Hammer Town

by Selina Rosen

  As his gun fell to the floor, he looked at Conner in terror. Conner put her nail gun back in to its holster, reached down and scooped the man’s gun up off the floor, and stuck it in her belt, then zipped her fly closed. “One of Mishy’s men or one of Tarent’s?” Conner asked plainly, although she knew the answer. She wanted him, and subsequently Mishy, to know that Tarent really did want her dead, too. Maybe this would give Mishy the idea that by killing Hammer he would be doing Tarent a favor.

  “Mishy’s,” the man croaked, trying to pull his sleeve away from the wall.

  “Tell Mishy,” Conner started removing the nails one at a time with her hand, “I said I have to get on with my life. I’m really sorry, I didn’t plan it, but I love this woman. I’d die for her. More important for Mishy to remember, I’d kill for her. Mishy can do whatever he likes to Tarent. I’m going to kill the bastard myself if I get a chance. But if he comes after Elantra or me, he’s fair game. For Peggy’s memory, I don’t want to kill him, but I will if he pushes me.” She pulled out the last nail, and the man rubbed his arm where some of the nails had grazed him. Then she hit the man in the chin with a good right cross, and he hit the floor. He looked up at her with half dazed eyes. “You tell him.” The man nodded, got shakily to his feet, and ran off calling for his car.

  Conner reached into her pocket and patted the CD case. She looked at the impenetrable fortress that was PowersTower, and smiled. He couldn’t keep her out, not if she wanted in. She looked at the computer terminal standing next to the elevator. She had a keyboard, and she still had the knack.

  Elantra sat in her room glaring at her screen. She wasn’t interested in her studies, so she was barely listening and only half watching. Real doctors worked on real people. Her father was never going to let her be a doctor. He was never going to let her do anything that meant she had to leave the building. If things had been tight before, she’d found them to be doubly so now.

  She never should have come back here. She should have run off with Conner McVee and never looked back. She missed reality, she missed real food, and baths in water, and most of all she missed Conner.

  She was about to tell the program to close when the screen went blank and the computer droned out, “Bank transaction in progress.” When her screen came back on she was looking at Conner.

  “Conner McVee!” Elantra said. She tried to rub the ecstatic look from her face. Forgetting all her previous thoughts, she quickly reminded herself that this was the woman who had so badly used her and shot her cat. “Conner McVee, I have nothing to say to you,” she said coldly.

  “That will be the day,” Conner said with a laugh. “I miss you, brat. How long are you going to do this to us? Hasn’t this gone on long enough?”

  “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet, Conner McVee,” Elantra scoffed.

  “Any time is too long for me to be separated from you,” Conner said. “Come on, baby. Don’t you miss me a little?”

  Elantra fought her tears and avoided Conner’s question. “Conner McVee, how did you get through here? I’m sure Daddy had you locked out.”

  Conner smiled. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I’m not talking to you, Conner McVee. Your kidnapping me has caused me to get weeks behind in my studies and I have to catch up...”

  “Fuck that!” Conner screamed, losing her cool. “You really think your father is going to let you down from your steel and glass prison to practice medicine?”

  No, she really didn’t, which made it all the harder for her to say, “You don’t know my father...”

  “I know your father is trying to have me fucking killed! He sent two car loads of thugs after me...”

  Elantra took in a shocked breath. “Conner McVee! Is there no end to the lengths you will go to get what you want?” She was really mad now, this was an out and out lie, and it flew in the face of everything Elantra wanted to believe about her relationship with Conner. “My father would never have anyone killed. You are delusional. You’re the one who’s a killer...”

  Conner rolled her eyes and asked again apparently ignoring Elantra’s outburst, “Do you miss me?”

  Elantra hesitated only a moment before her mouth betrayed her, “Yes, but...”

  “Fuck that. Come out. I’ll get you past Mishy’s boys, and we’ll blow this popsicle stand.”

  “What is that supposed to even mean?” Elantra asked.

