The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus 3

by Michael Anderle

  “Lots of ways to get from place to place without being seen.” Peyton shrugged. “Like she could be using underground tunnels to get to her targets.”

  Shay ran her tongue inside her cheek, her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, she could.” She snapped her fingers. “I’ll contact Harry and have his little gang keep an eye out. They see a lot of weird stuff that other people miss, and if the Silver Ghost is using tunnels, they’ll find out. Just need to make it very clear they should stay the hell away from her. If she’s willing to go after cops, I’m not confident she won’t cut down teens working legally questionable jobs.”

  James frowned. “I should reinforce that for Trey. I don’t think he’d go after her since she’s a level five, but since he doesn’t know about any of this alien shit, he also doesn’t know how dangerous she might be.”

  Heather sighed. “So where does that leave us?”

  “We have a good idea who the enemy is now, which means we at least know what’s motivating her.”

  Heather shrugged. “But does that even help?”

  James chuckled and nodded. “Damn right it helps. Because we know her end goal, and her end target.” He pointed with a thumb at his chest. “Me. We still need to push on this to find her before she hurts someone else, but if it is the alien woman, there’s no way she’s going to wander off before taking a shot at me. That’s probably what all that calibration and testing is for. She’s getting ready to take me down.”

  Shay rubbed her temples. “I wish I’d had some idea who she was when I met Erin. I could have followed her to her car and slit her throat. Then it’d all be over.”

  “It’ll all be over soon enough.” James slammed a fist into his palm. “As soon as we find her.”

  13

  Trey glanced at Victoria in the passenger seat of his F-350 as they barreled down the 95. The pale redhead looked out the window with a pensive expression on her face. He couldn’t tell if she was bored or worried.

  Vic can’t be that worried about the Ghost, can she? Ain’t never seen her all that scared, even when those level fours got the drop on her.

  “You worried?” Trey prodded.

  The witch shook her head. “No, just thinking. You’re not the only one who’s going through life changes, you know? I’m still wrapping my mind around being a bounty hunter working for James Brownstone, of all people. Even if I’ve been doing it for a little while now, it doesn’t always feel real. Maybe chasing after some mysterious vigilante rather than the Mafia and gang garbage we tend to go after is making me think about it more.”

  Trey nodded. “Regretting joining up? Want to go back to bodyguard work?”

  “Actually, no.” Victoria furrowed her brow. “The thing is, at the end of the day, I get to practice my skills, and I know the people we go after are trash. You saw the kind of scum I sometimes worked for as a bodyguard. Yeah, I could have been choosier, but in the end, it’s nice to have a job where I make good money and I’m not making the world a worse place.”

  “I hear that.” Trey clucked his tongue. “I used to think I was the king of badasses, leading my boys around the neighborhood. I tried to keep shit from getting too bad, but you don’t have a gang if you never do nothing illegal. I forbade pimping and shit like that, but I don’t know. If we hadn’t ended up joining up with the big man, we might have gone down a deep hole we couldn’t dig our way out of. End up like real garbage, not just some boys protecting their neighborhood.”

  Victoria glanced his way. “And you’re not mad at James over Shorty dying?”

  “Fuck, no.” Trey sighed. “You have to understand. When you grow up as a gangbanger in the hood, you don’t think you’re gonna ever grow old. Not because you think you’re immortal, but because you think you’ll get your ass shot before that. You either leave the lifestyle by choice and become an accountant or some shit, or you leave in a box they put six feet in the ground. Eat, drink, and be motherfucking merry, for tomorrow you may die. That’s what it means to be a gang member.” He shook his head. “But those deaths ain’t gonna be some epic shit defending the Earth against crazy-ass Oriceran assholes who are sucking people’s souls out and shit. Dying is a punk-ass drive-by in a bullshit territory dispute.”

  “But Shorty’s still dead, and he died young.”

