by Blake Banner
“Where is she?”
Rho asked me, “Do you still care for her?”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about her.”
His smile told me he knew I was lying. “Our purpose is to find the quickest, easiest way of recovering Professor Gilbert’s research, and Marni’s research. If that means inducting her into Omega, so be it.”
Tau took over. “But we have a feeling that, even if we do induct her, we may never get hold of that research. Marni could well—and understandably—hold on to that research as an insurance policy.”
He said it like he was being very reasonable, and I ought to appreciate that. I shrugged. “So?”
He laughed tolerantly, like an amiable uncle guiding his nephew towards intelligent thought. “So, when you showed up, alive and well instead of dead and bedraggled in the Hudson River, we realized immediately that we had a much more elegant way of getting to the research. We had options.”
I began to realize why Marni had called me an idiot. “You think I know where the research is?”
Tau squinted at me through the smoke from his cigarette. “Let me be clear with you, Lacklan. Once a body is inducted into Omega, that person’s safety is sacrosanct. As long as they remain loyal to us, we remain loyal to them. Only—and I mean this literally—only betrayal is punishable.”
I yawned as rudely as I could. “You want to get to the point, boys?”
Rho scowled. “Give us that research and we will induct you into Omega.”
“Fuck you.”
“We have other options, Lacklan.”
Tau cut in. “Think about it before answering. We could use a man like you. We could use your skills. You have impressed us. If you can give us Dr. Gilbert’s research, and Marni’s, your place is guaranteed..”
“Fuck you.”
They looked at each other and shrugged. Rho turned to the redneck and said, “Jim, bring her in.”
He left with a couple of his goons and Tau turned to me. “One of you knows, or perhaps both of you know, what Marni has done with this research. You can understand that if it got into our enemies’ hands, research such as that could be very damaging to us.”
“Who are your enemies?”
He spread his hands like I was being absurd. “Think! China, Russia, Saudi… even Europe. There are even groups at home who are a little squeamish about our plans.” He laughed. “So we are not short of enemies, Lacklan!”
Rho went to refill his cup from a coffee pot on the coffee table. “Not one of them comes close to being a threat right now. We have vast resources at our disposal. But even so, it does not do to be complacent. We want that research, Lacklan, and we will do whatever we need to do to get it.”
Tau shrugged. “One of you knows. Maybe both of you. The answer is simple. We will torture one of you, probably her…” He glanced at Rho, who shrugged, then nodded. “...until one of you talks. It’s not original, but it is effective.”
Rho spoke in a loud voice. “It will be grotesque and irreversible. You should know that.”
There was a noise outside and Marni was shoved in. She looked pale and scared. I said, “You’re wasting your time and you’ll spoil the rugs. I don’t know where it is. If you kill her, you’ll lose your only chance of finding it.”
“Are you suggesting we should torture you?”
I shrugged. “You think it will make any difference? She doesn’t give a damn about anyone but herself. Torture me as much as you like. I can’t tell you anything and she won’t tell you anything. Your best plan is to go back to where you were at last night.”
Rho chuckled. It was a comfortable, uncleish sound. “You are either naïve or stupid, Lacklan. You are certain that Marni has no feelings for you, but I am far from convinced. We shall find out when we remove your eyes with a soup spoon, shan’t we?”
I raised an eyebrow at Marni. “If you have any surprises up your sleeve, now would be the time.”
She averted her eyes. “I’m sorry, Lacklan. Whatever you think, this is not easy for me either.”
“Stop, you’re breaking my heart.”
Outside I heard the distant thud of a chopper approaching. Rho smiled. “Speaking of surprises…”
Tau stepped onto the terrace and looked up at the sky, shading his eyes. The sound got louder and soon his hair and his jacket were flapping in the downdraft from the rotors. He turned and nodded to Rho with an upturned thumb. Rho spoke over the noise of the landing helicopter. “It seems you have a visitor to witness the proceedings.”
