Dark Angel Before the Dawn da-1

by Max Allan Collins

  “Original Cindy's up for givin' it a shot, least till somethin' better comes along.”

  “What is it exactly we'd be doing?” Max asked the Asian.

  Original Cindy answered for him. “We ride around on bikes delivering packages to different places, what else?”

  “I don't know anything about the city,” Max said.

  “You will, Boo, you will. Original Cindy'll show you the way. Middle next week, you be tellin' taxi drivers how to get around this town and shit.”

  Theo said, “Bike messengers cover the whole city. Very interesting… they see everything and everyone in Seattle.”

  That made Max smile.

  “What you thinkin', Boo?” Original Cindy asked.

  “I'm thinking we were lucky to meet Kendra,” Max said, “and luckier to meet Theo.”

  But she was thinking:

  Bike messenger. Ride all around town… an invisible person, wheeling here, there, everywhere… That could work.

  That could work…

  Chapter Six

  MONEY TALKS

  JAM PONY XPRESS

  SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 2019

  Housed in a run-down warehouse, a world of dented lockers and rough wood beams and ancient brick and obscene graffiti, Jam Pony Xpress turned out to be just the sort of madhouse where Max could blend in and lie low, while she looked for her sibling.

  Having had the whole trip up the coast to replay that grainy video in the theater of her mind, Max was now a gnat's eyelash away from convincing herself that the “young rebel” she'd seen kicking cop ass on that news show was indeed her brother Seth.

  The X5 didn't know how long it would take to find him, but this innocuous cover was looking like it could work for the long haul: no one, not even Moody or Fresca or any of the Chinese Clan, had any idea she'd booked for Seattle. Dodging Manticore all these years had given her very few peaceful nights of sleep; but somehow here— in Original Cindy's Emerald City— Max felt safer, more underground even than in LA, where she'd drawn attention to herself and her singular abilities by her cat-burglar activities.

  As Original Cindy had predicted, the bike messenger gig allowed Max to learn the city at a far faster rate than if she'd just been bouncing around on the Ninja, hoping to get lucky in her search for Seth. Living with Kendra in the off-the books apartment was working out just fine, too, though the rent was a bitch, thanks to that greedy bent cop.

  But living in a squatter's hotel was perfect: no sign of Max would appear anywhere in the city records, and amiable airhead Kendra was easy to live with and was turning into a good friend.

  At the same time, Max's friendship had grown with Original Cindy, cemented by Max staking Cindy for the cost of the bike you needed to even apply at Jam Pony. The two women were spending almost every leisure moment together, with Kendra frequently in the mix.

  Original Cindy had found her own pad, after only a week at Jam Pony. Not only was she more independent, her crib was closer to Max's apartment than the friend's place she'd initially crashed at. Every morning Max would hook up with Theo, then bounce over on their bicycles to pick up Original Cindy, and the three of them would ride together. They would get coffee and bagels, stop in a park on the way and eat, then wheel on in to work.

  It was during these light, chatty breakfasts that Original Cindy, Max, and Theo started getting to know more about each other. Max knew she was learning a lot more about her friends than they were finding out about her, and sometimes she could feel Cindy's hurt vibe that Max was remaining overly secretive.

  But since O. C. and Theo didn't seem to be genetically enhanced killing machines, developed in a supersecret government lab, they had a tad fewer secrets than she did.

  A month had glided by since Max had left Moody and the Chinese Clan, and the only thing she had to complain about (to herself, that is) was that she hadn't found Seth… hadn't even turned up a lead. Even the news had been devoid of any mention of the “young rebel” in league with “Eyes Only.”

  Of course, as good as Max was at looking, Seth would be better at hiding. He'd had the same training as her, and— like Max— had been on the run a long time, knew how to cover his tracks far better than she knew how to uncover them. After years of running and hiding, Max found it difficult to turn the process around, to look through the hunter's end of the telescope.

  One thing was for sure: she would never give up. A relentlessness was bred into her— whether by Manticore or her own human genes, she could not say. She just knew she would find Seth.

