Hugo Brooke heard Aedus groan slightly beside him as the wheels of the BID’s transport thudded over some debris in the road, and he fought the urge to shush the man. He felt like he was in some sort of deluded dream and the slightest distraction, from Aedus or anyone else, might cause him to wake and find himself back in the BID’s interrogation room. Even when they pulled up in front of Micki’s clinic and Special Agent Grant got out of the transport, saying something about wanting to make sure Micki was ready for them (More like making sure she ever wants to speak to either of us again, Hugo had thought to himself), he still wouldn’t let himself believe he wasn’t on his way to an internment facility.

Aedus lifted his head and looked out the transport’s thick window toward the clinic. “Le Fay’s hungry,” he said, more to himself than to Hugo, placing a hand on his own stomach.

Hugo glared at him. The last thing he needed to worry about right now was a hungry dog. He looked toward the driver’s seat, where a nameless Biddie in dark glasses waited patiently for Grant to return, and decided to risk a brief, hushed conversation with the man beside him.

“What did you say to her?” He whispered.

“What?” Aedus asked, taking his eyes off the clinic and glancing over at Hugo. Hugo couldn’t help but notice they were nowhere near as bloodshot as they’d been an hour ago. “Le Fay?”

“No!” Hugo hissed. He glanced toward the driver and saw the man was still dutifully ignoring them. In a softer voice he continued: “No, not your dog. Grant! What did you say to Grant to get her to let us go?”

“Oh,” Aedus said with a nod, lowering his voice to match Hugo’s. “I did as you said, Noir. I told her what she wanted to hear.”

He gave Hugo a wink and another of his warm, unnerving smiles.

Hugo nodded, but for a moment he had no idea what Aedus was talking about. It came to him as he saw Grant emerge from the clinic and motion toward the transport’s driver.

It had happened just after they’d been taken into the BID’s headquarters. It had been clear to Hugo that, at some point or another, he and Aedus would be separated and questioned, but it had become increasingly clear that this had not occurred to Aedus. He’d squared his jaw and clenched his tattooed fists as the agents surrounding them had explained about quarantine and decontamination, and Hugo had known that even though his blade had been confiscated the man was more than prepared to put up a fight.

“It’s alright, Aedus,” Hugo had comforted him as best he could. “They’re just going to make sure you don’t have anything contagious.”

The man’s expression hadn’t softened in the least, and Hugo had assumed the word ‘contagious’ didn’t mean a whole lot where he came from.

“They’re just going to look you over and ask you some questions, alright?” Hugo tried again. “I’m not going anywhere, they just need to talk to us alone. Just tell them what they want to hear and it’ll all be over, okay?”

Thankfully the man had managed a nod before the agents led him toward one elevator. The few agents left behind to watch over Hugo maneuvered him toward a different elevator, and Hugo had assumed he’d never see the man again.

Hugo had been so wrapped up in his own existential dread following his interrogation that he’d let this brief exchange slip away from his memory, but clearly Aedus had taken his advice to heart.

“What do you mean?” He asked. “What did you –?”

“It’s time to go.” Hugo nearly had a heart attack; this was the first the driver had spoken, and part of Hugo had assumed he’d been born (or had been genetically altered by the BID to become) mute. The agent got out of the transport and made his way toward Hugo’s door. He opened it and gestured for Hugo to get out.

Were they really just going to let them go?

He slid out of the transport. Aedus was right behind him, both feet on the ground and his pack on his back before Hugo had time to turn and face him; Hugo didn’t bother to explain that the driver had, most likely, been planning to open Aedus’ own door for him. Grant gestured for them and they made their way toward where she waited by the clinic’s entrance. Hugo glanced up; the cat with the bandaged ear still leered down at him from the clinic’s now unlit sign.

Well, Hugo reasoned, they aren’t letting us go just like that. It hadn’t been a clean break; there had been plenty of conditions put in place before he and Aedus were allowed out of the Biddies’ headquarters.

“I need you to really hear what I’m saying, here, Mr. Brooke,” Special Agent Grant had told him with a stern look. Her attitude toward him seemed to have changed somehow during the time she’d left him and Aedus alone in the interrogation room. She’d spoken mostly to Aedus and had turned her body slightly away from Hugo as she sat across from them. “We’re going to give your idea a chance; you’re being made the temporary chaperone of Mr. Belle while he’ll be staying here.”

Aedus had brightened considerably at this.

“However, I need you to understand that this arrangement is dependent on several factors.” She’d briefly glanced toward Hugo to make sure he was listening before looking back at Aedus. “If any incidents like the one from this morning happen again, the deal is forfeit. We’re choosing not to press any charges against Dr. Micki or you, Mr. Brooke,” – again Hugo had warranted only the slightest of glances – “for now as a show of good will, but if you get into trouble like that again you’ll be escorted out of Babylon and your associates will have to be charged for their failure to report your arrival to us.”

