Not Even Bones

by Rebecca Schaeffer

  Faint voices drifted down the hall, and Nita realized Reyes must have found Kovit. Crap. Was she on the phone already, putting the guards on alert?

  Nita crept down the hall, trying to keep her shaking hands from accidentally firing the gun. Nita had never used a gun before, and all she knew was what she’d seen on television and what her mother did. But her mother rarely brought her gun out around Nita, and on TV, guns either went off when touched by a feather or could withstand pretty much anything without firing. So she had no clue how a real one worked. Point and shoot. Turn the safety off.

  Wait. What did the safety even look like?

  Nita looked at her gun, but she couldn’t tell if it was on or off. All she saw was the dark barrel and a lot of pieces of metal. It meant nothing to her. She hoped the safety was off.

  As Nita approached, she could make out the conversation.

  “Where’s the merchandise, Kovit?”

  “Gone.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Nita edged closer and peered around the corner. She could see Reyes’ profile, back straight, shoulders squared. Nita couldn’t see the woman’s expression, but she could see the gun hanging loosely in her hand.

  Shit.

  If Reyes was armed and already had her weapon out, it was going to be impossible to get her in the cage. Reyes was probably better with a weapon than Nita, and likely knew it. If Nita went in there screaming, “Drop your weapon,” chances were good Reyes would just turn around and shoot Nita instead of complying.

  While Nita was trying to puzzle out what to do, Reyes had continued moving. She walked over to the release button and unlocked Kovit’s cage. There was a buzz and a click as the mechanism released and the door swung gently open. She gestured with her gun. “Out.”

  Kovit complied slowly. Each of his motions was calm and deliberate. His face was expressionless—not a poker face, but like all the things that usually ran through his mind were gone and there was only this moment left. It was a focused kind of expressionless.

  Reyes kept herself at a distance from Kovit as he exited the cage. Close enough that any shot would hit, far enough she’d have time to shoot Kovit if he lunged at her.

  “Where are we going?” he asked, but his voice said he already knew.

  “Outside.”

  Kovit gave a bitter laugh. “Don’t want to clean up the mess it would make blowing out my brains in here?”

  “Yes.”

  Nita flinched.

  They were making their way down the hall toward Nita. They’d be on her in a few seconds. She’d run out of time awfully fast. Her plan was crumbling around her, and she hadn’t even started it yet.

  Kovit was about to be executed.

  Reyes had a gun and was about to see Nita, the moment she turned the corner. Then Nita would be killed too.

  Nita had seconds to decide: What did she do now?

  Nita raised her gun with trembling hands. Then she aimed it.

  Reyes was only a few feet away. She couldn’t see Nita around the corner.

  Can you kill a human, Nita? You, who were so proud of those tiny little morals you found? Are you going to throw it all away?

  Nita thought of Fabricio. She thought of how certain she’d been about herself, how right it had felt to free him. How she’d drawn a line that murder was on the other side of.

  Was she willing to cross the line from being willfully ignorant, abetting murders, to becoming a killer who knows what she’s doing?

  If it’s my life or Reyes’, I choose mine, Nita responded. And if it’s her life or Kovit’s, I choose Kovit’s.

  When she raised the gun and stepped out from her hiding place, her hands were steady, no hint of the trembling that plagued her conscience.

  Then she fired.

  Nita’s aim was good, but not great. She hit Reyes in the shoulder where it connected to her neck, causing her to tumble to the ground with a shocked cry that turned into a gurgle. Kovit gasped as Reyes fell, his whole body doing that creepy, my-drugs-just-kicked-in shudder of ecstasy as Reyes’ pain flowed through him.

  Nita swore, terrified Reyes would shoot back. She raised her gun to fire again, heart slamming in her chest.

  Kovit moved at the same time, swinging around and tackling Reyes, motions swift and ruthless. He fisted one hand in Reyes’ hair and used the other to grip her injured shoulder, tearing a shriek of pain out of Reyes. Her shoulder, the one hit by the bullet, popped right out of its socket with an unhealthy crunch. The gun in her hand tumbled to the ground. Kovit kicked it away.

