There didn’t seem any point in denying it. I shrugged. “What can I say? The IAA offered me a deal to find them. One they have no intention of ever delivering on, so . . . Oh, no, wait a minute, that’s not a deal, that’s coercion. My mistake.”
Williams sat back and smiled. “Yes. That does sound like the IAA. They are overly fond of strong-arming and coercion, which my intelligence department also says you do not respond well to. I can sympathize. Neither do I.”
“You still haven’t gotten to the point.”
He returned to the tablet. “You were kicked out of graduate school less than four months before completing your PhD. Since then you’ve managed to acquire countless supernatural and non-supernatural artifacts, survived a number of supernatural encounters. You are now considered one of the foremost experts on supernatural antiquities retrievals in the world, even by a reluctant IAA. By all accounts you are headstrong, argumentative, do not work well with others, and have issues with authority.” He glanced up.
“Point?”
“Yes. You might not be the type of asset the IAA values, but you are absolutely the kind of asset the Zebra Company hires.”
I frowned. What? That . . . was not what I had expected. Williams continued before I could wrap my head around the strange turn of events.
“We offer our employees incentives. Everyone is paid on salary, and we include a percentage of contracts completed and bonuses on top of that. We also don’t force anyone into missions, and unlike the IAA, I listen to my experts and work with people’s talents and faults, not against them. I don’t believe in beating obedience into racehorses; if you want obedience, you shouldn’t be in the thoroughbred business.” He smiled. “It’s why I’m still alive.”
I’d be lying if I said part of me wasn’t tempted. “You forget, I already worked with a corporation. We had a disagreement and it ended up with me almost shipped off to Siberia.” I nodded at the gun still on the table. “Somehow, I figure you guys do something worse.”
I heard someone snort from back in the shadows. Williams held up a hand. “A fair question. I would say I guarantee it, but that means little. What I will say is that you can ask any of them,” he said, gesturing toward the mercenaries waiting in the shadows. To me he smiled. “Our work is specialized and very dangerous. I don’t lie to my employees about that. Many people can and do die, yet many of the rest have been with me for years, despite offers from other outfits. You can’t buy that kind of loyalty.”
I swallowed. A year ago, maybe even two, and I might have considered it. Goddamn. I hate it when no one is the bad guy . . . and when the hell did I grow morals and a conscience? “Where are my friends and cat?” It was the only answer I could muster.
I expected him to scream, yell, demand. Instead, he gathered his tablet and stood up. “Take her to the others,” he said to his mercenaries as he strode across the cavern.
He was almost out of the cavern when he turned to say, “One more thing to remember, Owl, as you consider my offer. I may hate to see resources squandered like those IAA bureaucrats do, but I also eliminate threats. We are mercenaries after all.”
No sooner was Williams out of sight than two of his men stepped forward to collect me. No violence, no intimidation. I don’t know what weirded me out more—that the mercenaries were offering me a job or that they weren’t trying to beat a location out of me.
The guards gestured for me to place my hands behind my head. I obliged, since they had all the guns. They led me to the opposite end of the cavern before heading into another darkened passage, and I noted they’d fixed night-vision goggles on. I think I caught sight of a canvas tent and an assortment of boxes, but now that we were away from the surface light and the LEDs, I couldn’t be sure. Definitely heading farther away from the exit.
I heard metal clang somewhere in front of me before I was shoved inside, the metal door clanging back in place behind me—a larger and more secure cell than I’d been in. I heard the electric snap of the lock closing into place.
I reached out: bars. They’d already managed to install metal bars and make a jail cell.
I hate it when the other guys are efficient. What happened to leaving me tied up in a corner?
There was a loud meow before I felt something small brush up against my leg.
“Oh thank God you’re back,” I heard Carpe say. “That cat hasn’t shut up.”
Captain let out a series of chirps. I figured he was giving me some kind of an update, not that I understood cat. “He still hasn’t shut up,” I said.
“No, but at least the noises have changed.”
I couldn’t see, but still I felt for the lock. “Where’s Rynn?” I whispered.
“They took him away about fifteen minutes ago,” Carpe whispered back.
I swore. I didn’t like thinking about what these guys would do to Rynn, especially since they knew he was one of the supernaturals, but there was no sense or use in letting my imagination do its worst . . . not until we saw what condition they brought him back in. I turned my attention onto the lock.
“No good” came Carpe’s voice. I turned and tried to narrow in on his voice, but even though my eyes had adjusted, I still couldn’t pick him out in the dim room.
“I already tried the lock,” he continued. “So did your boyfriend. It’s not un-pickable exactly but might as well be.”
I stuck my hand out until I touched the curved alcove wall. If I had to guess, I’d say the spot they’d picked for a jail wasn’t large.
“Big enough for three or four people uncomfortably,” Carpe offered.
Smaller spaces meant fewer possible exits. I started toward him, making my way carefully across the uneven floor, using the wall as much as I could.
“To the left . . . and watch out for the—” Carpe started.
