by R. J. Blain
“Then you’ll sleep while we stand guard with your, ah, rather interesting companion.”
“Mommy!” Colby contributed, emerging from its room.
“Its name is Colby, and it really likes apples. It’ll probably be your best friend for life if you offer it a bag of apples.”
Marlene and Analise exchanged looks, and the new head of my security detail cracked first, grinning.
“Let me take a shower and get the smell of hospital off me first, then I’ll show you the arsenal of anti-allergy medications Rob keeps around. Maybe one of them won’t knock me flat.”
I had my doubts about that, but the last thing I wanted to do when I could be hunting for Rob was sleep.
We compromised on medications. I used a cream that numbed the rash and encouraged it to heal. In exchange, I promised to take the preventative medication every day, and to sweeten the deal in my favor, Analise promised to acquire it for me in pill form.
While I had dabbled in pill-based drugs, most of my poisons of choice had been delivered by syringe. It was a small victory, but I held onto it for all I was worth.
Being sidelined due to allergies wouldn’t help me find Rob, and I knew it. My fear of getting hooked on narcotics remained; if I succumbed to the desire to hunt the next high, I’d lose everything.
I’d lose any hope of dealing with the issue of Kenneth’s drugs, Terry Moore’s victims, and learn if Dean Lewis was involved with their machinations.
Worse, I’d never see Rob again.
Rob had a week until the consequences of separation set in, and I had lost precious time in the hospital. The way Rob had reacted to my questions led me to believe his employees weren’t aware of the real reason he needed me around, and I wouldn’t break my trust with him.
It gave the word ‘deadline’ a whole new meaning.
The reminders of the circumstances leading to Rob’s kidnapping filled our bedroom, and I searched through the bags until I found the formalwear he had selected for me to wear to the police station.
If the police couldn’t give me information on Rob, I’d turn to Kenneth and his dae. I slipped a data chip containing a sampling of the videos in my bra. Between Sergeant Gildroy and Marlene, my schedule had been revamped. I had classes to attend, but the time spent working with Rob had been eliminated from my calendar. Instead, I had the hours of the evening free, and I intended to spend every minute of it searching.
I sought out Colby before heading to the police station. My roommate remained quiet, and I was aware of its scrutiny despite its lack of eyes.
“I have no idea how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to find him,” I swore.
“Mommy.”
I wondered what it was trying to tell me, but after a moment of thought, I decided it didn’t matter.
Words meant nothing, not anymore. Words did nothing to change things.
The only thing that mattered was action, and I’d get nothing done at home. I pivoted on a heel and left.
17
I smiled at the thought of turning the tables on Rob.
There was something therapeutic about unloading magazines into targets, and I blew through so many rounds my hands throbbed and my ears rang.
I didn’t stop until Sergeant Gildroy peeled my Beretta out of my hands, engaged the safety, and set it aside. I removed the mufflers from my ears, not that they had helped all that much against the incessant barrage of noise.
“I think you’ve proven your point, Miss Daegberht.”
I glared at the few scraps of paper I hadn’t finished blasting to confetti. Shredding the kill zones of the targets to bits had been satisfying, but I wanted more. When I found whoever had taken Rob from me, I’d riddle them with more holes than any of the targets I had destroyed.
“Therapy,” I informed him, stretching my fingers before shaking out my hands. “Long night, sir.”
It was the truth; Marlene and Analise had had hundreds of questions for me, and by the time I had finished repeating ‘I don’t know’ more times than I could remember, we came to the conclusion I truly knew nothing about who wanted Rob and why.
I’d spent the rest of the night tossing and turning. When I had fallen asleep, I had dreamed of flight. The nightmare of falling and splattering on the street had jolted me to full consciousness.
“Understandable. I’d be a lying fool if I tried to claim you didn’t qualify. The systematic way you slaughtered the target was quite impressive. I’m pleased to see that your gun-handling skills were not just for show. Mr. Lucrage taught you well.”
