by SL Huang
I sat by the ocean, the waves soaking me time after time, but I didn’t feel it, didn’t move. A handsome man with dark, curly hair came and pulled at me, cajoled me, almost desperate, the spray lashing his face, and then I was in a dim room and he was frowning at me, and standing next to him was a tall Asian man in a trench coat—Rio—
I shivered like I had a fever, and my teeth chattered.
“We’ll destroy them,” said another voice, right next to me, a woman with strongly accented English, and I was sitting on the ground outside now. “There will be nothing left. We’ll burn them to the ground and scorch the earth…”
I bolted awake. The wan light of dawn was just seeping in through the blinds, and my watch told me it was still early, too early to do anything useful.
I leaned back against the wall and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t usually dream when I was on the job. When unemployed, all bets were off, but working…the focus of work had brought dead, black sleep, the nightmares only returning once I was off contract.
Lately, the dreams had been creeping into my employed life. Not always, but here and there over the past year.
The past year. Since Pithica. Since Dawna and her psychic attack—or whatever it had been. Since she had crawled into my brain and torn through my memories.
I still wasn’t sure what she had done. I only knew the dreams had gotten worse.
For the millionth time, I thought about calling Rio, demanding that he help me reverse the mental block that made me unable to go after Pithica again. Even if it meant resetting my count with Arthur, I owed Dawna Polk.
But Rio had continued to refuse without giving me a reason, and then disappeared off to corners of the globe unknown to wreak the wrath of God on the guilty, as he was wont to do. Whenever he dropped back in, he met my continued frustration with indifference or mild amusement, depending on his mood—which, of course, pissed me off even more.
I lay back down and tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use, so instead I spread my guns out in pieces on the floor and set to work. I’d cleaned the sniper rifle before storing it and I’d only fired it a few times, so most of what it needed was a minute inspection to ensure nothing had gotten banged up in our tumble to safety, but my 1911 needed more care. I took longer than I had to, rubbing off every bit of residual crud and coating each nook and surface with oil until the coefficient of friction dropped enough for the glide of the slide to feel slippery. I reassembled it, guiding each piece into place with more deliberation than it required, then loaded it, chambered it, popped out the magazine to add one more round, and stuck the newly cleaned gun in the back of my belt without clicking the safety on. The thing had a grip safety; I wasn’t worried.
The hour was almost decent when Arthur called this time.
“Trouble,” he said, without apologizing for the time. “Just got the second confirmation. Your tip is right. Plutonium—someone’s after it. For serious.”
“That was fast,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Not sure of this yet, but the rumor is someone called Ally Eight,” he said grimly. “You heard of them?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m pulling in every resource on this. We got to get more intel. This is real. Ain’t found out if they got it yet—maybe they’re still looking. But I got two sources confirming the inquiry’s out there. Plutonium-238.”
“Wait, back up—238?” My brain whirred. “Are you sure that’s what they said?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Isotope arithmetic tumbled through my head. “Ha! I told you so.”
“Told me what? Ain’t this a big deal?”
“Plutonium-238 isn’t fissile.” I didn’t have nuclear trivia memorized, but the equations for fissility unfolded in my head, laying out the information for me. “You’d need 239 for a bomb.”
Arthur didn’t speak for a good handful of seconds, and then the breath gusted out of him like he’d collapsed in relief. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. You got no idea how scared I been.”
“I told you, terrorism is statistically trivial.” I might have been gloating a little bit. “It’s not a—”
“Okay, okay, shut it, you were right. What’s 238 used for, then?”
“I have no idea,” I said. Nor did I care very much.
Unless…unless I could snake the job of obtaining it. On second thought, the gig would probably pay a heck of a lot better than Warren would, and since I might be well on my way to having Mama Lorenzo taken care of…
“I’ll find out,” I amended. “But I don’t think it can be anything dangerous, so relax. Thanks, by the way. How much do I owe you?”
