Reapers (Breakers, Book 4)

by Edward W. Robertson

  "Which means," Hobson said, "once you get very good at this, you should aim for the spine."

  Dee looked dubious. "The spine?"

  "The head moves around a lot, you know. The spine is rather static. More important, it turns out the organs are rather more resistant to damage than the nerves that control those organs."

  He walked away whistling.

  The land and the Hudson sloped gradually downhill. The snow grew shallow enough that they might have been able to use bikes, if they'd burned the time to find them, but their packs were so bulky it would be hard to keep steady without a trailer. Anyway, their legs and pace were used to the snowshoes. They walked on.

  The tenth afternoon after they left Albany, they trudged up a gentle rise. At its top, towns and valleys spread for miles. Beyond, Ellie saw the thing she'd hoped to never see again: the Manhattan skyline, windows sparkling yellow, the towers so high and proud they were like insults from a world lost for good.

  III:

  HARVEST

  21

  And then she was alone in the snow.

  She sat in the road, the sloped concrete walls boxing her in a barren canyon. It hurt some and she bled some but neither was as bad as she had always imagined getting shot would be.

  But she appeared to be paralyzed. Not in the busted-spine sense, though she waggled her fingers and toes just to be sure. Instead, she had no will to move. It was like the breakers in her head had been tripped and she wasn't sure when or if they'd come back online. Was she about to die? She couldn't say. Would she ever see Tilly again? That, too, was a mystery. Had she made poor choices with her life? Well, the fact she'd been shot in or around the heart could be a sign, but due to just that, she might never know for sure.

  Snow twirled from black clouds, first fine and crystalline, then in pea-sized drops, then in fat globby lumps that looked like the molecule chains from her sophomore chemistry textbook. Melted flakes stained the pavement a deeper black, then formed a coating so much like a clean white bedsheet that Lucy felt she could give the whole ground a shake and fold it up for later.

  If only she could stand up.

  She unwound her scarf and pressed it to her wound. The pain lurched forward but soon retreated to its former distance. The men had left a long time ago and she heard nothing but the whisper of snow on hard ground.

  High on the white tower that faced her, a shadow unfurled, long and curved like a Muslim's sword. She was no longer alone. His head followed, massive but without features. A dark absence: the Reaper, the father she never had. At last he had found her, yet he waited with cosmic patience, knowing that, in the end, it was not he who had to move.

  She wanted to run to him. To be embraced. To be swept away from this life that, since birth, had been nothing but misery and pain. Unloved and so became unlovable. It was a joke, to be brought to exist and to have that existence be so mean, so far from virtue, like a crippled wasp or a rattler with a broken back. She wanted to run to him and cry like a child and be taken back to that place before life that was so like a world muffled and smothered by snow.

  But the joke ran deeper than that. She had been hammered by one thing after another until her core was as sharp and steely as the blade of his scythe. She couldn't let him take her any more than an avalanche could turn and flee back up the hill. She laughed and it hurt and with each pulse of pain the shadow retreated from the tower's face. Her blood was hot on her hand, the most vivid red she'd ever seen. It was hers to keep.

  And she was alone again, sitting with her legs sprawled in the snow. Her knee jerked. Her chest felt tight and pink bubbles oozed from her wound. She pressed her scarf to it and stood.

  Nerve had taken its shells, but left her umbrella, the way you might throw a man's balls at his feet after castrating him. She crouched to pick it up and used it as a cane as she walked away from the tunnel mouth. Its metal tip tapped and scraped the pavement beneath the bedsheet of snow.

  She had properly burned all her bridges with Distro. The Feds might blow smoke up her ass about treating her wound, but she'd seen how little they actually provided their people. Reese would help her, she was positive of that, but even if she found him at the coffee house, she was equally certain he didn't know a damn thing about prying a bullet from a body. She needed people with the skill and the motive to help her.

  The Kono were warrior-gangsters. They would have surgeons. After what she'd done to Duke, they'd also have plenty of reason to hasten her short march to the grave. But she had something to make them reconsider.

