The frustrated cyborg opened the door for his team and ushered them inside. Mindy, wearing little more than skintight green shorts and a white halter two sizes too small, bounced and jiggled across the threshold and called to Lucia, “Hiya, Boss! Got any food?”
“Hello, Mindy,” Lucia replied. “Kind of busy right now.”
“Can’t be that busy. He’s still wearing his pants.”
Roland’s voice rumbled like distant thunder, “No thanks to you.”
Mindy’s eyes danced with girlish glee at that, and she seemed poised to deliver a sharp retort. Manny butted in to rescue the assassin from certain death. “This may shock you, Mindy, but keeping your clothes on from time to time has been known to improve productivity. You should try it.”
“Not my style,” she shot back, “You’re just mad because I don’t like boys. Besides, if I covered all this up,” she spun a pirouette and wiggled her nearly exposed chest at him, “then what you have to stare at all day?”
“I’d get by,” the scout said with a shrug.
“Jesus, you kids are killing me.” McGinty was the last through the door, and he scowled at the two younger members of their cohort and addressed the rest. “They do this shit nonstop, you know.”
Lucia finally noticed Mindy’s ridiculous outfit, and could not marry her bizarre garb to the sudden visit from the four of them.
“Mindy?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Why are you dressed like a junior prostitute-in-training?”
“You mean more so than usual?” Manny quipped and Billy chortled.
“I’ve been a junior prostitute-in-training,” Sid pointed out. “I’d still never dress like that.”
Sid, in stark contrast to Mindy, was wearing fashionable slacks and a shimmery blouse that while modest, did little to blunt the intrinsic grace of her curves. Roland still found the contrast between Mindy’s cartoonish sexuality and Sid’s effortless sophistication to be jarring. They both seemed confident and comfortable with the facades they presented, and Roland envied them their freedom to simply be who and what they wanted to be.
Mindy frowned at Sid and tossed the scout a dark look that promised horrible consequences to come. Then she looked back to Lucia, “It’s a disguise. I was doing recon.”
“Ahhhh,” Lucia sighed, figuring it out. “You were at Hideaway hitting on Kitty.”
“It’s recon!” the blond pouted. “Kitty knows a lot of stuff about what’s going on around town. She hears everything.”
“Mmm hmmm,” Lucia, sounded very skeptical, but she indulged the woman, “And you are all here because?”
“Wade Manson is raiding Malldown right now. He’s hitting all the vape dens and the fight clubs tonight. Kitty says that all the street muscle is talking about it. Rodney’s got extra guys posted everywhere, too.”
“It looks like the shooting war has begun in earnest then,” Roland grumbled.
“That’s why I called everyone and headed over here,” Mindy said.
Lucia flicked the magenta stripe of hair away from her eyes, “Good call. All right, Roland. What’s the plan?”
“Wade doesn’t have enough muscle or guns for a full-scale war just yet. Obviously, The Brokerage is supplying him. We knew that already.” Roland lived for these sorts of tactical problems, “We don’t have to go defend Malldown, we just need to cut off his supplies and he’ll fold on his own.”
Sid spoke up. “He’s getting supplied through the Quinzy shipyards. My people have been laundering all the money that moves through there. Are you going to offer a lady a drink, Roland?”
The barb tossed at his lack of manners missed its mark by a wide margin. “Beer’s in the fridge, help yourself.” Then he pushed on, “Do we know which shipyard? And when the next transfer is?” He tried to keep them on track.
“Yeah. They use the assembly hangar at the Mass-Freight yard. It’s been empty for weeks now. The next cash drop is in two days. Manson usually attends the cash drops personally. Anyone else thirsty?”
Four hands rose simultaneously as Sid went to the kitchen.
“No honor among thieves, eh?” Billy smirked.
“It’s a trap,” Roland observed.
“Huh?” they all said at once.
“Shipyard is big, yet not out in the open. It’s on the tram lines, and far from Uptown cops. It’s also far from Wade’s backup and our own resources. If I wanted to draw me out into a fight, I’d use Wade as bait, too. They know we need him. It’s why they set him up as the front man.”
