The Langley Case: A Nathan Roeder Mystery
Chapter 9

How I became an Albino

Let me be very clear about something. I’m not an albino. I am The Albino. But I don’t have a trace of albinism in my genes.

Reputation is a hard thing to come by, but it’s the most important thing you can have. There are two ways to get a reputation: honestly, or effectively.

I’m not a blind albino. But people think I am, and they think of how much of a badass I’d have to be to get where I was with those two major flaws right there for the whole world to see. I live in the Sprawl. The Sprawl is my home. Lots of natborns out there. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t the kind of genetic prejudice you replace In Town or in The Tiers. It just means it’s more subtle out here.

Being an albino makes you tougher. It’s like being a boy named Sue. Boys named Sue get beaten up a lot. They’ve got shit to prove. You meet a guy named Sue, chances are he can kick your ass. You meet a crime lord named The Albino, who can’t see a damned thing, and chances are he can kill you and everyone you’ve ever met.

At least, that’s the theory.

There’s more reasoning behind it than just a bold faced lie, though. I want people to underestimate me. I want them to think that I can’t see my hand in front of my face. And, most importantly, I want an exit strategy.

I’m a realist. That’s the bottom line. I know that I’m on top right now, that there are really only two other people with power anywhere near what I’ve got. But I also know that, just as I took it from someone else, someday somebody’s going to take it from me. When that happens, I’ll stop being The Albino, and go back to being Jim. No one’s going to be able to hunt me down, because they’ll be looking for an albino. And I’m not one.

When Roeder left my club, I had him followed. It’s just good business. He had become an investment of mine. I sent him to get Felicia because of the reputation he had. But of all people in the world, I know that reputations are not always accurate. So I had to be sure.

I first heard of Roeder a few years back, when he first pissed Raymond off. There were enough bodies connected to that to give Roeder a decent enough reputation, even if no one really know what happened. I still don’t know what he did to piss off The Bicycle Man, but knowing that he had been a thorn in the sides of the other two made me think that things would not go according to plan.

Hence the holding of the diary as ransom.

Felicia is such a strange creature. Beautiful doesn’t describe her well enough, but it is the best term our language has. No one can look at her without appreciate her finer gifts, the features that men would kill for, the genetic structure that I paid a pretty penny for. She was supposed to be my greatest money maker, the jewel in my crown.

And for a while, she was. Everything worked perfectly. Until, suddenly, she decided she wanted to better herself.

I’ve had girls decide to better themselves before. It’s actually a common occurrence. They think there is more to their lives; more that they could be doing than just dancing and hooking. It’s usually a passing dream; one that they soon realize is futile.

Felicia was different. More clever. Smarter. She was smart enough to get out, and to get away. More impressively, she was smart enough to stay hidden now for almost six months. It wasn’t until she relaxed enough to get comfortable that I was able to do more than discover where she had already vacated.

I’ve been following her, taking note of every guy she’s slept with, every thing she’s done since she left the safety of my club. It’s going to be expensive when she gets back, just making sure she’s still healthy. But she’ll learn. I’ve no doubts that, eventually, she’ll see that there is nothing more to her life than there has ever been. She was born to do what she does. If she doesn’t realize it herself, perhaps she’ll see it when I show her that in her six months of freedom, she never did anything else.

I can understand her desires, of course. Many of us wish to be more than we were born to be. Of all people, perhaps I can understand that best. I was born out of the genetic lottery, part of a large, and poor, family out in the Sprawl. There has been no genetic altering anywhere in my family history, so far as I could tell. My parents could barely afford to feed us all, let alone pay for any enhancements.

I was educated in that minimal way that people of my background were, going to school only as long as it was free, then having to go get a job. I was meant to work my health away in a factory, the way my father did.

But I wanted more out of life. Factory work wasn’t enough. I had to do more, had to be more.

Unlike Felicia, such an option was open to me. I found that the strand of brutality hidden deep in the tapestry of my life could be very beneficial if I brought it to the forefront and nurtured it.

I began as hired muscle, using the physicality I had developed working in a slaughterhouse to deliver specific and lasting messages to people. Slowly, I developed a reputation, the hard way.

I learned, after being given a position more advanced than thug, that there was more to be said for cunning than for brute force. This led me, in short order, up the ranks, with a trail of corpses behind me. Very few of which left blood stains on my hands.

When I was ready, I went into seclusion, coming out only as The Albino, and then only to take over the network I had helped to build, to destroy the people I had helped put into place. Some of the lieutenants came to me of their own accord. Others I bribed away. But I single handedly took down an entire organization, making it appear that I did so from the outside. No one knew that I was the same person I had always been.

In seclusion, I lost thirty pounds and grew my hair long. I donned the affectation of being blind. Which I am not. I practiced mannerisms, read books, educated myself to eloquence, and I strategized. I created an entire persona for myself. When I was finally ready to step forth, I had become, wholesale, a new person. My knowledge of the inner workings, as this new person, was frightening to behold, and further cemented the reputation I had decided to carve for myself.

Far easier the second time.

I was able to do it all because I was bred naturally. I had all the skills and abilities of my genetics, without sacrificing some to improve upon others. I am fully human, something Felicia will never be able to claim.