by Jon F. Merz
“Oh, did we talk?”
Frack smiled. “Enough for us to figure out that you must have been helping the old bitch.”
“Doesn’t matter now,” I said. “You’re dead and I’m going to take the hostage back to Belladonna.”
Frack leaned back in his chair. For someone who was about to die, he seemed remarkably relaxed. “That might prove difficult for you.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s not here.”
“You just said she was in the cellar.”
“No, I said that’s where we stowed her.” He grinned. “You know, before we moved her some place else.”
“Where?”
“You think I’m going to tell you?” Frack shook his head. “You’re either a lot stupider than you look or cocky enough to think you can pull that information out of me.”
“I guess we’ll find out,” I said.
And then I squeezed the trigger again.
29
The round took Frack in his left shoulder causing him to cry out almost instantly. I could hear the fear in his voice, thinking that he’d been shot clean through and that his life was over even as he heard the muffled shot.
But I’d only grazed him. Deliberately. I wanted his complete and undivided attention.
Frack put a hand to his shoulder and then brought it away, slick with his own blood. He stared at it for a moment in disbelief and then looked back at me. “Why-?”
“Because I want you to concentrate on the matter at hand: where is she?”
Frack started to shake his head. “I can’t-“
“You can,” I said. “And you will. Otherwise the next round is going into your heart and you’ll die an awful death. It’s painful, you know, watching lycans die from the silver nitrate as it enters their bloodstream and causes that lethal chemical reaction. Truly awful. I’ve seen it before. I’ve killed your kind before.”
“Who are you?”
I smiled. “I’m the man who is giving you a chance. Right now. At this one moment. But you’ll only have the chance for a sliver of time. And then it’s gone.” I fired again, grazing his right shoulder.
Frack yelped as the round sliced through his skin.
I sucked my teeth. “That was close, huh? Might have gone too deep into the muscle that time. Sometimes my aim is off just a little bit. Jeez, a little lower and the tip would have fragmented and spilled all that silver into you. Wow, that wouldn’t be good, huh?”
Frack held up his hand weakly. I could smell the blood staining the air with its coppery scent. But lycan blood didn’t do a thing for me. I needed human.
“She’s not far.”
“Where?”
Frack sighed. “They took her to Bar Harbor. To the drop.”
“The drop? Why would they do that?”
“They wanted to show the old bitch when they killed her.”
I frowned. “But they were going to make the exchange.”
Frack shook his head. “No. That was just to get her to steal the Corantu. Once they have it, they’re planning on killing them both.”
Son of a bitch. I was at the opposite end of the island and the drop would be happening soon. There was no time to lose.
Frack looked at me. “You’re not lycan, are you?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”
“Who-?”
“Vampire,” I said. “Ever heard of a Fixer?”
Frack cocked his head to the side. “Maybe once. But you guys are only supposed to be a rumor. Not real.”
“Real enough,” I said. “And now you know my secret.”
Frack grinned. “Is that suppose to make us friends now?”
I looked at him. “Not in this lifetime.” I leveled the M4 on him and put two rounds into his chest with a double-tap of the trigger. His chest blossomed red as the rounds tore into his heart and started spreading the silver nitrate into his system.
Frack clutched at his chest and fell from the chair on to the floor. He started writhing around and gasping for air. Blood ran out of his mouth, spilling across the tile. I gave him one final look, turned, and walked out of the room.
Outside, the rain had gotten worse along with a heavy wind blowing in off the ocean. I jogged up the lane toward the street and found my way back to the car a lot faster than I gave myself credit for. In seconds, I had the engine gunned, the car in reverse and I was pulling back out on to route 102A.
I figured I was at least twenty minutes from Bar Harbor if I didn’t hit any traffic.
Or cops.
Speeding as much as possible, I kept the car tucked tight around the corners, hearing the wheels spin a few times on the slick road. I had to make sure I didn’t hydroplane, but I’d been driving enough through the years on awful roads that I adjusted accordingly. The real trick was going to be avoiding any cops out here on this crappy night. I didn’t think they were going to take too kindly to an armed dude with an M4 and a pistol strapped to his thigh roaring down the road toward Bar Harbor. If that didn’t have ‘potential terrorist plot stopped’ ready made for a news headline, I didn’t know what did.
I shot up 102A toward 102 and made it in record time, despite the curves and pouring rain. I kept the gas down into the turns, using the brake as I approached but while still on the straightaway. It went a long way toward making sure I didn’t lose control of the car.
But I was hemorrhaging time that I didn’t have. I couldn’t risk calling either Belladonna or Arthur because the bad guys would simply kill everyone. I’d blow Arthur’s position if I called him. I had to get to Bar Harbor and stop these clowns myself, hopefully in time to save everyone.
Or as I like to call it: just another day on the job for ol’ Lawson.
Yeah, right.
Faster than I would have thought possible, I wheeled my way into Bar Harbor. I jerked the car to avoid a pair of drunks stumbling out of a bar and into the street, beeped the horn with an appropriate amount of profanity thrown in, and then slid back into the slipstream heading north up toward Agamont Park.
