If I took this deal, I was effectively joining a terrorist organization devoted to the destruction of the President of The Kaerosh. The same one that my mother had me promise that I would never join. My life expectancy would be about that of a Hubuan refugee. But as it currently didn't exceed Pressen's imminent publication, I was one of the few people for whom that was an increase.
"I'm not taking the fall for anyone," I said. "There's no point in me making this deal if all you're offering me is the guillotine slightly further along. Whatever you have in mind for me has to have a decent chance of my survival."
The goblin smiled. His shark teeth pointing away from each other in a pit of scurvy. "I don't think you're in any position to be making requests."
"I'm making the only request I am in a position to make. My services for my life, but I have to be able to keep my life. Otherwise, you simply own me, and I'd rather be dead."
I had to be careful. If I pushed him too far he would reject me, and I would be left no choice but to leave and die or offer him whatever.
Twelve long digits danced in the air as he decided whether he would offer me his hand again. His long nails were blotched with fungus and thick as bone. "I like you, Nidess, and I have no interest in your death." His fingers stilled as a fetid arm extended towards me again. "It's still a deal. I get rid of Pressen, and you owe me a favor, but one in which you have a reasonable chance of survival." His grin widened, big red lips hiding the festering breath behind them.
I offered him my hand and we shook. He wrapped an arm around my waist, escorting me to the door. "I don't want you dead. A man in your position can offer so much more alive."
"You'll need to act fast," I said. "Pressen already has the proof he needs to ruin me, and you can't kill him or the article will self-publish." I turned to him before he could push me out the exit. "And I need you to guard my body for a while. I don't have the time to take it back to safety."
The goblin looked around the mud walls with the bassoom roots rippling through them as life-giving rivers. "You want to stay here?"
I nodded. "I don't have a choice."
A sly fold ran down his lip. "What are you up to?"
"I don't have the time to explain either. We have a deal, now can you hide my body here until I get back?"
"Leave it with us," he said.
I took one last look at my slender elf hands before I returned to my short, stout human body.
In a way it was fitting to leave Dae Daniel in the hands of a bunch of thieving goblins. I was abandoning the ether in the hope that I could be something in Cos.
I was vulnerable now and he knew it, but if I managed to kill Loshe and catch Ruby then I was anything but. I could deal with the demands of the terrorists then, and Pressen, and Bensol. At terminus, it all came down to Ruby. If I beat her, I beat them all.
Chapter 26
We went back to mine to pick up some better clothes, the vansetomia, and some more antivenom before making our way to the baths. As the minutes ticked by, I was filled with a sense of urgency bordering on panic, but we pulled up by the side of the road at N:17 with time to spare.
It was not the well organized multi-man operation I hoped for the day before, but there was a good chance Ruby thought I was dead and would not be expecting a fight.
The address was a Palias city address, but in reality the location was as secluded from civilization as Kenrey's compound. The gates were more like those of a large house than the forbidding spiked lattice that barred entrance to Kenrey's gardens, and inside the difference was greater. There were still fountains and plants dotted around the central building, but while Kenrey and Clazran had managed to create micro-climates full of exotic plants bursting with color, the Attari baths was forced to settle for the same creeping trunks, bleached flowers, and bone branches as the rest of us.
The baths themselves were a huge dome covered by creepers, cut and positioned until the leaves produced a wave pattern. The main entrance was an arched tunnel with riverweed dangling from the ceiling. It was not the most attractive plant life, offering little more color than its thick green stem, but it was indigenous to Gys and associated with the hot springs that the baths were supposed to imitate.
We didn't use the main entrance in case Ruby was watching. Instead, we skulked around the other side of the fence until we saw a back entrance that would suit. I was unable to shake the feeling that Ruby was going to appear from behind a bush or creeper and fill me with bullet holes, though I knew that even if she saw us, we wouldn't see her until she made her move against Loshe.
Everything would depend on what happened now. Hayson's disappearance was as much evidence as I needed that Loshe was already trying to kill us. I needed Ruby to kill him, then I would kill Ruby. It would be no mercy to leave her in the custody of the SP. Under torture, she would implicate Kathryn, and I still intended to protect her if I could.
I pushed through a bunch of plastic slats hanging from the ceiling to the floor. The other side, an industrial heater blasted warm air over me like a tropical wind. For a moment, I stood there feeling the heat on my neck, strengthening me like a hot shower.
We made our way down the corridors with little idea where we were going until we stumbled into the main reception. The dome was decorated like a forest except the floor was stone. Artificial UV radiated from the ceiling allowing plants to grow that would not survive the Kaeroshi climate. A rohollor tree grew through a gap in the center, its unique branches curling in all directions like permed hair.
A large sign at the back said, "These baths are germ free. Please wash thoroughly before entering aseptic areas and leave clothes outside." The girl at the reception greeted us with a pleasant smile, and with a show of our badges, agreed to take us to the Manager.
The office had Ken Baker Manager written on it in two lines, with a picture of a smiling man's face taped haphazardly beneath it. "People here to see you, Ken." She knocked. "I should be getting back to the desk. Have a nice day."
