Electricity shot through Tats’ body. He felt sensations in some ways far powerful than what he had felt at the bordello, and yet here he was fully clothed hugging a clothed woman. But there is a world of difference between the affection of the heart and the affection of the coin, and Tats now knew he was getting a small taste of the former.
Rose then pulled away from him slightly. “I’m dead anyway. Your sister’s not going to like that I signaled her house.”
“I’ll take care of Becca,” Tats said authoritatively, looking her directly in the eye.
Rose felt more assured than she thought she could have, but the doubt was not entirely extinguished.
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” Tats proffered.
“There’s no need to be so chivalrous, David,” Rose said, unimpressed, and went to bed.
Tats, feeling very small, yet very much in love with this spirited woman, slinked into bed but stayed far to the opposite side. Not so much as a hair made contact.
Chapter 11
It was an uncomfortable night for Tats. He would have liked to sleep, but Smokeless Green had other plans. He felt about as tired as a man who just chugged a gallon of coffee, in spite of the fact hours had now elapsed since he had fortified his mind and body with the powerful green substance.
He didn’t even bother tossing and turning. Those are the desperate acts of an insomniac who believes sleep within his grasp. Tats had the presence of mind to know it was miles away.
When dawn arrived, he went to the door and opened it, thinking he would have the house to himself while he went downstairs. A guard was patrolling the hallway and respectfully asked Tats if he could be of service. Tats told him to take him to the breakfast area so that he could be there as soon as his sister was available.
The guard led Tats outside to a large balcony and then left him in peace. Tats surveyed the beauty of the backyard, admiring it far more even than the front of the house. A hill swooped downwards, leading to a large forest. Tats felt like a king perched on top of his castle.
“Like the view, brother?”
Tats spun around. The guard must have told Becca he was awakened.
“It’s beautiful, Becca!” Tats said sincerely.
Becca laughed. “No one’s called me that in years,” she said, her eyes slightly moist. A sight few, if any, had ever seen in those spheres whose gaze usually cut through a man’s soul.
“Why did you lie about how you found my house?” There was a somewhat murderous glint in her eyes, although Tats knew all too well it wasn’t directed towards him.
“That was for the benefit of your guards. They wouldn’t have believed the truth. You wouldn’t believe anything but the truth.”
Becca looked intrigued.
Tats produced the picture he had shown Rose.
“I showed her this, and then I showed her these,” Tats said pointing to his eyes. “How could she not believe I was your brother?”
The fierceness that had danced on her eyes seemed to evaporate, but Tats knew Becca. He wasn’t quite done saving Rose just yet.
“She’s loyal through and through, sis. I told her it was urgent. I told her I hadn’t seen you in years. She must have looked back and forth between my eyes and the picture at least ten times before I convinced her.”
Becca seemed near complete calmness now, but Tats knew he had just a couple finishing touches left.
“I also told the lie about her just pretending to live around here because I knew you would never allow it to be stated in front of witnesses that someone had led another to your house without your permission. If I had said that in front of the guards, you would have no choice but to kill her. They believed the story that she was just being silly and tricking me into thinking she lived around here.”
Tats looked long and hard at Becca. “She helped me, sis. If not for her, I’d be roaming around every bar in this city, just waiting to get robbed or killed.”
That imagery brought a shudder to Becca.
“Okay, Davey. You played your cards well. No harm will come to Becca unless she ever brags or even hints that she brought someone to my house without my express permission first.”
Tats hugged her.
“Just so you know, sis, I like Rose. I plan to call on her from time to time. If I were to suddenly be told she stopped working at that fine bordello, I would suspect you.”
A craftiness passed briefly across Becca’s eyes. Then, with a sincerity that convinced even Tats that he had truly obtained Rose’s safety, Becca said, “She’ll be safe, as long as she never talks about this incident.”
Tats knew not to push the matter any further.
“So, what is it that brings my brother here on such an adventure after seven years apart?”
Tats knew that when it came to business you had to cut right to the chase with Becca or—brother or not—she would get very impatient. He reached right into his secret pocket, extracted the pound of Green he had (though it had been slightly reduced by his two emergency uses) and handed it to her.
Becca put the bag close to her nose and smelled it, but not with enough force to inhale any of the fine, sand-like particles.
“It’s quality Smokeless Green. This stuff has been getting hard to come by. Not too long ago, you could buy it in any convenience store. Now, getting it is sort of like finding a unicorn.”
“Mr. Brass said for you to keep this pound no charge. See if you can distribute it.”
“Mr. who?” Becca said. “Just what have you gotten yourself involved in, brother?”
“What I’ve gotten myself involved in is the opportunity of a lifetime.” Tats could see she was skeptical.
