Danger Money

by John Van Stry

  I hit hard and rolled off the road, bringing up against the guard rail with a loud 'OOOOF!'. I hurried to crawl off the roadside, just in case.

  Dawn found me trudging my way through the forest. Limping was more like it, My leg was still numb and I think I had twisted my ankle when I had jumped. Hard to tell, I couldn't feel much below the wound site. Eventually I came across a stream and sat down to eat the food I had brought from the house. After a drink from its waters I found a likely tree and climbed up in to the crotch way up above the branches and went to sleep.

  I woke up quickly, and I knew where I was. It was quiet and nothing had awakened me. I tried my leg, it hurt terribly. I had sprained the ankle and the wound was giving me a lot of grief as well. Walking on it hadn't been a good idea I guess. But on the bright side the nerve block, or whatever it was, had worn off. I gingerly made my way down out of the tree, cutting off a nice sized branch with my knife on the way. Once back on the ground I made a splint for my leg before moving off.

  I had no idea of where I was, other than 'Pennsylvania'. So I just turned west and started walking. I took my time and enjoyed the forest around me. I was going to have to start looking for food soon, I hadn't thought to bring more than a meal with me from the house. But then I had thought I was heading back to the City. A line from an old play popped into my head then, something about 'The best laid plans of mice and men.' Add cats and assassins to that list too I guess.

  I got lucky and shot two rabbits later that day. I didn't like using one of the pistols, but I was in no shape to go run them down myself. Not that I think I could have, even in the best of shape. The pistols were fairly quiet anyway, being for inside work. I decided not to make a fire, eating the rabbits raw. Leopards are not picky eaters.

  I slept in the trees again the next day, and at night started off again. I did finally see a town before dawn. I snuck in the next night and checked the news boxes, after making sure my fur was all black. There wasn't anything in the news about me, I guess the Corporation was still keeping the lid on the whole affair. So I figured it was safe to dig out my other fake ID and take a bus. With my last good coverall on I looked fairly presentable, and surprisingly nobody wondered what a Leopard was doing in the middle of Pennsylvania that morning at the Bus Depot.

  16

  I took the bus as far as Chicago. I knew that sooner or later somebody would start thinking and check the bus lines. At least the bus companies were allowed to use Airbuses, so it only took a few hours to get there. Now if only I had an idea as to how long it would be until they caught my trail again.

  Once in Chicago I went in search of a map. I didn't know much about the place, and I still didn't know my next step. But I knew that I was reacting, and that was bad. I needed to be proactive, make them do what I wanted them to, not the other way around. I found my way to the transit trains, and started to ride around the city while trying to come up with a plan.

  Jocel would be here soon enough and I wanted to be ready for her when she arrived.

  The Spaceport seemed to be the likely place to start, they'd expect me to go there, so I didn't want to disappoint them. My cash was limited, so I ended up walking from the transit station to the warehouse section. There were quite a few Animorphs down in this part of the city it turned out. O'Hare Spaceport was a major trans-shipment point, and it covered a huge chunk of real estate. I found a flophouse down there that would rent me a room, and crashed for the night.

  The next day I paid for a week's rent and then left. I wasn't coming back, at least not to sleep. Then I went down to case out the warehouses. The first day didn't turn up much, I did find a safe place to sleep under an abandoned building though. The second day I did find a warehouse with a fairly good alarm system and some expensive goods. My leg was feeling a lot better now, the wound had closed and wasn't slowing me down too much. My ankle had recovered somewhat too and I felt up to a little after dark work.

  So that night I by-passed the alarm and stole about a half million dollars in computer chips. I then went and found a fence and got a small fraction of the value for them. I wasn't doing this for the money, it was one of my company's warehouses. It wouldn't take them long to figure out who had the skill and knowledge to beat that alarm system. I wanted to draw in my hunters, mess with their minds a bit and then rub their noses in it. They were getting too close, I needed something to give them pause, make them hesitate for a moment.

  I needed a little breathing room.

  I went to the flophouse then, checking it out from a distance first to make sure they hadn't found it yet. Then I paid for another week's rent and made sure the room had my scent freshly in it. After I was sure it looked recently occupied I went across the street and staked it out. It didn't take long surprisingly, they really were close on my tail.

  I watched as they carefully converged on the building. They were pretty good actually, each showed up on foot separately to avoid suspicion. What clued me off was when I saw my female Leopard friend in a duster, I'm sure she had some rather lethal equipment below that coat. Then as I hid there watching I realized that I had seen several other Animorphs dressed the same way enter the building. Rather smooth I must admit, they were good.

  I shifted my attention up to my room, I had left the shades partially open so I was able to tell when they entered. They took their time about it, probably wanted to be sure I hadn't trapped the room. Once inside they did a quick search and left. About a minute later a small van pulled up in back of the place, I carefully shifted my vantage point to watch.

  She came out shortly after the van stopped, along with a Badger and a Wolf, both of whom I remembered from Alexandria. They started unloading equipment and carrying it upstairs.

  I snuck up to the other side of the van and placed a tracker on it, then went back around to the front of the building to watch what happened.

