The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter
Page 58
Chapter Six
Tracy jogged down the stairs to find Robbie. He wasn’t in the house, so she trotted out to the workshop. The Flying Fox was parked alongside the barn. Johnny, David and Dana and Robbie were laughing and talking in his office. Tracy asked, “Guess who is coming over. You will never guess in a million years!”
Robbie said, “Scatman Crothers.”
David Mathis sat back in his chair and laughed. “Hey, wasn’t he in The Shining?”
Tracy wrinkled up her nose and said, “What?! You and your old people references. No. Bethany Madher.”
They all shared a look. Robbie said, “Well, wow, that is completely interesting. I was not expecting that one. Even more surprising than Scatman, and he’s dead.”
Dana deadpanned, “We were just planning how to blow up their warehouse. I suppose we shouldn’t talk about that when she’s here.”
Robbie kicked his feet up, “Well that’s a whole new wrinkle. Why is she coming? This is out of the blue, right. I thought you sort of lost touch with her.”
Tracy sat down next to Dana, and then she nodded and said, “Yeah, I mean, no burnt bridges or hard feelings. We just fell out of touch. I mean, she was a good roommate, not a friend.” She twisted her mouth up and shook her finger. “They had this weird room in their mansion. It had a stone pool and four black bookcases. I’m pretty sure the ceiling was lead lined. I totally forgot about it.”
Johnny laughed, “Those are some pretty unusual choices for home decor.”
Dana added, “The rich aren’t like you and me, they’re in communion with twisted evil spirits. What do you say we take the war right to ‘em instead of forever pissing around on the frontier? We usually can’t tell who the kingpins really are, now if we find some, why not knock them over?” She looked at Robbie and David.
Robbie sucked air through his teeth. He said, “We never did that because we figured there was an unspoken rule, or truce, basically. Hunting the freaks and vampires was OK, but going after the core of the Empire would provoke a nasty response. We’re not really setup for all out war. We’d be toast.”
Johnny was skeptical. “How do you know that? I mean, what I’m thinking is they’re pretty decentralized, too. Kind of our evil twin. Maybe taking out one of the main nodes of their network wouldn’t really provoke any response, and then, since we are in fact decentralized, how effective could their response be?”
David added, “The other problem is there are lots of non-evil minions in their employ who could get killed.”
Dana growled. “Dude, we’ve been picking away at these guys for years now and doing little raids, but kids are still getting stolen, raped, and murdered. These plutocrats stack their cash and keep the whole thing going. Matt and Telia didn’t cut off all the heads of the serpent. Maybe we should take a hack.”
Robbie asked Tracy, “What do you think?”
She sat back and considered. “I think we should get as much information from Bethany as possible and see what they’re up to, then decide. She could be a good ally.”
Robbie arched his eyebrow and said in a theatrically evil tone, “Or a spy…” He rubbed his hands together.
Tracy laughed and pointed at him, “She very well could be. Anyway, she’s on the way, I think we should get a couple drinks in her, then Dana and I should do our voodoo on her and see if she’s evil. I hope she’s not!”