I knew at a certain level that it would have made more sense to wait it out, to try to get the support of the Elders and maybe even go after Brutus with the S.W.A.T. team, but I wasn’t in the mood for waiting. I was in the mood for revenge. As far as I was concerned, Brutus would be lucky if I caught him and hauled him in, because now I just wanted him dead. It was him or me.
There were a million places Brutus could have holed up, but my instincts drew me to the Kaiser’s Sea Cliff house. It’s a sprawling mansion overlooking the ocean, where the Kaisers like to throw notoriously big and expensive parties. It’s in a gated community, sitting at the top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. I had a feeling in my gut that Brutus would be there, where he’d be surrounded by familiar faces and he’d be able to see me coming. If I was right, the exclusive location and the high security meant that the place was going to be nearly impenetrable. I’d have to be clever to get in at all, much less get my hands on Brutus.
I parked a few blocks away and started walking. Up ahead, I could see a handful of security guards milling about the front gates. They had closed the gates and were patrolling the area, coming and going in small trucks with yellow lights on the roofs. They were official security company vehicles, the Nightwatch Security Company according to the signs on the doors. No surprise there. Anthony and his brothers owned half the security companies in the city. They couldn’t have found a better way to keep their dirty little fingers on the pulse of the community. With the help of their security contracts, the Kaisers knew exactly where all the money in the city was, who had it, and how it could be taken. Worst of all, their clients trusted them with this information. The clients would have been better off hiring a street gang to protect their valuables.
I left the sidewalk, cutting through the woods, and climbed a short, steep slope. The scent of pine and freshly mown grass filled my nostrils. At the top of the hill, I climbed over a four-foot high stone fence on the property line and found myself standing at the edge of a golf course. The land sloped gently down towards the ocean ahead of me, and climbed up into the subdivision to my right.
It was a beautiful night. The fog hung back over the ocean like a veil of darkness in the distance and the sky was clear and dotted with stars. The scent of barbecued meat drifted on the breeze. It was paradise. The only thing out of place was me, the giant shadowy figure lurking in the darkness, hatred burning in my bloodshot eyes.
I stuck to the wall, concealing myself in the shadows as I worked my way along the fence towards the main road. Up ahead, large expensive homes rose up along the drive, porch lights winking in and out through the scattered maples and oak trees. They were beautiful, but none was more impressive than the Kaisers’ place at the top of the hill.
I ducked behind the fence as a security patrol truck cruised by and disappeared down the road, headed for the front gate. I took advantage of the opportunity to race across the street behind him. I pulled the brim of my hat down low over my face and started the climb towards the top of the hill. A few minutes later, another truck came by and I leapt into the nearest yard, hiding behind the bushes.
The lights were on in the house and I could see a family in the living room watching a movie. The sound of racing cars and music drifted out through an open window, and the scent of popcorn wafted across the lawn. Upstairs, a teenage boy was at his desk working on homework. The perfect family in the perfect neighborhood; the perfect life. They didn’t have a clue what was going on around them. I couldn’t even imagine how the knowledge of my presence would have rocked their comfortable little world.
A security truck’s headlights flashed by, and then it was gone. I was only a few hundred yards from the mansion at that point, and from my vantage I could see that the place was crawling with guards. The building was three stories tall with an impressive column-lined porch and a balcony overhead. The grounds around the place were landscaped like a garden, with flowering hedges of roses and lilacs. Ivy and honeysuckle climbed the walls.
Everywhere I looked, I saw guards. Those out front were humans, there was no doubt about it, but up on the porch and the balcony I saw high-elf gangsters wielding Uzis and machine guns. Through the windows I could see them stalking around the house. I knew that somewhere, deep inside the mansion, Brutus was waiting for me. The trick was getting to him.
As I watched the guards move around, and the trucks coming and going up and down the street, I realized that I had made a mistake. There were too many of them. There was no way I could get past all that security. If I tried, I knew they’d shoot me. They hadn’t hesitated to do it downtown even when they knew an innocent bystander might be caught in the crossfire. They hadn’t given a second thought to gunning me down, or to gunning Annie down with me. Why would they hesitate now?
