by Rachel Caine
She smiled grimly. “I was in supply, on the ground, in a war zone. How do you think I know? We couldn’t always get what we needed when we needed it. My job was to get it, period.”
“You’re just full of surprises, kid. Okay, so you pay the hundred thousand, and …?”
“And maybe he’ll come back for more. Or maybe he’ll just shoot me and walk away.”
“Well,” Joe said, “the good news is that if he does, you’ll just ruin a good outfit.”
He was, Bryn thought, always looking for the bright side.
The next morning, she got a modulated voice on the phone, reciting a string of numbers, which she took down and read back. There was no conversation, and no additional threats, by which she understood he wasn’t screwing around. She gave the info to Joe, and he made the transfer using some method she didn’t know about, and didn’t want to know.
She got another call that simply said, “You’re not dead yet.”
Which almost made her laugh, because, hey, she really was.
It took exactly the amount of time Joe had said for the construction work to finish, and during that time, she got no more calls, except from two more of Fairview’s extortion victims; those were quietly spirited away by Pharmadene, but away from Fairview’s premises.
The grand reopening arrived, mostly thanks to Lucy’s hard work; Bryn honestly didn’t know what she would have done without her. Lucy knew absolutely everything about everything, including things Bryn had never imagined would have to be done. Plus, she was a complete sweetheart with inspectors, all of whom went away charmed and delighted with Fairview’s new improved looks.
Bryn had settled into a little bit of a routine—wake up, shower, breakfast, pat Mr. French on the head, drive her new car to Fairview, and get her coffee there. Joe Fideli had morphed into a totally acceptable funeral director, which did not surprise her much; in putting on the dark suit and tie, he’d also put on an air of gravity and seriousness. The only time he dropped it was when they were alone in her office, and even then, he used his little black pyramid device to give them a few moments’ privacy.
“Done,” he said on the morning of the grand reopening, as he emptied the contents of a syringe into her arm. She’d gotten used to choosing blouses that rolled up easily, determined not to have to go half-naked before him, and particularly McCallister, ever again. Fideli disposed of the syringe in a red biohazard sharps container, which he put in a second red biohazard bag. She watched this process, frowning, as she slipped her jacket back on.
“Is the syringe dangerous?”
“Nah, but it’s proprietary. So I try to keep it double-bagged until I can get it back to the mother ship. I’m responsible for every one of these bastards.”
“Have you found Fast Freddy yet?”
“No.” Fideli seemed peeved about it. “He must have had a stash of the drug somewhere, and was able to make it there safely before too much damage was done. Otherwise he’d have shown up by now. People tend to notice shambling, decomposing—” He checked himself and looked at her. “No offense.”
Bryn cleared her suddenly tight throat. “Uh, none taken, I guess. So what do we do now?”
“Same thing you were doing before, while we wait for our mysterious friend to get over his stage fright.”
“I need another trained mortician before I can open for business.”
“Luckily, I already got that covered. You’ve got an appointment in”—he checked his watch—“half an hour. Applicant’s name is Riley Block.”
“But I didn’t even put out an ad yet!”
“Actually, you did. You’re paying pretty well, too. Oh, and you offer medical and dental. Lucy’s already prepared all the paperwork for you.” He stood up and smoothed the creases out of his pants as the front bell sounded. “That’d be your applicant, I guess.”
It was. Lucy bustled in, marched up to Bryn, and gave her a sassy grin and a thick sheaf of paperwork. Bryn took it and tried to smile brightly in return, but she must not have fooled anyone. Lucy gave her a concerned look. “Boss, you look pale. You need to stop working all day and night. You spend too much time inside this place.”
The more she came in contact with real human sympathy, the more isolated Bryn felt. “I’m okay, Lucy. Thank you. I have to say, between you and Joe, you’ve done an amazing job pulling this place together. I really don’t feel like I’ve done anything.”
Lucy smiled. “Well, that’s just nonsense. You pay me to know what I’m doing, and I know more about the death business than anybody you’ll ever meet. I’ve been through all the wars.”
