Voodoo’s eyes were staring a the floor, her pupils dilated and unmoving. Without moving her gaze she said. “Okay. Deal. The other part of the reagent, ” she said, her voice flat as she paused to swallow some of the blood running from her nose into her throat. “The other reagent is in San Antonio. Talk to Alamo—you’ll have to deal with him to get your hands on any of it.”
Alamo. The name was obviously recognizable due to the landmark’s namesake, but she thought the moniker was also vaguely familiar. San Antonio was another dome that they didn’t travel to often. Like New Orleans, it had once been a flat and was renovated again during a period of economic improvement. It’s proximity to certain border towns associated with Calavera had kept her away because dealing in controversial territories stirred up unnecessary trouble with the cartels. It was possible that someone there might also know something about Calavera.
“Great. Lovely doing business with you. Could I offer you some coffee or something? Not to be an asshole or anything, but you look like shit,” she said.
CHAPTER 26
Even though it was of little importance, Xero was sad that they hadn’t been allowed to tour more of New Orleans while they were there. Judging how great things had gone with Voodoo, it would be the last time they’d have the opportunity to tour that dome for quite some time. She was tempted to give Milo and Neptune a real ass reaming for fucking with the deal, but in the end they had gotten what they wanted, and they hadn’t had to risk their lives or Radar’s by getting high in the middle of a freaking dome. Dealing with Xed would be the next problem, but if he was really that pissed about missing out on the cash, Xero didn’t have a problem shelling out the extra dough. Even though Xero never missed an opportunity to score some cash, it wasn’t something they were short on, and she wouldn’t mind giving him anything he wanted just to keep him from causing a fuss.
They had originally planned to say in New Orleans for at least another day or two, but since things had gone sour rather quickly, they were forced to hit the road far sooner than they had intended. Xero was worried about communication, considering the fact that there were several true dead zones between them and San Antonio, and they couldn’t exactly just knock on the dome and hope someone would let them inside. They needed Xed’s help, and he had probably already learned that they had screwed him over. If worst came to worse Xero would either sneak in over the back channels, or she would use what limited government connections she had forged over years. Her recent partnership with Calavera and her subsequent disappearance would at least make the likelihood of being stalked by cartel goons far less likely. That is unless the cartels thought Xero was responsible for her disappearance. She had some limited protection as the only known maker of pure Alphamine, but that wasn’t necessarily enough. One could never be too careful where the cartels were concerned. They tended to stab first and ask questions later.
They were traveling in two of their older supply vans that looked more credible as a touring vehicle. Xero had wanted to take the abandoned crawler that she had inherited as a result of the snafu in the desert. According to the Phoenix dome, due to the current crisis and the fact that it had been significantly altered from its factory settings due to the catastrophic accident, they didn’t even want it back. Xero thought it was yet another example of the dome governments’ conspicuous consumption and waste, but she wasn’t one to argue with free toys. Xed had still said that it would be too suspicious, and that she needed to keep a clear line between her government runs, her black market dealings, and their semi-legal band tour. Shit was getting way too complicated, but it was what they had to deal with for the moment.
The supply vans were definitely questionable in terms of structural integrity, but they had made the trip out there, and she had to have faith that they would make the trip back to Tucson without another major incident. She did feel slightly more secure knowing that between Radar and Neptune they should be able to repair just about anything. At least most of the roads were still intact—after the tidal waves, the government had gone through a good deal of trouble helping to restore the freeways that had been washed out. Of course, now all of those were largely abandoned and in disrepair, but it made it possible to travel in something that wasn’t an armored crawler. Still, it was a risk—even if mother nature didn’t decide to attack, they were at risk of rogue skeleton assaults or ambushes from other miscellaneous marauders.
Xed had a thing or two coming to him. They needed to make sure that San Antonio was ready for them, but Xero had a feeling that they already knew. Once they had cleared the New Orleans dome, she had Neptune fired up a communicator. She had wanted an engineer in each vehicle so Radar was saddled up with Milo in the rear while she led the way in the front car with Neptune.
“Once you get a transmission started, you give me the mic so I can give him a piece of my mind,” Xero said.
“You always get to have all the fun,” Neptune said and handed the communicator over to Xero.
“Hey there partner, methinks we’ve got a few things to talk about, don’t you?” Xero said once the communicator had clicked through.
“I got word that you left the city. I trust everything went well?” Xed said.
“Cut the fucking crap, Xed,” she said. “I can’t believe you’re still trying to play innocent with me.”
“Why, whatever are you talking about?” he said.
“You’re lucky you’re a few states away right now or I’d give you a good kick in the nuts. You fucking knew that we couldn’t get the Ketocillin from Voodoo. You fucked us over,” she said.
“That’s not true. I was under the impression that they had the full drug ready to go. I’m sorry to hear you weren’t able to obtain the drugs that you needed,” he said.
“Yeah, you’re so fucking sorry, I’m sure. How convenient that we now have a reason to keep working with you, right? Xed, I’m not a moron. Well, you may have fucked us over, but your deal got screwed at the same time. We gave the Alphamine away for free. Okay not quite for free, but in exchange for the Ketocillion reagent,” Xero said.