He made an inarticulate sound. “Russell, you got to stop trying to pay me for every little thing. I wanted to find out about this, too. ’Sides, it’s what people do for each other.”
“Your experience with people is very different to my experience,” I said. “Let me know how much time you spent. I’ll talk to you later.”
He heaved a sigh. “Good-bye, Russell.”
I hung up and dialed Checker, running right over him when he tried to greet me. “Plutonium-238. What’s it used for?”
“Why, good morning to you, too, Cas Russell. Yes, I was awake, thank you for asking. Are we speaking again?”
“Temporarily.”
“Couldn’t live without me, huh?”
I was still mad at him. “Don’t push your luck.”
He laughed. “Two thirty-eight. So, an ultra-quick Internet search tells me…hmm. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which provide electricity for things like space probes and pacemakers, and radioisotope heater units, which provide heat for ridiculously long amounts of time and are also used for things like space probes. Basically, mini-heaters or generators or batteries that will last forever, that’s 238. The half-life is almost eighty-eight years, so it can provide power for a heck of a long time. Though not very much.”
“What does that mean?”
“As far as I know, and my quick skimming is supporting this, atomic batteries have about enough juice to power a wristwatch. But they’re way too costly for that. They’re only used for some pretty specific things.”
I graphed protons and neutrons in my head. As long as the 238 isotope wasn’t anomalous for some reason—“Alpha decay, right?”
“Right on,” Checker confirmed. “What’s all this about, anyway?”
“Someone’s looking for it. Hey, can you find out about a group called Ally Eight for me? At least, I think it’s a group. Could be a person.”
“Spelling?”
“No idea.”
“You’re helpful. Are they the ones looking for the plutonium?”
“Possibly,” I said. “That’s the rumor, at any rate.”
“Well, let ’em look, as far as I’m concerned. It isn’t actually dangerous. Unless you eat it or something, but drain cleaner’s a lot cheaper. And it seems like it’s kind of impossible to find anyway—I’m still skimming, but nobody’s producing it anymore, not even Russia. Too expensive.”
Expensive. And difficult to find. This was definitely a job I needed to be doing. “Put together some research for me,” I said to Checker. “I want to know where to find some of this stuff. Hypothetically.”
“Hypothetically. Sure,” He drew out the word teasingly. “You’re going to try to find some and then sell it to them for a ridiculous price, aren’t you?”
“Less talking and more research, or you don’t get your cut.”
“I get a cut now?” He sounded like he was trying not to laugh. “Is that in addition to my hourly rate?”
“I’m not sure you’re going to get that,” I shot back. “I’m suffering sorely from a lack of customer satisfaction. And I’m still mad at you.”
“Then I guess I’m lucky we’re bartering on this one. Hey, I’ll start sticking the plutonium stuff in your folder on my server. Does that work?”
“Yeah, but I need you to set up security on another computer for me first. I
can bring one by.”
“What! Another one? What’d you do this time?”
“Someone’s head needed percussive maintenance.”
“Someone’s head? When did—?”
“A few weeks ago,” I said. “There was this guy who didn’t want to pay—”
“Never mind,” he said hastily. “I’ve got an extra laptop with me you can have; I’ll text you the address. Honestly, I don’t even know why I bother…percussive maintenance…”
“You’re a gem,” I said with no sincerity, and hung up.
I fingered my phone thoughtfully. I supposed I should call Harrington next, let him know he could sleep at night.
Harrington, who had given me the tip in the first place, suggesting he’d heard a rumor about the plutonium. Harrington, who was about as well plugged-in to the corporate underground as it was possible to be. Harrington, who was in a downright panic about the nuclear threat.
Hmm.
He picked up almost immediately, despite the early hour. “Miss Russell. Have you any news on the situation?”
“Yeah, I’m on it.” I paused. “Have you heard of Ally Eight?”
