Siren by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward [Ward, Blaze]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: mystery, science fiction, action adventure
Publisher: Knotted Road Press
Published: 2016-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

IV

Date of the Republic October 11, 394 Quinta City, Quinta

It was dark on this street, but Vo could see well enough. It was one of those wonderful, upper–middle–class neighborhoods that seem to accumulate close to well–financed universities, in this case taking up one whole side of the campus, while the other three filled up with cheap student housing, bars, and restaurants.

Wide, tree–lined streets, with the trees just now starting to think about browning and dropping their leaves. Soft, grass–filled yards, well–manicured and landscaped. It would be quiet, unless a wind came up, and then the leaves would rustle all by themselves.

You didn’t wear dead black for something like this. That was the mistake amateurs made, usually after watching too many ninja movies.

A black lump stood out. A mix of moderate grays actually blended better, especially against landscaping and bushes.

There would be lights on porches, and maybe motion sensors in back yards. People in a neighborhood like this would have cute little marker lights for walkways, like Auberon’s flight deck did for landing her dangerous little hawks.

It would be impossible to come at the place over the roofline. That only worked in slums, anyway.

Fortunately, there wouldn’t be any feral dogs, either. Place like this would bring the family mutt in at night to guard the house, and keep them out of the weather.

Vo had a thing about dogs.

It had been a twenty minute walk from his apartment. And two whole socio–economic strata. Nice blue collar to genteel poverty.

These were old houses, starting to go to seed. The kinds of places professors in jackets with patches on the elbows would move into when they got tenure, keep for thirty or fifty years, and then sell when they retired.

Not many kids. No big party animals.

Quiet.

Seventeen–year–old Vo wondered if these morons even bothered to lock their doors at night. It had that kind of feel.

A candy store waiting for an urchin.

Grown–up Vo had spent several hours virtually touring the neighborhood on his computer, and then arranging all the supplies he thought he might need for a job like this.

He did miss the old tool–bag.

He could make do.

Vo had briefly considered blowing the closest transformer and blacking out the entire neighborhood for a few hours. That would get him past any alarms, but it would also probably wake people up and they might notice a ghost passing through their back alley.

Better to let them sleep.

Dr. Aeolus Demir. Bachelor. Tenured professor. Living in a monstrous, old, brick and wood house. Three stories above ground. Daylight windows indicating a basement below. A stupendous waste of living space, dedicated to housing just one man.

On Anameleck Prime, they would have sub–divided the joint and put at least eight families in there. Maybe ten. Vo only grumbled a little.

None of the publicity photos of the little doctor had indicated a dog. Not that it ruled it out, but it meant to plan for the possibility, and not the certainty.

Dogs don’t like being zapped with a taze–charge any more than people do, and usually weigh a whole bunch less, so they get dropped harder.

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