“You got a feed of the alley behind us?”
It took him a moment to find it. He seemed more familiar with the cameras for his entertainment than the ones for his security. A wide view of the alley said it was clear. Good, I was hoping this wouldn’t take too long.
“I’m looking for a girl. You sold her as Miriam Lenore Porter. She goes by Lenny.” I drew the pic from my pocket and shoved it in his face. “Ring any bells?”
He gazed at the pic, that hazy look still on his face. I would have to be careful or he’d be useless to me. “She—doesn’t sound familiar—we go through—”
“Careful,” I said. “You don’t wanna make me forget that I need that brain of yours. Reminding me how many broken people pass through this fuck fest is a good way to make that happen.”
He somehow grew paler. His face and hair were soaked with sweat. Those hazel eyes stared at me in wide-eyed terror. “Ok. Ok. Sorry! What was her name, again?”
“Miriam Porter. Miriam Lenore Porter.”
He pounced on the hologram and worked those rat claws of his with speed and efficiency. I tried not to think of what he did with those claws while he watched the parlor’s clientele in private. It made my stomach churn, but it also inspired me. I glanced around the room.
The main display of the hologram remained vacant. The vertical column to the left showed no threats.
“No,” he said. “I don’t know anything about her.”
“Come on, E-Rod. You ain’t talking to some uneducated moron. I know you keep files on these people as part of your leverage game.”
He trembled and looked at me, his terrified eyes pleading with me. “We assign the bitches numb—”
I bounced his face off the desk.
He started to let go a howl, but I wrenched back in his hair. His voice dissolved into sobs of pain. He started to choke and leaned forward. He spit a gob of blood on the floor. Tooth fragments floated in it.
He was sobbing and blubbering. I kept his red hair in my left hand and pinched his face in the grip of my right. He grimaced, tears streaming down his face.
I squeezed harder, reveling in this pervert’s pain. “You call these girls bitches again and I’ll see to it that you eat through a straw the rest of your miserable life! You understand, you sick fuck?”
He nodded. Tears streamed down his face. I tossed it aside but kept my grip on his hair.
“I’m sorry,” his words were coming out mumbled and slurred. I could see the jagged mess his teeth had become. “We give the girls numbers.” It sounded like, “Vee geb de gulls mumbers.”
I understood. “So, where’s the master list? Do you have a way to match her sale identity to the number?”
He shook his head and mumbled some kind of answer. I didn’t care. I was thinking about a gang unit intel briefing I’d attended last year. I leaned over him. “You have facial recognition software. Right?”
He looked at me, his eyes wide with both fright and wonder.
“Don’t worry about how I know. You do, right?”
He nodded.
I handed him the pic. He took it and he went back to work on the hologram.
I studied the screen in front of him and then—Lenore ‘Lenny’ Marquez. I read as fast as I could. “The fuck?”
I closed my eyes and supported myself on the desk. “You got some kind of memory stick? I’m not granting you direct pReC access.” I tapped my temple.
He nodded, performed a quick download, and handed me a palm comp.
I took the stick out and dropped the machine. “I have one of my own, thanks.” I glanced at the window at the back of the room. It was thick polymer, unbreakable, but there was an escape lever in the event of fire.
I looked back to the corner by the door I’d entered. A metal bar leaned against the wall there. I looked at the mess of humanity below me and almost lost my resolve, but one glance at Lenny’s hologram display rejuvenated me. I turned and started to walk to the door.
I had my back to him, but scanned his reflection in the one-way window that looked out across the mezzanine. He wasn’t moving.
“You know, E-Rod. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you’re doing here.” I reached down and picked up the bar. I hefted it in my hand. It was heavy. Good. “And what you do with those hands while you’re watching those poor girls and boys on those holos.”
I turned to face him.
Wide eyes stared back at me. His body was tense, and I thought for a moment that he would do something stupid. But he didn’t move.
I walked back towards the desk. “I can’t leave that alone. I’m sure you understand. If not,” I shrugged and left the rest unspoken. “Place your hands on the desk.”
He looked at the desk and then at the bar. His face trembled. Bloody saliva streamed down his chin.
“Now,” I said, “or I swear to God I’ll beat you to death with this thing.” He nodded and started to cry in silence. He put those ten long fingers out on the table. I knew I had to get it all in one blow. No amount of will power would keep those hands out there after the first stroke.
I placed the bar across his hands and looked at him. “Move your hands, and you’ll lose a lot more than some fingers.”
He just closed his eyes and cried. I drew the bar over my head and brought it down with every square centimeter of force I could manage. The boom echoed across the office. I felt the wet crunch below the bar.
E-Rod howled.
The soldiers on the holo turned to look at the room. The cat was out of the bag. I drew the bar backwards and swung again. I caught him square in the mouth. He flipped backward and onto the floor.
The soldiers were running.
I knelt over E-Rod and leaned into his ear. “It won’t be the rest of your life, but you will be eating through a straw.”
I stood and realized that I could just fit the toe of my boot between the backs of his thighs. I kicked him as hard as I could, hoping to knock his balls out of his mouth. I spit and then had to go.
