“We have to be ready for all kinds of things,” Carter said. “In this case, though, I can’t take the credit – I have a splitter module in my head along with some other hardware. Goes through all kinds of encryption, even fairly expensive stuff like this. Apparently ol’ Jackie here doesn’t realize that ‘expensive’ doesn’t always mean ‘competent’.” He squinted at the display a moment, then his eyes widened. “Oh, my. Well, this is interesting.”
Gray sat up straight. “What is it?”
“She’s destroyed most of the data in here, but it looks like something came in after she turned the thing off and dumped it.” Carter grinned. “Christ, this thing is no joke.”
“Well?”
With a shrug, Carter gestured to the floating display. “It’s a mail message,” he said. “Anonymous, source address stripped out. Looks like a message from a client.” He held it up a bit closer and began to read. “Miss Villalobos, this message is to inform you that your efforts to conceal operations have instead caused too much attention for our organization to countenance. It has come to our attention that your efforts have drawn the notice of not only an employee of the Civil Protection Corporation’s Homicide Solutions division but the Executive Affairs division as well. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw our support of the operation. You may therefore consider our partnership terminated, and all necessary steps taken in order to conceal our involvement in your activities.” His brows arched. “Do not attempt to contact us again.”
They were both quiet for a moment, and then Carter shook his head. “An angel passed,” he murmured to himself. “All right, so she’s got a lot worse trouble than Civil Protection, that’s for sure.”
“How do you figure?” Gray asked the question, but he figured he already knew the answer.
“Come on, Dan,” said Carter, wrinkling his nose. “You know how this shadowy shit goes down. They’re going to send someone after her, and probably very professional. Now we haveto take her in, else she’ll die for sure.” Carter shook his head. “Yeah. We gotta find her, and fast. I have no idea how the fuck we’re gonna do it, though.”
Gray sat there for a long moment, his eyes closed as he meditated upon the question. A cold clarity settled upon his shoulders as he traced the chain of events back from where he now found himself. “Tell me something,” he said after a moment. “Do you make Angie – that is, Villalobos – for the Spine Thief murders?”
“She was definitely involved, I think, if not directly responsible. I mean, we know it was Muller and his little protégé there that killed everybody else, not to mention all those girls at the gallery.” Carter was quiet a moment. “Why? What are you thinking?”
Gray looked up at him. “Muller and Yin killed the others, right? But it was the Duwamish who killed Muller. Now, Anderson was the first to die, sure, but I’ll tell you something.”
Carter’s brows arched. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Gray got to his feet. “If she’s the one behind all of this, then she must have used Muller to make the killings happen – and if the Duwamish killed Muller, then she’s the one who put them on him. Which means…” he trailed off a moment, formulating his reply.
“Which means?” Carter looked at him with anticipation lining his face.
“It means that she’s down with them, with the Duwamish. I think I know with whom, specifically.” Gray shook his head. “You aren’t going to like it.”
“I never do where those fuckers are concerned.”
“No, Brutus, seriously.” Gray was already on his way toward the door, filled with the clarity that the drug was giving him. “I saw some of them; at least one of the gang is boosted with bionics, and James Black-Eyes is a fucking monster. We’re going to need backup on this, I think.”
“All right, back to the car.” Carter’s tone was black as he spoke, and Gray didn’t blame him – but it was nothing compared to what he felt about what was coming. There would be violence, and he would have to face her – and despite the massive amount of Solunex in his system, Gray had no idea if he would fold in front of her or be able to carry out his duty. If not, he was certain that his life was over.
Carter called a Code White in to Dispatch when they got to the car, a carte blanche code that let him call in whatever forces he deemed necessary as an agent of Executive Affairs. A couple of Pacificiation cars, twelve officers in total, and a unit of Special Tactics troops were on their way to the park. Enough to suppress a heavily-armed gang, even if they were borged-up or wired. But on the other hand they were militant souls, and you didn’t send them out until you were prepared for casualties. It was a toss-up between showing up to a potential warzone or arriving at a park full of killers without backup, and Gray wasn’t really sure on which side of the coin he wanted to get.