  Conner thought about it for a minute. She didn’t really know, but she knew what she wanted it to mean. “It means let’s get the hell out of here. Let them kill each other off...”

  “I’m canceling this program now,” Elantra said angrily, “Because I don’t want to talk to you. You’re a liar and a user.”

  “Wait, wait! I want to send you something,” Conner said.

  “What?” Elantra asked.

  “It’s a sound byte,” she waited for Elantra to cancel the program, which she didn’t do. “I thought you were going to close out on me.”

  “It’s hard.” Elantra started to cry. “I wish I’d never met you. Close transmission!” Elantra screamed before she could change her mind.

  It wasn’t true of course, and five seconds after she had said it and closed the transmission she wished she hadn’t.

  She damned her own weakness. The awful truth was that she was glad that she had met Conner. She wanted to do what Conner asked, but Conner’s new lies proved she had ulterior motives. Proved that her father was most probably right about Conner.

  She stared back at her studies mindlessly. Finally she could stand it no longer. “Computer, program off. Play information sent by Conner McVee.” Music started to fill the room. Not dygarhythms, but real music with voices and words. Elantra smiled. It was her favorite CD.

  She started to lean back in her chair. It anticipated that she wanted to do so and moved. This made her so mad she couldn’t think straight. In fact she couldn’t remember being so mad in her entire life. She got up and went to the door. She thought that slamming the door fourteen or fifteen times might make her feel better. Of course the cursed door anticipated that she wanted to go through and opened.

  Elantra went ballistic.

  Tarent heard all the noise and came running. Elantra had locked her door in a half open position and was beating it with her chair, which was falling apart in her hands. “You stupid fucking son of a bitch!” she screamed. “Slam, slam, fucking slam! How do you like that, you stupid motherfuckers? Open for me, I’ll show you, you stupid prick! Open now you stupid son of a bitch!” The door made a horrible grinding noise, and Elantra laughed gleefully. “Die you bastard die!” She threw down what was left of the chair and stood there trying to catch her breath. She was shaking with rage. She looked at the faces of her father and his staff. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Didn’t you ever want to do that? Just once didn’t the fucker make you so mad you just wanted to tear it to shreds?”

  “Not really,” her father said coolly. “Droids! Clean up the mess in Elantra’s room, and repair damages... Elantra, where did you learn to talk like that?”

  “The same place I learned everything I know that’s worth knowing, from Conner fucking Hammer McVee.” A little round cleanup droid arrived, and Elantra kicked it over. She glared over it at her father as it struggled like a turtle on its back trying desperately to try and right itself. “You were never going to let me out of here, were you? You never had any intention of letting me actually practice medicine, or have a life, did you? I’m a fucking prisoner here...”

  “Elantra, quit talking like that. Conner McVee has brain washed you against me. Of course you’re going to be a doctor. You’re not a prisoner here.”

  “Good then I’m going,” Elantra started walking, purposely avoiding the moving walk way.

  “Elantra, Mishy’s men...”

  “Conner will protect me from Mishy’s men. Am I a prisoner here or not?”

  “I can’t let you leave, Elantra,” Tarent said.

  “T
hen the answer is yes, I am a prisoner here!” Elantra screamed.

  “Elantra, this is your home. We all love you here. This is not a prison. You have everything you need...”

  “This is a prison. You don’t love me, you think you own me, and I guarantee you that what I need is not here.”

  The droid struggled up on to its little rollers, and Elantra kicked it over again. “See that thing? That’s what I was, a robot. I did just what you wanted me to do. I didn’t feel anything, and I didn’t want anything. Now I do, and I’m damned if anyone is going to stop me from having what I want.”

  In that moment Elantra was decided. She didn’t care about Conner’s lying, she didn’t even care about her abducting her. She needed Conner McVee, and whether Conner knew it or not, she needed Elantra, too. She was leaving this man-made hell, and nothing her father could say was going to stop her. He couldn’t make her stay if she didn’t want to.

