Now I was back, and all had been forgiven. Their sudden display of optimism was infectious, and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I found myself daring to believe. Maybe there really was hope for the undercity, and hope for the fae... maybe even for ogres.
I felt a great swelling of pride and love in my heart, which was immediately followed by the stark realization that I could not let them down. My plan had to work. If it didn’t, if I failed them again... I couldn’t even face the idea.
Tas informed me that he’d briefed everyone on their roles, and that within the hour, his computer program would be ready. The clock was winding down, but so far everything was on schedule. I stood on a chair at the edge of the room and held my hands in the air.
“I want to thank you all for coming here tonight,” I shouted, immediately capturing their attention. “I’ve gotta admit, I wasn’t sure about this plan a few hours ago. Honestly, I wasn’t sure about us. I was starting to think the fae didn’t have any fight left in them. I thought you had all given up, and I was wondering if I should give up on you... But I was wrong.”
They cheered, and I gave them a moment to quiet down. “I was wrong to think that, and I’m sorry I ever doubted you. I know some of you may experience moments of doubt, just like I did. When that happens, I want you to remember tonight. This isn’t about me, or the Governor, or any one of us. It’s about all of us, fighting together for what’s right. That’s why we’re doing this. We’re going to teach the Governor a lesson, and after what happens tonight, no one in the undercity will ever forget just how powerful we are when we work together!”
There was an explosion of applause and cheering. I glanced over at Gen, standing in the corner with Sam and Tas, and saw them grinning up at me. I couldn’t help the smile that came to my face. Everything I’d said was true. We were about to change things. It didn’t matter if I got hurt. It didn’t matter if I died... again. I was willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good, and they were, too. That was what made all the difference. That’s what gave us the weight to put the scales back in balance.
“You have your orders,” I finished. “Sam, hand out the money!”
The next half hour was a flurry of wild activity. We split up into groups of four or five, and divided the money equally. Tas had arranged for transportation, which amounted to a couple of rented shuttle buses that carried us to our various predetermined destinations. I ended up in the Wells district with Gen. We each took a pail of casino tokens and chips, and started walking up and down the streets, handing them out.
It was getting late, and since there weren’t many people out, we started knocking on doors. An elderly elf woman answered the first door. Gen was at my side, and the woman looked at us through the peephole and then pulled the door open a few inches to peer out at us with one eye.
“Can I help you?”
“No, but we can help you,” Gen said, holding out a handful of tokens. The woman’s eyes went wide.
“What is that for?”
“These are a gift from the Golden Chalice! Get your family together and head out for a free night on the town. But hurry because the chips will expire tonight. If you don’t use them now, you’ll lose this opportunity.”
“Thank you, young lady! And you, kind.... Sir?”
Her eyes went a little wider as she recognized me. I grinned. Coming back from the dead was turning out to be a lot more fun than I had expected. I tipped my hat and said, “Ma’am, we’ll see you tonight!”
She accepted her handful of tokens and closed the door. As we walked away, I turned to Gen and said, “You missed your calling.”
“Oh?”
“You should forget about being a cop. You’re a natural door-to-door salesman.”
“How’d you like to be dead again?”
We shared a laugh, and then moved on to the next house. We went through the same process all over again, handing out a couple handfuls, and then moved on. In less than an hour, we had visited sixty homes and handed out more than a thousand dollars worth of chips. Our bucket was empty. We headed back to the bus, which was waiting for us on the lakeside highway at the edge of the district.
“That went well,” Gen said as we walked across the neighborhood. “I’m already seeing cars headed for the casino.”
“I just hope the others had as much luck.”
“Luck?” she said raising an eyebrow. “Right, who knew it was so hard to give away free money?”
We laughed again. She gave me a funny look, and I frowned. “What? Something wrong?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so much. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you smile.”
“Don’t get used to it,” I said.
“Are you worried about Zane?”
“A little. I just hope the joke’s not on me. If I die again, there won’t be any coming back this time.”
That was the end of our conversation. We were at the bus, so we climbed aboard and the driver took us to the next pickup area. We stopped at the docks near the Heights. It took another fifteen minutes or so to get the last stragglers loaded up, and then we were off again. This time, we drove downtown and pulled over in front of the Rotten Apple, a few blocks from the casino. The other two buses were already waiting for us.
Most of the group headed for the casino, divvying up the last couple hundred chips that we’d saved for them. While they joined the line out front, Gen and I hurried over to an adjacent alley where a cargo truck was waiting. Gen rapped on the back door, and Butch let us in. Tas and Sam were also in there, surrounded by humming computers and flashing monitors. Gen closed the door, locking us all inside.
“Everything good to go?” I said to Tas.
“It’s gonna be beautiful, Hank,” he said with a huge grin. “Nobody’s losing tonight.”
“Except Zane,” said Sam. “He’s gonna lose everything but his life.”
“Not if I get a hold of him,” Butch said.
I put a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder. “This will be better than killing him, trust me. Kill Zane, and it’ll be the easy way out. Take everything away, and he’ll suffer for the rest of his life. Every day will be like torture.”
