by Neil Hunter
‘Who you callin’ a throwback?’
He launched a massive fist in Janek’s direction. The cyborg leaned swiftly back out of harm’s way. As the doorman was pulled in toward him by the force of the punch, Janek’s right hand flashed up and forward, catching the man’s wrist. He increased the pressure, his titanium fingers cutting off circulation and numbing the nerves. His other hand caught hold of the doorman’s left thigh. Janek raised him off the floor, turned effortlessly and threw the man into the corner of the foyer.
‘If you’re still around when we come out,’ Janek said, ‘I’ll show you my other trick.’
The auditorium had rings of seats set around the ten-foot raised platform on which the holographic porn movie was playing. The life-size images of two men and three girls relentlessly performed a variety of sexual acts on a king-size bed. The images were as clear as if they were being enacted by live performers. The men were in perfect physical condition and possessed the obligatory oversize sexual organs, while the females had fantasy figures, complete with superb breasts and supple limbs.
As Janek followed Cade into the semidarkness, he tapped his partner on the shoulder.
‘Are these images supposed to represent human form at its best?’
‘In a way,’ Cade said, not sure where Janek’s line of questioning would lead. ‘Why?’
‘I can equate the females with Kate,’ Janek said tactfully. ‘But the males, well, they seem to be somewhat different, especially when it comes to a certain part of the anatomy.’
Cade pretended not to hear. He hadn’t expected Janek to bring up that particular incident at a time like this.
The cyborg had wandered into Cade’s bedroom during one of Kate’s visits and stood watching with almost child-like interest. It had been Kate, glancing over Cade’s shoulder, who had seen Janek watching. To her credit she hadn’t panicked but simply tapped Cade’s naked back.
‘What?’ he’d asked rather absentmindedly. Being interrupted at such a crucial moment hadn’t caught him at his most receptive.
‘We have a visitor,’ Kate had managed to say before exploding with laughter.
Forgetting for the moment his vulnerable state, Cade had twisted his head around to see Janek standing there.
‘Goddamn it, Janek! What?’ he had yelled, Kate’s laughter only feeding his anger.
‘I heard strange noises. I thought someone was having a problem.’
Kate had collapsed beside Cade, hysterical with laughter.
‘T.J., what were you doing to Kate?’
Through her laughter Kate had asked, ‘Yes, what were you doing to Kate?’
Cade had scowled at her, not trusting himself to speak. His anger was rising as swiftly as his passion wilted, and was compounded when he realized that Janek was watching his physical reaction closely.
‘Why is it doing that, T.J.?’ the cyborg had asked, switching his gaze to Cade’s taut features.
The final question had been too much for Kate. Burying her face in the pillow, she had been reduced to uncontrollable laughter, tears streaming down her beautiful face, the sleek curves of her shapely body quivering in spasms.
Cade was able to laugh about the incident himself later, but he had always kept the bedroom door locked from that day on.
They spotted Max Lippin near the front, relaxing in one of the body-molding recliner seats provided for the paying customers. He was so engrossed in the movie that he didn’t notice Cade standing over him. Not until Cade leaned over and tapped his shoulder.
‘Max, I hate to disturb you when you’re working, but we need to talk.’ Lippin twisted his head around, peering up at Cade. His thin features wrinkled into an expression of annoyance, and he waved a bony hand at Cade.
‘I have nothing to say to you, Cade.’
‘Wrong answer, Max.’
Cade caught hold of Lippin’s jacket and hauled him out of the recliner. He dragged the protesting man out of the auditorium, through the foyer and out onto the street. Janek had moved ahead of them. He opened the cruiser’s rear door.
Cade shoved Lippin inside, then followed.
Janek slammed the door shut and moved around to slip behind the wheel. ‘Where to?’ he asked as he fired up the engine.
‘Just cruise,’ Cade said. ‘Stay off the main drag. I don’t want too many witnesses.’
Lippin gave a strangled cry, his lean body wriggling across the rear seat. He tried to open the door of the cruiser as Janek pulled away.
