Once, in another life, she and the man who now called himself Gray had been lovers. But that had been before he’d woken up here in Sovereign City, his past nothing more than tattered images and sounds.
Samantha slid quickly into the backseat of Gray’s waiting car, while Eun took the passenger seat in the front. Gray was about to duck behind the wheel when Miya stepped into view. "Lazarus Gray?" she asked, raising her voice loud enough that he couldn’t miss hearing her.
Lazarus paused and his mask of stoicism slipped. For a brief second, he looked like a confused and somewhat lost man. And then his resolve returned and he was once more the composed figure that had become so feared throughout the underworld. He turned his head to regard her, his heart hammering in his chest. Something about her voice was painfully familiar and he suddenly longed to feel her touch on his bare chest. "Yes?’ he asked, valiantly maintaining his composure.
"It is you, isn’t it?" Miya moved toward him, lifting the veil from her face. As soon as he saw her face, Lazarus gasped. Images flooded into his mind’s eye, of her nude in his bed, of the two of them arguing horribly. He heard the word ‘monster’ very clearly but he couldn’t be sure which of them had said it. "Do you remember me?" she asked, watching his reaction very closely.
Gray glanced back into his car, where both Eun and Samantha were waiting. He shut the door and gave a brief nod. "I think so, yes. But things aren’t as clear as they should be. Can you tell me your name?"
Miya ran to him, wrapping her arms about his neck and hugging him so tightly that Lazarus thought he might choke. "I’ve missed you so much! I don’t care what’s happened to you, we’re together again!"
Gray peeled her off of him and held her at arm’s length, seeing the tears in her eyes. "Your name. Please."
"Miya." She reached out and touched his face. "You have no idea how long I’ve searched for you. Why aren’t you using your real name?"
A muscle twitched in Gray’s left cheek, a sign of his anticipation. "Miya," he said slowly, "can you tell me what my name is?"
"Of course I can! I can tell you everything."
"Chief?" Samantha was leaning her head out of the car window, her gaze flicking back and forth from Lazarus and this stranger woman. "Morgan needs us."
"Don’t go," Miya pleaded. "Stay with me and I’ll answer all your questions."
Though it only took the briefest of seconds, Samantha saw how much effort Lazarus had to exert to step away from Miya. "I can’t. I have responsibilities. Where can I reach you?"
Miya let her veil fall back over her eyes. "I’ll be in touch, my love. Hurry back."
Lazarus turned without saying farewell. He ignored the pointed stares of his aides, driving off as quickly as possible.
As Gray’s vehicle rounded the corner, Miya’s emotional display came to an abrupt end. She adopted a cruel smile and quickly walked toward an alleyway that led to an adjoining street. Her partner in this affair, Walther Lunt, was waiting for her in a parked car. He had told her that Gray wouldn’t fall for this, that he wouldn’t come with her into so obvious a trap. Miya had disagreed, thinking that whatever lingering feelings Lazarus might possess for her — coupled with his desire to know the truth about himself — would propel him into her arms.
Next time, she mused, she would know better. Lazarus Gray was deeply entrenched in Sovereign City, with men and women he considered to be family. That would make her task a bit more difficult but not impossible.
Lazarus Gray would be hers again, one way or another.
"Chief? Who was that woman?" Eun broached the subject that Samantha couldn’t bring herself to. The three of them had sat in silence for nearly five minutes, as Gray had skillfully navigated the crowded Sovereign streets. A slight drizzle was falling, making the pavement slick and deadly, especially at the speeds that Gray was approaching. But neither Eun nor Samantha was worried: they knew their employer was as skilled a driver as anyone in the world.
"A woman from my past. That’s virtually all I can tell you. I recognized her immediately but the images that passed through my head weren’t clear at all."
From the backseat, Samantha’s voice sounded distant. "Was she your lover?"
"I believe so. But I’m not certain we were together when the end came."
Both Samantha and Eun knew what he meant. Something had left him unconscious on the shores of Sovereign, battered to the point of amnesia. He’d had only one thing in his possession that offered any clue as to who he was: a medallion upon which the image of a man with a lion’s head was engraved with the words Lazarus Gray beside it. He’d adopted the name as his own in the hopes that it would lure into the open anyone who might know him. This was a dangerous gambit, since the first person he met after arriving in Sovereign City tried to kill him. So far, Lazarus had crossed paths with two people who knew him from before: a German named Walther Lunt, who had somehow managed to cheat death, and now this Miya woman.
Sensing that his employer was slipping into a brooding state, Eun switched topics. "Where are we going, Chief?"
"To the area of the pier where the storage areas are housed."
"You think that’s where Morgan is?" Samantha asked, leaning forward so that her head appeared in-between Eun and Lazarus.
"I know it is. After the affair with The Devil’s Bible, I asked all of you to drink a mixture of my creation."
"I remember," Samantha said, recalling the icy pink concoction that tasted a bit like chalk mixed with toothpaste. Lazarus hadn’t explained his reasons for asking them to ingest the solution but that wasn’t uncommon. Lazarus usually played his cards close to the vest and his aides trusted him implicitly, though there were certainly times when his secretive nature ate away at them.
"There were certain radioactive isotopes in there that have attached themselves to the lining of your intestines. I’m able to track it with a specialized device of my own design."
"So you know where we are at all times?" Eun asked.
"For precautionary measures, yes."
Lazarus swung his vehicle to the right, steering them toward the docks. In addition to the honest men and women who made their living in Sovereign City’s harbor area, the place was also home to many unsavory types. These criminals ducked out of sight as Gray passed, recognizing one of the city’s few crusaders for justice.
The car came to a stop in front of a set of storage units set into the side of a small hill. It was mostly beneath the main harbor area and was swathed in darkness. Rats, both human and animal, scurried away into the shadows. The three members of Assistance Unlimited were out of the vehicle in a flash. Lazarus held a Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector II in his right hand. The revolver was chambered with .45 caliber rounds and was his weapon of choice. Samantha held a smaller handgun, one that she normally carried strapped to her garter. Eun carried no weapon, preferring to use his hands and feet. Around his neck, he wore the seven-pointed star pendant.
Gray held his gun in front of him, slowly approaching one of the storage units. The heavy door was open, revealing a little of the stone floor within. There was flickering light that could be seen and Gray knew that it was from a mounted torch. He had been in similar places before, in his old lifetime. Places where men in robes conducted dark rituals, usually involving the defiling of virginal female flesh.
The three of them moved cautiously inside. Samantha gasped, being the first to spot Lorraine’s bloodied body, still strapped to one of the two altars erected in the center of the room.