  Then Kovit twisted around, smashing Reyes’ head against the wall. Hard.

  Her skull cracked open.

  Blood and pieces of hair clung to the cement, even as Reyes’ body slumped to the floor, leaving a wet trail behind on the wall. It seemed like there was blood everywhere—the wall, the floor, and splattered like freckles across Kovit’s cheeks.

  Kovit sat up, breathing hard. Reyes was still. Nita had dealt with enough bodies before to know she was dead. Part of the head had clearly caved in. No one could survive that. Nita had knowingly killed another person.

  No, Kovit bashed her head in.

  Only because you couldn’t shoot her first, Nita snapped back. Stop it. I’m done shifting the blame. I killed her.

  The other voice in her head was silent for a long time before it said, Yes. You did.

  And Nita finally saw it.

  She was exactly the same as Kovit.

  Kovit used the mafia as his excuse—Oh, they’re going to have him tortured anyways, might as well enjoy it. And Nita used her mother—Oh, he’s already dead, might as well dissect him. Is that a bullet wound? Not my problem, too late, already dead.

  Neither of them had to do these things. They did it because they liked it.

  Nita was exactly the same as Kovit.

  The thought hurt. Nita wasn’t a good person, but she liked to think she tried. But in the end, it really was all talk. Just empty platitudes to make her feel good, to try to justify her lifestyle to herself.

  Nita’s hands began to tremble and then full on shake. The gun clattered in her hand, and she forced herself to take her finger off the trigger for fear of accidentally firing again. She shoved the gun in her pocket, but it was still warm, and she could feel its heat, almost burning her skin through the thin material of her jeans.

  Nita choked back a gasp. She was a killer. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry.

  Later, she told herself. You can freak out later. Not now. You need to keep it together for now. You still don’t know where you stand with Kovit. You don’t know how you’re getting out of here. You can panic later.

  Buoyed by the promise, she forced herself to try to see Reyes with the clinical detachment she used on the bodies she dissected. Forced herself to take a step back. That was just an arm. And a head. They were pieces, nothing more. Parts to be dissected.

  It helped, thinking of it that way. It didn’t make the panic attack building inside her leave, but it made it feel more manageable. At least, for the moment.

  Kovit watched her face, searching for signs of . . . Nita wasn’t sure what. Regret? Guilt? Was he worried Nita would shoot him next? That would be rather pointless, after the trouble she’d gone through to save him.

  She tried to give him a reassuring smile, one that said, I’m okay, I’m not going to shoot you. What crossed her face was a warped grin, crooked and slightly off, though you’d be hard-pressed to say how.

  Kovit didn’t smile back. His face had the strangest expression, one that, if Nita had to guess, read Is that how I look when I smile? Jeez, that’s creepy.

  Kovit glanced over at Reyes, then back to Nita. “Why?”

  “I owed you. For saving me from Reyes. I’m just returning the favor.” Nita’s voice was steady. Too steady for having just killed a person.

  Kovit gave a soft, mocking smile. “And?”

  “And I need help getting the hell out of t
his place.” She hesitated. “You didn’t seem too thrilled to be here, so I thought you might be interested in getting out too.”

  He looked to the floor, where Reyes’ body sprawled. He stayed there for a few moments, and Nita wondered what thoughts were going through his head.

  Finally, he seemed to come to a decision. He looked up and met Nita’s eyes. “Yes. I’m interested.”

  Nita held out her hand. “Partners?”

  He gave her a genuine, almost sweet smile and clasped her hand. “Partners.”

  Twenty-Three

  KOVIT WAS THE ONE who scrounged through Reyes’ pockets. He pulled out several keys, a second gun, and a cell phone. But there was no wallet, no money.

  “She doesn’t carry cash?” Nita asked.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s so well-known she doesn’t need it. People here are terrified of her.”

  Nita crossed her arms, examining the body with the clinical distance she’d learned in her dissections. “Why? I’m not saying she’s not a scary woman, but this is a big market with lots of scary people.”

