by K'wan
“The gimp? His career in the Brotherhood ended years ago. You saw to that. Though I did hear that not long after, he tried to petition the elders to accept him back. They turned him away. A broken man has no place in our ranks. You know this. I know you didn’t come all this way to interrogate me about ghosts.”
“If this was an interrogation, you’d be bleeding way more than you are now. Who took the contract in my name?”
“I’ve already told you that—”
“Wrong answer.” She pressed nearly her full weight down on the stool, cutting off his air. She let him gasp for a while before letting up. “Something you want to tell me?”
“Okay, okay . . . I did sign off on the contract.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. Who paid for it? Was it Chance King?” She remembered how uneasy Magic had been after his exchange with King at Voodoo.
“Who?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Remy!”
“I swear, outside of what I’ve seen on the news, I’ve never met the man!”
“Then who dropped the bag for the contract?”
Remy didn’t answer, so she pressed even harder on the stool.
“John Smith!” Remy blurted out.
“You must think I’m stupid.” She twirled one of her daggers between her fingers and angled it at his face.
“That’s the name he gave. Of course it wasn’t his real name, but I didn’t question it because he had a marker.”
This gave Kahllah pause. A marker was like a referral. It was a totem given to associates of the Brotherhood. It didn’t make them members, but granted them access to certain things, such as brokers. It was rare, but in theory a civilian holding a marker could contract a Brotherhood assassin without going through normal channels, so long as they had the money to cover the fee.
“What else can you tell me about the man holding the marker?” Kahllah asked. “What did he look like?”
“I’ve only met him once. Black guy, real handsome fella. Oh, and he was wearing a gold chain with a pendant shaped like a hat.”
“Was it a magician’s hat?” Kahllah tried not to let her tone betray the thought that had just crossed her mind.
“It’s possible, but I was more focused on taking his money than appraising his jewelry.”
“Why me? There are at least a half dozen Brothers in the area who you could’ve given the contract to. Why risk using my name knowing what would happen if I found out?”
“Money, why else? The guy requested the Black Lotus by name. I knew you were retired, but I ran the ad anyhow, as Priest always did when contracting you. When you didn’t respond, I tried to offer him someone else, but he insisted that it had to be you. He even doubled the usual fee to make sure this was done by the Black Lotus.”
“And so, your greedy ass went out and found an impostor to do the deed.” Kahllah shook her head sadly. “Who did you give the contract to?”
“Lotus, you know the rules. I could be killed for what I’ve already told you.”
“And you will surely die if you don’t answer my question.”
Remy weighed this for several moments, then said, “Red Death. He’s who I got to take the job.”
This was a name Kahllah was familiar with. Red Death was a highly skilled killer, but not skilled enough to beat her, and certainly not capable of bending steel with his bare hands. Still, she had to follow up on all possible leads. “Where can I find Red Death?”
“In an unmarked grave somewhere in Westchester. Two days after I gave him the contract, but before he had completed the job, he was taken out. When he missed his scheduled check-in, I sent some of my people to look for him. They found his corpse in his apartment.”
“The Brotherhood do him in for falsely taking the contract?”
“If they’d known about it, I’d say so, but they didn’t. Besides, he died a most unusual death . . . his neck was broken in two places.”
“Garrote?” Kahllah had taken more than her fair share of lives by strangling the victims with wires, iron collars. The method made for a quiet death.
“The finger marks around his neck suggested otherwise. His neck was broken by hands, not a cord.”
Same as Roth, she thought. No doubt they had been killed by the same man. The deeper Kahllah dug, the more sense this was all starting to make, though there were still some blanks she needed filled in. “Why would someone kill Red Death to snatch a contract from him that was meant for me in the first place?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Remy said. “One thing I’m sure of is that whoever this is has a serious hard-on for the Black Lotus.”
“You have a knack for pointing out the obvious, Remy. This leads me to my next dilemma. If you can’t tell me who this rogue is or where to find him, then I have no use for you.” Kahllah raised her dagger.
“Wait! I may not be able to tell you where the rogue is, but I can tell you where he will be.” He slowly reached into his pocket, produced a folded printout, and handed it to Kahllah.
She scanned the slip of paper that listed several addresses. One of them she recognized as the Roth home. “What is this?”
“Intel on the target locations that I had gathered for Red Death. Maybe this will help with that itch you’re looking to scratch.”
“Seems you might not be as useless as I thought.” Kahllah got off the stool and removed it from his chest. She extended her hand to help him up. The moment he took it, she plunged her dagger into his stomach.
“Brothers are forbidden from harming brokers!” Remy moaned, clutching at the blade in his gut.
“I’m retired,” she reminded him before ripping his belly open.
* * *
It took exactly eight minutes for Remy to finish bleeding out and die. Kahllah knew because she had timed it. She could’ve killed him swiftly, as she had done his goons, but she wanted him to suffer—he deserved no less. For years Kahllah’s adopted father, Priest, had been a broker. Her contracts had always come from him, but when he was no longer able to serve, Remy had been chosen to take his place. When Remy moved into the position, he was bound by honor to place the interests of the Brotherhood above his own. But he had accepted the Black Lotus contract under false pretenses, becoming no better than Tiger Lily. Remy was yet another example of the corruption that was spreading through a once honorable society. More and more young Brothers were placing their finances above their oaths, and it was only a matter of time before the Brotherhood was full of mercenaries motivated by greed instead of principles. The old ways were dying, and Kahllah feared for the Order’s future.
