Reciprocity

by Sean M Locke

  “Piet, you might as well put your cannon down,” I said, keeping my eyes locked on Josef’s. Ice blue, so much like Maria’s, but a lot less kind. “We can talk like reasonable people now, I think.”

  Slow movement out of the corner of my eye. He dipped the barrels toward the desk, which was as good as I was going to get.

  “So,” I said, stifling sigh of relief, “you wanted this sword back.”

  Josef scowled and took a step forward, his hand outstretched. “Yes.”

  “No,” I replied. “Your sister gave it to me. Wanted me to keep it safe.”

  Josef’s lips thinned into a line of concentration, and his open hand clenched into a fist. “You’ve met Maria? She gave that to you?”

  “I think you know that I know Maria. But I didn’t say Maria gave it to me.” I let Josef chew on that for a second, then went on. “I do have news about both your sisters, if you want to hear it.”

  Josef’s face softened, like one thing out of a hundred was taken off his shoulders. I knew in that moment that he’d been hiding behind the screen in Hendrik’s office, and now he didn’t have to pretend otherwise. “What’s happened?”

  “Maria got snatched up this morning by the Rademaker guys. Maybe you already heard about that. You probably don’t know they have Henriette, too.”

  “Is that so.” Josef’s voice could have frosted my eyelashes off.

  “She talked to me for a bit.” I gave him a hard look, or tried to, anyway. Lies came to my mouth, easier than breathing. “Seemed real scared of something. Wouldn’t say what, but Kasper has been a little worked up since early this morning. Maybe you saw it, too?”

  Josef furrowed his eyebrows for an instant, glanced at Piet, and then back to me. “Indeed he has, but let us say no more about that. And so?”

  I held back a grin. We both knew that Josef’s planned double-cross of Rademaker went south when the cops showed up at the Penders safe house, but Josef didn’t need Piet to know about that.

  “Yeah, so Henriette seemed a little skittish about him. You weren’t around, so she asked me to take her out somewhere, away from the hotel. The Exedra Arms wasn’t such a good place for me to be just then, either, so I thought we’d go catch the fights at the Gristle. I lied a little just now when I said she gave me this sword and asked me to keep it safe. She gave it to me like I might could keep her safe.”

  “How absurd. She’s one of the best fighters I know, with both pistol and sword. She doesn’t need you.”

  “In a fair fight? No, she doesn’t need me. But she’s been hanging around us long enough to know that real fights aren’t fair. And besides, if it came to it, I bet she couldn’t hurt Kasper, even if he was going to kill her. She loves him, if you can imagine that.”

  “Love makes people foolish.” Josef made a face like he’d eaten a bug.

  “Anyway, Rademakers were waiting for us there. Maybe they know my habits, or maybe they had someone bird-dogging us and sent word ahead. I don’t know. But they were on us quick. Overwhelmed us.”

  I watched Josef’s eyes while I talked. There was every chance that he didn’t buy any of this, that he knew I’d given Henriette right over to Rademaker like I hinted at back in Hendrik’s office. I kept up the lies, though. Admitting what I’d actually done would buy me a bullet through the neck.

  “Henriette fought like a demon and hurt a couple of them. But they cheated and wore madill-hide shirts and caps, and you know how they can stop a bullet and turn a blade.”

  Josef’s face paled. “No fair fights. As you said.”

  “Nope.”

  “And how did you acquit yourself?” he asked with a nasty glower. “Did you fight?”

  “Like you said, the word fight implies a chance of winning. The way you win a fight like that is to avoid it, to run away, to hit them later when they’re not looking. But Henriette wasn’t having that. I did try to get her out, but I’m useless with a sword, and I went down pretty quick. They zapped us with come-alongs until we got quiet.” I pulled up my vest and shirt to show him the cigar-sized welts on my ribs and abdomen from earlier in the morning. “She got it worse than me, on account of I knew when to stop fighting.”

  Josef glanced at the marks on my flesh, but looked away quickly, grimacing. “Yes, that’ll do, thank you.”

  “You said they had the other sister, too?” Piet had put together that the May Cantus alias was bunk and that she was Josef’s sister. Bless his heart, he didn’t blurt how he’d figured it out.

