Sugar, Secrets and Upheaval

Levi came back into the room. “Speak, what did you find,” he addressed Poe, his voice sharp with impatience.

“Ah! His name is Mike, he is a banker, he is married…”

Levi cut him off mid-sentence. He grabbed the chair by its arms and made Poe slide away from it, settling himself into the seat. “Spare me the boring details, give me something tangible,” he commanded as he took control of the monitors.

“But there’s nothing tangible, Blake, he’s just a random man! Married, two kids, had a neck hernia, la di da! Boring,” Poe said to him, completely unfazed by how Levi had made him slide off his own chair.

“Seventy percent accurate as usual, Poe. What about his marriage? Is he married to a noblewoman?” Levi asked, his brow furrowed in contemplation.

“No, he’s married to another normal, boring, random person.”

Levi groaned, a frustrated sound that was becoming increasingly common for him since this whole Cybil investigation began. “Then why?”

“Give me medical records of the man,” Levi said, leaning closer to the monitor. Poe immediately started typing. The screens displayed an astonishing array of medical data. We saw… literally everything... X-rays, detailed blood work, urine analyses, the full surgical report of his hernia.

“He is… healthy aside from that surgery, there is nothing interesting here,” Levi finally said, with a hint of frustration.

“See, Blake! I told you!”

“What about his wife, give me her records,” Levi said, refusing to give up on the anomaly.

“She is boring, too. Look they are both bankers…” Poe rattled off, but Levi cut him off again with a sharp, “I said, medical records.”

Poe instantly obeyed, and an array of dense medical documents flooded the screen.

“She had a cold last summer…” Levi murmured, scrolling quickly. Then, he shifted on the chair, a subtle straightening. “What is that? Show me the file from four years ago, not from the state hospital, from the clinic,” he commanded. Poe, already moving at his command, pulled up the file.

“Clomiphene citrate.” Levi recited slowly.

Uhm… What is that? It sounds… medical.

Levi aggressively grabbed the mouse and began scrolling through the medical records. “Two miscarriages, fertility treatments…” he recited to himself. “More treatments… then… it stopped, two years ago,” he concluded, his finger pausing on a specific date. “They were trying to have kids, then they stopped trying, and they now have two kids?”

“Yes, Blake! They stopped treatments cold. Should I check adoption registries? Or perhaps… birth certificates for the children, if they exist?” Poe chirped again.

“Adoption… Adoption… Adoption,” Levi started to recite, the word building in intensity. “AGH!” he yelled, the sound raw and guttural, unlike anything I had ever heard from him. He abruptly spun the ergonomic chair around, his eyes blazing. “They are my children, aren’t they? The twins!” He slammed his hand on the armrest. “This is why she was talking to the nobles, to find which adoption agency Miss Elira was using… So that she can find the twins…” His voice was tight, laced with a terrifying blend of rage and realization.

Oh, shit.

“L-Levi?” I stammered, the name catching in my throat.

“What a monumental idiocy,” Levi muttered, mostly to himself, his voice laced with venomous self-reproach. His head snapped towards the ceiling. “What, now she’s planning on becoming a grandmother?”

Poe flinched. No, actually, both of us flinched, shrinking back from the force of Levi’s cold fury.

“Blake…” Poe began, his voice subdued. “Are those… the same birth mothers we… surveilled?”

“Yes. They were,” Levi confirmed. His gaze, still burning, seemed to look through us. “Gods… I have to talk to her.”

“Levi… I… Uhm…” I managed, the words stuck in my throat. What do I even say… Sorry? We are going to have a full-blown argument.

“Do not speak, blink, or think, both of you,” Levi snarled. His eyes cut to Poe. “You go bring me something to drink.”

His cold fury was so palpable it felt like a physical force, making both Poe's and my blood freeze in our veins.

He knows. He knows I was involved, however indirectly. That fury was meant for me too.

Damn…

Poe swiftly turned on his heel and went to a fridge built into the wall. He grabbed three bottles of beer and returned, presenting one to Levi. Oof. Beers. I like them, but Levi for sure doesn’t like it.