  She walked on, block by block, watched by the buildings' vacant eyes. Her numb shock ebbed away and waves of pain surfed in to take its place. Her eyes stung. Snow whacked her in the face, melting on her cheeks and dribbling from her brows to her eyes. At 42nd Street, she stopped in front of a theater. When she hung her head, a bushel of flakes fell to the sidewalk. She was having a hell of a time catching her breath. Her chest felt so tight she could hardly pull in air. She'd figured this was all part of the fun of getting shot point blank, but in a moment of clarity, she understood something more was wrong. Yes, she'd been shot in the chest, and her lung was likely all fucked up, but for the last few blocks, it had been getting worse.

  Once upon a time, Tilly had been in love with those sexy doctor shows. Lucy'd found them dumb as hell, but had suffered through them, at first so she'd have more excuse to stay at Tilly's house and avoid returning to her own, and later, when she'd moved into the Loman household, because it seemed rude (even by her lax standards) to demand Tilly change the channel in her own home.

  All that suffering might be about to save her life.

  She cast about the street. The equipment she needed was worthless enough that any hospital was likely to still have it despite years of looting, but she was in Times Square. That real estate was about a thousand times too valuable for something as stupid as a hospital. It was all theaters, Hard Rock Cafes, and watch/t-shirt/souvenir stands. She moved to one of these, pawing through the wallets and hoodies, chest feeling tighter by the second. No tubing, but the search turned up a single Zippo engraved with the words "BROOKLYN ZOO." After a couple flicks, the flame caught.

  She was a bit dizzy, fluttery. Her fingertips were clumsy and tingly and felt strangely warm. Figuring they might have an aquarium, she lurched through the door of the Hard Rock, the light of her Zippo flickering over shredded booths and the stomped-up debris left behind by people who'd come for its food in the early days of the plague. Broken glass was everywhere, raising her hopes that it might lead to a fish tank, but it was merely the byproduct of smashed display cases. Someone had actually bothered to steal Clapton's guitar.

  She fought for air. With mounting desperation, confusion, and fear that she'd be found dead in a Hard Rock Cafe, she stumbled deeper into the restaurant. Big swinging doors led to a kitchen. The floor was crusted with rotten food. Her lighter played over dust-dulled stovetops, pans, ladles, and lids. The cooking stations were much tighter than she expected, and even after all these years it smelled like frying oil.

  Culinary tools dangled from hooks and scattered the floor. Lucy whipped her gaze across the tongs and skewers and fondue forks. She'd been looking for a turkey baster, but what she found was even better: a fat-nosed flavor injector, complete with syringe-like handle.

  She tore open her shirt, inserted the tip of the flavor injector into her wound, and pulled up on the plunger.

  Her brain must have ordered her chest to shut up about its problems, because this didn't hurt at all. A lot of air and a bit of frothy, pink blood filled the chamber of the injector. The pain and pressure in her chest decreased. Sweat popped out across her entire body in such a thick sheen that she could have used the sidewalk as a Slip 'N Slide. Then she got very dizzy and had to sit down.

  She pushed the plunger of the injector, squirting a flatulent blast of air and froth, then returned it to her wound and sucked more air. Already, her chest felt leagues better. That seemed to do it, and so sh
e sat there for a good while, breathing the cold air, letting her senses return. After a while, she gathered herself and walked outside.

  The makeshift cane of her umbrella tapped along the street. She continued north. Sometimes she smelled the smoke of heating oil, soon replaced by the crisp scent of fresh snow. At other times she had to stop and draw more air from her wound. The walk uptown took approximately several forevers. At least the north-south blocks were the short ones. That helped her sense of progress when her limbs got heavy and the throbbing in her chest got so bad she wanted to curl up on the elegant steps of Fordham University.

  After another mile, the walk was just a thing she did because there was nothing else to do. An inch of snow clung to the streets. Back when the city had lights, it must have been the prettiest sight in the world.

  Down the blocks to the west, smoke rose in orderly plumes from Central Park. She supposed if you lived in Manhattan and you didn't have electricity, that's where you set up shop. Not a lot of wood stoves in the apartments, she'd wager. Must have built themselves new houses right there in the park. Feds might have parceled out the land to reduce disputes. Then again, it sounded like the Kono held sway over much of it and Distro had their finger in the pie as well. Too many chefs. With guns. Shootout right there in the Hard Rock kitchen.