I moved to the window and popped the escape lever. The window plopped out to the alley. I eased to the pavement in the gentle gravity, walked away, and snatched my bag from the spot I’d left it. I was in the cross traffic before they even had a head through the window.
*******
It was one o’clock before I found a booth at Fernando’s. I ordered some of his tea and chicken and rice. The waitress brought the tea right away. The chicken and rice took longer.
There wasn’t a ton of data, but there was an accurate name and date of birth.
I dialed Dana with my pReC.
“Damn it, Parker! Don’t you know when to leave a girl alone?”
“Sorry, no time. The demographics on the girl I gave you are wrong.”
Dana looked bewildered. “Wrong? What do you mean, wrong?”
“They’re wrong, Dana. I had a little heart-to-heart with Mikey Taylor this morning.”
“E-Rod Taylor?”
“Yeah. I think I left quite an impression on the lad. Might even change his wayward habits.”
Dana shook her head and closed her eyes. “Frank, what did you do?”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ve got this. I need you to run something down for me. Please say you will.”
“I’m not sure how much more I can help you, Frank.”
“I’m sending you a file,” I took a sip of the tea. “Her name is Lenore Marquez—Lenny for short.” I drew a deep breath and waited. “And, Dana?”
“Yeah?”
“Her DOB is wrong: 27 September 2236.”
Silence.
“I need something on the boyfriend, Keith Moss. A pic, updated address, something.”
“Fifteen! Are you telling me this girl is fifteen?”
My throat squeezed shut and I looked out at Fernando’s
. My skin was alive with filth. I thought of Maddy. “Yeah.”
She cursed like I’ve rarely heard from her. “We have to go to—”
“I told you: I have this,” I said. “Besides, you go to missing persons and she goes into the bottom of a file that’s been filling up since you were in diapers. This is the only way.”
“Oh it is, huh? You gonna drag her back to that monster by her hair, Frank?”
“Hey, fuck you, Dana! I’m doing the best I can here. I’ll find a way out of this. I just need time. Either way, I’m Lenny’s only way out now.”
There was a long pause on her end. “Ok. No parents, I take it.”
I looked out over the gathering crowd at the counter. “Nah, Dad’s a blank space on the birth certificate. Mom’s been dead a little over three years—drugs.”
“All right,” said Dana, “I’ll get on the girl and the boyfriend. It may take some time.”
“Hurry.”
“I will,” she said. “What’s next for you?”
“I might have a few minutes to kill. I’m sure I can think of something.”
CHAPTER VIII
The afternoon settled down. There wasn’t anyone to beat or fuck, and I was left to think about what I was doing. The bliss from my dalliance was a distant memory and I realized that I had, in a very real sense, cheated on my wife. I tried to call Suzanne on my pReC. Nothing. I called again and again. She wouldn’t pick up. I bit down so hard I thought my teeth would break. I left a message on my fourth call. “I would love to spend some time with our daughter. Please get back with me.”
I didn’t want to feel anything anymore, I just wanted to think. I held onto my seat after my meal. There was a lull so I wouldn’t be any trouble. It was time I tried to figure out why a man like Angelo Katsaros would want to give me a job his chief thug could have cleaned up two days ago. I remembered the gem from my conversation with Allyssa: Katsaros was on the Lunar Action Committee. I accessed my pReC and started checking news files.
The Lunar Action Committee was a political think-tank that supported everything from abolishing minimum wage and child labor laws to capping taxes on the income of big business. They were the parent organization or partnered with other like-minded committees that formed half a dozen political action groups all up and down the city.
I tried to cross-reference all their contacts and affiliations. The information was overwhelming. Their money could be tied to every political campaign and local issue for the last decade. They put out PSAs and funded subsidiary think-tanks with noble-sounding names like People for a Better Moon and The Concerned Citizen Council who propagated their views through political action and media access.
They had people quoted at town hall meetings, elections and even during the occasional civil crisis. They invariably called for reduced government spending and a crackdown on crime, blue collar crime, anyhow. That’s when it jumped out at me: Third Region Security Service’s Chief Financial Officer, a woman named Hailey Grayson, was on the same committee! She sat at the same table as Katsaros. There was more: the LAC was one of Mayor John Ramirez’s staunchest supporters.
Ramirez was the driving force behind the Transit Authority initiative. He was reviled by almost every cop in the city, though I could think of a few lost souls who supported him for reasons that mystified me. I cross-checked his campaign with specific members of the LAC. No less than five appeared, but not Katsaros. Did that mean something, or was Katsaros just a political recluse who let his money do the talking? Hard to say.
My pReC interrupted my musing. My heart thundered. It was Suzanne.
“Hey,” I said.
She looked tired. “I see The Lunatics haven’t found you…yet. Haven’t heard about any blazing infernos in the old building. I swear, if that was a ploy to get me out of the house—”
“Believe me, there’s no one I’d like to see in mortal danger more than you, but there is Maddy.”
“You bastard.”
The words brought me comfort.
“You serious about Maddy, or were you just trying to talk to me?”
“I was serious.”