She’d paused to let the weight of her words settle. She needn’t have worried; Hugo had gotten the picture. There had been a few other caveats; they weren’t allowed to tell people where Aedus was from until the Bureau made an official announcement, they weren’t allowed to talk to the press (ever [unless otherwise notified]) and they would both have to report to Grant for weekly check-ins. He and Aedus were by no means getting off completely free, but compared to what Hugo had dreamt up in his interrogation room Grant’s deal had sounded like a godsend.

They met Grant at the clinic’s doors, her attention still deliberately on Aedus. Aedus continued past her into the clinic and Hugo, not knowing what else to do, followed the man. It was odd to find himself back in Micki’s lobby after all of the day’s events, but it was made even odder by the utter lack of animals causing anything close to a ruckus. No doubt Micki had been forced to cancel and reschedule most of today’s appointments; how much had that cost her?

Hugo didn’t have long to ponder this. There was a shout from the hallway beyond the lobby, then a cacophony of scrapes and thuds which rapidly grew louder and closer. Aedus moved toward the door leading to the hallway and then stopped to crouch down, swinging the pack off his back and setting it beside him on the floor. Hugo was just about to ask what he was doing when the loudest thud yet caused the door leading to the storeroom to fly open. Le Fay, her clawed paws scrabbling against the clinic’s tiled floors and her great belly jiggling beneath her, slipped and slid toward Aedus until she finally crashed into him.

The man laughed as the dog licked every nook and cranny of his inked face. The dog, in turn, would occasionally pause her licking long enough to let out a small woof or a high-pitched, excited whine. Hugo glanced toward Grant, still standing a few feet back. Her eyebrows were raised and Hugo saw her move her hand from the grip of the Barzo she wore on her waist. Hugo hadn’t noticed that before; all Biddies carried guns, he knew, but Grant had taken care to conceal her holster beneath the jacket of her suit.

“This is your dog?” Grant asked, quickly smothering the look of surprise plastered over face.

“Say true; Le Fay, third of her name, of Lex’s Pack. The mightiest Le Fay ever to roam the valley, say true, say true!” Aedus spoke of the dog as if she’d built the City with her own four paws. Le Fay, in turn, was clearly delighted by her introduction; her tail beat against the tile floor like a jackhammer. Hugo caught himself anthropomorphizing her and chided himself; she was just a dog, what did she care of introductions?

After a few moments Le Fay had spent what little energy she’d built up over the morning and she collapsed, panting, into the man’s lap. He remained on the floor with her, stroking the fur along her side, while her tail continued to thump atop the cool tiles.

“She sure is a handful,” Micki said. Hugo jumped; he hadn’t noticed the vet standing in the doorway. “Now that she’s got her color back, anyhow.”

“She hasn’t felt this well since we left the town,” Aedus said, looking up toward Micki as if she’d made water from wine. “I thank you again, Heal –”

“Micki,” she gently reminded him. There was still a hint of laughter around the corners of her mouth and her expression softened as she took in the man and his dog, but Hugo saw her eyes harden as she took in Grant. “Is this turnin’ into a permanent outpost for the Biddies now? ‘Cause I sure as hell would’ve –”

“This is Special Agent Grant,” Hugo said, desperate to ease at least a little of the room’s tension. “She’s going to be working with Aedus while he’s in the City. She’s just dropping us off.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” Micki said, her eyes no softer than they’d been the moment before. “I’ve had just about my fill of suits for the day.”

“I apologize for any inconvenience you’ve –” Grant began mechanically, but Micki cut her off.

“I don’t need anyone to apologize to me, Agent Grant, but someone damn well better apologize to the patients I had to turn away today.”

A silence fell upon the room; even Le Fay’s tail had stopped wagging.

“As I said, I apologize for the inconvenience, but under the circumstances the Bureau’s hands were tied.” Grant’s voice was still cordial, but there was a strain in it Hugo hadn’t heard before. “If Mr. Belle’s arrival had been reported to us immediately none of this would have –”

“Oh, don’t give me that!” Micki said, her cheeks beginning to flush. “You and your damn Bureau can go –”

“Micki?” Aedus’ voice was barely more than a whisper, but Hugo knew they’d all heard him. “Le Fay’s hungry. I need to feed her.”

“Right, sorry, sugarplum,” Micki said, reaching up to tighten her ponytail. “I tried feeding her when she woke up, but she turned her nose up at everything I had.”

“She meant no offense,” Aedus quickly assured the vet.