  Kovit grunted. “I’ve only been here a month, so I don’t know the whole story. But apparently she deposed her predecessor. He was supposedly one of the most feared people in the industry. People called him the King of Parts.”

  Nita grunted. “I’ve heard of him. He used to kill his enemies and sell their parts to their families for burial, right?”

  “Yup.” Kovit sat back on the floor, examining the various keys from Reyes’ pockets. “But I think he got his name from the unnatural body parts business. He just sort of . . . played it up when dealing with rivals.”

  “I see.” Nita sat down beside Kovit. “I wasn’t aware he was dead. The King of Parts.”

  “Yeah. About six months ago. I heard Reyes killed him, cut up his body, distributed a piece of him to every major player in the area, and told them the king was dead and there was a queen now.” He shrugged. “After that, she just took over all his businesses and continued on with his work.”

  “She calls herself the Queen of Parts, and her name is Reyes? It means ‘king.’ ” Nita snorted. “It can’t be her real name.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s a pseudonym,” Kovit agreed.

  Nita looked over at Reyes. “So now that we’ve killed Reyes, does that make us the new King and Queen of Parts?”

  “I think it just makes us the people who killed Reyes.”

  She laughed, then cut it short. She shouldn’t be laughing. She’d just murdered someone, and not five minutes later, here she was, sitting in front of the dead body, laughing about her death.

  Nita wondered if she was cracking.

  Kovit was giving her a strange look, but she waved it away. “So, what are the keys for?”

  “Well, this one”—he held up a standard, kind of old-fashioned-looking key—“is for this building.”

  Nita took it. “I didn’t know this building could be locked from the outside.”

  “Yeah. Reyes locked me in the first few weeks I was here, until she realized I hated the market and wouldn’t go outside even if she kept it unlocked.”

  Nita blinked. “She locked you in?”

  “She thought I would run.”

  “Would you?”

  “Of course. I’m not an idiot. I knew I was in deep trouble with the Family—I don’t even know how Reyes is connected to them. For all I know, the Family sold me to Reyes.” Kovit’s smile was bitter. “I thought they were going to kill me, you know. When I disobeyed . . . I thought that was the end. But they said this was a ‘second chance’ because zannies are valuable enough to get a second chance. They’d’ve just killed me if I were human.”

  Nita frowned. “Why haven’t you left, then? The door isn’t locked.”

  “Reyes brought me to meet all the guards at the port the first day I was here. It was made clear to them what kind of horrors would befall them if I left.” He smiled. “I went to the port anyway. I tried to explain that the horrors of disobeying me would be far worse and far more immediate.” His smile widened and warped a little, but then fell again. “It didn’t make a difference. They were more scared of her than they were of me.”

  “Oh.” Having heard the screams of Kovit’s victims, Nita couldn’t imagine what horror Reyes promised that could compare.

  Nita’s heart lurched suddenly, thinking of Mirella. What would she think of Nita teaming up with the man who tortured her?

  You gotta do what you gotta do. Kovit will help you escape. And if anyone gets in your way, you can get him to do the killing while you run off.

  Nita hadn’t realized that her face had squished into a frown until Kovit spoke.

  “Nita?”

  She hesitated, then shook her head. “Sorry. Just thinking about how that changes escape plans.”

  “Ah.” Kovit finished looking through Reyes’ pockets and rose.

  “It’s fine.” Nita nodded to herself. “We just need enough money to make the guards look the other way.”

  There were very few fears that a healthy dose of money couldn’t dispel. Her mother had taught her that.

  Kovit tilted his head. “Or we could take a page out of Reyes’ book and give them her head, so they don’t need to be scared of her anymore.”

  “Also an option.” Nita’s finger’s twitched for a scalpel. She hoped Kovit wouldn’t fight her for the chance to cut up Reyes.

  “So.” Nita looked at the other keys, trying to derail her thoughts before they got too dark. “What are the other keys for?”

  “This one is her house.” Kovit held up a square metal fob, like a garage opener.

  Nita blinked. “She has a house here?”

