Sleight of Hand

by Mark Henwick

  “He said to tell you he enjoyed your visit. He couldn’t have gone without talking to you. But I didn’t come just to tell you. Amber, he asked me to put together some things for you. For emergencies, he said. It’s in the storage facility where Mrs. Welchester has a unit.”

  I sighed. “I guess it was stupid to think that name wouldn’t come up on 4-10’s radar.”

  Keith shrugged. “No one looked until Top told me to. No one else knows, and I’m not saying.” He passed me a key. “Unit 438. It’s prepaid for a year.”

  “Thank you, Keith.” I closed my hand over the key. “I don’t know if I can make the funeral. There’s an agreement I had to sign—”

  Keith cut across me. “We know about it. I think Colonel Laine will have it torn up in a week or so, but maybe it would be better to stay away.”

  I raised my eyebrows in question.

  “Petersen isn’t a major any more, and he’s making a big move to take over the section. Not just 4-10, but Obs and a couple of others as well.” Keith paused and looked at me, his mouth twisted. “He’s got a very simple attitude toward vamps. Kill them. Not much better than his attitude towards women in 4-10.”

  I got a cold feeling in my stomach. “Can’t someone kick this upstairs?”

  Keith shook his head. “4-10 isn’t the regular army, Amber. There’s no general sitting there with direct responsibility, no official recognition. It’s the ultimate, deniable, operational unit. The entire budget is overspill, and the rule seems to be to work out problems on the base.”

  I nodded. “Thanks again, Keith.” If Petersen had that attitude, Keith would need to be out of here and away. It also seemed that Colonel Laine had a difficult job, to work out a route for Diana to speak to more senior officers. I might need to think of a second option for that.

  Keith didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He just sat and looked at his cup, his hands curled around it. I’d spotted the ring, of course.

  “Who’s the lucky girl?” I said brightly.

  “We thought you were dead, Amber. Then, you know, changed.” He didn’t meet my eyes. Didn’t answer my question either, but I guess I didn’t really need to know.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “What’s it like, Amber? Are you a vampire?”

  I took a long breath. “Not yet, but I guess it’s one way traffic on this road. Most times, I don’t feel different. I’m faster than I was, stronger. I see better in the dark.” I looked at him. “I don’t drink blood.”

  “Can you be a vampire and not drink blood?”

  “No. From what I hear, when the change is complete, then it’s drink or die. It doesn’t mean killing people though. Vampires that kill people to feed are outlaws in their community and their law is pretty terminal in that sort of case.”

  He nodded. “What’ll you do?”

  “I don’t know, Keith. I’m still me. I’m just playing the hand I was dealt.” I cast my eyes around the bar. “You think Petersen will send someone after me?”

  “It wouldn’t be anyone from your time, but we’ve had replacements. It’s possible he’ll use them, or another unit he’s got.”

  He needed to be well clear of me. I got up and leaned on the table, putting my hand over his. He’d always had such beautiful hands, even when they were callused and scarred from work. They were strong and gentle, and I’d taken comfort from them, many times. They felt achingly familiar and strange at the same time, the hard, smooth edge of the ring alien to my touch. You can’t step in the same river twice.

  “Keith, if I’m still me, and I need killing, then anyone he sends will be far too late.” I stopped and waited till he nodded to show he understood that I would kill myself rather than go rogue or step outside my boundaries. “In any other situation, whoever comes had better know what they’re doing and why.”

  I walked out and took a position across the street where I could watch the door without being seen. Keith came out alone. I wanted to run back and hug him one last time. My old life that I’d kidded myself I could return to, somehow, some when, was finally slipping through my fingers and away. It was time to acknowledge we’d all moved on. The wind blew a bit of dust in my eyes and his figure blurred. He turned away without seeing me and walked off. If he was being followed, I couldn’t see them. That didn’t mean a lot, and I was careful making my way to my car.

