Drinking Destiny

by Pippa Amberwine

  “What did he want?” I asked when Katie reached me.

  “He offered to pay for all the blood donations, all the money Nindock wants for them.”

  “That’s a generous offer,” I said.

  “It was, but I turned him down.”

  “Why?”

  Katie had to think for a few moments as we walked back toward the marketplace.

  “Because it’s my responsibility. I want to do the right thing as much as he does. I made the deal with Nindock. I’m going to see it through. Come on. Let’s go plan a robbery.”

  Chapter Three

  Katie

  On the way to Boise, Idaho

  “REMIND ME AGAIN why Kam had to come?” Jevyn asked from the passenger seat.

  I was trying to concentrate on the taillights of the car ahead. It was dumping rain, and the spray being tossed up made it hard to see more than a few dozen yards ahead.

  “I told him it was a training exercise to put all of the training he’s been giving us in hand-to-hand fighting into action, so he can see how we’re doing in a real-life situation.”

  “And he believed you?”

  “I’m not sure. Does it matter? He’s still the best fighter we’ve got by a long shot.”

  Jevyn rubbed his arms and ribs, clearly remembering his own last session with Kam.

  “I don’t like it,” he said. “From what you said, this should be easy. Kam’s just as likely to send the whole thing into a massive fistfight than get in and out quickly, which I seem to recall was the plan.”

  “It pays to have options,” I said. “If the shit hits the fan, we can set Kam on them and be out of there in no time.”

  Jevyn crossed his arms and grumbled, looking out the passenger-side window through the murk and gloom.

  I knew Jevyn didn’t see eye-to-eye with Kam on most subjects, but the big man was a safety backup worth having if things did go wrong.

  I turned the blower up to try and keep the windshield clear of fog. With four of us in the car—Nova and Frankie were in the back seat—it was a constant battle to actually be able to see where we were heading.

  I recognized the outskirts of Boise as they flowed past but had to keep my eyes on the road.

  We were moving slow and sticking to the side roads to get us into the center of the city. Over the last three days, we had practiced and refined how we were going to take out the armored truck. We’d decided to target the truck that delivered to a bank just a hundred yards along the street from Lynnette’s store.

  Knowing there was somewhere we could hide if things went badly more than made up for the possibility of having to go back into Lynnette’s. Living somewhere for a while that wasn’t intended to be lived in kind of gave a person bad vibes about the place, and with some of the weird and grotesque things Lynnette had for sale in the store, that made the vibes even worse.

  After another twenty minutes, we were in position. Kam with Penny, Sparks, and Marty—who was still nursing his wound, so he was strictly on lookout for this little job—were parked a hundred yards up the road past the bank.

  We’d pulled over a hundred yards on the opposite side, almost outside the store. When the armored truck rolled up, we would drive both cars up to block it in, take out the guards if they put up a fight, drive the truck away while Sparks disabled the tracker, and then strip it of its contents once we had it back under cover at Nindock’s town.

  Simple. Quick. In and out fast, right?

  I only hoped it turned up without a SCAR escort. If it did, the plan was more complicated but likely to be more enjoyable for Kam.

  Plan A or Plan B? We wouldn’t know until the armored truck arrived. According to the information I remembered, it was a ten o’clock delivery. The clock on the dash displayed five after three. Wait. That was the trouble with using cars whose batteries had been dead for months.

  “Anyone have the time?” I asked.

  “I have ten to ten,” Nova said from the back.

  My pulse accelerated. Only ten minutes?

  “Thanks.” I’d never worn a watch. I always used to use my cell phone, but I’d gotten paranoid about having it on.

  “You all ready?” I asked as I wiped my gloved hand across the windshield for the forty-third time since we had stopped.

  “Check,” Frankie said as he hoisted a sub-machine gun onto his shoulder that Nindock had supplied.

