Beast

Sophie sat at her desk, unsure of where to start. Ari could be a code name, and he could have been from anywhere. She started by looking for people with that name living in New York City, the place Hammedy had lived for most of his life. There were fifty-three hits. Twenty-nine of them were women, and another eight of them were twenty-one or younger. Too young at the time Hammedy had been arrested. Two of them had moved to the US within the past year. Also unlikely. This left fourteen men. As Sophie browsed the names, none of them seemed like the Ari that Hammedy was looking for. There were schoolteachers, a lawyer, a custodian, and construction workers. None of them had any known affiliation with the Fortis, and Sophie couldn't find any connection between them and Hammedy.

Sophie considered this, remaining at her desk as the other agents around her packed up and went home.

"See you tomorrow," Etienne said, smiling at Sophie sympathetically as she gathered her coat and briefcase and left the building.

As Sophie unwrapped a candy bar from the vending machine, she poured over the Hammedy case file, looking at all his previous addresses.

He had been living in Hartford, Connecticut at the time of his arrest. Sophie felt stupid for not realizing it earlier. She typed the city name into the search engine, and got fewer hits than before. Only twelve. Four of them were women, and another five of them were either too young, or too old. Only three of the remaining Ari's had had residency in Hartford at the same time as Hammedy.

She scrolled through the names. One worked for a local politician's campaign, another was a bus driver, and the third was a known felon, convicted twice for drug dealing. The bus driver, a diabetic in his late 60s, didn't look good for it. Neither did the drug dealer. But the aspiring politician? It was a possibility. His name was Ari Dillinger. He was twenty seven years old, born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a shit eating grin on his face. There was something in his eyes though, Sophie noted, that looked shifty. Perhaps he would one day be a politician, but Mr. Dillinger would most definitely be a corrupt one.

As she read through his bio, she noticed a tall figure standing on the other side of her desk. She looked up. It was Zane.

"Hi. What's up?" Sophie asked, looking up at him quizzically.

"Give your computer a break. You've done enough work for one day. Let's go for a drink," Zane said, nodding towards the door.

Sophie looked from Zane to her computer, wondering if there was something in this Ari search, but also knowing that the prospect of going out with Zane would not allow her to get much further.

Sophie smiled, shutting down her computer, and sliding her arms into her jacket. "Do you have somewhere in mind?"

Meanwhile, Ray had arrived at Bolton Lake and was explaining his encounter with Etienne and Sophie. He was in the basement, along with Cain, Ari, and Celine. The cement walls were now covered in the pictures and notes from Ari's apartment, looking eerie in the dim glow of the bare light bulbs.

"Wait, wait wait. So back up. What did you say their names were?" Cain asked, frustrated and disappointed.

"Sophie Bayer and Etienne Reiker," Ray repeated.

"Do we know who they are?" Cain asked, redirecting towards Ari.

"No," said Ari, shaking his head, his eyes glazed. "But..." he smirked suddenly, "we do have some leverage," he got up quickly, with surprising agility. "Julius Bayer, do you remember me telling you about him?" Ari asked Cain, walking back over with a few pictures in his hand.

Cain nodded, taking the pictures from Ari, seeing the same icy-eyed man in each one of them.

"He, if I understand correctly is, Sophie's brother," Ari explained. "I'll put a tail on Reiker and Bayer. If they're the lead agents in the investigation involving you, we need to know their every move."

"So what did they ask?" Celine asked Ray, her body tense.

"Well, that's why I came here. We knew they'd come snooping around eventually, right? They asked what I expected: How do you know Cain? Have you seen him? What do you know about his escape? That was whatever, but right before they leave, Sophie asks if I know anyone by the name of Ari," Ray said. He watched for the effect this would have. Celine looked confused, Cain's face had gone blank, and Ari looked furious. "I don't think she actually knows much about you. It seemed like she was taking a shot in the dark, but..." Ray shrugged.

"She asked about me?" Ari said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah," Ray said tentatively.

"How did she get my name? And how," he turned towards Cain, "does she know you were looking for me?"

Cain shook his head, looking down at the floor. "I... I don't know," he responded, bewildered.

"You don't know?" Ari said, standing up so suddenly that he knocked his chair over. "Well, you better think pretty fucking hard pal, because you might have fucked up our entire operation! This whole thing depends on them not knowing about us!" Ari yelled, kicking a nearby cabinet. Celine, who was nearest Ari, flinched.

"Hey!" Ray said, getting up to stand between Celine and Ari. He may have been dwarfed by Ari, but he was much stronger, and knew that if it came to it, he could overcome Ari easily in a fight. "Why don't you calm down, because you throwing a fit and acting like an idiot ain't helping nobody. Okay?" Ray stared Ari down, daring Ari to defy him.

