Acts of Violence

by Ross Harrison

  They’d tortured him for the same reason as I’d come looking for him. He knew all the comings and goings in Harem. He’d have a lot of information they’d need in order to successfully take over the city.

  The gorilla heard our footsteps and stood. He spun to us, but relaxed when he saw me. I still had the gun in my hand. I didn’t know what he wanted from me. Maybe he blamed me for his boss’ murder.

  A rumble came from his throat. His scowl and hard eyes gave away nothing as he stepped heavily towards us. For some reason I was reminded of a golem. Had Van come into possession of an ancient Jewish golem? Probably not.

  His hand was suddenly outstretched towards me. If he had held a gun or a knife, or even been aiming for my throat, I’d be dead already. I hadn’t expected someone so large to be able to move so quickly.

  ‘What’s this?’ I asked.

  He held a tiny, clear, flat square in his hand. It was barely visible and being in the palm of a giant didn’t help.

  ‘Data chip. Van said: give to Jack Mason. No one else.’ His eyes turned to DeMartino, who put away his gun. Probably to show that he could be trusted.

  ‘The data chip from the girl?’ I asked.

  My heart had started racing again. Was it really that easy? He was just handing it to me? His face remained motionless and he said nothing. I reached out and carefully took the data chip. I half expected his hand to close around mine and crush it.

  DeMartino let out a sigh. It came with a smile. Probably thinking about how simple it was too.

  I nodded thanks to the gorilla, who went back to the couch.

  ‘So that’s the end of Cole Webster,’ DeMartino said, stepping round in front of me and nodding at the little flat square.

  ‘That…or this.’ I held up my gun.

  DeMartino took it from my hand in a quick and unexpected move.

  ‘I know how tempting that would be,’ he said. ‘So I’ll hold on to this for now. Cole Webster is going to take your place in Anshan. He can’t be punished if he’s dead.’

  I stared at him for a moment. Considering punching him and taking my gun back. But not all that seriously. Of all the things I’d done today, that would probably be the most stupid.

  Instead, I held the data chip up to my eye. It just looked like a thin piece of clear plastic or glass. On it was the key to Webster’s downfall. Even if the data had been erased by the person who took it, DeMartino and the UPSF would be able to retrieve it. I was sure it hadn’t been erased though. Because after seeing the fast-forwarded recording on the enforcer’s datapad, I knew who’d cut it out of the girl.

  ‘I’ll take that, Mr. Mason,’ DeMartino said. He’d given me enough to time to stare at my salvation. Now he wanted it. ‘I’ll pull the data off it and send it to the agency tech guys. I’ll send my pilot back with it if necessary.’

  ‘You go on,’ I told him. Carefully handed him the chip. It probably wasn’t as fragile as it looked. ‘I’m going to stay a minute.’

  DeMartino handed me an inch long rectangle with a soft blob on one side. A comm unit.

  ‘So I can contact you when the information is decrypted,’ he said. More like so he could track me and make sure I didn’t go after Webster alone. I wasn’t about to do something that stupid. ‘And when we bring Webster in.’

  ‘I assume he got away from the Lakeside Rooms?’

  ‘I got a call after you left the car,’ DeMartino nodded. ‘Webster’s men were all killed, but his body wasn’t there. Nor was his car.’

  ‘Shame.’

  DeMartino was about to walk away when a thought seemed to hit him.

  ‘What did that enforcer say to you?’ he asked. ‘You seemed to be talking for a while. Anything important?’

  ‘He wanted me to work for them.’ I smiled.

  ‘And you said no?’ He smiled too, but he was mostly serious. ‘Why did he think you’d agree to that?’

  ‘Money,’ I told him. ‘And a nice tie.’

  DeMartino considered me for a moment. I could feel his eyes boring into me.

  ‘And you still said no,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘You know what?’

  ‘Let me guess.’ I turned to him. ‘You like me.’

  DeMartino grinned. Produced one of his out of place cigars from inside his pristine jacket and stuck it in his mouth. Then he turned and walked away.

  I watched him until he was out of sight.