Neptune cupped her hands and directed a shout of, “Fuck you, asshole,” into the communicator. Xero glared at her and Neptune just shrugged like she couldn’t help herself.
“I’ll ignore that for now,” Xed said.
“If you want us to compensate you for the profit lost, I can do that just to avoid a fight. I don’t really care about the money right now,” Xero said.
“It’s fine. Right now the distribution itself and breaking into the new market is more important anyway. First one is always free, right?” he said.
“That is in fact what they say,” she said.
“Good. No harm done then. So, as your new manager, I’ve already made arrangements for you in San Antonio. I have a show booked as a cover. You brought the extra product with you, right?” he said.
“Yeah, we did. How convenient that you recommended carrying excess cargo,” she said.
“It always pays to be prepared,” he said and gave them the details of how they would need to proceed while they were in San Antonio.
“Wow, you’re so organized, it’s almost like you thought about all of this in advance,” Xero said, the sarcasm dripping into the communicator.
“I look forward to hearing about your musical and business successes in San Antonio,” Xed said and signed off before Xero could hit him with another sharp reply.
She turned to Neptune. “I knew it. I knew that fucker would already have things ready to go in San Antonio. He knew we’d want to book it back to Tucson as soon as we had the Ketocillin—this is a convenient way for him to make us set up another distribution point and get into a new market while we’re out this way. Remind me to punch him in the face, but not till after we cure Trina,” she said.
Neptune stared out across the road into the green mass of swamp land that they were slogging through at a steady pace despite the uncooperative terrain. Xero preferred things to be drier. “Hey Xero,
” Neptune said. “You notice anything?”
Xero sighed and took her eyes off the road for a second to make eye contact with Neptune. “Yeah, I have. The skeletons,” she said.
Neptune unconsciously flexed her right fist. “We’ve conveniently had no skeleton attacks since we started working with Xed. Before you shacked up with him you were getting hit with skeletons like there was a Dia de Los Muertos blowout sale going on,” she said.
“Funny how that’s been working out. Until we get our fists around that Ketocillin, we play ball with Xed, but we’re going to need to have a serious meeting after we get back from San Antonio. New shit has come to light,” she said.
CHAPTER 27
San Antonio seemed to be doing a lot better than New Orleans. The whole city had a festive air, and it struck a nice balance between the wild old city she had known in years past and the cleanliness and order she was accustomed to seeing in all of the modern domes. She had always preferred what she considered to be the real Southwest—Arizona and New Mexico—to any area of Texas, but maybe a night or two in San Antonio wouldn’t be so unpleasant after all.
It was hard to tell how much of San Antonio’s River Walk was original and how much of it had been reconstructed, but it looked good as new. Hotels, restaurants, and shops lined the sunken banks along the San Antonio River, and little red boats carrying patrons floated up and down the slow moving water. Whether or not Xed had planned it that way, they were scheduled to play a gig right on the River Walk without having a chance to clean up or rest. They had taken turns catching some sleep while making the drive out there, but no one had had any proper sleep, rest, or substantial food since before they had played their first gig in New Orleans. No one wanted to perform under those conditions, but everyone was eager to make the contact with Alamo, get the Ketocillin, and get the hell out of there.
Fortunately, they were all still wearing their concert attire from the previous night, and being dirty and run down just added to their gothic punk aesthetic. It wasn’t the biggest of shows, but in the limited space of the River Walk, the crowd filled up the area fast and increased the hype. Capacity was reached quite quickly and after playing their first few songs people were ringing the upper railings around the region, hanging over the river trying to see what was going on down below. If Xero hadn’t been so tired and antsy to get the show on the road and finish the deal for the Ketocillin she would have loved the attention. San Antonio didn’t seem like much of a punk city, but either someone had paid them all off, or they had genuinely enjoyed the show.
They still hadn’t received information about where they would be staying that night, or when and where they were supposed to meet up with this Alamo character. It felt like Xed was trying to make it seem more like something that had been planned last minute, even though they were all certain he’d had this event scheduled all along. They didn’t have to wonder for long—as soon as they played through their last song, an army of handlers descended to usher them up a set of stairs and into a black SUV.
They were all being stored in the back of the SUV, a piece of dark glass separating the front from the back cabin so that they weren’t able to see the drivers. Neptune and Xero were in the front again while the boys sat in the backseat. You could feel the road weariness in them, the sweat and dirt showing on their faces, on their clothes, and in their scent.
Neptune slapped a palm against the tinted barrier. “Hey! Yo! Where are we going?” she said.
A male voice came over the intercom and said, “To the Alamo, of course.”
They all looked at each other. The theme of hiding in plain sight was certainly carrying over between the remote cities, but it was still an odd concept to them. In Phoenix, everything was watched like a hawk, and business of this sort would need to be conducted in super clandestine locations—in ignored ultra underground back alleys that even Xero might think twice about walking through at night. However, since Xed had his government connections, the idea of getting everything done while sitting in plain sight was nothing short of genius if it was well-managed. If suspicion was ever thrown on one of their double agents they could just claim to have been meeting with one of the city’s hottest new bands.
