by Adam Carter
Lin’s heart leaped into her throat and she stumbled over her chair, her hands instinctively groping for a weapon. There was a man standing in the shadows behind her. Casually, immobile, as though he had every right to be there. His face was a mask of dispassion and he offered no apologies for his presence.
“Baronaire! What the hell are you doing in my flat?”
“You don’t like rats?”
“What?”
“You could have killed the rat, throwing that thing at it.”
“What do ... who cares?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I care. I happen to like rats.”
“Well I’m going to have to get an exterminator in now, so that’s something I could have done without.”
“Don’t bother. He’s gone.”
“What?”
“I was just using him to make a point.”
“Using him? You mean you let a rat loose in my flat?” She was becoming hysterical and she knew it, but events were moving far too fast for her and she wasn’t understanding even half of them. And her partner’s nonchalance really wasn’t helping her psyche any.
“He’s gone back home, forget about him. The point of him being here was to show you that some things don’t deserve to live. Humans would exterminate the rat population if they could, and all because you learn about the bubonic plague in school.”
“What do you mean ‘you’?”
There was a trace of a smile upon his face and Lin shuddered uncontrollably. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m not that far gone yet.”
Lin closed her eyes, regaining her composure. When she opened them again she said, “OK, I understand what you’re doing. You’re saying you like rats, and I decided it deserved to die. You’re saying it’s the same with Reynolds, with everyone WetFish decides to kill. Some people would disagree, but WetFish says they should die.”
“Told you you were clever.”
Lin sat back down, purposefully showing she was back in control. “Can I get you a drink or anything? Seeing as though you’re my guest and all.”
“I ... don’t think you stock my beverage.”
“Rude too.”
“I didn’t come invited, Lin. Isn’t that rude enough?”
“Speaking of which, how’d you even get in?”
“Through the keyhole.”
She decided she wasn’t going to get a serious answer so gave up. “Did you speak with whoever you wanted to speak with?” she asked casually.
“Yes.”
“And did Jeremiah have anything interesting to say?”
Again the eyebrows rose. “I’m impressed.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t take a genius to see the two of you aren’t exactly the same as the rest of us.” She was only repeating what Jeremiah had told her, but Baronaire didn’t know that. Nor did he need to.
He glanced to the TV. “You’re still researching?”
“How do you mean?”
“I hear you came to Sanders, not the other way around. That’s ... unusual, to say the least.”
Lin sighed. “Charles, what do you want?”
“I could ask you the same thing. You’re spying on WetFish, although I’m not sure who for. Not anyone higher than Sanders, nor would your own DCI have sent you in, since that would have been vetoed from above. You’re working on your own, and I’m just wondering what you hope to accomplish.”
“Now who’s the detective?”
“Cute.”
Lin considered her answer before saying, “Do you know what nationality I am?”
Baronaire seemed confused. “Chinese?”
“No.”
“Cantonese?”
“British. Born here, raised here. I’ve been to China; it’s ... strange. In a good way, just not in a home way. My father, he’s from China. Obviously. At home, growing up, everything was Chinese. We lived in Chinatown, my folks still do. I knew every shop, every street, all the places to eat, the places to avoid. But unlike my father I was more interested in what lay outside of Chinatown. I was a child born in England and I was English through and through. No one seemed to understand that at school. Well, I say no one, I just mean eighty per cent of them. I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say I had a pretty rough childhood.”
“Am I supposed to cry?”
“No. I didn’t. It toughened me, made me realise what creeps and bullies people could be. All people. So I decided I wanted to be a cop, to make sure creeps and bullies couldn’t get away with things like that. To make sure if someone was picking on someone else for being weak or different, there I was standing in the middle of them.” She paused. “I don’t like bullies, Charles. And that’s what WetFish is. One big bully.”
“We do a lot of good. I’ve been with Sanders for over ten years now. He’s a good man.”
“Do you honestly believe that?”
“I believe he wants what’s best for this country. Sanders loves Britain, perhaps that’s something the two of you have in common.”
“I’m not willing to murder people to keep it safe.”
“So maybe that’s your failing, not his.”
She knew he would give that answer, so she wasn’t especially fazed by it. She said, “Maybe I’m going to turn Sanders in. I don’t know.”
“I can stop you.”
“Then you’re one of the people I’ve spent my life standing up to.”
She could feel Baronaire rove his eyes across her and shuddered as though his eyes had touched her naked skin. She was short, slim and very unassuming. But she knew how to fight, and she knew how to win.
“You know tae kwon do?” he asked.
“What, ‘cause every oriental person knows fancy moves?”
“Just trying to figure out how you think you can take me.”
“Depends. Are you here to stop me?”
“I’m not letting you destroy WetFish. I’ll kill you if I have to,” he said matter-of-factly. “Sanders will be furious, but not when I’ve explained the situation to him.”
“Come on then.”
“Excuse me?”
“Come try to kill me.”
