by Martha Carr
“Chill out for a sec, for starters. Have you checked the black streaks since last night?”
“Nope.”
Ember gave her friend a pointed stare and waited for the halfling to pull down the collar of her shirt with an exaggerated sigh. Then the fae bent over for a closer look. “All right. Looks like the darktongue’s still doing its job, so that’s the good news.”
“Sounds like there’s bad news too.”
“The bad news is,” Ember said, turning slightly to glance at Cheyenne’s backpack beside the door, “that the canister only has a few doses left.”
Cheyenne pressed her lips together. “A few could be anything, Em.”
“Yeah. In this case, it’s three. I think.”
“Oh, good. So that’s, like, a conservative guess.”
Ember wrinkled her nose. “No, I’d say that’s pretty generous. It might even be two.”
“Right. And we didn’t bring any refills.”
“It’s not like we had time to think about that. You puked all over Venga’s lab, then the Sorren Gán did its weird puppet trick or whatever that was.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not blaming you.” Cheyenne sat back in the recliner and swallowed. “But I’m glad you told me. Whatever’s left in there, I’ll use it sparingly. Like at least once before we head into this Bull’s Head meeting tonight.”
Ember floated away from her friend to quit hovering and shook her head. “You’re going for darktongue courage, huh?”
“Trust me, the last thing I want to do is go into that meeting all hopped up on serum. Okay? It’s to keep me from going down if somebody hits me in my three weakest points. Which someone’s bound to do, ‘cause that’s what happens.”
“You could try wearing some kinda armor.”
Cheyenne frowned at her friend, and Ember couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. “Funny.”
“I had this vision of you storming in and clinking around like the guards in Hangivol. You in orc-sized armor plates!”
“Okay. I get it. And armor’s off the table, ‘cause we have to go into this thing quietly. That’s the whole point of a sting, you know.”
“Oh, it’s a sting now.” Ember settled on the couch, leaning back as her magic lifted her legs up to stretch out in front of her. “I had no idea the ex-FRoE agent and the halfling who never officially worked for the FRoE were running their own operations now.”
“You know what I mean.” Cheyenne leaned forward and grabbed her buzzing phone out of her pocket. “Speaking of the ex-agent…” She accepted the call. “Rhynehart.”
“I sent you an email. See? This is how you send someone an email with absolutely no explanation and fill them in on what it means at the same time.”
“Hey, you have your way of communicating, and I have mine.”
“Yeah, well, check it out so we can go over a few things.”
“Right now?”
There was a slight pause. “Yeah, right now. Come on. I’m trying to keep all the information from being in one place, okay? Let’s go.”
Cheyenne stood from the recliner and rolled her eyes at Ember before turning to head up the stairs to the mini loft. “Okay, give me a second to get to my computer.”
“Uh-huh.”
The long silence after that made her wonder if he’d tell her never mind, call him when she was ready. As Glen powered up, Cheyenne sat in the desk chair and turned slowly back and forth. “So.”
“You have the email yet?”
“Still waiting.”
Rhynehart smacked his lips. “This isn’t how I planned this conversation to go.”
“Well, maybe it’s ‘cause the best way to send someone an email with absolutely no information and fill them in on it after the fact is to let them call you. Wait, didn’t I already do that?”
“Whatever. Just tell me when you’re ready.”
Cheyenne set her phone down on the desk and logged into her system. It only took her five seconds to pull up her email, but she gave it another twenty before she picked up the phone and pressed it against her ear again. “Okay. I’m looking at names. This is who’s coming with us, right?”
Rhynehart grunted. “I guess that part wasn’t as hard to figure out.”
“Not really.”
“Yeah, Cheyenne. This is who’s coming.”
She read quickly through the names one more time, Bhandi, Tate, Yurik, Jamal, and someone named Michael Todd. Guess he’s replacing Payton with a new guy. “Okay. What about our friend with the eyepatch?”
“Yeah, she opted out. Didn’t wanna be a part of it, and that’s fine.”
