“You are stronger, but do you feel different?”
“Whisper, you sound scared. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… I… I am just concerned for you is all.”
“I’m just tired.” She’d been weaker after the Tokugawa fight, and though she’d gotten better again with practice, she hadn’t come close to the energy she’d been able to muster before. Why now? That was really strange. Would the stronger connection to the Power stick around again, or would she lose it like last time?
If she hadn’t been so darn tired and out of it, she probably would’ve pondered on that particular mystery for a while. Instead she drifted off and was snoring in a few minutes.
She didn’t hear Whisper mutter to herself, “I wish that I had been wrong.”
Bell Farm, Virginia
They made it home late. Home, being a dilapidated farmhouse just itching to fall down, was a relative term, but it was a place to lay his weary head. Sullivan was tired. Playing mental games against somebody like J. Edgar Hoover was more tiring than breaking rocks. Plus, his body still ached from the fight with the Imperium Brute. Magical Mending could fix the wound, but the pain managed to stick around.
They parked the truck in the barn and walked to the house. Sullivan felt it first. The wartime instincts never really went away. The woods were too quiet. “We’re being watched,” he whispered. Dan started to turn his head. “Play it cool.” The other knight pretended to relax, but he kept one hand close to his piece.
Sullivan exercised his Power to feel the world around him. The metal bits were so much denser than their surroundings that they stuck out like beacons. Fifteen yards. One person in the bushes. Armed.
The noise of a revolver being cocked was very distinctive. After that came a woman’s voice. “Don’t move.”
He didn’t need to move to bend the hell out of gravity, so Sullivan prepared to Spike their new guest halfway across Virginia.
“Easy, Sullivan. I just want to talk.”
“Hammer…”
Dan had one hand on his pistol. “Who?”
“The lady who served me up to the OCI on a plate.”
She came walking out of the shadows, gun trained on them. “I didn’t know it was a setup. I was just supposed to get you to answer the phone. I didn’t know they meant to kill you.”
“I’m more inclined to believe folks who aren’t pointing heaters at me.”
“I’m just being careful. You’ve got a reputation for tossing people around.”
Sullivan scanned the trees. The range that he could check with his Power was limited. She could have an army out there. “You alone?”
“Just me and Mr. Colt here.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Only if I was here to fight, which I’m not. I’ll put this down, but give me your word that you won’t use magic on me first or start anything unless it is self-defense.”
“Are you serious?”
“Promise.”
That was an odd request. Sullivan looked at Dan, who just shrugged. “Okay. Fine. I promise I won’t attack you unless you attack me.”
“No tricks. Just hear me out. Then we part ways.”
“Agreed.”
“You’re telling the truth.” Hammer lowered the revolver. “You have no idea how refreshing that is.”
“This your fake redhead, Jake?” Dan asked, the subtle edge of magic in his words. “Because I’ve got to say, she might’ve bragged to you about how good she was at finding folks, but she sure didn’t exaggerate her talents. You certainly didn’t exaggerate about her being pretty either. She’s just as lovely in person. Very nice to meet you.”
“Save the flattery for a chump, Mouth. Your Power won’t work on me.”
Dan smiled. “Can’t blame a man for trying.”
“You here to arrest me?” Sullivan asked. “Because I’ve really got more important things to worry about right now.”
“Originally, I was. Now, I’m probably going to regret this. Hell, never mind, I know I’m going to regret this.” Hammer paused. “I’m here to help you.”
This woman was trouble. Sullivan shook his head. “No thanks. Got all the help I need.”
“You know a man by the name of Heinrich Koenig?”
“What about him?” Dan asked, positively dripping suspicion over the use of his dead friend’s name.
“He’s being held captive by the OCI, until they get tired of him. Then they’ll execute him even though they know he’s innocent, which is frankly an idea I find bothersome.”
