Captain Tanaka grabbed a passing soldier. “Sergeant, get me a damned phone.”
Shay blinked at James from across the table. “I’m still annoyed that they’re calling me ‘Parkour Penny.’ That name doesn’t sound badass.”
She held up his phone, which was playing a video of her doing a parkour run in downtown LA.
James grunted and shrugged. “Yeah, it’s all over the net. I’ve been having them cleaned, just in case someone you’ve run into catches wind of it. I know we took down the cartel, and you took down that ice witch, but it’s not exactly like you haven’t made plenty of enemies.”
Shay shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a people person.” She chuckled at the phone. “I didn’t realize I was getting caught so well on some of these videos. They should see what Lily and some of her friends can do. Makes me look like a total amateur. She’s the real Parkour Penny.”
She leaned forward, peering closer at James’ phone. In the video, she jumped off the top of a building, caught a flagpole, and spun around it several times before letting go and flying to the top of the next building over.
The tomb raider grinned. “Damn. That was one a hell of a move right there. Totally badass. Even Lily couldn’t do better than that, psychic reflexes or not.”
James chuckled. “You should go on one of those ninja obstacle shows. You could win some easy money.”
Shay shook her head and waved a hand. “Please. Bunch of pansies on those shows. If they want to make it good, they should force the contestants to do all those events with explosions or spells going off around you. At least a couple of crocodiles in the water if they fall in.” She winked. “You should see what the latest Japanese version does. They take no prisoners there. They have a clause when you sign up where the contestant is damned near promised broken bones if they fall.”
Explosions and spells, huh? Maybe I shouldn’t be obsessing over better barbeque for my guys. Shay’s got a point. The guys’ training isn’t always realistic.
James leaned back with a frown. “Damn.”
“What’s wrong?”
He shrugged. “My guys. It’s just what you were saying. No crocodiles or explosions.”
Shay blinked. “Huh? There aren’t a lot of crocodiles in LA.”
James shook her head. “I meant all the training for my agency. They do the tactical room training, and the obstacle courses, but maybe it’s not good enough.” He slapped his chest. “They’re not me. They can’t take the kind of pain and injury I can even without Whispy Doom. The more I train them up, the better and safer they’ll be when they take on serious bad guys.”
Shay nodded. “Couldn’t hurt. Though it’s not even like my setup at Warehouse One is filled with crocodiles.” She frowned. “Though I don’t have much in the way of mud, water, or pads. If I fall during training, I’m going to break something. It keeps me concentrating, and it’s not like when I’m on a raid I can set up a bunch of safety equipment everywhere.”
She selected another Parkour Penny video. This time, someone was trying to follow her, but they couldn’t quite match her speed. James couldn’t help but notice the cameraman kept focusing on her ass.
Fucker. Stay away from Shay’s ass. That’s mine.
James frowned at the video and grunted. He looked back up and tried to think of how he could improve the training at Camp Brownstone. Obviously, he didn’t want to cripple his men or feed them to crocodiles, but maybe making things rougher wouldn’t be such a bad idea. They weren’t pussies. They could take it.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.
Shay titled her head and grinned at him. “If it involves steaming up the shower without hot water, then yes.”
“We’ll have to put that on hold for a moment. What I was actually—”
His phone rang, interrupting the video. He frowned when he saw the caller ID.
Shit. Did something happen?
Maria sighed and took a sip of her drink. She looked up at Tyler, who was behind the bar, and shook her head.
He furrowed his brow. “What?”
“Too quiet.”
Tyler glanced around the Black Sun. It was an unusually sparse crowd, but he didn’t mind. Sometimes it was nice not to be filled to the brim with customers. Kathy was out this evening anyway so it would have been annoying to try to deal with everyone by himself.
He shrugged. “Nothing wrong with things being a little more sedate. Can’t always have a crazy museum robbery or Drow queen attacking L.A., right?”