Butch gave me a grim smile. “Sounds good. I still think a little real torture is in line... maybe just a few fingernails?”
I shook my head and turned to face Sam. “I need a favor.”
“Sure.”
“Give me one of your revolvers.”
He took an involuntary step back, clutching at his heart. He bumped into the computer desk. “Hank, why don’t you just ask for my firstborn?”
“Zane would never believe I’d go there unarmed. He’d know something’s up.”
“There are three things you never touch, Hank: you never touch a man’s car, you never touch his wife, and you never touch his guns!”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Come on, Sam,” I said, gesturing for him to fork it over.
“But... but.” He fell silent under my glare. Reluctantly, Sam drew one of the revolvers. He held it out in his palm. He winced as I took it.
“Relax,” I said in a reassuring tone. “You’ll get it back.”
“It’ll never be the same,” he grumbled. “You owe me, Hank.”
I grinned. “No problem. We’ll talk about it later, if I survive.”
After that, Tas checked the security cameras he’d hacked into and verified that most of our people were inside the casino. Outside, the line was getting longer by the minute. Our plan was falling into place. “Perfect,” I said. “Wish me luck.”
With that, I climbed out and started the walk to the Golden Chalice. I could already see the line had doubled as I came around the corner. Those chips we’d handed out were working like a charm. Another twenty minutes, and the entire undercity would be there.
I skirted the line and headed straight for the door. When the hobgoblin bouncer saw me coming, he held out a hand. “Back of the line,” he grumbled without really even looki
ng at me. I tipped back my hat and glared at him.
“I’ve got a special invitation.”
His eyes widened a little. “Oh, it’s you. Get inside.”
He opened the rope, and I went in. The cloud of smoke that hit my face smelled like tobacco and cotton candy and a few substances of varying legality. The bells were ringing, but I could barely hear them over the noise of the crowd. If it had been crowded outside, it was an absolute circus on the inside. I don’t know what the official capacity of that building was supposed to be, but it must have been double that, and I didn’t see any signs of traffic slowing down.
I had to push my way across the floor, trying to get to the elevators. At the same time, I had to make a conscious effort not to touch anybody with my bare skin. Everybody in that place was fae or kindred except for me, and the last thing I wanted to do was start a panic.
Two hobgoblin Peacekeepers appeared out of the smoky haze, shoving people out of their way as they moved to confront me. The crowd gave way, and they stood in front of me with their legs spread apart and their hands on the handles of their batons. “Hands on yer head,” one of them snarled. I followed his instructions, and the other moved to pat me down. It took all of two seconds for him to find the gun. He pulled it out of my pocket and held it up in front of me.
“What are you, a wise guy?”
I shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
The one standing in front of me made a tsk, tsk noise with his tongue. “The boss is gonna have fun with you. Wait ‘till he sees you were gonna try to kill him.”
“I’m still gonna try,” I said with a wink.
The hobgoblin behind me gave me a shove, and we started making our way to the elevator. While we were standing there, I heard a slot machine’s bells go wild. “I won!” someone shouted in the distance. “I won, I won!”
A smile came to my lips. Don’t worry lady, I thought. We’re all winners tonight...
Chapter 16
The elevator doors I had destroyed were still attached, but bent just enough that the elevator could move up and down the shaft. We had to step through them single file to get out of the elevator and into Zane’s living room. The fit was tight enough that I had to wonder how Zane had managed to get his fat carcass through at all.
Zane’s penthouse was a mess. Bullet holes decorated the walls, big chunks of plaster still rested in piles on the floor, and the pieces of Zane’s golden swan were scattered around the table.
As we entered the room, a bunch of Zane’s goons appeared. They came streaming down the hallway and out of adjoining rooms to surround me. I stood in the center, sizing them up. Two were packing heat -a couple of tommy guns with forty-round drums- and the rest had the usual: tasers, batons, and so on. I wasn’t too worried about the latter, but I get a little twitchy around machineguns, especially in the hands of a couple of rocks-for-brains hobgoblins.
We all stood around for a few minutes. I was expecting Zane to appear at any moment, but he wasn’t showing. When I got tired of listening to Zane’s goons clear their throats and shift their weight from side to side, I blurted out, “Am I at the right place?”
“Shut it,” said a three-foot goblin behind me. To teach me a lesson, he smacked me across the back with his baton. Thankfully, he was a little guy and I was in a good mood, or things may have escalated right then. It didn’t hurt much, so I counted to ten and forced myself to let it go.
A few seconds later, a door to an adjoining room opened up and a goblin came out, pushing Talia in a chair. I took a step in her direction, and the entire roomful of Peacekeepers tensed up. A hobgoblin pointed his tommy gun at my face and warned, “Don’t move chump, or else.”
“Or else what?” I said. “You’ll fill me full of lead, and half the other guys in this room, too?”
He frowned as the implications of my statement tried to work their way through the rotten sewage plumbing of his brain. I elaborated:
“You don’t surround a guy if you plan on shooting him, genius. When the bullets start flying, you’re gonna kill half your own men.”