  She wasn’t even allowed to leave the floor. Two of her father’s men stood at the doors to the elevator, blocking her path. Her head spun, and then the world went black.

  Tarent stared at the screen. Conner McVee was still standing there, right in front of the building like a raptor waiting for its prey. It was pouring rain, and still she stood there staring up at the building, a living testament to how far she would go to exact her revenge on him, and his inability to control her.

  When Elantra had awakened from her drug-induced sleep, she was anything but happy. She had refused to talk to him, and three days later she still wasn’t talking. She sat in her room and played some Constructionist song over and over again. Whenever he attempted to talk to her she told him to go fuck himself.

  She was no longer Daddy’s little girl.

  He wondered how long Hammer was going to stand out there in the rain. He called Squat into his office. “Squat, raise the price on Hammer McVee’s head to two million dollars.”

  “Sir, she just stands out there. Everyone who tries to get close...”

  “Winds up dead. Yes, I am aware of that, but out there somewhere is someone who can kill Hammer McVee, and she’s not out there all the time. Eventually she’ll give up; she’ll let her guard down, and then…” He slapped his fist into his hand, and Elantra walked into the room. She glared at her father across the desk, and he knew from the expression on her face that she had heard their conversation.

  Her rage was tangible. “She was telling the truth! All this time. All this time she was telling the truth about you, and I didn’t believe her. I’m here in this fucking hell because I didn’t believe her, and yet you are exactly who she said you were. You’re trying to have her killed? You know how I feel about her, and you’re trying to have her killed?” Her attention shifted to the screen. “Is that Conner McVee?” Elantra demanded.

  “Yes it is. She wants to kill you, Elantra...” Tarent defended.

  “No she doesn’t, that’s a lie just like every other lie you have ever told me. My whole life, all of this,” she waved her arms around. “Bought with blood money. You’re nothing but a common hood.” Elantra walked over and stroked the screen. “It may be true that Conner wants to use me to get back at you, but if she wanted to kill me she could have done so about a thousand times, even in here. You know that. Call the hit off, Daddy, and I’ll stay here. I’ll do whatever you tell me, but call off the hit.”

  Tarent smiled. He hadn’t thought of this angle, but it certainly worked for him. “OK, Lanny, if that’s what you want.”

  “I’ll stay here. I’ll do what you want. I’ll marry who you tell me to marry, only promise me that you won’t let anyone hurt Conner,” Elantra begged.

  “Consider it done,” Tarent said

  Elantra turned and left the room.

  Tarent smiled. He closed his door and leaned back in his chair.

  “Squat?”

  “Yes sir?”

  “Raise the price on Hammer McVee’s head to two million dollars.”

  “But, sir, you just told Elantra...”

  “She can only know what we allow her to know. By the time she figures out that Hammer is dead, she will be safely back in the fold. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it, too.”

  Usually Conner didn’t mind the rain. In fact, she thought getting rained on was kind of cool – most of the time. Today it just sucked like everything else.

  She had never been a very patient person, and she was getting tired of waiting. When she had tried to talk to Elantra earlier in the day she had been completely blocked out. Attempts to reach Tarent hadn’t gone any better, even when she pulled all her best tricks out of her hat.

  Tarent wasn’t going to let Elantra go without a fight, and neither, unfortunately, was Mishy. His men were watching Tarent’s building – if not as openly as she was, definately with the same diligence. Occasionally fights between Mishy’s men and Tarent’s broke out, which was nice because to took the heat off her for a while.

  She hated stakeouts and their usual boring monotony. Of course this stakeout was a little different. Long periods of staring at concrete were broken up by the need to fight for her life. The would-be assassins didn’t seem to care whether she was standing in broad daylight in front of Powers Tower, or walking down an alley way. It didn’t even seem to matter to them how many of the fuckers she killed. She didn’t know how much money Tarent had put on her head, but it had to be a hell of a lot to bring the crawling scum out of their buildings and into the streets to take on a cop with the reputation and the clearance that she had.