The thought of Annie strengthened my resolve, and gave me the courage to do what I knew I had to. There was only one way into that house, and that was right through the front door. I stepped out into the street and started yelling up the hill, towards the house. As loud as I could, I shouted, “Hey, Kaiser! I’m talking to you, you worthless scumbag!” As I yelled, I walked. I slowly climbed the street, past the last few houses, towards Brutus’ front yard. All the while I was shouting as loud as I could, insulting him in every way possible.
Brutus’ neighbors began appearing on their doorsteps and peeking through their upstairs windows. “Yeah, it’s me!” I shouted. “It’s Hank Mossberg, and I’m here for you, dirtbag! I’m here for the coward who guns down unarmed women in the street! Where are you, Kaiser?”
I smiled as I felt their eyes on me. I could almost hear Brutus’ neighbors dialing 911. He appeared on the front porch within seconds. By that time, I was almost at the front of his property. I saw him wave, and the guards parted to make room for me. I stalked through them, right up to the foot of the stairs.
Brutus stared down at me furiously. “What do you think you’re doing?” he snarled.
“I’m here for you, Kaiser. You’re under arrest.”
“Arrest?” He smiled slightly as he said that. “What are you, crazy? You’ve got no authority here, Mossberg. This is the human world.” He chuckled as he said that, and all of his little friends broke out in laughter as if it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.
I grinned slightly, but there was no humor in it. “Oh, you’d be surprised what authority I have.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of the pairs of cuffs I’d found in Anthony’s SUV. “Here, put these on.”
Brutus snarled like a hungry wolf. “I’m gonna kill you Mossberg.” He took a few steps down the stairs, stopping halfway so he could look me eye to eye.
“How’s that?” I said. “You gonna have your little mobsters shoot me up, right here on your front lawn? You’re not that stupid are you?” I saw hesitation in his face. “No, I didn’t think so. Now how about you put these handcuffs on before I break your rotten little neck?”
He glared at me for a second and then shot a glance at his companions. “Let’s go inside for a talk,” he said. “I insist.”
One of the guards came at me from the side. He swung at me with a nightstick but I twisted sideways avoiding the blow. I saw an opening and I threw a solid right into his gut. He doubled over, gasping for breath, and collapsed on the lawn. Another came at me from the front. I was bent low and he attempted to kick me in the face. I caught his foot with my right hand. I lifted it into the air, sweeping him off his feet. A look of shock swept across his face as he went head over heels. I grunted, throwing my weight into it as I tossed him aside. He smashed into several other guards and they all went down in a pile.
I turned back in time to see Brutus retreating back into the house. I took a step after him, but one of the guards slammed his nightstick into the back of my knee and I stumbled. Almost instantaneously, another struck me in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. I tumbled forward, stars bursting in my vision. I caught myself and tried to get back to my feet, but they were on me like a
pack of wild dogs. I went down under their weight. The next thing I knew they were kicking me, stomping on me, beating me mercilessly.
I pulled my arms up to protect my head as darkness swelled across my vision. Sharp, stinging blows rained down across my body. I felt bursts of pain here and there as I slipped out of consciousness. My last thought was that I had made a mistake. They really were going to kill me.
Chapter 12
I came to with a start as cold water splashed over my face and ran down my chest. Pain racked my body and a low moan escaped my lips. My vision went in and out of focus. I observed dark shadows hovering around me, and they slowly became Brutus and his companions. I sucked in a deep, painful breath. They’d bruised my ribs pretty good, but I didn’t think they were broken.
I looked down at the bloodstains spreading out across my shirt and then glanced around the room, trying to assess my situation, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it felt. It was worse. The elves had handcuffed me and pulled my arms up over my head. They had me dangling from the ceiling by a short length of chain. The timber overhead creaked with my weight as I swayed back and forth and my feet made a swishing sound as they brushed across the stone tiled floor. If I had the strength I might have been able to stand, but for the moment, I was content just to hang there.
