“Are you sure?”
“I’ve done this more times than you’ve had cheeseburgers … and on dozens of worlds. Like I said, Ops guys are the same all over.” I smiled and winked at him. “Let’s head back. Marsha’s probably back from Grady’s, and we have to do our workout.” I stood up and headed for the door. “We’re changing things up a bit tonight.”
Xen shot me a questioning look, but I didn’t offer more. I hit the palm reader and pushed the door open onto the foyer in my house. “Come on, Mag. The bedroom patio door should be open.”
Mag nodded and darted through the door. I watched her tail disappear out onto the patio, heading for my bedroom. Xen and I followed her out to find Rachel and Marsha sitting in lounge chairs, their backs towards the house as they talked and laughed.
“Evening, ladies,” I called out.
“Well, if it isn’t the man of mystery himself,” Marsha said, turning to me and smiling a bit wickedly.
I raised an eyebrow at Rachel, and Rachel nodded back almost imperceptibly as a small smile hooked the corner of her mouth. Marsha didn’t pursue the subject, so I would have to find out later how much she’d told Marsha.
“Okay, you all ready for another session?” I asked. They both nodded. “Head on down, ladies. We’ll be there shortly.”
Xen and I changed quickly and went down to find the two women sparring lightly but with impressive speed.
“Alright, alright,” I said, interrupting them. “Stretching! I don’t want you cramping up before the fun begins.”
They spent fifteen minutes stretching out, and then I walked to the head of the mat. “We’re going to pick up the pace tonight, okay. So keep up.”
They took their positions, and I ran through all of the forms twice, but at about double speed. They were all breathing heavily when I finished. “Okay, tonight is all about defense in the face of greater numbers. To start, all three of you are coming after me. Observe how I position my body, where I look, and what I do and don’t turn my back to … This is about staying alive and buying time, nothing else. The one thing to remember is to use your ears. We’ll go for a while, and then the three of you will work with each other, two attacking one and rotating through a few times.
The three circled me, and I put my back to Xen, facing the two women. I relaxed my body and held my hands limply in front of me, slouching slightly in a wide stance.
“Full contact, if you please … BEGIN!”
I heard Xen’s gi rustle behind me, and I stepped forward fluidly. Both ladies shot kicks at my mid-section, and I leapt over in a tumble, coming up behind them as they turned to face me. Marsha came in fast at my head. I blocked to her inside and stepped away, putting Marsha between Rachel and me. Xen came in again with a kick that I sidestepped, stepped back away from as I twisted. All three of them were now in front of me.
They looked at me, clearly impressed.
“Do you see? It’s all about movement.”
They nodded and came in again.
We worked like that for thirty minutes. Each of them got in a few body blows, and Rachel even clocked me across the jaw, but everything else missed or was blocked by hand, forearm, shin, or foot. As the fight progressed, I developed an even keener appreciation for my students. The three of them wordlessly began working together, becoming a single unit that anticipated what the other was doing. They started to predict where my avenues of escape were and closed them off. It was damn impressive.
My heart swelled with the pride of any teacher whose students start to become masters themselves.
“Enough!” I called out, and they all froze. “Okay, head gear, everyone,” I ordered, running my hand over my jaw where Rachel had tagged me.
“Sorry,” she said abashedly.
“Don’t be,” I said earnestly. “It was a solid hit. The three of you were really working well together. You should be proud of yourselves.” They all smiled. “Okay, five minutes each. Rachel, you defend first, then Xen then Marsha. Rotate through for an hour. Light contact. I’m heading upstairs for a while.”
“You’re not training anymore tonight?” Rachel asked.
“No … I have to cook dinner for you all.…” I paused and looked at Xen with a sardonic smile. “Besides, I got my workout this afternoon … right, Xen?”
“Yeah.” Xen nodded his head and put an understanding hand out on my shoulder.
“Get cracking, you three. Remember, light contact only, but don’t go easy on anybody. And watch out for Rachel’s right. It comes out like a rail gun.”
I left them to their training, headed upstairs and prepared chicken basil pesto over penne. They’d need the carbs and protein after the past two nights.
O O O
“Xen, wake up,” I said gently. Xen opened his eyes and saw me silhouetted in the doorway. “It’s time to take a visit to VeniCorp.”
He rolled quickly out of bed and realized that I wasn’t wearing anything. “You’re going like that?” he blurted, looking down at his boxers. “I figured we’d need to change into black outfits or something.”
I tossed him a pair of the vision goggles. Xen caught them and slipped them over his head, resting them around his neck. “VeniCorp is in the next room, and there’s nobody there. I checked the access logs. You can put something on if you like, but I figured you’d want to get back to bed as soon as possible.”
“I do.” Xen shrugged and followed me out.
We walked to the front door, I ran through the combo, and pushed the door open onto a short hallway and dark office space beyond. We both put on our goggles.
“Hey, these are cool!” Xen said as he looked around, everything looking as if it were in daylight.
“Leave the door open and let’s go.”
We walked down the short hall and looked around.
“That’s the stairwell you’ll use to go upstairs where Shao’s cubical is.”