“I’d love to hear some of those war stories,” Joe said.
“Why, let me tell you …” And she was off, chattering with Joe about her favorite mortician story, which was not just shocking but downright perverted, and hilarious. Bryn got herself a cup of coffee and left them to it as they walked from her office. She’d decided not to take Mr. Fairview’s palace of a workspace, but had kept her own; she felt more comfortable there. Less haunted by what had happened. Now she sipped her coffee, then got up and put on her white lab coat and modeled it for the mirror. How did I get here? She could still remember the echoes of how proud this coat had made her, how excited she’d been to dive into the new job on that first day.
It seemed like a million miles away now.
Bryn started a little as a brisk knock sounded on her door; she couldn’t help but flash back to Mr. Fairview, and her first morning with him. She took off the lab coat and hung it up, straightened the line of her jacket over the holstered gun, and went to greet her prospective new employee.
Riley Block was not what she’d expected—mostly because she’d expected, well, a man. Riley was a woman, older than Bryn by about ten years; she was taller, blonder, and had a square face with a prominent jaw that seemed all business, all the time. Even the smile she gave Bryn seemed artificial and businesslike as she held out her hand. “Miss Davis,” she said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you. Please come in.”
They settled in the same comfortable area where Bryn would have placed a prospective customer, and Bryn tried to gather her wits. She’d never interviewed anybody else for a job; she’d expected Joe Fideli to be here and guide her through it. How do you tell if someone’s a lunatic, anyway? There had to be some kind of clue, but as she studied Riley Block, she didn’t catch one. She finally, somewhat desperately, said, “So, tell me about yourself.”
Luckily, that seemed to be the right thing to say. Riley whipped out an impressive résumé, which Bryn studied as Riley described her training (excellent), academic record (also excellent), references (ditto), and goals.
One thing was certain: she was no Fast Freddy, and Bryn loved her on the spot just for that.
Fideli finally showed up during the tour of the premises, but he let Bryn take the lead—just what she didn’t want, but she toughed it out. Riley seemed to have a good grasp of the prep room; she did a fast and thorough inventory of the restocked supplies and suggested a couple of additions, which Bryn added to her notes. All in all, it wasn’t a warm experience, but then, morticians weren’t generally known for their social skills.
Riley seemed perfectly competent, and after a quick consultation with Fideli, Bryn hired her.
Fairview Mortuary was back in business.
If Bryn didn’t feel especially great about that … well, she hoped it didn’t show.
They booked their first client the next morning: mercifully, it was a natural death, a ninety-year-old grandmother of four kids, twelve grandchildren, and twentysomething great-grandchildren. It was a sad experience for the family, naturally, but nothing traumatic. Bryn didn’t think she could deal with trauma anyway, not yet.
Fideli carried the bulk of the work, and was surprisingly good at it; for someone who’d initially seemed so alpha-male-soldier and intimidating, he could really empathize when it counted, or at least give a damn good imitation of it. Riley received the b
ody later that afternoon and started her work, and Bryn was surprised to find that she, too, was efficient and capable.
I’m the only one with a learning curve, Bryn thought. It didn’t make her feel any better. Neither did her daily shot, administered by Fideli in the privacy of her office; it still stung, every time, and she was starting to really hate the sight of a needle.
What alarmed her, though, was that after his usual ritual of bagging up the syringe, he reached in his pocket and took out his little black pyramid device, switched it on, and checked its effectiveness against his phone app, which led her to wonder, again, whether there was a countersurveillance app store somewhere.
Probably.
“Okay, two minutes,” Fideli said, and leaned forward, looking at her with unexpected directness. “Need to give you a heads-up. You’re going to get a visit today from Irene Harte.”
“I don’t know the name.”
“No reason you should. Ms. Harte is a vice president at Pharmadene, in charge of the division that makes our little wonder drug.”
Bryn frowned. “What does she want from me?”
“My guess? She’s going to try to shut all this down. And you.” He didn’t say it, but Bryn understood the subtext instantly—shut down was code for death. “McCallister had to make a situation report, and apparently Ms. Harte didn’t take it too well. So you get a personal inspection. We need you to be on your toes, Bryn. She’s got the power to destroy a lot more than just you.”
