Heaven can Wait

by Nicola Lawson

  It still kind of freaked me out that Selene could talk about her death in such a matter of fact way. Maybe she just didn't let much bother her, alive or dead.

  "You know there's a good chance that you'll have to use those weapons this time?"

  I nodded, aware that Selene could interpret the gesture even though she experienced it from inside my head. I had armed myself with the same weapons I had taken with me this morning. I didn't know how useful the blades would be but I could point and shoot a gun. At least I thought I could, I had never used one before but it couldn't be that difficult, could it?

  The animal pens were huge caged areas, fully caged with steel mesh just under the ground and as roofs. They were the part of the Zone where the more animalistic non-humans were dumped. Trolls, demon-hounds, griffins and the like were just a few of the types of creatures kept in the pens. There were even a couple of artificial lakes and a river, all caged in, where the aquatic creatures were kept.

  I kept my distance from the closest fence as I followed Selene's directions to the club. I couldn't see any of the inhabitants of the pen but I could hear them rustling in there. This pen was decked out as a forest habitat, and even in broad daylight I wouldn't have been able to see what was making the noise past the trees and underbrush. My imagination conjured up all manner of possibilities for the origin of the sounds. But whatever had made the noise was trapped safely inside a steel mesh cage. The monsters that I had to worry about would be waiting for me inside the club.

  The closer I drew to the club the slower I was walking. This didn't seem like such a good idea anymore, I can't believe that it ever did.

  "This is a bad idea."

  "Do you want to just go home and leave this to the professionals? Or do you want us to get in there and make sure these killings stop?"

  I looked across at the club. Looking just like any normal club, but I knew that if I went in there things would be far from normal. If I went in there I had this feeling that I might not be coming out.

  "Can't we just get Stern and Frost down here to go in there?"

  "We've been over this," Selene said loosing patience with me. "They would need proof before they as much as set a foot inside the Zone."

  I shook my head in resignation. She was right, I needed to do this because I was the only who would.

  "Let's get on with it then."

  I pressed on to the club before I could let myself stop again. The bouncers on the door gave me only a little more attention than they did others entering the club and I put that down to a normal male reaction to an attractive young woman. The club might have had something of a dress code, although looking at some of the others going in with me if they did it wasn't strict. In any case I was dressed in ankle boots, slate grey trousers and a lighter grey top. One of Selene's more conservative leather jackets went on top to keep me warm.

  "Nice place," I said sarcastically.

  "I've been in worse," Selene said.

  "I can believe that."

  I didn't see anything wrong with basically talking to myself even though I was in a room full of people. The music was so loud, and the lighting so dim, that no-one was likely to notice.

  Most of the club-goers were outwardly human in appearance. Lycans, vampires, semi-demons and the like. There was the odd set of horns, wings or tail in evidence. There were a couple of furry beings in evidence, some creatures shorter or taller than the mortal norm. A handful of small lizard-ape things swung from the lighting and speaker rigs.

  The same way I had very little experience with pubs and bars I had no experience with clubs either. It smelled a lot like the lycan bar, cigarettes and alcohol. But there was also an undercurrent of sweat cut through by myriad perfumes and aftershaves. What with the unique smell, the thumping noise that pounded inside my chest, the intermittent erratic lighting and the press of people I was already feeling out of sorts. And I hadn't even begun looking for the person behind the killings.

  "So where do we start?"

  "The bartender. You always start by questioning the bartender. Either they know what's going on or they can point you in the direction of whoever does."

  There were three people behind the bar so I just found myself a clear space and waited to see which one of them came to me.

  "What'll it be, Miss?"

  It was the middle-aged barman who stopped across from me.

  "Information," Selene prompted.

  "Information," I dutifully repeated.

  The barman eyed me and leaned in. "Well now, that'll depend on what kind of thing you are after."

  "You want to know who here has been seen using zombies."

  I thought we were rushing things. Even if the bartender knew anything he surely wasn't just going to blurt it out to some strange woman. But Selene had been doing this kind of thing much longer than I had so I did as she suggested.

  The bartender wasn't going to be winning big on any high stakes poker games. His reaction to my question was immediate and obvious. He tried to cover it with what he thought was a neutral expression. Even if I had been looking away or something to make me miss his initial reaction, the sweat forming on his wrinkled brow would have given him away.

  "That sort of information can be dangerous."

  "Take out the roll of cash and ask him-"

  "How dangerous?" I said taking out the money Selene had insisted that I bring along.

  "You're getting the hang of this."

  The bartender's eyes flashed on the cash and he cast about anxiously.

  "Put that away," he hissed.

  "You've got to him."

  The bartender kept looking around, if he was trying to make sure we weren't noticed he wasn't doing a good job of being inconspicuous.

  "Look," the bartender licked his lips. "Meet me outside the fire-exit in five minutes and I'll tell you anything you want."

  I nodded at the barman, turned and left.