When the car came to a stop someone came around and let them out of the vehicle. The sun outside was intense, digging into their retinas and momentarily blinding them, but when their vision cleared they found themselves standing in front of the monolithic structure of The Alamo. As Xero understood it, it was one of only a handful of national landmarks to have survived so long without having to be completely rebuilt. Impressive. It’s adobe face raised defiantly into the sky, a symbol of the rebel spirit that the state had held onto for hundreds of years. The famous monument was strangely deserted, and there were no tourists or even passersby seen milling in front of the old chapel.
They were ushered inside the empty landmark and quickly found that it was a good fifteen degrees cooler than the outside. Even though it was winter, San Antonio was baking. Traveling so much was giving her a broader perspective on the climate differences across the country, both in and out of the dome. She was glad that the Grease Weasels were prepared to handle just about anything in terms of weather anomalies. Having the old university campus to mess around with gave them an additional advantage of years of experiments and notes from defunct labs with research in a variety subjects, and climate change was one they had their eye on.
They stood inside the inner area of the Alamo’s chapel, their escorts quickly abandoning them and closing the door as soon as they left. Xero watched the wedge of sunlight shrink to nothing as they exited through the front. From the back exit another man entered and Xero could see the grass from the gardens in his shadow before the door also shut behind him.
“Howdy there. Welcome to San Antonio,” he said. He was a short man, but stocky and built. He was dark skinned, with a white mustache and a matching white cowboy hat. He almost looked like he could have been a Wild West Impersonator, as it looked like he was wearing a Sheriff’s costume.
Xero stepped forward to shake hands. “I assume you’re Alamo,” she said.
“The one and only,” he said, a big grin spreading out underneath the mustache umbrella.
Xero coughed slightly. “Not to be rude or anything, but isn’t this whole meeting a little bit, like, meta?” she said.
Alamo just stared at her. “Beg your pardon?” he said.
“I just mean…never mind. Pleased to meet you. Thank you for the warm welcome. We could definitely use the break,” she said.
Alamo looked over the group—Xero stood out in front and the other three fell into line behind her, casual looking, but a closer look reveled that they were tensed, ready for anything. “You guys do look like you done come out the wrong end of a donkey,” he said. “Well, sorry to take time out of your busy day and all, but I figured we’d get things squared as soon as possible.”
“I really like the way you think,” Xero said. “I think we’re going to get along just fine, but I wanted to know one thing—is there a reason you decided to meet us in such a public area?”
“You may not believe me, but this is probably the safest place we can meet. They don’t call me Alamo just for the hell of it—this has been my territory for almost a decade. I’m the ruler of this area, and, today also happens to be a holiday. No one was going to be in here, so why not? Safest place I can think of,” he said.
“I suppose that does make sense,” she said.
“Glad to hear it. Can’t say I’m out looking for extra trouble or nothing like that. I think I’ve got something you want, and vice versa. Should be simple, right?” he said, and seemed genuine.
“Absolutely. Actually, you know what, I don’t know what kind of deal you were promised before, but I’m willing to give you our cargo for free, if we can get additional verification of your reagent. There’s no way we can go back home without that medication, and extra insurance would mean that much to us,” she said.
> “I did in fact hear that you need this stuff real bad. I also hear you’re a friend of a close associate of mine, Sanchez,” he said.
Xero’s eyes lit up. “Yes, I am on good terms with someone named Sanchez. If you’re talking about him this way, I’m assuming that he’s back in good health? They don’t tell us lowly pits people anything,” she said.
Alamo looped his thumbs through his vest. “You betcha. I wouldn’t say he’s right as rain, but he’s definitely not going to kick it any time soon. Last I heard, that fact is mostly due to you. If you hadn't been around, I hear he would have been dusted,” he said.
“Not to brag or anything like that, but yeah, we got into a sticky situation. Sanchez did everything right, but someone got the drop on us, and we had to do whatever we could to get out of there. I’m glad he made it out alive,” she said.
They looked at each other, scanning retinas and irises for signs of deception. When they both reached an internal agreement, they gave a mutual nod. A little bit of trust and honesty could go a long way in the right situation.
“Your deal is more than fair, and I can provide whatever documentation or proof that you need to make sure my product is pure. I promise you, the reagent will work. It will take some work to get this particular compound back, but it will be worth it. Mix them right in front of me and test them for all I care—I guarantee you that it will work,” he said.
“Excellent. We can even do a small test here if you’re able to provide the right equipment. Not that we don’t trust you. I’m sure you’re on the up and up, but our last trade mission didn’t exactly go so well. When we’re satisfied that we have the right reagent, we’ll leave you the cargo. First one is always free,” she said and grinned.
“Indeed it is. I did hear that you had some trouble up in New Orleans with Voodoo, but that’s not surprising. There’s always trouble with Voodoo. New Orleans is a hard territory to deal with, whether you’re on the inside or the out. Here in San Antonio, we’re a lot more laid back and civil,” he said.
Under Dark Sky Law Page 21