So very easy. “I’ll pass.”
All sets of eyes widened at my words and their meaning.
“I beg your pardon?” The minister sputtered. He had clearly thought I’d roll over at his feet. Not so.
“I’ll pass,” I said again clearly, leaning forward. “Do I need to repeat myself a third time? Or would you prefer I say it in a different language?”
“Do you wish to remain in a jail cell?” he hissed, losing his peaceable edge.
“Of course not,” I replied brightly. “You simply have not managed to interest me. Yet.”
“If this is a matter of money-”
“I have no interest in money,” I replied calmly.
“If you are unperturbed by the idea of being imprisoned-”
“Let us talk frankly, Prime Minister,” I said placing my hands on to the table. “I will not remain imprisoned long. There are far more powerful men than you who will be frothing at the mouth for my release. Without my valuable services, they will panic. No one can fill my space. Sure you can hire a killer on every street corner, but an untraceable one who never leaves a clue?
“And even if they should cow tail and turn on me, you will release me yourself. Without my presence the street trash will rise out of the gutters. Haven’t you noticed that the slums have been surprisingly quiet over the last decade? You may have taken credit and applauded the militia, but the underlords know better than to antagonize me and have taken their business elsewhere. Your soldiers would become quite busy with the street wars that would once again ignite.
“Plus, if I should disappear from public view, or the rumor thereof I should say, things will become very unpleasant. Your precious gun laws would become a thing of the past.”
“And how’s that?” he growled at me.
I smiled. “Niguel Antigo would be exceedingly happy to set up shop here in my city. Without me, the black market would become… troublesome to your attempts at peace.”
“So you control the black market now, too?” he sneered, obviously well acquainted with the name of Mercaine’s most notorious arms dealer.
“Of course not,” I said sweetly. “But Antigo and I cut a deal long ago when I left Mercaine. He stays in his city; I stay here in mine.”
“And I’m supposed to believe this why?”
“You can or cannot. It doesn't eliminate the truth. We are limited business partners today, full partners a very long time ago. We did well until I started walking off with too much of his business. He tried to kill me.” I smiled widely. “And yet here I still sit. He knew if he wished to remain amicable with me and in the process keep his head attached to his shoulders, he would need to kiss the hand he smacked.”
“I don't believe any of this,” he started, banging his hand on the table and standing, causing all of the others down the table to jump. “I tried to reason with you-”
“Believe; don't believe. That is your prerogative. But know this. I will not remain imprisoned for very long. No jail cell can hold me. And in a large center like this, I could disappear in the blink of an eye.”
“Then you only leave me the option of executing you,” he snapped.
I shrugged as I crossed my legs. “But then who would lead your men through the punishing sands, Prime Minister?”
He looked like he was going to explode if I kept needling him. “Then what is it you want?”
Bingo. “The abolition of human trafficking and bond servancy in the entirety of Nacin and beyond into the provinces.”
Bewildered looks ran up and down the table, right down to McRattin. The Prime Minister’s jaw dropped.
“She drives a hard bargain,” Argon drawled, remaining to be the only unaffected one at the table. He smirked at me. “I like her.”
“Your terms are denied,” the minister said through his teeth, ignoring him. “I cannot possibly upheave the entire city’s economic system.”
“It’s better than watching it blow up,” I replied with a stony expression.
“You’re demanding the impossible!”
“We don't need her,” McRattin inserted with a sneer. “We don't have the time for this. We have more important matters to discuss-”
“Silence!” the minister thundered, losing his patience. “I never asked you to speak!”
McRattin bristled and glared down the table at me, clearly blaming me for his public upbraiding. I watched as the minister strode from the room in an angry huff. He spoke quickly to the man guarding the door and then was gone. I leaned back in my chair as the remaining parties all slowly turned back to stare at me.
“That was foolish,” one said.
“But ballsy, Rig,” Argon interjected. “I’ve never seen that man lose his composure before. You’ve got guts, woman.”
“This is ridiculous,” McRattin snapped. “We should be out tracking that thing down.”
“How much of a field is it putting out?” I asked interestedly. “And why? Nuclear bombs weaken with age due to the plutonium. Why is this one getting stronger? And how is it creating an E.M.P. effect?”
“Why do you want to know? Are you in the market for a nuclear explosive?” he growled back, clearly not forgiving yet of his being yelled at.
“No,” I said, sitting up. “Business would plummet if I had no clients left.”
Argon roared laughing while rat puss scowled. “You disgust me.”
“Likewise. You’re a little too wet behind the ears for my taste. Since when did the military start promoting the youth, boy? Now answer my question.”
His face hardened further. I knew I had hit a nerve. He was the youngest man to ever become a general. It was unheard of for someone to hit that level at age twenty four. I also knew that a great deal of men resented it. Several contracts were out on his life and they had been accepted by others in the field. They were internal issues. Military ordered.
