by TR Cameron
She laughed. “First, maybe don’t try to provoke me by insulting my family. I’ve heard it all before, and frankly, the jokes we make about ourselves are far more vicious.
“Second, I’m not sure. I’ve seen you around. I know you own a security company in town, and I know that someone attacked Invention while your people were guarding it. Seems like something all the casino owners should be concerned about. Do you have any details about it that I don’t?”
He shook his head and mumbled, “Nope. Seems random. No idea why whoever it was chose to hit that casino in particular.”
He was a terrible liar, but she didn’t try to call him on it. Instead, she asked, “What’s your beef with the Council? And to be fully honest, I’m not a big fan anymore, either. I thought Maldren had a pretty good handle on it. Elnyier, well, I don’t think that’s an increase in stability, let’s just say.”
He laughed and leaned back. “She’s a total wench, but she’s awful good at what she does.”
“Which is?”
“Making deals. Wielding influence. Knowing when to use sugar and when to use a stiletto.”
“So it’s safe to say you didn’t vote for her?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t confident in Maldren, either. She’s right that he saw us through the time of building up Magic City, but she’s also correct that he’s not the person for the job at this moment. Of course, she waited until she had all the dominos perfectly aligned before she made her move, so there was no way to block her.”
Ruby nodded and took a long draw on her drink. “My father said the same thing, that she doubtless had the votes already in hand.”
Grentham grunted. “I would’ve voted for your father. We don’t agree on everything, but he’s got some ethics about him the others lack.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Are you the conscience of the Council, then?”
He laughed, and for the first time in their conversation, it sounded real. “Oh, hell no. Rules are made to be broken, more or less. As long as I’m not hurting anyone who’s not in the game, not too many things are off-limits. But I’m not sure Elnyier shares even that basic level of concern with right and wrong.”
She nodded. “Nor does the PDA, right?”
He scowled, the fiercest look she’d seen from him. “Those bastards are so far past the line they can’t even see it anymore.” He blew out a breath. “We should probably stop this conversation now. I’m starting to get angry. I come here to relax.”
She raised her hands and stood with a smile. “You were very subtle, but I can take a hint. It was good talking to you, Grentham. You and your people stay safe. I have a feeling the thing at Invention wasn’t random and likely wasn’t a one-off.”
He nodded. “Could be you’re right. Farewell, Ruby Achera.”
She returned to find that Demetrius had won, and it was her against Liam for the next round. Her boyfriend asked, “Who was that?”
“Someone I ran across once or twice at Council meetings.”
“Interesting person?”
Ruby nodded. “Before today, I probably would’ve said no. But yeah, I think there’s more there than meets the eye.”
Chapter Eight
Jared entered the secure room at Aces Security headquarters with a cup of coffee in each hand and managed to hand over his partner’s without scalding himself. In a life where everything seemed to be going wrong, he counted that as a success.
Dropping into his seat with a sigh, he removed the cap from his drink to let it cool and sipped, burning his mouth. Okay, so not a total success. He shook his head. “You know, I never thought I’d say this, but things were better when Gabriel Sloane was alive.”
His partner snorted. The dwarf, as always, was dressed all in black. His beard was a little wilder than usual, as was the rest of his hair. “I’m with you there, buddy. And I would have bet the house against those words ever sounding in this building.”
“Too true. So, where do we start?”
Grentham gave a single, almost-hopeless laugh. “Invention. What the hell was that nonsense?”
“At least they didn’t fire us afterward. Small blessings.”
“We agree that Worldspan was behind the whole thing, right?”
Jared nodded. “Absolutely. We punched them in the mouth, and they came back with a team to get revenge. Classic schoolyard rules.”
Grentham gestured, displaying his agitation. “This situation with them, we can’t let it continue. The problem is, I don’t see how we can take the company out. They’re too big. So, unless we make the Magic City gig completely unattractive for them, they’re going to keep coming back at us.”
Jared frowned and crossed his arms, then let them fall when he realized he’d shifted unintentionally into defensive mode. “You’re correct. As much as I hate to admit it, we can’t go toe-to-toe, not right now. We’ll need to hire more people, buy replacement tech, and switch up all our stuff, in case they got anything off one of our folks that would allow them to penetrate our systems.”
Grentham replied, “We have initial payments from the new clients. We can use that cash to replace some of the stuff.”
His partner looked concerned, and Jared knew him well enough to know he wasn’t saying everything he was thinking. “Speak.”
The dwarf scowled. “Bloody mind reader, you. I hate to say it, but I think we have to go to the lady Sloane and ask for support.”
“Money?”
“Yeah, that. Plus, maybe to use her contacts to get some harder people than we’ve been hiring. If we have to face off against Worldspan, we need some ringers on our team. I have a couple, but not enough. I’m sure she knows some heavy hitters. She might even loan us some.”
“You realize that would put us even deeper into her debt.”
A dark laugh escaped his partner. “Man, we’re so far in her pocket that we’re down her pant leg to the knee.”
His delivery made Jared chuckle, despite the pain of his words. “Yeah.” He sighed. “How did we get here?”