He hadn’t, but I forced a smile. There’d been plenty Rob had actually taught me, but gunplay hadn’t been included. That honor went to Kenneth, but I’d settle with giving Rob the credit. “He’s a good teacher, sir.”
“Bullets won’t stop many dae. Are you sure you want to do street work?”
“Sir, if it means a chance of finding Rob, I will poke my head down every single alley in the city. I’m aware of my limitations.”
“Personal involvement isn’t wise in our line of work. It impairs judgment.”
Desperation did, too, but I wasn’t about to open my mouth and betray Rob’s secret. While I worried about losing my freedom by forming a dependence on him, Rob already relied on me for his well-being.
I couldn’t afford to let any of the dae find out what I meant to Rob.
I could live without him, but the reverse wasn’t true, and the consequences of my failure scared me far more than any job or threat Kenneth had ever thrown my way. Rob needed to eat, even if he found his sustenance by keeping me company.
“True, but no one will be as motivated as me to get the job done. I have one goal, and that is to get him back, Sergeant, sir. Dealing with the culprit is your problem, not mine.” I patted my Beretta. “This is just an insurance policy, sir. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“A very lethal insurance policy.”
“I’ll only pull the trigger if I must.”
Sergeant Gildroy snorted, picked up my gun, and loaded in a fresh magazine before offering me the weapon back. “How do you feel about serving as bait?”
“Tell me where you want me to be, when, and I’ll be there.”
What Marlene and Analise didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. If the police didn’t notify them of my involvement in the case, they’d learn the hard way I did things my way. Anyone who thought I’d put my safety first was about to find out just how far I’d go to protect what was mine.
I smiled at the thought of turning the tables on Rob and staking my claim on him. When I did, I’d ignore every last one of his protests, just as he had ignored mine, and I’d enjoy every moment of it.
I spent the rest of my shift being fitted for equipment. The first tool in my arsenal was a tracking card for my wallet, which would report my location to the police. It matched the one Marlene and Analise had already given me. The cards would make sniffing around tricky if I decided to keep them with me.
Maybe I could talk Colby into carrying them around for me when I didn’t want anyone knowing where I was going.
While it wasn’t on my way in any stretch of the imagination, I returned to my old apartment, wondering what I would do in the future. The place remained mine—for the moment—and I considered the old refrigerator. As always, portal dae left a wealth of food inside, and I packed up as much as I could carry into bags for Kelsie. I wouldn’t be able to stay with my friend for long, not with the police and Rob’s security team tracking me, but I needed to ask for her help.
If she didn’t know anything about Rob’s disappearance, it would be trivial for her to sniff around and ask the other fringe rats if there were any news on the wire.
I worried the entire walk, and when I reached her home, I spent less than five minutes leaving food for her, telling her what had happened to Rob, and requesting she seek out any information possible. I spared an extra minute to warn her about Arthur Hasling and Kenneth Smith.
Either man would do mor
e than just kill her if they discovered she had ties with me.
With Kelsie’s promise she would do what she could with the few contacts she had, I left for my new home, the one where Rob should have been waiting for me.
That left me with the problem of the police and working within their restrictions and accomplishing my personal goals on the side. In addition to the tracking card, they issued me a second handgun. It was a newer model, one small enough to fit in my pocket. It lacked the ability to hold more than a single round in its chamber, which intrigued me. What was the point of a weapon I could only use once before it had more value being thrown rather than fired?
At least there was no chance of misfiring; it was calibrated to identify my finger print, and the trigger wouldn’t unlock unless I was the one using it. Still, after I fired its one measly round, I’d have to figure out what to do with the weapon.
I hoped I wouldn’t find out. I did like the fact it was small enough to hide in my cleavage. As soon as no one was looking, I relocated it to my bra.
Pockets and shoulder holsters would be the first place people checked for weapons. Most people wouldn’t dare to carry even one licensed gun. Two was asking for trouble.