His eyes glittered at me as Argon answered for him. “This nuke was one of the last ever created; a secret prototype. They had discovered a way to keep the plutonium permanently sustained with a new kind of fissile material. The material drew electrical energy inward from sources around it and acted as a battery for the bomb. But now since the nuke was removed from its charger base, inclusive of the cooling unit, it’s drawing energy from everything around it to keep itself sustained instead. It’s gotten so powerful that it’s getting juice from every electrical source it can for fifty miles.”
I nodded, deep in thought. No wonder they were so panicked. Even if it didn’t detonate on its own, it would only keep growing stronger as it drew more energy in. It could potentially suck every power source in the city dry as the range increased. I glanced back to the McRattin and saw that he was still openly glaring. I raised my eyebrows.
“It is not wise to make an enemy of me,” he growled. “I’m your commander if this goes through.”
“And here I’m such a trollop for authority,” I said, pulling my chair forward toward the food, ready to put on another show. I pulled my hands up from my lap and jerked them a certain way, causing the electronic cuffs to short. They clattered to the floor. All eyes went to my now free hands. I made a show of extending them forward and grabbing the cold tea. I took a microscopic sip and swished it around my mouth. No poison or drugs. I downed the rest.
“Afraid we were going to poison you?”
“Old habits die hard,” I said, poking the food and sniffing it. “I’m not the one who should be afraid of his cup, though. There a number of contracts out on your head from inside the Pentagon. People don't like being told they weren't good enough to rise through the ranks as fast you did.”
“And yet you spared me.”
I pointed my fork at him. “Be a grateful bastard. I could be your best friend. I may not have accepted the contracts, but others have and I know who they are.”
“They didn’t offer enough money to interest you in other words,” he spat.
“Hardly. You really are ingratus, you know that?” I said te
aring a piece of bread off and popping it in my mouth. “I could have killed you three times and look where it landed me. Then again, if I’m not the one who takes you down, the others will. And unlike me, they relish torture. With me, it’s a clean death.”
“Are you saying Senator Jennings didn't suffer when you slit his throat?” he said, voice rising.
I swallowed slowly, weighing my words. “How are you so sure it was I who ended his life?”
“I was there,” he growled. “How do you think we knew the description to fit you into? It was just too dark to see you clearly and by the time I had radioed for backup, you had disappeared.”
“And yet you didn’t try to stop me yourself then, if I did it,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “Funny who you call your friend.”
I watched as he turned a mottled shade of purple and then red. His hand twitched toward his gun. “You’re a monster,” he sneered hatefully.
“Don't let her into your head,” the dark-skinned one called Rig inserted. “She’s obviously-”
“Why did you let me go?” I pressed on. “To lead you back to my home for more evidence? You must be so disappointed that you found the place to be clean. Nothing. There’s no DNA on the blades from any crime. You have nothing to hold me here.”
“I saw it with my own eyes.”
“What? A figure in black with blades like mine? You have no evidence to support anything but blind suspicion. Maybe I’m being framed.”
“It was you.”
“So you say,” I said softly, watching his eyes gleam with hatred. “But you have poor distance eyesight. You’ve been hiding that. You’re scheduled for a surgical consultation on the twelfth. Your answering machine was quite useful. No password on it either.”
He turned pale. “You’re lying.”
“I was there,” I said drawing out the malediction like he had. “You’re painfully oblivious in your home. Your blonde escort was dim but I’m sure you enjoyed her company through the night. As I recall she really liked it on your desk. She’s probably still waiting for your call. Your mother’s leftover lasagna smelled delicious by the way. What does she put in it?”
He launched out of his seat faster than the average man could muster and it took the men called Argon and Rig to hold him back. “You bitch!”
“Easy, man,” Argon said, throwing me a dirty look. “She’s testing you.”
“Always remember,” I said smoothly. “I had you marked and didn’t act.”
He sat back down with a thump, arms crossed. The other two sat, too, and glared at me.
“Do you really think it wise to antagonize the men you could be traveling with?” Argon asked. “Are you that dense?”
Now it was my turn to be shocked. I sat silent for a minute. “So… It’s you all? They're planning on sending you there? How many of you have been trained in desert conditions?”
“We’ve been through simulations,” one that I couldn’t name answered. “That’s-”
“Wait. So none of you have actually been trained in the desert?” I asked, horrified. No one replied to that. “Are they insane? You’ll all perish!”
“We’re touched over your concern,” McRattin snapped.
I blinked, wondering what they had all been smoking. The desert was a punishing place and none of them seemed to want to admit they were nowhere near ready for what they would encounter out there. I shook my head, adopting a softer tone. “You don't understand. The temperatures can rocket to over one hundred and ten degrees on a cool day. And if the equipment keeps failing like you say, any water we can find will be brought up the old-fashioned way. You won’t survive the heat, let alone the wastelands’ inhabitants. Why would they send you instead of a trained team?”
“Because we’re all that they’ve got left. Either we try or the bomb comes here,” he said with a ringing finality. “And that will not happen.”
I studied him as he squared his shoulders with cold determination. I was right not to kill him. This was a good man. He knew he could and probably would die trying to keep this thing out of the city. And it wasn’t daunting to him in the slightest. Nor was it to the others. Up and down the table, every one of the other men was eyeing McRattin with respect and every eye was full of determination.
