Blessed by Night-Chapter 454: Landmines

Everything that Opal said afterwards turned into white noise for Joanne.

Her eyes sharpened as she analyzed every single detail about this so-called Kincaid.

She memorized his face. Dark skinned, with black hair with shades of gray in his circular goatee. Roughly in his late thirties or early forties.

He presumably had a bald head underneath the black skull cap he wore.

His build was slim. Based on her estimation, he was about the same size as Malachi when he’d first gotten his powers. Though possibly a little bit smaller.

In the image, he wore a black dress shirt and slacks with a gray, longline overcoat.

Joanne swiped across the screen, hoping that there were more surveillance photos.

She got lucky and found a video next in the camera roll.

She pressed play instantly.

Joanne watched the way that the man moved, committing every action of his to memory.

It took her maybe five seconds to reach a conclusion.

"What branch was he in?" Joanne asked suddenly.

Malachi and Opal stared at her for what felt like over a decade.

"...What?"

Malachi patted Joanne on the thigh sympathetically.

"Did you miss Opal unloading on us the man’s entire background just now..?"

"...Maybe." Joanne didn’t seem embarrassed in the slightest.

Opal slid into the chair behind her desk. She rested her chin in her hand as she stared at Joanne with a tired gaze.

"I’m listening this time. I promise."

Opal sighed. "Ex-CIA operative. Disappeared off the map about five years back, but showed up in Arias’ New Day when they were making their grand entrance into the world. He was one of his main lieutenants, but now it seems like he’s gotten a bit of a promotion."

Joanne brought a hand to her head. "Don’t tell me..."

"Arias did his best to talk down his old followers, but not all were easily persuaded. Some think he went soft, others say he only said that because he was forced to, but either way...

I’m afraid Arias’ little movement is still alive, even if it’s not as big as it used to be. Now, you’ve got your eyes on the new figurehead."

Joanne put the tablet down. "Why isn’t he in custody with the rest of the former lieutenants?"

"Kincaid is extremely powerful, he was Arias’ number two. He can manipulate magnetic forces, and has a low-level control over gravity... sending a team of cyborgs after him was the literal worst thing that the government could have done.

Not only did it fail, but it also reignited hostilities... I’m afraid Awena was a part of the fallout."

Joanne controlled her breathing so that she didn’t snap the armrests of her chair in half.

"I know for a fact that there are four people under you with search-type abilities. Why haven’t you found him yet?!"

Opal made a hurt expression. "Easy on me there, babydoll. I ain’t your enemy, and I don’t work for you. I’m your friend. "

Joanne instantly felt bad. "N-No, I know that, I’m just..."

"Having more trouble giving up the reins than you thought?"

"It’s funny. I wasn’t until I stepped back into this office." Joanne released a heavy sigh before she sank back into her husband’s embrace.

Malachi grabbed her hand reassuringly, earning a warm, contented look from her in response.

"Alright, alright, that’s enough, y’all are making me want to go buy batteries." Opal dismissed. "As for the reason we haven’t found Mister Bombtastic man yet... do you remember the woman Arias kept close? The one who had the blessing from Hera?"

Joanne sat up in her husband’s lap again. "You don’t mean..."

Opal pulled up an image of three different women.

Going from left to right, Opal went over their names and backgrounds as well as their abilities. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Dani Kincaid. She’s blind but has a highly advanced form of sonar and sound manipulation. Marie Kincaid, she can manipulate human physiology. And..."

The third photograph only showed the back of a woman’s head.

"...What is this?"

"We couldn’t get this one photographed and identified." Opal admitted with some difficulty. "Can’t figure out what her powers are either but we figured she has some sort of teleportation capability since she disappears every time we corner her."

Joanne suddenly wished that the coffee she’d stolen had liquor in it.

"So with all four of them sharing those abilities there’s basically nothing you can do to catch them."

"We haven’t given up." Opal said firmly. "But I admit, things would be going a lot better if I weren’t getting stonewalled by the boys upstairs every time I tried to interview your little frenemy about potential hiding places."

"Arias?" Malachi’s brow furrowed. "Why would they be trying to stop you from talking to him?"

Opal sighed in annoyance as she ran her hands over her head.

"It’s funny, even though we know Arias’ powers are light-based, you could swear by the way they act that he had silkspeech or something. They don’t want to let any evolved talk to him because they’re afraid he’ll start swaying people to his cause from inside a box."

"Morgan and I never really had that problem." Malachi noted.

"This is happening because the two of you didn’t have that problem. Arias suggested that the two of you should be using your powers differently and you both picked up everything and ran off on mission trips like it was natural."

"He was right. It was a good suggestion."

"That’s not the argument I’m trying to make here, honeybun. To the U.S government, it looks like you both just did it because he ordered you to. And if two of our most powerful are that easily swayed, then what about the rest of us?"

Malachi held his head as he felt a serious migraine overtake him.

He understood why Joanne wanted to retire so badly now. Working in governmental affairs in any capacity was hell.

Literally everything he did was saying something. And all of it was that deep.

Even if you were constantly on your toes, there was still a chance that you could accidentally step on a landmine while trying to do the right thing.

The only people who won in politics were those who did what they wanted without being seen.

Malachi wasn’t sure if it was because he was a demon now or maybe it was just early, but his patience for these unnecessary mind games was diminishing very fast.

"...I’m sorry, Opal. I’ll try to get in and see Arias myself and then I’ll ask-"

"Before that... do you mind putting all my stuff down?"

Malachi uncovered his face.

He was surprised and embarrassed to realize that everything in Opal’s office that wasn’t nailed down was floating in the air.

"My bad."

Malachi slowly put everything back down into it’s original position, being extra careful not to accidentally slam everything back down and destroy them.

Seeing how hard he was concentrating, Opal could no longer ignore the very obvious changes in demeanor and appearance.

"Don’t take this the wrong way, but... what the hell is wrong with you?"