  “Me too,” Nova said, brandishing the machete he kept for special occasions. It was more for show than anything else, but it did have the advantage of being quiet. I liked quiet. Quiet was good. Quiet didn’t bring hordes of SCAR or cops down on you, and there was no danger of friendly fire with a machete.

  I was no great fan of guns, but they were almost necessary, so I was armed with a Glock pistol, figuring something small and easily used would be better than trying to carry a heavy rifle.

  Jevyn had refused all offers of a weapon from Nindock’s impressive armory.

  So had Kam, laughing at the idea that a gun would be of any use to him at all. Sparks had never used one, so she was unarmed, but Penny and Marty were both carrying, although Marty was going to struggle with anything more than a popgun with his shooting arm still out of commission.

  I blew out a breath through pursed lips and steamed up the windshield again. I was nervous. As a group, we had staged a few small robberies when we were desperate, but this was something else entirely. Before, we had never hurt anyone, and we had only gone after stores owned by Gregori Industries. We might have made the staff crap their pants, but we had never shot anyone. This time, the expectation was that we would probably have to.

  Kam flashed his lights, which was the sign that the truck was approaching. I looked in my rearview mirror but couldn’t see much, so I had to hope Kam wasn’t trying to indicate something else.

  I breathed out as the truck passed, and its indicator light flicked on and off as it pulled in curbside. It was right on time. So was the small SCAR outfit that pulled up beside the truck, although nobody bothered to get out. It was one of their personnel carriers with a maximum of four people inside, including the driver so at least we knew what we were up against.

  I counted to ten to give the operators of the truck a chance to get themselves ready, and then I started the engine. As soon as I saw the first person exit the truck, I gunned it, pedal to the metal, and then screeched to a halt just behind the truck, giving it no chance to reverse, short of shunting the car back along the road. I pulled the hand brake in case that happened.

  I dived out of the car and so did Nova and Frankie. As soon as he was out, Frankie let loose with short bursts at the back of the personnel carrier to persuade anyone inside that their armor was their best chance of staying alive. It probably wouldn’t have worked; the SCAR guys I’d come across had been fanatical about their jobs, displaying some worryingly psychotic behavior from time to time.

  Nobody appeared from the SCAR carrier, so either Frankie had been lucky or they had decided to stay put.

  “Frankie,” I yelled. “Go check out the SCAR truck. Cover the door in case anyone tries to get out.”

  Frankie nodded and headed around the side of the truck. Nova had run on ahead and grabbed the guy who had gotten out of the armored truck. Nova was holding the guy down on the ground, but he wasn’t putting up any kind of a struggle.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Jevyn climb out of the car slowly and start to walk toward where everything was going down.

  There were two more people to deal with. The guy in the back of the truck was sitting tight. I wasn’t too worried about him, as he was going nowhere, but the driver seemed to be feeling exceptionally heroic. He was revving the engine and then drove forward, shoving Kam’s car along the street with a screech of rubber being dragged along the tarmac.

  Then he threw the car in reverse, almost hitting my car. He’d created enough space to drive out, and I heard him slip the truck into gear.

  Somebody fired shots at the driver's windo
ws and the windshield, but the bullets just skimmed off, ricocheting down the street, leaving just a small star of cracked glass where they hit.

  That was when Kam took matters into his own hands. Just as the truck pulled forward, Kam jumped up onto the hood of his car, ran two steps forward, and then dived headfirst at the windshield of the truck, the one that had withstood bullets just seconds earlier.

  When he hit the windshield, it shattered into a million fragments. Then, three seconds later, the flailing, yelling body of the driver flew over the hood of Kam’s car and ended up spread-eagled and groaning on the roof.

  The brakes on the truck groaned, and it stopped before it could run into Kam’s car. The door opened, and Kam stuck out his head, adorned with a grim smile.

  “I’ll drive. Somebody else can drive my car. Sparks, you might wanna get in here,” he said.

  When Sparks came forward, Kam jumped out and then helped her into the car with a hand on her ass, which I was sure Sparks didn’t appreciate, but there was no time to get into social norms at that precise moment.

