by M. D. Cooper
“I won’t sell out Donnercorp to Rexcare, even if they did do what you’re suggesting, which I haven’t admitted.”
Reece tucked her hair behind her ears. She only now realized that she probably had a bad case of bedhead. Nice. She looked low-rent standing next to Raya even on her best day, and this definitely wasn’t her best day.
“What if you and I make an agreement? I spin a story that will satisfy Rexcare, which doesn’t implicate Donnercorp or Allied. In exchange, you confirm to me that I’m right, and tell me who’s behind the attempted coup. Then you go to whoever you need to, tell them what I know, and convince them to cease immediately.”
Raya’s expression turned calculating. “That would certainly take care of Rexcare’s problem. But you’d let an attempt on your life, and Trey’s life, go unanswered?”
“If that’s the price I need to pay to do my job, yes.”
Raya tilted her head slightly. “Wow. You’re more loyal to Rexcare than I realized.”
Was it loyalty to Rexcare? Reece hadn’t thought of it that way. She thought it was more about protecting her job and her means of supporting Aunt Ruth. But maybe what Raya said had some truth in it.
Reece merely said, “I only care about getting the job done. We’re fixers. This is what we do.”
Raya’s eyes shifted somewhat as she thought that over. “I guess it is. But if I were to agree, it would be verbal only. No documents. That would be too risky for my employer.”
“OK. We’ve known each other long enough to know we’ll do as agreed.” Reece had no doubts about Raya’s living up to a her end of a deal.
Raya took a breath. “All right. Yes. You’re right. I didn’t know before tonight, obviously. All this has been orchestrated by one person, and kept under wraps. I found nothing that directly implicated anyone else in the company.”
“Who?”
“Bram Fields. He’s been steadily moving up the chain and is looking at the top spot. He’s currently the chief financial officer, and if he pulled this off, he would have absolutely become the chief officer of the entire company.”
“I see.” Reece knew little of the man. She’d have to study up. “There’s no one else directly involved?”
Raya shrugged. “Just the people he hired to do his dirty work. Are you going to go after them?”
“No. Not worth the effort. People who do that kind of thing are already in more trouble than what I can likely put on them.”
“That was my thought, too,” Raya nodded. “Though if someone had planted a bomb in my apartment, I might feel differently.”
Reece smiled. “It wasn’t my apartment. I just happened to be over there at the time. So I can pretend it wasn’t that personal.”
Raya chuckled. “Whatever works for you. For the record, I’m sorry that happened. I’ll cross a lot of lines, but not one like that. I’ll be watching Fields, and if there are any bombs I can put in his path, believe me, I will.”
“Hmmm, I kind of feel like I don’t need to do anything about him, now. I suspect that you’ll manage to blow up his career, which would be the worst thing possible for someone like him.”
“True,” Raya agreed. “But can you really let him off the hook that easily?”
“Well, no. He’ll be on my radar, too.”
They shared a grin of a certain professional viciousness that bound them together and had propelled them both to the top of their field.
“Right. Well, it looks like we’ve solved Akon’s problems for today.” Raya’s professionalism slid back into place. “I suppose I should let you get back to bed. I’m curious, though, how you’re going to spin all this to make a convincing story to Rexcare.”
“I’m curious, too,” Reece admitted. “I think this is going to be one of my more out of the box, creative solutions.”
Raya looked wistful. “That sounds fun, actually.”
“Maybe. I’ll think about it tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep.”
Raya’s eyes narrowed. “Enjoy your sleep. I’m about to have a meeting that is not going to make my chief officer happy in the least.”
Reece stood and stepped closer to give Raya a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “That kind of meeting is no fun, but at least you get to prove how valuable you are to the company. Once he gets over his rage, your chief officer is going to love the shit out of you for working this out before he even knew it was a problem.”
“That’s why they call us miracle workers, right?”
Reece frowned. “Do they call you that? They’ve never called me that. Am I getting cheated?”
