East Syracuse, New York
Early Morning
Chi drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, frowning at the fuel gage as she coasted down Ridgewood's slope. The village of East Syracuse was small but hilly and her V10 swallowed more gas than a dyslexic hooker in a donkey show chugging her way up the ladder to frat parties and military barracks work.
If Hell was a place that existed and could be quantified by a mortal mind, did that mean there was a department somewhere that handled curses and hexes? If that department
did
exist, did that mean Chinnamani could send invoices for fuel and wear and tear on her car?
Even if that were the case, it'd probably have been run like a messed up version of the Department of Motor Vehicles-- with forms filled out in triplicate signed in petitioner's blood and judged by some bureaucrat who'd expect receipts or something. Chi shuddered. Some things just weren't meant to be, and this would wind up being one of them, she was sure.
For all her complaining, though, it'd been her fault for insisting on a V-10 engine swap in the first place. After a particularly bad car chase with a pain in the ass 'client', she'd resigned herself to the 'necessity' of the monstrous engine and its gluttony. In some ways it was fitting; monster engine in a beat up station wagon driven by a deceptively small demon.
"Probably a joke in there somewhere about being able to fit four and all the toys you'd ever need, too." Chi mused to herself. At the base of the hill she started out on to the main thoroughfare of James Street that ran east-west, pondering just how long this might take and what kind of trouble she might run into along the way.
Chances were good that the secretary had warned Mark after the first time Chi had come around, but what she thought she knew and what was actually going on were different enough that he probably wouldn't have been
too
alarmed. All she had to do was get the car and get out, anyway. It was going to be fine.
"Fine," she said quietly to reassure herself. Janet would hold on to the coin for a few months, maybe even years, and Chi could get back to her damned vacation while it forced her to seek out a new petitioner. Chi's freedom was close at hand.
She just needed to stop over thinking things and go with her instincts. Starting with ditching her car, which she did in the parking lot behind a strip mall just up the road, along with her pistol. In case she was arrested, there was a difference between playing catch with a hand grenade and an anti-tank mine; a third degree robbery charge would get her seven years while a first degree armed robbery charge would be ten to twenty five. Nevermind that both were felonies and she'd never own a pistol legally again anyway.
"No pressure."
After a bit of finagling she dug out her breaking and entering kit and started up towards Mark's place with images of pizza and beer in her near future.
By the time she got to the address she'd been given, Chi's stomach was rumbling and that nagging itch across her body had turned into the supernatural equivalent of poison ivy-- like the coin thought that the very idea of taking care of herself was something to be ashamed of. In protest, Chi tossed the coin down a storm drain.
Mark's place was nice little duplex at the crest of a hill with a garage tucked behind it and a hedge fence surrounding the yard. Daisies stood tall in a bed of perennials near the porch like sentries, each a tiny yellow spotlight that swayed in the breeze as Chi studied the house for entry points at a safe- and inconspicuous distance. Neither of the front doors were giving up occupant names and door she found alongside the building wasn't marked either. A garage painted the same grey and white of the main house was tucked up near the back of the property and for just a moment she hoped that she'd luck into the car.
Between her and the garage a security light punctuated the grey paneling, the kind that ran with an infrared sensor and a roughly hundred and eighty degree arc. Chi pondered getting on the opposite side of the fence that ran the property line but there were more lights along the other house that'd have made it impossible even
if
she could somehow climb the damned fence.
There were ways, though.
Chi fished around in her bag until she found her folded up sun shade. Most consumer grade security lights used simple infrared detectors to look for a significant change in the ambient levels of IR energy being put off by things that generated heat-- like the human body. Chi gave off considerably more than that even standing idle, but between the reflective material of the screen and layers and layers of mylar blankets she'd sewn on either side of it, it'd do for passing by.
The problem was that even with such a heavy barrier between her and the sensors, mylar transferred heat and steadily her IR signature would bleed through. With any luck, she'd only need to do it once, but for the sake of her own sanity she kept the entire conglomeration at arm's length by way of the cloth strap. She edged up to the house and kept her profile low to further minimize the chance of being picked up before hefting the thing over her like a medieval tower shield and shuffling as fast as she could under the sensor.
When it didn't go off she relaxed and folded it back up, tucking it back into the bag on her way to the garage to claim her reward.
What awaited her wasn't a reward but an empty ass building with some tools and lawn keeping crap. Chi braced her hands on either side of the window, glanced back. She peeked again just to make sure. Karma was having a laugh at her-- she'd fucked up by pulling her gun on that guy and now she'd have to pay for it. Wasn't that just fitting.
"So, no car. . ." Chi mused. "Could wait it out and see where he goes in the morning. . . .could just break in and find out--" She'd committed before the thought had even finished forming. Every since Janet had come into her life something had been
off
about her, but now there was a chance to see the shoe on the other foot and just how it'd land when it inevitably fell on someone.
It was too much to pass up. Besides, impulse control had never been Chinnamani's strong suit.
She dug out the IR shield again along with a cordless drill and pair of screws, taking them between her teeth as she meandered under the shield over to the rear door. Once she was outside of it she tugged the cotton straps over the frame and quickly punched the screws through them into the woodwork. The screws were small, quick in and hard to see when pulled out, but just sturdy enough to hold her kit. She needed to buy herself time, though, so she wrapped her coat over her head to contain more of her natural body heat while she worked the lock over with her picks.