I stumbled and landed hard on my knees.
“Hole,” Carpe finished.
I decided crawling was the smarter option until I reached a shoe. We spent a number of uncomfortable moments in silence while I managed to seat myself in the oddly shaped and small alcove cum jail cell. Unlike where I’d woken up and been questioned, this spot most definitely did have the metallic and stale smell of the caverns.
“Did they interrogate you first?” I asked as Captain continued to inspect me now that I was closer to his level.
“I . . . ah . . . no. They haven’t bothered asking me anything yet, though they did take my computers. Won’t find anything on them, I don’t care how good their tech department is.”
“Please tell me you two managed to work out an escape plan while I was out?”
“Yeah, ah, potential for escape is low—at least until we get a break. Two guards on either end at all times, no delays in shift changes, and on top of that, only three of us can see.”
“Is there any good news in there?”
“Well, while we’ve been tied up and you’ve been out, the World Quest guys got back to us,” Carpe said.
I frowned at him—or figured I did. It wasn’t like I could see well. “I thought they took all your devices.”
“I have my ways.”
I sighed. From the way he caged his answer, I was almost certain I didn’t want to know what those methods were—or where they were. And somehow, when it came to Michigan and Texas’s demands, good news was about the last thing that popped to mind. “What did they say?”
“They gave me a meeting time. The caverns—it matches the one we were in.”
Where we’d found the gate. Not that I was certain I wanted to be anywhere near it . . .
“Tell them there’s a good chance we might have to raincheck. And while you’re at it, see if you can get Lady Siyu an update on the mercenaries, and tell her—” What? That we were close to getting the armor? Not a chance. “That there’s been a complication. Will explain later.”
“I am
not contacting a Naga—oomph! All right, fine,” he said after I kicked him. “I’ll send the message. But even if the Dragon had his own private army, which he doesn’t, they’d still have to get here—”
“Just do it. You’d be surprised what the snake can do when motivated.”
We both fell silent as noises and the scrape of boots against stone reached us. A moment later, the doors clanked back open. There was an exhale of breath as someone was shoved in.
I held my breath. Rynn.
The door clanged shut and the electric lock snapped back into place. I waited until the boots had retreated before whispering, “Rynn?”
“I’m fine. A little worse for wear, but they got what they wanted out of me. Mostly questions about World Quest, and what our stake was in this.”
“What did you tell them?” I said.
“The truth more or less. That we were here for an artifact, but, considering your history with the IAA—”
“That if I happened to run across the dynamic duo I wasn’t above taking them out from under their noses and screwing their day up?”
“Something like that. I think they bought it. They strike me as more willing to deal than coerce, even with the supernatural.”
I nodded to myself more than Rynn. “I got the same impression off the one I spoke with too, Williams—or that’s what he wanted me to think.”
“Williams?” Rynn said, surprise in his voice. “Somehow I’m not surprised he’s here himself. We’ve never had the displeasure of meeting, but I know his reputation.”
Carpe however had a much different, fear-driven reaction. “Williams? He’s behind this?”
“How do you know who he is?” Rynn asked, sounding suspicious.
“Hello? World-class digital surveillance and hacker here, remember?”
“Yet I notice you had no idea they were coming,” Rynn said, the suspicion still layered in his voice.
“I’m exceptional, not omnipotent. You realize they have digital security too? An entire digital team. I mean, I still managed to get into their email, and a couple of their grunts are idiots—I mean, who streams porn on their phone while they’re supposed to be on a covert mission? Worms, Trojan horses, anyone?”
“Mercenary porn-watching habits are not relevant, Carpe!” I said.
“Sort of relevant. I mean—”
“At all!”
There was an uncomfortable moment of silence that passed over us. “The point I’m trying to make is I figured out how they found us,” Carpe said. “Remember the brunette woman wearing the white anorak who was harassing Hermes? Here,” he said. A dim LED light went on in his hand, which he angled toward me. It wasn’t a light but a small phone that fit into the palm of his hand and was flatter than anything I’d ever seen. How he’d managed to keep it from the mercenaries aside, I could see the employee shot clearly with the Zebra logo hat.
“Apparently Hermes isn’t omnipotent either,” Carpe said, “which strikes me as a bit ironic. Or he just figured this would keep things more entertaining. Fifty-fifty odds on that.”
Somehow, I didn’t think Hermes was the type. Then again, maybe watching me try to weasel my way out of a makeshift prison cell was his idea of a good time.
“And we don’t know that he didn’t,” Carpe insisted, sounding more nervous than he had a moment before. He turned what little light there was from the phone on his face. “Seriously, Williams is bad news, even amongst the mercenaries. Alix, he hates supernaturals as much as you do—or used to,” he said, shooting a surreptitious sideways glance at Rynn. “Except rather than express himself with witty quips and repartee, he expresses his distaste with violence and a wide assortment of firearms.”
“He offered me a job,” I said. When the two of them looked at me, I added, “I didn’t take it.”
