by Ben Zackheim
But I never wanted it to end like that.
I never wanted Rebel to be the one to go first.
She couldn’t be dead.
I could feel that she was gone.
I stumbled to my feet and somehow got the strength to walk. Scarlett tried to stop me. I shoved her aside but I didn’t have control of my body. I couldn’t think in a way that made any sense. I was dangerous. I hoped Scarlett would see that and keep her distance.
No such luck.
“Kane! Stop!” she yelled after me. I felt her hand on my shoulder. She was stronger than me. Hell, everyone was stronger than me at that moment. But I slapped her hand away and wrapped my fingers around her throat. Her eyes told me that she got the message.
I stumbled closer to the flame. It was dying down a little, letting me get a bit closer to the charred remains of the car.
And the charred remains of three humans. The driver, Bone, and…
They were black as coal and frozen in a pose of death — violently pushing themselves off the ground.
Rebel.
Was it her?
“I don’t know,” Scarlett whispered to me. Her voice seemed to carry on the wind. I didn’t even know I’d asked the question out loud. “I think the body closest to us is her. Kane, I’m so sorry.”
The tunnel vision was clearing. I could hear the fire licking at the sky. I could hear the wind blowing, kicking up the dirt all around us, feeding the flame. But the only thing I could focus on was the charred body in front of me.
The body with long black fingernails.
“Take me to Liuzhou” I said. If Cannon had spies there then I’d find them.
“Yeah,” she said, a slight squeak in her voice. “Yeah, anything you want, Kane.”
Chapter 35
I was bleeding, depressed, hammered and armed.
It was a dangerous mix.
I’d told Scarlett to go back to her house and let Fox know what had happened. They were both to stay the fuck away from the bar while I worked.
I let the other drunks blabber at me. I let the women flirt. I even let one guy pick a fight. He won. The lower I was on the pecking order of that dive, the better. Americans think that China is a buttoned up productivity machine. But the bars are just like anywhere else in the world. Filled with desperate, sad, lonely, horny, mad men and women who collide and somehow don’t blow each other to hell.
Rebel.
Goddammit, Rebel.
Everything was without her. That bar over there had been made when she was alive. The bartender knew nothing about her. His loss. The beer was something she would have hated too. Everything was without Rebel.
I went in and out of giving a shit about the mission. Deliver Excalibur to Tibet or find Cannon? He’d hired Miller. I saw it in her face when Rebel guessed right. It wasn’t a serious attempt at getting the sword. Cannon was testing us out.
I knew I’d eventually have to get back to the main reason I was there. But I gave a shit one second and then dropped off a cliff of despair the next. It was a confusing state to be in. I was used to being in control, even when it looked like I was out of it. I didn’t like the feeling but I also knew there was zilch I could do about it.
The air was filled with smoke. It smelled good to me. The way America used to smell before we all got so precious with our lungs and thought that life was something we needed to squeeze like a fucking orange. As if getting every last second out of it would be better than a good smoke.
I wouldn’t have minded ending it all that night. But I knew I might feel different in the morning. Maybe then I’d be able to focus again.
This roller coaster was my whole evening. I scavved a cig from a pretty girl and lit up. I coughed out the first drag. It had been awhile.
“You are a American,” the girl said with a thick Chinese accent. She thought the cigarette’s price of admission was worth a lesson in English. I wasn’t inclined to agree.
Until she kept talking.
“I know why you are here,” she said. Good English. All the words were there. Plus her smile, the one that knew she’d impressed me, was cute as hell.
“Yeah,” I said. “You’re Chinese.”
She smiled in that way that makes you think you have the upper hand. And then she beat me with, “No. I am from Tibet.”
“Oh. Sorry.” I put down my drink and took another puff. It tasted too good. I knew Rebel would kill me for smoking again. She was dead so she could go screw herself. “Yeah? What are you doing in Panzhihua?”
She shrugged and glanced into the bar mirror. “Business,” she said, cleaning some smudged makeup from the corner of her eye.
“What kind of business?” I asked. There was something about her tone that was different. Her voice had gone from sweet to rough in one breath.
“Weapons, mostly,” she said with a smile. She glanced over her shoulder. I followed her gaze and spotted a man at the end of the bar. He’d done a great job of hiding from me. It took me a second to focus my eyes on him. He used the shadows well. I knew the type. I was ready for trouble within a heartbeat.
I reached for my gun. She placed her hand gently in front of me on the bar and tapped her fingernails on the wood and pursed her lips.
“Tsk, tsk, no need. You are not in danger,” she said.
“Clearly you don’t know me,” I said.
“Alas, no. But he is not enemy. Not a friend. But not danger. You understand?”
“Sure, I just don’t believe you.”
“Come,” she said. “He wishes to speak with you.”
“I’m good right here,” I said. I was onto something. Maybe the exact thing I’d been searching for.
But that didn’t mean I had to be stupid about it.
