Acts of Violence

by Ross Harrison

  The flashes of lightning didn’t help my speed. They were so abrupt and short-lived that they had the effect of making me think I was a foot to the side. Like strobe lights. I aimed for the door and nearly ran into the damn wall.

  The door at the top of the stairs was just closing. I ripped it open, making a mental note not to touch that hand to my face, and raced down the steps. Three sets of stairs took more out of me than I expected and I flagged a little. I tripped on the bottom step. Saved myself from falling by hitting the door with my face.

  The girl was just about to pull the front door open.

  ‘Stop.’ I didn’t need to shout. It was a small lobby. I clicked back the hammer for emphasis. I wasn’t going to shoot her, but it stood more chance of making her stop than just my words.

  She froze. Didn’t move. I realised she was looking at my reflection in the glass door.

  ‘You?’ She was surprised. Slowly, she turned. ‘I thought it was one of his up there.’

  ‘Webster’s? Not me. But you know that. How do you know that?’

  She studied my face. Didn’t even glance at the gun, which I realised I was pointing at her. I decocked it and lowered it to my side again.

  Her trench coat wasn’t just like mine. It was mine. When I’d woken up in Webster’s car, I wasn’t wearing it. I remembered now. They must have taken it off me. Must have made me easier to handle or something. So my trench coat was last at the police precinct. Now it was on her.

  ‘It was you that told the cops I didn’t kill the girl, wasn’t it?’ I asked.

  She considered her answer. Nodded eventually. ‘It wasn’t. I had proof.’ She spoke like it was the obvious conclusion to that equation. I guessed it was to someone not accustomed to Harem.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Are you trying to find her killer?’

  ‘I’m mostly trying to find a way to stop the cops from sticking needles in me. But I guess the way to do that is to find out what the hell’s going on. Why are you here?’

  The whining of a car between the thunderclaps made her turn. The car passed on by.

  ‘I hoped there might be proof here.’

  ‘Proof of what?’

  Light flashed on her face. No thunder followed. It wasn’t lightning. The light had flashed across from the side. It was the car turning and switching off its headlights. Webster’s men.

  The girl realised it too. Started panicking. Looked at my gun like she wanted to grab it. She pulled at the door instead of pushing it.

  ‘Harold Jarvis,’ she blurted, as she finally got the door open. ‘Find Harold Jarvis.’

  I reached for her arm. Didn’t want her to run out into a bullet. But she slipped through the door and took off down the street. I heard a shout. They seemed to be after her as well. I flicked the safety off again and pulled the hammer back. I wasn’t going to let her get killed or taken. She knew something.

  I went for the door. The glass shattered and I dived backwards. Three more bullets whizzed through the opening. Slammed into the wall. They were followed by a guy in a mid-range suit. Definitely one of Webster’s.

  I squeezed the trigger. And again. Both shots hit him. As he fell, I stood. With the glass gone, the next clap of thunder was nearly deafening. I could feel it in my chest. With my gun trained to the right hand side of the door, I crossed to the left. There was no one in sight. I could just see one headlamp of the car. There was bound to be someone else out there.

  A gunshot echoed down the street just before another clap of thunder. The other one had gone after the girl. Must have run past as I was hitting the floor. I carefully stepped through the doorframe. The car was empty and no one was around.

  I put the safety back on and shoved the gun down the back of my waistband again. Grabbed the goon’s pistol. The car key was in his jacket pocket.

  The car wasn’t the type to need a bio scan of any kind. It knew I had the key and started at the touch of a button. The comfortable seats weren’t so comfortable with my soaking clothes, but I barely noticed it. I threw the car into drive and kicked down the gas. With a jerk, the car rocketed forward.

  Just before the last building on the block, an alley swallowed up even the light from the storm. I hoped she hadn’t gone down there. It probably snaked around all the buildings on the block. She might have a chance of losing the goon, but she’d lose me too. Then I couldn’t help her. And she couldn’t help me.

  Another gunshot. A dull flash. She was in the alley. I could just make out the pale shape of my trench coat. It seemed to flash every now and then. That was the goon right behind her. Still chasing her. She was good at dodging bullets at least.

