Aurin, Luna and Kyle waited by the gates of the enclosures as the evening turned to night. It had been a chilly day, but every breath now turned to steam. It wasn’t long before a fiery orange Flaround walked up the path with his owner beside him; Detective Knot.

“Detective,” said Kyle, nodding in greeting.

“How have you been?” Luna asked.

“Busy,” said Knot, shaking each of their hands in turn. “I’ve met with your friend Conrad of the Minakai Guardians that I thought he might be able to help me verify, but he wasn’t. He did, however, say that you were helping him…because of course you are.”

“We like to meddle,” shrugged Aurin.

“And don’t I know it.”

“Conrad said it was important,” said Kyle.

“Yes,” said Knot. “It’s probably the most important turn the Zodiac investigation has taken since your confrontation with Sagittarius and Libra.”

“Then don’t leave us hanging,” said Aurin. “What is it?”

“Ever impatient, Aurin,” remarked Knot. “Do you remember our discussion about Mayor Boren back at the height of Zodiac activity?”

“Where you said that you think he’s probably been paid off to look the other way?” asked Luna.

“I now believe I was mistaken,” said Knot, nodding his head. “I believe that Mayor Boren is Taurus. I believe he’s the leader of the Zodiac Squad.”

Aurin, Luna and Kyle all looked at each other, their eyes wide with shock. “Do you have proof?” Kyle asked Knot.

“No,” said Knot, “but there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence that leads me to this theory. Are you prepared to listen even if I can’t prove it?”

“Of course,” said Aurin, eager to hear what Knot had to say.

“I’ve never thought all that highly of the mayor, as you know, but I thought that perhaps I could identify who from Zodiac was paying him off. I decided that I would take it upon myself to do some surveillance.”

“Legally?” asked Luna, but Aurin shot her a look that made her shy away.

Knot continued. “I saw very little outside of frequent visits to Harmony Tower in the dead of the night, which seemed odd to me. He never talked about Minakai of his own to the point where I was wondering if he even had any, but I waited outside of the tower one night for him to reappear…but he didn’t.

“Many tamers came and went, even a couple of members of the Zodiac Squad, but Mayor Boren didn’t appear again. It made no sense to me and I had waited until eight in the morning. Do you know who did arrive after being banished from the tower?”

“Taurus,” said Kyle.

“Taurus,” confirmed Knot. “I wanted to apprehend him then and there, but he was with a few of his goons and I knew they would be able to get the better of me, especially if they were still armed with magical crystals. No…if I had made a move, I’m sure I would not be alive today.

“Then I noticed something else that I had thought nothing of before. The mayor wore a string hanging around his neck, so I decided to speak to him a week after following him to the tower—just to let the heat die down in case I had been spotted. I managed to catch a small glimpse of what it was that he wore around his neck. Can you guess?”

“A summoning stone?” asked Aurin.

“Indeed. It took a few visits, but one time I managed to trip over him and make it look like an accident, but in doing so, I grabbed onto his collar and spied the summoning stone for a brief second. It was turquoise. The colour of a summoning stone attuned to a cosmic Minakai. It all finally made sense to me. Mayor Boren is Taurus. Or rather, Taurus is Mayor Boren.”

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Aurin, Luna and Kyle stood in silence, each of them staring at the detective with their thoughts and memories whizzing around their heads at a thousand miles per second.

“Well?” asked Knot.

“I…I believe you,” said Aurin.

“How about the rest of you?” asked Knot, looking to Luna and Kyle.

“If Aurin believes you, I believe you,” said Kyle. “He’s the only one of us who has spoken to Taurus directly. If he’s convinced that they’re the same person, they’re the same person.”

“That’s good enough for me too,” said Luna looking torn. “I wish it was easily disproven, but…it makes sense. Especially thinking back to everything that happened around the first Hazelton tournament with the abductions and Zodiac attacks. Who better to sweep that away than the mayor himself?”

“I’m glad to hear it,” said Knot, looking believed. “At first, I was wondering if I was crazy, but everything slotted so perfectly into place.”

“Now we have two methods of attack,” said Aurin.

“What do you mean?” asked Knot.

