Tabula Rasa

Chapter 11

"Lay it out for me, Anya." Calina whispered into the burner phone. It was meant to be used only for emergencies...but this felt pretty damn urgent.

"Wait, are you calling from your apartment?" Anya asked. "Because if so, he can probably hear you."

"No, I'm in a diner around the corner from our building, and I'm getting strange looks from the regulars, so please explain, and explain fast."

"I sent you all the evidence. It's all there."

"It's all there if you're you. But I'm not you, so explain it to me like I'm an idiot." Calina wasn't an idiot. She could understand complex mathematical theorems and speak a dozen languages, but her intelligence was different from Anya's. Anya thought outside the box. She could see patterns in things where others saw only chaos.

And she often forgot that most people weren't on her wave length.

"Okay. There's this magical thing called the internet. And some people like to write things on the internet."

"Don't be facetious," Calina replied.

"Fine." She dropped the condescending tone and continued. "When you told me about your lawyer, and how he seemed to perceive things he shouldn't be able to, I remembered a theory I'd come across in the depths of the internet from a Hell's Kitchen blogger. He had no following to speak of, so his speculation went nowhere."

"What speculation?"

"That Daredevil had superpowers. This blogger had seen him in action up close and said it was like he had 360 degree awareness. As if he was using senses in addition to sight to orientate himself and dodge attacks. The blogger thought it was some form of telepathy, but I had a different theory. See, when Daredevil was first on the scene he wore a black fabric mask over his eyes. So I started to think, maybe he was using senses other than sight, because he couldn't actually see. From there it was just a matter of plugging in some Daredevil footage into a program I designed that analysed his movements and spatial awareness, and it proved my theory - he's blind. Then I used facial recognition software to compare him against your lawyer and - even though it only ran on the bottom half of his face - it came back with a 92% probability of a match. Simple."

Calina shook her head, dumfounded. At both Anya's idea of 'simple'...and the fact that her neighbour - her kind, handsome, blind neighbour - was a super-powered vigilante.

"You're sure?" Calina whispered.

"I'm insulted you even have to ask," was the dry reply.

"Sorry. It's just a little...out there."

"More 'out there' than the existence of a secret cabal of mind-controlled female assassins?"

"Good point. And thank you, Anya. For figuring all this out."

"I didn't just do it for you," she replied in her typical blunt fashion. "This guy's senses must be off-the-charts powerful for him to be able to fight and leap across buildings without using his eyes. So he can probably detect things about you that you don't realise. Which means your secret - and ours - is at risk. I suggest you find another place to live before he figures it out."

"I-I'll take that under advisement," Calina replied before saying her goodbyes and hanging up.

She sat back in the booth and blew out a long breath, still stunned at the news.

Matthew was Daredevil.

Matthew was Daredevil.

She hadn't heard of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen prior to moving to New York; but she'd become very familiar with him since. He was like a folklore hero in these parts. Graffiti art of a red-suited man with devil horns graced the facades of several buildings. His antics made the local news, and were splashed across the tabloid papers.