“I’ll meet you in the train station, by the coffee shop you like there.”
They beat me there. Maddy didn’t run out to greet me. I tried to understand, but I wasn’t feeling like father-of-the-year, so it really hurt. I took her lukewarm hug, gave her a kiss on top of her head and said, “I love you, Pumpkin.”
She drew away and looked at her mom. They shared a moment, and then Suzanne shooed her towards me.
I reached out for her, but found her beyond my reach. “Hey, babe,” I said to Maddy. “Would you wait over by the door? I need to talk to your mom.”
She glanced at both of us and moved.
Suzanne glared. Maddy was barely out of earshot when she said, “What are you doing, Frank? I thought this was about your daughter!”
“This is about my daughter—our daughter. Do you see what we’re doing to her? We need to fix—”
“Maddy’s fine with me. It’s you she has the problem with, but I brought her here because you’re her father. Don’t make me regret it!”
Anger bloomed in my soul. I turned my face back at Maddy and tried to put a smile there. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, but I could see she was watching.
“I’m leaving, Frank.” Suze moved to step by me.
I grabbed her arm. “Don’t do this, Suze. I’ll do better. I—we can go to counsellors instead of lawyers. Please, I’m begging you.”
She snatched her arm from my grip. “Touch me again and you’ll need a court order to see your daughter.” She looked over my shoulder at Maddy. “This is her time, and you’re wasting it. She’s all alone over there.”
I tossed her arm away from me and clenched a fist. “It’s no big deal,” I said. “I’m just your husband. You only swore an oath to me.”
“Yeah,” said Suze. “What the hell does ‘love, honor and cherish’ mean to you? Cause I haven’t seen much of that in the last seventeen years.”
She turned and was gone. I felt like she was taking a piece of me with her, a big piece. I turned back to Maddy and tried to smile. “Come on, babe,” I said. “Let’s get something.”
She said she didn’t feel like anything. I didn’t, either, but convention had to be served. I ordered a cookie and hot chocolate for her and a coffee, black, for me. We went to a table and sat. She watched the people walking to and from the trains.
“How’s school?”
She shrugged. “Mom’s kept me home. Thinks your gangsters are gonna come kill me.”
Her mother was on to something. “She just worries.” I reached out. She let me take her hand, but she didn’t squeeze it back. “I worry about you too, Princess.”
Her eyes never left the street. “I know, Daddy.”
We sat through four more awkward hours of forced small talk and unbearable silence. It was almost a relief when Suzanne appeared. Maddy ran to her and the two shared an embrace. I tried really hard not to cry and gave her a hug, her last obligatory display of affection.
I watched them leave. Maddy’s arm was around her mother and hers around Maddy. I don’t know if I’d ever felt more alone. I also don’t think I’d ever hated Suzanne more. It was easy to leave when you could take everything with you. Bitch.
I went back into the café to resume my research, but I wasn’t going to get anything constructive done for a long while.
*******
I was crashed out in the apartment when my pReC woke me. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. “Yeah?”
It was Dana. She was eating. I could see the precinct behind her. “I shouldn’t be calling you from here, but you said you wanted some help, so here it is: Keith Moss is dead. Killed in a fist fight. I included the investigator’s report.
“The official story was that he was sta
bbed after getting into some kind of fracas. None of the witnesses owned up to knowing what the fight was over or who did the stabbing, but he was killed on The Floor, not far from a little establishment called Aphrodite’s Parlor. Hear you might know a thing or two about that place.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Well, apparently sometime after you spoke to E-Rod Taylor, someone beat him with a door bar. Broke almost every bone in both hands and shattered almost every tooth that wasn’t a molar and broke his jaw in seven places. He may never be the same again.”
“Hmm, that’s a real shame. He was jerking off when I left.”
Dana didn’t look amused. “Word is, The Lunatics know the individual responsible and are putting a hex on him.”
My stomach rolled. How much longer could I play chicken with these assholes and survive? I didn’t think long.
“Anyway, the Moss boy was a mess. This wasn’t some garden-variety bar-fight-gone-wrong. This was planned brutality and has all the earmarks of a Lunatic Berserker.”
“So, the Loonies had some kind of beef with him?”
“Can you think of another reason to leave him beaten and bloodied?”
I had a thought on that, but I needed more information. “Thanks, Dana. I owe you one.”
“You owe me a lot more than one.”
I smiled. “Hey,”
“Yeah?”
“Anything on Rick?”
“Goddammit, Frank. Don’t you know when to quit.”
“No, Dana. I don’t.”
*******
I often had to show lot of patience and do a lot of waiting in this line of work. There were few better places to do it than Allyssa’s balcony. Earth hung above the city. A sliver of the Moon’s shadow cut part of her from the sky, but she was beautiful, nonetheless.
The city was alive with its typical hustle and bustle. Cars slipped between the buildings in organized streams. Their engines whirred as they flew to and fro. The cars were beautiful: red ones, blue ones, even a couple of yellows. They streaked between leviathan buildings of concrete and glass. Their hulls reflected the holograms and projected signs that beckoned for attention.
Lunatic City Page 9