“You mean McCallister.”
Fideli nodded. “Patrick put his neck on the line when he brought you back, on my say-so,” he said. “And it’s still on the line, because he didn’t terminate your revival as soon as he knew you weren’t going to be an instant gusher of information. Harte likes results, fast, while McCallister prefers to invest time and get things right. It doesn’t make them buddies.” He glanced at the red indicator on his device, which was flashing a fast warning. “Time to wrap up. Be ready for her, and don’t let her intimidate you.”
Bryn nodded, and he tapped the top of the pyramid and shut off the surveillance jammer. It went back in his pocket, and he resumed talking about funeral arrangements for their new client as if they’d never stopped.
It set Bryn on edge. She was feeling a little odd anyway; maybe it was her imagination (and it probably was), but she felt jittery and warm, and she wanted nothing but to go home and sink into a hot bath with a glass of wine. Spend the evening curled up with Mr. French watching a shamelessly romantic movie. That kind of thing. She forced herself to cut down on the coffee, but that didn’t seem to help.
She thought they’d actually make it to the end of the day without the mysterious Ms. Harte making an appearance, but at ten to five, a whole entourage pulled into the parking lot—a sleek black limousine, flanked by two Pharmadene-issue black sedans. McCallister was driving one of those, and he was the one to open the limo’s back door and offer a hand to the woman getting out.
Even from the perspective of Bryn’s office window, Irene Harte seemed formidable—tall, attractive, with clothes that Bryn could never hope to afford (or pull off) and the body language of someone who went through life absolutely confident of her place in the universe. Which was almost certainly at the center.
Her bodyguards hustled to get ahead of her, open doors, check hallways. She didn’t slow down for them. McCallister trailed her, and Bryn had the impression he was doing the rearguard work. Either that, or he just didn’t care to be too close to Irene Harte.
Her phone rang, making her jump; it was Lucy, announcing—in a doubtful tone of voice—that Bryn had visitors. Bryn was actually pretty proud that her reply sounded calm and steady as she told Lucy to send them in.
She wished Joe Fideli were here, maybe just sitting quietly in the corner, but he was a no-show, probably for good and sensible reasons of self-interest. And I hope our mysterious supplier doesn’t freak out about this. He might, if he were watching; she couldn’t do anything about that.
The first man to open her door—without knocking— was the Fideli type: big, well muscled, with a shaved head. The difference came in the eyes; Fideli’s always seemed to hide a sense that he knew how ridiculous the world was and was secretly amused by it, but this man was deadly serious as he looked around the office, nodded to Bryn, and then stepped out of the way to assume some kind of guard position in the corner. A second guard, identical assessments, parade rest in the opposite corner.
And then Irene Harte strode in.
Bryn’s immediate first impression was that she was in the presence of someone whose face she ought to recognize—a high-powered politician, actress, royalty. Someone who was important. The smile Irene bestowed on her confirmed it—it was warm and professional, but somehow also definitely superior.
Bryn came around the desk as Ms. Harte held out her very well-manicured hand and said, “Miss Davis? Irene Harte, Pharmadene Pharmaceuticals. Very pleased to meet you.”
The handshake that followed was brief and impersonal, and Bryn managed a polite smile and indicated the chair opposite her desk. Ms. Harte ignored the offer to sit, and instead stood there in her six-hundred-dollar pumps and studied Bryn with the impersonal intensity of an accountant reading a spreadsheet. “I understand that you’ve been briefed on the trouble we had with Mr. Fairview and his operations,” Harte said, “and that you are unable to provide us with the identity of the person from whom he was obtaining his … supplies. Is that correct?”
Behind her, Patrick McCallister quietly entered the room, closed the door, and took up a post with his back to it—at parade rest, like the other security men. But as Bryn met his eyes, he gave her a slight nod and what was almost a smile.
Bryn cleared her throat. “No, ma’am, that’s not correct.”
