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Hunting Mink

Page 5

by Niall Teasdale


  ‘Uh-huh. I like to keep my hand in, even if I’m not competing.’

  ‘Nice. Where did you place?’

  ‘Second. I don’t compete that hard.’

  ‘Right…’ Whatever was in that drink, it was working: the burst of energy it was providing was almost a rush. Damian pulled himself upright, feeling a lot better. ‘Uh… Do I know you from somewhere?’

  ‘Ha! That old line?’ She was grinning. Damian’s cheeks heated up.

  ‘It wasn’t… I just feel like I know you from… somewhere.’

  ‘Read the society pages?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘How about TV. I’ve been on TV.’

  She seemed determined to make him guess. ‘I work nights. Don’t get a lot of time to watch anything that I’d be interested in. What were you in?’

  ‘The news, usually.’ She thrust out a hand. ‘Bianca Fullerton. Pleased to meet you.’

  Damian’s eyes widened. The CEO of Fullerton Technologies Inc. was standing in front of him in a bra and briefs, offering her hand. He took it before it seemed like he was being rude. ‘Oh… Pleased to meet you, Miss Fullerton. Damian Inman. That’s… my name.’ Lame!

  Her grin got wider. ‘Bianca. I hate formality for the sake of it.’ She pointed at his chest. ‘That real?’

  Damian looked down at his chest and the SFPD patch design printed on his grey tank top. ‘Well, I’m a cop. Detective. Narcotics and Vice.’

  ‘Woah, tough job.’

  ‘You run an entire company, a big one.’

  Bianca gave a shrug. ‘That’s mostly boredom. Boredom can be tough, I grant you, but it’s not drug-raid tough.’

  Damian bit back the urge to point out that, with the TAATF operating, drug raids were relatively few and far between. ‘Most of police work is boring. Paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork.’

  ‘I guess that’s the same for everyone. I’d better get back to it before the pile on my desk gets too high.’

  ‘Uh, sure. It was nice meeting you.’