  “Get back to the cars,” I yelled. Penny raced back to Kam’s from where she had been covering the bank in case some heroic guard decided to take his life in his hands. Marty slipped back inside, and they took off, despite some minor damage to the front end. The injured guard slid off the roof, landing in a groaning heap on the street.

  As I headed back to the car, I could see Jevyn, standing, looking at the SCAR carrier. Where Frankie had sprayed it with bullets, something red dripped from one of the holes near the bottom of the body of the truck. Out onto the street with a tiny splash. I didn’t have time to reassure him right then, so I just pulled on his arm to turn him away and then ran for the car.

  As Frankie appeared from around the side of the carrier, I yelled at him to take out the tires, which he proceeded to do with a smile on his face. After so long doing very little, I got the feeling Frankie was glad to see a little action. He might be laconic when he was away from the action, but when bullets were flying, or something needed doing, Frankie was who someone would want by their side.

  By the time I was in and gunning the engine, he had shredded both rear tires and was back in the rear seat with Nova.

  “Let’s go!” he yelled.

  “You got it,” I responded and threw the car into reverse. Then with a handbrake turn, I spun the car around and headed off to rendezvous with the others.

  As we raced down the street, one sight that did surprise me were the lights on in Lynnette’s shop, an open sign on the door, and a surprised-looking Lynnette standing in the doorway, gazing at us open-mouthed as we shot by.

  I flashed high beams when I saw Kam’s car parked on the side of the street a mile from the bank, and it pulled out in front, its red taillights shining in the rain that had fallen, but which I hadn’t noticed while all the excitement was going on. I hoped the water wouldn’t short out the electronics in the armored truck.

  The journey back to Nindock’s was as uneventful as I’d hoped it might be, but I was concerned that Jevyn hadn’t said a word.

  “You okay?” I asked him.

  “There was blood,” he said.

  “I know. I saw it too.”

  “Was that necessary?”

  I glanced across to him, but he kept his gaze fixed through the windshield. “You know it was. We’re in a fight for our lives here, Jevyn.”

  “I know. It’s just easier to think about what that means than it is to see it close up and in the cold light of day.”

  “I get that, but consider what the alternative might have been.” I let that hang in the air for a few moments. “It was worse at Chemosys,” I added, just so he remembered what that was like.

  He shook his head. “No. You’re right. Better them than us, huh?” He turned to me with a grin that wasn’t a hundred-percent convincing.

  “Damn right,” Frankie pitched in from the back. “I got no problem taking out SCAR men.”

  I knew Frankie’s history with SCAR, so I understood why he had that attitude, one I didn’t blame him for at all.

  “Me either,” Nova added. “They are part of the people who did this to the world, Jevyn. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to us, so we have to be prepared to do what it takes.”

  “I know. I know,” Jevyn said, holding his hands up in submission.

  “Remember our day out at the bridge?” I asked.

  Jevyn went quiet for a moment. I knew he was picturing what had happened to those poor people in the car, and although I wasn’t absolutely certain SCAR was responsible, it had all the hallmarks of the cruelty they seemed to enjoy doling out to others.

  “I got it.” He looked out the driver’s window again. I hoped we’d convinced him that what was done was necessary. It wasn’t something I’d choose to do if the world was back to normal, but it wasn’t.

  By the time we all got back to Nindock’s place, the truck was parked inside one of the empty buildings. The cars had been carefully hidden away, and when I walked in, all I could hear was the drip of water from the truck, the tick of the engine cooling, and the muffled sound of somebody yelling inside the truck.

  “How do we get it open?” I asked.

  “It only opens from the inside. I think it has a keypad code or something like that,” Sparks said. “I’ve tried to override the electronics, but it’s too well-protected. I managed to disable the tracker, so we won’t be traced, but I don’t know how we’re going to get inside, and what are we going to do with him?” She pointed at the back of the truck where the sound of hammering was coming from.

