Day 135 - The New Tattoo

 The New Tattoo

 Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

“Is that a tattoo?”

“I do believe it is…”

For a week the streets had been thrown into chaos because of a madman with a gun. Just as soon as Kaylee had moved into her new apartment, Declan contacted her and their plans to deal with The Dragon’s Claw were put on hold. Declan made it clear that her cover couldn’t be compromised. Now that she was living near a Dragon Claw Agent, she had to maintain her identity at all costs. But since this side mission of theirs wasn’t official and her bosses didn’t know, she also had to work her normal shifts. She was back on duty, but now it was twice as hard for her to get to work. She had to keep up her new identity in the apartment building, but also slip out of her new neighborhood, making sure she wasn’t followed and there was no gunman close behind.

“I can’t make it all out, but I’m pretty sure that curve there is the start of the number two.”

“Huh. Okay. Know any gangs with a two in their name? Me either. But it’s a start.”

After a week of shootings, the gunman had finally made a mistake. Normally he avoided cameras but yesterday there had been a hidden camera across the street from a stash house he attacked. There wasn’t much to go on, but one frame revealed his shirt sleeve pulled up just enough to expose a tattoo on his forearm.

“We need to cross check every database for tattoos that start with the number two.”

“Here in the city?”

“National, international, whoever will return your phone calls. We need to go wide with this.”

Kaylee nodded. The past week had been a horror story, but it felt good to be doing real work that might bring things to an end.

That night, as she returned home to her new apartment, she spotted three men leaving the building. A young man held the door for her and their eyes locked for just a second. She thanked him and headed inside. Those men don’t seem afraid, she thought to herself. She wondered why they would be heading out on a night like this with such danger afoot. Then she remembered why Declan had placed her in this building and she wondered if she had just caught a break in her other case. She would have to remember the men and try to make an introduction.