  They were setting up another trap like they had on Alexandria. Kind of predictable. I guess they hadn't stopped to realize that if I was repeating myself, maybe they shouldn't be. But at least they didn't put their watch room on the same floor this time. I smiled at that, also they left two people behind instead of one when they left to go track me down.

  For my part I was careful when I followed the van back to their base of operations. After all, this could be a trap to sucker me in. When I caught up with them at their place I spent a few hours just watching. It looked clean, but I didn't see either of the Ferrets anywhere. I hadn't seen them back at my place either.

  That made me nervous.

  I drew back a couple of blocks and started to search the area, carefully. I started with the buildings that were blocked from sight of my objective. Those were clean. Then I started looking at those that had a clear line of sight to Jocel's base, using the buildings I had checked for cover.

  I was about five hours into my search when I found my Ferrets, they had a watch room set up on the base! My opinion of Jocel went up a couple of notches, they must have suspected that this was a trap. So I had to get the Ferrets first then.

  It took another half hour to get close to the outside door of the watchroom. There were a few alarms set up, nobody was taking chances this time. Once outside the door I listen carefully for a little while. They were in contact with the others, that was obvious. I didn't have anything that could interfere with that either. So I just listened and waited.

  After a few minutes it became obvious that there was a discussion going on about the flophouse. They had been watching it for eight hours now, and as I hadn't shown they were getting antsy. I thought about that for a moment.

  "Ah, what the hell!" I mumbled to myself and kicked the door in.

  As I lept into the room I saw them both turn very surprised to see me, gun in hand. I closed on the male in an instant and stuck my gun in his face.

  "Don't say a word!" I hissed quietly at the both of them.

  He put his hands up slowly and she just nodded. I noticed there was a small button box on the table by
the monitors. The monitors had a rather nice view of the base, which had Jocel and the Wolf sitting in it. I reached over and punched the button out of curiosity.

  I was rewarded by clouds of gas appearing on the monitors, Jocel and the Wolf got up and grabbed gas masks, but as they hadn't been warned they weren't quick enough. I smiled as they collapsed to the floor.

  "Cute" I said to the Ferrets. Then I stripped them of their radio gear and made them stand facing the wall.

  "What was that gas anyway?"

  "Pacification" Mumbled the male.

  "How long?"

  No response. I clipped him in the back of the head, hard. He folded.

  "Sorry Tresha," I apologized as I heard her gasp. "Now how long?"

  "Twenty minutes. Sooner if the gas clears out." She replied shaken.

  "Thanks, now spread eagle on the floor."

  She did so and I trussed her quickly, then got her mate as well. I killed power to the monitors next, grabbed a gas mask and ran for the warehouse. When I got there the gas was starting to thin, and I could see they were both starting to move. I subdued the Wolf first and trussed him up, he wasn't totally aware yet but he still gave me some trouble. When I got to Jocel she was just coming out of it.

  "You!" She snarled and reached up to claw my face.

  I yowled a little as she laid open my cheek, and clipped her hard. She came back at me with her feet, trying for a belly rake and disembowelment. I slipped an armlock on her and forced her onto her stomach, then pounded the side of her head on the floor twice to shake her up.

  That seemed to do the trick and I was able to get her in a sleeper hold and choke her unconscious.

  "Shit!" I growled and checked my face. I had two really nice gashes on my muzzle and they were bleeding fairly freely. I trussed her up and dragged her over to the car. After checking it for bugs and trackers I tossed her in the back and drove off in it.

  I drove a couple of miles, then found a quiet alley to pull in. I looked around for the first aid kit, found another one of those generic ones that all the company cars have and quickly patched up my face. Jocel was making lots of nasty noises from the back seat, so I leaned over and thwacked her lightly on the head.

  "Knock it off, nobody's around to hear you anyway."

  I then got out and dragged her off to my hiding place under the abandoned building.

  "Like it?" I asked as I tied her to the floor. She glared at me so I removed her gag. I didn't think anybody would hear anything she had to say anyway.

  "When I finally get you, I promise to make you suffer Jotun."

  "Ahh come on now," I purred and rubbed up against her, "What makes you think you'll ever catch me? What's this, twice now I've caught you?"

  "You think you're pretty smart don't you?" She growled back.

  "Face it Jocel, you're outclassed." I grinned, then growled as it pulled at the gashes on my face.

  She grinned at that, "What's that on your face then?"

  "I should hurt you for that!" I growled back tail lashing. She just smiled.

  I regained my control and looked her over, "You are better than any I've come up before, I'll grant you that. Too bad we're on opposing teams, we could have a lot of fun together."

  She looked a little surprised at the compliment but snarled at the last bit.

  "What makes you think I'd take up with you if we weren't?" She continued snarling, "And if you're so strong how come you keep letting people go who you should have killed?"

  "How come that bullet was only drugged and not poisoned?" I parried.

  "The Corporate lawyers were too afraid we might miss and hit a civilian. The potential for bad press and lawsuits outweighed our need. If it was up to me it would have been!" She hissed, ears down. Her body was rigid and tense, she was just daring me to kill her.

