Devil's Bargain rld-1

by Rachel Caine

  “We have visitors.” Lucia crossed her arms and tilted her head toward the cops.

  “I go first. You back me up.” Jazz fixed a hard stare on her. “I need you on this.”

  “I know. I’ll be there.”

  Jazz nodded once, took the envelope and shoved it into her coat pocket, then walked, in no great hurry, around the corner.

  “Where’s she going?” one of the cops asked behind her.

  “Bathroom,” Lucia said. “Do you think we should get away from the windows? In case he’s not really gone?” She suddenly sounded vulnerable and scared.

  “Sure. No problem.”

  Jazz heard them moving away, and grinned without humor. She was just moving for the stairs when someone hurried around the corner and almost collided with her. She jumped away, ready to punch, and Pansy staggered back to catch herself against the wall, hand flat against her chest and an expression of shock all over her face. She straightened her glasses and fanned herself.

  “What?” Jazz demanded.

  “Here!” Pansy pressed something into her hands. “Manny gave it to me. Give me this one. Go!”

  She hurried off, back the way she’d come. Jazz, mystified, looked down at what she was holding in her hands, and felt a sudden surge of wild, strange glee.

  She shoved it into her pocket and hit the stairwell door at as much of a run as she dared to keep noise to a minimum. Rocketing downstairs on tiptoe was a trick, but she managed, checking her momentum with an outstretched hand raking the walls at the turns. At the lobby door she paused and risked a look outside. More cops down there, but they were all on the street by the patrol cars. She eased open the stairwell door, hurried across the lobby and made it to the service entrance.

  Loading dock. Deserted. She left at a flat-out run, breathing deep, feeling a burn in her knee where bruises hadn’t begun to heal from her fight the day before. It was easy enough to dodge the cops on the street, and then she kept running, moving as fast as she dared to cover the two blocks. As she waited for the light to cross to the left-hand side, she looked behind her. No sign of Lucia. No sign of cops looking for her, either. She supposed that was a wash.

  She pelted across the street the instant traffic paused, bounded over the curb and jogged another block, past the blank side of a long windowless building. Cars were parked at meters on the side. She passed a beat-up Ford, two trucks, a panel van…

  The sliding door on the van slapped open when she was even with it, and she darted backward, hands up, as the muzzle of a gun slid out in her direction.

  “Against the wall,” a voice barked. She couldn’t see into the van. Too dark. Sun glinted on window glass, blinding her. No markings on the van, dammit, she needed to see something, describe something…. “Do it. Now.”

  She backed up until her heels and shoulders pressed against brick, hands still high.

  “Where’s the envelope?” The voice sounded different in person than on the phone, but she was still sure she’d never heard it before. “You have two seconds or I start shooting.”

  “Here,” she said, and pointed down at her pocket. “Let me get it out.”

  “Go. Slowly.”

  She reached in with two fingers, showed him the red envelope. Still sealed.

  “Pitch it to me.” A gloved hand beckoned from the shadows.

  “No,” she said. “Let me see Borden first.”

  There was a flurry of movement inside, and the van rocked on its springs. A limp body rolled half out of the door, head knocking on the curb; she winced when she saw it was Borden, pale and unconscious, blood trickling from a cut over his eye. His shirt was ripped along the seam to bare most of his bicep, and was saturated with fresh red blood. There was a wound there, but it was too bloody for her to see what it was.

  She concentrated on the pulse in his throat. It was still moving. His chest was still rising and falling, shallowly.

  “Time’s up,” the man inside the van said, and she heard the dry metallic sound of the gun preparing to fire.

  “Okay!” she shouted, and tugged the envelope out of her pocket, waving it between two fingers. “Okay, here! Take it!”

  She pitched it. It fluttered in the wind and fell short, slapping facedown on the pavement next to Borden’s limp, bloody hand. She immediately turned both hands palms out, pleading, and lunged forward to grab it and offer it to him. “Don’t shoot, okay? Sorry! I’m sorry!”

  He reached to take the envelope.