Lucia’s powerful brain fleshed out the probable details. “The big armature will be there, and all the mercenaries, too. They need room for their ringer to tackle Roland, but they also need the fight contained. Shipyards are tough places to break, I presume?”
“Exactly,” Roland agreed.
Manny had never been in any fight like this before, and his voice betrayed his apprehension. “So, uh... what are we going to do?”
“We spring the trap,” Roland and Lucia said in unison.
“Ah, Roland?” Billy spoke up, “You are all kinds of badass and shit, I get that. But we are talking about a hundred or more heavily armed mercs, and a mech the size of a dump truck. I don’t want to hurt your feelings or nothin,’ but that seems like long odds to me.”
“You’re right Billy. It would take an army to win that fight,” Lucia fixed the redhead with a measured stare. “Perhaps an army of the best street muscle in all of New Boston, I’d wager.”
“Oh. Shit.” He concurred.
“Knew that was coming,” Sid sang out as she returned with cans of lager and passed them out.
“Someone call Rodney,” Roland boomed, “It’s time to send a message to the Brokerage.”
“Wait!” Mindy Squeaked, “I’m still hungry!”
“I swear to god, Mindy,” Roland sounded annoyed, but then again, he always sounded annoyed.
“I’ll call for some delivery,” Billy rescued them all from the impending violence of two bionic combatants brawling in the limited space of Roland’s living room.
“Good idea,” said Lucia, “it’s going to be a long night. By the way Billy, have any of your spies heard of a new player using the name ‘Reynard’?”
“Reynard?” Billy thought for a moment, “No. But somebody thinks pretty highly of himself if he’s using that for a name.”
“Why’s that?”
It was easy to forget that despite his rough manners and salty vernacular, Billy McGinty was an extremely well read auto-didact, “It’s French. It means ‘Fox.’”
Lucia’s eyes went wide, and Roland’s face went slack.
“It fucking means ‘Fox?’” Roland hissed through clenched teeth.
“What?” Billy asked, “What did I say?”
Lucia looked at Roland, eyes pleading, “Don’t you go dark on me now, Roland.”
Black hands balled so tight they could hear the straining of his armored skin under the pressure. Beer poured in a foamy white cascade between his fingers, the crushed can still trapped in the dark heart of that fist.
“Not on you, Lucia. Never on you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Uhm...”
It was Manny who broke the silent tension holding the room in check,’ “Why does ‘Fox’ make everyone so edgy?”
Lucia answered, “First of all, there are things about Roland you aren’t allowed to know. Here is what you are allowed to know. He is a registered military-class light cyborg.”
This surprised no one except Sid. “Huh. I always figured he was a mutant or just really heavily augmented.”
“Oh, he’s augmented, too,” Lucia added, and continued, “He is honorably discharged from the UEDF under conditions that cannot be discussed. Ever.” She glared at all of them. “Mindy, I know you know more than you let on. I know you have sources. You talk to anyone about it...”
“I know,” the blond had lost her bubbling immaturity. She played the part of the coquette so we
ll that it was easy to forget it was an act sometimes. “Scary guys will whisk me away to a prison colony on Titan.”
“Or worse,” Roland grumbled.
“Reynard,” Lucia said, “Is almost certainly a man named Leland Fox. He was part of the group that built Roland.” Eyes grew wide at this revelation, and wider still when she followed it with, “So was my father.” This was not news to Mindy and Billy, but Sid and Manny were having trouble digesting that.
“So Fox is one of the guys who kidnapped your Dad?” Billy asked, “I thought you uh... you know.”
“Killed them?” Roland snorted, “I let Fox live to go to prison. Thought that would be better.” His voice became quiet and dangerous, “I thought I was growing as a person.”
“You are,” Lucia admonished.
Billy kept the conversation on track, “So Fox got out of prison early, huh. That feels weird, considering he sicced a bunch of mercs on the NBPD.”
