Deserter

by Mike Shepherd

  There might once have been a foyer to the Sanderson Arms, but now the bottom floor was split up into more cubbyholes. A bleak patch of carpet with two broken chairs took up a tiny space across from a desk and clerk that had seen much better days, weeks, and years. Maybe centuries.

  “Got a room?” Jack slurred.

  “All out.” The desk clerk didn’t even look up.

  “Why you here if you can’t get me a room?” Jack demanded.

  “Boss says I stay here until my shift’s over, or he don’t pay me.”

  “We really need a room.” Kris tried something halfway between demure and sexy that she’d seen in a movie.

  “What’s wrong with your own?” the clerk said.

  “Landlady threw me out this morning. Wants twice the rent. I ain’t got no raise in pay. How I supposed to pay her more?”

  The desk clerk glanced up, gave Kris the eye, and went back to what he was watching. “You ought to be able to get a raise out of a dead man.”

  Kris struggled to keep a bored smile on her face. Would she have to do something for, or to, or with this wreck of a man? He didn’t look like he had more than a half-dozen yellow teeth. Even at this distance, she was almost gagging on his rank smell.

  Jack pulled a fifty from his pocket and slipped it across the desk. “I only need the room for an hour. You know.”

  The guy eyed the bill. “A hundred.”

  Jack scowled. “Fifty and we’ll be out in half an hour.”

  “What kind of place you think I’m running? We only rent by the hour. And it’s a full hundred or you can go do yourself in the corner.”

  Kris glanced around. Now that she wasn’t just smelling the clerk, she got a good whiff of the room. An artillery round might make this place safe and sanitary. Make that quite a few rounds. Jack pulled out a second fifty. “I want clean sheets.”

  The clerk reached for the money. “Changed them myself not ten minutes ago. That will be fifty more.”

  “Twenty-five,” Jack growled and slapped a hand down on the clerk’s before he made the money disappear.

  The old man glanced around the tiny foyer. “Guess the boss will never know. Okay, twenty-five.”

  “With a view,” Jack insisted, producing the extra cash.

  “You’ll love the view,” the clerk promised as he took the money and handed over a key. “Follow the signs to the elevator.”

  The elevators were in the back; only one worked. Nelly reported both security cameras dead. Kris found the back door and let Abby and Penny in. The camera in the elevator did work; the women took one corner as Jack settled into the other. Kris did the best lap dance she knew how to do on a standing man.

  “You’re enjoying this,” she whispered in Jack’s ear.

  “You mean I’m not supposed to?”

  Next time Kris’s knee made a pass by Jack’s rather expanded crotch, she applied pressure. A yelp replaced the sweet nothings he’d been not whispering in her ear. “You bend me over, and you’ll blow our cover.”

  “Then you start thinking of the cold shower you’re going to take when all this is over.”

  “I don’t know. Abby seems to be enjoying this. Maybe—”

  Kris hadn’t really intended to knee her agent. But her knee was working its way up his leg, and she suddenly had this spasm and . . . Anyway, Jack swallowed his yelp like a man and, through clenched teeth, did stay upright.

  The elevator groaned to the fifth floor and clanked to a halt. It wasn’t their floor, but it might be Tommy’s.

  The women quickly left, whispering disgust for people who couldn’t save it for the room. Jack and Kris oozed down the hall without breaking contact below or above the belt; Kris did a good imitation of couples she remembered from high school.

  Abby bent over a door, seeming to struggle with a reluctant key while she worked wonders with a picklock. Jack paused a few feet past them, seemingly deep in foreplay. His hands on Kris’s butt, he lifted her so she had a good view over his shoulder.

  “Nothing coming,” she whispered into his ear. “You enjoying the feel of my ass?”

  “Woman, you’ve got the equivalent of more than fifteen millimeters of steel armor on that butt of yours. Harvey gets more excited polishing the limos than I’m getting tonight.

  “And that’s a dagger in the front of your pants,” she said.

  Jack didn’t answer that.

  “Come on in,” Abby whispered.

  Kris broke from the clench to hustle into the apartment. “Is Tommy here?” she asked.