  "That was pretty easy."

  "As far as it went," Selene said. "But stay alert. If he knows anything he is not good people."

  My burgeoning feeling of triumph was washed away. Selene was right, of course, I shouldn't have felt anything like a victory from something as small as that. I guess I was just after some affirmation that I could do this sort of stuff. And now Selene had gone and stolen the wind out of my sails. Still, it was better than operating under a false sense of security.

  "So, anything in particular I should be watching out for?"

  "Under these circumstances, anything and everything."

  I wandered around the side of the club, looking for where the firedoors would open out into the street. I positioned myself in front of the doors with my back to them. I took a step back and up a step so that I was in the fire-escape alcove.

  I was feeling pretty proud of myself. From here I could see most of the narrow street and my back was covered.

  "Is this taking enough precautions for you?"

  "There's good visibility, but you've left yourself vulnerable to an attack from behind."

  I kept looking up and down the street. "What do you-"

  I never finished the question. One of the fire doors slammed me from behind and my forehead hit the corner of the alcove.

  "Because there are doors behind you."

  I didn't hear if Selene said anything else because whoever had hit me with the door followed up with a blow to the back of my skull and everything went black.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  "Open your eyes! Open your fuc-"

  "All right, I'm awake."

  I didn't realise I was hurt at first. Oh, I knew that I was hurt in that I had been knocked unconscious but I didn't realise I was in pain. And then I did and hurt like a bitch. And that tells you how much it did hurt because I'm not one to curse casually.

  "Suck it up, Faith. You got us into this mess. Now open your eyes so we can see exactly what mess you got us into."

  "Hey, it wasn't my idea to come down here. I'm not an investiga
tor or a bounty hunter. This is your line of work, not mine."

  But I finally did as Selene said and cracked my eyes open. The light hitting inside my head didn't make it hurt any worse. It might have helped that the light barely qualified as such.

  I was in a room that had a basement feel to it. There was a narrow letterbox window up at the top of the wall in front of me. It was through this window that the light came. It was clearly artificial light, from a streetlamp or something similar. The walls were basic concrete with no adornments. There was a bare light bulb in the ceiling which wasn't turned on. I couldn't see anything most of the way behind me because I was presently strapped to a heavy chair.

  I finally looked down at my bindings. My arms were trapped at the wrists with leather belts that bound them to the wide wooden arms of the chair. My feet were tied together over the top of my boots with what looked like blue string. There was more of the string around my body wrapped tightly above and below my breasts so that my assets were pushed almost obscenely forwards. They seemed larger than before. The leather jacket had been removed and dumped somewhere along the line. I could no longer feel the gun or holster that had been down the front of my trousers. I couldn't tell about the other weapons, but given that my boots and top and bra were still in place they probably hadn't been discovered.

  I wriggled against my bindings but couldn't really budge them.

  "So what happens next?"

  I was still angry at Selene, but more at myself, for ending up here and it told in my tone.

  To her credit Selene didn't hit back with anger of her own. "First we get you out of these bonds. They made a mistake not using the plastic string to bind your arms. Leather stretches. Work your hands loose."

  I tugged with my arms to try and create some give in the belts around my wrists. I could twist my wrists around slightly but I couldn't really lift them up off the armrests or get free space between the belts and my skin. I worked at it for what felt like hours but was probably in reality minutes or less. The leather was chafing my skin and I wasn't getting anywhere. So I gave up.

  "It's no use."

  Now Selene sounded angry. "I refuse to let you give in like that, just because it is difficult. I already died once, I don't want to know what happens if you are killed when we are linked like this."

  "But it hurts." I sounded like a whiney brat even to my own ears.

  "If you don't get loose, at least enough to defend yourself, this is what will happen; Some very bad people are going to come through that door behind you. They will torture and question you and then they will kill you. Whatever pain you have to cause yourself now will be worth it to avoid that."

  "You aren't making me feel any better."

  "I wasn't trying to, I was trying to scare you."

  "You succeeded."

  "Good, so get back to it."

  I worked at the belts with renewed vigour. I worked at them like a mad thing and when my wrists stated bleeding Selene pressed my on.

  "Good, your blood will provide lubrication. Try and pull your hands free."

  I tugged and tugged trying to force my blood slicked hands through the small amount of space I had freed. It was no use, they just wouldn't go. But I forced myself to go on. Selene was right, this was my only chance.

  I never heard the door opening or closing and I never heard footsteps. My first indication that anything was different was a change in the feel of the air. That and the taste of magic.

  All beings have a certain amount of magic to them. In most mortal beings it will be muted, locked away. In some beings it is dark and twisted, in others bright and breezy. But in most cases, unless you are specifically attuned to that sort of thing, it takes a great effort of will and a good deal of preparation in order to be able to sense a persons magic.

  Whoever had just come into the basement was very powerful, but poorly focused and they were wasting a lot of power right at that moment. It was like the newcomer had been using a rocket launcher to swat flies and I was picking up the splash back.