“You trust her to keep this whole thing to herself even after the fact?”
Rhynehart cleared his throat. “Yeah, I do. She’s kept her mouth shut about the lizard escapee, so I don’t see a problem.”
“And what about this new guy? You trust him?”
“Yeah. He’s an old buddy of mine. More like me than like you if you know what I mean.”
So, he’s a human agent. Cheyenne sat back in her chair and kept spinning back and forth. “Uh-huh.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t even gonna ask him, seeing as you two don’t know each other. But one of the assholes on this list you’re looking at opened her big mouth and spilled all the secret beans.”
Cheyenne snorted. Bhandi. That was easy. “And he wanted in.”
“Yeah, he wanted in. I’m not on the payroll anymore, so it doesn’t feel like a conflict of interest at this point if I bring a friend along for the ride. You got a problem with that?”
“Nope. As long as he can handle himself, it’s all good.”
“Great.” The soft gurgle of Rhynehart chugging something filled her ear. Then he sighed and continued, “Last thing. We’re scrapping the meetup in Alexandria.”
“Something wrong with it?”
“Not other than the fact that it’s public, and I’m not interested in going over all this in a public setting.”
Cheyenne tilted her head. “Well, we sure as shit aren’t meeting at my place.”
Below her in the living room, Ember pumped a fist in the air as she stared at the TV again. “I second that refusal.”
“Who’s that?” Rhynehart asked. “Am I on speaker?”
“It’s Ember. Because we share an apartment. And no. She wants a planning party over here as much as I do.”
“That would be stupid anyway. You’re two hours out from where we’re headed tonight.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So we’re meeting at my place.”
She almost burst out laughing at that one and centered her focus on the address at the bottom of his email. “Congratulations, Rhynehart. I did not see that coming.”
“I’m off the map. I got sacked after thirteen years of perfect service under that asshole, and seeing as my old superiors haven’t said shit to me about any of it after the fact, I figure I’m off their radar. No one’s gonna be checking us out at my place. As far as they’re concerned, it’s like I never existed.”
“And you don’t think they’ll draw a connection between you and me?”
“Why would they?”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re the one who took me out on every major op where my skills were specifically required.”
“Yeah, but we’re not friends.”
She laughed. “Okay. You have a point.”
“Great. Now we’re on the same page. So, you have the address. If we’re still looking at a two o’clock meetup, I say we use that extra time to go survey the site beforehand.”
“Bad idea.”
Rhynehart sighed heavily through the phone. “I fail to see why reconnaissance is a bad idea.”
“The guys who are gonna be there tonight probably have all kinds of gear already set up to keep an eye on the place. Surveillance and security. Not the kind that records and sounds off alarms, either. I mean the kind that explodes and fires rounds.”
“Y
eah, yeah, okay. I get it.”
“I don’t wanna blow our chances with this, Rhynehart.”
“Fine. But I don’t wanna go into the place like a complete idiot without knowing exit and entry points, blind spots, or where the hell I’m supposed to take a left turn or a right turn. You get that, right?”
“Sure.” Cheyenne tilted her head and lifted her shoulder to hold her cell phone in place so she could pull up her VPN and get started. “I can get the layout for you.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope. Give me, like, ten minutes, and you’ll have another email. I won’t make it all complicated this time, so don’t worry.”
Rhynehart scoffed and chugged more of whatever he was drinking. “You know, when you say, ‘Don’t worry,’ that’s when I start to worry.”
“That’s on you. You’ll feel better when you have a visual in front of you.”
“You’re talking about actual schematics, right?”
“Yeah, whatever exists, I’ll find it. We can go over it with everyone in person before we head out.”
“Fine. I’ll wait for that email.”
“Cool.” Cheyenne grabbed the phone again and hung up without taking her eyes off the screen as she logged back into the dark web. Not like an old factory-turned-showroom is a super-secret place, but it’ll be a lot easier to find this way. Then maybe Mr. Ex-Agent will finally stop whining.