Baker called, "Come in." Sikes turned the knob, and I was buffeted with strong herbal tea almost like perfume. "How can I help you gentlemen?" Baker said, replicating the desk girl's question perfectly. He got up from his desk to shake our hands, and stood barely a finger's width taller than myself.
"Mr. Baker–"
"Call me Ken, please, have a seat."
I sat down, but Sikes stayed standing behind me. "We're police." Sikes showed him his ID. "No one is in any trouble. We have information that a fugitive to our investigation will be attending your bath house today. We need your help to catch her before she escapes. How many people will be using your private baths between P:30 and R.0?"
"I'll check the system for you." He swiveled to face his network screen, far too large for an office that barely fit three people. "Fifteen of the private rooms are booked that hour and a half."
Three of those were the rooms booked for Loshe, leaving twelve. "We are going to need you to cancel those visitors except rooms 8-10."
Baker looked as if he had a fish skeleton caught in his throat. "We can't do that. I have a business to run–"
"The police will reimburse you for lost earnings."
"So you say, but for all I know those IDs are fake. I've not even seen yours," he gestured to me, "and this could just be a huge prank. We alienate customers by canceling. When people come to the Attari baths they expect comfort and reliability above the normal level. My loss of earnings will be a lot more than 15 rooms."
"12 rooms," Sikes corrected, "and trust me, it'll be worse for you if they stay."
Baker was speechless, his beautiful environment disintegrating beneath his feet. "But–"
"We really don't have time," I said. "As my partner says, we are trying to catch a dangerous person, and anyone still in the building will be at risk. The second thing we need is surveillance of room 9, and preferably that whole area."
"We don't have any surveillance, other than Greg, our life guard."
"No c
ameras?"
Baker shook his head as if the idea was an insult to him. "Our customers expect a certain level of privacy. Some of them come here to close business deals which makes them very unhappy if we cancel on them."
"Best get started on that then," said Sikes, "so they can make alternative arrangements."
I nodded. We had a whole trunk full of guns but not a single camera that wouldn't be obvious to an SP agent. Basic police weren't supposed to need that sort of stuff, not on short notice. "Wally, you're gonna have to go in one of the other bath rooms so you can see when she enters."
"I haven't agreed to any of this," Baker said, his polite tone expired.
"If you don't agree," I said, with equal impatience, "you will be arrested for obstructing justice and confined to this office immediately, relinquishing all control of this building to us. So which of these two options do you prefer?"
Baker's anger dribbled away. "I just want to run my business."
"So you're choosing to obstruct justice?" I said, making my final bluff. We had no more right to take control of his business than we did to claim the Presidency, but I hoped the Kaeroshi experience of their law enforcers blurred the line between semi-legal police liberties and highly illegal property seizure.
He chewed his lip for a click before conceding. "Fine, I'll cancel the bookings."
"Once you've made all the cancellations," Sikes said, "you are still going to have one visitor. It is imperative that he not suspect anything."
"Why?" Baker said. "Who is he?"
"The person she is coming to meet," I said, placing a picture of Ruby in front of him. "The woman is mad, and if he warns her that something is wrong here, then none of your staff will be safe until we catch her."
"She looks monstrous," Baker said.
"Do you have a map of the building?" I asked.
Ken tapped his keyboard a few times and pulled up a map of the site from the network. Two lines of rooms down a central corridor, it wasn't quite what I'd imagined when I'd selected the venue. None of the doors faced each other, but the walls were made of tinted glass.
"Not very private are they?" I said, worrying that Ruby would have seen through the idea that someone might bring a child prostitute here. Not that it mattered now as Becky had told Ruby the real plan.
"They can be as private as you want," said Baker. "Our customers can select the degree of tinting of both walls and door. They are even allowed to sign an agreement that the life guard won't look in, as long as they take responsibility for their own safety."
There were two entrances to the private baths, one at each end of the corridor. The main entrance came out of the changing rooms while the other one led down a corridor that went to the main pool and communal bath areas, branching off to the exit we'd come in.
"This is where she'll come in," said Sikes, pointing at the back entrance. "It's closest to room nine and he won't..." He stopped himself from saying see her coming. Baker couldn't know it was an assassination attempt. He'd never allow it.
"Perhaps," I said, "but she may use a different entrance if she suspects we're watching. Ken, where is your life guard positioned in this area?"
Baker looked up from his silent contemplation. "Greg is a friend. He isn't going to get hurt during all this is he?"
"Does he have a seat or is he patrolling the area outside the rooms?"
"He sits here." Baker pointed at a little alcove near the main entrance from the changing rooms, "And he patrols the rooms every five minutes or so. Our customers all have wrist alarms in case something happens."
It was the perfect place. If Ruby came from the back entrance as we suspected, she would not even see Sikes before coming to Loshe, and if she came in the other way, the alcove was small and inconspicuous enough that she would most likely walk right by.
"You need to take Greg's place as a lifeguard," I said to Sikes. "Ken, do you have a life guard's kit that would fit detective Sikes?"
Baker nodded. "I'll go and get it."
"That would be appreciated, if you wouldn't mind."
