The Talents of the Fallen - 10. Part Ten: The Taint

Chapter Ten: The Taint

Talia didn’t like slumming with the Untalented but that was exactly what she found herself still doing a week after the attack. Even with the help of her brother’s pet attack dog they hadn’t been able to track down the drug dealer. Either he had gotten smart and fled the country or had found himself on the wrong end of a bullet. Wherever he had gone to he had left few tracks to follow.

There were his parents of course. Dan’s father was the community’s sheriff and his mother head of the local chamber of commerce. Mick, the one who Jon had sodomized with a jackknife, came from a wealthy family. His father was the head of a major law firm in downtown Chicago. He wife was the daughter of one of the district’s criminal judges. Together the two families controlled the entire legal process for the community. That made Talia’s search for Dan a risky endeavor.

It was when she was about to call it a night when she got the call. Picking up her blackberry she saw that it was her brother’s lover. “What do you want Ryan?”

“I found him.”

“She slammed on the brakes. You found the brat? How?”

“Long story but the short of it I found himself pimping himself out to his dealer.”

“Where are you?” Once he gave him the address she took the freeway to the south part of town. If she had her way she wouldn’t drive south of 51^st street especially at night. So why was she heading to a back alley past the 95^th L-Station. She was doing it for her brother but which one.

Poor Andy had taken up with the wrong sort of friends. Both she and Greg had tried to warn him that they were tied to the Coven but like any rebellious teenager he had refused to listen. When he went missing from the school for over a week both of them became concerned. She and her brother searched every known Coven den and warren the Order was aware of. It was only by chance they came across his discarded iPhone. Andrew had been told to dump it for a better encrypted blackberry but he hadn’t listened. In this case his disobedience saved him from a fate worse than death.

From the voice mail they tracked him to a rundown flophouse. There they discovered him taking part in abhorrent Coven blood rituals. On seeing the pair the cultist handed Andrew over without a fight. They had already done what the Master had commanded.

While their brother denied eating human flesh Talia knew the signs of conversion. The roots of her brother’s hair were already turning blond. Soon he wouldn’t be able to stand the light of day. There were treatments but they could only delay the inevitable. One day the Coven Virus would get the better of her brother and he would convert to the Coven way of life. He would be cast from the Order and his family would be forced to turn their backs to him.

It was the family’s search for a true cure that had had Talia so interested in the Mays kid. He had all the outward signs of infection but the part that mattered most, his mind remained untainted. If there was a cure it would be found through the Mays boy. That was why Andy was so drawn to him but didn’t explain Greg’s interest.

Both she and Andrew knew that when the time came to decide what to do with Aaron the final decision would rest with their older brother. Even so Greg had shown no sign of wanting to meet with the boy. Given the potential of a possible cure, her brother’s behavior was strange in of itself. She knew there had to be more to it then feigned disinterest.

It was a long painful hour drive to the address Ryan had sent her. Seeing it was truly a dump she reached under the dashboard and flipped the fuel cutoff switch. Turning it on would drain the battery but she didn’t intend to stay longer then she had to.

She found two of Ryan’s thugs guarding the lobby. An inch and a half of Plexiglas protected the desk clerk from Ryan’s men but the guy wasn’t taking any chances. He had placed a sawed off shotgun on the counter and had a 45 revolver sticking out of the front of his pants.

Reaching out with her mind Talia probed the man’s thoughts to see if he was a threat. He wasn’t. So long as they didn’t physically threaten his life he wouldn’t threaten theirs.

Recognizing one of Ryan’s people she waved him over to her. “What’s the situation Bill? It is Bill, right?”

“Yes ma’am. You’ll find the boss on three.”

“I take it the elevators are out of order?”

“You can ride them if you want chick-y lady but don’t blame me if you get stuck.” The desk clerk relied.