  She threw it edge-on into his face, and as he flinched, she grabbed the barrel of the gun and forced it aside. It went off, hot and violent in her grasp, and she felt a burn on her leg from cement fragments as the bullet dug into the sidewalk, but then she was lunging inside, throwing herself on the unseen opponent, trying to twist the gun out of his hand.

  It was a massive miscalculation. She didn’t have a chance. She’d lunged into the unknown, blindly trusting, and now she had two problems.

  One, the guy was about twice her size and three times her upper-body strength, and he easily slammed her to the side, against the steel wall of the van.

  Two, there was another man in the van, and he threw an iron-hard forearm across her throat, holding her in place tight enough to make her gag for breath. She instinctively grabbed for his arm, and he pressed harder as she clawed at a smooth nylon windbreaker. She saw spots and stars in the dark.

  “Bitch,” the first man said raggedly, and stepped in to plant a fist hard in her stomach. She couldn’t double over, but her knees jerked upward, trying to protect her midriff; that just increased the choke hold on her throat. “We’re done playing with you.”

  He reached down and retrieved the red envelope from the floor of the van. In the dim light of the door, it had a boot mark on the back. He ripped it open and slid the contents out—

  It was a Hallmark card. Flowers and hearts. Jazz’s eyes were watering; still she couldn’t help but bare her teeth in a bloody grin and mouth, Gotcha.

  He turned, threw the card at her, and began ripping at her coat, trying to find the right envelope.

  There was a popping sound, and a rapid flicker of blue-white sparks, and he froze in place, head back, muscles trembling, then slumped to the floor.

  Lucia stood behind him with a taser the size of a particularly nasty sex toy. She kicked the gun out of his reach and lunged forward to stab the taser hard into the side of the man holding Jazz to the side of the van.

  Snap, crackle, pop…down.

  Jazz slumped, coughing, gagging, rubbing her throat, and looked up at Lucia, who tasered them both again for good measure, looking grim. She stooped and picked up the red envelope and card from the floor of the van, studied it and extended the open card to Jazz.

  It read, in Manny’s neat, almost calligraphic handwriting, Thanks for not hating me.

  Jazz barked out a painful laugh and shoved sweaty hair back from her face. “You’ve got the right one?”

  Lucia nodded. Jazz moved around her, grabbed Borden under the arms and heaved him out of the van onto the sidewalk. He flopped limply, then groaned and rolled over slowly onto his side and curled in on himself. His bloody arm smeared dark red onto the cement.

  “James?” She dropped to her knees next to him, breathless, and pushed aside his torn sleeve to see what the damage was. She felt sick when she saw it—a long strip of flesh cut out of his arm, baring muscle. Still bleeding. She stripped off her coat and jammed it against his arm, saw his eyelids flutter, and brushed her fingers greedily across his forehead, his face, his lips. “James!”

  His dark eyes flickered open, pupils too large and too slow to contract. Drugged, maybe. Or concussed. “Jazz?” His tongue came out, pale, to wet his lips. “Turn the light off.”

  She let her breath out in a rush and, for no particular reason, kissed him. Hard. Felt his lips curl up under hers, vaguely smiling.

  “Jazz!” Lucia was beside her, and the red envelope in her hand was open. A sheet of crisp paper was in her hand. “Jazz,
we have to go. Now.”

  “I can’t leave him here. He’s bleeding.”

  “He’s fine. Jazz, the cops are about a block away. He’ll be okay—we’ve got to go right now!”

  Jazz grabbed the sheet of paper and scanned it. Directions to an address and a time—ten minutes away. Two Polaroid photographs, one of a girl about ten years old, one of a nondescript-looking young man, maybe twenty, twenty-five.

  Two words:

  Stop Him.

  “What the hell?” She looked up at Lucia, who handed her one more thing. A newspaper clipping.

  “It was in the envelope,” she said.

  Third Victim Found Dead, Killer Still At Large. Black-and-white newsprint photos of three children, two girls and a boy, all smiling eagerly for the camera, their lives ahead of them.

  “Oh, God,” Jazz murmured. She looked down at Borden, whose eyes were at least partly comprehending now. “James—”

  “I know,” he mumbled. “I’m good. Go.”