‘Take it easy, Max. You act like a man with something to hide,’ Cade said. ‘You got something to hide? That it, Max?’
Lippin turned suddenly, defiance sharpening his feral eyes. He sat upright, brushing at the lines of his flashy suit.
‘What’s this all about, Cade?’
‘It’s about a cheap little lawyer trying to make the big time, Max.’
‘I don’t have time to play games. What do you want?’
‘Answers, Max. Like who pays Jak Regis’s bail every time you spring him? Who sets up the deals? I know it isn’t you. You don’t handle people like Regis. So who is pulling the strings for you?’
‘What the hell, Cade, you jealous because I raised my game? Can’t a guy improve himself?’
Cade even grinned at that, because it proved his suspicions. ‘Max, I don’t give a damn how high you go. But don’t think you’re taking me in. You’re fronting for someone. Now give, or I’ll have Janek run us down by the East River so I can dump you.’
Lippin gave a halfhearted laugh. The sound died in his throat as he caught the expression in Cade’s eyes. Whatever else he might have thought about the Justice Marshal, Lippin knew that T.J.
Cade was not a man who threatened lightly. He also knew that for somebody of Cade’s caliber, working for the Justice Department meant that he had a free hand when it came to settling his cases.
‘Jesus, Cade, what do you want from a guy? All I do is a little representing for a client. There a law against it?’
‘If you’ve nothing to hide, Max, why get in such a state about it?’
‘The client wanted confidentiality is all.’
Lippin leaned forward in his seat. He rubbed a hand across his face. The pale flesh was moist.
‘Is it hot or what? Hey, you got the heater on or something?’ he called to Janek.
‘Calm down, Max,’ Cade suggested. ‘Just give me what I need.’
‘Yeah, sure. Look, I take on assignments for this guy. He calls and gives me instructions. I do the business and he pays me.’
‘This guy got a name?’
‘Hamilton Lasall. Has his own law firm.’
Janek’s head inclined slightly as he picked up the name. It would be filed away inside his skull for checking when he and Cade returned to the office.
‘That it, Max?’
Lippin nodded vigorously. ‘I don’t know who employs Lasall, and that’s the truth. They don’t say, I don’t ask.’
‘Stop the car, Janek,’ Cade said.
Lippin glanced at the Justice cop. ‘That it? I can go?’
‘Sure, Max. Like I said, all I wanted was a couple of answers.’
Lippin climbed out of the cruiser, still watching Cade. It was as if he expected Cade to suddenly reach out and shoot him. Once the lawyer was on the sidewalk, Cade told Janek to drive on.
‘T.J., he’ll be on the phone by now, telling his client we’ve been questioning him.’
‘Sure he will,’ Cade said, grinning expansively.
‘Which is what you want him to do?’
‘I want him to pass the word that we’re still digging. It helps if you keep everyone guessing.’
‘The principle being that when people become upset they do unexpected things?’
‘You got it.’
‘Back to the office?’ Janek asked.
‘Right. Let’s run some checks on Lasall. In the morning we go and see what the Darksiders have to say.’
‘What about Regis?’
&
nbsp; Cade grunted to himself.
‘What does that mean?’ Janek asked.
‘I have a feeling Regis will show up again sooner or later.’
Chapter Seven
The transit authority officer wasn’t too happy having to guide Cade and Janek to the junction with the main tunnel. As he led them along the access tunnel, he made constant references to the dangers of the place. His grumbling seemed endless.
Janek finally got tired of the man’s whining. He moved up beside their guide and caught his attention.
‘What?’ the man asked irritably.
‘You want to make me happy?’
‘Huh?’
‘Just show us the damn way and quit giving us a hard time. Okay? If you have to grumble, mime it.’
The man began to protest, then thought better of it when he took a good look at Janek’s height. He hunched his shoulders and stomped forward.
‘T.J., are we going to find anything down here?’ Janek asked.
‘Right now I don’t even know what we’re supposed to be looking for,’ Cade admitted. ‘All we have are rumors of Darksiders missing and Kate wandering around down here.’