“Impossible! Heinrich…” Dan looked to Sullivan. “Francis never got to see his body.” Then he grinned as he latched onto some hope. “I knew that stubborn son of a gun wouldn’t die that easy!” Dan went to unlock the door.
“So, you boys ready to talk yet? You know you want to.”
It might be an elaborate trick, but he was always a sucker for a mystery, and Hammer knew that about him. Sullivan gestured to the door of the farmhouse. “Come in.”
Hammer followed. “Not to be rude or anything, but you got anything to eat in here? I’ve been hiding in the bushes all afternoon, and spying is terribly famishing work.”
As they entered the house, Dan had already positioned himself off to the side, 45 in hand. He cracked the slide over the top of her head, hard enough to lay her out. Hammer hit the floor and her gun slid away.
“Damn it, Dan.” Sullivan looked down at the dazed woman. “What’d you do that for?”
“You gave your word, not mine.” Dan opened Hammer’s coat and discovered a gun belt. He removed another revolver and set it aside. “I don’t know what her Power is, but I can tell it’s something crafty. I bounced right off of her. Definitely a mental-type Active from what you said before, and she’s just oozing Power. If she’s going to start playing mind control or something, I want the deck stacked in our favor first.”
It wasn’t a bad idea at all. “That’s reasonable. I just hope you didn’t hit her too hard.”
“That was a love tap. I was a perfect gentlemen. It’ll just leave a goose egg.”
Hammer was cursing them. She rolled over and put her hands on her head. “Oh, you filthy rotten-” Then she got really nasty.
“Lady’s got a mouth on her. You believe that stuff about Heinrich?”
“Not really.”
“Think it’s a trap?”
“More than likely,” Sullivan agreed.
“Help me tie her up?”
“Well, I said I’d play nice. So you do it. I’ll get dinner started.”
Dinner consisted of opening a few cans of vegetables and one that was filled with a congealed meatlike substance, mixing them together in a pot, and heating it all on the stove until it was hot enough to distract them from the taste. Sullivan never claimed to be a very good cook.
Hammer was tied to a chair with some baling wire that Dan had found in the barn. In the spirit of fairness, Dan had just tied her ankles and one wrist to the chair, leaving her left hand free so that she could still eat. After sampling the noxious sludge Sullivan had prepared, she’d said that they weren’t doing her any favors.
“Being the fat one, you must be Dan Garrett. So, Mr. Garrett, you like hitting women?”
“Far from it. I work in an environment where it isn’t terribly uncommon to have the supposedly weaker sex bend steel beams with their bare hands. I treat all of my threats equally. Hell, I’m practically a suffragist.”
She poked at the baling wire with her free hand. “This isn’t necessary.”
“Nothing personal,” Dan explained, “but a lot of very powerful people are trying to kill us right about now, so we can’t be too careful.”
“So you buffaloed me,” Hammer muttered. “You’re a real class act.”
“If it’s any consolation, my wife will Mend that bump when she gets back… Unless of course, she decides not to because you were rudely pointing a gun at her husband.”
“And if I’d just walked up and been
friendly as can be?”
“You’d probably still be tied to that chair, but wouldn’t have the headache.”
Sullivan chuckled. “First time I met Dan, I got tossed off a blimp. So in comparison, you got off easy.”
Hammer glared at him. “You’re a bastard.”
“So I been told. Start talking.”
She did. Hammer told them about being recruited to find him because she was a Justice. That piqued Sullivan’s scholarly interest, since he’d never actually had a confirmation that such Actives were real. Hopefully, if they ended up on speaking terms after this he’d have to interview her for his notes. She insisted that she’d been as surprised as he was about how the OCI had tried to shoot him, and how afterward she’d then been recruited by Crow.
“Why, after seeing what a shyster bunch they were, did you go along with that?”
“None of your damn business.”
Dan started to ask another question, but Sullivan held up one hand. He’d been forced to chose between working for J. Edgar Hoover or staying in Rockville. It wouldn’t surprise him in the least to see G-men using dirt on another Active to get their job done. Blackmail, threats, whatever, it was one more reason to tread extra carefully around Hammer. “It don’t matter. Go on.”
