Evenfall (91 page)

"You will only learn by being around them, though," Boyd pointed out, and he found it a little easier to ignore Sin playing with his lip ring now that he had thoughts about Sin and Jessica in his mind. He felt strangely stupid saying he had never been with a woman; that was what men were supposed to do, not sleep with other men. Sin had never had the chance to be normal, but maybe now he would realize with all his options, there really was no reason to notice someone as boring as Boyd.

He couldn't let his biases ruin Sin's only chance for normalcy. Drawing in a deep breath, Boyd leaned back in the couch and crossed his arms lightly at his stomach. "I would probably spend time with them," he answered, trying to think about what he would honestly do in that situation. "If you continue to deny them you will stand out more. However, I would only go once in awhile so that I would not give myself too many chances to accidentally say something I should not, or act in a manner they do not expect. In your case, I would suggest accepting next time, but not every time. Someone like Jason Alvarez probably accepted more often than not, but they do not know that necessarily, and if you feel too awkward or uncomfortable in the situation, it will stand out and seem even stranger than if you had said no. It would be better to ease into it and give yourself a chance to become accustomed before you push yourself too hard."

Sin made a face and put his plate on the table, stretching out his legs and folding his arms behind his head. "I don't particularly want to do that, but I suppose that I can. It seems that being so detached garners me a lot of attention. People are not nearly so preoccupied with people who do the things they expect."

A faint smile pulled at one edge of Boyd's lips. "That would be my mindset whenever I plan to infiltrate," he agreed dryly.

"See?" Sin raised his eyebrows at Boyd. "I can learn."

"I never said you couldn't," Boyd said, mildly amused even if he meant what he said.

Sin slouched down farther into the sofa and shrugged languidly, putting his feet up on the coffee table as he scratched his stomach absently. An almost petulant scowl tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Well I don't know if this ability to learn will extend to this socializing thing. I suspect that I would be antisocial even if I actually were a normal person. I just have no desire to spend time with large groups of drunken civilians. I'd much rather stay here in the apartment with you," he complained.

Boyd looked over with a sidelong smile but didn't respond directly. It was already past three in the morning by the time the kitchen was cleaned up but the time was spent with casual, alternating conversation. Despite the stuffiness of the room and the almost unbearable heat, the environment was relaxing and not for the first time since the start of the mission it was just like they were two normal guys hanging out and not agents, assassins.

Chapter 30

Monterrey was filled with an amazing amount of people, sights, and sounds. Because he had been focused on getting the studio in a livable condition and filling the role of a newly settled foreigner by idly wandering the streets, Boyd had not yet spent a decent amount of time actually working on what he was supposed to be doing. Kadin Reed had been an artist before he became part of Sector 53 and he spent a lot of his time designing things like weapons and marking out battle plans on paper. Perhaps not surprisingly considering the fact he was a rebel, he was also not a stranger to mildly to alarmingly illegal activity. Boyd was never a particularly wonderful artist, but he could draw well enough for it to be obvious what he was sketching and some people liked his style. He also knew how to let his emotions bleed into charcoal; it was his favorite media, letting him stain parch white paper the deepest black that faded in irregular flecks to grey. And as for the illegal activity, he would use that angle if he needed to in the future.

He knew he would be walking around all day in the extreme heat so he ended up actually wearing a tank top. He didn't feel quite as exposed or vulnerable as he expected, but that was only because it had a high neckline and he was able to wear the large black cuffs around his wrists. He wore a beret partially to protect his head from the heat, but mostly because he was sick of his hair falling into his eyes so he tried to shove his bangs beneath the brim to hold them back. It was marginally successful, but strands kept slipping out. He ended up taking what he could get and ignoring it as best he could.

His first stop of the day was the bank; he had equal access to Jason's account and had been taking out just over the amount of money necessary each time he made a stop. That excess cash was hidden in secure places as the weeks passed, in areas that he had memorized but knew no one else would look. The Monterrey spring may have been making the tension slowly melt out of his shoulders but he was still aware enough of the future to plan for it. Even a best-case scenario after the convention included Sin and he being unable to access Jason's account for fear of it being watched and for that period that he expected to be a few weeks, they may not even have contact with each other. They would need to lie low, but it wasn't exactly easy to do so without any money. Yet he also knew that if either of them suddenly withdrew a large amount of money just before the convention, it would imply that they knew something bigger was happening, that they were planning for something more than just visiting a convention. And wouldn't that be the perfect way to compromise the mission or cast suspicion on themselves in the last few days after months of preparation? It was better to siphon off extra, small, amounts from the beginning; that would not draw any extra attention and there would always be a little extra somewhere in case Sin somehow managed to lock them out of the account again.