“Gods, now I am subjected to the indignity of beer?” Levi grunted, snatching a bottle from Poe. He stared at it for a moment, as if it personally offended him. Called it. He took his lighter out of his pocket and used it to pop off the cap. I guess… We should drink, too… Right? It’s very rare to see him this… angry? Angry isn't really the correct word.

He rose from the chair, the beer clutched in his hand, and walked stiffly to the door. “I will talk to Isolde, about my mother’s… actions. You just… do whatever you wish to do,” he said to me, his voice strained thin like stretched wire.

I wanted to go to him, to try to console him somehow. But I knew… it was impossible. Getting close to him when he’s like this isn't like stepping on a landmine that would erupt and shatter your bones. No. It's more like stepping on a mine filled with ice shards, designed to entrap you, to tear your skin away slowly with insidious frostbite. There was no reaching him when he was consumed by such a cold, personal fury. He had to process this… whatever 'processing' meant for Levi.

Poe turned slowly from the direction Levi had left. His eyes held a curious gleam. He extended one of the bottles towards me. A beer. Just what I need. Or maybe exactly what I don't need right now.

“How long have you and Levi… been working together?” I asked, attempting to break the heavy silence that Levi had left behind.

Poe chuckled. “Working together?” he echoed, tilting his head. “No, we don’t work together with anyone. We are a market. When you buy this beer, did you work with the beer factory, or the cashier?” He gestured vaguely at the screens. "Blake is a client, a fun, rich, and powerful client always giving me the most delightful pursuits." A predatory, almost eager glint appeared in his amber eyes. "In return, if we ever find ourselves in a predicament, he would lend us a hand. But, I hope that day never comes, who knows what Blake is capable of?”

“Do you… get scared of him?” I asked, surprised the question had even left my lips.

Poe took a slow sip of his beer, his gaze distant for a moment. “Sometimes. Most of my clients are… boring. We have all this equipment, this vast network, an entire street in the capital reserved for us, and we are simply untouchable. But, most of the time this is mostly used for very mundane things. Cheating spouses, latest news for media moguls, lost pets…” He waved a dismissive hand. “But, Blake? He is nothing but boring.” He chuckled, a sound full of genuine appreciation. “You were there, weren’t you? At the Royal Palace?”

I was…

The one of the most scariest things I had ever witnessed. Levi flooding that council room with undeniable documents of the nobles’ crimes, making them fall to their knees, begging for his mercy.

“Yeah… I was…” I said, taking a long sip of my beer. “It scared the shit out of me.”

“Ooh!” Poe chirped, leaning forward, his eyes wide and buzzing with excitement. “Tell me all of it!”

“He reduced the entire council into whimpering, sniveling messes, they even peed themselves…” I recounted, the memory still vivid. “Then, he put them in jail… I think now they are facing charges in a formal court.”

Poe bound his legs together on the chair, utterly expectant. “Really? Ah! Sadly, the Royal Palace was unpenetrable by us, so I couldn’t see anything!” he lamented. "Did he use our files?" he pressed, his eyes fixed on me.

“I don’t think so…” I mused. “I saw those files once… in his study. They were not like your regular surveillance things. Your files are blue, the evidence files are… yellow,” I said, the memory resurfacing with a faint tremor.

“So Blake always had his own network? Did he have moles? In the noble circles?”

“Yeah… He was working ‘with’ noblewomen; they were his biggest allies,” I confirmed. “And, he also had moles in the Royal Palace, feeding him information about the late King.” The memory brought a chill. “Levi changed the physicians of the King, ensuring they were his people. And he even struck a deal with a consort. The physicians would give him information about the King’s health, and Cassiel… Cassiel would drown the King in vintage wine, rendering him useless and accelerating his decline.”

“So, the true dismantle began long before, eroding his power from the inside out. He truly thinks years ahead,” Poe said, taking a triumphant sip of his beer, his eyes gleaming with admiration.

“He does,” I admitted, the words barely a whisper.

The door opened and Levi re-entered the room. The beer bottle was empty, and he walked towards us with a measured pace. The furious storm that had raged in his eyes seemed to have receded, leaving behind a distant calm.