She told them a bit about how her Power worked, how she could follow someone and know which path they’d taken, and how that had led her to the ambassador’s mansion.
“Lucky that Brute didn’t eat you for breakfast.”
“Are you kidding? Toru was polite compared to you two. That’s a sad state of affairs when the Imperium are the hospitable ones of the bunch.”
“Oh, they’re all sorts of polite, until he found out you had a rare Power and kidnapped you for Unit 731 to experiment on.” Dan sounded bitter, the memory of Madi taking Jane still fresh in his mind.
“I didn’t say I wanted to start palling around with them. After that I tracked you into the country. Then Crow appeared out of thin air. I still haven’t figured out how he does that.”
“Near as we can figure, he’s a Summoner that possesses demons, like a Beastie controls animals.” Which was a fascinating concept, one that he’d never heard of before, or even considered possible. It was too bad he was probably going to have to kill Crow, because he would love to know how he’d accomplished such a feat.
Hammer appeared deep in thought. “That makes sense. He’s like a big bag of lies, and when I get a glimpse of the truth, it’s been too …”
“Weird?” Dan suggested.
“Alien. I’ve only talked to him a few times now, but each time it’s like talking to a different person.”
Sullivan’s guess was that was the different demons he was wearing. He’d have to update his notes on Actives, preferably after they’d put Crow in the ground. Whatever the hell he was, he was a danger first and foremost. “How’d he find you?”
“They carved a spell onto my car. I found it and wrecked it.”
Sullivan got up and went to the kitchen window. The woods were still and dark. “That could’ve been a decoy. There might be another.”
“Yeah, so I ditched that car and boosted a different one.”
He closed the curtain. “That’s not very nice.”
“You stole my new Ford!” Hammer sputtered.
“I left it someplace it would be found.”
“On its roof!”
Dan laughed at him. Sullivan folded his arms defensively and scowled at Dan. “It was on its wheels when I left it. My apologies. I’ll make it up to you and get you another. Those Hyperions are pricey though. It might take me awhile.”
“I can’t believe it.” She shook her head. “You’re telling the truth. You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you, Sullivan? Every lawman in the country has your picture on the wall and you’re worried about how you’re going to replace my car. We’ve got more important things to worry about.”
“So it’s we now?” Dan asked. “Lady, I don’t trust you as far as Jake could throw you. Why should I start now?”
She told them about the recording of Heinrich and Crow’s admission that he had proof, and how both were at OCI headquarters. That sounded a little too convenient for Sullivan. Yet, as Hammer talked, he studied her. She was tough, and she had an attitude about her, but if this was a trap it wasn’t her creation. Hammer seemed sincere… but then again, she’d played him like a fool the very first time they’d met. When she was done, she looked him square in the eye, and asked, “You believe me now?”
“I believed you were a redhead. Look where that got me.”
“That was business.” Hammer glowered at him. “It got you some exercise and a chance to talk to a ghost. Admit it, you’d do it again.”
She had him there. “All right. If you want me to trust you, why the change of heart?”
“It isn’t enough that I don’t want to see an innocent man hang? I’m putting myself in jeopardy by even talking to you! What do you think he’s going to do to me when Crow finds out? I’m risking my life. Isn’t that good enough?”
Sullivan shook his head.
“Fine…” Hammer hesitated. “Tell me about your rings.”
Dan covered his with his off hand. “What about them?”
“My father had a lot of respect for the men that wore those.”
“He was Grimnoir?” Sullivan asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Hammer?” Dan leaned forward. “Married or maiden name?”
“Born with it. I’m single…” she answered. Sullivan looked at her funny. “What?”
“I was just going to say I could see why.” Hammer made an amusing face when she was angry. “You’re kind of pushy.”