  Bianca turned and started away. ‘Maybe we’ll bump into each other again.’ Then she picked up the pace and loped away.

  ~~~

  ‘Hey, boss, how’s it going?’ Elaine Ellis was perched on a stool in front of one of several computers which decorated her workspace in Fullerton Technologies Building A. The room also featured a number of benches upon which sat various robotics and electronics projects Elaine was currently working on.

  ‘The usual,’ Bianca replied, wandering over from the door without any haste at all. ‘I just wanted to check up on the Everglades project.’

  ‘It’s all set to go. We’ve arranged things with Ever. The nanobots are programmed. Projected start date is the twenty-fifth. I think. I think it’s the twenty-fifth.’ Elaine turned back to her computer and started clicking.

  Bianca smiled. ‘It’s the twenty-fifth. I got the report. I just wanted to check that you agreed with what it said.’

  ‘Haven’t read it, but if what I said agrees with it, then I do.’

  ‘And you’re okay going out there for three weeks to handle the operation?’

  Elaine turned back again. ‘Three weeks with Ever? I can handle that. Mostly. I mean, she’s scary, but she’s so hot.’

  ‘She’s not that scary,’ Bianca replied. ‘Okay, she’s a little scary. I mean, she got information out of a guy while I was there by threatening to have him eaten by alligators. Slowly eaten by alligators. But she wants this to work and… Look, you remember June Summerfield?’

  ‘Oh yeah.’ Elaine nodded enthusiastically. ‘I remember June. She’s hot too.’

  ‘For a woman who finds it hard to actually get a girlfriend, you do seem to have an extensive list of hot women around you.’

  ‘Uh-huh. You’re one of them.’

  ‘Thank you, Elaine. Anyway, June knows Ever and didn’t seem at all scared of her.’

  Elaine pointed to the calendar on the wall above her desk. ‘I am aware that June knows Ever and Cygnus, who is also incredibly hot. I’d point out they’re also way out of my league. So are you.’ Elaine had the classic African American feature set: tightly curled black hair, full lips, deep-brown skin, big hips, and ‘more booty than a Cadillac,’ as she was given to putting it. She was not over-endowed in the bust department but claimed that if she had been, her boobs would have been heading for her knees anyway. She was an attractive girl, maybe not model-attractive, but definitely attractive, and her worst feature was that she did not realise she was.

  ‘I prefer men anyway.’

  ‘I know it. It is a fact which causes me no end of distress and frustration.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘I can’t even get you drunk and persuade you to experiment.’

  ‘That, my dear Elaine, is because you get drunk faster than almost anyone I’ve ever met. Oh, I actually met an interesting guy today. A detective. He was running in the park, same route as I use. I lapped him.’

  ‘Bianca, that is no way to get a man to like you. Their egos bruise easily. Is he bed worthy?’

  Bianca pursed her lips. ‘Six foot, maybe one sixty of tight muscle. Broad chest, and that’s always good for lying against. Strong jawline with a bit of a manly stubble-thing going. Hazel eyes and light-brown hair. Nice mouth. Kind of sensuous. I wouldn’t kick him out.’

  ‘Sounds better than the usual types you’re linked with.’

  ‘Who is it this week?’

  Elaine grinned. ‘One of the gossip columns is trying to link you to Fuego again.’

  ‘Oh God, kill me now.’ Bianca looked up imploringly at the ceiling, but apparently God had better things to do than put rich women out of their misery.

  ‘At least it’s not Snapshot.’

  ‘Because they know I’d sue. Are they going to be at the party?’

  Elaine shook her head. ‘Snapshot knows you don’t like him and Fuego is, as usual, determined that the city cannot manage without his patrol. Bony is going to stick with Fuego. He’s not really that big on high society parties anyway. Muse hasn’t made up her mind yet, but Lament says she’s going.’

  ‘Of course she does. She’d never miss a chance to get her picture in the papers.’

  ‘You know, it’s your birthday. You could just–’

  ‘I’m Bianca Fullerton, CEO of Fullerton Technologies Inc. I’m expected to throw these stupid parties and invite people I can’t stand. Oh, Lament will be okay. We’ll let her sing and she’ll be happy. And it’s only until eleven. Then we can have some fun.’

  ‘By eleven, I’ll be too drunk to care.’

  Bianca gave her friend a slightly malicious grin. ‘I know. That’s when we put on the stripper music and get you up on the stage.’

  Elaine sagged on her stool. ‘Oh no. I am never getting that drunk again. Not ever.’

  New Millennium City, MD.

  ‘So,’ June said, ‘what are we doing for your birthday?’

  Penny blinked at her. ‘My birthday?’

  ‘Uh-huh. One week on Monday, you, Penny Worthington, will be one year older and, thankfully, not even vaguely in debt. We should celebrate. Get some friends together. Have a party.’

  ‘Well, that’s a week away, so–’

  ‘A week during which I will be in L.A. getting my picture taken a lot. If there’s planning to be done, now’s the time to decide.’

  Penny grimaced. ‘It’s my twenty-fourth. I don’t want to do anything big for that. Why don’t we just get some booze in and make it just the three of us? That’s all we did for your twenty-fifth.’

  ‘We don’t have the threat of snipers hanging over our heads now, but… If that’s what you want.’ June turned her head as Andrea walked out of her room, in costume. ‘You okay with just the three of us celebrating Penny’s birthday, Andrea?’

  Andrea raised an eyebrow. ‘When?’

  ‘Eighteenth. Week Monday.’

  ‘Uh… sure. I could stand a night in. It’s not like there’s that much point in patroll
ing anyway. I’m only going out to give Twilight something to do.’

  ‘Pretty quiet out there?’

  ‘Too quiet. Dun dun duuun.’ Penny did not sound like the relative peace was that ominous.

  Andrea nodded in agreement. ‘I’m going to sweep through Friendship. The Knights have been letting it slide since Chou died and I’ve spotted a few dealers moving in.’

  Penny nodded in turn. ‘That’s one area that’s suffering a little. I’ll hit the parks in a few. Muggings are up and we need to put a nail in that before the area starts really going downhill.’

  ~~~

  Cygnus dropped to the ground between a twitchy-looking man with an eight-inch switchblade and a horribly scared, middle-aged woman clutching her handbag as though her life depended on it. They both looked rather scared when the white-clad heroine hit the gravel path in Friendship Park.

  ‘You are the third tonight,’ Cygnus said, stabbing her finger into the mugger’s chest.