After a few seconds of moody silence, Ari resumed his seat.

"Cain?" Celine said quietly, her voice like a pin drop.

He looked up at her expectantly, Ray was still focused on Ari, ready to step in again if he needed to.

"Do you remember when you first came to St. Jean memorial?" Celine asked, frowning at the look on Cain's face.

"Yes," Cain replied, unearthing the memories he had tried to forget.

"Do you remember how you talked about your wife? Trying to..."

"Oh shit," Cain said, suddenly remembering. "Fuck!" He said, burying his face in his hands. "When I first got to that place," he explained to Ari, "I tried explaining to them what had happened. I couldn't... I don't know. I guess I just couldn't face what Milo had done. I thought that if I explained myself... but I couldn't. Milo paid off three different psychologists to declare that I was going through a psychotic break down, so no matter what I said, no one believed me. It took me years, years, to get Celine to even trust me."

"And?" Ari asked, taking labored breaths.

"I mentioned you and Milo. The nurses assumed that I was hearing voices, so I quit. I pretended that the voices had gone away and I stopped trying to convince anyone of my innocence," Cain explained, his face contorted in the kind of pain few of us ever feel.

"And so if Etienne and Sophie went to the hospital and started asking about your condition, one of the nurses must have mentioned the voices, and Sophie was smart enough to realize that there's something in them. And now she's searching for Ari," Celine concluded.

"She won't find me," Ari stated coldly. "She can't. I'm not a citizen. I'm not registered in any of your little databases. I pay everything under the table, and my driver's license and passport are fakes. Excellent ones, untraceable, but fakes. She won't be able to find me," he said confidently.

"So do we leave it at that? Do we just keep an eye on her and see what happens?" Ray asked, hoping for a simple solution.

"No," Ari said, standing up and pulling out his cell phone. "Did she mention what branch she works at?" he asked Ray.

"Naw," Ray answered, shaking his head.

Ari dialed a number and turned away, walking towards the stairs. "Hey? I need you to look into something... Sophie Bayer."

"Two beers," Zane told the bartender, leaning against the counter as Sophie looked around. This was not the kind of place she would usually have gone to. There was a group of leather jacket clad men in the corner, playing a drunken game of darts, and the bar stools looked dusty and in disrepair. She preferred a much posher, cleaner place.

The bartender handed them their two bottles. Zane took a long swig out his and Sophie looked down at hers disdainfully. She usually got something with pineapple that came in a cute glass.

Zane looked at her and laughed.

"What? asked Sophie, embarrassed, looking around to see what was so funny.

"Nothing," replied Zane, shaking his head. "You just look so out of your element. I should have taken you somewhere with a 'mixologist,' right? Where everyone's dressed up, acting like they're not all looking for the same thing."

Sophie sighed. So Zane thought she was a snob? He was probably right, "And what's that?" she asked.

"Oh, you know," Zane said confidently.

Sophie rolled her eyes. This was inappropriate. He was her boss, and this was extremely inappropriate.

"Am I wrong?" Zane asked, looking at her expectantly, raising his eyebrows.

"I mean... no, I guess not," Sophie admitted.

He smirked. "So, Sophie, tell me, do you have a boyfriend?"

Sophie paused for a moment, stunned by his bluntness. "No," she finally answered.

"Good," Zane said, holding Sophie's free hand. Subtle, she thought.

"And do you? Have a girlfriend I mean," she said, even though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer. She still had to ask.

"No," Zane said simply, putting his empty bottle down on the counter.

"Why's that?" Sophie asked, sipping her barely touched drink.

He shrugged, "You'll find this out for yourself soon enough, but this job and being in a relationship just doesn't work. Unless your partner gets it, and trust me, if they're not in the Fortis, they don't get it."

"And what if they are?" Sophie asked, looking up at Zane with her wide, green eyes.

"We'll have to see," he replied.

As Sophie finished her beer, Zane let go of her hand, fishing through his pocket for his wallet and putting a bill on the counter.

"Let's go," he said, putting his arm around her, and leading her out of the bar.

"What are you doing?" Celine asked Ari timidly. She was not usually easy to intimidate, but there was something about Ari that made her uncomfortable, just as it did with Cain. Maybe it was the complete unfamiliarity. She had never met a sanguinarius before, and she still wasn't sure how she felt about them. All she knew was that Cain was her friend and she trusted him, and that he trusted Ari, so therefore, she must trust Ari as well.

"I'm going to Boston," Ari replied as he took select pictures and notes from the wall, stashing them in a pocket inside his jacket.