At the same time, he didn't want the money tucked around the apartment in case it was ever searched thoroughly; all it would take was even a single greedy but thorough burglar who had nothing to do with rebel groups or the American government, and all that preparation would be lost. So he utilized a number of places that varied in location enough that he was confident no amount of coincidence would ever allow for all the money to disappear. And if that ever did happen then it would be a good indication that something was very wrong and their covers could be compromised. At which point, withdrawing a lot of money at once could be a more acceptable, and less telltale, last resort.

Depositing the money in his third designated safe place took him relatively little time and he was able to concentrate on the rest of the day. A local art store provided him with all the supplies he needed, including a carrying bag. He spent the day wandering around the city, fascinated by the diversity of the people he saw and the number of languages he heard. Although almost all the signs were still in Spanish, there were sections of Monterrey that had signs in other languages as well. English, Mandarin, Russian, Hindi, Fijian... Sometimes he stopped, letting the rush of people pass him by like a river past a stone, and he just stared at a sign until he could decipher what it may mean. He carried his sketchbook by his stomach with loosely crossed arms and just closed his eyes, breathed, let the heat of the city seep deep into his skin and warm his bones.

Boyd did not think he had been this relaxed in... years, certainly, but possibly ever. There was no one there to judge him, no silence that overwhelmed his mind and brought him back to times he wished so desperately to forget. Even when he used to spend time with Lou he had not been relaxed as much as he was simply having fun. For the first time in a long time, Boyd felt like it was alright to just be himself and the anonymity in such a large city felt amazing after months of people watching his every move. Here, he was not his mother's son, here, he was not the monster's partner, here, he was not even Boyd Beaulieu. He was Kadin Reed, just another young man wandering the city in skinny jeans and floppy sandals, and no one looked at him twice. He was smiling to himself without particularly noticing it and the expression did not leave for most of the day.

Needing to become acquainted with the city, Boyd bought another map that was updated as much as possible to the reconstruction and he analyzed where they would need
Intel
first. Then he chose to visit areas that were not important at all. It would have been strange if, being a total civilian, he ran around sketching particularly well-fortified areas within a few weeks of arriving in the city. Instead, he visited parks, walkways, tourist stops and ended up in Gran Plaza where he spent an hour sketching a statue of Neptune and his court at play in a pool of water.

Time passed and after awhile he decided to walk around more. He passed Calle Pancho Villa, which brought him to what had once been a warehouse district. Several of the buildings had been renovated to include new businesses; there was a florist, a bookshop, a few restaurants, and much more. He held his map in front of him and walked like a tourist completely content to wander and he kept up the act even when one of the restaurants he passed caught his attention. It was named Julieta's and looked very similar to the other restaurants nearby, but something about it was a little off. There didn't seem to be enough customers for that time of day, which could have just been an unfortunate circumstance for the business, but somehow didn't seem likely to him. He stopped a few buildings down across the street from the restaurant, then turned and looked down at his map then up and down the street carefully, as if trying to check his position.

In his glance past Julieta's he realized that part of it seemed that several of the customers there seemed a little too casual; as if they were making an attempt to blend in and would be doing a great job if he weren't used to looking for that sort of carefully planned behavior. He looked down at his map with a frown and pivoted, continuing on his way with distracted glances at the street signs he passed. He didn't look back at Julieta's and was positive that even someone looking for suspicious behavior would not have thought his brief presence to be noteworthy. He had been just one of at least a dozen tourists or new residents on the street doing exactly the same thing at the same time. He planned to leave the restaurant alone for a few days then maybe stop by casually again, possibly actually go in to eat, so he could get a better idea of what was happening. But in the meantime he had other things to do. He continued through the city at a slow pace, stopping here and there to sketch something that caught his attention and otherwise just enjoying the relaxing freedom of the day.

As the sun slowly faded behind the clouds, the heat remained. Lights flickered into life around him slowly, like fireflies waking from slumber. Dusk set in, that period of time when it was neither light nor dark, when the clouds were tinged quiet shades of red and the air seemed to hum enigmatically.

Boyd watched the crowds shift slowly, from tourists and businesspeople to groups of friends wandering around and couples going out to eat. He felt a touch of nostalgia at that without really knowing why and slipped his sketchbook into his messenger bag to slowly make his way home. He had barely walked two blocks before he recognized the name of the street he was passing. It took him a moment of wandering up and down it before he realized it was the street Sin's job was located on. He remembered the address from when Sin had told him before, although he'd not yet visited.