This time, Raya patted her shoulder. “Maybe. Or maybe you just aren’t as good as I am.”
They laughed.
“Oh,” Reece said, remembering something. “What about Shepherd? He’s sleeping at his office for no reason.”
Raya pursed her lips. “He’s probably already asleep, so I’ll tell him tomorrow that the crisis has passed.”
“How will you explain that?”
She shrugged. “I’ll blame it on someone I don’t like.”
Reece didn’t know if Raya meant that or not, but it was funny either way.
Still, she’d keep an eye on how things proceeded at Donnercorp. Raya’s good intentions notwithstanding, people who worked there were willing to kill fixers to forward their own careers. It made Donnercorp—and Raya—a group she’d have to keep an eye on.
* * * * *
The next morning in the break room, Reece told Trey about her late-night talk with Raya. He was not nearly as pleased as she’d expected.
“I’m glad that we can expect not to stumble across any more pulse bombs and all,” he said, “but I feel like I missed the big moment. On the last job we did, I was with you the whole way, chasing down Dr. Fitzmiller and figuring out that whole mess. Now you’ve kind of done the exciting part without me.”
“There was nothing exciting about it,” Reece assured him. “It was a back-room, off-the-books conversation. An arrangement. That’s how most of a fixer’s jobs get done. It’s not all bounty hunting, you know. Those are the ones where you get to run around, maybe shoot some people, and get the big high at the end. That’s not the norm.”
“I just feel kind of let down, somehow. I mean, I should be relieved. Pleased. And I am. I’m being silly, I guess.”
“Nah, I get it.” She waved her cup of coffee at him, spilling a bit over the lip of the cup. “But don’t worry. We still have a problem on our hands. We need to explain all this away to Rexcare. The attack on Nizhoni, the pulse bomb at your place. I’ve got a few ideas on how to do that, and they might give you the thrill of victory you’re looking for.”
“Thrill of victory! Yes!” He put down his own coffee and pointed at her. “That’s what it is.”
She blew on her too-hot coffee and smiled. “I like that you’re embracing my zest for adventure. And I think you’re going to like what I have in mind.”
* * * * *
“I’ve always been a fan of using whatever materials I have on hand and creatively refitting them for my purpose. It probably comes from my childhood of having to make do with very little.” Reece sat alongside Trey at the Ringtoad. She’d hoped a drink or two would loosen him up for what she was about to propose.
Trey eyed her warily. “I feel like this is going somewhere, but wherever that is, I’m probably not going to like it. Is that accurate?”
She waved away his worries. “Not at all. You said you wanted some fun, right? The chance to wrap up this job with suitable flames and destruction.”
“Uh, no. Pretty sure I said some mild words like ‘closure’ or something.”
“Wait, I’ve got it.” She snapped her fingers. “Thrill of victory. That’s what you said.”
“Well, I lied,” he said. “I take it back. I didn’t know you’d interpret that as a must-do thing.”
“No takebacks. And this isn’t extracurricular. This is important to make everything tie up in a neat little bow, just
like Rexcare wants it to. If we mess this up, they’ll look further into things, and start pulling on threads, and possibly pull apart this nice clean solution.”
Trey sighed and waved his glass in Kippy’s general direction to indicate the need for a refill.
It was a good idea. Reece did the same.
Kippy rolled his eyes, smiling.
“Fine. So how do we pull off this feat of fixer-ness?”
“Like I said, I have a knack for making tools out of the things I have around me at the time. So, I propose we make Nizhoni and Sage a business offer that will benefit them, us, Rexcare and Donnercorp, and, in a trickle-down sense, all the people of Akon.” She gestured grandly with her empty glass.
“How many of those have you had?” Trey squinted at her.
“Just the one. Work with me here.” She detailed her plan, which, in her opinion, was as clever as it was bold, and as clever as it was efficient.
Wait. That was two ‘clevers’.