  “Whoever was here,” Penny announced, “left in a hurry. Look at this kitchen.”

  Kris found it . . . and gagged. The table was set with Chinese food and covered with cockroaches. Two rats fought over chicken bones in a box of takeout.

  “I’d say they’ve been gone two days, three at the most. And they left fast,” Abby said.

  “Someone was tied to this bed,” Penny called from the room across the space occupied by two couches and an entertainment center. The others joined her. Ropes dangled from an iron bedstead; Penny shook it. “Solid build. Just what you’d want for fun and games . . . or to keep someone really down.”

  Abby kicked at something on the floor. “Four, five syringes over here. Don’t know what was in them, but they could easily keep someone out for a long time with any of a half-dozen types of crap you can get on the streets.”

  “We can send one of your cops by tomorrow to follow up,” Kris snapped. “Right now, we’ve got two more places to check.” It felt good to be Lieutenant and Princess for a moment. The others obeyed, heading for the door.

  “Have we been under observation?” Kris asked.

  NO, Nelly said. THIS PLACE HARDLY HAS A WORKING LIGHTBULB.

  “I checked it with mosquitoes before we went in,” Abby said.

  “When this is over, remind me to send a note to the place my mother hired you from,” Kris said. “They truly do send their people fully equipped.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow at that.

  Abby shrugged. “I’ll be sure to remind you.

  The four blocks to the next rental got exciting.

  Halfway there, three very wet, drunk, and stinking men blocked their way. “Hey, it’s so lousy out, all the good tricks are taking too long inside,” a very greasy one announced.

  “Yeah, you got the only decent-looking one I’ve seen in hours.” Somehow, Kris doubted that.

  “Why don’t you share?” a tall, thin one said, easing forward. “We could wait outside till you’re done, then do our own business, or we could all, you know.”

  Kris edged her hand toward the automatic in her bra, but Jack took things off in a different direction. “Aw, guys, this is me sister. Mom’s been down on her knees praying and praying that Mabel here would see the error of her sinful ways. I’ve been hunting for her for months, all over town, and didn’t I just find her, down in the gutter, crying her eyes out.”

  Kris let out with a wail. “My landlady, bitch, threw me out ’cause I couldn’t pay me rent. She doubled it. Doubled it. No way I can get me boss to double me pay.”

  “You see,” Jack went on without missing a beat. “So I’m taking me poor sister home to Mother.”

  The tall one nodded. “You got to respect a brother what’s taking care of his poor sister what’s gone bad,” he told his two friends. They grinned as a knife appeared in his hand.

  Kris got ready to fight, but her main effort went into staying upright when Jack suddenly wasn’t there to lean on. It was dark, and there wasn’t a lot of light to see by, but it looked like Jack went into a spin that ended with his foot in the tall guy’s groin. Before he could double up, Jack finished his spin with a chop to his neck. Tall guy went down faster than a Marine’s pack hits the deck when his Gunny calls break.

  Kris took a step forward, but the two buddies were in full reverse, protesting that they wouldn’t want to trouble “no guy taking care of his poor sister what went bad.”

  “
Let’s move it,” Kris ordered, and the women did. “No telling if that was just bad luck.”

  “Or the start of a whole lot of bad luck,” Abby finished. “Somebody remind me why I’m here.”

  “Don’t ask me,” Jack said, grabbing Kris’s elbow and hurrying her along like a pimp might a reluctant virgin. “I figured you for an office worker, myself.”

  “Is that any way to talk to a girl like me that loves the great outdoors?”

  “That’s our next target,” Penny said, pointing at a building lit up like electricity was as free as the rain falling on it.

  “Nelly, talk to us.”

  “The Tark’el Apartments were recently remodeled. Each room has its own full hookup to the net,” Nelly began, sounding like a commercial. “There is a central security center staffed twenty-four hours a day with an armed response team.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Penny said.

  “On the contrary,” Nelly announced proudly. “The work was done by the lowest bidder, resulting in regular and frequent repair calls. I will just turn the security off in stages that simulate a slightly worse case than they are used to.”