Grentham gave an expressive shrug. “I have no idea where things went wrong. I’d blame the costumed jerks running around town, but aside from the thing on the Strip, they haven’t directly opposed us.”
“Does the change on the Council do us any good?”
“Hell no. Elnyier’s the one who recruited Worldspan in the first place. That’s another reason I think we may need more weight on our side.”
Jared nodded and rose, almost sloshing the coffee over the edge to burn his hand, but not quite. Still in the win column. “I agree. I’ll head upstairs and make the call.”
The portal closed behind them, and Jared turned a full circle, wary of some kind of trap. There was nothing to see, though, only a bunch of pipes and pumps, all part of the oil plant Smith liked to use for their meetings. The man in question wandered out from the shelter of one of the pumps, a hand inside his coat. Jared and Grentham both lifted their hands to show they were weaponless, and Smith motioned for them to raise their arms. With a sigh, Jared complied. Grentham followed, but he could almost hear his partner mentally weighing the odds of not doing so.
Smith patted them down, then stepped back with a nod. Sloane’s other lackey, Thompson, emerged from behind another piece of equipment where she’d been covering them. She tucked her gun back into its holster. They both wore dark suits, gray mock turtlenecks, and serious expressions. Smith said, “What’s this about?”
Jared had only asked for a meet, not wanting to tip their hand before negotiations began. He hadn’t expected Sloane to join them and hadn’t wanted to seem overly arrogant by requesting a meeting directly with her. Gotta play this one carefully if we’re going to come out the other end with what we need. He said, “We’d like to discuss the situation with Worldspan in Magic City.”
Thompson’s feminine laugh echoed through the place. “Oh, you mean the colossal screwup where Worldspan came in and kicked your asses at Invention?”
Grentham growled,
“So you agree it was them. You seem pretty confident about it. No question in your mind?”
Smith shook his head. “None. Seems obvious what they were up to.”
Jared felt anger billowing out from his partner and quickly inserted, “Well, whoever it was, whyever they did it, it doesn’t change what comes next.”
Thompson shifted her attention to him from where she’d been smirking at Grentham. “What’s that, then?”
Jared shrugged. “Resources so we can hit them back.”
Smith said, “Surely you’re not asking for money.”
Grentham replied, with admirable restraint, “Surely not. Rather, people, tech, and maybe some contacts.”
Sloane’s long-term lackey wore a weird half-smile. “Oh, is that all?”
Jared laughed, making it seem as real as he could, despite the growing sickness in his stomach. “Well, you know, we’ll take whatever’s on offer on top of that. Maybe you two would like to join us.”
The others exchanged glances, then Thompson said, “Yeah, we figured this would probably be your angle, so we asked the boss what she thought about it beforehand.” She stopped talking.
Gritting his teeth against the pettiness of making him ask, Jared replied, “And?”
Smith shrugged. “I’m sorry to say that you’re on your own. You failed too many times. When you prove yourself, if you prove yourself, we can have this conversation again.”
Grentham growled, “I very much doubt you’re sorry.”
Thompson put a hand over her mouth, pretending to be shocked. “You said the quiet part out loud. You’re not supposed to do that.” She dropped her hand and waved, taking a step back toward the exit, her other hand again on the butt of her gun. “Ta, ta, fellas. Good luck.”
The last word they heard from the pair was Smith calling, “You’re going to need it.”
When they’d returned to Aces, Grentham had headed into his office and done some yelling, and to judge by the sound of it, broken a couple of things. In a way, Jared admired his partner’s ability to express his emotions viscerally. His were seething inside, boiling in his stomach, making him nauseous. But he had no way to get them out. Yelling wasn’t his thing. Casual violence wasn’t either. He needed to find a distraction. Some drinks, a beautiful woman, maybe. Something to take the edge off.
Grentham opened the door to his office carefully as if he didn’t want to slam it by accident. The dwarf said, “So, time to close up shop and get out of town?”
Jared leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk, shaking his head. “No way. I like it here. You have all sorts of community connections. I’ve been thinking it through, and if they want to play, we’ll show them how to play Ely-style.”
Laughter burst out of Grentham. “Did someone replace my partner with a movie gangster?”
Jared joined the mirth. “Maybe. Just maybe. But seriously, I’m not ready to give up. We should both make sure we’ve prepared our exit plans, but it’s not time to run. From here on out, we should consider ourselves at war with Worldspan.”
Grentham snarled, “And bloody Julianna Sloane. I’ll show her we can succeed at something. We can succeed at messing up her plans in Magic City.”
“I’ll be completely satisfied if we can get back to where we were before all this nonsense began, as long as I get to put a bullet in Smith.”
His partner grinned. “A fireball will work, too. I’m happy to oblige.”
Jared nodded serenely. “Either way. So long as it hurts. Smug bastard.” With a sigh, he sat up straight again. “All right. Time to get to work.”
Chapter Nine
Morrigan crouched beside Idryll on a rooftop southeast of the Strip. She and the shapeshifter were in full costume, and a magical veil concealed them from prying eyes. And hopefully prying sensors, as well. “I think that’s the one. Agree?”
The other woman nodded. “Yes. That’s the address Demetrius gave us.”