“Tell him to have a seat right here,” I said. “You’ve warmed it up for him.”
She frowned for the first time. She didn’t want to be the one to tell her boss that I was playing hardball with his invitation.
But she didn’t even need to tell him.
He stood and walked slowly into the light and down the bar.
He was a white guy. Overweight. Gray hair and square jaw. His beady eyes didn’t tell me a thing, but his charming smile told me he knew he was used to getting away with a lot. I didn’t like him. I could tell he didn’t like anyone. The bar got cold as he got closer. I pegged him for a Vampire by the time he took a seat next to me.
“Cannon,” he said, reaching out his hand. He studied my eyes to see how I’d respond to this news. His grip was weak, clammy. He held power in his grasp so he didn’t think he needed to show me a firm grip. He knew he’d lose that battle. But we both knew he’d win everything else. “You know me.”
It was a statement.
I’d just met the devil himself.
“You know me,” I said to the devil.
Chapter 36
I probably shook a little from the chill.
In some circles, this guy was the ruler of the world. He played so many angles on so many power players that no one was sure how he’d survived as long as he had. His face showed it, too. He was haggard, hair everywhere, bloodshot eyes, pockmarked skin. I took a moment to soak in the creature in front of me. This is what a drive for solid power could do to a body.
I’d heard rumblings that Cannon was the one who found the lair of the Vamps under Paris. That he was the one who woke them up and cleared the way for the massacre. It could never be proven by anyone in Spirit, though.
Maybe it was time to just end it all. It would be so easy.
“I assume from your face that you know all about me,” Cannon muttered, taking the last swig of his whiskey.
“I know enough to be ready,” I said.
He chuckled into his glass and then looked up at me. All the charm was drained from his face. Now he was the monster.
I was ready to draw.
He’d be dead before he knew it.
I thought about all of the people I’d save if I offed him right ther
e.
“Stand down, Kane,” he said, calmly. “I’m not here to hurt you unless you do something stupid.”
“I don’t know. I have nothing to lose.”
“Really? You really think that? After all you’ve seen. You don’t think there’s anything to lose?”
“Lose the smile, or I kill it,” I said. I was done with this guy.
He shrugged and glanced back at his glass. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
I had no idea what he meant by that. He wasn’t a Vampire. I knew that from our intel. His life had been tracked since he was a kid with dreams of being a writer. The rejections were what pushed him into his current line of business.
He was as human as I was.
But if he was a spellcaster then it’s possible he had a humdinger Solo. No one had ever had an immortality spell before, though it had always been a legend.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You’re the one who came to me.”
“I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“And I didn’t know you were coming. Yet here we are. I’m sorry about your partner, Kane.”
“You killed her.”
“You give me too much credit, my friend.”
I’m usually good at spotting a liar. I had no reason to trust him. But his answer made me doubt my determination. “I’m not your friend,” I said.
“Ah, but I could be!”
“You don’t have friends.”
“So you do know me. Okay. Strategic partner then.”
I was getting sick of this back and forth. But I knew I had to go along with it. It’s how people like him worked. Battles of wit. Oneupmanship.
Rebel.
“I’m not a politician,” I said.
“No, I’d be the politician. You’d be the muscle.”
“You underestimate me.”
“I do not underestimate you, Kane. I’m alive today because I know exactly how to estimate everything. And everyone.”
“Yeah, you’re a real genius,” I said. I placed my forearms on the bar. It was my way of getting my hand closer to my gun. It was almost time to end this thing. It would probably mean the end for me too. The end of Excalibur and all the other trinkets I carried around with me.
I counted nine guards in the bar. I was ready for every single person to spring into action at the slightest sign of trouble. Even the passed out guy in the corner could have been acting.
“Give me the sword, Kane,” he said under his breath. He was losing patience too.
“No,” I said, taking my first sip of whiskey ever that tasted like it came from a can.
“I see how this is going to go. My time is valuable. You and I both know we are after the same thing. My way will get us there faster. Say yes or no. Now.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” This jackass was trying to drive me nuts with his riddles. I didn’t know what he could do for me, except end my suffering in some creative and bloody way.
“You really don’t know what you have, do you?”
I stared back at him with my best poker face. He smiled, took another swig and shook his head.
“I’m going to do you a big favor right now,” he continued. “What you’re carrying isn’t just any sword. It’s special. It’s…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I interrupted him. Did he really not realize that I knew I had Excalibur?
The perfect time to strike would be before he revealed his big, bad secret. He thought he had my full attention. He thought the most important thing in the world to me was finding out what he was getting at.
But I wanted him dead more than anything else.
I reached for my gun just as he said, “You have Excalibur.”
I had the gun in his face by the time I said, “Tell me something I don’t know and I let you live.”
Chapter 37
The barrel of my gun was three inches from his forehead.
A couple dozen armed men and women had their beads on my head.
How does it feel to know that you’re dead meat? That depends.