  The only doubt that managed to creep in, from time to time, was the notion that she might be wasting her time, chasing someone who— though a remarkable specimen, and similar to her— wasn't really an X5.

  Even worse was the possibility that this might be one of Lydecker's X5s, the star of some later Manticore graduating class, doing covert work the media was playing up as the work of a “rebel.”…

  In the meantime, Max found herself in the midst of a new life, and even a new family— some of these other Jam Pony riders were all right.

  The nominal boss, however, Normal— whose work moniker was an improvement over his real name, Reagan Ronald— had turned out to be just as uptight as Theo had claimed. Conservative to the bone, a fan of both Bush presidencies, the oblong-faced, perpetually distracted Normal— with his long straight nose, thin lips, and headset that seemed as much a part of him as his hands or ears— wore his brownish blond hair short and combed back, his black-frame glasses and constant frown making him look like a sad librarian.

  Normal considered Max and his other employees a bunch of slacker losers, which hardly inspired the best in them. Constantly saying, “Bip, bip, bip,” his secret code for “hurry up,” hadn't gained him any new friends either; neither had his favorite, painful pseudo-expletive—“Where the fire truck is…?” Fill in your favorite Jam Pony rider, like for example…

  … Herbal Thought, a Rastafarian with a shaved head, short beard, and ready smile, a generous and philosophical instant friend. Frustratingly cheerful, he was always ready to share anything he had— even his ganja, which Max took a pass on— as well as to proselytize for Jah and the theory, “It's all good, all de time.”

  The other messenger who befriended Max and Original Cindy, from day one, was a scarecrow with long, lank, black hair, greasy strands of which trailed down over his dark eyes. Sketchy, they all called him— a nickname that applied more to his thought processes than any artistic ability.

  More than a little weird (“He the lost Three Stooge,” Original Cindy opined), Sketchy had sold himself out for experiments in a psych lab before he'd signed on at Jam Pony, and many of his friends thought that might explain his somewhat odd… sketchy… behavior.

  Today, like most days, the four of them— Max, Original Cindy, Sketchy, and Herbal— were taking their lunch break at The Wall up the street from Jam Pony, a cement slab where the gang hung out, doing bike tricks and generally chilling. Here they sat and wolfed sub sandwiches from a nearby shop. Herbal passed on having a sandwich, however; his main course was a spliff he lit up— not much bigger than Max's thumb— and inhaled deeply.

  “Ah, 'tis a gift from God,” Herbal said, as he leaned blissfully back against the table.

  “I should become a Rasta,” Sketchy piped in, admiringly. “That's my kinda sacrament.”

  Herbal shook his head and made a

  tsk tsk

  at the front of his mouth. “Ah, but worshiping Jah is not about the ganja, man. Worshiping Jah is about faith… faith and growth.”

  “Growin' ganja,” Original Cindy said, and they all laughed, including the Rastafarian.

  The strong scent tickled Max's nose. “No wonder you think it's ‘all good,' ” she said.

  “Hey,” Sketchy said brightly, as if the idea he was about to express weren't something he suggested every day, “who's up for Crash after work?”

  “Original Cindy could be up— how 'bout you, Boo?”

  Max shrug
ged. “Guess I could hang for a while.”

  The nature of the job— each rider out doing his or her own deliveries— prevented them from tiring of one another's company by the end of a long day; they enjoyed gathering to tell war stories, share anecdotes about Normal, and swap tales of tricky deliveries and asshole clients.

  “Cool!” Sketchy turned to Herbal. “You?”

  “If my brother and sisters need me to be there, you know Herbal will indeed be there.”

  “Don't refer to yourself in the third person, my brother,” Original Cindy said, frowning. “Original Cindy don't dig that affected shit.”

  Everybody looked at her, not sure whether she was kidding; and they never found out.