Maria shrugged. “I almost wish we did.”
“Huh?”
She gulped down some of her drink. “Don’t have anything to do with my team. Training’s good, but actual action is better. Shit, there have barely even been any level threes we could go after, thanks to Brownstone and his men, and the SWAT team’s not going to let us horn in on the level twos and lower.” She groaned. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I want some asshole to show up and hurt people, but it hasn’t even been a month since we took on those assholes, and the brass is already bitching at me about budget, complaining that some of our money should be reallocated to different divisions.” She slammed a fist on the bar. “It’s like those assholes don’t get that it’s better to be prepared than apologize after the fact.”
Tyler smiled. “You said yourself what the problem is.”
“I did?”
He nodded. “Brownstone. And now not just Brownstone, but his whole Brownstone Agency thing. As long as he’s in town, a lot of the high-profile scum aren’t going to want to risk a visit. Maybe you should ask him to move to Vegas so a few of the bad guys start crawling back in.”
Maria snorted. “Don’t tempt me.”
Tyler smirked. “With that last beatdown the AET and Brownstone delivered, the word on the street is LA is more trouble than it’s worth unless you’re willing to keep a low profile. Fuck, even the gangs and Mafia are laying low, worried that they might get Brownstone’s attention and he’ll go all Scourge of Harriken on their asses.” His smirk disappeared. “And you know what happens to an information broker’s business when all the criminals start dialing back on crime?”
The cop laughed and patted his hand. “Sorry to hear it.”
“I don’t know. Need to figure out something. Some way to make money.”
She shot a glare at him. “If you dare arrange another pay-per-view fight, I swear I’ll blow your balls off with a railgun.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “Give me a little credit. I’m a man of infinite flexibility. That’s why my bar and business have flourished despite the many challenges to my business model.”
“I thought it was more about just making the right bets. Sounds like you were lucky.”
“Luck is where opportunity meets preparation, Maria.” Tyler rubbed his chin. “Maybe I could pay Brownstone to stop by, put on a show, not a real bounty, just say Brownstone shit. Give the thrill-seekers a woody. Could do another Brownstone groupie event.”
Maria laughed. “You think he’d agree to that?”
“If I cut him in and promise not to record it, maybe. The man respects making money, I’ll give him that. Or I could just lie to him about some bounty.”
“You want to risk lying to James Brownstone?”
Tyler sighed. “Good point. Now, what if we did a pay-per-view event that wasn’t so dangerous?”
The cop groaned. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, hear me out. You know, like we line up a bunch of level twos, like fifty of ‘em. Battle royale against Brownstone. That kind of thing. No weird-ass fireball-slinging mages or Dark Elf queens, just your basic thugs.” Tyler shrugged.
Maria took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. “Have you ever seen what a railgun does to a wall?”
The information broker snapped. “Fine. Fuck the criminals. I’ve got a better idea. Same thing, battle royale, but with MMA fighters. We can tell Brownstone to hold back so he doesn’t seriously hurt anyone, but
I’m sure we can get some lawyer to make them all sign some contract where they acknowledge a serious risk of injury when taking on Brownstone.”
“That is better than some dumbass Brownstone pay-per-view bounty hunt plan, but I doubt you could get a bunch of guys to agree to fight him after all the media coverage he’s gotten. A fighter would have to be brain-dead to think they could win against him.”
Tyler nodded a few times. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Paparazzi photos? Candid Brownstone?”
Maria scoffed. “This is the same man who has EMPed police drones that were following and annoying him.”
“That’s why the good Lord invented the telephoto lens.”
Maria took another sip of her drink. “And you think a tabloid’s going to care about pictures of Brownstone at some sort of barbeque joint or something? Come on, you’ve hung around the guy enough and I’ve hung around Shay enough to know that he’s not banging some groupie on the side. He gives money to an orphanage, and he fought hard to adopt a girl he didn’t need to adopt.”
