by M. R. Forbes
She seemed to know a lot about it.
"You've been here before?"
"Motorcycle racing. They have a pretty hardcore course. That's all I ever came for." Her face turned red and she looked down. It was cute that she was embarrassed.
"You don't have any other vices?"
Her head shifted again, and her eyes caught mine. "I didn't say that."
"I get why we came here to hide out. How did we end up in the love shack?" I stood up again and started getting dressed. I did okay with my pants, but my shoulder really didn't want to go up high enough to pull on a shirt.
"People ask fewer questions when sex is involved. Let me help you with that."
She took the shirt from my hands and repositioned it so I could push my left arm in below my chest. Then she lifted it up and over my head while I lowered myself closer to her. By the time she pulled it down to my waist, our faces were only inches apart.
"Thanks." The last time we had been this close I hadn't been able to see her eyes. They were dark, with flecks of maroon scattered throughout.
She nodded and reached around me to grab the hoodie. "It's the least I can do. You already saved my life twice, and you got shot for me. Put your arms out."
I repeated the motion, and she helped me finish dressing.
"I lost the stone, and I almost got you killed. Amos saved your life, not me."
She put her hand to my face. It was soft and cool. Such a simple act of kindness, but I appreciated it more than I was going to say. "We'll get the artifact back. Danelle and Amos are out right now, trying to raise enough money to book time in the Machine."
That must have been the other reason she had chosen the Greens. I knew it wasn't for the unique vending machines. "What do you mean raising money? The payment I got for this job was guaranteed."
"Danelle said you haven't received it yet. They were going to pawn some of the guns."
Mr. Clean told me it would take a couple of days. I was hoping information traveling at the speed of light might have moved things along a little faster.
"Ouch. It's a small price to pay, I guess." I reached out with my good hand and put it on her shoulder. "Back in the alley... did you really think I was going to renege on our deal?"
"To save your own life? You told me you were afraid of death."
"I am, and I've done a lot of things to keep myself alive... some of which I'm not proud of. I do have a few morals left in me, though."
She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. "My apologies, Baron. I won't doubt you again."
"Is my trench around here somewhere?" It hadn't been in the pile with everything else.
"Unlike you, that thing was beyond repair. Torn, bloody, dirty, and it smelled worse than you look. We tossed it over the bridge on the way across."
Damn. I liked that coat. "What about my stuff?"
"There's a safe in the bathroom. The combination is 3223."
It could stay there for now. "Okay."
There was an awkward moment of silence, like we had both just realized where we were standing.
"Believe it or not, this is one of the tame rooms."
I laughed. "How many of the others have you seen?"
Her face turned red again, and she looked away. "I'm not like that."
Shit. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I was just joking. Trying to ease some of the tension."
She turned back towards me and nodded. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving." I hadn't realized until she mentioned it. "Do they have room service in this dive?"
"They do, but the menu isn't quite what you would expect."
I bit my lip. I should have known. "I can wait."
She reached out and took my hand in hers. "No, you can't. You haven't eaten a decent meal in days. There's a sushi place right across the street. It's a hole in the wall, but the food is fantastic."
I let her pull me towards the door.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Good fish.
I didn't get to see much of the Greens on the way from the 'More-a than Amore' hotel to 'Secret Sushi'. It literally was across the street, a wide thoroughfare that was closed to cars, and open to every kind of freak and thrill-seeker I could have imagined. It was loud and bright and colorful, like a carnival, and packed with every sort of human both old and new. It appeared to be a melting pot of culture, where every bias could be put aside and everyone was free to enjoy whatever they had come to enjoy.
Plenty of armed guards made sure it stayed that way.
They didn't stand out, but I spotted them right away, leaning against the buildings, hidden in black body armor and shadows. They held heavy automatic rifles, and seemed to be immune to the chaotic energy of the place. Jin had said they kept a tight control. She hadn't been kidding.
The food at Secret Sushi was as good as she had claimed. The atmosphere was even better. Each table was cordoned off by soundproof walls, completely enclosed save for a small opening against the back where a thin conveyor belt carried food and drink along. You took what you wanted and scanned it on the table to have it added to your bill, and you didn't have to interact with anyone. You could pay with cash or bitcoin, or credit if you really wanted to. No annoying neighbors, no waitresses, nothing. We'd had to pay the hostess at the front to send Dannie and Amos our way if we were still here when they got back.
"My aunt used to meet me here after races," Jin said. "It was the only place outside of our holdings that she trusted to be private, and it was convenient for both of us to be here at the same time, for different reasons."
"Why would she be here? The Greens doesn't seem like the kind of place the head of a House would frequent."
"You know who my aunt was?"
I nodded.
"There's a hospital here. It's where Parity tests a lot of the new technology, because the laws are more... lenient, here. They can move to human trials a lot faster, bring the new tech to market faster, and save more lives."
"And make more money."
"That is part of it."
"Okay, but here's what I don't get. Your aunt was married. What about your uncle, Kai? Doesn't he own Parity Limited?"