Xen looked down the hall and nodded his head. When he looked out the window, the goggles magnified whatever his eyes were focusing on. “This feels really weird, you know?”
“What? The goggles?” I asked.
“No. Walking around an office in my underwear … and you! What is it with you and being naked all the time?”
I walked along the cube farm to the right. “I’m not naked all the time.” I said defensively.
“You’re naked quite a bit.”
We strolled around the cube farm to the area under Shao’s desk.
“I just like to be naked. Besides, where I come from we don’t have the same notion of morality as you Americans. You know, Americans are just about the most uptight people on the planet when it comes to sex and the body.” I had reached the far corner of the cube farm and pointed at the ceiling. “He sits straight up there. It’s only a two-story building. In an emergency, you should be able to get up on the roof. It wasn’t locked last time, and they had patio furniture up there, so I’m betting they keep it unlocked. There’s a dumpster on the back side of the building that you could jump down onto if you need a fast getaway.”
I made the turn towards the exit and spotted the glimmer of headlights shining from the direction of the sentry building. “Get down!”
We both dropped and crawled the rest of the way out. We came up in my doorway, and I closed it behind me.
“See? Easy peasy.” I grinned like a kid.
“You really enjoy this stuff, don’t you?”
“I really do,” I answered simply. “And you’re starting to, aren’t you?” I accused.
“Yep.” Xen’s face cracked into a big, childish grin.
“Go get some sleep. Repeat performance in three hours.”
He nodded. “Goodnight,” he added and walked to his room.
We did everything again at three a.m. without incident, and the guards at the front gate responded more slowly. I checked the logs when I woke up in the morning and saw that a guard had come into the building shortly after we left, then locked the place up twenty min
utes later. He seemed to have taken enough time to search both floors. Satisfied, I went back to my room and lay down next to Rachel. She was still fast asleep.
I lay down, closed my eyes for about thirty minutes, and then felt her move beside me. I opened my eyes, to see her up on one elbow looking at me.
She kissed me. “There’s something I’ve been wondering,” she said with a concerned look on her face.
“What’s that?”
“Are you completely invulnerable to guns? You don’t seem to worry about them at all.”
“No, I’m not. Want a lesson in constructed j’Tari assassin anatomy?” I didn’t need to tell her this, but I didn’t want any secrets between us, and she had asked.
“Sure,” she said with a look of curiosity on her face.
“I have three major parts to my brain, whereas you, and most j’Tari, only have the two hemispheres. The third is about the size of a racket ball, sits above the spine, and is incased in a sphere of incredibly tough … well, you’d have to call it bone. If a bullet, or anything else for that matter, goes through it … it’s pretty much adios muchacho for me. Everything else seals and heals quickly. My skeleton is made of much tougher stuff, too. The swimming pool you know about, but I’ve been hit by cars and trucks, fallen off a building or three, and even been trampled by a stampede of kaypars.” I rubbed the back of my neck, remembering the stampede.
“Kaypars?” she asked, confused.
“They’re kind of like a cross between a buffalo and a rhino … only meaner. Delicious, though.” I looked into her eyes. “I’m more worried about you, actually. There’s something you have to promise me.”
“What’s that?”
“Always leave me behind.”
“WHAT?” She looked horrified.
“Always leave me behind,” I repeated slowly. I took a very practical tone, the way other people talked about their job cutting hair or tightening bolts. “Look, Mag and I have been doing this for a very long time. We’ve been in jams you couldn’t possibly imagine. If I go down, you tuck tail and run. You understand me? I need you to swear to me.”
“But …”
“No buts on this one. When it comes right down to it, working with people like this … like you and Marsha and Xen … I haven’t done much of it. It’s easier to work my way out of a situation when I only have to worry about myself. You’ll be helping me by getting out of there. Now swear it.”
She looked at me, searching my face for a long time. “I swear,” she finally said quietly.
“That’s my girl. You have to trust me.”
“I do,” she added sincerely. She kissed me hard and hugged me.
Emotional sex is often the best kind, and the two of us proved that before getting up for the day.
***
Fly on the Wall
I sat cross-legged by the water fountain, looking out at a most pleasant sight. Xen stood out in the middle of the lawn, going through the Tai Chi he’d learned as a teenager and taken up again in recent months. The mid-morning sun reflected off a bright yellow satin uniform as he moved. It had been a gift from one of his teachers back in China. Rachel sat with Marsha, who had taken the day off. They were on the far side of the pool talking about whatever women talk about, and Mag lay behind me in the shade of a tree looking very much like an average mountain lion … for Marsha’s sake. I hadn’t had time to talk to Marsha about what she knew, so I’d told Mag to maintain the façade.
All was right with the world as near as I could tell, and I was getting used to having people this close to my life. I never had before, and it felt sublime.
I guess I’m getting sentimental as I get older, I chided myself. I reached down and picked up the phone. It was time to set another duck in the row. I stood up, headed into the kitchen, grabbed a carton of orange juice, and sat down at the counter. I hit a speed dial and waited for an answer as I drank directly from the carton.
“Captain O’Neil,” he answered.
“O’Neil, it’s Case.”