  ‘Ow!’ the mugger said. ‘Hey, you can’t–’

  ‘Shut up. You lost the right to talk when you started waving that knife around. And if you even think about using it on me, I will tap dance on your gonads. And I’m wearing high heels.’

  ‘Okay,’ the mugger said in a very small voice.

  ‘Good.’ Cygnus turned around. ‘And you. What are you thinking? He’s got a knife. Do you want to get stabbed? You can’t go around assuming one of us is going to drop in and save you.’

  ‘I… Sorry?’

  ‘I should think so. Even if you’ve got your life savings in that purse, and you’d better not have, it’s not worth your life.’

  ‘Uh… no. A-and I haven’t got my life savings in here. I’ve got, um, twelve dollars and change.’

  ‘Right.’ Cygnus turned around again. ‘So, you’re mugging people for twelve dollars. What are you on? Heroin? Cocaine? You’re not going to get anything for twelve dollars.’

  ‘I–’

  ‘Well, you’ll be going into rehab now, won’t you? Because you’re going to do time for attempted mugging, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ the man moaned.

  ‘At last, someone speaks wisdom.’

  9th August.

  Andrea sat on the sofa in a robe with her head laid back and one arm over her eyes. She looked tired. ‘We scared the crap out of eight of them,’ she said. ‘Had to stop when we put one in the hospital.’

  ‘Hospital?’ Penny asked, frowning.

  ‘He ran out in front of a car. Broken legs, head injury from hitting the hood. They say he’ll survive, and he had about eight hundred dollars in coke on him so no one’s exactly shedding tears, but the paperwork was annoying.’

  ‘Huh. My total came to two dealers, five muggers, and a burglar. All the muggers were addicts. I mean, the professionals have all shifted to Churchton and Deale. They know they’re too easy to spot in Friendship.’

  ‘The dealers Twi… had a word with were all from out of town. DC. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m starting to wish we had David Tonaldo back.’

  ‘You’re tired,’ June said. ‘Get some rest and I’m sure you’ll get over that.’

  ‘Probably.’

  ‘What if we go nail the suppliers in DC?’ Penny suggested.

  ‘Uh… We’ll get more in from Baltimore, but I guess I could check into who we’d need to hit and we could see where to go from there.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan. You going to Italy?’

  Andrea shook her head. ‘No need. There’s a big branch office in Washington. I mean, the Court deals in secrets and where better to find them than our centre of government?’

  ‘Do you think they know who really killed JFK?’

  ‘Probably. But, you know, there are some things it’s probably best to just not know.’

  San Francisco, CA.

  The victim was some idiot student in a T-shirt, scuffed jeans, and a rather battered leather jacket. You could read ‘student’ from the logo on the T-shirt and the fact that he was moronic enough to walk down an alley in Chinatown at two in the morning. His eyes widened further as he saw a dark something drop into the alley behind his would-be mugger.

  The mugger was on shaky ground as it was, given he was plying his trade on turf the Nine Kings considered theirs. Their recruits, xinbing, cut their teeth ripping off tourists and clubbers here. Mind you, he looked desperate: he was dressed in light slacks and an old army jacket which had both seen far better days, and his weapon of choice was a kitchen knife. He ignored the look of surprise on the student’s face because everyone knew that trick.

  Mink stepped in behind the mugger, drove the heel of her boot into his right gastrocnemius muscle, waited for his leg to fold under him, and then caught his chin in her left hand and slammed his head into the wall of the alley.

  ‘Kind of stupid walking down dark alleys at this time of night, don’t you think?’ Mink said.

  It was a dark alley, and the student could see little more than a female-shaped shadow. ‘Uh… I guess… Yeah.’

  To Mink, the darkness was far from complete. She could see the slightly perplexed look on the kid’s face, and the huge form coming up from behind him. ‘Hello, Bony. You heard that rather girly scream too?’

  ‘I heard it,’ Bonehead said, and the student almost jumped out of his skin. The big man’s nickname was Bonehead, had been since he was a kid, and he was not the brightest of bulbs, but those who knew him preferred not to use that name. He was built on the gentle giant archetype: six foot four of cosmic-energy-enhanced muscle, buzzed black hair, and quite pretty blue eyes. He dressed in roughly cut and sewn leather, and he looked like a thug, but he was just the man you needed on your side in a fight.