I listened to the dying whine of the turbines as it settled outside. I knew what it meant and I looked Marni in the eye. “Tell me you haven’t bought into this shit, Marni. Tell me it’s not true.”
He face flushed and she screamed at me. “For fuck’s sake, quit whining! Get real, Lacklan! All your fucking life you’ve been chasing unicorns and rainbows. Life is not like that!” She pointed at Rho. “This! This is reality! This is what counts! Money, power. The rest of it is bullshit! Do you understand me?”
Tau was standing in the terrace doorway, watching her with interest.
I shook my head. “You are wrong.”
She sneered, “Where the fuck have you been living for the past ten years? Cloud Cuckoo Land? Don’t you ever read?” She pointed at me. “You need to get a grip on reality, Lacklan. You are a loser and you are about to pay the price for it. I told you in London. But you won’t get it into your thick, loser skull. It is over between us! Why the fuck did you come here? If you think I am going to come to your rescue now, think again, pal!”
I spat the words at her. “I told you why I came after you. Because my father asked me to. He’s an even bigger schmuck than I am.”
Rho raised his hands. “Lacklan, your father is anything but a schmuck. If you had a fraction of that man’s intelligence, you would have saved us all a great deal of suffering, and you would probably have a seat on the Council by now. Sadly, you are everything that Marni has said you are.” He moved away from the fireplace and opened the drawing room door. His face lit up. “Gamma, Bob, come in. You have arrived, as always, at just the right time.”
My father and my brother stepped in. They stood, like echoes of each other across time, both looking down on me, both shaking their heads.
“There is one thing, Lacklan, that I can always rely on you for,” said my father, while Bob smiled. “I can always rely on you to fuck up.”
“You set me up, you son of a bitch.”
He moved to the armchair and sat down. Bob pulled over a chair and sat next to him, watching me, gloating.
“I needed her found. I knew you’d find her, and I knew you would lead us right to her. You never could do anything right, could you?” He turned to Marni. “I told them to offer you a place.”
Her voice was angry, almost shrill. “Which I accepted! And everything was going fine until this clown showed up! Will you please tell them that I intend to cooperate!”
He sighed and shook his head. “It is a little late for that, Marni. You have to give us the research. It’s the only way we can trust you. Otherwise,” and he and Bob leered like ghastly reflections of each other, “we start cutting bits off Lacklan.”
Twenty One
Tau walked into the room from the terrace door and said to Jim, the redneck, “Go get a plastic sheet.”
I felt a jolt of something close to panic. Jim dispatched one of his boys and came toward me. He put my neck in an arm lock and dragged me onto the floor. Three of his boys assisted him by cutting the zip-tie behind my back and gripping my arms. I heard my father’s voice, mild and agreeable.
“Well, Marni, what do you say? Shall we go for the left hand, or the right? We are doing this for you, so you get to choose.”
“I don’t give a damn what hand you go to work on. I am not giving you the only insurance policy I have. I am willing to do a deal, but I am not willing to put myself completely in your power, Robert. Surely you understand that?”
I h
eard him sigh, and at the same time I heard the rustle of plastic as the goon came back into the room. They kept talking as though nothing special was happening on the floor in front of them. “Haven’t I always looked after you, Marni? Have I ever let any harm come to you?”
I shouted, “This son of a bitch killed your father!”
Jim wrenched on my neck and yanked me up. They spread the sheet under me and then slammed me down on it. I felt Jim’s knee press into my back. He said, “Which hand, boss?”
My father sighed again. “The left. Have you got the pliers? Are they blunt? This really has to hurt a lot. OK?”
“You got it, Boss.”
I tried to struggle, but strong hands had my legs. Somebody twisted my right arm into a half Nelson behind my back, and somebody I couldn’t see pulled my left arm out in front of me. My heart was pounding and I could hardly breathe with Jim’s choke hold on my throat. My father said, “Make him watch.”
Jim forced my head around. I looked at Marni. Her eyes were wide and I could see her hands trembling in her lap. My father was smiling at her. Bob was grinning at me. There was a fat, sweating goon hunkered down next to me holding a pair of pliers. He said, “What finger, Boss?”