  “Yeah. I can take you there. I’ve been a few times.” He looked over at Reyes. “It requires thumbprint access, though.”

  Nita shrugged, pulled Kovit’s spare switchblade out of her pocket, and removed Reyes’ thumb. The switchblade didn’t like hitting bone, so Nita went a little deeper and dislocated the thumb so she only had flesh to cut through. It was a good feeling, sinking the knife into flesh. She always loved how skin resisted before it tore, but once you were in, the knife always just seemed to glide through. Well, until you hit bone. Or cartilage. Or other things.

  Finally she stood and gestured to the door, still holding Reyes’ thumb. “Shall we?”

  Kovit watched her, dark eyes wide. An expression flitted across his face, too fast for Nita to read. Finally, his face relaxed into an easy, comfortable smile, and he rose. “Let’s.”

  They locked the building behind them, just in case someone wandered in too soon and found Reyes dead. And since now there was a key in their possession, it only made sense.

  Kovit stopped her as she was leaving. “Are you going out in bare feet?”

  She shrugged. “No shoes.”

  Rolling his eyes, he ducked back into the building, and retrieved Reyes’ shoes. They were a bit small for Nita, but the fit wasn’t too terrible. Better than bare feet, so she put them on.

  It was still early morning, and it was already too hot, in Nita’s opinion. It wasn’t long before a fine layer of sweat covered her body like a shield, protecting her from direct contact with the outside air. Mosquitoes buzzed around them, and Nita felt heavy, like the air was physically pushing her down.

  They made their way through the market. Kovit took a meandering path that made them go around most of the major market streets, and sometimes other random streets too. He would pause occasionally and shiver like someone had dropped an ice cube down his back, before changing directions, veering around.

  “Are you avoiding something?” Nita asked.

  Kovit shook his head in a single jerky motion. “No. It’s nothing.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  It took far longer than it should have for them to reach the other side of the market. Nita tried to press Kovit on why he kept detouring, but he ignored her questions.

  He l
ed her down a path through the jungle. It wound around enough that Nita couldn’t see where it ended. Kovit started down it, his feet sure. Nita followed, careful to avoid the low-hanging branches and jutting roots.

  The deeper she went, the more any evidence of human presence disappeared. If she woke up here, she’d never have imagined there was a market a few steps away. Even the sound was erased, no hum of generators or clatter of people. The jungle was too loud. Nita hadn’t realized how the market muted things. She’d only faintly heard the noises of the rainforest. But here, between the trees, the level of noise was overpowering.

  It didn’t feel real, like she’d stepped onto the set of Tarzan, or some Disney movie. She almost expected to turn a corner and walk up to a pond covered in lily pads, with a singing princess lounging on a log.

  As she continued into the forest, everything grew darker. It had been light when they left, but the canopy blocked out so much of the sun that it seemed like twilight in the jungle. Mosquitos buzzed, nipping as she went. Nita scratched absently, and then realized she could quell the allergic reaction causing the itch. She did so immediately.

  She tried to be careful—she didn’t want to dislodge some poisonous bug from a branch and have it fall on her and bite her. Everywhere she went, giant bugs hung on webs, sat on leaves, or scuttled across her path. And she had no idea which ones she was supposed to be wary of.

  She was almost relieved when she saw a tarantula on the ground. Those, she knew, weren’t fatally poisonous. Just big and gross. It was weirdly relieving to finally recognize something and know that it wasn’t dangerous to her.

  Ahead of her, Kovit moved with confidence. While he certainly wasn’t vampire-silent in his movements, he was quieter than Nita. She tried to step where he stepped, but she seemed to make far more noise. Maybe it wasn’t where he stepped but how he stepped? She wasn’t sure.

  Eventually, the trees thinned, and they appeared in a small clearing.

  In the center was a mansion.

  Made of a combination of wood, concrete, and something matte that might have been plastic, it looked like the modern version of the Swiss Family Robinson’s house. Two floors, with windows shuttered and locked. The outside had mostly been left unpainted, except around the doors and windows, which were outlined in a pale blue.