If I ran into trouble, the tiny gun might make a difference, even if I was restricted to one round. I added a sleeve of six extra bullets to my unconventional holster. While I had worn my katana to the police station as ordered, I lacked confidence with the blade. I’d gotten lucky with it once; I wasn’t ready to gamble away Rob’s life with my lack of skill.
I’d carry it, but I couldn’t see myself using it.
Life resumed as it did, and my short taste of freedom ended. Instead of Rob driving me to the college for my classes, Sergeant Gildroy had a pair of officers drop me off and pick me up. With so many police on campus, he had suspended my surveillance during classes.
I believed that to be an idiotic move, but I kept my mouth shut. When I started sniffing around, I needed the police to fall in line with my needs. Their eyes needed to be elsewhere. Dropping out of their sight would be a challenge.
In a way, I enjoyed my return to class. I still had to hide my annoyance at the ease of the work, but the lectures gave me a chance to stop thinking about everything wrong with my life.
Despite so many things having changed, the science professor spoke of old facts, ones that didn’t account for dae who could breathe fire or change shapes on a whim. Teaching the laws of gravity in a world where werewolves could fly, dragons roamed the streets, and angels floated in the air without having to flap their wings seemed absurd to me.
What use was science in a world of magic and wonder? How would old theories help advance or preserve our society? Did the professor expect the world to snap back to its old mold?
Maybe it would, after the entire human race went extinct. Without humans, how long could the dae survive? How long would it take before unicorns, vampires, and sentient casseroles outnumbered people and ruled the world? How long would it be before I, along with every other human, became yet another line in some history book?
Would the government even allow us to be recorded as an extinct species, or would we be delegated to forbidden libraries, living on as some fairy tale?
Then again, it likely wouldn’t matter. Dae and human alike would all die out.
I didn’t want that day to come, not that I had any way to prevent it.
The gaping hole of Rob’s absence manifested in the empty hours I was scheduled to work for him. Under the guise of adjusting my schedule and meeting my quota of hours, I headed for Kenneth’s office building. The startled receptionist called my drug lord boss, who ordered me to come to his office.
Waiting until nightfall would’ve been wise, but if I was going to sell my soul to the devil, I wanted to do it beneath the brightly shining sun.
Kenneth’s gaze fixed on my bruised face. “You’ve seen better days, Collie.”
“Rob was kidnapped.” I dropped onto the chair in front of his desk and kicked my feet up. “You elite sure do have nice hospitals.”
“And you’re coming to me why? Him being out of the picture could quite possibly be the best news I’ve heard all month.”
“You’re going to help me find him, Kenneth.” I crossed my arms over my chest and made myself comfortable.
“You sound pretty confident. Why would I help you? What could you possibly have that I want?”
“What if I told you I’m being authorized for street work?”
Kenneth’s brows rose. “I’d say you’ve lost your mind.”
“I can be quite convincing when I want to be.”
“You’ll need to do better than that. His disappearance helps far more than harms me. Why should I do anything about such a beneficial situation?”
Smiling until it hurt, I pulled out the memory chip containing Terry Moore’s videos. “I know what those invoices were for, I have evidence you’re the main supplier, and I can link you to Terry Moore and other parties currently implicated with the use of your red drug. I can sink your ship so fast it’ll leave your head spinning—and I will, unless you shut up and help me find him.”
Only one part of my threat was a bluff, and once I played the card linking the invoices with the murders, I doubted Kenneth would risk exposing my lie. I’d play my biggest and best card first, but the risk would be worth the reward.
“You’re not acting very much like a helpful collie right now.”
“I am a hound of war, Mr. Smith, and I am not above blackmailing you to get Rob back. You wanted information on certain individuals, well, I can provide it. Rob’s my price.”
“Tell me what you have. I’ll think about it.”