  ‘You want to run this jerk in? I was just passing and I don’t need the paperwork.’

  Bonehead looked down at the shape lying slumped against the wall. ‘I suppose he might be better off in a cell.’

  ‘Maybe. Make sure you take this witness in too. That can be his penance for being an idiot. And for the girly scream.’ Turning, Mink slipped her rope dart from around her waist, took a few strides forward, and launched the dart upwards. Then she was gone, vanishing up to the rooftops.

  ‘Who was that?’ the student asked.

  ‘Mink,’ Bonehead replied. ‘You’re lucky. She doesn’t usually do muggings. Must be real quiet.’

  ‘That was Mink! Damn, I could barely see her. She’s supposed to be beautiful.’

  ‘Yeah, she is.’

  ‘And she said I had a girly scream.’ It was almost a moan.

  ‘Yeah,’ Bonehead said, trying to stop himself smirking, ‘you do.’

  ~~~

  Mink loped across the rooftops at a steady pace, accelerating only when she had to clear a larger gap between buildings. Bonehead was right: things were very quiet.

  For the last ten days, there had been very little happening in the city. The Nine Kings had pulled in their horns and it did not make that much sense. So the cops in San Diego and Los Angeles had burned their distribution chain. So Mink herself had destroyed their lab. They had never reacted in this way to anything she had done to them before. Hell, they had even cut down on street dealers, though that might have simply been down to not having the new drug to sell.

  Still, Mink found herself unable to clear the nagging doubt that the Nine Kings were up to something. Changes of tactics disturbed her. They showed original thinking she had never previously noticed in San Francisco’s organised crime contingent. Their boss, a man only identified as Jade Flame, was not a stupid man, but he had done only one thing that could be called innovative since he had taken control, and that had been to start bringing Ultras on board.

  Stopping on a rooftop above Pacific Avenue, Mink looked down and spotted a familiar haircut. Inman was not in his usual suit and raincoat, but she recognised him. Tonight he was decked out in an old camouflage-pattern army surplus jacket, a colourful T-shirt, faded jeans, and running shoes, and he seemed to be trying
to blend in. He was blending in. Perhaps not the way Mink did when she chose to, but he moved right, he looked right, and he gave off no indication of being a cop. Some of his colleagues looked like cops even when they were dressed as hobos. Her interest piqued, Mink trailed along his route as he kept on going down Pacific.

  Inman stopped at the corner of Stockton Street, looked around, and then approached a woman leaning against one of the walls. Mink was a little disappointed in the man, though she had to admit she was making a snap judgement. The woman was of Asian origin, and the short skirt and cropped T-shirt suggested only one reason for her to be hanging on a corner at this time of night. As Inman took up a posture which mimicked the prostitutes, leaning casually against the front of a grocery shop, Mink used her rope dart to drop silently to the top of the signage above them.

  ‘How’s business, Sally?’ Inman asked.

  ‘Slower than I’d like,’ Sally replied. ‘Foot traffic is low. I think the tourists are staying away this year.’

  ‘I’ll notify the Chamber of Commerce.’

  ‘Huh. Girl’s gotta make a living, right? Don’t suppose you’d like to…?’

  ‘Have I ever?’ Above them, Mink smiled: her perception of the straight-laced cop had not proven inaccurate.

  ‘Well, I keep asking. Maybe one day you’ll try a taste. Once you’ve had Sally, there’s no going back.’

  ‘Maybe that’s what I’m afraid of. You got anything for me?’

  There was a second or two of silence and then, ‘You know what’ll happen to me if anyone finds out about this?’

  ‘And you know I’ll make sure no one does.’

  ‘Three more went missing this last week. That’s probably their limit so they’ll be shipping out in the next day or so. Word is they’re using Pier Eighty. It’s a big area to cover and I don’t know more detail.’

  ‘I’ll… arrange something, somehow. The task force will step in as soon as I move on it, but at least they won’t make the shipment. You’ve done a good thing, Sally.’

  Another, shorter, pause. ‘I didn’t do it for that.’

  ‘No, but you can buy your kid something nice. Maybe take a night off.’

 

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