Rynn shook his head. “We’ll worry about Williams if it comes to that. Right now we have a much bigger problem,” he said as he searched my face. I noted Carpe was also giving me a sidelong glance.
I looked between the two of them. “What? What is it you two geniuses aren’t telling me?”
It was Rynn who spoke. “I don’t think they just want the suit, Alix. I think the elves’ plan all along was to have it possess you.”
I went cold.
“There is no way that was the original plan—” Carpe started.
“Yet even you had to agree it now seems the most likely.”
Carpe was still fuming, but he didn’t offer any more argument.
That was what the elves had been hiding. I bet they’d even known it was in Shangri-La, which was why the World Quest time line had been ratcheted up. They hadn’t wanted me to find the suit; they’d wanted to deliver me to it.
“How did they even know it would want me? The suit only finds a host it likes every few hundred years—if that.”
“The archives,” Rynn said. “They probably have information on every victim the suit has ever taken.”
We both turned to Carpe. “I swear, I didn’t know!”
“What did you know?” I said, not bothering to hide the venom in my own voice. “And don’t even try to tell me you didn’t know something.”
“All I knew was that they wanted the armor,” Carpe said. After a moment he dropped his gaze and begrudgingly added, “And after you retrieved the book, it was suggested you were the best person to get it—provided no one stepped on the dragon’s toes this time.”
I lunged at him, the LED light casting sinister shadows where my arms reached for him. I don’t know what exactly I planned to do, but it involved violence. And to think I’d defended him to Rynn as my friend.
“And you didn’t think for one moment that me knowing any of that was important?” I straddled him, pinning him down. Good thing elves didn’t weigh much.
Carpe tried to block my hands as they went for his neck. “Well now it is, and so I’m telling you!”
“Alix!” Rynn said, wrapping his arms around me and dragging me off Carpe. When I was on the other side of our too-small cell he added, “That won’t help us get out of here any sooner—next time the armor might not be willing to let go.”
I took a deep, long breath. As if I’d needed any more incentive to get out of here . . . But Rynn was right. I could hit Carpe later.
We all heard the buzz of the cell phone, softer than a normal phone but noticeable in the close quarters.
“It’s Lady Siyu,” Carpe said, and handed it to me. How to broach the new predicament? Sorry, the elves planned on sending me to slaughter? You can tell them to keep their bargain and kiss my ass. . . .
“Keep it quick,” Carpe said. “I don’t want the Zebras picking up the signal.”
I made a face and held the phone to my ear. “Hello?” I whispered.
“Do you have the armor yet? Yes or no will suffice,” Lady Siyu said.
“Ah no, but there’s a complication. A big one—”
She cut me off. “Then I suggest you stop wasting time in a mercenary jail cell and find it.”
“Ah yeah, a little help with that would be much appreciated.”
There was a hiss. “They’re humans, therefore your problem. Now find a way to deal with them or you’ll be wishing you were back in that cell by the time I’m done meting out your punishment. And don’t return without the armor.” And with that, she hung up.
I stared at the phone then held it up to Rynn, his face illuminated by the dim LED. “Well. That went well.” Oh, if she only knew what she was saying . . . then again, showing up at the Japanese Circus wearing the armor might be giving Lady Siyu her just desserts.
I handed the phone back to Carpe. “No help from her. On to plan B. We need a distraction.”
I heard the intake of breath. “About that,” Carpe said. “Something Lady Siyu said gave me an idea, about humans being human problems.”
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“What exactly do you have in mind?” Rynn asked, his voice guarded.
“Just that we do as Lady Siyu suggests—let the humans take care of our current human problem.”
Rynn caught on. “Which humans that want Owl dead did you have in mind?” Rynn asked.
“Oh, I think I know exactly the ones,” I said.
We heard the commotion outside well before the guards showed up outside our makeshift cage. Muffled, but the shouting and occasional gunfire were unmistakable.
When they did show up, they were moving quickly, and sweat was traveling down their faces. And there were only two. Two. That was even better than we’d anticipated. It had to mean the party-crashing committee Carpe leaked my location to had come in full force.
They grabbed Carpe first, as he was closest to the entrance, then made an effort to secure Rynn as well as they could with a pair of zip ties. Then, as if I was an afterthought, two guns were shoved in my face before the guards gestured toward the cavern tunnel.
“Wouldn’t be having problems with the locals, now, would you?” I asked, exchanging a look with Rynn, then Carpe.
All we had to do was stick to the plan. One of the guards positioned himself behind me and shoved me forward when he figured I was watching my companions too closely. I clenched my hands.
“What’s the occasion?” I asked. “And what about my cat?”
There was no answer. For one, they were professionals, but secondly, Captain was already following out of his own volition. Captain knows where his cat kibble is buttered. Still, answers weren’t the point; distraction was. “You taking us out to walk the plank or whatever else you mercenaries do for fun?”
“Those are pirates, Alix,” Carpe offered.
“Really don’t think this is the time to split hairs,” I said.
Owl and the Electric Samurai Page 30