“Brokerage,” Roland and Lucia said at once, and Lucia finished the thread. “I assume the Brokerage saw him as an asset and got him released.”
“I’m starting to think that The Brokerage is going to require some personal attention,” Roland's voice was strange for its lack of inflection. The air of menace to the statement was unmistakable despite the dispassionate delivery.
“Time to cancel my membership,” was Sid’s meek response. They all turned to her, and she gave a sheepish shrug, “I’m a loan shark and a money launderer! Obviously, I work with The Brokerage from time to time!”
Lucia spared Sid further interrogation. “So Fox is alive and out. That explains why these mercs seem to know Roland’s capabilities so well. At this point, I’m not sure we even care about Wade Manson anymore.”
“Agreed,” said Roland. “We only needed him to find the real enemy. Knowing it’s Fox gets us that far without him. But Fox won’t be at the shipyard. He’ll have learned from his mistake at the Corpus Mundi building and be far away.”
“He’ll be in his command center. That building in The Sprawl,” said Lucia with a nod. “This is going to be a multi-pronged operation.”
“You been reading his old Army manuals, girl?” Billy asked with a smile.
“You aren’t the only one with a lot of books, McGinty.”
Roland handed out assignments, “Billy, you and I need to get to The Dwarf and mobilize the crews. Rodney is going to want to hunker down and fortify Dockside. We need to convince him that this is a mistake. He needs to get the Dockside muscle to come to Quinzy with me.”
“I hear ya. I can handle old Rodney, but the goons are really only going to follow you. You got to convince a bunch of selfish and opportunistic street toughs to go to war. Tall order, that.”
“I’ll be persuasive.”
Billy rolled his eyes at that and Roland turned to Mindy, “You’re target is Paulie. You fought him in that truck. Can you handle him?”
“I can handle anyone. It’s what I do, you know.” Mindy sounded put out that he would even ask.
“I know you’re a pro, but I have to ask. He’s all yours, though.”
“On it.” Mindy’s blue eyes flashed at the thought of taking on the augmented mercenary, “Sid, I’m going to need to sit down with you to figure this guy out.”
“Naturally,” Sid said, sipping demurely on her beer. “Any assignment for me, Roland?”
“You want in?” the big cyborg replied.
“If we don’t nail these guys, they’re going to come after me for knowing too much anyway. The Brokerage doesn’t frighten me, but Wade Manson and this Fox character do.” She smiled at Roland, “Besides, this is the sort of operation that could really advance a gal’s career. Who knows how my fortunes might grow if we come out on top of this?”
“Fine,” Roland did not care about Sid’s career ambitions, but he would take help from anywhere and he trusted those ambitions more than he did the sunrise. “How much Brokerage money are you still holding?”
“Lots. Millions.”
“Well I guess I know how I’m going to convince a bunch of Docksiders to help me fight a war against professional mercenaries, then.”
Sid blanched a little, “You're going to rob the Brokerage?”
“No. I’m going to rob you. You’re just going to make it easy. Then I’m going to use that money to hire every thug in Dockside.”
“Okay...” Sid did not appear convinced of the soundness of the plan, but she nodded anyway.
Roland was on a roll now, his military demeanor asserting itself in his posture and language. “Mindy! Take Sid and head over to her counting house. Stage a robbery. Be a little dramatic, but don’t overdo it. Then get the money somewhere secure. When she’s done, Sid, go to the Smoking Wreck and tell Marty to hide you. Use the word ‘Breach’ and he’ll know what to do. When Billy and I are done at Hideaway he will get you and stash you in Big Woo.
Mindy snapped to attention with a dramatic click of her heels and waved a sloppy salute, “Yes sir, General Iron-Butt, sir!” In her current outfit, the whole effect was magnificent in its stupidity.
“I’m a corporal, you yellow-headed twit. Just go.”
“But I’m still hungry!” Mindy complained.
“Come on, Mindy,” Sid sighed. “There’s plenty to eat at my place. You can raid the fridge while you rob me.”