They moved swiftly across White Center, the integrated light bar in Carter’s sedan running on silent. Gray filled the silence with his own suppositions as to Angie’s attachments to the case. “Villalobos confessed to me that she killed Anderson,” he said as Carter drove the car through the decrepit neighborhoods. “She told me that it had been an accident.”
Carter gave a loud snort. “Dan, she’s had you tanked up on that shit for so long, she’d tell you anything to cultivate you.”
“I know,” Gray said. “I know.” The thoughts were swirling around in his head like a maelstrom of acid, made tolerable only by the effects of the Solunex. He took a deep breath. “Okay. So this drug, it’s been in the nerve tissue of everyone around, but such low concentration that your usual lab dick wouldn’t be able to pick it out, right?”
“Right,” said Carter.
Gray nodded. “So what if…what if this wasn’t a question of Yin just being batshit? I mean she was already crazy, sure, but she wasn’t taking trophies from her other victims. I mean I saw them. They were all cut up, but they were all killed at the gallery. Muller’s notes might have said otherwise, but that doesn’t mean a goddamned thing. You didn’t get a look at what parts they found out front of the gallery, did you?”
Carter shook his head. “Feds stepped in the moment he was discovered,” he replied.
“So what if the spine’s missing from that group, too?”
Carter glanced at him. He was frowning. “What are you getting at, Dan?”
“Look…hear me out.” Gray took another deep breath; even the air tasted like aluminum now, but it gave him the ability to collect his thoughts. “Okay,” he said, “I think that, taking everything into account – including that message you just found – it’s pretty clear. I think this whole thing has been a containment operation, only it’s also been made to look like a bunch of serial killings.”
There was silence for a moment. “Go on,” Carter said finally. He didn’t sound skeptical, but curious. Surprised.
Gray leaned against the car door. “So she…has contact with Anderson, maybe she scouts him when he comes to the club. She doses him, they become partners, or he becomes her….” He didn’t want to say ‘slave’. “So she’s fucking these executives, Anderson takes the pictures. And then what? She has the pictures, so why dose them too?”
“I guess that it wouldn’t be enough to just blackmail them,” said Carter. “Maybe it wouldn’t work in the first place – some of those guys are pretty serious about not giving a shit. It’s not like screwing a stripper would shame some of the outfits they work for, you know?” He shrugged. “Or maybe it requires longer-term exposure. She might have been priming them for future influence. We don’t know how much contact these executives have had with this woman, or for what purpose short of controlling them she was hired to dose them with this stuff. We don’t even know where she got the neurotoxin that she’s using in the first place.”
Gray screwed up his face in thought. “Well, is it important? I mean, as far as the company’s concerned?”
“You’re beginning to think like a company man again,” Carter said. “Glad to see the Solunex is working. Yes, it is important, but tha
t’s another investigation entirely. Let’s get back to Villalobos. She doses them, for…whatever purpose. And then what? What about the murders?”
There was silence. In the back of Gray’s mind, thoughts were still weaving together – sharp, barbed thoughts, like chains of razors knitting into a conclusion that he would never have made without the Solunex. “I have a theory on that,” he said.
“And that is?” Carter sat down on the couch, taking Gray’s place there on the gutted cushions.
“Well,” he began, “Like I said, I think it’s a containment operation. You said that one woman went nuts, right? Well, have you heard about anyone else going dark without anyone’s knowledge?”
“A few long vacations, yeah,” said Carter with a faint frown. “But nothing that the company has any deeper knowledge about.”