  I hadn’t thought through what I’d said to Keith before I’d said it, but sometimes you only realize the decision you’ve arrived at when you’re on the spot. I meant it. I’d kill myself rather than become Basilikos Athanate. But I was changing. My body was giving me lots of information about how different it was going to be as an Athanate. How could I be sure that my mind wasn’t changing as well? Top was gone and with that, I’d lost my absolute, my reference and my measure. I was adrift, liable to take any direction.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Mrs. Welchester made a visit to her new storage unit.

  Top had managed to get me issued with standard mission gear, and then some. Whatever I had told him about the situation here, he expected me to need some serious firepower at some point. I now had the MP5 submachine gun partner to my HK automatic and a number of grenades—flash bombs as well as the lethal variety. Which third world army did Top think I had to take out?

  The real prize was in the back. Top hadn’t forgotten my favorite weapon. Officially, it was the Variable Choke Tactical Assault Weapon. In essence, it was an oversized, overpowered, short-barreled, custom shotgun. In the unit, we just called it the BFG. It kicked like a cannon and sounded like the devil himself knocking on your door, but it could clear a room or punch through steel plate. Not a subtle weapon. I loved it.

  Also hidden in the back was my batsuit and brake, I guess in case I wanted to go base jumping again. Totally against the Ops 4-10 rules, I had personalized it with a label on the slick chest—TaJ. Trust and jump. My eyes misted up again. Happy times.

  Tucked into the webbing was a letter, addressed to me in Top’s handwriting. I pocketed it. There was no way I would be able to read it now.

  I transferred the Glocks, ordinary shotgun and my specialist surveillance equipment from my old storage unit into the new one, leaving the old one for my uniforms.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  I drove down to Jen’s house. Despite moving away for the moment, Jen had left guards on the gate. I wanted to check that everything was okay, and run through any emails and messages without having to talk to anyone.

  I’d barely started on the emails when they buzzed me from the gate. Apparently my sister was there, wanting to see me. I went to the main door and switched on the video feed. It was Kath in her car. I called them on the intercom to let her in and opened the door.

  Kath drove up to the entrance. Even inside the car, I could tell she looked like hell. It was barely lunchtime. Had she been drinking already?

  “Kath, hi, what’s up? Are you okay?”

  She got out of the car with a folder, her face pinched with anger. “We need to talk,” she said.

  I led her to the study and tried to get her to sit down. She wouldn’t. She threw the folder on the desk. Clipped to the top was a formal letter saying she withdrew from handling the case.

  “Kath, what’s happened?” If Carter had been threatening her, I would kill him.

  “You’ve happened! Again. Every time I think I’ve got my life straight, you do something and ruin it.” She balled her hands into fists and hit the desk. “What did I ask on Friday? Don’t ruin it for me. What did you do? Danced with that Kingslund woman when everyone would see. Had a scene with that Mexican businessman. Then you worked your way through every trade delegate. And to cap it all, you leave with Kingslund and cause another scene at the door.”

  “It wasn’t like that—”

  “It’s never like that for you,” she shouted. “There’s always a reason you know about and no one else does. The partners wanted to know all about you, why I never mentioned you. What could I say? I d
on’t know what my sister did for ten years!”

  Tears were streaming down her face. I tried to hold her, but she struck out at me and moved away.

  “It’s not as if I even know what you’re doing now,” she said. “You can barely make ends meet, but look at you. You have a new car,” she gestured angrily out the window. She grabbed Jen’s jacket off the hook where I’d left it, and shook it in my face. “You wear designer jackets costing five thousand dollars. You have custom-made boots. You show up at the most expensive ball of the year wearing a designer dress. Even your card looks more like a whore’s than a PI’s.”

  “Kath, stop it! You’ve got it all wrong.”

  “I’ve got it all wrong? Lie to me one more time, Amber. Tell me what you were doing when you left home.”

  “You know that. I joined the army.”

  “No, you didn’t,” she shouted. “You washed out of boot camp. And you just couldn’t come home, could you? Not after making your grand exit.”

  “How could you say that? I was in the army until a couple of years ago.”