Tyler scoffed. “You make the guy sound like the Pope. Look, I like Brownstone okay, but he’s a pretty violent guy.”
“Just saying, don’t think the tabloids are interested in him. His reputation isn’t exactly a secret. It’s not newsworthy.”
“There’s got to be an angle I’m missing.” Tyler sucked in a breath and licked his lips. “Brownstone motivation videos. Oh, shit, Brownstone fight-training videos. We can make a whole series. I’ll produce them and take a cut that way. It’s totally legal.”
Maria finished off her drink and set her glass down. “You really think Brownstone’s going to go for that?”
“Maybe not anytime soon, but he’s probably getting as bored as you are. He’ll want something sooner than later. Should think of some other ideas.” Tyler snapped. “Brownstone documentary. We’ll call it Granite Ghost: Scourge of Harriken. We follow him all cinema verité style, like just a couple of weeks in the life of Brownstone. Maybe wait until things get a little hotter.”
Maria shivered and gritted her teeth.
Tyler frowned. “Something wrong?”
“Yeah. You’ve always been on the wrong side of law and often on the wrong side of morality, but I never thought you’d sink so low as to consider joining Hollywood.” Maria grinned and winked.
James slapped his phone to his ear. “Alison, are you all right?”
“I-I, um… Huh? Why do you sound so worried?” The girl on the other end sounded confused.
“It’s pretty late here, so it’s even later over there. If you’re calling me in the middle of the night, I figure there’s got to be something bad going on. You just give the word, and we’ll hop a flight. Just tell me what kind of weapons we need to bring.”
Shay frowned deeply. James switched the phone to speaker mode and set in on the table.
Alison sighed. “Nothing’s bad, Dad. Nothing like that, anyway. I just, you know, wanted your advice. Maybe Aunt Shay’s. It doesn’t involve killing or shooting anyone.”
“I’m here,” Shay noted.
“Oh, good.”
Wait. What kind of thing would Alison need advice from both Shay and me on…Oh, shit.
James grunted. “If this involves boys, I think you should wait. Five years.”
Shay kicked him in the shin, and he shrugged.
Alison laughed. “I’m not exactly a little girl, you know. You want me to wait until I can drink before I date anyone?”
Shit, shit, shit. This is even worse than the Drow.
James scrubbed a hand down his face. “So it does involve a boy?”
“I’m just saying there’s someone I like, okay? I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I figure after everything that happened this summer, I kind of wanted to be more honest with you. So I figured if I told you in advance and if it turns into anything, then you won’t come storming over here and blowing up half the school with some patented Dad rage.”
“I’ve never blown up a school in my life,” James muttered. “Well, I did blow up a classroom at a tech school once, but the bounty I was going after—”
“What your father means to say is that he understands you’re an independent young woman,” interrupted Shay, “and he wants to support your transition to adulthood by encouraging your responsible choices rather than being obnoxious and overbearing.”
James sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess if I trust you enough to bring you along on bounties and have you fight witches, I can trust you around a boy, but if he does anything to upset you, I’m not promising I won’t come over and have a loud one-way conversation with him. It may involve me kicking through a wall or two.”
Alison laughed. “Okay, Dad, fair enough. Thanks. That makes me feel better. I was having some trouble sleeping, thinking that you’d come flying over here and tear up half the school once I told you.”
“It’s fine. Get some sleep.”
“I will. Thanks. Thank you, Dad, and I love you.”
“I love you, too,” James replied.
Alison hung up.
Shay arched a brow.
James shrugged. “What?”
“Just, you’re being mighty mature about this. I was half-expecting you to already be on the phone for a supersonic flight to Virginia.”
He gave her a feral grin. “Nope. You’re right. I need to let Alison grow up a little. So this guy gets one chance, but if she ever calls me up crying because of this boy I’m paying that school a little visit.” He slapped a hand to his forehead. “Fuck.”
Shay blinked. “What?”