“I’m sure,” Micki said with a smile. “I’ll go back and get a bowl ready for her.”

She left without another glance toward Grant. Aedus clicked his tongue and Le Fay skittered to her feet, waddling after Micki and disappearing down the hallway.

“Sorry about –” Hugo began.

“Don’t worry about it,” Grant cut him off. “Not everyone understands what the Bureau’s trying to do, I get it.”

Hugo had no doubt that she did, in fact, get it, but he wasn’t sure she was brushing her exchange with Micki off as easily as she’d like him to believe.

She looked his way and caught him staring. “I need to get back to HQ, I’ve got a lot of paperwork I need to finish. You’re sure you’re alright with Mr. Belle staying with you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Hugo assured her. He was sure of no such thing. “If nothing else he can crash at my office. It’s not too far from here, we –”

“Good.” Grant said with a nod. “Your first check-in’s on Sunday. Please don’t forget to show up.”

“No, we won’t.” Grant seemed unconvinced, so he added, “I promise.”

“Good.” Grant said again, looking not even slightly more convinced. “My number’s in your wireless, please call me if you need anything or if things get… out of hand, alright?”

“Will do,” Hugo said with a nod of his own.

“Special Agent Grant,” Aedus called out as Grant turned to leave.

“Yes, Mr. Belle?”

“My blade. You never gave it back.”

Grant took a breath. “No, Mr. Belle, I didn’t.”

“When will you?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Belle.”

“It’s not yours to keep.”

“I’m aware of that. I don’t even have it myself; the beatcops have to process it before they can wrap up their investigation into… this morning.”

“When they’ve finished, you’ll return it?”

Grant hesitated. “I can’t promise that, Mr. Belle. Maybe, in time, after you’ve demonstrated you’re not a threat, we –”

“Threat or no, that blade is mine as it was the Aedus ‘fore me and you will not –”

“I think her hands are sort of tied on this one, buddy,” Hugo cut in, watching the man’s expression darken. “I’m sure you’ll get it back eventually, we’ve just got to wait a while.”

The look Hugo received informed him that waiting was not something the man did well, but, after an eternity, he slowly nodded and turned to follow Le Fay’s trail down the hallway.

“Don’t worry,” Hugo said after Aedus had been gone for a moment. “I’ll keep him out of trouble.”

The agent nodded and did her best to smile back. “See you on Sunday.”

With that she was gone. Hugo watched her through the clinic’s windows as she made her way back to the transport, and by the time she’d climbed into the beast he’d decided he should probably check on his new charge.

He found Aedus back on the floor of the storeroom, only this time his dog was sprawled out in front of him and his pack laying open at his side. Hugo watched the man reach into the pack and take out a bundle wrapped in the same tattered, crimson fabric his vest was made of. He unwrapped the bundle and exposed a pile of (what Hugo assumed was) jerky. Aedus selected a few strips and deposited them into the bowl Micki had provided, but before he sat the bowl within reach of the Le Fay’s salivating jaws he picked a particular strip and dangled it in front of the dog’s eagerly sniffing nose. In one fluid motion she snapped up the meat and after a few moments of intense chewing all trace of it had vanished.

“She’s clearly got her appetite back,” Micki said. She stood nearby, looking over a few printouts. “I’d like to give you another once-over, but if you’re responding as well as she is to the treatment you should be alright.”

“He might have popped a stitch or two since you last checked on him,” Hugo told her. Aedus shot him an offended look and Hugo could only shrug back.

“Oh?” Micki said, looking from Hugo to Aedus and back. “How’s that?”

Hugo gave her an abbreviated version of the morning’s events, minimalizing as best he could the savagery he’d seen in Aedus. As he told his brief story Micki hauled Aedus back onto the table he’d slept on the night before and had his vest off in a flash. Deep red seeped into the clean white of the bandages wrapped around his torso, and Micki made several noises of disapproval as she gathered replacement wrappings.

“Don’t you ever run out on me like that again,” she admonished the man, using a flashlight to examine the wound after she’d removed enough of the soiled bandages to get a clear look at it. “I thought you got lost out there or worse until those damn Biddies showed up and shut this place down.”

“I am sorry, Micki,” Aedus said, wincing as she poked the wound with a slim, metallic instrument from one of her tables.

“Me too,” Hugo added. “I hope all this didn’t hurt your business too badly.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Micki said with a dismissing wave. “My clientele are loyal, and even if they weren’t there are always other animals gettin’ sick out there.”

Hugo wasn’t sure if this outlook could really be called optimistic, but at least Micki wasn’t as mad at him as he’d expected.