  She laughed some, already forgetting why, and then she didn't think much at all.

  She came back to it on the street she'd fled down after shooting Duke. The snowfall had slowed. Around the block, light spilled from the front of Sicily. She walked up to the red padded door, cane clicking.

  The stout bouncer emerged into the cold. "You armed?"

  "Only bullet I got is right here." She opened her jacket, exposing pale skin. A hungry look came over his face. He got a gander at the blood washing down her chest and looked like he might puke instead.

  He looked up to her face. "You're that girl. The one who capped Duke."

  She zipped up her jacket. "I need to see Ash."

  "He needs to see you, too." He opened the door and leaned inside, keeping an eye on her. "Brian! Ludrow! Get out here!"

  Two men emerged: Brian, and another who was the kind of idiot who wore short sleeves in a snowstorm because he'd be damned if he wasn't going to show off the veins on his biceps.

  "Yo Brian," the bouncer said. "This the girl who exed Duke?"

  "Shark eyes," Brian said. Snow caught in the stubble on his scalp. "That's her."

  "I want to see Ash," she said flatly.

  "Why didn't you pull the trigger on me?" Brian said.

  Lucy shook her head. A bad idea. The world shook with it. "You weren't a bastard. Come on, guys. Most cultures consider it rude to leave a lady in the snow when she's been shot."

  Ludrow, the man in the short sleeves, walked up close enough that she could smell his sweat. "I don't think you're a lady. Anybody who shoots Duke and then comes back for more must be packing eight pairs of balls."

  Faces appeared in the bar windows. The white ones looked as pale as Lucy felt. Smelling a fight, men and women stepped outside, zipping leather jackets and heavy padded coats.

  Ludrow jerked a thumb at her. "This is the girl who shot Duke. What do you think he'd like us to do to her?"

  "I vote we don't do a thing," the bouncer said. "Let that chest wound do its work. Hours of fun."

  Lucy's knees quivered, but she knew if she fell, the Kono would kick her until the rest of her guts were in worse shape than her lung. She found Brian's eye. "Will you get Ash for me?

  "I think she needs more hurt," Ludrow said. "Get me an icepick. We can put out her eyes without killing her any faster."

  Someone shoved her in the back. She winced and cast around for Brian but he was gone. All that remained was a sea of angry faces. She turned to snarl at the woman who'd pushed her and Ludrow cocked back his arm and slapped her across the cheek. Her face was half numb and the pain tingled and burned like hot needles. A man kicked at her stomach. She turned her hip into it. The kick was clumsy and half-committed, but it nearly knocked her down. Lucy staggered, braced herself with her cane. She couldn't fall.

  A woman kicked at her umbrella. Lucy yanked it away, her ribs spiking with pain. Warm spit struck her face. Something hit her in the side.

  "Get her!" Ludrow shouted. "Take away her face!"

  A fist cracked her in the nose and blood popped down her lips. She had thought herself too tired to fight, but she swung her umbrella like a bat, raking its end across Ludrow's leering face. He shrieked and clutched the blood gleaming in the furrow in his cheek.

  Someone hit her in the back of the head and she reeled forward. A woman danced up and socked her in the jaw. Lucy's knees gave out. She fell to her hands, umbrella skidding, fingers splayed in the harsh snow. A boot stomped toward her right hand. Dimly, she had the presence of mind to pull it back. The boot crashed into the snow, spattering her face with slush. A toe banged into her ribs, rocking her and sending white heat shooting up her spine. Blood dribbled down her stomach. She closed her eyes.

  "You fucking idiots." A high and pretty voice knifed across the grunts and babble. "How about you let me hear the crazy idea that brought her back here? Then you finish beating her to death."

  Ash glared his way through the circle of assailants. He was trim and short and the bones of his face were as pleasant as Tilly's, but his expression could have eaten holes in a battleship. He crouched next to Lucy and lifted her chin. He smelled like his red leather coat and the musk of aftershave.