  I took the chance that she’d run straight through to the next street. Put my foot down again. As soon as the street opened up to the left, a gust of wind hit the side of the car. The static thrusters on the right stabilised it, but not before I felt a thump and heard the scream of metal on metal. The streetlight flickered as I forced the car away from it and head-on into the gale.

  The storm was bad. Worse than I’d thought. The buildings blocked most of the wind, but what got through was enough. Parked cars had drifted from the kerb. I had to swing around two blocking the way. You weren’t meant to drive these things in high wind. Made me wish I had Webster’s own car, with the nice, road-gripping wheels.

  When I swung around the next corner, the sudden cut in wind caught the thrusters by surprise. They were so busy trying to counteract it that when it disappeared, they threw me halfway across the street.

  Worse: no girl. She hadn’t cut straight through to this street. Couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t the wisest thing to do with a gun on your tail.

  A gunshot up ahead was chased by a second. I saw the dim flash again. It had come from the next alley down, halfway along the block. I gunned it towards that alley. The girl burst out and around the corner.

  It only took about five seconds for Webster’s goon to follow. It was dark in the alley. There’d be things there to get in his way. Block his shots. Out here, he’d have no trouble hitting her. I was too far away. I’d hoped to get there in time to slam him against the wall with my fender.

  The goon ran a few steps after the girl, but stopped. As he raised his gun, I blasted the horn. It startled both of them. They both turned. They both raised pistols. Only one of them was pointed through my windshield. That one never had a chance to fire.

  The homeless girl was a good aim. Even from a quarter of a block away, and out of breath, she hit the goon with one shot. She fired four.

  I pulled up beside her. She hesitated for a second, but ran round the trunk and climbed in. I swung the car around and accelerated. More gently this time. I didn’t want to be anywhere near when the cops turned up, but the more calmly I acted the quicker the girl would calm down. She still gripped the revolver tightly.

  ‘You escaped from the precinct, didn’t you?’ I said.

  She shrugged. ‘I wasn’t under arrest. I wouldn’t call it escaping.’

  ‘You’ve got my coat and a gun. They just give them to you as you were walking out?’

  ‘Well I guess it was kind of escaping once I’d taken those.’

  ‘It’s empty, you know.’

  ‘What?’ She looked at me. Something in her eyes told me she thought I was going to say something philosophical. Maybe she thought I meant her future was empty, or her search for answers, or whatever.

  ‘The gun. No bullets left.’ I nodded at the chamber. The pin in each bullet casing was gone. I guessed the two I couldn’t see, on the top and the bottom, could still be there, but I doubted it. She’d fired four times outside the alley. I was sure she’d have fired inside it too.

  ‘Oh. I know. Still feels good to hold.’ I nodded. I knew what she meant. Someone had just tried to kill her. She’d have felt naked without the gun. Bullets or no. ‘You may have just saved my life, Mr. Mason.’ She knew my name.

  ‘You may have saved mine.’

  I meant it in more way than
one.

  ‘Where are we going?’ She was starting to come around from the otherworldly effects of a chase and shootout. Becoming aware of her surroundings.

  ‘I don’t know. Just away from there, for now. We can’t go to my place and I don’t know where’s safe from the guy who owns the entire town.’

  ‘He’s really that powerful here?’

  ‘Well he owns most of the cops, a lot of businesses pay him off, and none of the dealers around here have the kind of connections to bring drugs to the planet, so I figure that’s got to be him too. He got even more rich and powerful right around the time that new drug appeared. The pretty blue one.’

  She sat quietly for a while. Despite her appearance, something told me she wasn’t simply homeless. I had a client once. Her husband had been murdered. She wanted me to find the killer so she could take revenge. She’d had the same fire in her eyes as this girl had now. It unnerved me. Meant she was dangerous and unpredictable. That wasn’t good for me. I’d have to watch my step around her. Not because she might attack me. No, one half-starved twenty-something didn’t scare me in that way. But there was no telling what she’d do and say to get what she wanted. What she needed.