  “Okay,” Sketchy said, eyes glittering, proud of himself for organizing something that happened almost every day. “We all meet at Crash!”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Max said, rising, only half her sandwich eaten. “Gotta bounce— Normal's loaded me up with every shit delivery that came in today.”

  Original Cindy shrugged, smirked. “He jus' knows you can go into any nasty part of town, and come out with your ass in one piece.”

  Sketchy frowned in fragmented thought. “Wouldn't that be… two pieces?”

  Max left them to argue that one out.

  Over the course of the afternoon, she made four deliveries. The first was to a place way the hell up on Hamlin Street, by Portage Bay; the next on the way back on East Aloha Street, just off Twenty-third Avenue East; the third on Boylston near Broadway; and the last turned out to be the Sublime Laundry, downtown.

  The place— a combo Laundromat and dry cleaner— looked less than sublime, and too dingy to launder anything except maybe money. The Asian woman behind the counter was about as friendly as a Manticore training officer. Shorter than Max, her black hair tied back in a severe bun, the woman had a raisin face with raisin eyes, and a mistrustful expression.

  “Package for Vogelsang,” Max announced.

  “I take.”

  “I kinda don't think you're Daniel Vogelsang.”

  “I take.”

  “Mr. Vogelsang has to sign— it's marked confidential, and only Mr. Vogelsang can sign for it.”

  “I take.”

  Max glanced at the ceiling, rolled her eyes, and thought

  the hell with it.

  “Look, if Mr. Vogelsang isn't here, I'll just have to come back another time.”

  “I take.”

  “You

  can't

  take, you aren't him and you can't sign.” Max turned on her heels and headed for the door, the woman's language of choice moving from English to Chinese, her vocabulary expanding considerably from the two words Max had previously heard.

  Max had enough Chinese training to know that some of the names she was being called should earn the woman a chance to have her mouth washed out with soap, and even in this shithole laundry, soap wasn't in short supply…

  But Max was learning to choose her battles more wisely, these days— attracting attention in Seattle was not on the itinerary.

  As she reached the door, a male voice behind her boomed: “Ahm Wei, what the hell's going on out here?”

  Max turned to see a heavyset man with blond crew-cut hair, mild features, and a goatee on a droopy-eyed bucket head, wearing baggy slacks and a Hawaiian slept-in shirt.

  “She got package,” Ahm Wei said. “She no leave.”

  “Ahm Wei, you know when they need my signature, you're supposed to come get me… Young lady! Hold up there.”

  Max sighed and swiveled. “You Vogelsang?”

  “Could be.”

  “You take?” Max mimicked, her patience growing thin, holding out the package. “If you're Vogelsang, this package is marked confidential, which means it has to be signed for personally. No tickee, no laundry, get it?”

  “Punk-ass mouth on you,” the guy muttered. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm Vogelsang. Come on in back— I don't do my business out here.”

  Already tired of this rigmarole, but not wanting to have to deal with Normal about the rejected package, Max let out another world-weary sigh and followed Vogelsang through double doors into a cramped office. Max's trained eyes automatically took it all in: washer parts, jugs of dry-cleaning chemicals, unidentified stacks of boxes, typical backroom stuff.

  But centrally, in front of a wall of battered file cabinets stacked with more boxes and papers, a maple desk squatted, arrayed with piles of papers, the occasional Twinkie box, and empty Chinese takeout containers… a swivel chair behind the desk, a comfortable client's chair opposite, beige walls adorned with bulletin boards bearing police circulars and such…

  what was this place?

  Max handed the frumpy bear of a man the signature pad, he put on reading glasses and signed where he'd been told, and she asked, “What the hell do you do back here?”

  “Private investigations.”

  Her eyes widened a little. “You're a detective, huh?… What

  kind

  of investigations?”

  He handed her the clipboard, she handed him the package, wrapped in brown paper; it was a little smaller than a shoe box.

  “You know, divorces, runaways, skip trace, stuff like that.” He finally tore his eyes from the package and looked up at her— in his business, even invisible people like messengers rated a once-over. “Why?”

  “If I was looking for someone, you could find them.”