“We are done here, Raphael, we can leave,” he said to me, his voice flat.

Poe, perched on his chair, turned to face Levi. “Will you attend my graduation?”

The hell?

“No.”

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“Then give me only five minutes of access to your phone, as a graduation gift, you know?”

Levi finally turned his full attention to Poe, his expression utterly flat. “Oh?” he began, his voice dangerously soft. “So you can access the entire economical plans I created that will be used in this country for the next decade? Or perhaps you just want personal information on the country’s ministers, or maybe my acquaintances, their every secret laid bare?” His eyes narrowed. “Not even them, perhaps? Simply unfettered access to my own home security, Poe? Is that what you’re asking for?”

“That is simply a price because you denied me from entering your Academia,” Poe countered. “Five minutes, nothing more,” he demanded, crossing his arms.

Levi took a step closer, his eyes narrowing to slits. “I did not deny you from entering Academia, Poe. You could not.” Levi's voice dropped. “Because gathering data is not the same as processing it, is it? You can memorize everything, recall every single byte of information. But if you lack the intelligence to connect them together, to understand their implications, to forge them into something greater… what can one truly do? They simply memorize.”

Gods. That was… brutal.

Poe, who prides himself on his network, his memory, his data… is just a glorified hard drive in Levi's eyes. Poe sees the trees, every leaf, but not the forest.

Poe flinched in his chair, recoiling. “You are being…”

“Rude?” Levi replied, his voice soft. He took another step closer, looming over Poe. “I wasn't being rude, Poe, I was simply being objective. I respect the obsessive-compulsive disorder that has made you into a competent information broker, but only when that capacity is needed. So, cease your petulant display.”

Reducing someone to a mere collection of symptoms... It's a level of psychological cruelty that makes the physical threats seem almost… simple.

Poe flinched at Levi’s words, a tremor passing through his frame. He struggled to regain his composure, his eyes holding a hint of hurt, but his obsession quickly took over. “Nevertheless, a simple five minutes to your phone would still yield valuable insight, even for a ‘memorizer,’ wouldn’t it?”

“Please,” Levi scoffed. “As if you would even grasp the implications of acquiring my phone. Even my own husband, who is sitting right next to you, does not know my passwords. Not because I do not trust him, but because he is aware what it means for a person to have access to my phone. It means that one can crumble this entire country, with mere phone calls.”

I saw it once, briefly, when he was out of commission at the hospital, right before the presidential rallies ramped up. The memory still makes my stomach clench. I'd only glanced at the screen for a second, but it was enough. Hundreds of notifications had flooded in, a relentless torrent of calls and text messages. It was like watching the nervous system of an entire country laid bare, pulsing with demands. Just looking at his notification bar, nearly sent me into a full-blown anxiety attack.

Poe, against all expectations, chirped again. “You are really a nexus, Blake. But, sadly, even this nexus has its weak link.”

The hell was he talking about?

My confusion instantly turned to alarm as Poe reached into his own pocket, his fingers closing around my phone.

“The fuck!” I yelled, leaping out of my chair. When did this little gremlin snatch it away? Wait… Ugh! In that weird, overly enthusiastic hug when we first came here! The absolute asshole!

“I implore you, Poe, please have access to my husband’s phone,” Levi said, his voice dropping to a soft purr that sent shivers down my spine. His deep blue eyes, no longer just piercing, seemed to bore directly into Poe’s, cold and utterly unblinking. "I implore you, Poe, please do that. My life has been rather dull lately. Go on. Do that, then watch me. Watch me how I make you beg for oblivion."

This was going to be… darkly amusing, in a very fucked up way. Ah, my lion, wants to bare his claws today. Given today was kinda a bad day for him, I guess he wants to release some of that pent-up energy. Poor Poe…

“I-I was joking, you know, like a simple jest,” Poe stammered, recliningback in his chair, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and Levi. I could clearly see his legs shaking.