“Listen,” he finally said, feeling he couldn’t put it off any longer. “After all this, if you want someone else to work your case for you I’ll totally understand.”

“What?” Micki looked up from the pile of clean bandages she was about to apply to Aedus. “You’re not cuttin’ out on me, are you?”

“Well, no,” Hugo stammered. “I mean, not if you don’t want me to. I just figured after how today went you’d had enough of me for a while.”

“Maybe I have and maybe I haven’t, but for now I need you, Hugo. If you’re still willin’ to… locate that specimen for me, I’m still willin’ to pay.”

“Oh, great!” Hugo tried to make himself sound cheerful. He was glad he hadn’t damaged his relationship with his client, but in in this situation he wished his client’s case hadn’t been quite as ridiculous.

“And I’ll help,” Aedus added, puffing out his chest slightly.

“Oh, really?” Micki said, securing the bandages with a small, metal clasp. “Is that so?”

“Say true!” Aedus said enthusiastically. “Tell her, Noir.”

“Well,” Hugo began. When had Aedus started calling him that? “We’re going to be… working together, yeah, but –”

“We’ll have your Mothman back soon,” Aedus said with absolute confidence.

“I’m glad to hear it!” Micki said with a chuckle. “Two heads are better than one, or at least that’s what my momma always told me growin’ up.”

“Was she a healer, too?” Aedus asked, running his hands over the bandages approvingly.

“No,” Micki said, moving back toward her printouts. “No, she wasn’t much of anything at the end of the day.”

Hugo only half heard this. There were many things about today he was nowhere near sure of, but he was certain of at least one thing: no one, not Micki and certainly not Hugo himself, had mentioned the purported Mothman by name to Aedus.

ⓍⓍⓍ

Fiver didn’t immediately respond to Hugo’s message, and on any other day that would have alarmed him. Today, however, it was clear that anything which could happen would and Hugo would just have to deal with that. He looked up from Norman’s screen and turned his attention back to Aedus, who was making his way over every square inch of Hugo’s sparse office.

“Who’re they?” Aedus asked, nodding toward where the pictures of Spade and Marlowe hung on the wall.

“That’s Philip Marlowe and that’s Sam Spade,” Hugo answered, trying not to feel offended on behalf of his fictional heroes.

“But who are they?” Aedus asked again. “I’ve never heard of either blood.”

“Had you heard of the Brooke blood before last night?”

Aedus glanced at him sheepishly. “Say true, I wasn’t even sure your people had bloods ‘fore I got into your Wall.”

“It’s not my Wall,” Hugo reminded him. “I just live behind it.”

“Say true,” Aedus replied in a tone which could have meant anything.

“Anyway, Spade and Marlowe are noirs, like me.” This was a bit of a stretch, he knew, but how often would he get a chance like that? “They’re the most famous detectives from the Archive. Or, well, I guess that depends on who you ask, because some people have really got it bad for Holmes, but I –”

He could tell from Aedus’ expression he’d lost the man.

“They’re very famous noirs. They’re the best.”

Aedus nodded and went back to his nosing. A thought occurred to Hugo and he opened up Norman’s calendar program. He made a new recurring appointment (every Sunday, high noon, showdown with Grant) and made notes on the days Micki planned to give Aedus and Le Fay their boosters. They had to get an entire series of shots again tomorrow, but after that they’d just need weekly boosters until their systems began to adapt to the slight radiation which, despite long-unfulfilled promises of the BID’s Environmental Department, would always permeate the City.

“They sure do know how to grow ‘em back in Roundtown,” Micki had told the man after she’d finished injecting him for what seemed like the hundredth time. “But when it comes to immune systems it looks like y’all got the short end of the stick.”

Hugo leaned back in his chair (the genuine wood creaked fantastically) and marveled at where he now stood with Aedus; while they were on their way to the BID’s headquarters he’d assumed he’d never see the man again, and part of him had been relieved. Now, a few hours later, he was keeping track of Aedus’ appointments for him.

“Why is this inside?” Aedus asked, prodding one of Trevor’s sickly leaves with a finger.

“Hey, leave him alone,” Hugo ordered, causing Aedus to take a step back from the plant. “Sorry, it’s just that I’ve had him for a few years now and I’m a little attached.”

Aedus looked from Hugo to Trevor and back with a bemused expression. “It’s a plant.”

“You talk to your dog, remember? And besides, he isn’t just a plant. His name’s Trevor.”

“Well, then, I’m sorry… Trevor,” Aedus made a show of nodding toward the plant before quickly distracting himself with something else.

From her perch on the small couch Le Fay gave a tremendous snore. She lay on her back, her belly like a lead weight on top of her, with her legs sticking out in all directions and twitching from time to time as she dreamed. Aedus paused and smiled at her before sitting in one of the chairs near the couch. Hugo was relieved; the man hadn’t sat still since they’d arrived at the office.