“Can I tie you up?” the little blond seemed sincere in this request, but Sid’s scowl was all the answer Mindy needed. The women left, leaving Manny, Billy, Roland and Lucia alone.
Roland looked at Manuel, “Manny, this is way outside of what you signed up for. I want you to go with Lucia to get her in and out of that building, but if you want to walk away now, we will pay you what we owe and no hard feelings.”
The scout met Roland’s eyes without flinching, “This Fox guy, what’d he do to you?”
“If I answer that, you will be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life.”
“I already gotta do that, Mr. Tankowicz. The Red Hats will never let me go. Soon enough they’ll find me here and I’ll have to move again, anyway. There’s a real good chance I won’t live long enough to get in trouble for it, either way.”
Roland conceded the point, “Fox and his scientist flunky put a program in my brain that allowed them to control my body against my will. Then the Army used me in operations that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of civilians.”
Manny nodded without judgment, “I figured it was something like that. Mindy talks too much.”
Lucia winced slightly at that comment. It was something they would have to correct, but Manny had already moved on.
“The Red Hats took me in when I was five years old. They didn’t have any fancy cybernetic tricks to fuck with my brain, so they settled with good old-fashioned propaganda and grooming. By the time I was eighteen I was a full-blood true-believer in the cause. I figure by that time I helped caused the deaths of a few hundred civilians myself. When I realized this and started to resist...” He shook his head and turned his eyes to the floor, “They tried to kill me. The people who raised me, the kids I grew up with and played with. They all turned on me without a second thought. I was just a kid, Roland. Hell, I still am. But now I run from station to station, waiting for the day some snitch or sympathizer turns me in, and the kids I played tag with in the mess hall try to slit my throat in the middle of the night. Again.” He spat the last word, and two syllables were turned into an expletive by the betrayal of those he had trusted most. “I was so young, so stupid, I bet they had been laughing at me the whole damn time. They treated me like I was a useful tool and then kicked me to the curb when I asked the wrong questions.”
Roland understood. The details were different, but this was a very familiar story to him.
The young man looked back up, showing neither fear nor shame, “Do you know what I figure the difference between you and me is?”
Roland shook his head.
“Not a goddamn thing. I’m in, Mr.
Tankowicz. But I’ll want a favor when we are done.”
“You want to go after the Hats?” Roland surmised.
Manny nodded.
“Agreed.” Roland held out a hand and Manny shook it, “Within reason, I should add.”
“Unquestionably. So, I get Ms. Ribiero into that building and then what?”
“Lucia gets to go after Fox. You help her secure Fox and exfil.”
“What if Fox does not want to be secured?”
Roland shrugged, “Lucia will make a call in the field on how to proceed.”
Manny’s eyebrows lifted, “Okay. You’re the boss.”
Lucia cocked her head to the side, “Do you want me to handle Fox like I did Johnson?” Warren Johnson had Been Fox’s partner, and for his crimes Lucia had killed him on the roof of a Corpus Mundi black site. The question should have disturbed her more. But she realized asking it did not affect her at all. Lucia wondered how much of that was the nanobots controlling her brain chemistry and how much was her own desire to kill the man responsible for so much of Roland’s pain. Something occurred to her in that moment. A brief insight into the tortured mind of a human weapon. This is what he feels, isn't it? This need to protect, yet also to punish. I’m ready to kill a man because that man hurt Roland. That’s what Roland does. He hurts people who hurt others.
She found herself uncomfortably comfortable with that, but she recognized the pitfalls. A sad ironic thought followed the previous one.
Don’t become an amoral murder-bot! Her augmentations would bear careful observation, she understood. She was not ready to become as hard as Roland. She was his conscience, and that was a very important role. Even with a conscience, Roland was not a pleasant man. Without one, he was a natural disaster.
Roland had faith in her, and he said as much. “You can make the call. I don’t trust myself to be objective about it. Everything I know says he needs to go. I let him live once and we can see how well that worked. When you have a better handle on what’s going on, you can decide the best way to manage him. I trust you to make the right decision.”
Hammers and Nails Page 24