I found myself nodding with approval at them all. “Then let’s hope your prime minister comes back with encouraging news for me because grudgingly or not, I’m the only one who can help you.”
Chapter Six
The Prime Minister never returned. My attempts had failed and my offer stood rejected.
No one had come to see me in three days. Food had been pushed under the miniscule slot under the door, one that I hadn’t a prayer of fitting through. I was staring up at the ceiling pointlessly. From what I understood, the city was probably going to blow up any day now, so why practice my forms?
Maddeningly the cell I was being kept in had a ten foot ceiling. No way to jump into the vents like I had done the other night. Fighting my way out was the only way and until I saw my opportunity when someone came through, I was stuck.
I heard movement out in the hall and then voices. Familiar ones. I, however, didn't move as the door banged open. To my surprise, McRattin stood in the doorway. He slammed the door closed. This was unexpected. I went back to staring at the ceiling, trying to look uninterested. “Come to gloat?”
“No,” he said with open enmity. “I want to know why you asked for the freedom of the slaves.”
This, too, was unexpected. “Slavery is an abomination and I don’t need more money.”
“So is the kill trade. You had to know he’d refuse.”
“I miscalculated his desperation, though I’m wondering if yours has motivated this visitation,” I murmured, still staring up.
“Why did you spare me?” he asked, changing the subject.
That question was softer, full of curiosity. This time I turned my head and looked at him. “Some aren’t meant to die at my hand.”
“That’s bullshit,” he snapped. “Out with it.”
“My reasons are my own, but corruption doesn’t seem to be your game. Patterns amongst patterns,” I said cryptically. “Find mine and your questions will end. What do you want?”
He started pacing. “I have only one answer to my problem and infuriatingly enough it’s sitting on the bed in front of me. If I had any other options, I’d take them, but you're the only person left capable of guiding us. You match a soldier's strength and we’re going to be going at a breakneck pace. I’m here to make you an offer.”
“I cannot match your demand,” he said stiffly, turning to me. “But I can buy the freedom of those on the block this Saturday. One Saturday now and one after you help us complete the mission to sweeten the deal.”
I opened my mouth in shock and it stayed there. This was saying something considering it took a lot to blindside me. So much for keeping a poker face. “You’ll what?”
My shock didn’t bother him. “You heard me. Through whatever sick sense of twisted honor you’ve got, you seemed concerned we’d all burn out in the desert. I’m looking to exploit that. But if you betray us, I’ll kill you.”
I sat up slowly, looking for trickery. I didn’t see any. He wasn’t bluffing about killing me. He was out of options and he didn't like it, but he was here. “How large is this bomb?”
“It’s been festering for over a hundred fifty years, strengthening. There’s no way to calculate the blast radius. It could be nothing but an acre or it could take out half the planet or more. We just don’t know.”
That didn’t bode well. “And what’s the radius of the electrical short?”
“Fifty miles. We think.”
My head made a home in my hands. “They expect us to make a trek of fifty miles on foot or by camel and haul back the nuke ourselves the same way all in the time limit of a week?”
“You’ll do it?” he repeated, seemingly pleased and infuriated at the same time.
I wasn’t ready
to commit yet. “I’m trying to think. And where do they hypothesize it is?”
“We aren’t sure. Several other teams have gone. We found their remains a few days ago. We’re not sure if the terrorists did it or if someone else got to them. They were good men. I knew a great deal of them.”
“I’d bet they encountered the wandering tribes. Bandits. Tiranshyck most likely,” I replied, shaking my head. “Fanatical, evil men with their great religion and an even worse false god. I’m sorry.”
I looked up to find him watching me. I studied him for the first time, leaving out my prior thoughts of him. Behind the icy set of eyes, I saw disgust and a whole heck of a lot of hate for me. But beyond that, I saw a smidgen of hope. He was still hoping I would lead to a positive outcome.
Beyond that, his athletic build was well enough that he had some chance of taking the desert heat without too much stress. He kept himself in shape, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry too much about McRattin keeling over on me… I hoped. Somehow I guessed that I would be blamed for that if he did. I’d make a wonderful scapegoat for any problems we encountered. Still, it beat sitting around in a cell waiting for the end to come.
I sighed, making my decision. “When do we leave?”
“Now. There’s no time to waste. The others are ready to go on my mark.”
I nodded and stood. He regarded me coldly. “This doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
I laughed humorlessly. “I don’t have friends. I got tired of having to watch my back.”
“That’s what comes when you’re an evil-”
I laughed harder. “That practice was enacted long before I went to war.”
He stuck his nose in the air. “There is no war. We’re at peace.”
“That depends on which side you’re on,” I snapped, seeing his arrogance flaring up. “Get your head out of your ass and you’ll pick a side. You want to know why I didn’t kill you? Because I realized you hadn’t picked a side yet. But I think you just did.”
“And what am I fighting for?” he asked warily.
War Machine: Book One in the Destiny In the Shadows Series Page 6