Baronaire seemed confused, but walked around the settee to stand before her. Lin rose, brushed down her trousers, then socked him in the jaw. Baronaire had not expected the sudden attack and went crashing into the coffee table. Riled, her adrenalin pumping, Lin stood there with fists clenched, waiting for him to get back up. Baronaire just lay there, laughing.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“You. You crack me up.” He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at her with those deep soulful eyes. “You know I could kill you without you even realising it?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Go for it.”
Baronaire sighed, then suddenly Lin was on the floor, Baronaire atop her. He was holding her arms pinned to the carpet, and she gasped as she stared into his eyes. She hadn’t even felt him move; one moment he was lying before her, the next he had pinned her into submission. She struggled, but he was strong, stronger than she had anticipated, and she could not even move.
“Still waiting,” Baronaire said casually. “Anytime you want to beat me, go ahead.”
But Lin was holding something in her left hand, had been holding it the entire time, and she opened her hand to reveal it now. “I don’t know what makes you so special, Charles, but I think we both know you have inhumanly acute senses.”
“What’s that?” he asked. “Mace?”
“Nope. Rape alarm.” And she pressed savagely upon the top of the palm-sized tube, locking the alarm into place. The shrill attack deafened Lin; she could only imagine what it was doing to Baronaire.
He was off her in a moment, writing upon the floor, his hands at his ears. Lin laughed, holding the alarm out before her, watching his face contort as he screamed. Then she noticed the blood pooling out his ears and she realised perhaps she had gone too far.
Baronaire snatched th
e alarm and squeezed, crushing the thing and destroying it utterly. The sound was cut off immediately, its echo still buzzing through Lin’s brain.
Baronaire was breathing heavily, and he slowly rose to a standing position, even though he was wobbling all over the place. “You made your point,” he said. “You’re not someone to mess with.”
“God, I’m sorry, are you all right?”
“What?”
She spoke louder. “I said ...”
“No, I heard you. I meant why do you care? I could have killed you tonight.”
“You really came here to kill me?”
“It was on my list of possibilities, yeah.”
She punched him again. Hard. This time he did not fall.
“All right,” he said, “I deserved that one.” He looked back to her. “You’re a strange woman, Detective Lin, but I think I’m starting to like you.”
“Bully for me.”
But there was something inside her which was laughing. She could see something in Baronaire now, something she had not noticed before. He was not a likable man, but he was tolerable. And Lin, as his partner, was beginning to feel that perhaps there was a future between them after all.
“So,” Baronaire said, “you handing Sanders over to the mob?”
“I don’t know.”
“I have a counter proposition.”
“What?”
“I want to know something he knows.”
“How do you mean?”
“He knows something about me. I know he does. I want to know what it is.”
Now she really was confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I agree with you that Sanders should be brought down. I don’t disagree with what WetFish does, but I have a personal beef with Sanders. I wouldn’t be sorry to see him go, let’s just say that. You want to bring him down, fine. Go ahead. But I want to know what he knows about me before he goes.”
Lin blinked. “So you want me to snoop for you?”
“Is that any different to what you’re doing anyway?”
She thought about that. He had a point. “And if I agree, what happens with Reynolds?”
“I’m going after her whatever you say. I have a job to do and a city to protect. You can come with me or I can go alone. I really don’t care right now.”
“Then I’ll come.”
“You sure?”
No, Lin thought. But if she wanted to bring down Sanders she had to keep Baronaire on side. She did not want to kill Reynolds, did not even now want to see her die, but there was a part of her which reminded her Sanders was the bigger picture here. If one innocent had to die in order to bring down Sanders, was that such a bad thing?
Or did that make her just a regular member of WetFish?
“I’m in,” she told him simply. “Just let me get my coat.”
CHAPTER NINE
Lin had been subjected to many strange things since joining WetFish. She had seen an organisation whose DCI didn’t want his team interacting unless they had to; she had witnessed a legal murder in the park; and she had met the oddest man ever. A man who could leap around on rooftops, slam his face into the ground and survive; a man who could be shot, whose senses were amazing; a man who talked to rats, who had more secrets than a serial adulterer’s little black book. But to top it all off she had just got into a car with Charles Baronaire and watched as he drove all the way to York without once stopping to even think about what they were doing.
They parked and Baronaire removed the key from the ignition.
“Now what?” Lin asked. “What are we doing in York?”
Baronaire said nothing. He merely nodded and Lin’s mouth fell agape as she looked at the bus shelter before them. There was a woman within, pacing – nervous and confused. Lin had of course seen her before.
“How did you ...?”
Baronaire tapped the side of his nose as he got out the car.
“No,” Lin said, slamming the door as she too exited the vehicle. “I don’t buy that. You didn’t just smell your way across the country.”
“Maybe I’m magic.”
“How?”
Baronaire went to move off, but Lin stopped him with a glower. He sighed. “All right. I asked Jeremiah whether he’d seen you. He told me you were at the train station and I put two and two together. So before I went to see you earlier tonight I went to the station to see if the ticket office was still open. Somehow it was, and I questioned the woman behind the desk. She remembered selling a ticket to York to someone who matched the description of you and Reynolds.”