  Lucia grabbed her by the collar and dragged her upright, pushed her into a stumbling run, heading farther down the block. Jazz tried to stop, to turn back, but Lucia shoved her again.

  “The car’s back that way!” Jazz yelled, just as a huge black SUV roared around the corner, taking it on two wheels, and squealed to a stop next to them. Jazz fumbled for her gun, but Lucia lunged for the passenger door.

  “In!” she screamed, and clambered up. Jazz, breathless, followed.

  As she slammed the door, the SUV took off with a sudden jerk, and she nearly slid off the bench seat before she could brace herself with the panic strap over the door.

  Manny Glickman was driving. Manny.

  “What the hell…?”

  “Bulletproof glass,” Manny said, and reached out to tap a knuckle against the thick surface of the side window. “Reinforced steel. The ride’s custom, but I think the President has one like it.”

  “Manny!”

  “What?” He looked honestly puzzled, staring over at Jazz. She just blinked, unable to think of a single thing to say.

  Lucia, ever practical, unfolded the paper and read off the address. Manny reached over and pushed a recessed spot on the wood-grained dash; a section of it glided out, revealing a keyboard and a small plasma screen. “Put it in,” he said. “We have GPS navigation.”

  Even Lucia paused at that, then nodded and began typing. The SUV felt smooth and comfortable, after the initial jerk; Jazz let herself relax a little. Enough to gulp in some air-conditioned breaths, and say, “‘Thank you for not hating me?’ Jesus, Manny, is that really the best you could do?”

  The GPS navigator’s smooth female voice said, “Right turn at the next traffic signal.”

  “Well,” Manny said, and glanced down at his speed, “I figure having a woman not actually hate me is a pretty big accomplishment. All things considered.”

  He whipped the wheel. The SUV raced around the corner, straightened out, and smoothly avoided two lumbering trucks, a taxi, and two sedans before the navigator read off another turn.

  Lucia had her eyes on the clock. “We’re not going to make it in time,” she said. “Dammit. Why didn’t we know about this? Why didn’t Simms tell you?”

  “I don’t know,” Jazz admitted. “Maybe he thought we already knew.”

  Lucia cursed under her breath, a steady stream of Spanish. The computer recited another fast set of directions. Jazz clung to the panic strap, swallowing, glad that they’d left Borden behind; she couldn’t imagine this kind of thrashing around could be good for a head injury. It wasn’t doing much for her sense of claustrophobic panic, either.

  “Where’s Pansy?” she asked. Lucia checked the directions on the paper against what was appearing on screen, then tossed the paper aside and pulled the gun from its holster behind her back.

  “Distracting the cops,” Lucia said. “Did you know she has a cousin in uniform? His name is Ryan. Kind of cute. We’re almost there. You good to go? No broken bones?”

  Jazz nodded. “I’m fine.”

  Lucia shot her a distrustful look. Jazz supposed, on balance, her croaky, damaged voice wasn’t exactly the traditional definition of fine.

  Manny made the final turn onto a suburban street and cut his speed to something less than enough to break the sound barrier.

  “There!” Lucia yelled, and pointed. A car was just pulling away from the curb ahead, an electric blue boat of a car with black-and-yellow plates. It was the same car. Jazz remembered it, remembered seeing it accelerate down a street just like this one, the day they’d done the surveillance on the woman loading boxes.

  There had been kids playing, she remembered. Kids playing two yards down.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “They were wrong. They were wrong about who to watch.”

  They’d managed to disrupt an abduction by accident, rather than design.

  She threw a desperate look over at Lucia, then at the house where the car had been parked. The front gate was open, still swinging. A neon-pink backpack lay abandoned on the sidewalk, books spilling out of it.

  “He’s got her,” Jazz shouted. “Manny, go! Follow him!”

  He applied the gas, and they rocketed after the disappearing taillights of the Pontiac.

  The idea that Manny Glickman, of all people, was some kind of stunt-car driver was so weird that Jazz couldn’t get her head around it.