“This is a copy of a selection of videos recorded by Terry Moore, supposedly on behalf of Dean Lewis. You’re aware of the timing of Dean Lewis hiring Terry as one of his aides, I’m sure.”
Falsifying my doubts over who was actually responsible for the murders was a feint, a lie to throw the drug lord off his game, although it was as much of the truth as it was a lie. I hoped Kenneth would assume I meant I thought he was behind the killings since he had provided the drug used on each of the women.
He frowned. “I’m aware. Continue.”
Smiling until it hurt, I waved the memory chip in Kenneth’s direction. “These videos depict the rapes and murders of numerous women. Each one of them was under the influence of a certain new, red drug—the one you’ve developed. Unfortunately, thanks to the Dawn of Dae, many of the government databases have been compromised, especially regarding missing individuals. I don’t have identifications on them yet, but I’m working on it.”
“You have my undivided attention.”
“Cooperate, and I’ll make certain the links tying you to that new drug and these videos disappear. You’ll have all of the information you need to get the upper hand on your adversaries that way.”
Kenneth’s laughter rang out in his office, and he leaned back in his chair. “I taught you far too well.”
“I don’t care what method you use. I want Rob back alive. Understood?”
“Let me see a sampling of those videos. I’ll consider your offer.”
I tossed the memory chip to him. “I’ll wait. Pick whatever one you want; they all end the same way.”
“How many of these chips do you have? And videos?”
“Fifty or so. Of each. I made backup copies. For every body depicted on those videos, I have a spare copy. Some have the entire collection on one chip. I’ve also taken steps to hide copies where the appropriate authorities can find them should I go missing.”
He had the decency to wince. “That’s a lot of bodies.”
I gave him the identification number of the video associated with the woman Rob and I had found in Terry Moore’s refrigerator. “I believe she was Moore’s final target. I don’t have an identification for her yet.”
“Do you think you can find out?”
“It’s on my list.”
Kenn
eth sat up straight, plugged the memory chip into his laptop, and whistled at the opening of the video. “I can tell you she’s not an elite of any sort. Middle caste at best.”
I had already determined that much on my own, but I kept my mouth shut while he watched.
When it reached the woman’s murder, Kenneth scowled. “What a waste of a good woman. Damn, could she give quite the ride. I’d be willing to bet she was a brothel worker at some point. You don’t learn tricks like that without experience.”
I hadn’t clued in on the possible ties to the brothels, not that the information did me any good. A lot of women worked the brothels, and for good reason.
Hell, if it weren’t for my allergies to other people, I probably would have done my time in one, too.
“She’s not one of yours?”
“No, she’s not.”
“Well? Are we going to make a deal?”
Kenneth snorted. “Maybe Mr. Lucrage pisses me off, but I value my life and my reputation. We’ll deal. This works in my favor. Dean Lewis has dipped his toes in the wrong pool this time. I’m not a shining example of purity, but I have lines I won’t cross.” Pulling out the memory card from his computer, he tossed it back to me. “That’s one of them. Dead users can’t pay more money for the goods.”
The longer I spent with Kenneth, the harder it became to believe Dean Lewis held any responsibility for the deaths at all. “How considerate of you.”
“I’ll get people sniffing out his whereabouts. I trust our other arrangement is still in effect?”
“If I’m exposed to relevant information, yes. I keep my word. That said, I’ll likely be working the streets for a while, so there is no guarantee I will be able to give you advance notice.”
“One day you’ll have to tell me just how Lucrage won you, Collie.”
I slid my feet off Kenneth’s desk and stood. “Ask him once you find him. You can ask him all the questions you want in the time it takes you to pick him up and deliver him to our home. It’s not my problem if he chooses not to answer you, though. Oh, and Kenneth? Don’t think of trying to get rid of me to keep those videos secret. I meant what I said before. If I disappear or turn up dead somewhere, I have a contingency plan, one bigger than you and your little empire.”