Chapter Twenty-Five
It did not take long for the crew inside the shuttered nightclub to figure out that things were not going to plan. The door cracked open a short time later. A man called from the shadowed interior.
“Latimer?” he said. “What the fuck? Latimer.”
“What’s happening out there, Dempsey?” another man demanded from inside the club.
Alice, Sebastian crouched on her shoulder, watched from the back wall of the alley as a figure stepped cautiously out into the open, mag-rez in one hand. He looked at his fallen comrade and then fixed his attention on the empty entrance at the far end of the alley.
“They’re gone, Hank,” Dempsey called over his shoulder. “They got past Latimer.”
“No way.” The one called Hank appeared in the doorway behind Dempsey. “The tracker says they’re nearby, or at least the dust bunny is.”
“I can see the necklace. It’s on the ground near Latimer. They found it, ditched it, and took off.”
“Shit. Latimer fucked up.”
“This is not good,” Dempsey muttered.
Alice moved out of the fog-bound shadows of the back wall.
“Your friend had a slip-and-fall accident,” she said in what she hoped was an eerie singsong voice. Then she experimented with a giggle. It wasn’t easy because she was not in a giggling mood. “He should sue someone.”
Hank whipped around and saw her.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” he said in disgust. “You used your fucking nightmare talent on Latimer. The boss warned us. But he said you needed physical contact. How the fuck did you get close enough to— No, don’t move. You’re not going to pull that stunt twice. Where’s March?”
“Gone,” Alice said, adding an unstable edge to her voice. “That happens to me a lot. Men just up and disappear. I’m on my second marriage, but it looks like I might have a vacancy. Are either of you interested in becoming the next husband of the Deranged Bride? They say third time’s the charm.”
She giggled again.
“The boss told us you were insane,” Dempsey muttered. “No wonder March took off. He decided you weren’t worth the risk, didn’t he? Smart.”
“I think I scared him.”
“I believe it. You scare me. All right, let’s get this over with.” He angled his head at his partner. “I can’t risk a stun shot from here. At this distance it might not be effective. Get a little closer and ghost her. Just a close brush will put her on the ground.”
“Latimer tried to do that,” Hank said. “Look what happened to him.”
“You’re really afraid of the bitch, aren’t you?” Dempsey grunted. “When this is over, I’m never working with you again.”
“You’re the designated lead,” Hank said. “You take the risks. That’s how it works.”
“Fuck you. Just do your job before something else goes wrong. We need to get the sedative into her.”
A frisson of hot energy sparked across Alice’s senses.
An instant later a bright, hot ball of acid-green fire exploded in front of her.
It was still several feet away but it was already close enough to charge the atmosphere in the narrow confines of the alley.
Adrenaline surged in her bloodstream. Her hair lifted in response. Sebastian’s fur stood on end.
“No, no, no,” she said, wagging one finger at Hank. “You’re not supposed to kill me. I’m no good to Kelbrook if I’m dead. You won’t get paid.”
“Relax, we’re not going to kill you,” Hank called from the other side of the ghost. “We’re just going to put you to sleep for a while so that we can give you a dose of the sedative.”
“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” she said, falling back into her normal voice.
“Your choice. One way or another you’re gonna get the fucking sedative.”
Sebastian rumbled. His paws tightened on her shoulder as he prepared to launch himself at the attackers.
“No, Sebastian,” she whispered. “Not yet. We just need another couple of minutes.”
Hank steered the ghost closer, but the action forced him to move toward her as well. It was obvious he was nervous. The ghost was no longer as tightly wound as it had been initially.
“Don’t you want to hear what happened to Mr. Latimer?” she asked. “He went down so easily. I didn’t even have to touch him.”
“You’re lying. The boss told us that your fucking talent only works with physical contact.”
“Do you believe everything your boss tells you?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Hank yelled. “Dempsey, get ready. I’m going to singe her good.”
There was no response.
“Dempsey, you stupid piece of ghost shit, I said get ready.”
Owen walked out of the warehouse, flamer in hand. He stepped over Dempsey’s unconscious form.
“Your partner decided he’s done with this job,” he said. “Kill the ghost or I’ll start flaming various parts of your anatomy.”
Already on edge, Hank whipped around to face the new threat. In the process he lost control of the ghost. It winked out as soon as he was no longer focusing his talent on holding the small storm of energy together. He froze when he saw Owen moving toward him with the flamer.
“Thought you took off,” he said, sounding both aggrieved and bewildered. “How did you get into the club without us seeing you?”
