Yasuke Kurochiha's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

By dawn Yasuke had a name and nothing to do with it. Marcus Vane. Three days gone, and his sister slipped further away each hour he spent guessing. A name meant nothing if he couldn't find the crew that carried it. He needed someone who traded in secrets. On the street, everything Vane's men stole ended up in one place first. The pawnshop smelled of dust and old copper. Behind the counter stood Vivienne Tricks, sorting rings under a lamp. Her hands never stopped moving. She glanced up, green eyes bright, red mouth already smiling. "Whatever it is, I didn't take it," she said. Then she looked again, slower. "But you're not here to sell." "Vane's crew," Yasuke said. "I need where they work." Her smile flickered. She set the rings down and wiped her palms on her jeans. "You know how many people ask me that and end up in the river? Vane's boys bring me merchandise. I don't ask addresses. I like breathing." "They took my sister." He kept his voice even. "Three days ago. Every hour I stand here, she gets harder to reach." Vivienne studied him. Something in her twitchy manner went still. "I don't know where they sleep," she said. "But I know who does. And you won't like it." She scribbled fast on a scrap of receipt paper and slid it across. "Diamond Hayes. She runs a corner Vane's people can't touch. She hates them more than you do. Go before I remember I have sense." He found the corner at first light, when the block still slept. A woman in a long black coat stood alone, watching a spot on the pavement like it was holy ground. No jewelry. Hair pulled tight. A girl of maybe fourteen sat nearby, silent. Diamond Hayes didn't turn when he approached. "You're the one asking about Vane," she said. Not a question. "Word moves fast when a man's desperate." "His crew took my sister." "I know what he takes." Her jaw tightened. "He took a brother from me once. Different way. Same man." She said it once and did not say more. "Then help me," Yasuke said. "Tell me where." Diamond looked at him for a long moment. Then she named a building he knew—the polished top floors of a stronghold across the water, where the bosses lived like magazine spreads while the lower floors stayed guarded and poor. "He keeps the ones he grabs there. Below the penthouse. Two nights, sometimes three, then they move them." Yasuke's chest went cold. "Three days." "Then you don't have long." She turned back to her corner. "I gave you the place. I won't walk you in. That's yours." He had it now. A building. A floor. A clock already running out. He turned and ran for the water, faster than he'd moved in days, because now the searching was over and the far worse part had begun.