“I’ve been doing business with Mr. Brass for less than a year, and I’m a millionaire now.”
Becca looked at Tats like she wanted to burst out laughing, except his eyes suggested he was telling the truth.
“Just recently,” he said, and then fanned out a rather dense stack of thousand-falon bills to show he was not lying.
Tats had Becca’s attention. She had been in the prostitution business for many years before she earned her first million. She was now forty years old, and it hadn’t been until about four or five years ago that she earned her first million. That was after she took out a competitor and acquired numerous bordellos in one fell swoop. Now, she was learning her baby brother had just earned his first million. Yes, Rebecca Havensford’s attention was piqued.
“How does Mr. Brass know about me?” Becca asked suspiciously.
“He doesn’t know your name or anything about you. He simply said he wants to start exporting this product to Sodorf because with the gold mine discovery the economy here is going to take off, and there are going to be a lot of potential buyers.”
While Becca had initially been suspicious of this Mr. Brass character, she was instinctively beginning to like him.
“He told me the only problem was he knew of no contacts in Sodorf to export to. I told him that I did and that this person could move all the product he could ship. I told him that this wasn’t my contact’s normal area of expertise but that I could convince her it was the right way to go.”
“Can I trust this man?”
“He saved my life twice and saved me from the cops once. He’s a gentleman to those who treat him with respect . . . and deals with those who don’t.”
“I see you admire him greatly.”
“I do. He can fight with his hands like a pro boxer and like a knight with a sword. He’s been teaching me.”
Becca had to suppress a hypocritical instinct to tell David to get out of the criminal lifestyle while he still could, but she realized she herself had involved him in parts of her criminal organization at an age when he should have just been starting middle school. It was a bit late for her to sermonize.
“I’ll check around a little and see how easily I can get rid of this quantity. I’m getting a bit old to be switching business lines. Selling love has always been my forte. Please stay
a few days before heading back.”
“I will,” Tats agreed.
Chapter 12
Over the next few days, Tats spent a lot of time in a large library inside Becca’s home. He felt a strange sense of power having such knowledge within the reach of his fingertips, and he devoured large portions of many books, as he knew his stay would be too short to permit him to read many books in full.
Becca showed him all around the city so that he would be better acquainted with it for future visits. There were lavish dinners every evening, along with hired musicians and plenty of dancing. Tats awed at the power of his sister. She was driven around in a fine coach, had great wealth, and was treated with considerable respect by everyone, above all her large number of employees, which seemed to be divided perfectly in half between work of a security and a domestic nature.
Tats went and visited Rose every day at the bordello, and she seemed pleased by his company, but Tats decided not to mention the topic of marriage again. He had felt somewhat foolish at the time he had done so, and significantly more so once he had the benefit of reflection, but every time he felt the power of her dark brown eyes, gazed on the dazzling beauty of her dark black hair, and experienced the passion of her body he never failed to remember why he had been so swept off his feet as to propose to her on their first encounter. He knew he was going to miss her when he left Sodorf City.
On the fourth night of Tats’ stay at Becca’s mansion, she approached him with a visage that foretold some urgent news or request. “Brother, how quickly can you acquire more?”
“I think Mr. Brass is ready to consider you his priority client immediately, why?”
“It’s provoked far more interest than I ever could have imagined. I started out just giving away some free samples to some of my high-end clients, the word spread, and I made $30,000 velurs. It’s not that that is such a large amount of money to me. It’s the potential I’m interested in. I already have people practically demanding more.”
“That’s great, although I must say I’m intrigued as to why the demand is so high. Is this substance difficult to acquire in Sodorf City?”
“To acquire no. But to acquire at this quality, yes! Many clients have told me this is at least several times more potent than the Smokeless Green they’re used to. It’s practically a different product. I’ve heard a few call it Fiery Green, although we’ll see if that name sticks. All I know, brother, is that I need some of this fast, or I’m gonna have some unhappy clients.”
Tats wasn’t sure how well Mr. Brass would like the sudden change in plans. He knew Mr. Brass was eager to get this exportation started but was also having some temporary supply difficulties. He didn’t want to commit Mr. Brass to an appointment earlier than the October 17 date he had requested without first running it by him, but he also knew that it wasn’t exactly going to be practical to be going back and forth to negotiate meeting times.
Brass had sent him down here to get a job done, and that made Tats his agent. Brass was going to have to give him some leeway to adjust based upon changed circumstances. Nonetheless, he felt he should at least try for the October 17 deadline.
“Sis, would October 17 be possible to swing? Mr. Brass wants to get this relationship started as soon as possible, but he’s having some supply issues, which he assures me are temporary.”