“Get rid of the mag-rez,” Owen said. “Slowly.”
“Yeah, sure.” Hank took the pistol out of the holster and set it on the pavement. “You going to tell me how you got inside?”
“It’s a nightclub. There’s always more than one door. But as long as the necklace was here in this alley, you assumed we were all out here with it.”
“Got to hand it to you, you’ve managed to hang on to the woman.
You’re planning to cut your own deal with Kelbrook’s fixer, aren’t you?
Not a bad plan, but if I were you, I’d move fast. I’ve been in the security business ever since I quit the Guild.
I’m pretty good at reading the client, and my gut tells me you don’t want to push this one too hard.
Word has it Kelbrook always gets what he wants. ”
“Stop talking about me as if I were an asset you could buy or sell to the highest bidder,” Alice said, fighting to control her fury. She aimed the small flamer at Hank. “I might be tempted to reach out and touch you.”
Hank flinched. She took some satisfaction from that. But he recovered his swagger in the next beat and turned back to Owen.
“You don’t have to sic the nightmare lady and her dust bunny on me,” he said. “This is just business. I don’t mind answering a few questions. Maybe you and I can do our own deal on the side.”
“I doubt your boss would approve,” Owen said.
“Let me worry about him. Go ahead, ask your questions.”
“I have two,” Owen said. “The first is, who’s your boss?”
“That’s no big secret. I work for Sykes Security. I take orders from Jake Sykes himself. What’s your second question?”
“What kind of talent does Sykes have?”
“Hell, that’s no secret, either. Sykes is a high-rez ex-Guild man.
In the old days he would have been a boss by now.
But you know how it is. They’ve been trying to rebrand the organizations.
Make them respectable. Sykes didn’t fit in with the new look.
He would have done Guild business the old-fashioned way. ”
“Like a mob boss?” Alice snapped.
Neither man paid any attention.
“Sykes sounds like the type to keep files on everyone he deals with,” Owen said, shifting to a conversational tone.
“Oh, yeah.” Hank shrugged. “He says the only way to survive in this business is to know the clients’ secrets.”
“Sounds like a smart man.”
“Smartest guy in the room,” Hank said.
“Where’s his office?”
“Ask him yourself,” Hank said.
Alice saw the shadows shift in the doorway behind Owen.
“Behind you,” she shouted.
Owen was already turning and firing. The shot struck at point-blank range. With a grunt, the figure in the doorway convulsed and then toppled forward. Owen tried to get out of the way but there was little room and no time.
The collapsing man was big and heavily muscled. He slammed into Owen’s left side as he fell. Both hit the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. Owen shoved the unconscious man out of the way and rolled to his feet.
Sebastian chortled exultantly.
“Shit,” Owen muttered.
Seeing his opportunity, Hank bent down to grab his mag-rez.
“Don’t touch that pistol,” Alice ordered.
Hank ignored her. She knew he did not consider her much of a threat as long as she kept her distance. She also knew he intended to kill Owen.
She gripped her flamer in both hands and rezzed the trigger. The first shot missed, but only by inches. Hank jerked in surprise and staggered, instinctively trying to get out of the way.
Alice walked steadily toward him, rezzing the flamer again. This time a bolt of energy struck one of Hank’s boots. He yelped and hastily backed away from her.
“You crazy bitch.” He took another step back. “Stay away from me.”
She continued moving toward him, trying to calibrate her aim.
Hank gave up. He whirled and dashed toward the entrance of the alley. For a few seconds he was a running shadow in the fog, and then he disappeared. Alice heard his boots thud briefly on the sidewalk, and then the sound faded to nothing.
Sebastian chortled again.
“Your aim is improving,” Owen said from the doorway. “But no more target practice tonight. You have to run. Now.”
There was something wrong. His words were slurred, his voice weak, as if it took enormous effort to speak. She whirled toward him in time to see him sink slowly to his knees.
“Owen.”
She dropped the flamer into a pocket and rushed to the doorway. Sebastian, realizing that things were not going well, stopped chortling and began making small anxious noises.
Alice glanced at the motionless figure of the man Hank had identified as Sykes and then crouched beside Owen.
She touched his shoulder. He was too warm.
Now that she had physical contact, she could tell that his aura was calming—too much so.
That was not right. He wasn’t dying, she decided, relieved. He was sinking into a profound sleep.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded, horrified. “Did he shoot you?”
“No.”
Owen’s eyes were half-closed. He moved one hand to indicate a small object on the ground next to Sykes.
She looked at the empty syringe. “Oh, shit.”