  Selene made a noise like a sharp inhalation of breath, but she wasn't currently in any condition to be breathing. "Mr X."

  "Mr X?"

  He stepped around the chair and he looked almost exactly the way he had on the security footage Frost showed me. Well he was a lot less fuzzy but the general shapes matched. Besides Selene seemed sure.

  "I suppose that name could suffice for now," Mr X said coming fully in front of me. "But I usually use Smith."

  His eyes roamed over my body, lingering in the usual places a mans eyes did, they came to rest on my bloody wrists. "You appear to have injured yourself."

  "Now you shoot a wisecrack at him."

  I just sat there looking at this average guy who was anything but and trying not to shake. I was in no condition to be trading witty repartee with this man. Or whatever.

  "The quiet type I see. But then, I suppose, they always say it's the quiet ones that you have to look out for. Tell me, what are you doing in my club asking questions about zombies?"

  He sounded so reasonable. But he had me strapped to a chair in a small basement. He wasn't a reasonable person.

  "Is that a crime?"

  "We don't have to play games, Miss. You were seen poking around with that bounty-hunter, asking questions about me and about these murders that have been in the news lately. It was obvious that you two knew what was going on. I had hoped that what happened to your friend would have warned you off. And then you turn up here of all places asking about zombies. If you were a man I'd say you were either very stupid or you had a boulder-sized set of grapefruits. And seeing as you quite obviously aren't a man, you must be stupid."

  "You can't let him keep insulting you like that, you have to get him off his game or you're going to join me in death very soon."

  "We were smart enough to trace this back to you."

  I put as much confidence into my voice as I could. Under the circumstances that wasn't much and the words came out shakey.

  Mr X/Smith eyed me. "Were you, or was this a fishing trip?"

  "You need to make him believe."

  I ground my teeth together and worked my brain. I needed to drop hints but I couldn't start making up specifics because then this guy would realise I didn't know anything.

  "You have the Zone's guards doing your dirty work for you."

  Mr X laughed. "That's a nice bluff. And I suppose you could even have known that for a fact."

  Smith looked over my head and gestured with his own for somebody else to come forwards. One of the Zone's security guards came around from behind me, I hadn't realised there was a third person in the basement with us. He stood there next to Smith. The guard was the taller of the two men and with his uniform and sunglasses still on he should have seemed the more imposing. He didn't, I knew who was the puppet and puppet master in the pair.

  Smith glanced sideways at the guard commanding him with a look. The guard reached up and casually removed his glasses.

  "Damn."

  "I had a selection of the guards replaced."

  The guard stared at me with soulless eyes. A zombie.

  "You're building an army of the dead."

  Smith laughed again and seemed genuinely mirthful, it wasn't the stereotypical megalomaniac's cackle.

  "Nothing so dramatic. I had been bribing the guards for years to get people in and out of the Zone. The time simply came when it made better business sense to have them replaced with people I knew would be one hundred percent loyal. It cost a fortune to get them looking and behaving so naturally. Luckily most of their duties don't require them to be particularly loquacious. It was lucky that I was listening in when you and your friend arrived." He gestured to the speaker/microphone setup on the guards head. "I was able to provide him with natural sounding responses for your conversation. It was having to get him to pocket your friends bribe that provided the most difficulty but it worked."

  "So why the murders?" It seemed oddly natural to be h
ere asking this guy questions. His casually conversational manner was rubbing off on me.

  He sized me up. The zombie guard just stood there waiting for further instructions. How could I ever have believed it was alive? Hector Barbossa had done good work.

  "What happens if the normals accept us into their society?"

  "I'm not sure they all ever could," I said.

  "If it is politically expedient we will be allowed to live among them, full equality might take somewhat longer to achieve but the damage to my business will be done. You must know of the Registration act. What happens to me if the Zone is abolished?"

  Things finally clicked together inside my head. "If we aren't kept excluded you can't charge for smuggling out into the general population. You stir up public opinion against us . . ."

  "And it is no longer politically expedient to push the issue of non-human rights."

  "It seems pretty extreme. You could have found other ways to make money."

  "I will not go back to being a small fish in a large ocean. Right now I have power in the supernatural community."

  Smith smiled at me. "You are a pretty girl. Pity we had to meet under these circumstances, I have interests in a number of brothels that would like to have had someone like you on staff."

  Smith gave me an almost genuine sad look. "Unfortunately that option is long past. I could have my zombies tear you up and have themselves a little snack." He leaned in as though imparting some great secret. "It helps to keep them looking so fresh. But you are more popular amongst certain normals whose attention I think is better focused away from the Zone."

  Smith had started circling and he was behind me again. I twisted as much as I could, which was not at all, and I couldn't see him.

  "So you will simply have to disappear."

  I felt absolutely nothing this time but the world went black all the same.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  This time when I came to I felt nauseous.