  ‘What happened to the girls?’ I asked the gorilla.

  He didn’t reply. Didn’t move. I wondered for a moment if the bullet wounds had finally done their job. But when I walked closer, I could hear the ragged out-breaths through what was left of his nose.

  I knew I’d regret it the moment I left the club, but I took off my suit jacket. Emptied the pockets, then carefully laid it over Van. The gorilla scrutinised my every move. He’d got tenser with each step I took towards his boss. Practically hovered over his seat when I reached out. But he relaxed a bit when he saw what I was doing.

  I made sure I looked sadder than I was when I turned back to him. I opened my mouth to tell him I was sorry for his loss. But that just wasn’t me. I couldn’t make myself say it. Would have sounded forced anyway.

  ‘You should probably leave,’ I said instead. ‘More of these assholes will turn up at some point. When they realise something’s wrong.’

  He still said nothing. His face still didn’t betray a thing.

  There was no point in me saying anything else. I certainly wasn’t going to try to drag him out. If he wanted to stay then that was his problem. Besides, he probably wouldn’t take kindly to it.

  ‘At least find the first aid kit for those,’ I said, pointing at the bullet wounds. Two were in the arm but one was in his chest. I guessed at least that one had been fired from a fair distance otherwise not even he would have still been standing.

  I headed down the other passageway. It was the same in the other direction. The same rooms full of the same tables, chairs, beds and implements. Except the last one. That was full of bodies. About six or seven. I recognised one of them as the bouncer who’d taken my gun earlier.

  In his left jacket pocket, I found the pistol. I checked the cylinder. Empty. I tucked it into my waistband.

  The door at the top of the stairs took me back into the reception area. I opened the front door. Carefully. A hail of gunfire would be just my luck at this point. This close to the end of my bad day. But there was none. The street was empty except for some woman letting herself into a building on the corner of the block.

  The rain was still driving into the tarmac like…no, I didn’t want to use bullets as an analogy. I’d had enough of those things. My clothes were just starting to dry out now and I was damned if I was going to walk all the way home in that rain. Instead, I closed the door again and walked into the little room. There was a comm unit bolted to the wall and the numbers of the city’s two cab firms scrawled on the paint beside it. I ordered a cab to pick me up at the corner of the block.

  THIRTEEN | MY BEST COAT

  The cops posted outside my apartment had gone now. DeMartino must have dismissed them.

  I felt lighter. Not back to normal though. After today, I might never be back to normal. But I’d feel better when Webster was behind bars or in the ground. No matter what those off-worlders had planned for Harem, it didn’t involve me. My bad day ended when Webster’s freedom did.

  I paid for the cab. Felt generous enough to let him keep the change. Inside, I noticed a puddle of water outside apartment three. I’d buy him a new umbrella for Christmas. If I remembered. In some effort to feel a little closer to normal, I checked my mailbox. Nothing. That helped. That was normal.

  When I reached my floor, I realised that normality was further away than I thought. Shouldn’t have been surprised. Outside my apartment stood my best trench coat. It still contained the girl. I stopped at the top of the stairs. I was tempted to turn and walk back down and out into the street. Go to a diner and hope she’d be gone by the time I r
eturned.

  ‘So?’ she said.

  ‘I thought you’d drowned in the sewer.’

  I walked to the door and unlocked it. She could keep the coat. No amount of washing would get that smell out.

  ‘You spoke to Jarvis. Did you get him to tell you everything?’

  ‘Yeah, I know everything now. And so do the cops. It’s up to them.’

  I stepped inside. Stood blocking the way.

  ‘The cops? Webster owns them all. You know how many cops I saw there? At least half a dozen a week. Picking out what girl they wanted for the day before they got sold off.’

  ‘You were there? At his mining operation?’ I’d guessed that earlier, but she hadn’t mentioned it.

  She just looked at me.

  I sighed. ‘Fine.’ Pushed the door open and headed for the kitchen. ‘Leave the coat outside. This place stinks enough already.’