  "What brings you uptown, you cuckoo clock?"

  "The hospitality." Lucy tasted blood. She swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. Her nose was swollen and possibly broken. "So hey, as long as I'm here, want to know how to destroy Distro?"

  "I was thinking about shooting them. Got a better idea?"

  "I know where their trade comes from. Cut that and you bleed them to death."

  "Where, the sea? I'm not the East India Company. I don't have a fleet."

  Lucy swung her head side to side. "A few armed men should do it."

  Ash squatted back, snow glimmering on his long hair. He rested his wrists on his knees. "My attention? It's yours."

  "Nuh uh. You don't get any more. Not until you patch me up. Once I'm good enough to travel, I'll take you there."

  "That's a convenient bargain! And when you're well enough to walk around, what's to stop you from running out?"

  She lifted her head and met her eyes. "Nerve's the man who put the bullet in me. I aim to return it."

  "He's an asshole like that, isn't he?" Ash rubbed his smooth jaw. "So what do I get if you don't make it?"

  "My death."

  "Sold." He stood and snapped his fingers three times. "Get her to surgery. And somebody go wake Doc."

  "He's drunk," Brian said.

  "He was about nine sheets to the wind when he took my tooth out. I lived. You know who won't if he doesn't get that bullet out of her? This girl."

  Ash rolled his eyes and strolled inside. Hands reached for Lucy, but this time, they helped her to her feet. The world shrank to a dime, then a pinhole, then decided to go away altogether.

  When she woke, she was lying on a table. A masked man leaned over her with a blade.

  "Shit." He straightened and tugged down his mask; an uncombed beard seemed to burst from his face. "Nurse! My whiskey!"

  "I think you've had enough," Brian said from behind Lucy.

  "For my patient."

  "What?" Lucy slurred.

  The bearded man sat next to her on the table and put his hand on her shoulder. Which was bare.

  "I'm a doctor," he said. "You've been shot."

  "Oh."

  "Things are all Civil War around here. I can't put you under, but I need you to stay very still. To help you be brave, I'm about to get you extremely drunk. Can you do that for me, Lucy?"

  She tried to sit up for a look at her chest but her whole body cried out the moment she moved. "Please."

  He smiled an
d patted her shoulder. "There's my girl."

  Brian returned, donned in scrubs and a blue surgical mask, and handed the doctor a tumbler of brown-yellow liquor. Brian helped her sit up. The doc brought the glass to her lips. It smelled like oak beams and old forests and it burned her throat so bad she choked, snorting it out her nose. The doctor smiled patiently and dabbed it away.

  "Tell me once the medicine's kicked in," he said.

  She nodded. She was already breathing easier. Five minutes later, she told him she was ready.

  "Excellent." He twisted around, then held a narrow, leather-wrapped tube above her mouth. "You might want to bite down on Mr. Stick. Don't worry, he's used to it."

  She clenched it between her teeth. Her breath whistled from her nose. A line of fire sliced across her chest. Her body went stiff and she bit down on Mr. Stick until it creaked.

  "I know you can be brave!" Doc said. "Know how I know? This bullet's in your chest, not your back."

  She tried for him, but she was done. She went black and she stayed there.

  Lucy woke to daylight and a bed. The apartment was narrow and the curtains were so musty she could smell them from where she lay. A scrabble at the door had woken her; the doctor entered and walked to the side of her bed. He set down a black satchel and peeled the bandage from her wound.

  She sucked air through her teeth until the hurt quieted down enough to let her talk. "How do I look, Doc?"

  Doc wore the aggrieved patience of a man with stones in his bladder. "Like something I scraped off my shoe with a stick. I can't believe you walked all that way. I've got a special bandage on you that should prevent more air from getting into your chest cavity, but if you feel any pressure, additional pain, or shortness of breath, you have to let me know."

  "Am I gonna make it?"

  "Every word you speak decreases your chances."

  She slitted her eyes. "I question the soundness of your medical opinion."

  He poked her chest, flooding her with pain. "I'm sorry, does that hurt?"