“Were you?” Levi asked softly. He leaned in until his face was mere inches from Poe's. His eyes seemed to consume all light. “Before you even attempt to release your brutes on me, Poe, let me offer you some perspective, if you will. You are, at your core, nothing but a mere sponge. So be that. Do not ever even dare to dream to toy with me. Or, you will learn what exactly toying with someone means. Your father tried to do the same thing to me, did he not? Then what happened? He vanished, without a trace. You still think he is dead, don’t you?”

“What the fuck, Levi?!” I yelled, my voice raw with disbelief. “What the hell do you mean?!”

I knew he never killed anyone… But what did 'vanish someone' even mean in Levi's twisted lexicon?

Poe was looking at Levi, the phone still clutched in his hand. A primal fear flickered in his eyes. “W-What… W-Where… is my father?”

“Somewhere you will never, ever, know, Poe. He was a little brute, a little swine, but ultimately useful in the grand scheme of things. Then, he decided to ‘intervene’.” Levi’s voice was as calm as a scholar lecturing. "He thought he should join noble circles, and maybe even dream of spying on my actions, possibly putting many noblewomen in danger. So, one day, the inevitable confrontation came, right in this very room, where he decided he would turn himself in, so he could run away from me, so the police could put him into witness protection. Do you know why your coffers were empty when he died? Because he bribed every single officer he could find."

“S-So… he did not… die…” Poe whispered. “He… escaped from you…”

“Scared, little Poe? He might come back, take everything away from you? Maybe even give you another scar?” Levi said, his gaze dropping to barely visible mark near Poe's temple. “I really did not like that brute. But you are not that hideous. So, Poe, I am inclined to forget about this confrontation, if you are willing to do so.”

“Yes… Entirely forgotten…” Poe said, the life draining out of him, his vibrant demeanor utterly extinguished. A childlike vulnerability settled on his face. “D-Do you think… he would…”

“I do not think so, no. So, do not be scared of that brute. The only fear you need, Poe, is right in front of you.”

He emphasized the last words with a slow blink.

Poe placed my phone onto the desk, pushing towards me as if it were a burning coal.

I snatched my phone back from the desk, my fingers trembling as I shoved it into my pocket. Gods, this little device caused a very devastating, utterly chilling confrontation.

"S-Sorry, Poe… Uhm… Good day."

Excellent, Raphael. The fuck even was that?

“Good day, Poe. I sincerely trust that our established boundaries shall remain undisturbed in the future,” Levi pronounced, his voice... benevolent? He gave Poe a curt nod. Read full story at novｅlfire.net

I followed him out of the building, my mind still reeling from the scene we'd just left. But there was a sudden shift in Levi’s demeanor. He was moving faster than before, his long strides lengthening as he bolted to the car parked just outside. He quickly got into the driver’s seat, his movements frantic. I was completely confused by his reaction.

"Quickly, Raphael, before they dismantle the car," he said, his voice sharp with an urgency I hadn't heard from him in a long time. The fuck? I quickly scrambled into the passenger seat. He started the car immediately, and started to drive away, tires squealing as he pulled into the street.

My eyes darted to the side mirrors, then to the buildings flashing past. I could see movement, shadowy figures perched on the rooftops, moving with an impossible fluidity.

"The hell, Levi, are they deranged assassins or something?" I asked, my voice high with disbelief as I watched a figure leap from one building to the next.

"Worse. They all possess proficiency in parkour. We need to depart this street immediately," he said, his knuckles white as he clutched the gas pedal, pressing it to the floor. The car surged forward, tires spitting gravel.

“The fuck, they know parkour?!” I yelled, disbelief warring with adrenaline.

“They procure cables, Raphael. It is an inherent aspect of their occupation,” Levi replied, his voice strained but calm as he swerved the car, trying to avoid getting caught by one of the figures that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The street was narrow, the buildings looming close.

“Fuck, fuck!” I hissed, craning my neck to look in the side mirror. “They’re right on our tail!”

“We’ll be fine if we can leave this street,” Levi said, his eyes scanning for an exit, “otherwise they’ll tear this car down and steal our cables.”

“My god, what is this? A post-apocalyptic movie or something? What, they’ll catch us and steal our gas? The fuck, Levi?!” I yelled, my voice cracking.