  ‘You told the cops it wasn’t me because you thought I could help you.’ I didn’t bother making it a question.

  She shrugged again.

  ‘I think you already knew that Webster owns the cops. So you came looking for a PI. Someone he might not own.’

  ‘Not quite. I went looking for Leonne.’ I made my glance a question. ‘The girl you took into your bed last night. Or did you think she was just a nameless plaything?’ That’s exactly what I meant. She could take anything the wrong way and I needed her on my side.

  ‘Take it easy. She never told me her name, that’s all.’

  ‘And you never asked.’ Why did everyone keep saying that?

  ‘Look…’ I took a deep breath. Took a sad, reluctant glance out my window. Perhaps a sob story would help. ‘Ever since my girlfriend disappeared, I can’t bring myself to make any connection with a girl—’

  ‘Save it.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Save your cry baby bullshit. That cop said you killed your girlfriend. Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. I don’t know or care. You can help me. And you have to help me, because it’s the only way to help yourself.’

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. So I stayed quiet.

  I had to keep the lights down low. Otherwise I couldn’t see a damn thing. Only shining raindrops flying at me like so many bullets. If the night kept on down this path, they’d be bullets soon enough.

  Up ahead I could just make out the tunnel through the rain. The east side of Harem was a few dozen feet higher than the west. This tunnel went under the train line, then up into the gambling district. Owned by Webster. Pretty stupid move coming this way, but I hadn’t been thinking about destination.

  I slowed. Didn’t want to get into that district too soon. I could see the shape of the train sitting up there. It was the train that went out to Webster’s mining operation. Then on to Anshan prison. The sight should have been a kick to the gut. But my gut was preoccupied. A kind of nervous hope bubbling away there. Sitting beside me was a girl who knew something. She’d already given me a name. How helpful that was I didn’t know. But it was more than I’d had before. And now she was here herself. Now she could tell me about this Harold Jarvis.

  Jarvis. Was that whom the ‘J’ in Webster’s address book was referring to? Maybe it wasn’t a staff position after all, but a person.

  The rain gushed out of the entrance to the tunnel as though from the bottom of a drainpipe. It was washing down through from the east side of town. The darkness swallowed us up and I flicked the lights onto full beam. The blue glow from the static thrusters lit the water they kicked up on either side in a pretty light show.

  ‘So who is Harold Jarvis? Why do you want me to find him?’

  ‘If you’d bothered to ask her name, you’d know.’

  I wasn’t going to get into that again. I was about to ask the girl more when I saw light at the end of the tunnel. Literally.

  It was too bright to be the ambient glow from the gambling houses and streetlights. It was a car. No, two cars. Sitting still. Waiting. The lights were blazing right into my eyes, which meant they were on the slope. In the tunnel. Two cars blocking the end of the tunnel, waiting for me and the girl.

  I slammed on the brakes. The girl wasn’t prepared for it. Barely caught herself before she hit the dash. The angry glance turned to worry as she followed my eyes. We were only halfway through. Just at the start of the slope. The roof of the tunnel had already opened up into the slope and that’s when the lights had come into view.

  There was no way we were going through them. I looked in the rear-view mirror. There was no way we were going back the way we came either. There was another set of lights blocking that end of the tunnel now.

  I wondered briefly how they’d found us. Probably there was a third guy in a car outside Leonne’s apartment. Called it in. I’d gone back to that street before turning this way, so he’d have seen us again. Maybe it was the cops. They’d have been called by a lot of people who heard the gunshots and me hitting the streetlight, and they’d have been told our heading. Then they’d have told Webster. Maybe Webster simply had a tracker in this car. That was most likely. Stupidly, I hadn’t thought of that. We should have dumped it the moment we were out of danger.

  It didn’t matter now. What mattered was that Webster’s goons had us caged in a tunnel with no other exits.

  Under the hum of the engine, all I could hear was the rushing of water. Gurgling and surging as it flooded the storm drains all along the sides of the tunnel. Guys could be creeping along the walls towards us and I wouldn’t see them. Not with the glare from those headlights. We had to do something quick.

