Page 64 of Playing with Fire

"Richard Thackery," I said after a long pause. "Slumlord. Let fourteen people die in fires because he was too cheap to fix faulty wiring, replace broken smoke detectors, repair fire escapes. Three separate properties, three separate fires, fourteen bodies."

"And you went after him because?" Leo prompted.

"Because no one else would. The authorities knew what he'd done. The evidence was clear. But his lawyers tied everything up in red tape. He was going to get away with it."

Leo nodded, his fingers flying across his keyboard as he pulled up my old notes. "Methodology?"

"I monitored him for two months. Learned his routines, his habits, his security measures. Then I broke into his house, disabled his phone lines, and waited for him."

"And then?" Leo's voice was carefully neutral, but I could see the fascination in his eyes as I described my first solo hunt. The one that had set me on my path as a vigilante.

"I broke his knees and ankles," I said, my voice flat. Clinical. "Made sure he couldn't escape, just like his victims couldn't. Then I told him about each person who'd died because of his negligence while I burned parts of him with my lighter. When he understood exactly why he was being punished, I set his house on fire around him and left."

Xander whistled low. "Damn, X. You don't fuck around."

"He deserved it," I said simply. "Fourteen people died terrified and in pain because of him. His death needed to match what he inflicted."

Leo was scrolling through the files, scanning everything with that laser focus that made him such a good analyst. "What about his family?"

"No family to speak of," I replied, moving to look over his shoulder. "Parents dead. Ex-wife remarried and in Florida. No siblings."

"Children?" Xion asked, coming to join us at the screen.

I frowned. "None that I recall. He lived alone."

"Let's check the divorce records again," Leo suggested, already navigating to the relevant files. "Sometimes custody arrangements reveal children that aren't otherwise obvious in the documentation."

The records appeared on the screen, and Leo scrolled through them methodically. I was about to suggest we move on when his finger stabbed at a line of text.

"There," he said. "Richard Thackery relinquished all parental rights to a minor child. Felix Burns Thackery."

My blood ran cold. Burns. The connection clicked into place with the inevitability of a deadbolt sliding home.

"Fuck," I whispered. "He had a son?"

A father for a father.

Leo was already searching, fingers flying across the keyboard as he pulled up everything he could find on Felix Burns Thackery. "He dropped the Thackery after his father's death," he reported. "Goes by Felix Burns now. Holy shit—look at this. Graduated high school at fourteen. MIT at seventeen. IQ estimated in the 170s."

"A fucking genius," Xion muttered, leaning closer to the screen.

"Wait, that's weird," Leo continued, brow furrowed as he scrolled through Felix's history. "He graduated MIT with the highest honors at nineteen, turned down positions at Google, Microsoft, and three different intelligence agencies... and then enlisted in the military? Cyber operations division."

"That doesn't track," Xander said, voicing what we were all thinking. "Why would a certified genius with his pick of tech jobs join the military?"

"Structure," I suggested, the profile forming in my mind. "Discipline. Training."

"Or access," Leo countered. "Military cyber ops would give him skills and connections he couldn't get in the private sector. His current employment is…Burns Innovations. Founded it himself three years ago. Tech security firm specializing in cryptocurrency and network security. Perfect cover for dark web operations."

Could this be him? The man we were after? The pieces were falling into place with sickening clarity. A son seeking revenge for his father's death. A technological prodigy with military training and resources. The symmetry of using fire to destroy what I valued most, just as I had done to his father.

"Wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves," Xander said, hands raised. "We don't know for sure it's him."

"Xander's right," Leo agreed, pulling the file closer. "This is a strong lead, but it's still just a theory. We need more concrete evidence before we go hunting this guy."

"So, what do you suggest?" I asked.

"We verify," Leo said simply. "Cross-reference the phoenix signature with Burns Innovations' designs. Check if Felix has any connection to your other targets or to the locations of the attacks. Build a proper case before we act."

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