Before I had even finished my explanation, the Peacekeepers across from him started shuffling to the left and right. I would have laughed if not for the seriousness of the situation. The hobgoblin lowered the weapon. I think he was still trying to work out the math. While he was distracted, I took a few steps closer to Talia. I bent over, looking in her eyes.
“You all right?” I said.
“Hmphwmpha,” she grumbled through the tape covering her mouth. I reached out to pull it off. Unfortunately, it was the good stuff. It was stuck on her pretty good, and I had a devil of a time peeling the corner back to where I could move it. Talia winced as I tugged on it.
“Sorry,” I said. I put my left hand on her forehead to steady her. I gave the tape a good yank and it came free. At the same moment, Talia’s eyes rolled back and her head lolled to the side. I took a step back, staring down at her. “Crap,” I muttered under my breath.
Zane appeared behind me, roaring with laughter. “What did you do, Hank? Did you seriously just knock her out? You are such an imbecile!”
I turned to glare at him. He continued laughing, and all the other little Zane clones in the room joined in. I found myself center stage at the Golden Chalice comedy hour. Unfortunately, I wasn’t supposed to be the comedy act. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than a roomful of people laughing at you.
I stood there a minute, waiting for them to get it out of their systems. By the time Zane caught his breath, his grayish face had turned a light shade of purple, and there were tears streaming down his nose. He wiped them away with the back of his hand.
“Thanks, Hank. I really needed that.” He took a deep breath. “Pity, though. She was supposed to watch me kill you. Now, I have to decide whether to go ahead with the fun, or wait for her to wake up.” He nodded at someone behind me. A goblin came forward to slap Talia’s cheeks and shake her shoulders. When that didn’t work, he gave his boss a little shake of his head.
“Oh well,” Zane said, glancing at his watch. “You must’ve really sucked the juice out of her. Unfortunately, I don’t have hours to wait. Guess we’d better get things moving.”
He took a step in my direction, and two hobgoblins appeared at my sides. They each grabbed one of my arms and held me as Zane gave me a sucker punch. My head jerked. He stepped back, smiling as I worked my jaw.
“That smarts a little,” I said. “Good thing you didn’t put your weight behind it.”
He narrowed his eye and lunged forward, driving his fist into my gut. I saw it coming and had enough time to tense up, but it was still a solid hit. I doubled over as the air rushed out of my lungs. Zane used the opportunity to take another cheap shot at my face. This time, it was only a glancing blow to my cheek. Unfortunately, he was wearing a ring. It caught my skin, and gave me a pretty deep gash about three inches long. The whole side of my face went warm as blood began trickling down towards my chin. I straightened up to glare at him, and a smile came to his face.
“That’s better,” Zane said. “You don’t look so tough now... Let’s see, what else can we fix?”
He took a few more swings at me. I did my best to roll with the punches, but eventually it started to hurt. My left eye began swelling; my cheeks and jaw went numb. One of the blows to my midsection succeeded in knocking the breath out of me. Zane’s guards let me go as I dropped to my knees, gasping. He leaned over, glaring at me with his face inches from mine.
“Before I kill you, I’ve gotta ask: What did you do to Zak? There wasn’t anything left of those poor boys. Nothing but puddles, anyway. It had to be magic. I know you can’t do that kind of magic, so who was it? Who’s got the kind of power to reduce an entire team of Peacekeepers to jelly? Who you got working with you?”
I chuckled. It was a painful, rasping sound. Zane bent down close, looking into my eyes.
“Something funny?”
“Not magic,” I said with a cough
. “Banshee.”
His eye widened. “Ah... now that’s-”
I reached out and caught him by the throat. His hands went to mine, trying to push me away. Somebody shouted, and the guards were instantly on me. They caught Zane by the shoulders, pulling on him. I tightened my grip on his larynx. A couple of them started hitting my arm with their batons, and somebody tasered me in the back of the skull. The lights went out.
I came to a few minutes later. I was in the same place, with Talia just a few steps away. Zane was back by the table, washing the blood off his knuckles with a damp towel. I hadn’t even succeeded in knocking him out.
“He’s awake,” somebody said.
“Perfect,” said Zane, glancing at me. “Get him on his knees.”
Rough hands grabbed me by the arms and pulled me upright. They held me there as Zane came forward. He bent over a little to look me in the eyes. “Think you’re a smart guy, eh? Trying to knock me out like that... what did you think would happen? Did you think this room full of guards would just leave?”
I grinned. It must have pissed him off, because Zane hauled off and drove his fist right between my eyes. I felt the bridge of my nose give way with a crunching sound, and stars filled my vision. Warm blood trickled over my lips and down my chin. I shook my head, blinked my eyes, fighting to stay conscious. When I could see again, Zane was face to face with me.
We stared at each other for a minute, glaring, the hatred between us heating up the room. I could tell from the look in his eye that he was ready to kill me. That didn’t bother me much, except for the fact that my plan may not have gone quite according to... well, you know.
The elevator chimed, and the doors opened. One of Zane’s guards appeared. He stepped through the narrow opening of the outer doors and said, “Boss, we have a little problem.”
Zane rolled his eye heavenward. “What is it?” he said. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
A Dame to Die For Page 13