  “Yeah. I don’t know all the details about that,” I lied as I tucked in my shirt, “but this loudmouth Rademaker mook was joking around about what he’d like to do to both Cantabile sisters. The leader of that bunch shut him up quick, so I got the idea that I wasn’t supposed to hear that part.”

  “They wouldn’t dare,” Josef spat. “Who was their leader? Which Rademaker?”

  “Tommy Sforza,” I replied, licking my teeth behind my lips to keep a nasty grin in check.

  “I know him. I will have words with him.”

  “Hold on there, chief. If you want to have words of the lead-and-steel variety, you ought to reconsider. I’ve got an alternative.”

  “Is that so?” Josef replied, his eyes narrowing to angry slits.

  My throat was as dry as a handful of croutons. I was usually pretty good at improvising, but this was getting a little dicey. “Look, I know this isn’t your style, but that’s exactly why it’s gonna work. Don’t go in there all guns blazing. They’ll be ready for that. What they won’t expect is humility out of you.”

  “Humility?” he said.

  “Yeah, exactly. Go in there and beg for your sister’s life. Both of them, if you want.” My guts clenched as I thought of Maria again; I wanted to shake Josef by the shoulders and tell him to rescue her, too. “Tell them that Kasper wants Henriette back, and they want to trade the drugs and money they took last night for her.”

  “But they don’t—” Josef stopped himself abruptly when I raised my eyebrows at him. I prayed as fervently as I’d ever prayed that he wouldn’t glance at Piet. That would have given the game up completely, and we’d probably get a bellyful of lead shot for the trouble. “How can you be sure that will work?”

  “It’ll work. You know that Kasper is over the moons about your sister. He’d flap his arms and fly to the Spray if she wanted a stone.”

  “If Lange is going to come after Henriette anyway, why do we need to do anything?” Josef’s face soured when he said we. “An engagement seems inevitable.”

  “We want to control that engagement. Lange and Rademaker should meet on our terms in the place we choose.” I was feeling it now, that electric charge that ran from your guts to your fingers and toes and back again when you’d got a good con going. “One thing that needs to happen, and I think you’re the man to do it—Vedette Sforza has to be there. Can you get her to come?”

  “Vedette? Why?” He called her by her first name, and I knew I had him. No one called Vedette Sforza by her first name only.

  “I want to get the leadership of both families together. If there’s any sort of chance they all accidentally kill each other, then that’s all right by me. Rademaker himself won’t come, but Vedette Sforza is the next best thing. She’ll come if you ask her to, and she’ll want to keep an eye on Tommy anyway.”

  “I’m not sure she will come.”

  “You have to try, my lord. If there’s a big enough tussle between the two families, you’ve got a chance to scarper from the chaos. It’s the best way to get you and Henriette and that damned weapon of yours into one place, and for you to get the hell gone from the Lower Terrace. That’s what you want, right?”

  Josef nodded slowly. He didn’t want to buy what I was offering him, but he had the look of a man who knew he didn’t have a lot of choice.

  “Yeah?” Piet asked. “And what about what I want? I didn’t crap out that aker from the goodness of my heart, you know.”

  “Well, I reckon Lange and Rademak
er aren’t exactly going to have a congenial sit-down and trade their goods fairly. Right?” Not that Lange had the goods at all. These gentlemen didn’t need to know that. My eyes stung, and I smiled wide enough that my lips almost cracked and bled.

  “Right . . .” Piet said, chewing on it.

  “Someone’s gonna pull a gun, and there’s gonna be a fight. You got two options then: You can swoop in and take what’s yours while they’re duking it out, or you can corner whoever’s left standing and do business with them. Whoever survives won’t be negotiating from a position of strength. If you know what I mean.”

  Piet smirked. “Well, don’t you have it all figured out.”

  I dug my nails into my hands. “I try my best.”

  “You know what Josef wants and how to get it, and you know what I want. What’re you getting out of this?”