  Trey nodded slowly. “He died saving my life. He died fighting the Council. His death had more meaning than it would have, and you know what? There ain’t no one who survives life, so the next best thing is to make sure we go down in a way that means something. I don’t want to die young, but if I do, I want my death to mean something more than dying to determine who can deal drugs on what street corner.”

  Victoria shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess I want to die old in my bed in my sleep.”

  “Picked the wrong career paths for that shit.”

  The witch laughed. “I also want a little excitement. Guess there’s a conflict there. Do you regret your past at all?”

  Trey sighed. “I don’t know if I regret that shit or not. James ain’t ever made us feel bad about being ex-bangers, but then I see how much prouder Nana is of me. Makes me feel good, you know what I’m saying?”

  Victoria nodded. “I can understand that. My parents are both healers. They aren’t pleased with the general combat bent of my magic. It’s not like we never talk or anything, but it’s really kind of an occasional holiday thing, and I don’t talk about my work with them.”

  A comfortable silence spread between the two of them, Trey concentrating on the road and Victoria watching the traffic.

  Trey cleared his throat. “You think I should have told Zoe all the shit that’s going on before she went back to LA? I mean, sure, we’re gonna be living here full time soon, but I kind of feel like I’m lying to her by not telling her about all this. I don’t know if that makes me a bitch or not. I ain’t ever dated a woman quite like her, and I don’t always know what to make of her.”

  Victoria shrugged. “I haven’t met her, but everything you’ve told me about her makes her sound like a very powerful and far older witch than me, even if she specializes in a less flashy type of magic. She probably has her own secrets—tons of them. Don’t worry about it too much.” She frowned. “We just need to catch the Silver Ghost, since Brownstone’s so obsessed. Then it won’t matter for you, and we can all go back to making easy money. I’m surprised he cares so much, to be honest.”

  “He’s always been tight with the 5-0, even though they haven’t always liked him, and Maria’s one of his right-hand women now, so I’m sure she’s filling his ear with righteous vengeance shit.” Trey shrugged and changed lanes. “But the big man points me somewhere, I say, ‘How fast do you want me to get there, sir?’” He grinned.

  “Need some damn leads, though.” Victoria furrowed her brow. “Did Kathy give you anything useful? I meant to you ask you earlier.”

  “She’s trying, but I don’t know how useful the shit she gave me is. A few attacks locally, Mafia types mostly, a few gangbangers, but they don’t have any witnesses like they do in LA, so people ain’t a hundred percent sure if it is the Silver Ghost or just people using the rumors of the Ghost to settle scores.”

  “Isn’t that counterproductive? How do you show your strength if you’re hiding behind the rumor of someone else?”

  Trey shrugged. “Deplete enough of the enemy, it ain’t much matter if they know it’s you, because when you finish them off, they’ll still be gone. Fewer threats mean fewer losses on your side.”

  Victoria rolled her eyes. “You do know you’re a bounty hunter and not an ancient Roman or Chinese general?”

  “Hey, I always respect the wisdom of the ancients. You don’t end up with an empire or helping an empire take over if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “Doesn’t help us with our current enemy.” Victoria chuckled. “I think one thing I preferred about being a bodyguard was that you didn’t have to look for people. Your clients always wanted you around, and the people who
wanted your clients dead would show without you asking them to, but this rolling around town hoping to get lucky stuff is obnoxious. This isn’t exactly Ye Olde Village of Vegas. The chance we’ll randomly run into her might as well be zero.”

  Trey grinned. “Yeah, but that’s the thing about fishing, you know what I’m saying? If you just toss a line in, maybe you get shit, but you have to have the right bait.”

  The witch side-eyed him. “You spend a lot of time fishing? You don’t really strike me as the type.”

  “Nah, but I’ve seen movies and shit where they be fishing.” Trey pulled into the HOV lane and sped up. “When I was talking to Kathy this morning, I figured, why use her just to hear things when she can also say things?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Trey offered Victoria his best shit-eating grin. “I told her to put the word out that the Brownstone Agency and Trey motherfucking Garfield in particular are looking for the Silver Ghost, and if we catch the Silver Ghost, we’re more than willing to pass along a nice chunk of change to whatever snitching sonsofbitches sell her out, and if anyone happens to personally know the Ghost, they can whisper in that crazy bitch’s ear that she can come at me anytime.”

