It was now or never.
I motioned Jak to stay put, then carefully squeezed out of the niche and padded silently forward, flipping Amaya around to hold her by the blade rather than the hilt as I did so. I suspected—given her generally shitty mood—that if I used her blade she might take matters into her own hand and kill our quarry rather than just knock him out.
I raised the sword, but he suddenly dropped and turned, and Amaya whooshed harmlessly over his head. He surged upright, but I spun and kicked him hard in the gut. He flew backward, hit the wall with a loud crack, and slithered to the floor. I flipped Amaya, holding her hilt once more, but the Razan didn't get up. After another moment or two, I stepped forward and pressed two fingers against his neck. His pulse was steady and strong, so I hadn't done much more than knock him out.
"Now what do we do with him?" Jak came out of the niche and stopped beside me.
"We find out who he is and who he was talking to."
I knelt beside the Razan and went through his pockets. I found the phone and tossed that to Jak, then continued the search until I found his wallet.
"According to his license," I said, "his name is Henry Mack, and he lives in Broadmeadows."
Jak grunted. "The phone is locked. Any ideas?"
My gaze went to his birth date on his license. It was a long shot, but a lot of people used such things for passwords. "Try one-four-oh-four."
He did so, then shook his head.
"Reverse it."
He pressed the appropriate buttons. "Nope."
I gave him the year; then, when that also proved a bust, glanced at our last hope—the post code—and said, "Three-oh-four-seven, either way."
"Bingo to the latter."
I placed his license on the stone near his hand, then pulled out the other cards. There were four credit cards—two in the name of Henry Mack, and two in the name of Jason Marks—a transit card, and various receipts from shops. Mainly for clothes and grocery items, although interestingly, there was a small receipt from a place called Esoteric Supplies, which I knew from Ilianna was one of the main suppliers of wiccan items in Melbourne.