I couldn’t see what this was, but I assumed it was a tech phone, and if he was citing monitors, that meant they had a live video feed set up.
“I think it’s pretty awesome,” the whiner wheezed.
“You know what’s not going to be awesome?”
“What?”
“When Bender finds out. I live in The Middle,” the raspy one said. “If he discovers it was me who ratted him out, I’m dead.”
Good. If they feared Bender more than whoever had employed them, then the chances of flipping their loyalty with a few coins ran high.
“Yeah,” the first guy agreed. “I’ve never seen him up close, but there are plenty of stories in the skells about him.”
They were confirming that Bender was a legend, which was not a shocker. I grinned, thinking Bender was going to enjoy hearing what these guys had to say.
I was about to make a move to surprise them, threaten them into changing their loyalty, and quickly follow it up with a promise of coin if they cooperated, when Case grabbed my forearm.
He held me there for a second while the two men continued to talk.
“Bender would kill us, it’s true,” the raspy guy said. “But the other two would make it hurt.”
My eyebrows rose.
“The girl, Holly, nobody messes with her. I heard she took that guy out by the cliffs by lasering holes through both his legs before she shot him in the face. The other guy, Lockland, he’s like that, too, but he carries a Blaster. He’ll pump multiple rounds into you before he finishes the job.”
Well, well, well.
Bender was a legend, but apparently Lockland and I were also notorious.
No part of me enjoyed watching someone suffer in death, but threatening to make them hurt to gain needed information was different. I didn’t mind being notorious. It got the job done. If these guys believed I was capable of such things, it worked in my favor.
“Yeah,” the whiny guy said. “I heard the girl never smiles. Like, ever.”
Hey. I smiled. Sometimes.
“Some people say she’s a LiveBot created by Bender as a weapon. That guy has a talent for fixing things, so I can believe it,” the raspy guy said. “Who knows what he builds in that shop? He could have a bunch of them ready to go.”
I wasn’t even close to being a LiveBot.
But I was excellent at role-play.
I pivoted into the room, a weapon aimed in each man’s direction. Their faces dropped comically as fear became the common denominator.
“Put your hands up,” I ordered in my best unemotional, Maisie-like tone, careful to keep any expression off my face. “State your mission, or I shoot and you die.” For good measure, I added, “But I’ll make it hurt first.”
The guys crashed into each other trying to hoist their arms. One was taller than the other by a good half meter. He spoke first. “We were hired to keep watch on the floor above.” He flicked his index finger at the ceiling. He was the one with the whiny voice. “But only to watch,” he said hastily. “We don’t have any weapons on us. I swear!”
“Yeah,” the shorter, raspy guy said. “Don’t shoot. We mean no harm. We just wanted the coin.”
“Who hired you?” I asked, still channeling a computer-modulated voice, my expression fixed, my body unmoving.
The taller guy shrugged. “We don’t know. They found him”—he jabbed his thumb toward the shorter guy—“at Lodenbat’s skell. Do you know where it is?” I nodded once, choosing not to speak, waiting for him to fill in the gaps, which he did in a rush. “They offered us a lot of coin, too much to refuse, but that’s it. They brought us here, gave us a phone, and told us what to do. But they’re not due back until tomorrow.”
“Hand your communication devices to my assistant.” I jutted my chin out, cocking my head to the right in a stiff movement to indicate Case, who had come in behind me.
Both of the men gasped.
It seemed the LiveBot act was easy to fall for when you’d never seen a robot before and your preconceived notions precluded common sense. They each scrabbled over the table, trying to grasp the phone, knocking things off as they went.
“Um, we only have the one,” the raspy guy said, winning the battle, dropping the tech phone into Case’s open palm.
“What security measures have they implemented above?” I asked.
The taller guy rubbed the back of his neck. “They didn’t tell us any of that.”
I flicked my wrists up and down twice, indicating that they should both put their hands back up. They raised them fast.
“My helper is going to stay here with you while I retrieve something Bender requires from upstairs. Then the two of you are going to disappear and tell no one you were here.” They both nodded frantically. “And if you break our confidence, I will hunt you down and go after your—”
“We know, our families,” the whiny guy stammered. “We won’t betray you. I swear. We didn’t even want to be here in the first place.”
“When Bender finds out, he will not be happy.” I made sure my eyes bored into the shorter guy, who had indicated he lived in The Middle.
“Does he have to know?” he replied, his tone nearly mirroring his pal’s whine for a moment. “I mean, we’re fully cooperating. We’ll even give back the coin! We want no trouble.”
I shook my head, making the movements quick and jerky. “Keep the coin.” Both of their faces reflected surprise. “The men who gave it to you will have no use for it when we’re done with them.” Then, with a dramatic flair, I holstered both of my weapons at the same time and turned, keeping my body stiff as I marched out of the room.
It didn’t matter if they actually believed in the end that I was a LiveBot. The ruse had worked for the moment and made our task here easier than it probably would’ve been otherwise. I was usually a good judge of character—well, until Case had come along—but by the look of fear on their faces, we could trust them. At least for the next few days, which was all we needed.
Once we defeated the bureau, none of this would matter.