“No?” Harte’s eyebrows climbed in astonished, perfectly shaped arcs. “Please enlighten me.”
“I’m not unable to provide you with that information. I just don’t yet have all the facts.”
“Excuse me?” Harte’s smile was gone now, and her strong, beautiful face had gone still and expressionless. “Either you know or you don’t, Miss Davis.”
“I’m in a position to get that information for you. It will just take some time. I’m in contact with the supplier.”
“Time is something that I don’t like to spend, not on something as volatile and sensitive as this. Pharmadene has a significant intellectual capital risk at stake, and I can’t afford to fund your fact-finding expedition. Nor can I afford to spend valuable supplies of Returné in hopes that you can one day provide some small return on my investment.” Harte’s eyes were ice-cold, so cold that Bryn didn’t actually register them as being any particular kind of color. “I’m afraid that Mr. McCallister overstepped his authority in green-lighting this project. I’ll have to terminate the funding.”
“Why don’t you say what you mean?” Bryn asked, feeling her fists clench at her sides. “You’re not terminating money. You’re terminating me. Personally.”
“All right. You’re in a very unfortunate position, Miss Davis, there’s no doubt about that, but this is a business decision. Your life ended in a brutal and unnatural way, but Pharmadene is not a charity, and even if it were, extending your life support indefinitely is something even charities are reluctant to do when no hope exists for recovery. You won’t recover, you know. Ever.”
There was, Bryn realized, no reaching her on any human level. Irene Harte had no emotional buttons to press; her control and the smooth, untroubled way she said these things made it clear that Bryn’s play was over.
So change the game, Bryn thought. “How much is your leak inside the company costing you?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re losing product. I’ll bet it’s costing you plenty, but that’s not the real problem, is it? If your competitors get their hands on it, they can do some reverse engineering and come out with a cheaper version, undermining your patent opportunities before you really get the dr
ug out there. Right? That’s worth millions. Billions. Bill Gates money.”
Harte still didn’t answer, but Bryn definitely had her attention.
“What’s it worth to you in the boardroom to save the day instead of being the one to fall on your sword? A few millions in bonuses to you, personally? A promotion? I’ll bet you’re at the level that it’s hard to get another step up on the ladder.” No reaction still, but Bryn kept going. She had, she realized, nothing at all to lose. “And how many of the men above you are looking for an excuse to kick you down a rung or two?”
That created a flicker in Harte’s calm, just a second of real emotion, and Bryn felt an immense surge of relief. Not that she’d won, far from it. But she’d actually reached her.
Whether it would matter was a different thing altogether.
It took an obscenely long time for Harte to say anything, but when she finally did, it wasn’t to Bryn at all. The woman turned to stare at McCallister, and said, “Patrick, this was your idea. Will you stand by it?”
“Yes,” he said. Just the one word, as solid as concrete. He didn’t try to explain, or coax, or threaten. He just gave her the certainty of his conviction, and waited.
It took a while, but Harte nodded. “All right. Miss Davis has a point; solving this problem may be worth a minimal investment of time. May be. I’ll give you two weeks, fourteen doses, from today. If nothing solid happens in that time, I’ll roll this up, and everyone involved will be rolled up with it. Are you clear on that, Patrick?”
“Yes, ma‘am,” he said. He wasn’t looking at Harte; he was, Bryn realized with a shock, watching her. “Will there be anything else?”
“No.” Harte checked her very expensive diamond-encrusted watch. “I have a dinner engagement. Keep my assistant informed daily on progress.”
She didn’t wait for any good-byes; she strode toward McCallister and the door, and simply assumed that it would swing open for her, and he’d get out of the way.
Which was exactly what happened. McCallister made it look as if it were his idea, which was an excellent trick, Bryn thought. As the two guards quickly left, ghosting Harte’s sharp, staccato footsteps, McCallister stayed behind. Bryn took in a deep breath and sat down in the nearest chair. Suddenly, her legs felt weak, and she thought she might actually pass out. She lowered her head and sucked down deep breaths, but still felt as if she were suffocating.