  "Ahhh," I smiled and reached over to stroke her face. She tried to bite me, but I just turned my hand up out of the way each time she did. "I must admit, I was afraid you were going soft on me there Jocel.

  "As for myself, read my file. If they'll let you that is," I smirked. "I've killed more people then you can possible imagine. Killing is easy, letting people live - now that takes strength! Don't make the mistake of judging people by what they do Jo, judge them by the things they restrain themselves from doing."

  Then I leaned over and whispered in her ear while giving her a quick buss, "Like say, raping your lovely little body dear!"

  She roared at that and then started thrashing on the floor with death in her eyes.

  "I'll kill you, you test tube bastard! I’ll skin you and eat your liver! I'll ..."

  I left her there spewing threats, I have to admit the vehemence of her reaction surprised me. I wonder if she had a thing for me? I had to admit I did for her, she was the best opponent I had ever had.

  "Oh well," I sighed and turned my thoughts back east as I climbed into the car. I had a long ride ahead of me and at least one more car to steal after I ditched this one.

  It was dawn when I made it back to New York City. I had stopped only briefly to coat myself black again, and put on another good coverall, this was a corporate security one that I had stolen from Jocel in Chicago.

  I dumped the car I had stolen in a deserted alley in the South Bronx, it would probably be stripped by noon if not sooner. Then I carefully made my way to the subways. My leg wasn't bothering me much anymore, hopefully no one would notice the fresh cuts on my face, or my slightly unkempt appearance. All of this running around was tiring.

  I stayed on the train for hours, just thinking. I had to get to Siedman somehow, had to draw him out where I could get him. I had an idea of how to get him out, but I didn't know what to do to him when I did. He wouldn't be alone and it wouldn't be easy. But there had to be a way.

  Something he wouldn't expect, and something that wouldn't take a lot of people with him either. I smiled thinking of Brand's finale exit. This might be mine, I realized. But I wasn't going out with a bang, it wouldn't be right.

  I was headed back towards the Bronx when a idea finally made itself known in my mind. I think it was the sign for the Botanical Gardens that did it, the plant I needed didn't normally grow on the eastern coast of the North American continent. I got off at the next exit, and took a walk over to the back of the Gardens.

  After scaling a fence that for once didn't have any security (what was there to steal at a garden, right?). I found the things I needed then went back to the train station. Once there I headed to Penn station, and from there got a train out to Long Island.

  Siedman lived out there in a place called Old Westbury, and I got off the train in a nearby town. Once there I looked around until I found an electronics store. I was able to buy the few chemicals I needed there, even if I did get a few strange looks.

  Down the block I bought a blender, and a few other odds and ends. Then I went looking for a place where I could be undisturbed, which wasn't very easy, it was about five in the evening now and people were coming home for the day. Eventually I ended up waiting till nightfall and just broke into a shop that sold food for the daytime work crowd.

  Which was fortunate, because it made my job a lot easier. Riacin is fairly easy to make if you don't want to distill it too much. But it was nice to have a large sink available, and a hood fan.

  It was after midnight when I had finished, I cleaned up very carefully, and disposed of my materials in a dumpster out back. Then I stole a car and drove back into the city. I stopped in Brooklyn and called the number I had for Siedman.

  "Hello?" Answered a woman's voice, "Mr. Siedman's office."

  I hadn't expected to get him anyway, not this late. But I was still surprised there was somebody in, I had figured on voice mail.

  "Could I leave a message for Mr. Siedman please?"

  "May I ask what it is in regards too?"

  "Could you tell him I would like to meet him at the Tromo-Do on Saint Marks place tomorrow at three please?"

  "And you are Sir?"
/>   "Mr. J," I smiled. I knew I was making it way too obvious, I just hoped he thought I was this dumb. "His old friend from the Palace."

  "I'm sorry sir, I'll need more information than that if you want me to give him a message."

  I wondered if she was stalling, or just being obstinate.

  "Not telling him would be a bad career move," I laughed. "Trust me, Mr. Siedman is not someone I would want mad at me!" And I hung up the phone and left.

  I drove back to where I’d stolen the car and left it where I had found it. Then I stole another one and drove to within a few miles of his house and parked it behind a store. It was three in the morning and I made very good time on foot towards his estate.

  17

  I watched the house through my binoculars, I didn't want to get too close as I could see it was well guarded. I didn't see Jocel or any of her people however, I hoped they were searching for me in the city. With any luck that call would throw them off my trail until it was too late.

  Around seven in the morning I saw him leave the house, and fly off in an aircar. Aircars weren't normally allowed to fly this close to New York, and private ones were illegal. I guess presidents of major corporations were an exception to the rules however.

  I continued to watch as the guards, both hidden and obvious, left to follow him to work. All but two. I watched them for another hour, worried about what I might have to do, when a woman left with a young child. The remaining two followed them.

  I hadn't known that Siedman was married and had a child, not that it mattered.

  I waited another hour until nine, to make sure there weren't any unpleasant surprises. But I guess they were expecting me in Greenwich Village later today. So I crept up to the house and carefully broke in. The alarm system was good, but not good enough. Neither was the back up.