“Hey! Thanks for those emails. We’ve zeroed on the trucking, and we’re setting up a sting on most of the dry cleaners.”
“That’s great. Will you be ready to go by this weekend?”
“Are you close?” He sounded surprised.
“Yeah. In fact, that’s why I called. I have a request and a gift all in one.”
“Request?” O’Neil was immediately suspicious.
“How’d you like to make your first arrest?” I sounded like I was offering steak to a starving man … which I sort of was.
“I got a hard on for it.”
“Okay … That’s too much information, but how about you get a warrant for Jackie Shao and bag him sometime late Saturday night?”
“He’s the chemist that put all this together?”
“He’s your boy.”
“Done. I’ll square it away with a Magistrate today and handle it personally.” O’Neil sounded hungry.
“Can you keep him incommunicado till Monday morning?”
“It’ll be part of the warrant, no sweat. We do it all the time.”
“Good. Then prep your teams to drop the hammer on Sunday night. Plan on rounding up these guys around ten o’clock?”
“I’ll make it happen.”
“Thanks, O’Neil.” A mountain of unsaid thanks went with it. I had known all along I was stretching O’Neil’s generosity—and ability to stay out of something—to its utter limit.
“Hey, we’re a team, remember?” he said, meaning it.
“You got that right.” I got another jolt of that warm feeling of family that had been surrounding me so much of late.
“Any word on the Audi?” O’Neil asked, changing the subject.
“Nothing yet. Still a wild card, but I’m going with my guts on this one.” I looked at the counter where Natalia had been sitting and raised my voice a little as I said, “In fact, I’m doing it this second.”
I thought about telling O’Neil more, but we both knew that in police departments there are always guys who talk to people who give them money to share what they know. What O’Neil didn’t know couldn’t possibly get anyplace it shouldn’t. I wasn’t worried about O’Neil talking to someone. People like Pyotr have a government office bugged for fun.
“Okay. I just hope I don’t have to ID you at the morgue,” he added. “Imagine how embarrassed you’ll be.”
“I guess I’ll have to cope,” I said and hung up.
O O O
Albert took the headphones off his ears and finished writing down what he’d heard. He read through it again.
“Wake up,” he called to the sleeping form under the blanket. “They’re going Sunday. We have some phone calls to make, and we need to start getting ready. We’re going to be there.”
The form under the blanket moved slowly and then sat up.
Albert lifted some papers up off the desk and exposed a vlain. He pulled it out of the sheath and held it to his ear as the whine spun up out of the audible range. He tore off a piece of paper, held the blade of the vlain out, pointing up and slowly lowered the paper down on the edge. With no pressure at all, it passed through the paper, cutting as neatly as scissors.
“Who are you?” he asked, staring at the blade.
***
Fish in a Barrel
I was waiting in the kitchen again when Marsha walked out of the bedroom. I’d already poured a cup of coffee for her, black the way she liked it, and in a travel cup.
“How’s Abby doing these days?” I handed her the coffee.
“So-so, I guess. She told me she almost lost her other job last week because she had been late twice. Her boss sounds like a real asshole, but she says she’s kind of stuck there. She never has time to go look for work, and he won’t budge on her schedule. Her Bronco is on its last legs, too. Kenny’s been late a few times, but I’m not sweating it.”
“I figure that thing is about ready for the scrap heap if it doesn’t get some love and atten
tion,” I said.
“She says they’ll just have to start taking the bus when it dies, but I know that will mean she gets even less sleep than she does now. Frankly, I don’t know how she does it. She works harder than I ever did.”
“Is Kenny scheduled for Saturday morning?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because he’s going to be late,” I predicted.
Marsha raised her eyebrow and gave me a What-have-you-got-planned look.
“Someone is going to steal her Bronco early Saturday morning … around two a.m.” Marsha got a very confused look on her face. “Do they live in an apartment or house?” I asked.
Looking concerned, she finally answered me. “It’s a condo. It’s the only thing that her mother left her before she died, and with a hefty mortgage, apparently.”
“Does it have a garage?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Definitely. I’ve dropped Kenny off a few times. Look, whatever you’re planning, those kids have it hard enough already. They don’t need any more challenges.”
“I know. That’s part of what this is all about. I’m not stealing the truck. I’m actually buying it. There’s going to be a surprise for Abby waiting for her in the garage. It’ll be a stack larger than the one you found on your desk.”
Marsha smiled and got a little teary eyed. She came around the kitchen counter, grabbed me and hugged me hard, holding it for a long time. She released me finally and looked at me with damp cheeks. “You’re a rare breed, Justin Case. I wish there were more men like you. And I wish you were a woman. I’d steal you away from Rachel in a heartbeat.”
I gasped, feigning shock and surprise. “Oh my god? You’re a lesbian? But what about that night we had in Vegas all those years ago?” I sounded hurt.
“You know damn well that I bat for both teams … and that’s not what I’m talking about. Stop changing the subject, or I’ll kick you in the balls.” She was suddenly both serious and sentimental. “You’re like Santa Claus, Justin … just tougher and better looking … and this world would be a worse place without you in it.” She kissed me and headed for the front door. “Don’t ever change, Mister Claus. Don’t you dare.”
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