“Certainly,” he said. “They are…perhaps you could say they are competitors to my firm, in the specialties they offer. They mainly represent several different Japanese interests.” His voice darkened. “Are they the ones who are seeking—”
“Maybe,” I hedged. “It’s complicated. I need to meet with someone over there. Who’s their you?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Their equivalent of you. If they’re looking for something off the books, who’s their guy?”
“I don’t know a name,” said Harrington slowly. “It may be more than one person. But I could arrange a meeting.”
“Brilliant,” I said. “Do it.”
“If they are the ones seeking—”
“I told you, I’m on it. I’ll call you later and explain.”
“It may take some doing,” he warned. “We are, to some degree, rivals.”
“Just set it up,” I said. “We’re talking about plutonium, remember? Tick tick.”
Sometimes it’s nice when people are paranoid about terrorism. He hurriedly ended the call with a promise that I’d have my meeting as soon as he could possibly arrange it.
I waited for the morning rush hour to die down and then hopped on the freeway and zipped over to the address Checker had gone to ground at, which turned out to be a pleasant apartment complex in North Hollywood. The code Checker had texted let me buzz through the gate into a cheerful outdoor courtyard surrounded by Spanish architecture.
I paused, eyeing the decorative banana leaves and lush succulents, my senses tingling with the echo of the ambush at Grealy’s. It was all too easy to imagine a pipe bomb stuffed into a mailbox or a drive-by peppering the courtyard’s pretty landscaping with bullet holes. I cautiously stepped down the path to where it opened into a first-floor hallway, automatically drawing lines of sight and angles of possible danger.
I turned the corner and spotted apartment 109 at the end of the hall. And approaching the door was a dark-haired woman who was putting a hand into her bag.
Chapter 10
I didn’t think. The math became a near-light speed optimization of the fastest way to incapacitation, and the woman’s bag hit the floor as the back of her head smacked into the wall next to the apartment door. I was in her face, one hand pinning her wrist, the other forearm across her throat. She was a tall, lithe Asian woman, quite young—a bounty hunter, maybe, or on contract to the Lorenzos—
“You go after me first!” I growled. “That was the deal!”
“Wha…” she gasped, choking against my arm.
The door opened, and Checker’s head poked out. “What are you—Cas, let her go!”
I didn’t.
“Cas! She’s not a—I know her!”
I released the woman and stepped back. She coughed, rubbing her throat.
“Miri, are you okay?” said Checker. “Cas, what the hell are you doing?”
The smart thing. Just because my assumptions had been wrong didn’t mean the call hadn’t been right.
“You must be the psycho ex,” croaked the woman.
“What?” I said.
Checker winced. “No, no, she’s just a friend. A psycho friend. Cas, meet Miri. Miri, meet Cas. This is, uh, her place. I thought you weren’t going to be home,” he said to Miri, an apology in his voice.
“I stopped by to pick up a few things,” Miri said.
“Wait, ‘psycho’?” I cut in. “For Christ’s sake, Checker, people are trying to ki—”
“Let’s have this conversation inside,” said Checker hastily.
Miri picked up her scattered belongings—her bag had spilled clothes and keys and a towel across the hallway, no weapons—and we stepped into her apartment, two cats winding around our feet and mewling as we entered.
“The white one’s friendly. The tabby will nip if you try to pick him up,” Checker informed me. I shied away from both cats. I try to avoid animals; they’re even more unpredictable than humans.
The apartment was bright and clean but excessively cluttered, with books and knickknacks and exercise paraphernalia strewn across every surface, and an absurd number of houseplants that made me feel as if we were trapped in an arboretum. I also disapprovingly noted the lack of security options. The door had an additional heavy bar installed, which Checker had reset once we were inside, but if nothing else the place had a truly godawful number of windows, even with the vertical blinds slatted shut. And if Checker knew the woman who lived here, that made the location at least theoretically traceable.