  “Not according to Lieutenant Krantz. He came to see me yesterday and told me all about you.”

  Krantz. If he had been in range at that instant, I would have killed him without a moment’s hesitation. But I needed to concentrate on this first, stop Kath in her tracks. It felt like trying to climb sand.

  “Krantz is just full of shit, Kath. You can’t listen to him.”

  “Why? He’s in the army. He should know if you were. He told me you would claim you were in the special forces. But they don’t take women.” She stabbed at me with her finger. “I know. I called and asked.”

  I was crying by this time. I can take a lot, from a lot of places, but not from my little sister.

  “Look at you,” she said. “It’s pathetic. You’re living here as Kingslund’s whore, aren’t you? Is that how you made the money you sent home? On your back?”

  I tried to hold her again. She grabbed my arm and shock fought with anger on her face.

  “Oh my God, look at your arm! I should have known. You’re on drugs. Look at it, it’s like a fucking pincushion.”

  The fold of my elbow showed the number of times the test unit had found the vein there. I heal quickly, but there were marks from the last few days. It wasn’t a pincushion by any stretch.

  She wrenched away from me and angrily flicked open the folder on the desk. Inside was a large check. “That’s for paying for my education,” she said. “We’re even now. For God’s sake, use the money to get yourself booked in a clinic.”

  She swayed as she stood there glaring at me and panting, cheeks wet with tears. She turned one last time to the desk and pointed at the photos. “You know, that says it all. Nothing of me and Mom. Nothing but lies and people who are dead or were never alive.” She pointed at Tara’s plaque. “You love her more than you ever loved me.” She lashed out, sweeping them onto the floor. “I never want to see you again,” she said, and ran out to her car.

  I picked my photos up and carefully set them back on the desk. Dad, Top and Tara. And me. And the tears streamed down my cheeks.

  Chapter 50

  I left the house about an hour later. I didn’t have anything planned; I just drove down to Wash Park and walked, zipping Jen’s loaned jacket all the way up and raising the collar against the cold wind. I had Tara’s plaque in the inner pocket.

  How could I get the truth through to Kath? How much of it was my fault? I’d come back from the army and I’d tried to keep everyone at a distance. But the reason I had done that hadn’t gone away. In fact, the prion count was telling me I didn’t have much time left. Once I was Athanate, how much would I be able to be involved with my family?

  In the middle of my circuit around the park, Jen called on my burn phone. She’d been warned by the guards that something had happened and she wouldn’t stop until I told her what had gone on with Kath, at least in general terms. I didn’t go into Kath calling me her whore.

  Jen focused on what she could do. “Amber, put all that legal situation out of your head. I’ll get my lawyer onto it on Monday.” She cut across my protest. “I’m not discussing it. It’s just going to happen.”

  I let that sink in. How could I accept this and at the same time argue against what Kath had implied? I couldn’t just take it, but I needed help, and I couldn’t deny it made me feel better. “Thanks Jen. I’ll pay you back.”

  “De nada. We do need to talk.” She paused for a second, and as she continued, she faltered a bit. “It’s not one way, honey. Hell, there are some stupid things I’ve done, which I need to fix.”

  “Okay,” I said. Possibly she was getting upset again about doing a search on me, or something similar. I shrugged it off. “I’ll be back later. I’ve had some other bad news as well. I just need some time now.”

  We signed off and I did another circuit of the park, then sat on an empty bench. Jen’s call had jumbled everything up in my head.

  I pulled out Tara’s plaque and ran my fingers over the glossy surface.

  “Is it some Athanate thing, Tara?” I said. “Am I just looking for blood and sex?”

  “Blame it on the prions, eh? Don’t think so, sis. Sounds like you’re looking for reasons not to go ahead, to stay safe.”

  “It’s not my decision to go ahead anyway. If I tell her or Alex what they’re risking, they’ll run a mile.”

  “You think?” said Tara. “What is it really? Not sure about the physical side of it with Jen?”

  “No. Yes.”