She popped a slice of tuna roll in her mouth, closing her eyes and appreciating the flavor. I took a drink of water while she chewed and swallowed.
"Poor Kai. He was married to Auntie when the reversal happened. She became Mrs. Red, but he wasn't even sensitive. He's ninety-three years old, and he has a team of technicians working around the clock to keep him alive."
"What does that mean for you, and for Parity?"
"It doesn't mean anything for Parity. They have a CEO, Matsuhiro Liu. He knows there is an heir, but he doesn't know who, and won't until I confirm myself. Like I said, nobody was supposed to know about me. Outside of that... the employees don't know or care who cuts their paychecks."
She had answered the second part, and tried to dodge the first. "What does it mean for you?"
She looked down at her roll. "With Auntie and Natsumi gone, Uncle Kai is all the blood family I have left. It means I will be left to manage the entire House alone."
"Sounds like a tough situation. What happened to your parents?"
"Killed in a plane crash, ten years ago."
"Intentional?"
She looked at me. "The official report says it was pilot error."
"You don't believe that."
"Do you?"
No, I didn't. I shook my head. "You said nobody was supposed to know about you, but someone obviously does. Can you think of who, or how? I mean, if someone killed your parents, they must have known there was a connection there."
She looked down and speared another piece of her roll, chewed and swallowed, and then poured a new cup of green tea. She looked over at the new items rolling by on the conveyor belt. She looked everywhere but at me.
She was still looking away when she spoke.
"I was fourteen when they died. Natsumi was only ten. We would spend a month eac
h year with them, on a private island owned by my aunt. The steps she went through to get us there without anyone knowing... to have us there with our parents. They loved us, I know, even though we barely knew each other. Natsumi should have been with them, but they insisted that I not grow up alone. They sent her to live in New York with me."
I used the chopsticks to pick up a piece of salmon. I couldn't imagine the childhood Jin had experienced. It was anything but normal, yet she seemed strong, and sensitive, and that her head was in the right place. "So you're saying it would have been impossible for anyone to know about you?"
"It should have been. It is clear that someone does. I wish I knew how."
She still wasn't looking at me. It made me wonder again if there was something she wasn't saying.
"If there are answers, we'll find them. Dannie is a total bad-ass in the Machine."
We spent a few more minutes eating and drinking in silence.
"What about you, Conor?" she asked, sounding a little timid. "Tell me about your family."
I looked at her, surprised. "No offense, Miss Red, but I'm a ghost. An employee. You aren't supposed to even know my name, and anything I tell you... you could use that against me."
She looked hurt, and I felt like an asshole for causing it. "I wouldn't do that."
"Not today you wouldn't. Maybe not tomorrow. Give it time. I've been a ghost for five years now. I've stolen, I've killed, I've hurt people and left their lives in ruin. They've all been involved with the Houses, so I don't consider them innocents... Still, most of the time, I don't even know why. It's nobody I ever thought I would be. It's nobody I ever wanted to be. It's the life I found myself in, when my other one fell to shit. When I got sick. It's the only way I found to live with myself when I wasn't sure I wanted to live at all, but I knew for certain that I didn't want to die."
She started crying as I was speaking. It wasn't because I had rejected her conversation. She was reading me, seeing my pain and anger and guilt. She was feeling it, and feeling for me. Empathic. She slid around to my side of the table and put her arm over my shoulders.
"You don't know what you'll have to do to protect the ones you love. To take care of your House. You don't know the decisions you'll have to make. I'm a ghost. I might not be a threat to you today, but what about in the future? Who knows what jobs I'll work, or who I'll do them for? Who knows what alliances you'll make? That's the life we've fallen into, the world we belong to that's supposed to keep the rest running smoothly. You know... the only thing that keeps me sane is when I sink money into my ex-wife's account, and I know I'm doing something to take care of them. It's the least I can do, after I failed them in the worst way a man can fail his family."
Damn it. I didn't want to talk about it, and I found myself letting out every painful guilty thought I fought so hard to bury all of the time. She was careful with my wounded shoulder when she pulled me close, and held me while my own tears fell.
I was thankful for the soundproof walls. I was glad Dannie wasn't here. Whatever the new Red was, she was reaching parts of my soul that I had tried really hard to kill. Part of me hated her for it, and part of me found itself feeling a little too much.
"You were right about the food," I said after a minute. I turned my head, my teary eyes finding hers only a few inches away. "We should go back to the hotel."
"The hotel?" She was staring into my eyes, unblinking, her expression soft.
"To wait for Amos and Dannie. They missed out on a good meal."
Her face turned red, and she pulled away, looking down and smiling.
"It is good fish," she said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Ghosts in the Machine.
"Baldie!" Amos' bellow echoed in the hotel room, and he waddled over to greet me when Jin and I got back.
"You're happy to see me?" I couldn't see past his bulk, but I could hear the wheels on Danelle's chair gliding over the carpet behind him.
"I threatened to cut something very dear to him off if anything happened to you," Jin said behind me.
