Where The Numinous Awaits

Ch. 6: Dex's Team

August 15 | Day

The sweltering heat had to be clouding my judgment. At first, Legend Liang reminded me of half the field agents—suave, cocky OASIS boys—that I avoided like the plague. But unlike them, he stood there, smiling too much and making me sweat, looking as tempting as bad decisions after a night of tequila. Until his parents put on a spectacle.

"Mr. and Mrs. Liang." I walked over to them. "Let's not say anything that we'll regret later. I understand how important your standing in the community is, so I assure you that this situation will be handled with the utmost care and discretion, regardless of whether or not your son was involved."

I had seen Legend transform from a self-assured bad boy to a wounded child. It was a brief glimpse, but I knew his father's words had had a profound impact on him, and I didn't want to see him belittled any further.

What none of them knew was that I had intel on each of the Liangs. The family business was floundering. The eldest son was just breaking even with his auto sales. The real estate agent was being hit hard by the housing bubble, and the daughter's marriage was on the rocks with a baby on the way. I also knew that Legend's successes were a mishmash of outright lies and wishful thinking. The street gang and dropping out of school weren't the half of it.

The family put a high value on appearances, but their image was a façade. It was no wonder Legend was more concerned with maintaining illusions than living up to his full potential. However, his ability to make people see what he wanted them to see was precisely why Director Van der Woodsen considered him a potential fit for OASIS, with some refinement. If he did well on this trial, he could have the job permanently.

"Where will he go?" Susan's voice wavered on a sob.

I needed her to believe her son would be in an Overlay City jail while we completed our mission. "He'll be in good hands, Mrs. Liang," I avoided answering her question directly.

Van der Woodsen had given us mere months to get the job done. The threat of The Book of Tides falling into the wrong hands was simply too great to hold onto it for much longer. I expected the majority of that time to be spent locating the damn thing. After that, we'd tackle finding the route to the City of Immortals.

"Also, Mr. Liang," I went on, "in my line of work, I've found that a scare like this usually straightens out the wayward ones before they go too far off the path. If Legend is innocent—"

"Don," his mother corrected me.

"I apologize. If Don is innocent, it will be as if this never happened. If he is found guilty, the Council of Overlay Affairs has ways of making news coverage disappear. He will quietly serve his sentence, and you need never worry about it affecting your public standing."

On the human side, the details were already being deleted. By the time the news aired again, there would be a segment about a DeepFake hack that had been mistakenly reported as real.

"Innocent or not, I'm done with the boy," Justin Liang harrumphed.

I pulled back in objection. "I...understand. Have a nice day, sir."

I motioned for Legend to follow me to the white sedan parked on the other side of the Overlay officials' van. As we crossed the parking lot, he stared at the country club where his mother remained outside, distraught. His father had already gone back inside.

The wind rustled the dragon shifter's messy top knot. His silky black hair was short on the sides, long at the crown. His angular face and smooth, toasted skin were indicative of his good genes, although his slender build would have been no match for the muscles I had brought along to menace him into compliance.