We were in some sort of wine cellar. Hardwood shelves filled with bottles lined the walls. The scent of alcohol, yeast, and fermentation mingled with the metallic reek of sweat and blood coming from my own body. One of the mobsters refilled the bucket with ice water, and threw it on my face. I took a deep, gasping breath, and shivered.
“You’re payin’ for this shirt,” I grunted.
Brutus smiled. He reached out and grabbed me by the chin. “Don’t worry about that, Steward. You’ll never need another shirt after tonight.”
“Get on with it then.”
“Fine.” With that, Brutus hauled off and punched me in the gut. My already bruised ribs screamed in pain. Before I could recover, he nailed me in the jaw with an uppercut. My head rolled back and my eyelashes fluttered. I took a deep breath, grimacing from the pain, surprised that he could hit so hard. As he pulled away, I realized why it had hurt so much. Brutus was wearing brass knuckles.
“You don’t hit like the other elves,” I grunted. I heard a few chuckles around the room. Not surprisingly, the joke just ticked him off. He punched me in the gut again.
“I can do this all night,” he said.
I spat blood onto the floor. “Go ahead.”
He obliged. I guess it wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but I couldn’t think of anything else that sounded tough. I’m not sure how long the beating went on, but eventually Brutus got tired of beating on me and he handed the knuckles off to someone else. I’m pretty sure they all got a turn, but I was fading in and out of consciousness for most of it. Eventually they all got tired. They left me hanging there for a while, and then Brutus came back around to check on me. I had no idea how much time had passed.
“Not dead yet?” he said.
“Getting’ tired of waiting for it,” I mumbled. I was kind of out of it, and I wasn’t sure if he understood me or not.
“Don’t worry, you’re gonna die just like you killed my brother,” he said.
“I didn’t kill Anthony.”
He punched me in the face. It was bare-fisted this time, and I think it hurt him a little. “Don’t ever say my brother’s name,” he said. I blinked and saw tears filling his eyes. “I’m gonna cut you up into little pieces and feed you to the sharks in the bay. No one’s gonna remember you. No one’s gonna know. You’re the last of your kind, Steward. Good riddance.”
He spit on me. Then he pulled away and turned to face his companions. “Kill him.” With that, he stomped up the stairs and disappeared. I heard the door close and footsteps disappearing in the distance.
That left three of them, one holding the brass knuckles and two with machine guns. One of them had an AK47, the other an Uzi. The elf with the Uzi stepped forward and pointed it at my chest. The guy with the knuckles smacked him on the shoulder. “What’re you doing, you idiot?”
“What?” The mobster backed away, raising his arms defensively. I could tell from his body language that he was one of the lower ranking goons. He was probably used to being their whipping boy.
“You shoot him in here and you’ll destroy all the wine bottles! You want Brutus to kill us, too?”
“Oh, right,” he said apologetically. “Where should I shoot him?”
It was at this point that the third guy chimed in. “We’re not going to shoot him, morons. If we make that much noise, the cops will be back here crawling all over this place.”
I noted his use of the word back. In other words, the cops had already come and gone. The neighbors had probably complained about the noise. No doubt, Brutus apologized and said he was having a wild party. He then probably handed the cops a few hundred-dollar bills for their trouble and sent them on their way. There’s a reason guys like the Kaisers get away with what they do. Sometimes justice isn’t just blind, it’s also stupid.
“Then how we gonna kill him?” said the guy with the Uzi.
The third guy smiled and pulled out a long, elegantly curved elven blade. “We’re gonna do what Brutus said. We’re gonna cut him up and feed him to the sharks.”