If you want to live, then it’s terrifying.
If you don’t care what the result is, then let me tell you something — you are still in complete control. No one there wanted to be on the team that lost Cannon. But I bet every last one of them wouldn’t mind seeing him dead. The trigger pressed against my fingertip. Any flinch would set the gun off. I held my breath.
His move.
He should have been terrified. He knew I was ready to die. His upturned lip and cocked eyebrow made me think he had a spell or two beyond my comprehension. Then again, his best spell may just be The Bluff.
“So Skyler told you, then. Surprising. He likes to keep secrets. I didn’t think he’d share a flu.”
Did he just speak fondly of the old man? It was a backward compliment, but coming from someone who cherished secrets above all else, it sounded like affection.
I had to learn more.
I twirled the gun on my finger and stuck it back in my back holster.
The rest of the room kept their guns aimed at me.
So I pulled the pistol out again and stuck it to Cannon’s forehead. I made eye contact with the closest targets. I’d be able to take three or four down, not including Cannon, before they hit their mark.
Cannon laughed and waved his hand at them. They put their guns down instantly.
“You know Skyler well?” I asked.
“We’ve been… disagreeing for a long time now. Please. Kane. Have a seat.” He gestured to my bench. I sent the Glock home for a second time. The snakes slithered back into their hidey-holes. Cannon nodded at the bartender who smacked a bottle of real whiskey on the bar between us.
Jameson Black.
All of this started to feel like a setup. I half expected to see Skyler appear in the door and laugh at how dense I was.
“When you first held the sword, what did you see?” he asked.
“99 Virgins.”
“Wrong religion.”
“Sounds like the right religion to me.”
“Tell me. Did you feel anything when you held the hilt of Excalibur?”
“No,” I lied. I remembered the blade’s edge. Its beckoning beauty. Its crushing weight on my will.
“Do you believe in God, Kane?”
“Do you believe in sticking to one subject for more than four seconds?”
“No, actually.” He raised his glass in a toast. “To the power of God, and all of the heavenly treasure He’s rained upon the Earth.”
I knew that he was trying to offer me an opening. He wanted me to start interpreting his puzzles.
“So you’re saying God is leaving us holy objects.”
Cannon waited, his face angled up as if he knew the lines to this play and wanted me to say them.
I continued. “And that God’s leaving these holy objects all over the place with a plan.”
He slammed his glass down on the table and it shattered into a thousand pieces. “YES! I knew it! I knew you were special. With almost no prompting, you figured out the truth.”
“I figured out what you think is the truth. But you’re easy to read.” I noticed his hand was bleeding from the shattered glass. He didn’t care.
“Am I? That’s the first time anyone has ever told me that. But yes, Excalibur is here for a reason. Anything with power is here for a reason. Its purpose must be studied, interpreted and eventually used for certain ends.”
“Free ice cream for everyone forever?”
“I ask you again. Did you feel anything when you first touched the sword?”
“No,” I lied. And he knew it.
“We have ways of getting this kind of infor…” he said before I had the barrel of my gun in his face again.
He flinched this time. I smiled.
Again, the room’s weapons were trained on me.
“Really?” Cannon said, annoyed.
“You’re the one making threats, Cannon. Tell me what
you know about Excalibur and I’ll stop showing you the wrong side of the barrel.”
“That’s not how this is going to happen, Kane.” Now he looked pissed off. Cannon was ugly when he smiled so he was twice as ugly when he had his rage on. “What’s going to happen is that you’ll walk out of here with nothing, I’ll follow you to every dark corner of the planet until I get the sword out of your little hidey-hole by killing every last person you love right in front of you. You can’t hide. You must know that by now.”
“Yup, I know,” I said, pocketing the Glock again. “But you also know something.” I got in his face. “I’ll be ready for you.”
I walked toward the exit. I had a lot of useful info.
Cannon knew I had Excalibur in my lock box. And I knew he was obsessed with getting it. My best guess is that he wanted to raise an army with the sword and use it to get more power.
Also, I’d discovered that he had a history with Skyler.
As I got ready to leave that bar, I was cocky. I admit it. I should have known better. You don’t play with the Devil without paying scalper prices.
“Kane!” Cannon yelled from his bar stool.
I glanced over my shoulder, muscles ready to go for the Glocks.
His goons flanked him. He smirked. Like an asshole.
“Don’t make me do to the twins what I did to your partner,” he said.
I had more than a dozen guns on me.
I would find the right time.
Cannon just signed his death warrant.
I left the bar with a mix of rage and focus that I hope I never experience again.
Chapter 38
I’d left Scarlett at the safehouse to deal with the carnage. Rebel had told me point-blank on the Santa Fe job that if she was killed first then I shouldn’t stick around and mourn. I should just end her killer. She hated funerals. She just wanted her body to be dealt with in the most convenient way. Burial, fish food, whatever. I could have let her burn to a crisp but, no, I couldn’t.