“Yes.”
“Good. Use them to get the big guy’s attention. Follow as soon as I’ve got him down.” Tango called up her knife and tried to guess at the end-range of the motion sensors on the lights at the side of the house. She chose her route. At the last moment, she spit twice on the grassy earth, summoning her strength. “Do it.”
Shadows shifted suddenly in the darkness beyond the house, as though someone were moving furtively behind the bushes next door. The big man looked up. The shadows shifted again. This time his cigarette dropped to the ground and his gun came out.
Tango was already over the rusting fence and into Jubilee’s back yard before the weapon had cleared the man’s waistband. By the time he had registered her charge, she was hurling herself at his back, knocking him forward with her weight. He slammed into the ground. Tango grabbed the gun away before it could fire. The point of her knife came to rest just below the base of the big man’s skull, his first gasp for breath sending it pricking into his skin. He was a smart boy — he knew what that pricking meant. One sudden word or movement and he could be paralyzed, maybe dead. No one moved in the dark windows that faced the back
yard. No one would rescue him.
“Who’s inside?” Tango hissed quickly as Miranda came across the fence. “Any traps? Security?” She pushed down lightly on the knife as a reminder to talk quickly and truthfully.
“James. Big guy like me. Living room. Jubilee. Thin guy. Front bedroom. No security inside.”
Tango found that hard to believe. It certainly wasn’t like Jubilee. But the man under her was sweating nervously. He was telling the truth. She looked up at Miranda. “Can you make him forget us?”
“It would take too long.” The vampire crouched in front of the man, motioned for Tango to get off, then quickly rolled him over and locked her eyes on his. “Sleep,” she ordered sharply.
The man’s eyes slid shut. He went limp. Not a perfect solution, but one that would keep him out of their way. Tango dropped his gun beside him and grabbed at his pockets, looking for keys. She found them, a few keys on a plain ring. Stepping up to the door, she chose the one that looked most likely to fit the lock. “All right,” she murmured to Miranda. “Once we’re inside, be ready for anything. You go to the living room and take out the other big guy. Do it fast. I’ll get Arthurs.” She tested the door carefully. It was already unlocked. With a fast glance at Miranda, she threw it open and surged smoothly inside.
Half a flight of stairs up to the kitchen — empty except for cold Chinese takeout on a worn dinette set. Miranda went straight on through into an unfurnished room, then paused. The blue glow and tinny sound of an old television came from around a comer.
Tango left the vampire behind. She was already moving down a short hallway, flat against the wall, low to the ground. A closet on the left. Two doors on the right, dark. The front bedroom would be the door on the left at the end of the hall. It was open. Light was pouring out, but the light from the kitchen was behind her. She cursed silently. Her shadow would fall across the doorway. If jubilee was waiting, he would see it. Tango returned her knife to its ring form, gathering herself a few feet from the doorway, tensing. Her shadow was clear ahead of her, bigger than life.
She leaped forward, diving low across the floor and rolling through the doorway.
A tremendous, echoing gunshot split the air over her, right where a tall person’s chest would have been. She came to her feet, knife back in her hand. She lunged forward without really looking at the man she was grabbing, seeing only the smoking revolver in his hand as it tracked her. She slashed out at his belly with the knife, forcing him to weave back. Her other hand grabbed the arm holding the gun. She shoved it upward, away from her, and
squeezed.
The man shrieked in agony as bones grated against each other. His finger slipped from the trigger and the gun, already half-cocked, went off with a second roar and a flare of bilious green fire. Big chunks of plaster rained down from the ceiling. Some of them came down on Tango. Her opponent used the moment to grab her knife hand and attempt to kick her in the stomach. Tango twisted to the side, pulling him with her, then ducked and let him slide right over her shoulders. His gun dropped out of his grasp. Tango was behind him now, pulling his arm up behind his back sharply and shoving him down onto his knees.
“Don’t make this difficult for me, jubilee!” she
whispered in his ear.
The man stiffened. “Shiv?”
The name sent a cold shiver across her skin. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken it. “Good guess.” There was a mirror on a cheap, old dresser against the far wall of the room. Tango twisted Jubilee around to face it so that he could see her reflection — and so that she could get a good look at his. She wasn’t sure who gasped first, her or him.