“I forgot to get his name. You think she’ll mind if I call her back to ask?”
His girlfriend just stared at him.
“Okay, okay, I won’t call her back.”
Yet.
4
General Francis nodded as he looked around the closed-door task force meeting. “DoD’s already got this lined up with Homeland Security Three PDA teams. With the current plan, we’ve got two bounty hunter teams in the deal, and a third Special Forces team. The bounty hunters will be the bait for the bad guys, and our Special Forces boys will clean up while the bad guys are distracted. We’ve already got actionable intelligence on the location of several of the leaders of the so-called Council. Sound good to you?”
The other Joint Chiefs nodded their heads, and several other officials nodded as well.
“Did we watch the same footage?” asked Senator Johnston. He reached up to pull off his glasses and rub his eyes. “Two Special Forces teams, along with PDA support, got their asses handed to them. I don’t see how adding bounty hunters to the mix helps that. We’re already having a hard time with the media asking why a group of Army Special Forces was attacking a corporate retreat on American soil. This is threatening to spin out of control.”
Several of the gathered officials murmured their agreement.
An elegant woman leaned forward, threading her fingers together and rubbing a gold ring with her thumb. “I have to agree with Senator Johnston. The committee is ready to release whatever emergency funds as needed, but I’m not persuaded that sending more men through the grinder is the best idea. Maybe we should take some time to gather further intelligence on this.”
“I understand that you’re worried about that, Senator Silvers, but this is the best option.” General Francis shook his head and looked at some of the people gathered in the secure conference room, including the Deputy National Security Advisor and a few other members of the task force. “We shouldn’t wait on this. The longer we wait, the staler our intel becomes, and this group is magical. We have no guarantees they won’t cast some spell tomorrow that’ll let them sniff out our sources and take them out.”
Senator Johnston frowned. “And what about my suggestion? I thought we were here to discuss alternatives.”
“I’ll take that into consideration, but the other resources are already all but in place.” The general frowned. “This is an unusual
threat, and we can’t spend a lot of time pussyfooting around. Yes, we lost men, but the Council also lost people.” He shrugged. “I invited you here today in a purely advisory capacity. We don’t need additional Senate funding to proceed with this operation, and I do plan to proceed.”
The senators exchanged glances.
The Deputy National Security Advisor shrugged. “The National Security Advisor has made it clear that the President is deferring to us on this matter, although he’s more concerned with results than details.”
Senator Johnston shook his head. “You mean he wants to be firewalled away from any fuck ups.”
“If we don’t fuck up, we won’t have a problem. I think the plan presented makes the most sense, and I don’t think we have time to sit around debating everything.”
The two senators frowned but said nothing.
General Francis stood. “I agree. It’s time to set the plan in motion. We’ve got good intelligence on the targets. I think we can have boots on the ground within twenty-four hours. It’s a shame we lost good soldiers before, but they’ll be avenged soon enough.”
The Deputy National Security Advisor nodded. “Let’s finish off these assholes ASAP. If they’re dead, it doesn’t matter what questions the media asks. We’ll meet again after the completion of the operation.”
The various officials began to stand and file out. Senator Silvers followed Senator Johnston into the hallway, her lips pursed.
She shook her head. “Be honest, what do you think is going to happen?”
Senator Johnston grunted and sighed. “We’re going to lose a lot of good people on this clusterfuck, and in the end, we’re going to do it the way I would have suggested.”
“Which is what, exactly? You mentioned something, but I didn’t hear any details in the meeting.” Senator Silvers shrugged.
“I’d already talked to the general about it. He was supposed to bring it up at this meeting.” Senator Johnston locked eyes with her. “When you want a pit of vipers taken out, you find the man or woman with the biggest fucking boots to do the stomping. You don’t send a bunch of people to half-ass it. And right now, no one has bigger boots than James Brownstone. He has tangled with them before, so it only makes sense to send him again.”
The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus Page 80