"Will you be back?" she asked, encouraged by his sense of calm.

Ari paused, "Yes, but..." he took his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her, "if something goes wrong, I'll call," he scribbled a phone number on a scrap piece of paper from the makeshift basement office. "Only answer if the call comes from this number."

Celine nodded, feeling an odd sense of joy from the fact that Ari was trusting her to this. He then bounded up the stairs without a good-bye or a backwards glance. Once he was gone, Ray let out a low whistle.

"Where do you find these people?" he asked Cain, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You don't want to know," Cain replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What do we do now?" Celine asked, examining the phone in her hands. It was an older model, made before the smart phone era.

"Wait until he comes back... or until he calls," Cain said, sighing and studying the array of pictures taped to the walls.

After a moment, Ray stood up, saying, "I should probably go then. Let me know if you need anything. Don't call the house though, in case Nikki picks up. I'll give you my cell phone number," he wrote down his number on the same page Ari had written his. "I'll see you guys later... or maybe not, I guess. Good luck, alright?"

"Thanks, man," Cain said, hugging Ray in that awkward way that guys do.

"Bye," Celine said, shaking Ray's hand.

"See ya," he said one last time before he disappeared up the stairs.

Ari rubbed his tired eyes as the sun rose. He had been there all night, waiting for her to arrive home. He was across the street from Sophie's house, waiting in his car, pretending to read the paper.

At last, a young woman walked into view, matching Ray's description. Her hair was wet, as if she had just gotten out of the shower, and she was wearing work clothes. He waited until she was walking up the front steps, then he got out of his car, jogging towards her.

"Excuse me, miss?" he asked, his blue contacts in. The red dye in his hair was beginning to fade, so he had a hat pulled on over it.

"Yes?" she responded groggily, turning towards him and eyeing him wearily.

"I hear you're looking for me, and I just wanted to let you know, that would be a mistake," Ari said calmly, in a friendly tone as he closed the gap between them.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sophie said, confused as she rubbed her eyes.

"Because you won't find me. And if you keep up this frivolous little search of yours, I have ways to really make you hurt," his calmness was almost disturbing as understanding slowly dawned on Sophie.

"Well, Ari," she said slowly. "I'm afraid that you'd be mistaken in thinking you could scare me off so easily. You see," as she said this, she pulled her fist back, using her keys as brass knuckles, punching Ari in the face. He stumbled backwards, surprised at the power packed behind someone of Sophie's size. She took the opportunity to knee him in the groin, causing Ari to groan and buckle over, but as Sophie moved to run past him, he grabbed her ankle, tripping her, and sending her to the ground. Despite the blood pouring from the cuts on his face, and the throbbing pain in his groin, Ari managed to get on top of her.

Sophie kicked at him, and continued to send blows at his chest and face, but Ari ignored them. He cared little for pain. It took a weak man to succumb to pain, and he was not a weak man. The only reason Sophie had gotten the better of him before was because she had caught him off guard.

After a minutes struggle, Ari had Sophie pinned to the ground.

"I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to resort to this senseless violence," Ari said as he held Sophie's arms above her head. She spat at him and rolled them over, knocking off Ari's hat and succeeding in releasing one of her arms, but before she could pull herself free, Ari tackled her back to the ground. This time Sophie was on her stomach, and she didn't have the leverage she did before.

"You should have listened to me, my dear," Ari said apathetically, sitting on her back and closing his hands around her neck. He slowly tightened his grip until Sophie's limbs stopped moving and her eyes finally fluttered closed. He got off of her, hoisting her fragile body up and carrying her over to his car. He looked around skittishly. It was early. The neighbors weren't up yet, and if anyone had heard their struggle, there were no signs of it now. Once Sophie was safely in the backseat, Ari quickly surveyed the scene. He noticed his hat on the ground, and swiftly picked it up before replacing it on his head and getting back in his car.

An hour later, Sophie came around. Her throat was soar and her head was throbbing. Her back felt bruised as well. As her eyes slowly began to focus and she became increasingly aware of her surroundings, she saw that she was in a dark, damp room. Probably a basement somewhere. She was tied to a chair, but he mouth was free. She tried to yell, to make any sound at all, but she was unable to. Her throat was too soar.

"I'm truly sorry about this Sophie. Really, I am, but I need you to listen to me. Are you listening?" Ari asked, sitting in a chair directly across from her.

Sophie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She felt sick.

Ari sighed, reaching below his chair and grabbing a bottle of water. He unscrewed the cap and walked over to Sophie. "You should have something to drink," he said. "It'll help with the headache."

Sophie looked at him skeptically. It was foolish to trust this man, but if he had wanted to kill her, he could have done it already, so she gently nodded, and Ari held the water to her lips. She drank greedily.