“And coming straight to the bus shelter?”
Baronaire shrugged. “She’s got no money. Where else is she going to be spending the night?”
Lin said nothing. She was deciding that there was much mysticism about this man, and yet almost all, perhaps even everything, could be put down to logical reasoning ability. “You know,” she said, “for all your antics pretending to be Batman, you do make decent detective.”
“Batman is a detective, Lin.”
“He is?”
“Yeah. You should watch that new cartoon.”
“You know, suddenly I understand why you’re the way you are.”
“Good. Now that we’ve bonded, do you think we could get on with the job?”
Lin’s face fell as she remembered why they were there. But she had overcome this qualm already, she reminded herself. During the drive the two of them had spoken very little and Lin had done a lot of thinking. Reynolds had to die in order for Lin to bring Sanders down; that was all there was to it. It wasn’t exactly as she wanted things: it wasn’t moral in even any vague sense. But it was necessary. And that was what WetFish was all about.
Baronaire headed towards one entrance of the bus shelter and Lin moved to cover the other. They entered together and Lin took quick stock of how many people were inside. It was a relatively small space, but there were blankets and anoraks covering several forms lying on the floor. Only one person seemed awake, and she had by this time taken a seat. Reynolds was staring into a polystyrene cup she was holding, visibly shaking. Lin realised she had done the girl no favours in putting her on that train; especially now she was hunting her down like this.
Reynolds must have sensed something, because her head snapped up to see Baronaire making his way towards her. She leaped to her feet and ran in the opposite direction, straight into Lin. Lin tried to hold her, but Reynolds was fuelled by fear and charged right through, knocking the detective flat on her back. She watched Reynolds stumble as she fled into the night.
Lin felt herself being hauled to her feet as Baronaire ran past her: there was enough strength in his yank to tear her arm from her socket if he chose. He was running before she was even steady, seeming to vanish into the blackness. Lin set off after him – she could still see Reynolds even if Baronaire was no longer visible to her – and the two women fled down the street. Lin’s heart was racing, but she had trained for this, had chased far too many suspects to be letting anyone escape her. It was simply she still didn’t believe her heart was in this particular chase.
She launched herself, catching Reynolds about the legs and bringing the young woman down. Reynolds fought, trying to claw Lin’s face, but Lin grabbed her wrists and struggled to keep her away. Reynolds was stronger than she had expected, and it was difficult to keep her nails out of her eyes.
And then Reynolds was simply lifted off Lin and Baronaire was back. He held Reynolds in the air for a moment as he looked over his partner, and then dropped his load. Reynolds landed heavily on the pavement and Baronaire crouched before her. Lin looked about; they were still in the street and could not kill someone in such a public place. It may have been midnight, but there were still people here; she could see a small crowd of drunken youths watching them from across the road.
“Baronaire, we have to take this somewhere else,” she hissed.
“Just a moment and we’re done,” he replied.
“No, not
here.”
But Baronaire ignored her. Instead he was gazing into Reynolds’s eyes. She was calming, her chest rising and falling in a slower, steadier rhythm. There was something strange about her eyes as well now, something glazed. Lin frowned, not understanding what was happening.
Baronaire rose to his full height. “We can go now.”
Lin blinked. “What?” Baronaire was already walking back to the car. Lin hesitated, not knowing whether she was expected to bring Reynolds or whether Baronaire intended to run her over or something. “Charles?”
“Get in the car, Lin. And please stop calling me Charles.”
“It’s your name,” she told him as she jogged over to the car. Baronaire was already getting in, so she followed suit. She stared through the windshield at Reynolds getting back to her feet as Baronaire started the engine. “What are we doing?”
“Going back to London,” Baronaire said. “Mission accomplished.”
“But ... she’s still alive.”
Baronaire frowned. “Of course she’s still alive. I’m not going to kill an innocent person. At least not in the line of duty.”
“But what about what she knows?”
“I hypnotised her. She doesn’t know it any more.”
“You ... you what?”
“Didn’t you know I could do that? Lot of things I can do you probably don’t know, Lin.”
“So that’s it? That was what our assignment was? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You made assumptions, Detective. About the job, about Sanders. But worst of all, you made assumptions about me. It’s best never to make assumptions about me, Detective. I’m not the man you think I am. I’m something more, and something less.”
Lin said nothing as Baronaire pulled away. “So what are you then?”
“That’s what I need you to find out. Detective.”
“Aren’t we at least going to give Reynolds a lift home?”
Baronaire half-laughed, half-grumbled. “You’re assuming I’m a nice guy.”
“Somehow the thought never crossed my mind.”
But she had a lot to think about. Baronaire was right; she had made assumptions about him. And Sanders hadn’t helped by allowing her to stick to them. She did not know what Baronaire was, but was pretty sure he was being honest when he claimed he didn’t know either. There was one thing of which they were both certain, however, and that was that DCI Edward Sanders knew everything. About everybody.