The infomancer was on call, working on something for a client but aware that they were in the field. However, she didn’t think they’d need his help. The data gathered from the battle against the PDA drones had provided multiple triangulated locations for control points. One was the PDA headquarters, but the other two they hadn’t known about. They were out to take a look and see what the Paranoid Defense Agency was up to.
Morrigan said, “You have the locators, right?”
Idryll sighed. “You’ve asked me that three times now, and the answer is the same as it was the other two. Yes, I have them.” The initial plan had been simply to perform recon on the sites. However, Ruby had mentioned Margrave was working on tracking devices. It had seemed logical to drop by his place and pick up the ones he’d already completed on the off chance they might turn out to be useful.
What Morrigan definitely didn’t want to do was somehow lose them because then she’d have to listen to Ruby whine about it. I’ve listened to my sister complain enough for two lifetimes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s get over there.”
They jumped across to the roof, landing carefully on the edge. Morrigan's eyepieces rotated through detection modes seeking traps and revealed a substantial power flow to a series of large boxes on the rooftop. She also spotted a camera mounted in the corner, which would’ve been invisible if not for the electricity it used. “Got video surveillance.”
Idryll replied, “Break it? Jam it?”
Morrigan shook her head. “I’ve been working on something. Let me give it a try.” She concentrated, staring hard at the scene before her and picturing how it would look to the camera. Then she created an illusion of that sight immediately in front of the lens and put a veil behind the image to block out any contradictory visual. “Okay, let’s go around the long way and come in from the side. I think we’re good.”
“You think? What if you’re wrong?”
“Then I guess you get to demonstrate your fantabulous skills at beating down PDA drones, troops, and whatever else they throw at us.”
“I find this plan entirely acceptable.” Idryll led the way over to the cases. Each was about the size of a very large suitcase, the kind you’d use for international travel, maybe even bigger than that. They were, to put it bluntly, drone-sized, perfect for the heavy combat models the PDA used.
Morrigan said, “I think we’re in the right place.”
Idryll pointed at another area of the building’s roof, which had a small open-sided shelter with several smaller drones sitting in it. “Aw, they’re cute.”
Morrigan laughed. “Go tag them with the locators. I’m going to open up one of these boxes and make sure they are what we think they are.”
The shapeshifter complied without arguing for a change, and the elf pulled out her knife and shoved it into the narrow seam near the top. She hammered it in with the palm of her hand, then wrenched upward, snapping the latch that held it closed. She muttered, “Not super secure. Seems like they put this on in a hurry.”
Idryll had reached the smaller drones and was crouched to the side, pulling small discs out of the pouch Margrave had given them. “Probably our fault.”
“We can hope.” Morrigan lifted the lid and found what she’d expected to see. She closed it again, rose, and noticed the bundle of cables leading into the back of each box. She muttered, “Tag these too when you finish those,” but her mind was already working. Maybe they lead to an antenna or a communication hub? I figured all this would be wireless.
Her surprise doubled when she discovered the cable ran down over the edge. She coated herself in invisibility and peered over the side. The line entered the building through a window on the third floor.
She almost jumped out of her skin as Idryll asked from directly beside her, “What is it?”
“Holy hell, don’t do that. How did you see me?”
The shapeshifter tapped her eyepiece. “Thermal. Plus, you’re on our map.”
Morrigan replied, “The cable goes into a window down there. Not sure why it’s h
ard wired, but again, maybe they were in a hurry, and that was the easiest way to do it. Or it could be a security thing. Demetrius would probably know.”
Idryll said, “We should take a look.”
“Yeah, I’ll go down and see.”
The other woman had already started climbing down the side of the building, using her claws for purchase. Should really have anticipated that. Morrigan covered her in a veil and waited.
After several moments, Idryll climbed back up and reported, “There’s some sort of big workstation thing in the main room of the apartment, with a person behind it. I couldn’t see anything else other than a kitchen and a hallway.”
Morrigan scowled. “I guess that puts an end to our adventure here. Let’s go check out the other building.”
“It would be stupid not to take a closer look. We’re here.”
“Ruby wouldn’t like that.”
Idryll grinned. “Well, she’s not here to complain, so she doesn’t get a vote.”
“Listen, they can’t know we were here, or we lose the element of surprise.”
“Really? Wow, that never occurred to me.” The tiger-woman rolled her eyes to illustrate her opinion of Morrigan's comment. “Don’t you have something in your bag of tricks that can help us out?” She gestured at the quiver.
Morrigan mentally ran through the options. “I suppose the knockout gas could work, but they’ll hear the arrow, and when they wake up, know someone was there.”
“Can you take the gas thingy off it?”
She retrieved the projectile and examined it. “It’s all one piece, but you could probably use your claws to cut it off.” She handed it over, and Idryll scored and snapped it. Morrigan continued, “Still risky, though. They might hear the capsule, too.”
“I have a thought on that one. I’ve seen it on TV a ton of times. There’s sure to be an air ventilation system with access up here on the roof, right?” A few minutes later, Idryll had slipped out of her costume and shifted into house cat form, carrying the knockout gas cylinder in her teeth. The plan was for her to climb down to the apartment vent and discharge it.