She took the time to retrieve whatever surveillance videos she could find from the restaurant, before setting the place ablaze. She didn’t want to risk leaving any evidence. She wasn’t worried about the police; neither her DNA nor her fingerprints were on file with any of the official law enforcement agencies. The Brotherhood was another story. They would not be happy about one of their brokers being killed and would likely come looking for whoever was behind it, so she cleaned up her tracks.
She looked down at the list of addresses Remy had given her and reflected on what she’d learned from the dead broker. It had been right in front of her all along, but she’d been too busy pretending to be something that she wasn’t to see it. None of what was going on had been a coincidence; it was all orchestrated. At least now she had an idea of who was behind it and how to find them. Those who had sought to make a pawn of her were about to feel the full weight of her wrath, including the man who had called himself John Smith. But to the rogue assassin who had used her name in vain, she would gift the most beautiful death of them all.
Chapter 15
“I don’t like this,” Sable said for the fifth time in as many minutes. She was nervous and it showed. She had traded in her tight dress and heels for tan coveralls and work boots. Every so often she would scratch her head through the matted black wig she was wearing. Sable hated synthetic hair because it made her itch.
“Maybe we should wait.”
“We been waiting nearly a half hour now. Any longer and we run the risk of missing our window of opportunity.”
“I don’t like it. First Snake gets himself killed, then Ben goes missing. Maybe it’s a sign that we should back off.” Sable had found out about Snake, aka Detective Cobb, getting killed on the evening news. They hadn’t given much detail, but the fact that he had turned up dead right after the botched robbery was enough to spook her.
“Snake was a fucking degenerate!” Tay said. “That pig had so much beef on the street, I’m surprised it took somebody this long to do him. And Ben, he’s always been Magic’s little lapdog. He was probably afraid that his master was gonna find out about him running with us.”
“As long as we’ve been running with Ben, you ever known him to be afraid of anything?”
She had a point, though he wouldn’t say as much. He needed her on board. “Don’t go getting cold feet on me. I need you for this one, baby.” He reached for her hand but she withdrew. “Oh, so it’s like that? You might be spooked enough to walk away, but I ain’t. I need this. If this don’t go down, some real unhappy people are gonna want to know why. No telling what I may get to saying to them in the heat of the moment. Angry people tend to let things slip, including secrets.”
Sable glared at him. “You can’t hold that over my head forever.”
“I don’t need forever, just one more night. I don’t give a fuck what you do once this is over and I get paid. Now get your shit together and let’s go to work!”
They had come to a facility that rented out multiple office suites inside. It was after-hours, so the place was quiet. A lone security guard sat behind a small desk reading a magazine. He looked up briefly when Tay and Sable walked in wearing their fake cleaning gear, pushing a bin that held their supplies. With a simpleton’s grin, Tay flashed the dummy badge clipped onto his coveralls. The guard gave it a hard glance before waving them past.
When they were safely inside the elevator, Sable breathed a sigh of relief. Her stomach had been doing flip-flops since they’d left the van. She wished she’d taken a bump before setting out on this fool’s errand, but cocaine would’ve likely made her nerves worse. She just needed to survive the night and she was done with Tay and his bullshit. At this point she didn’t care who learned about her snitching.
“Look alive.” Tay snapped her out of her thoughts. He had just pulled his wizard’s mask and wand out of the bin and was gearing up. “You ready for this?”
“Does it matter?”
He tossed Sable her claws and fox mask. “Look, we’re only two instead of four, but the plan is the same: I’ll take the guards and you grab the hard drive. Any of these lab geeks try and play hero, give them the business end of them claws.” He powered on his wand. “Now let’s go get paid.”
Their destination was the top floor of the building. It was said to be closed for renovations, but that was an excuse to keep anyone from going up and poking around. When the elevator doors opened, they immediately smelled burning chemicals. The foul scent fell somewhere between rotten eggs and broccoli that had been left out overnight. Tay walked out, wand charged and ready for trouble. He had expected to encounter a guard posted by the elevator, but as luck would have it, no one was there.
From the end of the hall they could hear the low hum of machines at work. Tay moved with stealth toward the noise with Sable watching his back. They approached a smoked-glass door with a prop-up sign marked DO NOT ENTER. The smell was strongest there. He glanced over his shoulder at Sable. He could tell she was still nervous, but was sure once it popped off she would stand tall as she always did.
“Where are the guards?” she whispered. If what they were out to steal was as valuable as Tay had claimed, it struck her as odd that it wouldn’t be better protected.
“No clue, but whatever rock they’re hiding under is the one they’ll die under if they give us grief. Just keep your head on swivel. You ready?” In response, Sable extended her claws. “That’s my girl.”