Tango supposed that she shouldn’t have been surprised. Jubilee was no Kithain. He was only human, and humans aged. But Atlanta had said that he had been working for Pentex, and Tango knew that the malevolent corporation had ways of extending the youth of its favored employees. She had assumed that Jubilee would have worked his way onto that exclusive list. But apparently he hadn’t. Every one of the twenty-eight years since she had last seen him showed in his face and body. His skin seemed thin, his hatchet-face like a blade that had been sharpened too many times. The pallor of his face as he stared at her still-youthful reflection didn’t enhance his appearance either. He was wearing only an undershirt and his pants; a shirt was hung over a chair back, just taken off in preparation for sleep.
Miranda appeared in the doorway before either of them could say anything more. The vampire’s eyes were bright, and her fangs were fully extended. Long talons sprang from her fingers. There was blood smeared across her face. Tango didn’t think she wanted to know what kind of fight the man in the living room had put up, or what condition he was in now. “T—” Tango frowned at her and she choked off the name. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Tango looked up at the hole that jubilee’s revolver had blown in the ceiling, then down at the gun as it lay on the floor. “Nice toy,” she commented to him. “Gift from Pentex?”
“How did you know?”
No pleasantries. No “It’s been a long time, how are you?” from either of them. Tango hadn’t really expected any small talk, though. “We paid a visit to Atlanta Hunter last night. She said you had been working for them until recently.”
“She was right.” jubilee’s eyes narrcwed. Tango knew he was no fool. She had spoken to Atlanta Hunter and then come looking for him. He could work out why. “This is about a changeling named Riley, isn’t it? Some friend of yours.” Tango nodded grimly. Jubilee grimaced. “So. I thought I had taken care of everything. How did you make the connection? The phone call he made?” Jubilee gestured with his head toward the door of his bedroom. Tango noticed for the first time that the lock and frame were shattered, as though the door had been kicked open. “I tried to redial, but he had managed to clear the circuits with another number. All I got was a pizza delivery service.”
“He called....” His apartment and left a message. Tango almost said the words, but she stopped herself. If she told Jubilee that, he would know where she was staying. And one of the lessons that he had taught her himself was that you didn’t give your opponents any advantage. “1 was supposed to be flying with him. Then I got his message here in Toronto. Atlanta sat her ‘daughter’ next to me on the plane. I put the voices together, got the passenger list from the airline and found Atlanta.” Jubilee gritted his teeth. “How did you
delete Riley from the passenger list?”
“The same way I had him smuggled back. I hired someone. A computer jockey to manipulate the airline’s ticket system. I might not work for Pentex anymore, but I still have my contacts.” He grimaced. “Could you let me stand up?”
“No.” She almost shuddered at how easily the old callousness came back to her.
He twisted his head around to look up at her. “Shiv, I think you’ve noticed that I’m not as young as I used to be. You might not have gotten too old, but I have. I can’t kneel like this for very long. My knees have gotten bad.”
Tango was aware of Miranda standing next to her. A vampire and a changeling against one unarmed man. One old unarmed man. She reached out with her foot and kicked Jubilee’s revolver under the bed, then lifted him to his feet. His knees popped as he stood. “Thank you,” he said gratefully.
Miranda’s eyebrows rode high on her forehead. “This has to be the most civil interrogation I’ve ever seen.” “Jubilee and I just speak the same language, that’s all. I know what he’s capable of. He knows what I’m capable of.” At
least,
Tango thought, I
hope he does.
It had been a long time for both of them — she was reminded of that every time she looked at Jubilee. Maybe it had been too long. She smiled, a wide, sinister grin that exposed her teeth, and met Jubilee’s gaze in the mirror. “An interrogation would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it?”
A fine sheen of sweat broke out on Jubilee’s forehead. He did remember, although that didn’t make her feel any better. His voice was still steady, however, as though absolutely nothing was wrong. “It would. What do you want to know, Shiv? I’m sure we can discuss this rationally.”
There was just the faintest hint of fear and loathing in his words. Oh, he did remember. Tango flushed, glancing at Miranda to see if she had noticed. Their eyes met. Tango managed to turn her glance into a wink instead of looking away. Miranda smiled back, her face still bloody, although her fangs had retracted now. She began to look around the room. Tango gave a silent sigh of relief and turned her attention back to Jubilee. “Where’s Riley?”