Baker nodded and went to the door with an eagerness I found disquieting.
"Ken," I said as the door opened. He turned back to let me finish. "If something goes wrong and I find out you are to blame, your lost profits will be the least of your worries."
The lump in Baker's throat jumped almost to his mouth. I turned to Sikes. "If you sit in that alcove with a mirror, you will be able to see her if she comes through the back door without her seeing you. Tap your microphone with your finger twice if you see her, and I'll come in from the other side so we can trap her."
Sikes looked uncomfortably at the two pistols poking out of his jacket, "What if Ruby just takes him out in the caapark when he arrives, or waits for him to leave again, or uses some other method we haven't predicted?"
"We don't have a choice. Hayson's disappearance has ensured that we don't have the manpower to watch all of it. Our only hope is that she thinks I'm dead, and the investigation is off, allowing her to stroll in the back door and shoot Loshe while he's unarmed. She hasn't had the time to plan anything fancy."
Sikes nodded, but he didn't look convinced.
I had no time to sit and convince him, and in sooth, neither was I convinced. There was something desperate about this plan. We could have left Ruby to kill Loshe, and the chief threat to us would still be extinguished, but I wanted to catch her. I needed to catch her to get into the SP, but it was more than that. She was responsible for my trip through Von Ras, and that made me angry, but that was not it either. It was Becky's betrayal that brought me here to risk everything in an attempt to catch Ruby with a skeleton crew. The implications of it were like a rash I couldn't scratch. Her sympathies were for Ruby, and I knew they would be manifest a thousand times over in my parents. Even though I was their son, Sam and Shia Nidess would prefer I died and Ruby lived. She fought for their cause, not me. In their eyes, I was the bad guy, and for that I would show her no mercy.
I watched Sikes take off his jacket and place it on the back of Baker's chair. "We have no idea what weapons she'll be carrying, so you'll have to shoot her as fast as you can," I said. "No waiting for her to draw on you."
Sikes frowned. "It's unethical."
"Sikes," I had no patience for pointless moralizing, "if you don't kill her then she will kill you."
Sikes looked as if he was standing naked in the ice jungle of the Jobac. "I'm not sure I can do that."
The door opened, and Baker was carrying a lifeguard's outfit. "This should fit. You're about the same size as Greg anyway." He held the shirt up against Sikes as best he could and began to pat it down. "Perfect."
Looking at the spandex shirt and almost non-existent shorts that Sikes was going to have to wear, I felt that we might have different definitions of perfect.
"At least I'm not going to look like a complete prick," Sikes said.
"Push the red cap over your eyes so that if she comes through the main entrance and passes you before she reaches Loshe, she won't recognize you. You've got a nice body, Wally," I said. "It'll make you look muscular."
Sikes didn't smile. "Loshe will be here soon. Ken, can you tell us when he arrives, and then I'll go down and take Greg's place?"
"And make sure Greg knows about the change," I added.
Baker nodded and shut the door.
"There is one more thing," I said to Sikes. "If you kill Ruby because she notices you before she kills Loshe, you'll have to take her weapon and kill him as well."
Sikes screwed his lips into a ball, penetrating me with his eyes. "Now you want me to murder two people."
I grabbed his hand. "We don't have any choice. We either do this or we die. If your uncle is still alive, then this is his only chance, and if he's not, then that's the man who killed him sitting in those baths."
He stared down at me as if I was reaching out of Cythuria to pull him in.
I sighed. "Do what you must, but neither of them will hesitate to s
hoot you. Remember that Loshe is a pedophile that kills people who might uncover other pedophiles."
Chapter 27
As Loshe's arrival drew closer, I became increasingly nervous that he or Ruby weren't going to show up. Even if everything went completely according to plan, we still weren't safe. If Loshe had already sent people to kill us then they might not stop even if he died. We were in a metal box with bullets ricocheting off the walls, and one corpse wasn't a sufficient shield.
I ceased running the scenarios in my head and unzipped the rucksack full of guns. My favorite was a half-length shotgun which looked solid enough to kill someone at short range even during the gyrations of an epileptic fit. Aside from this, I had three pistols and some sort of houthar weapon full of fluorescent blue liquid that I picked out of curiosity. I put the shotgun in my lap, but then thought better about what Baker would say if he saw what we intended to use inside his beloved baths. Instead, I took two pistols, loaded, and pocketed them. They were poor fits, hanging out like branches from a tree trunk, but not far enough to fall out.
"We should make sure the headsets work," Sikes said. "I'll go outside so we can try talking to each other.
As Sikes opened the door, Baker was on the other side, his fist raised ready to knock. "The man is here. He went to the baths a few minutes ago. No one has seen any sign of the girl."
"Good job." Sikes spoke into his headset echoing into my ears. "I'll go down now and take over from Greg. Is there anywhere you two can move that is closer to me?"
Baker considered this. "There's a storage room in the changing rooms, but we'll have to wait until the guy leaves, or there's another one the other side of the baths."
I nodded. The latter would suit our purposes better, trapping Ruby between the two of us.
The Iron Swamp Page 33
