalmurderof a beloved boss, partner, father, colleague, and friend––”

Black grunted, unimpressed.

“If that’s all this was,” he pointed out. “You would have gone to the police.”

“––A murder we would like solved by someone who won’t pin it on a party that’s not responsible,” Gorren added, her voice darker. “We, too, are aware of the forces behind the groups we named. Which is why we needyouto look into this. We’d rather bring in law enforcementafterwe have more concrete information. We’d like to feel relatively confident when sharing our evidence and suspicions with someone higher-up than the local police.”

“We wouldalsolike to know significantly more about the motive of whoever did this,” Mr. Gold added, his voice emotional compared to hers. “You asked us why this happened? Why someone would do this? We do notknow,Mr. Black.” He threw up his hands. “We do nothavean explanation. And if one of these two groupswasutilized to kill Lucian, we believe they will be in a position to influence many levels of law enforcement to guide any official investigations. Likely in ways that will not provide us the true facts.”

Black fought not to snort.

That was a lot of words to say they thought the police and the F.B.I. could be bought off. Clearly this Gorren and Mr. Gold thought whoever did this would grease palms and provide a patsy instead of the person who was actually guilty.

He wondered if they were right, or if that was more bullshit, too.

“Then you think it was a hit?” Black asked.

Rania exhaled, now visibly annoyed.

“We think it is a possibility, yes,” Mr. Gold said, giving Gorren a nervous glance. “Our security team found… chatter… indicating both groups were active in San Francisco over the past few days. And we are told both have been used for such purposes.”

Black nodded, mostly to himself. He couldn’t argue with that.

He could also admit, if reluctantly, hewasintrigued.

Gold hesitated, glanced at his companion with the ghostly pale eyes, as if asking her permission. Something in her empty stare must have convinced him he had it.

“There is something else, Mr. Black,” Gold went on carefully. “There is deeply secret technology involved. If that technology is at risk, we need to know that, too.”

“Technology?” Black’s antennae rose again. “What technology?” he asked coldly.

When neither of them even attempted to answer, he frowned. He decided to take a chance, aiming a thumb at the blue-eyed woman.

---