My father said, “What finger, Marni?”
Her voice was taut. “Look, I’ve told you! It makes no difference to me. I don’t care! I am willing to deal with you, Robert! Why are you doing this?”
He gave a small laugh. “The pinkie, Tony. Nice and slow.”
Robert, my brother, got down on his knees to help force my fist open, and Tony slipped my small finger into the pliers. He gripped the handles and began to squeeze. I felt the iron blades bite, not on the knuckle, but on the bone. I knew that if they did this I would be out for the count.
I screamed, “All right! She can’t tell you because she doesn’t know!”
My father said, “Stop.” Tony and Bob looked disappointed. My father was frowning at me. “What?”
I spoke frantically, in desperate bursts. “She doesn’t know where the research is. She gave it to me the night of the fire! We had an arrangement! I would dispose of it in a way that would insure her safety. But I wouldn’t tell her where or how! For exactly this reason. So nobody could force it out of her!”
He sat back in his chair with a fat, complacent smile on his face and she screamed at me, with tears in her eyes, “I thought you’d taken it to New York! They told me you’d gone to New York! Why the fuck did you come back?”
“Shut the fuck up, Marni!”
My father spoke quietly, silencing both of us. “That is so typical of you, Lacklan. It is just you, through and through. Always wanting to be the hero, always wanting to be Sir Galahad. And always fucking it up at the last moment. It was a good plan. Why couldn’t you have seen it through?”
Rho interrupted. “So where is it, Lacklan?”
I struggled. They held me hard. “I need some kind of deal. I need some kind of assurance.”
My father snapped, “Take off his finger!”
Tony squeezed. I shouted, “Wait! For fuck’s sake! I’ll tell you!”
Tau spoke. “One more line of bullshit, Lacklan, and I will personally remove not one, but all five of the fingers on your left hand. Are we clear?”
“Yes!”
“So where is it?”
“It’s up in Turret. On the slopes of Green Mountain. Near the cabin where you found Marni.”
Marni gasped. “What? How fucking stupid are you, Lacklan? Jesus! I could have done that myself! I didn’t fucking need you to do that!”
“I came to save you, you ungrateful bitch! Only to find out you didn’t fucking need saving! Because you’d become one of them!”
Rho and Tau were looking at my father, who was studying my face. He said, “It actually has the ring of truth.” To me he said, “Can you draw us a map?”
“No. I need to show you.” I saw Tau narrow his eyes. “Come on! There must be several million fucking pine trees there! You could spend years digging under each one and never find it!”
My father nodded. “Put Marni in the cellar. Take Lacklan back to Turret.” He turned to me. “One stupid move, Lacklan. Just one. A simple phone call and Marni dies. And I assure you, it will not be a swift, painless death. The boys will have their fun. That is the way it is.”
I looked him in the face. “I am telling you the truth. But you have to give me some guarantee, some insurance. And get these fucking apes to let go of me.” He gave Jim a nod and they got off me. I got on my feet and looked at him. “Well?”
“If you haven’t lied, if you hand over the research to us without complications, I will use my influence to protect you. But the games have to stop now, Lacklan, and I do mean now.” He turned to Jim. “Take the chopper and three of the boys. Check in every hour. I expect you back before nightfall.” He looked back at me. “If I don’t hear from Jim…” He checked his watch. “At twelve-thirty, then at one-thirty, then…”
“Yeah, I know what every hour means.”
“Marni will die. Be smart for once in your life, Lacklan.”
“I understood it the first time you explained it.” I looked at Jim, right in his pale blue eyes. “Let’s go.”
We went down the stairs and across a huge hall decorated in mock Rococo and Grecian columns and Roman statues. They even had a small fountain in the middle of the floor. As we stepped through the main door and out into the morning sun, my mind was racing. I could hear my first sergeant in the Regiment, a giant Kiwi with hands like bricks and a voice like a rasp. “Always have a plan. Always! The right plan is more deadly than any gun or any knife. Got it?”