“So what if they’re going nuts?” Gray’s brows arched as he said it. “I mean, let’s assume for a moment that she’s been dosing everyone involved – everyone except for Yin, who was directly connected to Muller. Let’s assume Villalobos had gotten to Muller as well, or was working with him. Let’s also assume that everyone else had a purpose for her operation, something other than what we’ve gotten from evidence. People start going nuts, which means that they’ll be revealed to public scrutiny, or at least police – and that’s not good for her.”
Carter nodded. He cut the car to auto and leaned back in his seat. “Right,” he said, “The corporations affected are going to cover up, like we did with Anderson and Hydrodyne did with Zeltz – we probably don’t have to worry about that leaking out, and if it does we can take steps to help contain that further. But people like Askew and Cuaron, people who are independent or otherwise not affiliated with a corporation’s resources…”
Gray nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean,” he said. “Look. None of this connects unless you assume that something’s gone wrong with the neurotoxin and Ang – Villalobos has gone about cleaning things up. A serial killer’s hardly a stretch for this town, after all, and if done competently it would clear up things masterfully. Everyone would be looking elsewhere for this killer while she closed up shop and took off.”
“Very risky,” said Carter. “But it looks like this girl likes to take them. Why dose you, though?”
That was the question he had been asking himself over the last few hours, now that he was able to think halfway. The sharp chains of thought drew tighter around the truth, but it evaded him. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “She likes risks, like you said, maybe. Or maybe there’s something else.”
Carter nodded again. He reached into his pocket for a small flask, which he unsealed and took a sip from. “I have an opinion on that,” he said after a moment, swallowing and smacking his lips. “If we’re going to go ahead with this containment theory of yours. Be real with me, Dan. When did you two become a pair?”
Gray was quiet for a moment. He watched Carter’s face, unsure of what to say – suddenly he was aware again of the metallic taste the Solunex was leaving in his mouth, or maybe that was the remnants of his career again, the career that Carter said that he would salvage. “After the scene at the gallery, when they found the bodies.”
“You mean after you shot Yin and Muller disappeared.”
He hadn’t wanted to admit it. Pride fucking with him again. “Yeah,” Gray said. “Just after. She started sleeping with me then.”
“And when did you start noticing her scent?”
Gray thought about it a moment. “Well,” he said, “It didn’t start sticking in my head until the night I confronted her about the pictures.”
Carter frowned at him. “You told her that you knew about them?”
“Well, yeah,” said Gray, arching his brow. “You didn’t expect me to, considering?”
“No, it’s fine,” said Carter with a wave of his hand. “I’m just asking for the sake of clarification.”
“Oh.” Gray nodded a little. “Well, that’s the night I really started noticing it. And I think…after that…it was never really gone. I was always thinking about it. But before that we were together, and we hadn’t had sex – we slept together, you know, but it was never sexual. Just…affectionate.” His blood chilled to think about it, and he closed his eyes again.
“You know what I think?” Carter took another sip from his flask, frowning. “I think she’s been dosing you slowly, in small amounts, until you were properly cultivated. I think that whatever happened with the executives, she figured out the problem and started over fresh with you – I think you’re a successful case, that’s what I think. At least, while you’re in contact with her, maybe.”
The words swam in his guts. “I don’t feel like a successful anything,” Gray confessed. “I feel like I should have been booted from the company roster the moment I started this case.”
Carter just grunted. “I blame myself,” he said. “I should have talked to you more often – I like you, Dan, you remind me of myself when I was younger.”
“Do I?” Gray looked up at Carter again, surprised. “How so?”
“Because I was a mean little shit who wanted to make Lieutenant in the Detective Bureau by the time I was thirty,” Carter said, and grinned. “It was because I cared, believe it or not, wanted to make a difference. But after a while…”
“After a while?”
“After a while I just stopped caring.” Carter gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “At least, about justice in and of itself. Now I just like to make the collar – same effect, plus I get a bonus. And that’s not too bad, I figure.”
Gray leaned back a little bit, and he frowned at Carter for saying it. “But you’ve always said it was about justice,” he accused. “You always told me that it was supposed to be about the job, not the percentage.”