Hugo glanced at Norman’s screen again. Still no word from Fiver. Whatever they were working on, it must be pretty engrossing. Probably weaseling their way deeper into the parts of the Archive which still hadn’t been released to the public at large; that seemed like something they would do for fun.

Finally Hugo decided he’d run out of things to keep himself busy with and tried to settle on the best way to go about this.

“Listen, Aedus,” he began. That was as good a place as any to start, Hugo told himself. The man had eased himself deep into the chair and had even closed his eyes; he was getting comfortable. “If we’re going to work together like this, we’re going to have to level with each other.”

Aedus opened his dark eyes and looked toward at him, looking mildly puzzled.

“We’re going to have to… understand each other.”

“Ah, say true,” the man said with a nod. “There’s still much about this place I don’t understand.

“Yeah, I gathered that. The thing is –”

“Like Micki; why doesn’t she have a blood when you do?”

“What? Oh, the name thing. She’s from Gettysburg,” Hugo said this as if it explained everything, because, to him at least, it did, but Aedus clearly wasn’t satisfied. “Gettysburg is a suburb of one of our Cities. It’s like Babylon, only a lot smaller and a lot more… eccentric. They stopped using surnames the same year they were founded.”

“Why did she leave?”

“Why did she leave Gettysburg? Hell, Aedus, I don’t know, I only met her last night. Listen, what I really want to talk about –”

“And then there’s you.”

“Me? What about me? I’ve got a surname, remember?”

“No, not your name; it’s everything else.”

“Like what?” Hugo told himself he wasn’t beginning to feel defensive.

“Where’s your family?”

“What?”

“Why are you alone? I know you have kin, yet your only companion here is a plant? Not even a dog to sit by your side?”

“What do you know about my kin?”

Aedus looked like a kid caught wrist-deep in the proverbial cookie jar. “I know… of them.”

“That’s exactly –”

“And then there’s all this!” Aedus waved his hands around to indicate the entire office. “What’s your role here?”

“What do you mean?” Hugo hadn’t been prepared to be on the receiving end of so many questions, but he couldn’t even get a sentence out before Aedus jumped to his next topic and Hugo found himself thrown off balance by the rapid back-and-forth.

“Here, in Babylon.” Aedus gestured around himself again. “What’s your role in all this?”

“You mean my job? I’m a noir. You already knew that!”

“I know the word, but I don’t understand what it means. We don’t have noirs back in Roundtown.”

“No? Not a lot of crime back in Dogpatch?”

“What?”

“Never mind. Back before the End Times, a noir was someone who solved mysteries and investigated crimes, that sort of thing. Back then they were just called detectives, but ‘noir’ sounds a lot cooler when you say it.”

“Ah,” Aedus nodded, his brows furrowed. “And when were the End Times?”

“What?” Hugo almost laughed. “Come on, even you have to know about that. The end of the world? Fire, death and destruction for, like, a hundred years?”

“Oh, the fires that brought the dragon’s breath!”

“Yeah, sure, the fires.” Hugo was reasonably sure they were talking about the same thing.

“Are there other noirs here, or only you?”

“There are a few. It’s not exactly a lucrative profession these days; the BID takes care of most of the actual crime in the City, and the beatcops pick up whatever scraps are leftover, so I usually end up handling cheating spouses. Small-time things like that.”

The man nodded. “And why did Micki pick you for her case?”

“I don’t really think she specifically wanted me,” Hugo admitted. “I think I was just the first one she could get to agree to help her.”

“Why wouldn’t someone help her?”

“It’s not that they wouldn’t help her if she were on fire or something, I just mean a lot of people normally wouldn’t want to help with a case like this.”

“Why not?”

“Well, it’s… I mean, it’s sort of insane, right? She has us chasing after a kidnapped cryptid!”

“I thought we were looking for a Mothman?”

“We are, you call something a cryptid if…” Hugo shook his head. “Never mind, it’s not important.”

“You don’t believe Mothman’s real?” Aedus was staring at him differently somehow. His gaze was keener, maybe, or he leaned in a little closer. Hugo couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something had abruptly changed.

“I think…” he was unsure of how to continue. “No, I don’t think the thing Micki’s calling Mothman is a magical monster from before the End Times. Like she said, though, I don’t have to believe the thing’s real to find this DuPriest guy.”

“Why did he take it in the first place?”

“Micki thinks he wants to sell it on some sort of cryptozoology-themed black market.”

Aedus stared at him.

“Money, he wants to sell it and make a lot of money.”

Aedus stared on.