Got it, Martin. So what was my damned plan now? My plan was, make it up as you go along.
We climbed on board the chopper. Jim sat up front and told the pilot where we were going. I was sat in the middle at the back, between Tony and a black guy the size of a small building. He had a pencil moustache and a really tiny amount of beard on the end of his chin. He slammed the door closed and the rotors started their slow, thudding spin overhead. Next thing, the turbines were screaming and we were lifting up amid a whirlwind of downdraft. Then we were away, skimming over treetops and fields, toward the foothills of the mountains.
We flew for fifteen minutes without speaking. The noise of the rotors made talk impossible, but as we drew in over Turret, the pilot shouted to Jim, “Where do you want me to put it down?”
Jim looked back at me. I leaned forward and shouted in the pilot’s ear, “There’s an esplanade, with a fork in the road, about one mile past Turret, just before Green Mountain! You can put her down there!”
He nodded and as I sat back I let the cheese knife slip into my cupped hand. I turned to the huge lunk on my left and said, a bit too quietly to be heard, “So what’s your name?”
He frowned at me, “Huh?”
“Shit for Brains? They called you that?”
He scowled. “What you sayin’?”
I leaned forward and shouted, “I said what’s your name?” and as I shouted I rammed the cheese knife home into his heart. He went into spasm. I heard Tony shouting, “Hey! What you doin’?”
I wrenched the knife from Shit for Brains’ chest and turned back to Tony, shouting, “I don’t know! Something happened!” and slammed the knife back-handed into his solar plexus, tearing the diaphragm and making it impossible for him to inhale or exhale. As he tore at his throat and his eyes began to bulge, I pulled the knife out and plunged it between his vertebrae, at the base of his skull. It had all happened in a matter of seconds. Jim was frowning in the mirror. I released Shit for Brains’ safety belt, opened the door and shoved him out. Then Jim started bouncing and screaming.
“What the fuck! What the fuck!”
I reached over to Tony, took his automatic from under his arm and stuck it in the back of Jim’s neck. I shouted again.
“Call Gamma. Tell him cell phones have no reception up here. Tell him everything is going according to plan a
nd you will call him from the landline in the diner at Turret in two hours. I told you I would kill you first, Jim. You got lucky. I need you alive right now. But irritate me just a little, and I will throw you out of the chopper, alive. Do we have an understanding?”
I could see in the mirror that he was very pale. He nodded. “Yes.”
“Do it now. Put it on speaker.”
He dialed and I heard it ring twice. My father’s voice said, “What?”
“Yeah, Mr. Gamma, um, our cell phones ain’t gonna have no reception up here. But everything is going just fine, so I was thinking, I’ll call you from the landline at the diner in about two hours. That OK?”
There was a protracted silence. Then he said, “Let me talk to the pilot.”
I rested the muzzle of Tony’s pistol against the back of the pilot’s neck. He spoke calmly.
“Yes, Gamma. I’m here.”
“Is everything under control?”
“Everything is A-OK, Sir.”
Jim took the phone back. “Is that all right then, Gamma, sir?”
“Two hours precisely.”
“Yes sir.”
He hung up and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I smiled at him and leaned close to his ear to shout, “You know what, Jim?” He watched me, scared. I went on, “I don’t need you anymore.”
I shot down, through his right clavicle, so the bullet ruptured his heart, but there was no risk of damaging the chopper. I looked in the mirror. The pilot was watching me. It was hard to tell what his expression was. I said, “Put it down on the road.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Not if you don’t make me.”
Maybe he believed me. I wasn’t sure whether I believed myself. Either way, he took it down in a deep gorge and set it on the dirt road amid a great cloud of dust. I said, “Leave it idling and get out.”
He did as I told him and stood by the side of the road. I got out on my side and walked around to face him. “Are you armed?”
He shook his head.
“You called my father Gamma. Why?”