She frowned at her glass. Come to think of it, Kippy had wandered by with a bottle of H&P a couple times. Although technically, she had emptied her glass only once, she had probably had the equivalent of three servings of three fingers’ of whiskey.
Kippy didn’t usually serve her so liberally. What a nice guy.
Trey poked her in the bicep. Hard.
“Ow. What?” She glared at him.
“You stopped talking. You were talking about this big, amazing plan of yours, and then you went stone silent.”
“Sorry. I had some deep thoughts that suddenly needed attending to.”
“Whatever.” He waved her excuse away. “So when do you suggest we put this plan of yours into action? And do you really think Nizhoni and Sage will agree? It’s kind of out there.”
“More than kind of.” Reece smiled at Kippy as he refilled her glass, along with Trey’s, as he went by.
She kept her eyes on Kippy. He really was the best. He never gave her any grief about anything whatsoever, and he always seemed to know just what she needed.
Trey poked her again.
“Ow! Dammit.”
“You trailed off again. What’s with you?”
“I’m pondering a deep philosophical issue, and I’m on the verge of becoming the Socrates of our time, except you keep poking me in the damn arm.” She glared at him, then cleared her throat and picked up where she’d left off. “Yes, it’s an unorthodox strategy. That’s why it’s going to work.”
Trey screwed up his face, then relaxed it. “Okay. I’ll talk to Nizhoni. Alone.”
“What? Why?” Reece had expected to be present at both meetings to outline her brilliant plan.
“Because if you want her to agree, that’s the way it should be done. She likes me. You…eh.” He shrugged.
“You have a point,” she admitted, then was surprised to see the bottom of her glass again. She looked at the dregs. It wasn’t somehow leaking, was it? It seemed fine.
She shook her head. “Okay. You talk to Nizhoni tomorrow, and I’ll talk to Sage. He, at least, has good taste and likes me.”
Trey smiled. It was a quiet, pensive kind of smile. He’d thought of something, it had amused him, and yet he’d remained silent.
“What?” she demanded. “What’s going on in that big head of yours?”
Trey arched an eyebrow at her. “Just you thinking that fondness of you proves good taste.”
“Hey, I know I’m no Raya, but I’ve got my own charm. I’m good-looking, a hell of a good shot, good at my job, and as loyal as they come. So what if my hair isn’t sleek and I don’t color my fingernails or have legs that comprise four fifths of my total height?”
Trey laughed. “She does have long legs, doesn’t she?”
“Stupidly long. I mean, how long do legs need to be?”
“I don’t know, but the ones she has are perfect on her. But you’re right—her legs on your body would just be weird. You need your own legs for your own certain…appeal.” He gave a shrug that indicated the fact that her appeal was still up for debate.
Though he was saying words that seemed to be nice and supportive, but somehow, she couldn’t help but interpret them the other way.
Reece started to say something snarky to him, but Kippy came by with a basket of hot rolls. The yeasty aroma wafted up and smacked her in the face in the nicest way.
“Eat something,” Kippy said. “You haven’t had dinner, have you?”
“How did you know?” She’d been busy working out her strategy and had skipped the meal, planning to get a snack after she left the Ringtoad.
He smiled. “I can just tell.”
Reece grabbed a roll that was so fresh from the oven that it easily squished under her gentle touch. She put it in her mouth, but the roll compressed even further before she could even bite down, so Reece just pushed the whole thing into her mouth.
Trey covered his face with his hand.
“So good,” she said after swallowing the roll. She picked up another and set it on the bar, pulling it into two pieces before popping one of them into her mouth.
“Keep eating,” Kippy advised before moving off to talk to a server.
After her third roll, Reece noticed that Trey looked uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I thought this was going to be a quick stop, and I have plans for this evening. But…”
“But what? We’re good. We talked about stuff. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how to get Nizhoni to cooperate. Be sure she knows that once we do what we need to do, she can tell us all to take a hike and get her place back to herself.”