“Do you really expect me to believe you don’t know what money is?”

Aedus shrugged. He took his time with the gesture, like he was trying on a new set of clothes.

“Alright, we’ll cover that later.” Hugo didn’t even know where to start with this guy. “First I have some questions of my own.”

Aedus shifted in his seat so that he faced Hugo directly.

Hugo decided to get an easy one out of the way first. “What’s going on between the BID and Roundtown? Why are they so interested in making friends all of a sudden?”

“I never heard of your BID ‘fore today,” the man said. “I never even heard of Babylon, say true.”

Hugo waited. The man seemed almost reluctant to continue, but eventually he did.

“Way back, when the town was still young, we found your longfathers wandering through the ruins beyond the mountains. They were tired and sick and weak, but they were good people still, say true. We fed them and kept them warm enough through winter, and come spring they set off to find their green land.” Again Aedus gestured around himself. “They found it.”

“You’re talking about Father Hassan’s cult?” Hugo was genuinely shocked; he’d heard stories about Hassan’s trek through the Wastes before he’d founded what would become Babylon, but everyone assumed most of those tales had been apocryphal.

“Say true, Hassan was among them. He was no father when we knew him, though.”

“Father’s just a title people like to give him to make him sound more important. Go on.”

“Not much left to tell. Your longfathers went on their way and we stayed in our valley.”

“How long ago was this?”

“23 generations back.”

“Okay, how many years is that?”

Aedus shrugged.

“Alright, so your ancestors and mine crossed paths at one point; I still don’t see why the BID cares so much.”

“That might be my fault,” Aedus admitted, looking away from Hugo. “I did as you said, I told Grant what she wanted to hear, but I think what I told her made her think the town’s something it’s not.”

“What do you mean? What did you tell her?”

“That I’ve come to learn about your people.”

“That isn’t true?”

“No. I do plan to learn while I’m here and collect as many stories as I can, yet that’s not why I left the valley.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’ve gone to questing.”

Hugo felt his brows draw together as he tried to decipher what the man had just told him.

“You’ve gone…?”

“I’ve gone to questing.”

“Where is that?”

“What?”

“Where is Questing?”

“No, not gone…” Now it was Aedus’ turn to furrow his brow. Finally he seemed to settle on his course. “I’m here on a quest.”

“Ah,” Hugo felt no closer to understanding what Aedus meant, but at least now he understood the words being used. “What sort of quest?”

“I have to find a darkness.”

“A… darkness?”

“Say true. It’s somewhere here for now, but the seer told me if I don’t find it and stop it it’ll spread even to the town.”

“The seer?”

“Say true, Jeremy Carr.”

Hugo felt more lost than ever. “What kind of darkness are we talking about, here? Is this a person or a thing or…?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

“I’ll find it somewhere in the Land of the People of the Shore.”

“Where?”

Aedus gestured around himself for the fourth time.

“Okay, but where in the City?”

The man shrugged.

“Aedus, do you have any idea how big this City is?”

The man shrugged again. He was clearly growing fond of the gesture.

“And you don’t even know what exactly it is that you’re looking for?”

The man shook his head.

“But you have to find it or… what, it’ll destroy the world?”

“I don’t know about the world, but I know it’ll be the doom of the town.”

“And you know this because a seer told you? What the hell is a seer?”

“A Carr.” From his tone Aedus might have been explaining how putting one foot in front of the other was called walking. “Their blood has always held the sight, even ‘fore the town was the town.”

“Right,” Hugo said with a nod. He decided to abandon this line of questioning until he had a better grasp of exactly what the hell Aedus was talking about. “That’s… that’s some questing you’ve gone to, there, buddy.”

The man nodded.

“It’s probably for the best Grant doesn’t know about… that. A cultural exchange is a much better excuse for coming here, so I don’t see the harm in –”

“That isn’t all I lied about.”

Of course it isn’t. “What else?”

“Grant wanted to know how I made the people from your Wall let me in.”

It hadn’t occurred to Hugo to wonder about that until now. “What did you tell her?”

“Something about gasses and nerves and being open to suggestion, I don’t remember most of it.”

Hugo stared at him blankly.

“It’s what she wanted to hear,” the man added, a little defensively.

“Okay, that’s…” Hugo wasn’t sure what that was. “So how did you really get them to let you in?”

“I compelled them.”

“What… what does that even mean in this context?”

“I sang to them. Compelling is just singing to a different tune.”

“What do you mean you sang to them?”

“I used my song.” Aedus was clearly getting a little frustrated by Hugo’s lack of understanding.

“Wait a second, is that what you call it when… you do whatever it is you do inside someone’s head?” This had been what Hugo had wanted to ask about most, but he hadn’t expected it to come up like this.