“I don’t know.”
Tango’s jaw tightened. So did her grasp on Jubilee’s arm. “I don’t believe you.”
“You should.” Jubilee’s voice hissed painfully from between his teeth. “I was told where to take him. When I got him there, I handed him over to the person who hired me. I was hired, Shiv, just like I hired Atlanta.” “So who hired you?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“What do you mean can’t?” Tango bent his arm a little more sharply, putting Jubilee’s shoulder at an angle so extreme that just a little more force could dislocate his arm.
Jubilee’s eyes grew wide suddenly and his face went pale. “Shiv!”
“Don’t make me go against what I just told my friend. I don’t want to have to interrogate you. I don’t think you want me to either.” She eased up a bit on Jubilee’s shoulder. “Who hired you, why did they want Riley, and where did you take him?” Jubilee was silent. Tango’s guts twisted. Was the man going to answer her or not? She meant what she said. She didn’t want to interrogate him. She really didn’t want to. She couldn’t, in fact. If Jubilee realized that, he could call her bluff. She blustered onward. “I notice your choice of living quarters has come down a bit. Slipping, Jubilee? What happened? Who would hire a has-been mercenary?” Jubilee let out a long, slow breath and went limp, giving up the illusion of physical resistance. His arm suddenly seemed like a stick of wood in Tango’s grasp. “What happened? I got old. I made mistakes. I’m still alive, which probably counts for something. Do you remember back in Idaho — one of the first lessons I taught you about being a mercenary?”
She flushed a bit and forced herself not to look at Miranda. She hadn’t wanted the other woman to know that those were the kinds of lesson Jubilee had given her. “Yes.” Part of her did remember that time, and fondly. She didn’t relent, however. “You said that the past is the past.”
“I also told you that employers don’t just pay for skills. A mercenary’s reputation comes from reliability and honor. Always do what you’re paid to do. If you can’t, you should give back the money.”
“Is that why you’re living in a place like this? You had to give refunds one too many times?” She was being deliberately unkind. She knew the importance that Jubilee had placed on his reputation twenty-eight years ago, and she didn’t imagine he had changed that much since.
Jubilee’s head came up again, looking into the mirror. “Partly,” he said. His face was struggling for calm. He was afraid, and only Tango knew he had no reason to be. Her own heart was sinking. She knew what he was going to say next. “My employer wants his name and purposes kept a secret, and he paid for that. I can’t tell you who he is or why he kidnapped your friend.”
Desperation descended on her like famine. Suddenly they were both struggling to control their emotions, Jubilee trying to give the impression that he wasn’t afraid, Tango trying to create the illusion that he should be. “How much did he pay you?” she asked casually. Duke Michael’s enchanted charge card was in her pocket. She hoped it was as limitless as it appeared to be. “I can top it.”
“I’m not getting paid in money this time.” Jubilee was defiant. For the first time, he twisted his head around to look at her out of the corner of his own eyes instead of in the mirror. “You can interrogate me if you like, but as you said, you know what I’m capable of.”
Tango just stared back at him. Desperate. Frustrated. “Damn you.” She started to let his arm drop.
Another pair of hands grabbed hers. Miranda took Jubilee away from her. “Let me try.” Her fangs were exposed again and she was licking at the dried blood on her lips. She stroked one talon under Jubilee’s stubborn chin, provoking an instinctive tremor. The act was a little overdone, but it was effective. Open fright was showing through on Jubilee’s face. “I think I can make him talk whether he wants to or not.”
The mad laughter of relief almost bubbled out of Tango’s throat. Yes! Oh, yes! Miranda could do it! She doubted that even Jubilee’s principles could stand up to the vampire’s will, and, unlike Atlanta, there wasn’t even the faintest hint of madness around him. Tango released her hold on Jubilee, pushing him into
Miranda’s arms. “It won’t be easy,” she cautioned her.
“Even better.” Miranda turned Jubilee around, her undead strength defying resistance. The shadows falling across her face turned her eyes into dark, consuming hollows. Jubilee kept his eyes fixed on her mouth. He knew what he was dealing with.