Tats watched his sister’s face sour, and so he then added, “It could be that a small delay might serve to further stimulate your clients’ appetites. Mr. Brass is a man of his word, and I know he wouldn’t have sent me all the way down here and arranged a commission basis for all future transactions if he didn’t think this was really important. If he says October 17, it’s because he will be ready no later than that date. You could go ahead and let the word spread and tell your customers you will be able to provide steadily after that date.”
Becca’s face softened some, but he realized for the first time what it was that caused so many people to tremble in her presence. He perceived that at this moment he was dealing with Ms. Rucifus, the businesswoman, not Becca, his sister. Her fearsome countenance chilled the back of his neck.
“October 12, no later.”
Tats’ gut told him she had seen the logic in his statement about building up consumer interest by a brief delay in supplying this higher-quality product and that her impatient response had little to do with sheer business necessity and everything to do with making sure Mr. Brass knew from the get-go she was a woman who dickered hard, even with equals, and that she didn’t take marching orders from anybody. .
“I’ll do what I can.”
“It’s a one-time, take-it-or-leave-it offer. October 12. 8 p.m. My house.”
Tats paused for a moment before speaking. He noticed Becca’s face had a combination of aggression and ostensible apathy towards how Mr. Brass would receive the ultimatum, suggesting she was willing to walk away from the whole thing for good if he objected to an iota of her counteroffer. Her stubbornness vexed him.
“I’ll tell him, Rebecca,” he said coldly. “I’ll leave early first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Goood, brother,” she said, smiling. Becca was back.
“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Tats said, and then he told her about Brass’s attire for that day and his insistence regarding the use of memorized scripts so that they would both know they were dealing with the right person.
“That, I can manage,” Becca said. “I’ll send Sarah up to give you a massage to relax you and make sure you sleep like the dead tonight. Should I have a servant wake you up at any particular time tomorrow?”
“Yes, 6 a.m.” Tats responded, a bit coldly, but the prospect of a massage thawed some of the ice in his spirits.
“Don’t be bitter, brother,” Becca said, having obviously sensed Tats’ displeasure. “You’re still a boy. I’m going to teach you how to negotiate in the business world.” Condescension of the statement notwithstanding, Becca delivered it with a maternal sweetness that made it sound positive.
Tats wasn’t sure what cue had been given to summon the masseuse, but when he saw her his naïve infatuation with Rose slipped away from his mind. At least temporarily.
Tats did sleep like the dead that night, and at 6 a.m. sharp he was able to respond vigorously to his wake-up call. He was fortified with a breakfast of toast, eggs, and sausage, and supplied with a generous amount of fruit and jerky.
Valiant had been well cared for during Tats’ stay and was full of energy when the two of them set off briskly towards Sivingdel at 7 a.m. on October 8.
He knew this would be cutting it close. He had discovered from his trip down here that it took a little over thirty hours of riding time. He didn’t plan on using any Smokeless Green on the way back, so he figured he would aim for about fourteen hours of riding time per day.
That meant he would probably get to Sivingdel late morning or early afternoon on October 10, and since he didn’t know how to find Mr. Brass other than waiting for their daily 9 p.m. meeting, Mr. Brass would probably have less than forty-eight hours to comply with Becca’s meeting.
But while Tats didn’t know the full details of the what and how, he knew Mr. Brass had access to some form of aerial transportation, as that was clearly the only feasible explanation for how he had extricated himself from the alleyway the night the two of them were nearly killed after having been set up by Stitches.
Thus, he didn’t feel Mr. Brass was going to have any trouble making that deadline if he was inclined to do so.
Chapter 13
Chief Benson sat at his desk early in the morning sipping coffee. He was in a devil of a mood.
He was starting to realize that perhaps he had permitted his optimism to run a bit wild because he had been elated after the death of Heavy Sam. He had been growing more and more concerned that he was going to become a bullied puppet for that freak rather than a well-paid collaborator.
He had felt—and still felt—that he would have a much better working relationship with Mr.
Brass, and as soon as he had heard of Heavy Sam’s death he had hoped that he would soon be hearing through his contacts that Brass had consolidated his grip on the city’s underworld, at which point Benson would send an emissary to the highest member of Brass’s organization that he could get to and politely request a meeting to discuss their mutual interests.
However, there had been no such news. On the contrary, the underworld in Sivingdel was in a state of disarray. Around ten or so of Sam’s top guys had gone completely solo and were duking it out over who was going to be top dog. Although he had never known who Sam’s connection was, the word on the street was about three of Sam’s top guys knew and were able to establish it once Sam kicked the bucket.
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