  “Hang on,” I said and walked over to the truck. I pounded my fist on the side of the van, and the man inside stopped yelling. “Can you hear me in there?”

  A very distant-sounding and scared voice said, “Yes, who are you?”

  “We stole the truck. Can you set the code so you can get out?”

  “I’m not coming out,” the voice said.

  “I’ll get him out,” Kam growled behind me. I held up my hand to tell him to back off.

  “You can’t stay in there forever,” I said to the man inside.

  “What are you going to do to me if I do come out?”

  “We’ll make sure you get treated properly and arrange for you to be dropped off in Boise.”

  I heard Kam snort behind me.

  “You won’t kill me?”

  “Not unless you do something stupid.”

  “Like what? Define what would be stupid.”

  I could hear Kam getting worked up into a frenzy behind me.

  “What would be stupid is making us come in and get you. I have someone here who is just itching to get to work on this truck. He would probably rip the side off in one piece and then tear you into multiple pieces, so do yourself a favor, buddy, and open up the van.” Even I was starting to lose my patience.

  “Okay, okay, I’m coming out. Don’t hurt me.”

  I vaguely heard the beeping of a keypad, and then the door on the side of the truck slowly slid open. A very frightened-looking guard poked his head out and was promptly grabbed and dragged out by Nova.

  “Don’t hurt me, please, I have a family,” he begged.

  “Tie him up for now,” I said and then directed my attention at Kam. “And you, do not touch him, you understand?”

  Kam gave me his best innocent look, a highly unconvincing one, and said, “I promise.” Then he said something under his breath, which I couldn’t hear.

  “You harm him, Kam, and I will make sure it’s the last thing you ever do, you understand?”

  I could see him bristling at being spoken to that way.

  “Don’t threaten me, Katie.” His voice was dark and dangerous.

  “I’m not threatening you.” I turned away and then said under my breath, “I’m promising.”

  I was glad he didn’t hear me, because in truth I wasn’t sure there was any way to stop Kam, and none of us would stand a chance if he decided that we were the
enemy, but I had to try and let the rest know that I wasn’t scared or intimidated by him. I was, but they didn’t need to know that.

  “Right, guys, let’s get this thing cleared out and see how much we have,” I said loudly.

  It took a half hour and some additional information from the guard to allow us to unload the loose cash and then get what was kept in the safe. Things were certainly different from the time when I rode shotgun for them.

  Most of the hard cash was in boxes that the guard told us would explode and shoot out dye that would coat the person opening the box and the money inside. I could only think of one way around that.

  Kam ripped those boxes to pieces but carefully. I had never seen anyone able to drive their fingers into hard plastic that way, but he seemed to manage it. The cash, a very tidy sum and more than enough to pay Nindock once supplies were available, was stacked up on a table, and Sparks and Penny assiduously counted every last dollar bill.

  Once it had been counted, it needed to be stored somewhere away from prying eyes.

  Before the day was done, the guard was blindfolded so he couldn’t identify where he had been taken. Then, Nova and Frankie dumped him on the outskirts of Boise so he had a chance at least of making it home that night.

  All in all, it had been a successful day. We’d proved, yet again, that we could work as a team, and with the addition of the maniacal force that was Kam, I had the feeling we could pretty much take on anyone. When the adrenaline buzz waned, I realized that was maybe a little too hopeful. There were thousands of SCAR men just around Idaho and hundreds in Boise. Maybe taking them all on would be beyond even our group and Kam, although I was sure Kam would take out a few before he was overwhelmed. I found myself hoping that wasn’t going to happen.

  In the back of my head, I had a vague feeling that something was about to happen, something that was going to change a lot of things, maybe for the good or maybe not, and if SCAR was behind it, well, I wouldn’t be surprised.

  All I knew was that my people were ready to face off with SCAR. Maybe if I could find and recruit more vampires, we could put together some kind of army.