What the fuck is our lives, even?

Levi, his eyes narrowed in concentration, neared the end of the narrow street. “Very close, I would say more of a very dystopic science fiction, but either way,” he said. He pressed the gas pedal once again, and the car roared, slamming me back into the seat. “Also, I do not care if they steal our cables. What if they hack into my GPS system? Poe already stalks me; I do not want another arsenal in his clutch.”

Just as he finished speaking, the car shot out of the confined street, bursting onto a wider, more open boulevard, leaving the shadowy figures on the rooftops behind.

“He… stalks you?” I asked, my voice thin with disbelief.

“Always. But he’s a good kind of stalker. Not the type who’d stab you in an alley; more like if you do get stabbed, he’d call an ambulance type of stalker,” Levi said, his eyes scanning the boulevard. “Now that I gave him too much attention, it might get worse.”

Only Levi could utter such a phrase with a straight face. He's talking about Poe like he's a self-appointed, technologically advanced guardian angel.

“Is that why you were kinda… passive towards him at the beginning?” I asked, finally connecting some of the dots. “So he wouldn’t get hopeful, or… worse?”

“Indeed.” Levi nodded. “Adverse notice, however fleeting, remains notice nonetheless. I ought to have maintained my discretion, but I yielded to the impulse of demonstrating a certain... villainy.”

“Oh my god…” I breathed, hearing what he meant. “You were bluffing! Weren't you?”

“Quite naturally, I was bluffing.” Levi offered a shrug. “Poe’s father and I did indeed have a confrontation, but the impetus for his disappearance into witness protection did not originate with me. It was because he, that brute, decided to alert law enforcement to the operations of a formidable drug organization, one that, I might add, holds sway over a significant portion of the capital’s illicit trade.”

Levi paused, his gaze flicking to the rearview mirror. “That syndicate located him and made attempts upon his life. This, in turn, compelled Poe’s father to implore the authorities for witness protection. Do not worry, though; it is ultimately more advantageous for everyone involved that that swine retreated wherever he has gone.”

He’s unbelievable.

After all that, the visceral terror he put Poe through, he admits it was a bluff. A bluff!

“So… You were not involved? At all?”

“No. This is the fundamental distinction between Poe and myself. He accumulates information, much as I do, but I possess the discernment to wield it.”

“You just proved that to Poe, didn't you? By letting him think you were the one who made his father vanish,” I said, the realization settling heavily.

“Poe needed to understand his station, Raphael; he attempted to appropriate your personal data.” Levi's voice took on a sharper edge. “Do you comprehend the capabilities of that individual? What if he had breached our domestic security systems? What if he mapped out your entire existence with merely an hour of his focused attention, fueled by those rather disgusting energy drinks and his abhorrent menthol cigarettes? Do not underestimate him. He is the progenitor of an information broker dynasty. And, like any dynasty, it is replete with its own familial dramas.”

I did underestimate him. I saw him as a quirky annoyance, not a potential digital predator.

“Yeah… I know what he did, but I still felt sorry, you know? Obviously, he was scared of his father,” I said, the image of Poe's shaking legs still fresh in my mind.

“That is not our conflict, nor our drama. However, should he solicit assistance, I am quite willing to extend it,” Levi said, cruising the car smoothly down the boulevard, and turned his head slightly towards me. “Also… regarding my mother and the today's events, I find myself in need of sugary sustenance. Do you wish to visit a bakery?”

Wait. Is this a date? Gods, yes. A hopeful flutter started in my chest.

“Sure, Levi,” I said, nodding, a wide smile breaking through.

“I am glad.” An almost bashful curve touched his lips. “However, we require a change of clothes,” he added, gesturing to our current disheveled attire.

“Ooh, sure, are we going to visit your favorite tailors?” I asked, imagining crisp new suits.

“It would be rather imprudent to visit them now, considering the weeks required for a custom suit. However, yes, we will visit some quite reputable shops.” With that, he smoothly turned the car at the next intersection, the vehicle gliding effortlessly as he drove us towards whatever destination he had in mind.