  “I take it the armed guards aren’t too quick to get on their feet,” Abby said.

  “Neither of the two on duty tonight have passed their required physical for several years,” Nelly said.

  “Why’re they still working?” Penny said.

  There was a bit of a pause. “There is nothing in the record documenting that,” Nelly said, puzzlement showing in her voice.

  “Nelly, people don’t usually note a bribe or kickback in the official records they keep on-line,” Kris said.

  “I will keep that in mind,” Nelly said.

  “You take the back door,” Kris told the other women. “Jack and I’ll take the front.”

  Jack went by the front desk with a nod and a wink as if he took drowned streetwalkers up to his room every night. The woman on desk detail didn’t even look up from what sounded like a soap.

  Abby and Penny hit the elevators about the same time as Kris, but the women took separate elevators up. Kris and Jack began their merged walk down the hall a half minute before Abby and Penny got off, complaining of their day and sharing dreams of a hot bath and clean sheets. Kris went through the same routine with her agent as she had before, minus the banter.

  It lasted longer because Abby had more trouble with the door. She finally took a step back. “It’s defeated me.”

  Breaking from Jack, Kris had had enough of being a boy toy, or anyone’s plaything. “Blow it.”

  Penny produced a bottle and quickly laid down a bead of thick white at the hinges, then filled the lock. She added small electric devices to the goo, waved everyone back, and pulled a small box with buttons from her pocket.

  “I’ll blow it on three. One . . . Two . . .”

  The door opened.

  Tommy peeked his head out. He took the four of them in with several blinks before locking eyes with Kris. “Oh shit, now I’m really in trouble. Longknife.” His watery eyes blinked. “Kris, what are you doing in that getup?” Then he slammed the door.

  “Safetying the blow,” Penny announced and collected the triggers.

  Kris rapped on the door. “Tommy, open up, it’s Kris.”

  “Oh no, not for a Longknife. Never again.”

  “It’s me, Tommy,” Penny said. “Open up.”

  The door opened a few centimeters. “What are you doing here, Penny? And how did you get messed up with a Longknife?”

  “It’s a long story,” Kris said, shoving the door open. Tommy crumpled to the floor like a deflated target. In a second, Jack was in, pulling Tom back to lay him out in the living area, Penny and Kris right behind him. Abby was last, making sure the hall was still empty. Then the door closed tightly.

  While Kris and Penny made sure Tommy was still breathing and other vitals were in some semblance of normal, Jack and Abby fanned out through the apartment. “Somebody who liked Chinese food left here fast enough to leave a full table and recently enough there are no rats or other nasties in sight,” Jack said.

  Abby must have drawn the bedroom. She returned with a rope twirling through her fingers. “He broke loose,” she announced, “after someone cut them half through.”

  Quickly, Jack was beside her. He eyed the evidence, then nodded. “They wanted him to break loose.”

  “Still half out of himself on drugs,” Abby said slowly.

  Kris rose. The man she’d crossed light-years to rescue was not only free already, but insulting her. Not the usual ending for heroic acts of daring. “They must have figured they had what they wanted from him,” she said, “or from me. So they cut him loose to find his own way back to the embassy.”

  “Or to get mugged, his throat slit, and dumped in a gutter,” Abby added with a cheerful smile.

  “This is a bad enough part of town,” Penny agreed, looking up from where she still knelt beside Tommy. The young man was stirring, mumbling to himself. Penny went through his pockets and found a couple of coins and fifty Earth dollars in one of them. “In Katyville, people have been killed for less.”

  “That’s also the price of a phone call and a cab fare to the embassy,” Jack added.

  “Data supports both theories,” Abby said. “I suggest we finish this argument over popcorn in our warm, comfy suite at the Hilton, which I am beginning to wonder why I ever left.”

  “Let’s get moving,” Kris ordered. “We go out the back way. Nelly, any alarms going off?”

  “The guards are playing chess and ignoring the alarms.”

  Abby and Penny supported Tom in a fast exit. Jack and Kris brought up the rear, arms still around each other and apparently lost in each other’s lust.