  “Me?” I laughed and hoped it didn’t sound too nervous. “I just want out of this thing with my whole skin. I want the Cantabiles and their damned guns out of the Lower, because these streets will run with blood by the end of the year otherwise. And since I’m on the outs with Lange now, I wouldn’t mind being able to find a job somewhere when all the dust settles.”

  Most of that was true, which was what made the lie sound believable.

  Piet read my smarmy smirk the way I wanted, or he looked like he did. “Well. Maybe you’ll find one. But,” he asked, holding up a stubby finger, “what about your little friend?”

  The smirk died on my face. “Maria’s a nice girl. But the Lower is no place for her. If she gets out and goes back home with Josef and Henriette, then . . . then maybe that’s better for her.”

  I wanted to open my mouth and pour in bottles of grappa until I could fill up that hollow spot that just opened up in my heart. I’d only said that to have something to say, to throw Piet off the trail. But in the silence that followed, I found that I hated how true it sounded. But what else could possibly happen? Even if I got her out, where could she go but back home?

  “Huh. You have gone soft, at least for her.” Piet gave me a look that wasn’t quite pity and wasn’t quite scorn. “I guess you know where you want this showdown to happen?”

  “Yeah,” I said, looking each man in the eyes. “I know just the place.”

  Chapter 16

  A rare late-afternoon shower had kicked up by the time I got to the Exedra Arms’ front door.

  Murderous clouds came out of nowhere, like they did sometimes, and I turned my coat collar up against the wind. As I hustled up the stairs, I caught sight of someone leaving from the alley. The man had his hat pulled low, but there was no mistaking the bullish shoulders and heavy shoes. He didn’t see me, or he wanted me to think he didn’t see me. He was looking at something far away, his eyes bloodshot, and walking like someone had rung his bell real good.

  The sight of Wolfgang leaving the Exedra Arms made me want to turn right around and catch the first airship out of town. If he was stomping around in Lange’s home turf, then who knew what kind of trouble he’d stirred up? Had he found out that his mole had been shot dead a few hours ago? Why else would he be here?

  Or maybe he was looking for me. I never did show up at Drie Appels. Hell, maybe he cared after all.

  I didn’t know what to expect when I came into the foyer. Maybe I thought Wolfgang had shot the place up, and bodies would be hanging from the rafters and tumbled down the stairs. Or maybe the place would be full of limpets, all blind and staggering around looking for a fix of aker. What I didn’t expect was that the lobby and the bar would look completely normal. Little groups of three and four tough guys were huddled together, chatting by the mantle and by the bar, and one of them was even playing a chipper little tune on the piano.

  Heads turned when I came in. The low muttering trailed off to nothing at all, and the plinking piano stuttered and stopped, embarrassed. The only sound I could hear was the creaking of the belts that turned all the ceiling fans. Every face in the room had questions. Some of the more curious mooks were eyeballing the sword I had slung on my hip. No one made a move for a weapon or for me or for a door; they just stood there, like they were waiting for me to do something.

  Lightning snapped outside, throwing my shadow across the lobby floor for just an instant. I ground my teeth and looked around to see if anyone would ask me a stupid question. No one did.

  Someone nudged the piano player, and the song started up again. The clots of soldaten and affiliat eventually, hesitantly went back to their chatter, more subdued now. Hushed. Like the way people talked at a wake.

  Maybe people were looking out the corners of their eyes at me, but maybe they weren’t. Didn’t matter. I had to get to Hendrik or Kasper quick, before I lost my nerve or forgot the lies I needed to tell. I asked Eduardo for a fast gimlet and the Boss’s whereabouts.

  He was about to tell me something but clammed up at the sight of someone over my shoulder. I didn’t bother to look. Whoever it was would talk to me or they wouldn’t.

  “Eduardo,” rumbled Ludo’s basso voice, “give me one of what she’s having, and then beat it.”

  Ludo leaned forward on the bar while Eduardo fixed our drinks. He planted his chin on his hands, his great bald head perched like a stone sphere on a plinth. His craggy face was unreadable, which either meant he was giving something a good think, or he was going to twist my head off once Eduardo turned away. Whichever it was, I wished he would get around to it sooner rather than later.