"Better?" Ari asked, capping the water again and sitting back down. Sophie didn't respond. "I usually take better care of my guests than this, but under the unique circumstances... well, I'm sure you understand."

She glared at him, willing him to get to the point.

"So, anyway, Sophie, it appears that there are a few things that you don't fully understand. I'm not the bad guy here. I'm trying to help you," Ari explained calmly, in the same amiable tone as before.

Sophie's expression didn't change.

"You see, the Fortis has its deep, dark secrets too, just like the rest of us. It's built on a foundation of lies and trickery, as only few of us know. It was created to exterminate my race," Ari explained, taking out his blue contacts, and pushing back his hair to expose his stark, white roots.

Again, Sophie didn't respond, her eyes burning with hate at the man in front of her.

"My people did not instigate this war, and neither did yours. It was fabricated by two very evil men, Milo and Fannar. You see, monsters are real. Demons are real too. These men are living proof of that. Fannar sold out his own people for wealth and power. He lives in excess and gluttony while his people parish. Milo is a sadistic, blood thirsty man who likes to make people hurt. He steals your money while all you little agents run around doing his dirty work. The Fortis is a joke. A bad one. It's just a front for Milo and Fannar's twisted operation, and you've been fooled. That's okay though, because many others have been fooled before you. You're not the first, and you certainly won't be the last. More water?" Ari explained, curiously detached from it all.

Sophie nodded, and Ari held the bottle up for her once more.

"Milo is a power hungry man, looking to control the world. He has succeeded. What he's done is unite the human race against one common enemy: the sanguinarium. While he's created peace among your race, he's created terror for mine. Fannar is a pig who has no problem stabbing the backs of others as long as he gets what he wants. All he cares for is money, so, he and Milo hatched a plan, a hideous, cruel plan.

"What they did is this: Fannar gathered a few of his sanguinarium pals, gave them a percentage of his and Milo's money, and ordered them to attack a few human settlements. Sanguinarium and humans had lived in a tentative peace for so long, these attacks were an outrage! Of course you humans wanted to protect yourselves, who wouldn't? So who came along but Milo, who had the ingenious idea of the Fortis, an organization that would protect humans from their sanguinarius predators. Fannar's pals continued to attack, and so the Fortis grew. Governments poured their money into funding for the Fortis and look where it is today? Of course, most sanguinarium don't know about this little deal anymore than you humans do. They live in fear. Some young sanguinarium have been taken in by Fannar's front, though. They think they're fighting the good fight, but they are mistaken. It's not about humans versus sanguinarium, it's about all of us versus Milo and Fannar.

"Now, I know that this is not going to be enough to convince you. But I have all the proof. Right here, see?" Ari said, holding up a thick binder filled with documents and photographs. He placed it in Sophie's lap. "Take a look at it, and you'll see, I'm telling you the truth."

Sophie closed her eyes, taking it all in. "If... you have proof, then..." she said, her voice raspy.

"Then why not expose Milo and Fannar for the filth they truly are?" Ari finished for her. "Because they're too powerful. Their reach is too far. Even with this proof, they'd tell people that I had fabricated it. That it's all a lie. What they've done, it's not something people will want to believe, so they won't," Ari explained.

"What are you... waiting for?" Sophie asked, coughing violently.

"That's a good question. In order for people to believe it, Milo and Fannar must admit it themselves, Milo to your people, and Fannar to mine. We must work together if we're ever going to make that happen," Ari said charismatically.

Sophie shook her head.

"Like I said, the proof's all there," Ari repeated, gesturing towards the binder. "Read through it, and I dare you not to believe me then. But before we part ways, here's something for you to look at," as he said this, he reached into his jacket and pulled out the pile of photos he had taken from the basement walls at the lake house, and a few that one of his well placed sources had gotten for him the night before.

One by one, he tossed them on top of the binder so that Sophie could see them. "If you tell anyone about our little meeting, I will know," Ari said, his voice threatening. Sophie looked down at the photos, and saw Zane and her walking back to his apartment. She scrunched her eyebrows together, wondering how Ari could have known.

"I have some very talented friends, Sophie," Ari answered her unspoken question. "And if you do decide to tell," he continued, showing her the pictures of Julius, "We keep very close tabs on your brother."

Pictures of Julius going to work, walking with Yvonne, driving his motorcycle.

"But if this is true... that still doesn't explain Hammedy... Why did he kill his wife?" Sophie asked, wrenching her gaze from the pictures.

Ari frowned, looking at her sadly. "Cain didn't kill his wife, you silly girl. The only mistake he ever made was getting too close to Milo."