  Victoria frowned. “Wait, Brownstone said to not engage; to leave her to him. She’s a level five. You’re not worried about that?”

  Trey snorted. “Whatever. I got my motherfucking gloves, and you got your badass witch magic, and this bitch works alone, which makes shit easier. We can take on the Silver Ghost without the big man. We might have to, because he might not be able to get here in time even if we spot her. We just gonna let her get the fuck away? I ain’t down with that.”

  “A level five, though?” Victoria raised an eyebrow. “I’m a pretty tough bitch, but I’m still worried about that.”

  Trey rolled his eyes. “She ain’t no real level five.”

  “I’ve got a bounty notice that says otherwise.”

  Trey shook his head. “Nah, you don’t understand. She’s a level five because the 5-0 are embarrassed that she handed their asses to them. I’m not saying I’m happy about that. I met Weber, and he’s all right for a cop, but they all are freaking out because she hurt some of theirs. No one said shit about her being a level five when she was killing gang members, you know what I’m saying? We’ve only had trouble in the past because we were talking multiple level fours. A single level five is different shit, and like I said, we can do this as long as it’s just her. No one has said shit about the Ghost having backup."

  Victoria frowned. “I’m still not sure.”

  “Nah, check this shit out. She’s been beating up gang members and a few gangsters here and there. Surprising them. Yeah, yeah, she beat the 25K in their place, but if she had a decent magic shield, that accounts for that.” Trey patted his chest. “Give me a bulletproof vest and my gloves and I can take bullets too, and I ain’t no level five. I probably could have taken out those bitches if I got the drop on them. Do you think you’d be level five, even with your magic and the ability to bounce off bullets?”

  The witch shook her head. “What about the AET? Armor, rifles, and anti-magic bullets?”

  Trey grinned. “That’s the shit, though. Think about AET. They are all normal-ass humans like me. They ain’t PDA. They ain’t even the military, and they ain’t got shit for magic. They’re not magic; they’re just anti-magic. The Silver Ghost gets the drop on them, and they try their guns out and then realize that shit ain’t working too late, and that’s how she schools them. You and me, though… We ain’t just got anti-magic, we’ve got actual magic—my artifact and your general badass witchiness.” He glanced her way. “All the information we got ain’t said shit about her going after a magical criminal, right? Just gangsters with swords and that kind of shit. That’s got to mean something.”

  Victoria nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. “That’s a good point. Not like there aren’t magical bounties and criminals to go after, especially in LA.”

  “Exactly, which means she’s afraid to do it. I know she’s got that regeneration, but if we can just knock her out or tie her up somehow, that shit won’t matter.” Trey chuckled. “Yeah, we can take down the Silver Ghost. You and me, together, I know we can. We’re a badass team, Vic.”

  A hungry look appeared in the witch’s eyes, and she licked her lips. “I’ll admit I do like the idea of a challenge, and you make a compelling argument. Aren’t you worried about going against Brownstone?”

  Trey shook his head. “At the end of the day, the big man cares about results, not rules. He ain’t gonna blow his stack if we take this bitch down for him. It’s one less thing he needs to do. He can sit at home, play with his dog, cook barbeque, and save himself for the next Council who shows up and shit like that.”

  “You’re sure you’re willing to take on a level five?”

  “Damn right. At least a single level five. We know a lot about this Silver Ghost, and she ain’t summoning no demons or frying people’s brains with her eyes. Probably don’t have a shield, just regeneration. Bitch can’t even fly, which means we’re on even terms.” Trey’s hands tightened on the wheel. “I’m just saying, we try if we get the chance. From everything the big man’s heard, he’ll hit her in LA before we find her in Vegas.”