Tay went through the door first. If they thought the stench was powerful in the hallway, inside the office suite it was overwhelming. The room was dark, save for the flickering of the emergency lights that appeared every few feet along the walls. Set up on several tables were glass beakers atop small burners. One of the heated beakers was bubbling over, spilling a pale-blue liquid onto the table. According to the backer, this was an operation of major importance, but to Tay it looked like a neglected high school science lab.
“Something isn’t right.” Sable’s foot had just landed in something sticky that she couldn’t identify.
There was a stir of motion to her left, causing her to spin. A figure shambled through the shadows, something long and thick dangling from its hand. Sable’s first thought was that it was a club or sawed-off shotgun, but when the person got close enough, she saw it was neither. In fact, it wasn’t a weapon at all but an arm—a man’s arm. Someone had cut his left arm off at the elbow, and he was carrying the bloody limb in his right hand.
“What the fuck?” Sable gasped. Just then the overhead lights came to life, temporarily blinding her. When her eyes adjusted, she saw her surroundings and wished she hadn’t.
The mystery of where everyone had gone was solved. They were dead. Corpses lined the floor of the spacious room. They had all been butchered, some missing limbs, others without heads. This was no lab. It was a slaughterhouse.
“Beloved,” a strange, mechanical voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, “never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Kahllah emerged from the shadows in the corner. She was armed with a kyoketsu-shoge, a short blade attached to a length of chain. She had been expecting the rogue, but it seemed he’d sent his accomplices. “I see the devil has employed helpers.”
“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” Tay asked, looking at the strange getup consisting of a mask and harness. Before taking on the job, he had been assured that the only resistance they might encounter would be a few hired guns, but the person standing before him was clearly more than that.
“I am the Maiden Sword . . . the purifier . . . I am that which will usher in the end of days.” She swung the chain over her head twice before whipping it at Tay. The strike would’ve been the end of him, had one of Sable’s iron claws not deflected it. Seeing the claws, Kahllah had to swallow a rush of anxiety, recalling the scarring of her young flesh. She shook the feeling off. This fox was not Tiger Lily, and Kahllah was no longer a naive, approval-seeking girl. She was the Black Lotus . . . She was death!
Sable absorbed the weight of the assassin’s next blow with her gauntlet, and felt her wrist snap inside of it. A sharp elbow to her jaw knocked away the fox mask, exposing her face. It was then that the assassin paused.
“You!” Kahllah hissed. It was the same girl she had seen at Voodoo. If this was Sable, the man had to be Tay. This confirmed her suspicion that it was all a setup.
Sable used Kahllah’s brief moment of indecision to make her next move. She lashed out wildly, and the assassin stumbled backward, seemingly flustered. Sable went in for the kill, but the assassin flung the chain around her ankles, throwing her off-balance. In the same motion, the bladed end of Kahllah’s weapon came whipping across her torso.
Sable thanked her stars that it hadn’t connected, but then she saw the blood. She tore away the front of her coveralls and stared, in wide-eyed horror, as her intestines came spilling out. “Tay,” her voice trembled. She fell.
“Nooooo!” Tay howled.
Kahllah looked down at the unconscious girl. When she spoke to Tay, her voice was almost apologetic. “They say that at the moment of death, all the mistakes we’ve made in life flash before our eyes. Hers, a
nd yours, was not knowing how to leave well enough alone. And now you’ll die for it.”
“Fuck you!” Tay roared, and slammed his wand on the floor.
Kahllah was unprepared for the powerful shock wave that followed. She felt like someone had knocked the wind out of her, and she crashed through one of the tables that held beakers. Glasses shattered, and when the blue liquid touched the open flame of a burner, it ignited. A series of small explosions went off around the room, and it wasn’t long before the air was filled with rancid chemical smoke.
“I’m going to kill you!” Tay coughed, sweeping his wand back and forth. Smoke invaded his eyes and nose and obscured everything. The sound of glass crunching under boots caused him to turn. The assassin was coming through the smoke, spinning the bladed chain like a helicopter. Tay tried to use his wand again, but this time Kahllah was ready; the blade bisected the wand just before it reached the ground. There was a nasty surge of whatever powered the weapon, and Tay dropped it.
Kahllah stalked toward him. “And so, the wolf becomes the sheep. You should’ve left while you could, but you didn’t, and now here we are.”
“Look, whatever Magic’s paying, I’ll double it,” Tay offered. This whole setup stank of Magic. Besides himself and his backer, the only person who knew in advance the location of the lab they’d planned to hit was the one person conveniently absent. Ben had crossed them. That had to be it. If Tay survived this, he would settle up with both of his former partners.
“Magic will have his day, but this dance is yours,” Kahllah said. “Will you repent before I send you to join your friend at the feet of our Lord and Savior?”
As if on cue, a guttural scream erupted behind her. It happened so fast that Kahllah didn’t have a chance to stop it. Sable came leaping through the fire like a madwoman, eyes wild. Her iron claws sliced a part of Kahllah’s side unprotected by armor. Ignoring the explosive pain, Kahllah whipped her weapon out and lassoed the girl’s neck.