  The bodies were stacking up, and she’d already been questioned by police agents five times. She told them the truth – well, more or less anyway – their drones disposed of the bodies, and they went on their way. They all knew who Hammer McVee was, and they either trusted her integrity or they were afraid to tangle with her.

  They all knew Tarent was dirty, it was just a given. So far all of the bodies belonged to men and women with records and/or ties to organized crime. The shootings seemed to be righteous. In short, until Hammer killed someone they didn’t think deserved killing, they weren’t going to risk their lives to stop her from doing whatever the hell she was doing.

  Conner had taken her patch off and left it off a day ago. She might have looked to the rest of the world like she was completely relaxed, but she wasn’t. Her every muscle was tense, and her every sense alert. This wasn’t a game, at least not to her. Too much was at stake. She was wearing a hat, and the water dripped off the brim and ran down her jacket. She checked her nail gun to make sure that it was fully charged and loaded. It didn’t mind getting rained on. She was thinking about packing it in for the day when she heard a car. She pulled her gun and waited. The car pulled up in front of her and stopped, and even through the rain and his tinted windows she recognized Jason Hunter. Conner relaxed a bit. Hunter told his car door to open and it did. Water almost dripped on him, and he jumped back as if afraid the water would melt him.

  “Oh how the mighty have fallen,” he said with a laugh.

  “I’m wet, but I’m still on my feet,” Conner said, forcing a smile.

  “You’ll never work at Brakston Agency again after the little stunt you pulled with the mayor,” Jason hissed. “The city council is currently holding us in suspension pending a meeting to decide the status of our charter...”

  “If the city directors decide to revoke Brakston’s charter, I don’t guess anyone will be working there,” Conner said, and this time she didn’t have to work on the smile.

  “They’re not going to revoke our charter. We didn’t do anything wrong, and so there is no evidence to prove that we did.”

  Conner laughed, then glared at him. “Now I wouldn’t bet on that. So, did Rank send you here to taunt me? Or did you just decide to do it on your own.”

  Jason glared at her. “Maybe I was just in the neighborhood and decided to drop by.”

  She didn’t see the gun until it was fired. She felt herself being thrown back with the force of the impact.
The wind was knocked out of her as she hit the wall of the parking garage. Even as she was flying backward, she fired wildly in Jason’s direction. She heard his car roar off as she staggered to her feet and fired after him. All around her she heard the sound of shuffling feet. Jason had run off, and now they were all coming in for the kill. She looked up at the Powers building.

  “God damn you, Tarent!” she screamed. She felt blood running down her side. Whatever Jason had hit her with had gone through her “bullet proof” vest. Someone else fired at her, and she took off running for her car. Running was hard. She was losing a lot of blood, and she felt weak.

  Her vision blurred as she struggled with the handle of the car door. As she jumped in and roared off she could see blood on her pants. There was no blood on her shirt. Apparently it was running under her vest and down her leg. There was a pain in her ribs, but she wasn’t having trouble breathing, and there wasn’t blood coming out her nose, so he hadn’t hit her lung. “Computer, call Brakston Agency.” James Rank stared back at her. “Rank, you tell Jason to pray to his god that I die, because if I don’t I’m going to kill him in a really painful way.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, McVee?” James spat back.

  “Oh, that’s good... Well, you better pray to your god that you really didn’t have anything to do with Jason shooting me, because if I find out you did... when I get done with him I’m going to nail you, too. Transmission out.”

  The pain was intense. Outside the rain seemed to have gotten harder just to confound her vision. She couldn’t make it to HammerTown, and in her current position that left her only one option.

  Damn it! She had dropped her guard for a minute, and now it was going to cost her everything. The sensitivity implant had picked up hostility from Jason, but it couldn’t detect that he was there to shoot her, and her own knowledge of Jason wouldn’t have thought him capable of such treachery. She’d known he was an ass hole, but had no idea that he was in bed with Tarent Powers, because up till then Jason had played it very cool. “It must be one hell of a lot of money.”