He had to walk a few blocks down before he saw Lunar already slowly pulling people in for the pre-party drinks. Boyd amused himself with watching the people who were gathering into a line out front. Boyd had learned since Sin started the job that it was a very exclusive club. He could certainly tell that it seemed to be the case; the line was growing larger by the minute but most of them were being turned away. A man stood at the door with an unimpressed expression and a list he checked each person's name and ID against.

The line itself was interestingly diverse and Boyd watched each person idly as he passed. There were plenty of women wearing clothing that would be better classified as handkerchiefs and lingerie, men who wore everything from tight pants that they could hardly move in to clothing that was as full of metal and chains as the local hardware store. Several people appeared to be going for the mysterious look, including a tall man in a large hat and sunglasses that concealed almost his entire face, another man who wore a trench coat with the collar pushed up so his lower face was hidden, and a woman who wore a scarf wound all the way over her hair, looping down to her mouth and below so only her eyes showed. Something about the way she looked made Boyd believe she was not wearing the scarf that way for religious reasons. And between those extremes there was everyone else, including people wearing rather conservative clothing and several others who seemed to be business men and women who were stopping by Lunar to wind down after a busy day. Several of the people looked back at him when they saw him studying them and a few idly tracked his movement as he wandered past, including a gaggle of girls, a man in particularly tight pants, the man in the sunglasses and a woman in a low-cut red dress.

Boyd turned his attention from the line to the door and was just wondering if he would even be able to send a message in for someone to get Sin when he saw him in the corner at the front of the building, staring with half-lidded eyes into space while he smoked. Boyd could not help a twitch of a smile at that and he sauntered closer, keeping all his mannerisms exactly like Kadin Reed's. Closer, he could see that Sin wore a sleeveless black shirt and a pair of black pants that appeared to be made of genuine leather and actually hung at a decent level on his hips. With the silver of his lip ring and earrings glinting in the lights flashing around him and his expression distant and pensive, Sin looked amazing. Boyd had to force himself to keep walking and not stop to gawk. Sometimes he could not believe how attractive Sin was; not only in a manner that made Boyd's blood run hot, but also just in an almost tragically mesmerizing way. He was like the model of a painting at that moment and Boyd felt his stomach tighten just a little as he realized he honestly thought he was beautiful.

Boyd strolled right up to Sin and grinned at him lopsidedly just as Kadin would. "Hey."

Sin stared at Boyd in surprise, the cigarette dangling between his lips and eyes slightly wide. "What are you doing here?" His mouth twitched into a smile around his cigarette and his eyes automatically slid up and down Boyd.

Shrugging languidly, Boyd slouched against the wall by him and stretched his arms in front of him until they popped. "I was wandering around and realized I was close. Thought I'd stop by." His dark blue gaze surveyed the area idly. "So this is Lunar, huh?"

Sin nodded, taking a long drag from his cigarette as he stared at Boyd intently. Despite the fact that the sun's rays didn't entirely reach the Earth, Boyd had still managed to get a slightly golden tan during the course of the day. Sin couldn't take his eyes off his partner's exposed skin; it was probably the most of Boyd's body that he'd ever seen before and he tracked every motion, enjoying the sight of those lean muscles flexing when Boyd stretched. It was incredibly distracting to see for the first time and Sin continued to stare, eyes momentarily flashing to a bit of black markings that he spotted on the back of one of Boyd's shoulders. He didn't know what it was and hadn't been aware that Kadin Reed had a tattoo but he decided he'd ask Boyd about it later.

"Yeah. It sucks."

Looking over at Sin, Boyd smirked. "What d'you do, anyway? Hang out front staring people down?" It was a little strange talking to Sin in the manner Reed did, since even on previous missions they tended to be themselves around each other, but Boyd was not going to mess this up since they would be there for months. And he certainly was not about to slip character so early in the mission.

Sin exhaled slowly, causing smoke to drift into Boyd's face, to which Boyd made a slight face. "I'm taking a smoke break." He pushed away from the wall and flicked his cigarette, eyes focused on Boyd as he smirked. "I can bring you in if you promise to be a good boy."

It was probably strange seeing Jason Alvarez interact with anyone and likely many of those people in the line had been to Lunar enough times to realize this was the case, which explained why he could feel people watching them. But Boyd didn't care. He was here as his roommate and he needed to establish some sense of relationship with him early on in the eyes of the club just so if he ever stopped by again they would recognize him. Besides, he couldn't deny that some part of him felt a little smug that he could walk past everyone, stop by the hottest guy there, and talk to him without being turned away.