‘I don’t think it was one of her better ideas.’
‘You and me both, partner.’
Minutes later the officer halted. He beckoned Cade and Janek forward, indicating the way ahead with his flashlight.
‘About thirty yards on you’ll hit the down-ramp that merges with the main tunnel. We’ve spotted Darksiders around the area for years.’
‘You sure this is where the girl went in?’ Cade asked, referring to Kate.
‘Hell, sure. I won’t forget her in a hurry. You know, all that red hair and the body inside that jumpsuit. I can feel my dick wakin’ up just thinking about her.’
Janek’s right hand snaked out to grasp Cade’s arm as he began to move forward. Only the shadowed gloom of the tunnel hid Cade’s angry expression. The cyborg held his partner immobile until the transit cop had walked ahead of them and was out of earshot.
‘Easy, T.J.,’ Janek whispered.
Just then, their guide decided that he’d taken them far enough and that his part of the job was over. He turned back, ready to make his way out again.
‘Glad I’m not the one going in there,’ he stated. The easy grin on his lips failed to soften the hard gleam in his eyes. ‘But, hell, it’s what they pay you guys for, isn’t it?’
He began to retrace his footsteps back along the access tunnel, leaving Cade and Janek on their own.
Cade led the way forward, down the ramp to where the access tunnel joined with the abandoned subway tunnel. This section of the system had been closed ten years earlier, making way for the improved rapid-transit system that now ran through its own new tunnels. Every few minutes the subdued sound of the trains could be heard through the walls of the old tunnel. Scattered litter was strewn across the ramp. There was more filth on the floor of the main tunnel. Most of it was the accumulated trash that marked years of human presence and dwelling.
From rotting food to old TV sets, broken furniture and automobile tires. The walls and curving top of the tunnel were streaked with black soot from the countless fires that had been lit over the years to provide the means for cooking or simply for warmth.
There was an all-pervading smell lingering in the air. A cloying, disturbing odor, it was a mix of spoiling food and human waste, of damp and fetid air. It spoke of decay and death, and the impermanence of man and his society.
‘How the hell are you supposed to get used to this stench?’ Cade grumbled.
‘Does it bother you, T.J.?’
‘Damn right it does,’ Cade said. ‘You’re lucky you can’t smell it.’
‘I can smell it, only I react in a different way,’ Janek smiled indulgently. ‘If you think about it, T.J., I’m pretty well superior to you in a number of ways. I don’t get sick. I don’t need to eat or drink. Drugs don’t interest me, and I haven’t got your desperate need for sex.’
‘And you figure that makes you superior?’
‘Don’t you?’
‘You’ve just made me realize my entire existence is a total waste,’ Cade said.
‘I didn’t mean to upset you, Thomas.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll try to bear the mental scars.’
They progressed along the tunnel, scattering debris as they walked and disturbing the rats that infested the area.
‘Don’t you like them?’ Janek asked, watching his partner’s reaction to the rodents.
Cade took a wild kick at a particularly large rat that stood its ground as he approached. The rat squealed angrily, darting at Cade, who stumbled back.
With unerring accuracy Janek turned and lashed out with his foot. The toe of his boot lifted the rat and flung it yards back along the tunnel. It thudded to the ground and scurried off into the darkness.
As he rejoined Cade, Janek raised his head, peering into the darkness that lay ahead of them.
‘Someone there,’ he said to Cade.
‘More than one. Could be six, maybe seven people.’
Janek’s vision was equipped with the ability to magnify distant objects. He was also able to utilize any source of light to enhance his night-vision capability.
Cade eased his .357 from its holster, dropping his hand to his side, the concealed weapon hidden from sight but already accessible. He continued moving forward, aware of Janek to his left. He concentrated on his own approach, safe in the knowledge that the cyborg would be on instant response if trouble showed.
The group of figures slipped from the gloom, forming into recognizable shapes.