“Singing, say true.” The man nodded, relieved to finally be making some headway.

“That’s what you did to me last night at Micki’s clinic? When I saw myself getting beaten up by Rennes Dront?”

“Ah, say true,” the man looked positively sheepish. “I am sorry for that; I only needed to know if you were a threat, I never meant to bring up something like that. I was so weak and you were fighting me so hard and I let the song get away from me. I am sorry, Hugo.”

“Yeah, no, don’t worry about it,” Hugo waved his hand to dismiss Aedus’ apology. “So you can go into… you can sing to someone, and then you know what they know?”

“Not everything they know, just what I need.”

“Can everyone in Roundtown do this?”

“Everyone in the town knows the song, but not everyone can sing as a Belle sings.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every beast and upright of the valley knows the song; it’s what binds us together and makes one from many. It’s how the town has thrived through so many generations. But the Architects blessed my blood with a deeper hold on the song than any of the others. We’re storytellers; we keep the town’s past alive within us so we never forget what came ‘fore. The song lets us share the stories with the other bloods and seek out new ones lest they’re lost to us.”

“And it also lets you… compel people to do what you want?”

“Compelling is tricky,” the man admitted. “It took too much from me to even try. I can’t make you do what I want, yet I can make you want to do what I want.”

“And that’s how you got through the Wall?”

The man nodded.

“Beyond compelling and telling stories, is there anything else this song lets you do?”

The man nodded again. “The Architects blessed my blood well, say true, say true.”

Hugo made a mental note to figure out who these Architects were, and why Aedus made them sound like they’d come down from the sky in a clap of thunder.

“Alright,” Hugo said, taking a breath and leaning back in his chair again as he processed what Aedus had told him. “Give me a second with this.”

It was impossible, he knew, but he also couldn’t deny his Rennes-filled flashbacks from last night. Or that memory of his mother… Hugo decided not to dwell on that. He had to be sure.

“Can you give me a demonstration?”

“What do you mean?”

“Sing to me, right here, so I know it’s real.”

“You already know it’s real.”

“I know that I know, but I need to know that I know.”

“What do you want me to look for?”

“Tell me…” Hugo looked around the office for inspiration. His gaze settled where the plant sat atop his stand. “Tell me why I named my plant Trevor.”

Hugo wasn’t exactly sure what he’d been expecting, but the entire ordeal was much less dramatic than he would have thought. Aedus stared at him for a second or two, just long enough for the moment to become uncomfortable, then Hugo heard a drumbeat steadily getting louder until, suddenly, the office fell away and, for only a moment, he had no idea who or where he was.

His mother laughed beside him. He knew where he was. Onstage Kendo Trevor, Beijing’s greatest living comic, was halfway through his set, just as he’d always been and always would be. This was the last night of Trevor’s Union-wide tour (“From Beijing to Babylon and Back Again!” the posters in the lobby would always read), and the lean, stringy-looking man had just perfectly executed a surprisingly racy joke about a man walking in on his wife in bed with a different man, two women and a cockatoo. Hugo’s mother was practically in tears.

He looked over at her and took her in. God, she’d been beautiful when she laughed.

Hugo felt the same tugging sensation he’d felt last night when Aedus had left him, but this time things seemed to go much smoother. He didn’t feel as if he’d been gutted, at least. Hugo knew without knowing that Aedus had gotten stronger since last night; he still wasn’t at 100%, but singing like this was the easiest thing in the world for him.

“I’m sorry, Hugo,” Aedus said immediately. “I didn’t mean to bring up your mother.”

Hugo hadn’t meant to, either. He’d known Kendo Trevor had inspired his plant’s name, but he’d forgotten it had been his mother who’d taken him to the show in the first place.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hugo said. “It’s not your fault, I should have asked for something else.”

Aedus paused, and then cautiously began, “How did she –”

“I still don’t understand, though,” Hugo plowed ahead. He knew where Aedus’ question was going, and it wasn’t anywhere Hugo wanted to be. “If you sang to Grant to figure out what she wanted to hear, how come she didn’t… sense you or feel you or whatever the right word for this sort of thing is?”

“Oh, I had to creep through her.” Aedus said as if this explained anything. Hugo was getting accustomed to that tone.

“Creep? What is that, like a stealthy version of singing?”

“Say true!” Aedus said, apparently delighted by Hugo’s ability to catch on. “It’s not like proper singing, though; I only hear what’s on top –” the man tapped the top of his own head with a tattooed knuckle “– and I can’t go too deep without them hearing me. Grant was easy, though; she kept everything neat and tidy, right up top.”

“So she assumed you used nerve gasses to get through the Wall, and you confirmed that for her.”