  Victoria leaned back in her seat, silent for a good thirty seconds before responding, “Why are you so hellbent on this? Is this some sort of big-dick thing?”

  Trey shook his head. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the move and what it represents. How things have changed, both with my training and my gear. I need to step up my game, and that means pushing myself. A man needs to know his limits if he wants to push past them. That’s the only way he can grow. That’s what James, Staff Sergeant, and Marcus Aurelius all taught me.”

  Victoria shrugged. “Fine. I’ve got your back if she shows up, but if we take her down ourselves, we’re getting the bulk of that bounty.”

  Trey laughed. “If money is your only standard, then consider that, by your lights, someone who loses their nose does not suffer any harm.”

  The witch blinked. “Huh?”

  “Marcus Aurelius said that.”

  Victoria snorted. “Easy thing for an emperor to say. Let’s just find ourselves a witch; we can figure out the stoic crap later.”

  Trey smiled. “Fine by me.”

  14

  James looked back and forth in the narrow hallway before knocking on the apartment door. He wasn’t expecting anyone suspicious, but checking around before meeting with an informant was a good general policy.

  No obvious cameras. Good way to meet people at home without someone knowing what’s up. Harry and his friends have good instincts. Then again, no one would ever know what happened if someone came in here and did something to them.

  Shay looked down at the smooth carpet and chuckled. “Nice. Not five star, but a big step up from living in tunnels. It’s funny how far all these kids have come since I met Lily.”

  “That’s on you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You helped them all, you know,” James replied. “If you hadn’t started training Lily and paying her, those kids would have stayed tunnel rats for years, running around stealing to survive. Now, because of Lily’s success and the money, they’ve got a good business going, and they have a chance at a future that doesn’t end with gangsters killing them because they took the wrong shit.”

  Did Harry hear me? He’s the one who set up the meeting time.

  James knocked again.

  “I wasn’t trying to help them. I was trying to wring something useful out of Lily. Helping them was incidental.” Shay shrugged. “It was self-interest, not altruism.”

  “You could have cut Lily loose at any time, but you didn’t. You even helped her when she fucked up.” James chuckled. “Self-interest? I could say the same thing about Trey and the guys. I’m just lazy and don’t want to be bothered with low-level bounties. Self-interest and altruism d
on’t have to be separate things.”

  Light footsteps sounded from the other side. The locks clicked, and the door opened.

  Finally.

  “Sorry. I was on the phone checking on something when you knocked,” Harry offered.

  “Not a big deal.”

  He looked old for his age, but that only meant he looked like an older teenager. He offered a nod to both Shay and James before gesturing to a tattered blue sectional sofa by a matching recliner in an otherwise barren living room. There wasn’t even a tv on the wall.

  Huh. I guess you can take a guy out of the tunnels, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to get rid of those tunnel-living instincts anytime soon. Not that living simply is that bad a thing. I would have been less pissed when they blew up my house if I’d had fewer things.

  James grunted and headed over to the sofa to take a seat. Shay sat beside him. Unlike James, she’d been to the place before, and her face betrayed no hint of surprise at the minimalist decor.

  “Your message said you had some information,” James rumbled. “I’m guessing I’d be too damned lucky if you already found out where the Silver Ghost lives.”

  Harry moved over to the recliner to sit. “Yeah, still working on that, but it’s not like we’ve got nothing for you. First off, a few simple things. My guys asked around and found a few witnesses the cops hadn’t. I can a hundred percent verify that she can’t teleport or portal. She jumps like crazy and climbs like a damned spider, though. She runs fast, but it’s not, like, superhumanly fast.”

  Shay nodded. “That’s consistent with everything we’ve heard. That’s still annoying enough, but at least that means James can fight her on equal mobility terms.”

  Harry shrugged. “As for her moving around using the tunnels? I really, really doubt it. We’ve asked a lot of tunnel rats, and no one has seen her. If anything, the tunnels have been super-quiet lately, and people have been paying a lot more attention this year in general because of all the stuff that happened with that Council bastard.”