Of course, given that it was Checker, maybe the list of women who would lend him a bed was prohibitively long. I moved a stack of magazines to sit grumpily on the dark red couch, spider plant fronds dangling in my face from up above. “Doesn’t it seem like an unwise solution to solve one problem with a girl by running and shacking up with another one?”
Checker put a hand to his face, and I got the distinct impression he was resisting banging his forehead against something. Miri’s jaw dropped open and she let out a throaty laugh.
“First of all,” said Checker, “that is an incredibly rude thing to say; second of all, despite what you may think, I am perfectly capable of being friends with women; and third of all, Miri is very generously letting me stay here-slash-housesit while she does a show down in Long Beach, where she is living for the time being with her girlfriend.”
Oh.
“Miri’s my dance partner,” said Checker. “I was already watering her plants and feeding the cats so she doesn’t have to drive up here every day. I told her I was having psycho ex-girlfriend stalker problems and she said I could stay for a while.”
Well, that was one way of describing the situation. “Wait. Your dance partner? You dance?”
“Hey,” said Miri. “Don’t sound so surprised. That’s not on.”
“It’s okay,” said Checker. “Yes, people in chairs can dance, let’s all move past that, and the fact that you’re a horrible friend for not knowing this about me, and—”
“That’s not what I—” I could feel my face flushing hot. I tended to forget Checker used a wheelchair unless I thought about it—the mathematical model of a person’s movement was what it was, and that was it. “I meant it’s you. I’m just shocked you have anything approaching grace.”
Checker shrugged. “I’m not claiming to be any good, mind you.”
“Liar,” said Miri. “He’s quite good. You should come see us compete sometime.”
“Well, that’s all you,” Checker told her. “Miri’s a real dancer. Like, professional level. Like, it’s what she went to school for.”
Now that I took a good look, Miri did have a pleasing sort of mathematical fluidity to her, a lift to her posture and an elegance to the equations most people lacked. I wished she was ex-military or something instead.
“Staying here do
esn’t seem very secure,” I complained.
Checker grinned. “Oh, not that you can see. Miri had a break-in about eight months ago. I might have helped her upgrade a tad based on my own new security system, the stuff I installed at my place after the whole Pithica thing. Possibly, uh, without consulting her landlord.”
“It’s pretty rad,” Miri put in cheerfully. “Cameras and sensors everywhere, and if I want my vandals extra-crispy, I can electrify the—”
“Hey! Ixnay on the apping-zay when your neighbors might hear,” interrupted Checker. “Anyway, none of it’s lethal or anything of course, but it’s better than nothing and they won’t be expecting it. Oh, Miri, speaking of—I temporarily switched the panic button to Cas instead of the police.”
Miri shrugged. “Sure, whatever you want.”
Okay, that was all a little more mollifying. I knew how creative Checker could be when he set his mind to it.
“Hey, I just came from rehearsal, so I’m going to grab a quick shower while I’m here,” Miri said. She turned to me. “Cas, right? Make yourself at home, but do me a favor and don’t choke out my cats.”
“I’m really sorry about that,” said Checker. “Cas is…well…” He gave up. “Are you okay?”
Miri winked at him over her shoulder as she disappeared into the hallway. “Fine. My girlfriend’s given me worse.”
“Too much information!” Checker yelled after her.
A minute later we heard the shower turn on.
“You don’t think I have to worry about the Lorenzos coming after her for letting me stay, do you?” asked Checker, his forehead knitting. “I can get a motel…”
I thought for a minute and shook my head. “Mama Lorenzo’s too civilized. She’s strung up enforcers who’ve gotten innocent people caught in the crossfire.” Come to think of it, her boys putting Cheryl in danger was one more piece I could use for blackmail. I wondered if Mama Lorenzo would be making reparations to Grealy’s, too—Cheryl might come out ahead on this. “If Miri’s all the way down in Long Beach, she should be well out of the way anyway. Besides, I told you, I bought us some time.”
Checker crossed his arms. “About that. What did you mean when you said they were supposed to go after you first?”
