Hide and Seek Part 2 (Nathayen POV)

New York was and always would be a city without any charm to me. Overcrowded and entirely overrated. It reeked, the people were even more repulsive than in other parts of the human realm. And if you were really unlucky, the pigeons would make you a nice welcome gift. These innumerable flying rats should be shot right out of the sky.

From the windows of my Jaguar F-Type, the hotel where we would live for the next few days, came into view. We had rented the Presidential Suite or the New York Ritz-Carlton for me and Lyras, while the two brothers were sharing the Royal Suite. After getting our luggage delivered to our suites, we took a closer look at the companies‘ addresses. As Myro had previously reported, it wasn’t easy to find out any more about the company, even on site. The alleged main office turned out to be nothing more than a shell corporation with a nicely designed logo. We had similar results with every other address connected to the business. It only existed on paper. In the city, however, there was not a single building or office to be found. There was no indication as to where they were managing their production. We had to split up to search the city more effectively for any physical sign of that company. If we checked every place on our list, at least one address had to get us somewhere.

Even if it should turn out to be impossible to find an actual building in their name, there should at least be a post box, a way for the company to provide an address for taxes. Whoever had put in the effort to keep all information about them away from prying eyes, they had to have at least one mailbox. Why else should this town lack any other evidence of their existence? Something was definitely fishy.

„What now?“ Dam tilted his head, while inspecting the metal box in front of us. „Now that we’re standing here, is anything interesting supposed to happen?“

„Definitely not“, I smirked. „For now, you will stay here and wait until something worth reporting happens. Ju can take the next shift, if necessary. You know whom to call, should you see someone near that thing.“

„Oh, great“, Dam sighed, but didn’t protest. Nevertheless, I was sure he was cursing his fate to be unable to go sightseeing around New York instead. Most likely, he had already planned to find someone to impress with the luxurious Royal Suite.

While Dam had no other choice than to stay put and wait, we worked on gathering more information through other means. Maybe we could find something about them through the materials used in the tracking device. In that case, we could really use someone with profound computer skills. Yet, none of us was equipped with these necessary skills, and we couldn’t take the risk to utilize our human employees for this, either.

It took hours before we finally got a call from Dam.

„You do know, that you were supposed to call Lyras, when you see anything, right?“, I chuckled.

„I already did, Nate“, Dam huffed. „Lyras is already on it. He managed to fix the guy who showed up with a tracker. That’s why I’m calling.“

The corners of my lips twitched, as my expression turned into a sneer. The noose was slowly tightening on him. Whoever was behind the creation of that painting, they wouldn’t be able to hide much longer from our sight.

„Can I assume, we have an address, now?“

„Not yet, but it’s only a matter of a few hours at most. Lyras told me, we better get into the car already, in case our chase takes us out of New York. We’ll meet in the hotel lobby, soon.“

„I’m already on the move.“ I was hoping that our new clues wouldn’t lead us into the next big city. As thrilled as I was to leave this dump that called itself New York behind me, I had no desire to end up in the same kind of trash pile, no matter if the name was different.