Chapter Forty
After she found everything she needed and sent it to Rhynehart, Cheyenne pulled up Byrd’s number she only had in her phone as belonging to “Firebird” and made the call.
“Who the fuck is this?”
She laughed in surprise. “Cheyenne.”
“Oh, hey. What’s up, kid?”
Shaking her head, Cheyenne spun around in her desk chair again. “Meeting with the Bull’s Head tonight.”
“Tonight? Fuck, yeah! Hey, you hear that?”
Lumil shouted across the warehouse, “Somebody’s getting fucked tonight?”
“Yeah, by us!”
Oh, jeez. Maybe I should’ve reconsidered.
“Okay, kid. So, where are we going? What’s the deal? You know us. We’re ready to get this shit done any time, any day. You tell us what’s up.”
“Hammer’s comin’ down, Cheyenne!” Lumil shouted again. “You hear me? Coming down!”
Cheyenne cleared her throat. “Cool, guys. Maybe chill a little. We’re all meeting up at Rhynehart’s place at two. I’ll text you the address, okay?”
“Rhynehart? You mean that pissed-off human who almost pissed his pants before agreeing to help us break Ve—”
“Yeah, him. And we’re not going through all that over the phone, okay?”
“Oh, shit. Yeah. Sorry.” Byrd chuckled and took a huge, crunching bite of something. “We’ll be there. Let us know where.”
“Yep. That’s incoming. See you guys in a bit.”
“We’re gonna rip those assholes a new one!” Lumil shouted.
Byrd roared his approval over the phone, and Cheyenne jerked her cell away from her ear before ending the call. “Fuck.”
How did anyone put up with them camping out in the warehouse for so long?
“You good?” Ember called.
“As good as I’ll ever be, talking to the goblin destroyers over the phone.”
Ember chuckled. “Have they heard you call them that yet? ‘Cause I have a feeling they’d take it as a compliment.”
“They take everything as a compliment as long as it’s not coming from one of them.” With a snort, Cheyenne stood from her chair, ran Glen through the shutdown cycle, and grabbed her phone. “I guess it’s time to think about heading out soon.”
“Where are we going first?”
“Rhynehart’s place. It’s like an hour and a half out.”
“Cool. We have an extra hour.”
Cheyenne’s black Vans clanged on the metal mesh of the stairs as she jogged down them. “Yeah, and that hour’s pretty much spoken for. I gotta get my car.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Lee told me twenty-four hours. That’s almost up.”
“Hey, now that you mention bringing the goblins with us,” Ember asked as she watched Cheyenne walk slowly across the living room as she searched for Lee’s number, “do they know that this isn’t a ‘run in screaming and blasting magic’ kinda deal?”
“Not yet, but they will when they meet us closer to DC.”
“I mean, yeah, it’s great to have them there against the Bull’s Head ‘cause they know what those guys are capable of. We’re not trying to be gentle with the loyalists, right?”
Cheyenne paused and looked up from her phone. “No way. The Bull’s Head can suck it. I’ll make sure the goblins know not to mess with anyone else. We can’t roll in and blast a top FRoE official who’s also a US colonel completely off the map. Guess this is one of those delicate situations.”
“Ha. You and delicate don’t go together in any kind of fight.”
Cheyenne looked back down at her phone and found Lee’s number. “Maybe not the fighting, Em. But I’ve got the only working activator on this side of the Border, and it’s a GoPro on its own secure server. We’re good.”
“Blackmail.” Ember pointed at her. “That’s the angle you’re taking.”
“Hey, if it gets the job done without us having to make things messy, then I’m gonna blackmail the fucker.” Before she could send a call to Lee’s number, her phone buzzed in her hand with an incoming call from the car enthusiast. Perfect timing. “Hey, Lee.”
“Cheyenne. Hey. Glad I caught you.”
“I mean, I was about to call you anyway, so this works.”