Instead of going up the middle staircase, I jogged to the end of the hallway, right under where the lab was supposed to be upstairs. I pushed the door open, checking to see if the stairwell here was passable. It didn’t look too bad. I moved inside, tugging some big chunks of wall out of the way.
I made it up to the next level, placing my ear against the door.
No sounds that I could detect.
It would be silly not to think the bureau had planted traps. After all, getting rid of us was probably their first choice. But coming in the back way would definitely reduce the chances of me stumbling onto something nasty. The roof and the main entrance would be their focus.
I nudged the door open a centimeter at a time. When it was open as wide as an eyeball, I did an infrared scan with my visor down. Then I clicked my visor up and grabbed my chromes out of my vest. They were an old pair, the x-ray setting damaged, but they were the best I had as a replacement for the pair that had been disintegrated by the radium ball.
Flicking through the dial, I checked the gammas and ultraviolet. If there were bombs in plain sight, they should give me an indication.
Everything appeared clear.
Easing the door wider, I stepped out. I had no idea where the video feeds were located, or if they covered the hallway this far down, but I knew Case was monitoring the situation from below, which, oddly, made me feel better.
I couldn’t wait to see his face when this was all over. I hadn’t consulted him about the LiveBot plan, as it had been a gut reaction. Calling him my assistant had been a stroke of genius, but I was fairly certain he wouldn’t think so, which made it that much sweeter.
That thought hadn’t been out of my head for two seconds before a muffled sound came from behind me.
Shit.
“We knew you’d come bac—”
I didn’t give the guy a chance to finish. Men. They were always so chatty. Twisting my hips, I brought my boo
t up, hacking it into the side of his neck. He was short, so that helped. He hit the wall and bounced off, his weapon clattering to the floor.
I’d holstered my taser, leaving a hand free so I could grab his forearm. Using the forward motion, I twisted him in a circle and launched him down the hallway. He landed on his back, skidding toward the entrance of the Emporium, before he crashed headfirst into a wall and came to a stop.
Both hands on my Gem, arms stretched in front of me, I jogged forward. He came off the ground, bracing himself on one arm. I kicked it out from under him, snapping the bone. He collapsed back on the floor, moaning.
“Who are you and what do you want with us?” I didn’t expect him to answer. I was just asking as a formality, so when he did it surprised me.
“I’m from an elite group that has more firepower than you,” he ground out. “You’re not going to win this.”
“What exactly am I trying to win?” If I could get this guy to talk, it would be a win.
“Control,” he said with a smirk.
This guy was acting too smug. Something was up. He should’ve been fearful, or at the very least feral. He’d lost his weapon, his arm was broken, and I had him in a compromising position. Yet he brimmed with confidence and something else I couldn’t pinpoint.
What was I missing? My gaze darted around the hallway.
Then I saw it.
He tracked my gaze, his face dropping. He turned suddenly, reaching toward the trip wire that would likely trigger a bomb that would blow us all up.
“Not today, elite guy,” I said.
I fired my Gem.
It wasn’t pretty.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Just stay on course,” I grumbled. “Your amusement is freaking me out. You don’t process emotions, remember?”
“Well…” Case chuckled. “It’s not often I get to witness someone pretend to be a LiveBot and actually succeed. Then, when you flung that guy down the hallway straight into the live-feed monitor and blew a hole through his neck, I think one of the guys actually wet himself.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I groused. “He would’ve blown us all up if he’d had his way. I inspected the bomb after, and it was massive. It would’ve taken out both floors. It’s going to take both Bender and Lockland to disarm that place. I’m just glad the lab was clear.” I patted my vest where I’d stashed the vials of Babble.
“You don’t have to worry about those guys telling anyone,” Case affirmed. “They’ll be scurrying home and staying there.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “I wasn’t worried.” After I’d come back, the two of them had fallen all over themselves to swear their allegiance to “Bender’s crew.” Even though I hadn’t put much effort into the LiveBot performance in the end, I’d seen the looks on their faces once we released them. They still weren’t quite certain whether I was one or not.
The rumors were going to be rampant, which I didn’t mind. Uncertainty gave me an advantage.
Running a gloved hand over my face, I leaned back against the headrest while Case piloted the craft. We’d be at the barracks in a few minutes. We’d successfully hidden Seven out of sight of the Bureau of Truth and made it out of the city without a tail. Most likely, they hadn’t anticipated we’d come back, even though they’d been monitoring the building.
“What I don’t understand,” I started, “is why the guy in the hallway was so willing to sacrifice his life. Not only willing—he seemed eager to do it. It doesn’t add up. There isn’t a cause great enough to blow yourself up. There hasn’t been a martyr to any cause in over sixty years, at least that I know about. It’s every man, woman, and child for themselves.” I tilted my reclined head toward Case. “Now would be a really good time for you to remember anything Dixon might’ve said, even in passing, about the bureau.”