  I tried not to look at the mess. I’d actually forgotten I was coming home to that. The door closed behind me. I didn’t expect a gasp when she saw the sight in the apartment and I didn’t hear one. Two mugs still sat beside the sink. I filled them with coffee and passed one to the girl.

  As I leaned back against the side, tiredness crept into my eyes. I yawned. I’d been tired all day but that was the first time I’d yawned.

  ‘Do you have anything I can put on?’ she asked.

  I wasn’t sure what to say. When I gave her the coffee, I didn’t even look at her. Now that I did, a whole mix of emotions vied for dominance inside me. She wore underwear and a vest. Nothing more. Every inch of the material that I could see was both soaked through and grey with dirt. Ripped too. Here and there, dotted with blood. Her own.

  She didn’t seem overly shy that the wet, thin clothing was completely see-through. Nervier than she had been with my coat on, but that was something else. She didn’t care that I could see her body, just didn’t trust what I might do.

  I only noticed now that she’d lost both shoes. They’d probably both been too big for her and came off in the sewer. At least her feet matched.

  Her legs were thinner than legs should be. And covered in scratches. In fact, all of her was thinner than it should be and covered in scratches. Her limbs were ropey though. She was fairly strong. But she hadn’t been eating well and that strength was nearly gone.

  Anger was beginning to elbow its way to the top of my chest. The only thing competing with it now was pity.

  ‘You escaped his operation,’ I said quietly. I tried not to let the pity fill my voice. Something told me she wouldn’t like that.

  Her hazel eyes got harder. She sipped the coffee. She was shivering. I didn’t want to let her leave the kitchen yet though. Not until she’d answered my questions. She was holding the gun I’d reloaded for her. I didn’t want to push her too much.

  ‘Doesn’t matter how,’ she said, anticipating my next one. I guessed it didn’t.

  ‘How long were you there?’

  ‘About a year. Some of us last that long if we’re just the right size and strength. They use us for mining too. The ones that are strong enough for it are usually the ones who fight back, so they get extra miners and we get too tired out and weak to fight back. Then they put us in a few beds. Then sell us off-world.’

  I didn’t want to ask at what stage she’d been in that process. She looked too weak to mine. Too thin.

  There was one question burning in me. Part of me didn’t want to ask it. Just wanted to wrap my arms round her. As though my arms would make her forget everything she’d been through. I had to ask.

  ‘Why did you cut up Leonne?’

  Her eyes snapped up and locked on mine.

  ‘One of the off-world enforcers gave me a recording,’ I said. ‘They were watching the girl. Watching my apartment.’

  She didn’t say anything for a while. Took a few more sips of the coffee.

  ‘I didn’t just cut her open for fun.’ She pronounced every word carefully and with an edge, as though I’d accused her of doing so.

  ‘She had a data chip inside her. I know.’

  Her eyes widened a little. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Jarvis told me.’

  ‘I told him not to tell anyone,’ she said after a moment’s thought.

  ‘You told him?’ This was in danger of getting confusing. Why’d she sent me to him, then?

  ‘You hear things from the cages.’ I’d come back to that later. ‘I heard about some girl being used to pass on important information. It was so sensitive that they’d hidden it inside her so it wouldn’t be found. I knew that would do more to take Webster down than my testimony.’

  She drained the last of her coffee. Her eyes were distant now and I knew she was back in whatever cage they’d had her in, listening to the guards gossiping about the outside world. I wasn’t surprised that no tears rolled down her cheeks. She’d been there a year. The tears would have run out a long time ago.

  ‘No one knew exactly who she was but it was a big joke that it was Webster’s bastard daughter. Before I turned his skull to paste with a rock, I made one of the fucks guarding us tell me who the mother was. Then I tracked down her husband. He told me what he knew and I told him what I knew. I had to threaten to shoot him a few times though. It was like me standing there made what Webster was doing to his daughter more real or something. But she had it easy. He didn’t like me saying that. Hit me with his stick. So I hit him back.’