  Tara chuckled. “This is the girl who thought sex with boys would be icky too. Got over that, didn’t you?” Her voice went serious. “You got over much worse as well.”

  I sighed and got up. I wasn’t going to go there. There was a coffee shop just a couple of minutes from the park and I walked to it.

  Sitting with a latte in the warmth, I remembered the note from Diana with the details of the contact for the local Weres. I pulled it out of the pocket and found I’d mixed it up with Lisa’s note giving Alex’s information. I dived back into the pocket and my fingers froze on the second note. It wasn’t Lisa’s writing on the first note, it was Diana’s. I pulled the second note out—Lisa’s note—and put them side by side. The information was the same. Alex Deauville.

  Well, well, well; the wolf was at the ball. I couldn’t remember that happening in any fairy tales. His address was a couple of blocks south of the coffee shop. If he was home, I could walk there. Maybe I could get the issue of Silver Hills settled. And whatever. Something to cheer me up today. If not, it was a only a block more down to David’s house; I could go check on him.

  I called Alex on the burn phone. He was there, and five minutes later he opened the door for me. He looked a bit startled.

  “I did say five minutes, didn’t I?”

  “Oh, yes. No, it’s not that. Come on in.” He stood back and waved me into the living room. “Would you like some coffee?”

  “Just had one, thanks.” I was disappointed and I wondered what had happened. The Alex at the ball would have used the opportunity to kiss me. At the very least on the cheek.

  The house had a split level towards the front, with a kitchen and dining room above the entrance hall. The living room took the whole back of the house. We walked in and sat down.

  “I—”

  “Thanks—”

  We both spoke and stopped at the same time. At least that got a laugh and the awkwardness seemed to lessen. Grinning, he ducked his head and held his hands up. “You first.”

  I shifted in my seat. His smile had sent delicious little shivers up my spine. I forced that to the back of my mind. I had business first.

  “I just wanted to start by thanking you for running interference at the ball,” I said. “And thanks to your friends as well.”

  “My pleasure. It was the least I could do when I realized what was happening.”

  I looked sharply at him. “Other than me saying something had come up, what
made you realize what was happening?”

  “It wasn’t what you said. It was the adrenaline charge you got when your security didn’t answer. And the conversation you had with Kingslund.”

  “You could hear all that? You can tell when I’ve got adrenaline overload?” He nodded. I took a deep breath. “That’s a wolf thing, isn’t it?”

  He smiled again, and I saw I’d gotten it right the first time I’d seen him; there was something untamed in his eyes. Woof. He didn’t seem at all concerned about my comment. “I brought a couple of the pack with me to make sure you got to a car. Then I saw the doorman and I realized what was going on.”

  “Maybe I will have that coffee,” I said. “I think this might be a long conversation.”

  We moved up to the kitchen and I sat on a stool at the central breakfast bar. I enjoyed the show, even moving his computer equipment out of the way to ensure my view was unobstructed.

  “I called your dressmaker yesterday—”

  “Sorry about giving you the wrong card,” I murmured. My dressmaker! He made it sound as if I would only wear clothes that had been handmade for me.

  He waved it off. “I wanted to call you and…” He slowed up. I leaned on the breakfast bar, resting my chin on my hand and giving him my undivided attention. I wished I had put on a button-up shirt rather than the T I was wearing. Much better for leaning forward, even for me. “I wanted to call you and I wanted to talk about what happened,” he finished.

  “Okay. Let’s get what happened out of the way first.”

  He put the coffee in front of me and sat down on the other side of the bar. “My haulage company handles Tucker Beacon. He’s been my largest client, ever since he was my first client. He asked me for a favor, and I agreed to help him out against Kingslund a few weeks back,” he said.

  “You’re talking about scaring off the construction crew at Silver Hills.”

  Alex looked startled, then he nodded. “You obviously know about it. We didn’t want a resort there. Jack didn’t want the pressure on his resort. The pack went up to Bitter Hooks and we had a little fun. No one got hurt. The construction’s been delayed or canceled. I was fine with that.”