Case gave an almost imperceptible sigh. “We can’t keep doing this. I told you everything—”
“I’m not talking about what you think is valuable information. I’m talking about day-to-day stuff. Habits Dixon might’ve had that he picked up while he was working for the secret pseudo-government agency, or quirky things he would say, or how he swore under his breath—literally anything that would help us figure out what’s going on. If that guy back there was willing to blow himself up, there has to be some kind of loyalty pledge or something. If there’s not, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“If members of that group were forced to take a pledge that they would die for their cause, then that’s exactly why Dixon got the hell out,” Case said, his teeth on edge. It was the first negative thing I’d heard him say about Dixon. “There was nothing further from a martyr than Dixon. The man was all about protecting himself and hoarding resources.” I watched as Case’s knuckles whitened as he tightened his hands on Seven’s levers. “I can’t think of anything right now that he used to do regularly, but I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” I said, meaning it. Having a completely normal interaction with Case about his past wasn’t usual. After a moment, I added, “And I’m sorry.” I held up my hand. “Before you get bent out of shape, it’s not the pity kind of sorry. It’s a legitimate I’m-sorry-your-life-was-so-shitty sorry. I got out at nine. You didn’t get out until six months ago. The bottom line is that it sucks, and I’m sorry. If it’s any consolation, nobody else is going to mess with you anymore. Especially not when you’re going to be seen around town as part of ‘Bender’s crew.’” I laid my hand back in my lap, stretching my shoulders and lower back. “And of course, once those two guys we just let loose start the gossip going, you’ll be known as the guy in the company of the only working LiveBot in the history of the world—except for Trina down South.” Images of that battered LiveBot, with her lifelike skin hanging off her face in ribbons, popped very unwelcomely into my mind. “You’re totally covered.”
Case chuckled. The clarity and resonance of the sound were strange enough to make me turn. The man actually sounded happy. And not just the mimicking happy either. I wasn’t familiar with this relaxed Case. “The LiveBot impersonation will serve you well.”
“I hope so,” I said. He turned his gaze on me, where it lingered for a few moments. It was hard not to feel exposed. “What?”
“I’ve never met anyone who can think on their feet as fast as you can.” His voice was low. “It’s an incredible thing to witness.”
I had no idea what to say.
The compliment was completely unexpected. I opted for a conversational response. “If you can’t think fast, your chances of getting killed rise considerably. It’s a necessary adaptation for survival. We all do it.”
He shook his head. “No. I mean, yes, we do. But your talent for it supersedes anyone I’ve ever seen before. You seem to anticipate things at a greater rate. In order to do that, you have to be evaluating your surroundings continuously.”
“You’re forgetting the fact that you successfully surprised me at Daze’s residence. You tossed me out a second-story window, and you and the kid both managed to play me a number of times.” I was still pissed at myself about that. “I’m not infallible, nor am I superhuman. I try not to get played, because I want to survive, but it’s nothing more than that.”
“You got played for a reason.”
I gaped at him. I couldn’t help it. “What exactly does that mean?”
“You trust people you care about, even if you don’t want to,” he answered with no sign of smugness.
I was saved from replying as he took us out over the sea, angling us into the barracks parking space seamlessly. Once we landed, I thought about arguing my point, but decided to drop it. And maybe, possibly, there might be a kernel of truth to what he’d said.
By the time I came around the passenger side, Case was already working on the main door. He’d given both Bender and Lockland the code to unlock it, and since nothing had blown, I assumed they’d been successful, unless they’d gone through the hatch, which was a possibility. Bender had likely dropped off L
ockland and the bureau guy and gone to park the craft elsewhere, walking back.
As we pushed into the main room, Daze jumped up. “You’re back!”
I walked in, glancing around the empty space.
The tech table was on, the hologram map of the city up, letting me know what Darby and Daze had been up to.
Darby read my face right, stopping in front of me. “What’s wrong?”
“Where are Lockland and Bender?” I asked, my tone pointed. “They’re supposed to be here.”
“They haven’t come back yet,” Darby said.
Behind me, Case had already exited the room, likely to go back out to start up Seven. “Come on,” I told Daze and Darby. They wasted no time following. “Lockland and Bender must have encountered some trouble,” I explained as we paced quickly down the hallway. “We left them with a guy they’d caught, someone we think is from the bureau. They were supposed to come directly back here. Case and I went to get the Babble from the Emporium so we could interrogate him.” I swore. “We’re not using our tech phones, so we didn’t check in. I just assumed they wouldn’t have any issues.” They shouldn’t have. The guy had been on his knees.
Once outside, I hoisted the passenger door. Case was already in the pilot seat, Seven’s props going. Darby and Daze climbed into the backseat. Darby commented, “Our phones didn’t make any noise.”
“It was doubtful they would have,” I said. “The walls in the barracks must be three meters thick. Maisie can’t even get her neutrinos through them very well.”
Maisie, still in Daze’s pocket and recognizing her name, said, “Holly, you are correct. Although my NEUdar technology can pass through concrete and soil, its accuracy is compromised at that density.”
“Well, it’s not compromised anymore,” I said. “It’s time to work. I need you to pinpoint the location of Lockland’s craft.” Maisie could tell the difference between each of us and each of our crafts.
Daze pulled her out of his pocket, holding her between the seats in his open palm as Case propelled us up and over the barracks.
Danger's Cure: (Holly Danger Book 4) Page 10