  The team hadn’t gone ten feet from the hotel’s back door when a cab drove by slowly. The driver rolled down his window. “You look like you could use a ride. I could use a fare.”

  Jack waved him on. Abby hollered, “He’s just had a bit too much to drink. We’re not going far.”

  The cab moved on.

  Even in the pouring rain, the streets of Katyville had never been empty. Small groups and pairs made their way up and down the streets, their hats down, their collars up. Others leaned against buildings, seeking whatever shelter they could from the rain. Unless Kris was imagining things, there were more people out now. Four men gathered outside a lean-to and started Kris’s way. Behind them, three men twirling bits of pipe and wood were gaining fast on a stumbling Tommy. “We got company,” Kris said.

  “Fight or flight?” Jack asked.

  “Fight’s all I see left,” Kris said and turned to meet the three. Kris closed the distance in four quick steps. The Gunny who taught hand-to-hand at OCS had no truck with a “fair fight,” and had worked hard to get the men to drop their rules. Kris had never had to fight and never been told some things were out of bounds. She took to dirty fighting like a babe took to milk.

  The three were not expecting their quarry to charge. Kris blocked a weak swing with a club and went straight for the man’s groin. When he curled up, she used his club to whack a kidney. As he went down, Kris turned to help Jack, but his two were thrashing in separate puddles.

  Shouts and jeers from behind drew them back to Tom. Jack led Kris in a quick jog. The girls had taken refuge around the corner with their backs to the wall. Jack and Kris hit the thugs on the right before they knew they were there. Two went down, but the crowd had grown. Six or seven guys were now kicking and swinging at Abby, Penny, and Tom. Kris swung her club at one head, spun with the follow-through, and aimed a kick at a fellow coming at her. She kept that spin going and saved her life.

  The woman was in red. Red shiny boots with spiked heels, red leggings, and red form-fitting bodice with full sleeves. A red cap came down to form a half mask. Only her mouth was uncovered. It formed a sneer. Her red-gloved hand held a knife that gleamed in the light of the failing streetlamp. The knife had been aimed at Tom, but Kris’s spin br
ought her close enough to block it—or take it instead.

  The woman slashed for Kris, caught her right arm, and the sneer became a shout of glee.

  Kris felt the blow, but the Spider Silk turned the edge. Finishing the spin, Kris swung the club at the woman’s gut. Weighted, the blow knocked the wind out of the woman and drove her back. Abby, momentarily unoccupied, brought her elbow up into the woman’s throat and finished taking her down.

  Kris turned, looking for another target. The few men standing were running. Most of the people down were dirty, ragged refuse. The woman was the exception.

  Kris knelt beside the captured red, slapped her face to consciousness. “What’s going on here?” she demanded, pulling back the mask to reveal raven-black hair.

  The woman came aware with a start; her eyes darted around, taking in the failed attack. “You’ve won again, Longknife. But you won’t win free of this trap,” she snarled and snapped her mouth shut.

  “Don’t let her do that,” Abby said, but the captive’s eyes were already rolling back in her head. The maid gingerly opened the woman’s mouth. “Yep, she shattered a fake tooth. Poison.”

  Kris stared at the still-trembling body. The woman knew Kris. Knew Kris, and had spent her last breath snarling a promise that Kris was trapped. “Let’s get moving,” she said, glancing around at the now-empty streets.

  They hustled Tom for another block. Kris spotted a cab at a cross street and almost hailed it. A half block later, the cab rolled up beside them. Same cabby. “You got much farther to go?” the driver asked them.

  Abby glanced at Kris, then nodded toward Tommy. His steps had been getting more shaky, and now he was shivering with a chill. Kris did a quick check. Clots of men were beginning to collect again. “Check him out,” she said.

  “What’cha doing in a place like this?” Abby asked.

  NELLY, TALK TO ME ABOUT THAT CABBY?

  “I got this fare at the ’vader for that hotel,” the olive-skinned man said, indicting the Tark’el Apartments. “If I deadhead out of here, I’m gonna loose half of what I made on that ride. And you do look like you could use some help. What do you say I drop the minimum charge. You just pay the time fee.”