  Luckily, her belief—or lack thereof—didn’t seem to matter much. Manny drove like a maniac, keeping them within sight of the Pontiac as it dodged and danced in and out of traffic. Lucia got on the phone to the cops and fed them directions and information. Jazz just kept wishing she’d paid more attention to what Simms had been telling her in the prison. If everything we do makes a difference, is this right? Are we doing the right thing? Should Manny be here? Should I have left Borden back there?

  You could make yourself crazy, thinking these things.

  A turn slid Lucia down the bench seat to collide with her. Lucia muttered an apology and put one hand on the dashboard to anchor herself in place. Jazz belted herself in, not willing to risk it any further. Sure, maybe it was a matter of fate that they wouldn’t wreck and die, but there was no sense tempting it.

  Manny rounded a corner with a squeal of rubber, and they all scanned the road ahead. “Not there,” Manny said, slowing. “I think he lost us.”

  “Dammit, he turned.” Lucia scanned side streets on the left, while Jazz took the right. “Anything? See anything?”

  “Nothing,” Manny said grimly. “There’s no sign of him up there. He must be down one of these side streets.”

  It seemed to take forever.

  “We’ve lost him,” Manny finally said. “He’s a ghost.”

  “No, he’s here, he’s got to be here,” Lucia said. “Back up.”

  Manny hit the brakes, shifted gears, and glided the giant SUV backward into shade. A narrow alley stretched on the left. At the end of it was a dilapidated tin shed, some forgotten warehouse that had clearly missed a demolition notice or two.

  Jazz saw it first. “Paint.” She pointed to the corner of the alley. There was a fresh-looking scrape on the brick there, and a glitter of electric blue.

  “I can’t fit the Hummer down there,” Manny said.

  Jazz released her seat belt, popped the door and jumped down, drawing her gun before her feet hit the ground. “Stay here,” she said. Lucia slid out after her.

  “Wait!” Manny looked scared out of his mind again, the cool, calm stunt driver entirely gone. “Look in the back. Get whatever you need.”

  Lucia sent a questioning look at Jazz, who shrugged and led the way around to the rear of the vehicle. She swung open the gate, and…

  Wow.

  “Manny,” she said slowly, “someday, we’ve really got to talk about how that therapy thing is going.”

  She reached over the racked shotgun, the assault rifle, and the assorted handguns to grab two flak vests, standard black. She handed one to Lucia, who l
ooked it over, eyebrows climbing higher.

  “FBI standard issue,” she said. “Only these don’t have insignia. I’m guessing Manny’s friends with the supplier.”

  They got into the body armor quickly, sealing the Velcro as they went. Behind them, Jazz heard the snap of locks engaging on the SUV. Manny probably had some kind of stunning electrical field on the damn thing, too. She didn’t put much past him, at this point.

  Lucia had taken the shotgun. Jazz stuck with her pistol. Together, they moved slowly down the alley, covering each other, keeping focused on the closed double doors on the tin shack at the end of the alley.

  “Careful,” Lucia murmured.

  “Screw careful. This guy knows he’s been popped, and he’ll kill her as soon as he has the chance.” Jazz moved faster, reached the end of the alley and paused, looking both ways around the corner.

  It was deserted. If the cops were on the way, they’d be late. She remembered what Simms and the Society had said about Actors and Leads. Most of the cops clearly didn’t qualify. They wouldn’t affect events, whatever transpired.

  It was up to the two of them, and the guy in the shed.

  And just maybe, the little girl.

  She ran across the open space, light-footed, and put her back against the tin wall, careful not to make any noise. Lucia followed and mimed walking around back. Jazz nodded.

  She counted to ten, took a deep breath and used one foot to kick the sliding door on her right. It slid open easily, rattling like a tin can full of marbles; if he hadn’t heard that, he had to be deaf or dead. She waited for any gunfire, heard nothing, and ducked low and around the corner, darted immediately into shadow.

  The inside of the place was dark, cool and apparently deserted. No sign of Lucia, either. Jazz held her breath, listening, moving silently across the open concrete floor and constantly checking the shadows for anything that might give her a warning.

  She was starting to think that they’d been wrong when she caught a glint of chrome in the far shadows, and heard the ticking of a cooling engine.

  And then, very faintly, the muffled whisper of a child’s sob.