  The girl just sat there, gripping the pistol. I grabbed it out of her hand. She barely resisted. Looked annoyed though. I reloaded it with the six bullets I’d tipped into my pocket. Gave it back to her.

  ‘Don’t waste any shots. Only pull the trigger if you have to.’

  I pulled out the piece I’d taken from the goon. Pulled back the slide. One in the chamber. Slid out the clip. Twelve more there. Not bad. That gave me twenty-three shots all together. More than enough if I could see who I was shooting at. I’d probably just waste them in here though. Our best chance was to run. But where?

  A few seconds staring into the mirror was enough. A flash of lightning proved it was just one car. All four doors seemed to be open though. I couldn’t see anyone. They were probably taking cover at the sides of the entrance. Or maybe it was still just the glare of the headlights hiding them.

  The girl was out of the car. She’d opened the door and slid out before I registered. There were no shots. They probably hadn’t seen her yet. I could see the pale shape of my trench coat again. She was headed back the way we’d come. That was the best plan, with only one group of guys there.

  I swung the car around to the left, so the headlights wouldn’t light her up like one of those gambling houses. Raced about fifty feet along the tunnel and stopped again. The glare from my headlights should help hide us. I climbed out and reached for the girl’s arm. She was gone. Gone where, I had no idea. There were only… She’d gone down a storm drain! I’d be surprised if she didn’t drown down there, but I couldn’t think about that now. I could hear voices.

  A moment later, the muffled thunder wasn’t the only booming in my ears. A bullet whizzed past me. Sounded like a tiny scream. I dropped flat as more followed. The two-inch torrent under me and the echoing tunnel confused every sound. I had no idea which direction the shots were coming from.

  The icy water soaked through my shirt and my trousers, making me shiver uncontrollably. Thunder rolled along the roof of the tunnel and threatened to bring it down on my head. Finally, another flash of lightning showed me one of my enemies. He stood in the middle of the tunne
l entrance, where the headlights didn’t hide him.

  The water rushed against my arms so fast it was hard to aim. I planted my elbows into the road as firmly as I could and stared down the sights, one eye squeezed shut. He was nearly two hundred feet away. Within the range of my pistol. I still missed. I don’t know where the hell I shot, because he didn’t even flinch. But he did shoot back at the muzzle flash.

  Rolling against the current of the shallow river was pretty much out of the question. I jumped to my feet and crouch-ran to the passenger door. Because of the angle I’d stopped the car, the hood just about covered me from the gunfire. I pulled open the door to partially protect me from any shooting coming the other way. Instead of taking one threat out of the equation, I’d just increased my odds of dying.

  Twenty-two bullets. No. Now the girl was gone, it was just sixteen.

  A sharp bang at my back. Someone had fired again. Hit the hood. Another bang. They were trying to either disable the engine, or hit the headlights. Shit. If they took out the lights, they’d have no problem seeing me.

  I stuck my head out for a second. In that second I saw my exit. It was literally an exit. Right in the centre of the white blaze from my car’s lights was an emergency door. I’d been too busy watching that I didn’t light up the girl to see what I had lit up. That door would lead either along to the side of the tunnel entrance, or up beside the train platform. The problem was, the moment I got to it I’d be a perfect target. With the four or five guys from one car, and perhaps eight or nine from the other two, someone was bound to hit me. Same if they took out my lights and I made a run for it.

  If I was going for that door, I’d need a distraction. Apart from my guns, I only had one thing with which to do that. I took a minute to think how. Came up with a crude plan.

  There was a thud and some wet pattering sounds. I realised it was the glass of one of the headlights. It had been hit and the pieces fallen into the water, but the bulb was intact. They wouldn’t miss many more times.

  I pulled out my own revolver. Flipped it to hold it by the barrel. There was a splash from somewhere beyond the door. I dropped to the side and kicked the door closed. Two guys. I fired. Some bullets clacked against the stone wall of the tunnel. Sparks spat out from the impacts. Chunks of the wall splashed into the water. Most of the bullets hit the goons though. Must have been about seven shots. They fired one each. The window above me shattered. I covered my face as some of the glass dropped on me. It was only little square pieces. Didn’t cut.