Lonely Thieves

Act III, Part XI

It wasn't long before Norah was walking the streets of the Morning Star district. Though the area was not as opulent as places like the Eclipse district, it was still a massive metropolitan area where almost half of Twilight's population was living. Skyscrapers stretched up into the sky and streets were packed with pedestrians and buses trying to get to their location. Norah looked around and noticed that there were a particularly large amount of TPD officers patrolling the streets.

In fact, the number of officers on the street was surprisingly high, even when considering the manhunt for the emerald necklace thief going on. Norah had assumed that the Overman Foundation were taking charge of the area, and sure enough, there were a few agents patrolling here and there. So why were there so many TPD officers around?

Norah entered a local cafe, and looked for a friendly civilian to talk to. She found an elderly woman sipping coffee at a table by herself and waved to get her attention, using her friendliest smile to disarm her.

"Hi! I just came in from out of district, and I just noticed that there were a lot of officers around? Any reason why?"

"Oh, yes!" The old woman glanced out the window at an officer across the street. "They're looking for the original Night Hunter. Apparently he was seen running around the district recently, and they've gone all-out to search for him."

"All this for one man?"

"Not just any man!" interjected an elderly man sitting at a nearby table. "We're talking about the man who started the Night Hunts to begin with! It's not a stretch to say they need every good man on the job!"

"Is he dangerous?" Norah asked curiously.

"Well, he's a Night Hunter. Never know what they'll get up to, right? Besides, look how much of a fuss he's caused already. The whole district's in an uproar."

Sensing that the old man was starting to ramble, Norah quickly excused herself from the conversation. "I see. Thank you very much for your help."

Norah left the cafe and continued down the street. There was still a little time left before the meeting Edgar had set up, but it was better to be early than late. After walking a while down the main street, she turned down a dark alleyway, taking care to avoid being spotted by any watching officers. As she stepped down the alleyway, she eventually found an unmarked door in the side of one of the buildings. She knocked on the door three times, and the door opened.

Inside was a hidden dive bar, unknown to the populace at large. Indeed, this place was only patronized by those who took part in the underground dealings of Twilight, and was even used by police to occasionally get information. A bouncer stood in front of the doorway and glared at Norah with an intimidating stare.

"You here on cop business?"

"No," Norah said as she tried to casually brush back her hair. "I'm not a cop, anyhow."

"Coulda fooled me. All right, come in. Cause any trouble and you're out, though."

Norah nodded as she wondered why people could see that she used to be a cop. Was it in her body language or in her tone of voice? She decided not to dwell on it too much. She took a seat at the counter and glanced at the time on her phone. There was still five minutes or so until the time the meeting was set.

Norah turned to the bald-headed bartender, who had come by to take her order. "A frosty martini with two limes," she ordered, reciting exactly what Edgar had told her to say. The bartender raised an eyebrow, then went off to fulfill her order.

Norah waited quietly while sipping at a glass of water until a young woman came by and placed a martini with two limes on the counter. "You're early," she said coyly.

"Is that a problem? Besides, I'm not that early."

"Just making small talk," the woman grinned. She had bright orange hair in a short cut, and her face was dotted with light freckles. "Come on back. This isn't what you came for, right?"

Norah nodded. She had heard about this group from Edgar. A strange group of independent contractors that lived in a secret dive bar in the Morning Star district. They did any job, but they never took the step of becoming Night Hunters. They were professionals who had yet to fail a single job.

The woman led Norah up the stairs to a room above the bar. It was lightly furnished, with only the bare necessities needed to create a living space. Norah was surprised to see that the place was rather large, with several rooms and a long hallway that branched off occasionally.

Eventually, Norah was led to an office where two men stood waiting behind a desk. Norah recognized one of them as the bald bartender from before, while the other was a tan-skinned young man that she hadn't seen before. The woman turned around and cheerily introduced the group to her.

"Well, then, let's get down to business! We're the Twilight Sweepers, and we'll do any job for the right price!"

"Maize, please," the bald man interjected. "I said I didn't want to use that name, didn't I?"

"Come on, Robert, we need branding if we want any jobs. Even David agrees, right?"

The young man named David turned away. "I didn't say that. I said we needed more work."

"Yeah, and we'll get more work if we have a catchy name!"

"We're not playing heroes, Maize!" David said angrily. "We need to be taken seriously, and that won't happen unless you take it seriously!"

"Enough!" The man called Robert roared. The other two immediately fell silent and turned away from each other. It was clear who was the leader here. "You're putting off the client."

"It's fine," Norah said as she tried to keep a straight face. She was starting to have a few doubts about this group's professionalism, but she really didn't have the space to complain.

"You knew the code, so you have a job for us, right?" Maize remarked as she sat on a nearby chair.

"Yes." Norah took out a picture of Megumi and placed it on the desk. "I'm looking for this girl. Have you seen her around?"

Robert took the picture and looked it over carefully. "No one comes to mind," he answered as he passed the picture off to the others. "Why are you looking for her?"

"Is that necessary information?"

"It might make the search easier."

"I'd rather not say, if that's all right," Norah replied. She couldn't let them know about the emerald necklace, after all. "But she's a skilled thief. You'd hear of her if you asked around in the underground."

"I hope you understand that hardly narrows it down," Robert said as he handed back the image. "Still, we'll take the job. But don't expect us to find her right away. After all, we don't have much in terms of clues."

"Of course," Norah took back the phone as Robert got up from his desk.

"David, Maize, let's get to work. Maize! It's no time to be looking at your phone now, is it?"

"Hold on, boss!" Maize said as she displayed her phone screen to the others. "I remembered this news article I saw earlier and just had to find it! Look!"

The others gathered around Maize's phone and looked at the image she'd put up. The article was about sightings of the original Night Hunter, with live updates. The most recent update showed a slightly blurry image of the Night Hunter running through the streets of the Morning Star district.

"And?" David asked suspiciously. "I don't see anything special about this image."

"That's because you're blind!" Maize tapped a figure behind the Night Hunter. "Look! Doesn't that look like the girl you're looking for?"

Norah squinted at the screen as she tried to make out the image. Sure enough, the girl looked a bit like Megumi, but it was a bit too blurry to say for sure.

"I... I suppose it's not impossible for it to be her, but..."

"It's not much to go on," Robert remarked. "But we might as well check it out."

"Would save us a lot of trouble," David agreed. "Night Hunters are a dangerous sort, though. We mess up and we might be on the evening news."

"Agh, we toe that line every day anyhow," Maize argued. "Come on! Let's go look for that Night Hunter guy!"

"You just want to look for the original Night Hunter, don't you?" David sighed.

"Enough horsing around," Robert declared. "Let's go find this Night Hunter already!"

"I'll come too!" Norah declared as the three contractors headed out of the office.

"That's not necessary," Robert said as he held up a hand to stop her. "Don't worry. We're professionals. You can leave things in our hands."

Norah thought to protest, but as a detective who took jobs from clients, she knew how annoying it was to have to deal with an overbearing client. Nevertheless, she did not want to simply sit back and wait for results.

"I'll take a different track and search out different parts of the city," she declared. "We can cover more ground that way, right?"

Robert sighed. "Suit yourself. Maize, tell Barry to take over the bar."

The three sweepers left the office, taking only necessities with them. Norah followed after them just to see them split up outside the bar with nary a word between them. They certainly worked like professionals, even if they didn't act that way.

But there was no time to be impressed. Norah headed out of the alley herself and began scouring the streets. She needed to find Megumi, before Ingrid or the police did.