“I’ll take the stairs.” Along the way she passed a few drugged out residents, some so stoned that they hadn’t noticed they were sitting in a puddles of their own piss and shit.
The Southside of Chicago wasn’t the sort of neighborhood Ryan grew up in but it did reflect the cruelty of his life before Gregory found him. One way or another he had ended up a ward of the state. As such he spent his childhood and much of his teenage years bouncing between foster homes. Some were nicer than others but that wasn’t saying much.

Out of all the assets god had given him his good looks had turned out to be a double edged sword. Potential foster parents took him in on him being so cute. Most of those used him as a prop to convince the world how kind and charitable they were. Their friends would take one look at Ryan and nod him agreement, never knowing that the state was paying them for the honor. Others used Ryan’s good looks to sate their abhorrent sexual hunger. These Ryan hated most of all.

He knew he could go to the police. At least he wished he could. These men, by stripping away his innocence also took away his will to fight. When they tired of him, as they always would, Ryan would be shipped off to another house. Be it a bad or good one, it didn’t make a difference. The years of rage and self-hatred would reveal itself in his rebellious attitude. There were fights at school and several expulsions. Eventually what had started off as a cute kid was an unwanted violent teenager.

In the end he ended up on the streets with nothing but the clothes on his back to call his own. Not knowing what else he was good for he began working the streets. Just as he had made a name for himself in the foster system he developed a reputation of being a hard fuck.

One day fate leads him to Berg Omicron, Jon’s father. He liked getting fucked hard as much as he liked fucking others. Having just gone through a messy divorce he was in the market for a new playmate to warm his bed. That person turned out to be Ryan. Lord Omicron took Ryan in, cleaned him up, and began tutoring him in the ways of the Elected.

Knowing his violent tendencies, Berg trained Ryan into a well-disciplined shooter and mix martial arts boxer. While Berg, a member of the Elected and a physical Talent at that had little need for a bodyguard he was able to show off Ryan’s exceptional skills to the entertainment of his guests.

Later, as the novelty began to wear off Berg would have Ryan entertain both Talented and Untalented guests alike in and out of the bedroom.

It was during one such party that Ryan met Gregory Balthazar. If Ryan was a high class escort, Gregory was the prince of them. Not only was he a member of the Elected but he was the son of the head of the Order.

Why such a man of high station had lowered himself to the role of a hooker was known only by him. There were rumors suggesting Gregory had denounced his membership in the Order and there by his inheritance. If that was the case none of the Balthazars said so.

While Ryan was there for the money, Greg was more interested in networking. It might seem tawdry that he would resort to prostitution to develop the social and political connections that would one day make him headmaster of the Lakes School but it worked.

At first Lord Omicron didn’t mind the pair spending so much time together. Gregory was the heir to the most important family in the Order if not all of the Elected. As Speaker of the Council it was important for Berg to stay on Greg’s good side.

It all fell apart the day Greg asked Berg to hand over Ryan’s contract. While Lord Omicron knew he should there was the issue of the long standing feud between those of the original three Talents, mental, emotional, and kinetic and those who had, what the Elected referred to as minor Talents such as physical Talents such as Berg. He, being the overly proud head of House Omicron did not like the idea that he should surrender anything to one whose family saw him as inferior. So he refused.

Though Lord Omicron had ordered that Ryan never see Greg again, neither young man was about to let the stubborn goat tell them what to do. Berg was well aware of that fact and would have gone along with it if the pair showed more discretion. Instead the two let themselves be seen out in public.

On the third floor she turned down the hall towards the screaming voices. She found Ryan and the prisoners in the communal bathroom. Ryan had two men strung up from pipes that ran along the ceiling. “So I take it this one is the dealer?” She pointed to the lanky black man. She looked at the man’s arms and saw all the veins had been blown. “Meth I take it?”

“Meth, heroin, and a few other nasty cocktails.’ Ryan tossed over a vial. Inside was a black tar-like substance.”

“Taint?”

“Looks like it.”