I had no way of knowing what I was going to be walking into. I just needed to get my ass on scene as soon as possible. I passed a cop car idling by a Dunkin’ Donuts and eased off the gas some. Hopefully they were too busy drinking coffee to give me any attention. And then a block ahead, I saw the signs for the park.
I slid the car to the right and down a side street where there wasn’t much light and parked it.
Time was critical. I just hoped I’d made it.
30
Agamont Park was a spit at the end of the town, nestled in on all sides by shops and something that looked like a hotel with a widow walk at the top. If I was a betting man - and I was - I felt pretty certain that Arthur would have managed to find his way up there for overwatch. It was really the only point in the area where he could command a good field of fire on every possible entrance and exit to the park. Park benches and a small fountain stood near the middle, but for the moment, I was skirting the perimeter, trying to see where Belladonna might have been.
I spotted her by the gazebo.
Along with four other bodies - three of whom I assumed would be the bad guys.
I came into the park by getting down on all fours and squirming my way through a large evergreen shrubbery that stuck on my clothes and did its best to keep me from being quiet and smooth. I got through and then slowly rose up. The gazebo was about a hundred meters away.
The gazebo made sense, I realized. Even though Arthur had the high ground, the gazebo would prove meddlesome to him getting a clean shot off. Especially if the bad guys made a move to grab Belladonna or Maxine and use them as a shield.
Good thing I’d gotten here when I did.
I decided the best way to handle this was a frontal attack. No sense getting all complicated and fancy. I’d rise up, get the M4 sighted on these bad dudes and let Belladonna dictate how it went down from there.
Sounded like a good plan to me.
A p
ark bench stood in front of me, so I slid around it and kept the M4 up and in my shoulder. I was breathing faster, so I slowed my heart rate down some so as not to screw up any shots I had to take. I closed down the distance.
I could see Belladonna clearly. She was gesturing and mad. I could see what I thought was Maxine from the back, but she had two bad guys near her with their arms wrapped around her and a gun to her temple.
“Give it to us,” said a voice.
Belladonna shook her head. “Maxine goes free first. Only then will I release the Corantu.”
“You’re not in a position to negotiate anything here,” said the voice. “I will issue the commands. Otherwise, your apprentice dies. It’s that simple.”
“Well, maybe not quite that simple,” I said then.
The reaction was pretty immediate. The two bad guys holding Maxine wheeled around and used her as a shield while they kept the gun trained on her head. The other bad guy pushed his way to the front and eyed me through the darkness.
“Is this the one they were concerned about?”
One of the other bad guys shrugged. “Might be.”
“If you’re talking about the Wonder Twins, yeah, I’m that guy.” I gestured with the M4. “Now that we’ve introduced ourselves, we’re going to have a little chat.”
“Not until I know who I am dealing with,” said the bad guy I assumed was running this shit show.
“Ladies before gentlemen,” I said.
“Fair enough.” He morphed than and I saw the security guard who’d spoken English to Belladonna back at the armory. So he was a lycan. That still didn’t explain why on earth he’d insisted on speaking English instead of Geralach. “My name is Kaesun.”
“Capris Sun? I never liked those drink pouches,” I said. “My name’s Lawson.”
“Lawson?” Kaesun’s brow furrowed then and he was silent for a moment. Finally, his face lit up. “The Fixer?”
Ah, shit. Y’know, I was getting pissed off that it was getting harder and harder to maintain my anonymity these days. There must have been some grand bad guy douchebag database or something where these assholes swapped notes. I was going to have to change my name soon. Maybe something cooler, like Herbie.
Sure.
I gestured with the M4. “What I am is not important. What I’m capable of, is. With that said, you’re going to let Maxine go and Belladonna as well.”
Kaesun sniffed the air. “I don’t think so. First of all, you are a long ways away from your jurisdiction. Secondly, I don’t think the Council would be pleased to learn that one of their Fixers is meddling in lycan affairs. After all, wouldn’t that pretty much be considered an act of war by your people upon mine?”
“Not necessarily.”
Kaesun laughed. “That was hardly convincing. Just imagine how it would look if a vampire Fixer was known to have killed a member of the lycan Council?”
Whoa, this dude was that high up? I looked over at Belladonna. “Is that true?”
She nodded. “He’s with the Council, yes.”
Well, that was not the sort of news I was hoping to hear. I thought we’d just be dealing with some low-level scumbags I could put into the ground without too much worry of it coming back on me. But this changed things entirely. Like, badly.
Kaesun’s smile grew on his face. “So let’s just go back to the start and try this whole thing again, shall we? You’re going to put that awful looking weapon down and maybe - just maybe - I will let you live long enough to tell your people yourself why you chose to stick your nose into things that don’t concern you.”
“Why do I doubt that?” I asked. “Oh yeah, it’s because I’ve dealt with assholes like you before. And you guys never ever seem to be able to keep your promises.”
“Well,” said Kaesun, “I can promise you this: if you don’t put the weapon down, you will soon have a heart full of wood for your troubles.”
“Is that so?”
Kaesun nodded. “That is most definitely so. You see, in your haste to get here, you seem to have missed an associate of mine.”