“Oh. Yeah, listen. I took a look under the hood for fun. Kinda couldn’t help myself. I found something I can’t in good conscience let slide.”
“What?”
“Sorry, Cheyenne. You can’t keep driving this thing around until it’s taken care of.”
“Oh? What’s the issue?”
“Like a big, complicated mess. I won’t bore you with the details. I’m gonna need one more day to get this all taken care of for you. I know I said twenty-four hours.”
“Yeah, but if you found something that makes the car undrivable, that’s not a problem.” Except that I don’t have a ride. “You sure it’ll be finished tomorrow?”
“Absolutely. One hundred percent.” Lee cleared his throat. “I tell you what. I’ll chop off a good thirty percent of the cost for the inconvenience. I like to think I’m a man of my word, at least these days, and I want to make sure I do right by you and this Porsche, yeah?”
“I should pay you thirty percent more for catching the issue. You know, I understand enough about cars that you can tell me what happened.”
“I’ll show you everything when you come to pick it up tomorrow. Now, I know we just met, and you don’t have any reason to trust that I’ll take care of this thing the way it needs to be done.”
“Lee, it’s fine. Seriously.” Cheyenne took a deep breath and nodded. “Whatever you have to do, it’s all good. I’ll wait for your call tomorrow, then.”
“Excellent. Talk to you then.” He hung up first, and she blinked at her phone as the call screen returned to her home screen. “Shit.”
“No car.”
“No car.” Cheyenne wrinkled her nose. “I’m not in the mood to run all the way to DC, not to mention that I’d have to carry you if we wanted to get there at the same time.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t let you do that anyway.”
“Well, thanks, Em. So now what?” Cheyenne grabbed her backpack and pulled out the injection canister before sticking it in her coat pocket. “We call an Uber to drive us almost two hours?”
“Hold on.” A slow, mischievous smile spread across Ember’s lips. “Give me, like, two minutes. I got this.”
The fae spun and zipped across the living room, through the front door, and out into the hall before Cheyenne had a chance to say anything.
Through the open front door, she heard her friend’s loud, swift knock on Matthew Thomas’ door across the hall. Then that door opened.
“Ember.” He sounded surprised and hopeful and terrified all at the same time.
Oh, for real?
“All I need from you right now is to move out of the way so I can come inside,” Ember said sternly. “This won’t take long.”
Cheyenne grinned. I gotta see this.
She stepped into the hall as Matthew’s front door closed with Ember and their neighbor on the other side of it. Even though the conversation was most likely supposed to be private, given the closed door, Cheyenne’s drow hearing picked up every last word.
“I’m serious,” Ember said. “If you ever want to talk to me again like we used to, you’ll do this. You won’t ask why or for how long or anything else. I think we both know this is the least you can do after the massive shitstorm you helped create.”
“Ember, I didn’t know.”
“Doesn’t matter. Cheyenne could’ve done a lot worse than show you a video of her fighting those things your program’s powering. She still might, honestly, but that depends on the choices you make from here on out.”
Matthew scoffed. “I don’t see how this makes up for whatever’s happened because of a program I built.”
“Don’t even try to pretend you’re still useless. You saw it in action. You know what your part was, and I’m not here to argue the details with you. Are you gonna man up and do this or not?”
“This is ridiculous.”
“This is your last option.”
Cheyenne cocked her head when their voices fell silent. Uh-oh.
Then the front door flew open, and Ember floated swiftly into the hall. The door slammed shut behind her, and she stopped when she saw the halfling standing in the hall with a sheepish grin. “You heard all that?”
“Couldn’t help myself.”
“Whatever.” Ember shot a scathing glare at Matthew’s closed front door, then floated down the hall.
“I didn’t hear a definitive ending, though. How did it go.”
Ember shrugged. “Hard to say. Come on.”
“Right. So we’re calling an Uber, then?” The jingle of keys being tossed in the air made Cheyenne look up in time to see a set of keys flying toward her. She snatched them before they could hit her in the face, and Ember brushed past her to the elevator.