“I’ll be sure to mention that,” Trey agreed.
Kippy returned. “You can head out, man. We’re good here.”
“Yeah?” Trey peered at him quizzically.
“Yep. No problems. Have a good night.”
Trey nodded. “Okay then. Night, you two.”
“I bet he’s got a date with Raya,” Reece said to Kippy.
“Oh, yeah? Good. I bet a girlfriend would be really good for him.”
“If she’s okay with an extremely irregular work schedule, then yeah,” Reece agreed.
She looked around the bar. A couple tables had been left empty, but not yet cleaned. “Need some help clearing tables?”
“Sure. One of my servers took the night off.”
She leaned over the bar and plucked the towel off his shoulder. “Okay. Be back in a few.”
Overturned baskets and empty glasses littered the tables, along with napkins and small bits of trash. She whisked all these away with the efficiency of long practice, then returned to wipe the surfaces clean and set the chairs just right, tucked under the table for the next patrons.
After cleaning three tables, they were promptly filled with new patrons, and then two more tables emptied. She cleaned, those, too.
“That’s where I went wrong,” she said to Kippy when she returned to her seat at the bar. “I should have been chosen to bus tables for a living. It’s so much more orderly than what I do.”
“Yeah, but you love your job.” He leaned forward on his elbows and smiled at her.
“True. I do like coming up with creative solutions and pushing people around.”
He laughed. “You sure do, at that.”
She smiled. “I miss it here when I’m away for work, you know.”
“Yeah? Mostly just the whiskey, right?”
“Nah. I can always just buy a bottle of it myself. Though it always tastes better when I’m here.”
He checked his chronometer. “It’s getting late. How about I walk you home?”
“I’m not staying at home,” she reminded him. “I’ll be at Smooth tonight. Maybe the night after. But I’ll be back home very soon.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Right. I knew that. Okay, well, how about I walk you as far as your house would have been, in the other direction, and then you get into a taxi to go the rest of the way back to Smooth?”
“Why?”
&n
bsp; “I need some fresh air.”
“Oh. Okay. I shouldn’t stay out late.” She slid off the stool.
“Give me just a minute to let Mino know I’m taking a break.”
Two minutes later, they were outside, strolling down the street.
“If this weren’t a perihelion conjunction year, it would be all shadowy and creepy,” he noted.
“Or romantic. Street lights can lend a certain ambience,” she said.
“In the right company. But as it is, it’s just bright and hot as hell. Not much ambience there.”
“I think it still depends on the company,” she decided. “Anything can be fun if you’re with the right person.”
“Maybe. You and I have gotten each other through some tough times over the years. We’ve laughed even when things were at their roughest.”
“Yep. We have. That’s why you’re my favorite person in all of Machete, besides Aunt Ruth.”
“Well, Aunt Ruth’s in a class all her own, isn’t she?” he asked.
“She sure is.”
“I’m glad you and Trey have become friends,” Kippy said. “I like that you have a partner watching your back. Maybe he’ll become your new favorite person.”
“One of them, maybe. I guess he sort of already is. I hope things work out with him and Raya. They suit each other really well.”
“It doesn’t bother you?” he asked.
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with his work, why would it?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Conflict of interest?”
“You mean with Donnercorp? Nah, I don’t think so. They can keep their secrets from each other the way we keep our secrets from everyone else. That’s not a big deal.”
“Ah.” He nodded.
They walked on in silence until the end of the block.
She stopped. “I think that’s about as far as it would be back to my house.”
“Really? It didn’t seem that far.”
She swiped her hand over his forehead. “But you’re all sweaty. You should get back inside.”
She waved down a taxi and it pulled to a neat stop at the curb. “I’ll try to come by tomorrow if—”
Reece’s toe caught on a crack or something at she turned toward the taxi and her weight all seemed to shift forward at an alarming rate far beyond her ability to compensate.