Janek had been right. Cade counted six of them. They were clad in the raggedy dress that seemed part of the Darksider mystique. An odd mix of current fashions curiously blended with garments that had a distinctly medieval look to them. Leather and wool mixtures that were direct opposites to synthetic fibers, yet seemed to mate with them.
As the Darksiders drew closer, Cade picked out individual faces, noting that they all had the same dead white complexions. Years of existing below ground, away from the sun and air, had turned their skins pale, giving them an almost ghoulish appearance.
The leader of the Darksiders brought his group to a stop. He was a tall, round-shouldered man, his stringy, graying hair falling in tails around his pinched features. Dark eyes looked Cade over with unconcealed hostility.
‘What do you want down here?’ he demanded. His voice had a hollow ring to it. ‘You don’t belong.’
‘And you don’t own this place,’ Cade reminded him. ‘So let’s get off that track right away.’
‘Maybe you should count how many there are of us.’
Cade sighed. Another hard case.
‘Don’t play games unless you know the rules,’ he said, and eased the auto pistol so it could be seen. ‘My name’s Cade. This is Janek, my partner. We’re from the Justice Department. Only reason we’re down here is to look into rumors of Darksiders going missing. There any truth in that?’
‘We don’t need your fuckin’ help,’ a voice yelled from the back of the group. ‘Nobody gives a damn about us normally. Why all the fuss now?’
‘Because if a crime’s been committed, it’s my job to deal with it. Darksiders or bankers, makes no difference to me. I treat everyone the same.’
The Darksider leader stepped forward, his face taut with anger. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said.
‘And just who are you, mister? Somebody special or just a loose mouth?’
‘They call me Rolf. I speak for these people.’
‘Well, I don’t give a damn what you believe, Rolf,’ Cade told him. ‘If there’s something going on, I need to know about it. I only learned about this two days ago, and since then people have been trying to kill me every time I bring the subject up. When that happens, it gets personal.’
Cade noticed other figures edging out of the shadows, expanding the crowd, which now included women and children.
‘I didn’t come down here to admire the view or to hassle you people. Believe me, I’d rather be up top. So tell me what’s going down.’
Rolf refused to give in. He remained silent, staring with his empty eyes at Cade and Janek.
‘Damn you, Rolf!’
The shout came from somewhere in the crowd of Darksiders. It was the determined voice of a young woman. She pushed her way through the crowd, a slim, pale figure, then elbowed her way past Rolf.
‘He won’t help you. He never does,’ she said spiritedly. ‘If he’d lost someone, it might be different. But he doesn’t have anyone to lose, so he makes us all suffer by refusing help.’
‘What do we call you?’ Cade asked.
‘I’m Lisa.’
‘Have you lost someone, Lisa?’ Janek asked.
She nodded.
‘My man. They took him three weeks ago. During one of their raids. They took over a hundred that night. We don’t know what’s happened to them, but I believe they’re all dead. I don’t believe we’ll see any of them again. I said the same to that journalist after she agreed to come down and help us.’
Lisa turned on the man named Rolf, and the anger pitched her voice higher.
‘She came to help, but he turned against her. Made things difficult.’
‘She was an outsider,’ Rolf snapped back. ‘What good are outsiders? She wanted us to resist.’
‘At least it’s doing something,’ Lisa said. ‘You let them come and do nothing. We’ve lost too many people to allow it to go on. Maybe it’s time we asked why you let them take our people.’
‘Yes,’ someone yelled. ‘Make him tell.’
‘Maybe he’s in with them,’ another suggested.
‘Speak up, Rolf, we’ve a right to know what’s going on.’
‘Looks like the ball’s in your court, Rolf,’ Cade said.
Rolf flicked his hand, and two of the men close by him began to open their coats.
Oh hell! Cade thought as he caught the soft glint of metal. The mothers are armed!
That was unusual for the Darksiders, who didn’t believe in weapons of violence. Their very retreat beneath the ground was partly due to their desire to stay away from the mad struggle overhead in the city, a struggle that some of them were not equipped to handle, while others refused to take part in the daily scramble.