“We’ve been planning to track down the Zodiac Squad’s new headquarters using one of their weak links, a guy called Damien.”

“Damien Leclare?”

“I don’t know his last name,” said Aurin.

“It is Leclare,” said Luna. “He’s only a couple of years older than me, so I checked my school yearbook on the off chance we both went to Hazelton Academy. He did. He was two years ahead of me.”

“In any case, we’re planning to set up a trap for him that will lure him into leading us to the Zodiac Squad base,” said Aurin. “If we can weaken Zodiac by destroying their base again, then that should make Taurus much easier to unmask and apprehend.”

“Unmask and apprehend?” asked Kyle. “Let’s make it much simpler. We’re going to take that summoning stone away from him so that he can’t use the power of Ethruki to unleash wild Minakai upon the world.”

“Tell me your plan,” said Knot. “I will help however I can.”

Aurin smiled menacingly. “Damien is an arrogant fellow and there are two people in this town I’m confident in saying he wants revenge against above any others.”

Aurin and Luna looked at each other and nodded.

*

“Are you sure he’ll be here?” asked Aurin.

“I’ve told fifty times already that it’s an educated guess,” said Luna. “Hannah said that Damien works with her dad.”

Aurin, Luna, Shamtile and Innogon were standing in an alleyway in Hazelton near the garage where Hannah’s dad worked for the third afternoon in a row. They were all impatient, but could not rush their plan or it would be ruined. Shamtile stood still with his hand on the ground, trying to see if someone would depart from the building.

“Maybe he’s been fired,” suggested Aurin

“You said that already too. We just need take out time with th—”

Shamtile stood up alert and everyone hid behind the dumpster.

“Is it him?” Aurin whispered to his Minakai.

Shamtile threw up his arms silently.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Shush,” said Luna, peering out from behind the dumpster. “Yes…yes, it’s him! There he goes!”

“Good,” said Aurin, turning to Shamtile. “Now remember, you tail him as best as you can. If you can do it underground, do it. If you can’t, just sense his trail from a distance, alright?”

Shamtile tapped Aurin on the lower back.

“Alright,” Aurin said to Luna. “Let’s go.”

Aurin, Luna and Innogon walked from the alley and kept at a distance behind Damien. Every corner he rounded, they remained behind until they were sure the coast was clear. Each time he was lost in the crowd, they scrambled to catch up. He was taking a strange route, looping back on himself a few times over, but Knot said that the Zodiac Squad members all did this to make themselves harder to follow. With good reason, considering what Aurin and Luna were up to.

“Enough?” asked Luna.

“Yes,” said Aurin, rushing ahead to Damien. “Damien!” he called out.

Damien turned around with an unpleasant smirk on his face. “Well, well…to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked slyly as people stopped to watch, thinking a fight was about to break out.

“I want a rematch,” said Aurin.

“A rematch?”

“A rematch.”

“Good,” said Damien, reaching into his bag, pulling out his tamer glove and placing it upon his hand. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“But there’s a condition,” said Aurin, raising his own gloved hand.

“What’s that then?”

“If you win, I want you to tell me everything you know about the cosmic.”

“The cosmic?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” said Aurin, “don’t play dumb.”

“That’s a very one-sided deal,” said Damien. “I’ve got a condition that I would like to impose upon the rematch too.”

“Go for it.”

“If I defeat you,” he said, his eyes wandering over to Luna, “then I get to battle her too. No interference from you.”

Aurin looked at Luna who gave him a small nod. “Done,” he said.

“Hoofreeti!” called Damien, sending out his demonic bipedal goat. It stomped on the cobblestones, scaring the onlookers who all moved back.

“Gorunze, you’re up,” said Aurin, summoning the bronze golem to the battle. “Three Minakai each, are we clear? No cheating.”

“Works for me,” said Damien.

“Count us in, Luna,” said Aurin.

“Three, two, one,” said Luna. “Fight!”

“Attack!”

Gorunze was ready with a laser blast as Hoofreeti raised its hand to hurl a fireball, and the battle began. Aurin clenched his fists, knowing that he had to be very careful with each move he made. He had to make this battle look convincing.