The mind altering drug was the product of Coven research into the Talent phenomena. While the Order had their own research division its main focus was on developing drugs that would magnify a Talent’s powers. The direction taken by the Master’s scientist was in the opposite direction. He didn’t want to magnify his follower’s powers, he wanted to spread them. The result of that research was what the Coven called MEET, Mental Energy Enhancement Therapy. The Order called it by the more emotionally precise name Taint.”

Talia held up the vial to the swinging light. “Have you ever felt tempted to take it?”

“Never.” Ryan replied flatly. As an Untalented trying to living among the Elected he had often dreamed what his life would be like if he had been born with the gift. Greg wouldn’t have to hide their relationship from his father. He could attend the Council and maybe head his own family. But no… he had born in poverty. His father had abandoned his drug addicted mother before he was born. He was later taken in by social services. For a while he bounced between foster parents and group homes. Some were better than others but most were not the environment for any boy to be raised in.

His old lover didn’t take kindly to his toy boy running off on him. It had taken some doing but he had Ryan arrested and sent to the feared Reformatory. He endured horrors that only Aaron could claim to outdo. In the end it was Greg who saved him and restored his sanity.

Officially he served as a Liaison between the Talented and the outside world. In reality he was an agent of the Lakes School. He was to find unknown Talents, judge their abilities, and if the candidate has potential bring him to the attention of the headmaster. If not, then he had to eliminate them.

As for the pair hanging over the showers the Order was always in need of more specimens for anti-Coven Virus research.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t want a taste of the good stuff.” Talia tossed the vial back at Ryan. He let it fall to the floor. He then crushed the vial with a heavy boot. “No reason to get all angry about it.”

“Shut up and do your job.”

“Ouch… very well. The mentalist scanned the kid first. “He’s nothing but a puppet.” She moved on to the supplier. She spent more time with him than with Dan. When she was done she wore an amused grin. “Nothing beats the rage of an abandoned child.

“What do you mean by that Talia?” Ryan had dealt with her snide comments before. He would not put up with them from.

“Nothing in regards to you my dear… It’s that Mays bitch. It seems her son Tom has found himself a new family in the Coven. Of course like any teenager he is proving to be quite rebellious.”

“Was the attack on Aaron Mays sanctioned by the Coven or not.”

“No… Aaron is not even the real target. It’s the mother. The attack on the kid was nothing more than Tom Mays attempt to make her suffer.”

“Then we must remove Aaron from the equation.”

“Remove? As in eliminate.”

“No… I’m overruling Dr. Harris’s extermination order.”

“That will upset him. We of the Elected do not take orders from the Untalented.”

“Are you challenging the authority given to me by the Council?”

“No... Just thinking to myself out loud. It is not my place to challenge the Council. When will you arrange the move?”

“Not until tomorrow morning.”

“Why not sooner. Tom must know someone with the Talent is interfering with his plans. He will try again. Possibly tonight.”

“I have already sent extra security to the Mays home. I don’t know… He knows we have his people. That leaves him with two choices. He can either crawl back to the Coven and hope his Prefect overlooks his actions.

“Or…”

“With everything he’s built falling apart around him he might do something rash.”

“Which do you think it will be?”

“It depends. He might have only given these two Taint or he could have given them too many more.”

Talia looked at the supplier and the dealer. “I would guess more than a few, not less.”

“Then he has overstepped the bounds of the Treaty and he can be eliminated without upsetting the Coven.”

“If he has been stupid enough to let the Taint escape into the underground drug market they might want to deal with him themselves. “ She tapped a cheek with a long red painted nail. “I’ll contact my father and have him sign the death warrant.”

“I will leave these two for cleaners to deal with.”

“You’re not going to stay until they arrive. That’s most unlike you.”

“I promised your brother that I would report directly to him of I came up with any new significant information. He will need time to arrange things for Aaron’s arrival.” There was a hint of relief in his tone that Talia didn’t miss.

“You were actually planning to have the boy be interviewed no matter what we discovered. Is that because of your duties as the Council’s Liaison or is it because you see a bit of yourself in the Mays boy?”

“I always follow orders don’t I?”

“Yes but that’s not the question I asked.”