Dan paid them no mind. “You’re a Texan?” Hammer nodded. “I’ve got an ear for accents. Was your father Lee Hammer?”
“You knew him?” Without another word, Dan stood up, pushed down Hammer’s free hand and twisted it down with wire. He then took Sullivan by the arm and guided him out of the kitchen. “Wait! What do you know?”
Once they were out of earshot in the hall, Dan began pacing and rubbing his face. “Hell, this is complicated.”
“What’s the deal, Dan?”
“Keep your voice down. Lee Hammer never took the oath. Lord knows Pershing asked him enough times. Said he’d already taken one as a marshal and didn’t ever want to have to choose between the two in case there was a conflict. But he helped us quite a few times. Pershing was a friend of his. They went after Pancho Villa together. I’ve heard stories about him, but never met the man.”
“So, she’s legit?”
“Maybe. Apples don’t fall far from the tree, but sometimes they bounce when they hit and roll a ways.”
Sullivan shrugged. His parents had been decent enough folks, but he had one brother that had been a murderous lunatic. “Yeah, I guess. So do you think she’s leading us into a trap or not?”
“Her? Maybe… Crow, definitely. I wish we had that tape so we could see if it’s really Heinrich’s voice or not.”
“If she’s a Justice, then she’d have known if it wasn’t him.”
“Only if she’s telling us the truth, which she might not be. I wish we had a Reader handy… This is complicated.”
“You’ve said that. What’s so complicated about it? She’s either on our side or she’s not.”
“Because she’d be right to hold a grudge.” Dan looked pained. “Look, I’ll explain later. She can’t force the truth out of you if you don’t know it.” He started to walk back to the kitchen but Sullivan stepped in front of him.
“I happen to be a fan of the truth.”
Dan shook his head sadly. “He died helping us. We got him killed.”
They hadn’t twisted the wire down too hard. Dan Garrett talked tough, but he hadn’t even let it cut into her skin. Hammer knew she could wiggle a hand free and get herself out of this in no time. They had gone around the corner to talk privately. It would only take a second. Her guns wer
e sitting on the counter. They’d never see it coming.
This was stupid. They didn’t trust her, and why should they? Sullivan was honorable enough to not put a bullet in her head and dump her body in the woods, but she couldn’t tell about Garrett. Since Mouths were so good at twisting their words, their lies didn’t even register. She hated Mouths because they were one of the only types that she couldn’t judge. He’d sucker-punched her and she’d walked right into it. As a professional, that was flat-out embarrassing.
She could skip out the back, run for the car. By the time she could contact the OCI the Grimnoir would be long gone. Crow would be suspicious, but she could just say that they’d surprised her and tied her up. It wasn’t too far from the truth. The wire wasn’t that tight. She probably wouldn’t even leave much skin behind…
Hell with it. As her daddy used to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. She left the wire alone and waited for the Grimnoir to finish their conference. Besides, they could come back around the corner any second and it would look real suspicious if she was in the process of untying herself.
The walls were thin. She could hear voices but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. When they came back in she would try to convince them that she was telling the truth. She had to watch herself, though. The normal alarm bells that would be going off when somebody lied to her simply didn’t work with Garrett.
Sullivan raised his voice. Something had ticked him off. The conversation tapered off again and she didn’t get to hear anything else. They came back a minute later, looking glum. Sullivan untwisted the wires around her wrists. “Sorry about this.” He knelt down and freed her ankles. He was surprisingly gentle about it. “And I’m real sorry about the whack on the head.”
She rubbed the circulation back into her hands. “And the general indignity of it all?”
“That too.”
“And my car?”
“Don’t push it.” Sullivan went over and took a seat. Garrett stayed leaning against the wall.
“You’ve put us between a rock and a hard place,” the Mouth said. “There’s layers here, and we’ve got to figure out which ones are legit and which ones are a scheme, and I don’t have your advantage in that department, so you’re just going to have to forgive my rudeness while we sort this out.”
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