  Eduardo set our drinks down, gave me a weak smile, and disappeared. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes on the first sip. Why did I order a gimlet? It was like I wanted a reminder of that brief, close hour in Maria’s hotel room. The same top-shelf gin, the same sweet lime. I sucked in a breath and set the glass back down, real careful.

  “All right?”

  I nodded. “I think he was giving me a good-bye present.”

  “Nice of him to make ‘em strong for once.”

  We were both quiet for a long moment.

  “Ludo, if you’re going to kill me here, it’ll cost you something.” My heart hammered in my chest. “I won’t make it easy.”

  “Kill you?” A smirk creased his rocky face. “Not me. And definitely not while you’re sitting next to me ready to smash that glass into my face. Believe it or not, I’m trying to help you.”

  My grip on the lowball glass eased a little, and I let myself smile. Ludo was a crafty son of a bitch, and you didn’t get as old as him without being able to guess someone’s next five moves. “All right. Say you were going to help me. How would you do that?”

  Ludo took a sip of his drink, maddeningly slow, and smacked his lips. “So I hear you have problems keeping your brunch dates.”

  I was glad in that moment that my glass was on the bar, or I’d’ve dropped it. “What did you say?”

  He shifted the massive weight of his shoulders. “It’s just what I hear.”

  “You’re the one,” I said.

  “Well, don’t go around wearing that on a sandwich board, okay?”

  I shook my head, still not entirely getting what I was hearing. “It wasn’t Milan?”

  “No, poor bastard. I can see why the Boss thought so, since he’s the only one who got out of that mess last night.”

  “But he got out fair and square,” I said, shaking my head. “He was just faster than Jeanne and luckier than Bart.”

  Ludo made a rumbling noise. “Not that lucky. In the Boss’s head, Milan was either an idiot or a traitor. So he caught a pill in the heart, and that’s that.”

  “But how can it be you? You’re—” I dropped my voice to a whisper, as if it would matter now. “You’re the raadsman. Wolfgang has that much pull with us?”

  He shrugged again and frowned into his glass. “The specifics aren’t too important right now.”

  I looked at the man, my mentor and old friend. How long had he been Wolfgang’s mole? Had he been kind to me and taught me so much because he actually saw promise he didn’t see in
others? Or was he keeping me close for Wolfgang’s sake? Before Donatella’s stroke, I’d had the feeling he was grooming me for something, but I could never ask him what it was. Was I supposed to be his replacement someday? The trade regulators’ pet raadsman?

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you had some questions for me. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have told you like this. Not now. I’m only doing it because your brother has made a play you need to know about.”

  I turned to face the mirror behind the bar. “That so?”

  “Late last night, after the business at the safe house, Wolfgang sent his partner out with that pie tin from the Cantabile repeater. Meant to get it to their eggheads to study, I guess. The man didn’t check in. When Wolfgang poked around and did his copper thing, he found out that some guys had taken him.”

  I felt the gin come back up a little. “Absent gods, poor Felix. Let me guess: car full of guys, come-alongs, a black bag, and some handcuffs. Rademaker.”

  “Got it in one. They took the gadget, too. And when you didn’t show this morning, he guessed the same thing happened to you.”

  “I’m surprised he didn’t decide I was working for Rademaker and somehow tipped them off.”

  “He knows you’re not for Rademaker, same as I do,” Ludo said. “He did confirm Pino is a rat fink, though.”

  “Well, sure he is.”

  “Not like that—not in the usual way that he’s a rat. More like he’s in Vedette’s pocket. He’s been her little spy for a few months now. It’s how she knows about what Kasper did to her people in the warehouse, how she knows about the gun at all.”

  “The little bastard,” I said, but there was no heat in my voice. So many people were betraying Lange at the same time—me, Ludo, and now Pino, all for our own reasons. It was a miracle Lange hadn’t fallen apart months ago. “How did Wolfgang find out?”

  “That Rademaker man at the safe house, the one Rafe had captured. Wolfgang asked him some questions, and the man described Pino meeting with Vedette a couple times. Pino’s not very smart, though. Kasper is bound to find out that he’s a traitor.”