Which is when I heard the sound of a hammer being pulled back on a pistol.
Behind me.
31
When you’ve been in the field as long as I have, there are certain things that you never forget: the twang of a tripwire, the scent of a woman’s neck, the smell of death, and the sound of a hammer being cocked. Which is why I very slowly took my left hand off the hand guard and started to raise it. I felt the pistol jam into the part of my back directly behind my heart and took a breath.
“Easy there, dude.”
“Give me the gun.”
I nodded and let the M4 go. As I did so, I turned and saw the guy who had surprised me. He was covered from head-to-toe in camouflage and grease paint. Dirt clung to his face and bits of grass and weeds dangled off of him like he’d been buried in the ground for some time.
“You do that cam job yourself? Impressive.”
He swung his elbow so fast, I didn’t even have time to register it until it collided with my jaw and sent my head snapping back. I saw stars and heard the bells of Notre Dame ringing in my skull. The dude could hit. I brought my hand up to my jaw and massaged it, tasting blood in my mouth as I did so.
“Nice shot.”
He tossed the M4 to one of the bad guys watching over Monk. Then the guy who’d surprised me took my pistol and tossed that over as well.
“I feel so naked,” I said. “And this doesn’t really look like it’s going to be one of those parties. Bummer.”
Kaesun shook his head. “Are you always this sarcastic?”
“I’m actually usually a lot worse. That shot to the jaw took a little bit out of me, not going to lie.”
Kaesun shook his head and turned back to Belladonna. “All right, if we are finally finished with the dramatics, let’s get this done and over with.” He held out his hand to Belladonna. “The Corantu. Give it to me.”
Belladonna shook her head. “I can’t let this go to someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
Kaesun laughed. “And what, you think it’s better for this relic to lay dormant in the armory? No one is doing anything with it. Do you know what it’s capable of?”
“Of course I know what it’s capable of,” said Belladonna. “I’m an Elder, after all. It’s my job to know what it does.”
I cleared my throat, trying to play for some time. “How about clueing me in? I don’t know what it does.”
Kaesun eyed me. “You wouldn’t appreciate it, bloodsucker.”
“See? There’s no need for that. I mean, I thought we were all getting along here and you have to go pulling out the racial epithets. Not cool, man. You don’t see me calling you a moondog.” I held up my hand. “Oops.”
Camo dude pistol-whipped me at the base of my skull Damn, that hurt. I rubbed the back of my neck and shrugged. “Sorry.”
Kaesun waved his hand. “Whatever. The Corantu is capable of absorbing the power of a full moon and extending and amplifying that power for the lycan who wields it.”
“So…like Viagra?” I grinned. “Call a doctor if you have an erection lasting longer than four hours-“
I got another knock on the skull for my trouble.
I glanced behind me at the camo dude. “You know, I’m really going to enjoy killing you.”
He sniffed and ignored me.
Kaesun shook his head. “Enough.” He turned back to Belladonna. “You certainly seem to associate with interesting individuals, Belladonna. I wonder what the Council would say if they knew about your dealings with the vampires.”
“I think they’d probably be more concerned about your treason,” said Belladonna.
Kaesun smiled again. “Ah yes, well, you see, that’s going to be tough to tell them when you’re dead and buried in the ground. Now give me the relic.”
“It belongs to Maxine,” said Belladonna. “She’s the only one who can wield it properly.”
Kaesun glanced at Maxin
e. “Is that so? Well, why didn’t you say so earlier?” He motioned for the two goons to release her. “Come here, my darling.”
Maxine walked toward him. Kaesun ran a hand through her short hair and smiled. “Get your relic from your teacher.”
Maxine turned to Belladonna and held out her hand. Belladonna sighed and reached into her coat pocket, pulling out the Corantu that we’d stolen from the lycan armory. She looked at the relic and then handed it to Maxine.
Kaesun clapped his hands. “Wonderful. You see? That wasn’t too horrible, was it?”
Maxine turned then and as she did so, she morphed into a different woman entirely. Maxine was gone. In her place stood a woman with a dark complexion and long black hair. She reached up and kissed Kaesun on the lips. It was definitely not hot.
Then she handed the Corantu to Kaesun before sliding behind him. One of the goons handed her my pistol.
“Where is the real Maxine?” asked Belladonna.
“She’s dead,” said Kaesun. “We killed her right after we gave you proof of life.”
Belladonna shook her head. “That wasn’t very smart.”
Kaesun cocked an eyebrow. “Really? You see, from where I stand, it was most definitely a smart thing to do. Less to clean up now. Just you and the bloodsucker.”
“Again with the names,” I said. “Honestly…”
“You’re both dead,” said Kaesun.
“Why drag it out?” I asked. “Why not just kill Belladonna as soon as you got here?”
“Because she’s been a thorn in my side for years,” said Kaesun. “And I wanted to see the look on her face when I told her that her apprentice was dead.”
I couldn’t tell what Belladonna looked like because Kaesun was standing in front of her. What I did know was that time was running out. I really hoped Arthur was in position - ready to rain some lead down on these scumbags.
But I couldn’t wait for him to judge the right time. I had to send him a signal.
So I went into action.