  She was tough. Or, rather, desperate. Maybe both. She’d killed one of Webster’s goons to escape. Made him talk first. Taken his gun. Tracked down Jarvis and made him talk. Then she’d tracked down the girl at my apartment and cut the data chip out of her. She hadn’t killed her though. Then, lastly, she’d escaped from the police precinct, stealing back the gun in the process, killed one of Webster’s men and escaped an ambush by a load more. I was sure there’d be more in between.

  ‘How did Van come to have the data chip?’ I asked.

  Her eyes widened again. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times. Her face started to squeeze up into some expression of fear.

  ‘What happened to him? What happened to the chip?’ It must have been something in the way I said it. She knew something was wrong.

  ‘Van’s dead.’ She collapsed heavily in the kitchen chair. I thought she was going to start hyperventilating. She put the gun on the table beside her so she could bury her head in her hands. ‘The off-worlders killed him. But the chip is safe.’

  She looked at me. The roughness with which she’d sat had tussled her dark red hair. It framed her face and a few strands hung over her eyes. She was beautiful. That had probably been bad for her in Webster’s operation. Something in her eyes made me think about Lucy again. She didn’t look anything like her, but she had the same piercing stare. Only there was a lot more damage behind these eyes.

  ‘A UPSF agent is in Harem investigating Webster,’ I explained. ‘Van made sure the off-worlders didn’t get the chip. Made sure I’d get it if something happened to him. The data will already be in UPSF headquarters on Orion by now. They’ll decrypt it. They’ll issue an arrest warrant. They’ll come in force. Storm Webster’s castle and raze it to the ground. Webster will pay. One way or another.’

  The girl’s breathing evened out. She only looked a little relieved. I could understand. When I’d stopped her outside Leonne’s apartment, she’d told me she’d been there looking for proof. She’d wanted more to put on top of the data chip. As much as she could put together to be certain Webster wouldn’t get away with everything he’d done. But she hadn’t found anything else, because he was too careful. That data chip was the only thing she had and it was in someone else’s hands now.

  ‘Why did Van have it?’ I asked again.

  ‘Some of the girls were taken from his club. They all said how good he was to them. And how hard he’d tried to stop Webster taking them. The girls stopped coming from his club and we guessed he’d managed to keep them safe from him. They told me about him and w
hat he did and how he knew all the right people. And how he hated Webster and wanted him gone. I took the data chip to him to keep safe while I looked for anything else. He’d have been able to get it seen by the right people better than me. It was a huge risk, but I could see the hate in his eyes when I spoke to him about the trafficking.’

  ‘He was a good man. He did make sure it got to the right people.’

  She nodded. Didn’t seem to be much feeling behind it though.

  ‘Webster won’t be punished,’ she said. ‘He’ll just have to operate out of Anshan instead. He’ll buy all the guards, if he doesn’t already own them. Buy protection from the other inmates. He’ll be sat in a nice comfortable cell while all the girls whose lives he’s destroyed will go on being punished even after they’re out of their cages. I can’t close my eyes without seeing things…’

  ‘Webster won’t be able to operate. The off-worlders are taking over the city. They want him dead.’

  ‘Who are the off-worlders?’ She’d probably already guessed.

  ‘Enforcers for his partners. Or at least some of them.’

  ‘Then they’ll take over Webster’s operation and nothing will change. Or the UPSF will take them down too with the data on that chip and Webster will carry on from Anshan.’

  She was right. I guessed I hadn’t thought about it beyond hoping that the off-worlders would take down Webster for me.

  ‘Well there’s nothing we can do that we haven’t already.’

  ‘We can go there ourselves. Get the girls out. Destroy the mining operation. The real mining operation.’

  I wasn’t sure how to react to that ridiculous idea. So I just asked a simpler question.

  ‘What is Webster mining?’

  ‘They found something in the mountain. In towards its core. Pockets in the rock, filled with blue dust. It glows. It’s never been seen before. It’ll make Webster, or anyone who controls the mine, a fortune.’

  I could see why Webster’s focus had changed direction. Assuming this blue dust wasn’t radioactive or something, it could probably be compacted into jewels. A brand new kind of jewel that nobody anywhere had yet: every rich person in the galaxy would want them. It would be hundreds of times more lucrative than trafficking girls.