  “I could try.”

  Without an invitation, she eased into the chair opposite Vogelsang, hooked a leg over its arm. “So— what's something like that cost?”

  Vogelsang stroked his bearded chin, the package all but forgotten; tossed his glasses on the desk and took the chair back there. “Depends.”

  “That's a great answer.”

  “Depends on who we're looking for… and how much they don't want to be found.”

  A sour feeling blossomed in Max's stomach. Already, she could see where this was heading: money. She'd been living the straight life since she and Original Cindy had landed in Seattle, hadn't pulled a single score; and to tell the truth, she sort of liked it. But she had to find her sibs.

  “All right, Mr. Vogelsang— give me an estimate.”

  Big shoulders made a tiny shrug. “Thousand-dollar retainer against two hundred a day… plus expenses.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You high? I'm a freakin' bike messenger!”

  He shrugged, putting the reading glasses back on, his attention returning to the package.

  “This office isn't exactly uptown,” Max pointed out. “How can you charge rates like that?”

  “The uptown offices don't have my downtown connections… The private eye game is a dirty one.”

  “So you set up shop behind a laundry.”

  He peered at her over the reading glasses. “Are we done here?”

  “Okay, Mr. Vogelsang… let's say I get you the money… ”

  He threw the glasses on the desk again. “You got that kind of cash?”

  “I can get it.”

  “Little girl like you.”

  “Don't pry into

  my

  business, Mr. Vogelsang.”

  “I won't.” He grinned at her; he was like a big naughty hound dog. “Unless somebody pays me to… ”

  “If they do, I'll double whatever they give you. I'd be buying loyalty, as well as discretion.”

  The detective was studying her, taking in her confident manner, her youth obviously troubling him.

  She brushed by that, asking, “How long to get results?”

  “This is a missing person?”

  “Yes.”

  “Without much information to go on?”

  “If I had information, I wouldn't need you, would I?”

  Another tiny shrug from the big shoulders. “Searching for people is not an exact science, uh… what's your name?”

  “Max.”

  “Just Max?”

  “That a problem?”

&n
bsp; “Not if you pay in cash.”

  “Count on it.”

  The private eye shrugged. “Could be a day, could be never. When your retainer is exhausted, we'll talk. Decide if you're throwing good money after bad. I'm not a thief, Max.”

  She mulled that over for a moment. “All right,” she said finally. “When can you start?”

  He gave her another shrug. “When can you have the money?”

  She gave him one back. “Tomorrow, the next day at the latest.”

  With a nod, he said, “Which is exactly when I can start. Nice how that worked out.”

  “Yeah— it's all good.” She rose and moved toward the door. “I'll be back with a grand. Fill you in then.”

  Vogelsang smiled— a big teddy bear of a man who was not at all lovable. He touched his temple with a thick finger. “Got ya mentally penciled in.”

  She went straight from Vogelsang's to Crash, where Sketchy, Herbal, and Original Cindy had already commandeered a table and were on a second pitcher of beer.

  An old brick warehouse not unlike Jam Pony, the place had been converted to a bar years ago, pre-Pulse. Round brick archways divided the three sections and video monitors, including a massive big screen, displayed footage of stock car races, dirt bike events, and skateboarding, all featuring the wild crashes that gave the bar its name.

  Small tables fashioned from manhole covers were scattered around with four or five chairs haphazardly surrounding each. A jukebox cranking out metal-tinged rock hunkered against one wall, and through the nearest archway lay the pool and foosball tables. The entire wall behind the bar was a backlit Plexiglas sculpture of bicycle frames.

  “Hey, Boo,” Original Cindy said as Max came up.

  With a tired-ass smile, Max took a seat and Sketchy poured her a beer.

  Herbal said, “Ah, how goes the battle, my sister?”

  Max forced the smile to brighten. “Why it's all good, my brother.”

  Herbal smiled and nodded, convinced he had a convert; Sketchy handed Max the beer with his trademark stunned-baby-seal expression.