I decided it was time to make a move. I’d had a few minutes to rest. Between that and the rush of adrenaline spiking in my bloodstream, I was as ready as I’d ever be. The elf came at me with the knife, intent on plunging it into my chest. I put my feet on the ground and then leapt into the air. I came down with my full weight pulling against the cuffs. There was a split second where it felt like the pressure might actually separate my wrists at the joints. Then the beam overhead gave way. It split down the middle and fell towards the floor in two parts. One section smashed down on the guy with the brass knuckles. The second crashed down over me, pushing me forward into the elf with the knife. Fortunately, my hands were free and I was able to grab the weapon as I stumbled forward.
We both crashed to the ground, me on top of him and the beam on top of me. I felt his thin elven bones cracking beneath me as we hit the floor. I got my hands underneath me and shoved upwards, forcing the beam to roll off to the side. The elf I’d landed on was unconscious; the other one was stuck under a section of beam. The last guy panicked. He pointed his Uzi in my direction and let out a spray of gunfire.
I rolled aside as bottles exploded all around me. Blood red wine gushed out across the floor, sparkling with shards of broken glass. The panic-stricken elf struggled awkwardly to release the magazine from his weapon so he could reload. I reached out, grabbed a bottle of ’73 Boutique Cabernet Sauvignon, and hurled it at his head. The well-made bottle clunked against the elf’s forehead and knocked him silly. He dropped to the floor and twitched a couple times before his body went still.
I pushed to my feet and groaned as pain shot through my limbs. My muscles were sore and stiff, and I was bruised to the bone from head to toe. I walked gingerly across the room and knelt next to the unconscious elf, examining the bottle that had knocked him out. Incredibly, it was still in one piece. I read the label and smiled. From what I’d been told, it was a very good wine. I had seen a similar vintage sell for several thousand dollars. I stuffed it in my pocket, hoping I hadn’t ruined it. It was a small payback; Brutus owed me a heck of a lot more than a bottle of wine.
I searched the elves for some keys to remove my handcuffs. I didn’t find any, but I did find a very nice custom-made wand that did the trick after I split it into kindling. I took the cuffs off and cuffed two of the elves together at the wrist. I didn’t bother with the one I’d landed on. He wasn’t going anywhere under his own power for a long time.
After that, I went around the room and sapped their energy with a touch to their foreheads, one at a time. I was satisfied that they’d be out for a while, at least long enough for me to finish the job I’d started.
I cau
tiously made my way up the staircase towards the main floor. At the top of the stairs I paused at the door, listening. I could hear voices in the distance and the sound of people moving around the house, but nothing nearby. I twisted the handle and gently pushed it open. I found myself staring into a dark, empty kitchen. I could hear some of Brutus’ friends out on the porch. The front door was open, and the sound of their conversation drifted into the next room. I stepped through the doorway and pressed my back up against the wall.
“How long do you think?” one of them said.
“I’ll check in another ten minutes. By then, he should fit in a suitcase. What’s left of him, I mean.”
They all laughed at that. I heard a vehicle’s engine start and drive away, quickly followed by another. That was the trucks. Brutus was letting the extra security go. That meant it was just him and his boys now. If my memory served correctly, I’d already taken out half of his team. There were only three, maybe four of them left, plus Brutus. I smiled. The odds were looking better by the minute.
Things quieted down after the trucks left. I dared a glance around the corner and saw two mobsters standing alone on the front porch. They were talking in hushed tones that I couldn’t make out. I debated for a moment whether I should attack them while I knew their guard was down. I was sure I could quickly overpower them, but I was afraid the noise of the struggle might alert Brutus. I wanted to catch him by surprise.
I waited, stealing peeks around the corner until I was sure they were facing the other way. Then I slipped out of the kitchen and headed for the far end of the room. I had to move slowly and deliberately for fear of knocking into something or tripping over my own two feet. I was too sore and exhausted to trust myself at full speed. As I lurched across the room, I couldn’t help but ask myself, Did I really do this on purpose? What in the heck was I thinking, just walking up to them like that? Of course, I knew what I’d been thinking: it was the only way inside. I just hadn’t expected things to go as badly as they did.
Hank Mossberg, Private Ogre: Murder in the Boughs Page 15