The man looked away and nodded.

“And now the BID thinks Roundtown is churning out mind-controlling nerve gasses.”

The man nodded again. No wonder the Biddies wanted to stay on the town’s good side.

A thought occurred to Hugo just then; he was shocked it hadn’t occurred to him sooner. “Can you do that all the time? Creep, I mean, so that no one knows you’re in their head?”

“No,” Aedus admitted. “Creeping takes too much too fast. A Belle who doesn’t know their way can sing themself to death if they’re not watchful, and nothing takes it out of you like creeping.”

Hugo remembered how bloodshot the man’s eyes had been after he’d finished his talk with Grant. “Okay, you can’t do it all the time, but it is something you could do if you needed to, right? Like, say, I were to ask someone a question, you could creep long enough to know if their answer was honest?”

The man considered this a moment before answering. “That is something I could do, yet the Architects didn’t give us the song for games, Noir.”

“No, of course not,” Hugo agreed at once.

He was almost overwhelmed by the possibilities he now saw before himself. A walking, talking lie-detector had just fallen into his lap; what more could a noir ask for? Hugo remembered every case he’d ever worked on, even the ones involving Zeke, and knew that if he’d had Aedus with him (and the man was willing to creep for him) they each could have been solved within a day.

“You’ve got a look in your eye, Noir,” Aedus said. Hugo started; he hadn’t noticed how closely the man had been watching him.

“Sorry, I was just thinking… You’ve got to understand, we don’t have things like this here.”

“I know,” Aedus said. “I knew I’d left the song behind me soon as I left the town.”

Except for the bit you brought with you, Hugo thought.

“This is all a bit much for me to wrap my head around.” This was true; Hugo was still trying to take stock of all the possibilities Aedus could open up for him. “I think I’m a little too tired to process it all right now.”

He looked at his watch; it wasn’t even five in the afternoon yet. He was exhausted, though, and he felt that was justifiable. He hadn’t slept well last night on the floor of Micki’s storeroom, and he couldn’t remember the last time so much had happened to him over the course of one morning. He glanced at Norman’s screen one last time and saw Fiver still hadn’t gotten back with him; this was the last excuse he needed.

“Listen, buddy, I can’t really get started on Micki’s case until my friend Fiver gets back with me. They’re going to find out some details about DuPriest that’ll help us track him down, but until they do we’re sort of dead in the water. I think for now I’m gonna go home and take a quick nap.”

“What should I do?” Aedus asked.

Hugo contemplated this for a moment. He’d already allowed himself to mostly forget what Aedus had done to those goldfiends back in the alley, but he couldn’t forget it as he considered inviting the man into his apartment. After a moment, though, he told himself he was being silly; if Aedus wanted to hurt him he’d have done it as soon as the two of them were alone together. Besides, at least a small part of him was still convinced he was dreaming, and he was afraid that if he took his eyes off Aedus for too long he might disappear as suddenly as he’d arrived.

“You should come with me,” Hugo finally said. “No offense, but you smell like you’re a bit overdue for a shower. And after all, we’re partners now, right?”

“Say true?”

“Yeah, say true. You’re officially an honorary sleuth.”

“What’s that?”

“A noir! Noir, detective, sleuth, gumshoe, it all means the same thing.”

“I’ve never been a sleuth ‘fore,” Aedus said hesitantly. “I’ve only ever been a storyteller.”

“Well, before I became a noir I was just the son of a lawyer,” Hugo said, standing and stretching. “All the great sleuths have to start somewhere.”

“I don’t know what it is to be a sleuth,” the man said, still unsure of himself.

“You seem like a fast learner, though,” Hugo assured him. “You’ll pick it up as we go. Besides, your quest thing is just like one of my cases! Only instead of tracking down jewel thieves, you’re looking for some sort of nameless, faceless evil you don’t even know where to find. It’s a little sparse as far as mysteries go, but, hey, it’s something.”

Aedus cocked his head toward Hugo. The man didn’t understand half of what Hugo had just said, he knew, but somehow he felt the meaning had gotten across.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Hugo grabbed Norman and tucked him into a pocket as Aedus patted Le Fay’s belly a few times. The large dog squirmed for a moment on the couch but was finally able to rotate enough to get a few of her paws on the floor. Hugo paused to make sure her legs wouldn’t give out underneath her and then continued toward the door.

“What about Trevor?” Aedus asked, nodding toward where the plant sat atop its stand.

“Oh, he usually just hangs out here.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because…” Hugo shook his head. He would have to learn to pick his battles. “It doesn’t matter. Go ahead and grab him, we can bring him with us. What the hell, he can be a sleuth, too.”