Carter just gave him a slow blink, like a housecat. “’Do what I say, don’t do what I do’ has been a time-honored policy between the new blood and the veterans. Don’t be dumb, Dan. That’s part of what keeps the ranks in place.”
If Gray’s gaze had any force, Carter would have frozen solid in his seat. “So it was bullshit the whole time,” he said.
“Not entirely.” Carter shrugged again. “I just think differently, now. I guess I was hoping you’d turn out differently – but you haven’t. We’re the same guy, which is why we’re both perfect for this job.” He made as if to speak further, but something ahead turned his attention back to the windscreen. “Shit,” he said, “Looks like Pacification’s already gotten here.”
Gray looked out, and in the near distance he saw winking jewels of red and white glimmering at the border of the park. The lights belonged to patrol cars parked sideways along the street facing the park; Pacification was on the case, though as they drew near it didn’t look as though the gray slab of a Special Tactics carrier had yet to arrive. “I hope they haven’t gotten started,” he said, but almost as soon as the words escaped his mouth the sound of gunfire filled the night air, ringing through the windscreen over the quiet hum of the car’s engine.
“God damn it,” Carter snarled; he charged ahead, where the arrowhead shapes of the Pacification cars littered the street in front of the blasted strip of parkland. As the car roared closer, Gray saw the uniformed figures of Pacification officers crouched behind their cars, submachine guns out and ready. In the dark beyond the park’s blue fence, the dragon’s flame of muzzle flash sputtered as they drew near.
“I guess it was too much to assume they’d be civil,” Gray muttered. He’d already pulled the Henekker from his pocket as Carter pulled hard on the brakes and slid the Lapis sideways into the gap between two parked patrol cars. Gray braced himself against the hard against the howling force of inertia, straining hard against the safety belts to keep in place.
As they slid into position, the car rattled with the rain of bullets shattering against its armored skin. The Lapis rocked with the sudden fury of gunfire, which slacked off as the streeters answered with their own. Gray took advantage of the l
et-up to undo his belt and open his door, sliding out to crouch behind the side of the car by the open door. With some effort, Carter followed.
“Fucking hell,” Carter hissed as he slammed the door behind him; he was on the opposite side of the door, shielded by the Lapis’s armored hull and the engine. He had his Sig out again, the chrome-plated automatic flashing with the lights of the police cars. Carter was lit up with the furious glow of the police flashers and his dark hair hung like a crown of night around his rugged features; his face was made hard by anger, and Gray realized how dangerous his former partner really was. “We have to get in there. Dan, get over and talk to one of those Pacifiers, see who’s in charge.”
“Got it,” Gray shouted, his voice nearly drowned out over the chattering of gunfire and the musical pinging of bullets impacting the cars. His blood roared with fear and adrenaline as he slowly duck-walked toward the nearest patrol car, keeping close behind cover as he went; the occasional bullet spanged off the bulletproofed hulls of the Lapis and the patrol car, lead thunderbolts cast at him by an angry god.
A Pacification officer crouched with his back against the car, socketing another sickle magazine into the compact beast of his service gun. When he saw Gray coming, he flipped up his visor to reveal the shocked but sober face of Eddie Park.
“Hey, man,” Park called to him, his dark eyes wide; he racked the slide on his service gun as Gray approached, calling over the sporadic roars. “I didn’t know it’d be you up here!”
“Yeah,” Gray called back in reply, rather surprised himself. “How are you guys doing down here?”
Park shook his head. “They lit us up as soon as we got within range,” he replied, shuffling over to be better heard. “They were waiting for us! It’s a good thing these cars are reasonably well-armored or we’d be seeing some major casualties already.”
Gray nodded. “You guys take any hits yet?”
“No,” said Park, “But that doesn’t mean much. They’ve got us pinned down here.”
Bone Wires Page 31