"I wasn't worried. The wound was clean. Did you get to go outside? Holy shit, some of the girls here... biggest-"
"Amos!" Danelle snapped, at the same time her chair rolled over his foot. He shut his mouth.
"You've never been to the Greens before?"
"Oh, I have. Try to get here whenever I'm in the Northeast. Damn shame it's run by dir- hooooo! Fucking amazes me every fucking time."
I knelt down and wrapped my good arm around Danelle. "It's good to see you."
"We figured you'd be back soon, and I grabbed a dog from a vendor down the street. I'm glad you're up. You worried the shit out of me. How's the arm?"
I stood up and flexed it. The motion hurt, but I needed to get back into fighting shape. "I'll be fine. Like Amos said, the wound was clean."
"I got you something while we were out. I left it in the bedroom."
"I already have a good supply of sex toys."
She smacked me on the arm. "Don't be an asshole."
"Did you get some time in the Machine?" Jin asked.
Amos reached into the inside pocket of his duster. "Ta-da!" He was holding two credit-card shaped pieces of gold plastic. "Two hours each. We had to pawn half the armory to get it done."
Danelle sighed. "We had to do the golden tickets. They were booked for the next two weeks." The gold cards meant no reservations, and no waiting.
"I didn't know the Machine was getting that popular."
"In a place like this it is. According to the owner, the sovereignty of the Greens means they don't have to lock down any mods. If I had known that beforehand, I would have brought you somewhere else."
"Do you think you can get what you need in two hours?"
Danelle shrugged. "Let's hope so. We're going to be out of guns otherwise."
That reminded me. "What happened to Evan?"
Amos made a sound like he was puking. "Ugh. I'm putting carrying a half-decayed corpse at the very top of my list of the most disgusting things I've ever done. Number two is -"
"I don't want to know what number two is," I said, cutting him off.
He started laughing. "Fine. Trust me when I say it was really fucking gross. Anyway, he's back in his cooler in the van. Head's hanging a bit cockeyed after the werewolf tried to pull it off."
I could only hope the damage wasn't too bad; bodies like his were hard to find. "Thanks for collecting him, and for getting me loaded up and out of there."
"Like I said, she threatened to cut my balls off if anything happened to you. After what she did to my nose, I didn't doubt it." He ran his hand along his face. "Beautiful mug like mine. Damn shame."
I looked back at Jin and mouthed a thank you. She smiled in return.
"I think we've lost enough time. Let me go grab my stuff and we can head back to the Machinery. Every minute we waste gives whoever is behind this shit another minute to solidify their position."
I moved past them, hitting the bedroom first. I wasn't that surprised to find a black wool trench coat laid out on the bed. It was an oldie but a goodie, maybe a little too heavy to be practical and not the best suited for rain, but I didn't care about that. It had two deep front pockets, and two deep inner pockets, and was big enough that it would hide any kind of weapon I wanted to stash under it. I could always upgrade when I had a chance to do some real shopping.
I put the coat on and slipped my hood up, and then walked across to the attached bathroom to check myself in the mirror. The hood was casting a nice shadow, and the trench did what I wanted it to do. I found the safe and put in the code. All of my stuff was organized in the front, and I withdrew it and stuck it in my various pockets. Everything but the cell... the battery was dead, and the only person I ever called was already here. I noticed Jin's necklace was sitting all the way in the back, and I wondered if I should pocket that, too. Some part of me didn't feel like this safe was all that safe.
I stared at it for a few seconds, and then
took it.
"I'm ready to rock," I said, joining the others in the living room. "Thanks for the coat, Dannie. It's perfect."
"You needed it. You looked like a stiff wind would knock you right over."
"Here, take this." Amos offered me a shoulder holster with one of the guns resting in it. "Place like this... you never know."
"Are you kidding me? There are armed guards everywhere."
"Safe enough in the streets. Can't say the same for the Machinery. Get a big enough crowd of assholes, you never know what could happen."
I shrugged off the trench and took the offered gun, slipping it on and burying it beneath the wool again. "Thanks."
"No problemo."
We headed out of the hotel again, with Amos in the lead. The big man was useful for clearing a path for us to move through, his massive girth threatening to knock aside anyone who was careless enough to get in our way. He brought us straight through the gathered crowds, past barely dressed men and women both showing off their assets, past goblins hawking baubles and necklaces, and dwarves playing up their mythos, dressed like they had fallen out of the Lonely Mountain to sell handmade axes and daggers. There was even a pair of elven magic users here, a pyro and an aqua who were wowing the crowd by dancing through rings of fire and water, crisscrossing them, or pulling them into one another to bathe themselves in mist and steam.
All the while, my eyes stayed on the guards. There was at least a pair at every corner, leaning back and taking it all in. From the size, most of them had to be ogres, or maybe trolls. From the armament, they could have annexed the rest of Brooklyn from the United States before morning if they were so inclined.
"When we get there, just stay quiet and let me set everything up," Danelle said. "Tony is an okay guy, but he doesn't have much patience for newbies."