The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) (19 page)

I smacked my lips. “Could use some bourbon in it.”

“No bourbon, sorry. I don’t drink. Now, the hard business. There’s a war going on, Miles Franco. You walked into the middle. Into…what is the name? The place between the trenches.”

“No man’s land,” I said.

“Yes, a good name, I like it. Didn’t want you involved. Messy.”

“I’ve never known gangsters to be particularly concerned about collateral damage.”

He shook his head. “Bad for business. Bad for public image. That’s why the Collective doesn’t deal drugs. Too risky, too many communities damaged. Doesn’t further the goal. Smuggling weapons and tech easier.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out what looked like a small ivory handle. But then he pressed something, and a spike four feet long shot out the end, turning it into a glimmering fencing sword. “Made by a hidden Vei tribe. Don’t normally trade with Earth. Very dangerous. Pierces your human kevlar like…like…”

“Butter?” I suggested.

“No. More like yogurt.” He squeezed the handle, and the blade retracted instantly. “But beside the point. You’ve been working for AISOR.”

Something about the way he said the company’s name sent dread spilling through my veins. “Depends on your definition of working.”

“Hmm, funny. Unfortunately, makes you an enemy.”

“Wait, what? Did I get that right? You’re at war with AISOR?”

He nodded, and a murmur of assent passed through the group. “They don’t know it. Not yet. My people inside the company will soon change that.”

People inside the company. Like Zhi Lu?

“Excellent,” I said, thinking fast. “I don’t like them either. They killed my friend. I think. Tried to kill me as well. I didn’t appreciate it. How about we work together? I don’t know what they did to you, but I reckon we can get the cops to bring them down if we give them enough evidence.”

Bohr looked equal bits sad and insane. He finished his cigarette and stepped on it. “No. Maybe before, but no. Not now. Going to burn them. Burn them all, and take what we need.”

“What you need?” I said. “I’m a bit slow. Help me out here.” A bell rang in my head. “Wait. Bohr? Your name’s D. Bohr?”

His eyes flashed and his teeth glinted.

“Your name was on a bunch of scientific papers along with Kowalski’s. You’re an interdimensional physicist. What the hell are you doing running a gang?”

He moved closer, until he was only a foot from me. “Cigarette?” He slipped his hand into his jacket and offered me the pack. I shook my head, and he pulled one out and lit it up for himself. “Kowalski betrayed me. All my ideas. They didn’t agree with what I wanted to do with them. Cut me out. When I spoke out, tried to have me killed. So I had new ideas. A new plan.”

“I got a feeling I’m gonna regret asking this,” I said, “but what plan?”

The tip of his cigarette glowed. “Revolution. Hostile takeover. Just need a weapon.” I shrank back from the look on his face.
The bastard’s crazy. I need a miracle.

A shout echoed through the factory from somewhere behind me, and all heads turned toward the noise. I tried to twist in the chair, my heart skipping like a schoolgirl in a playground.
Holy shit. This miracle stuff has good timing.

A crackle of gunshots rang through the air. Far away, I could hear the bat-creatures screeching in response. It was the cops. It was Vivian. She’d tracked me.

“In here!” I shouted. “Thirty plus sons of bitches with big-ass guns. Watch the—”

Stretch’s elbow collided with my jaw. Something popped. My ears rang. It felt like someone was scraping the bone with a screwdriver. I tried to swear, but my mouth wasn’t working properly, so all I could manage was, “Urgggh.”

The gunfire stopped abruptly. Had the cops killed the Collectivists outside? No, wait, that was automatic gunfire, not handguns. It was the Collectivists shooting.

I tried to move my mouth again. It hurt like a son of a bitch. Stretch glanced at me and grunted. He put his palms on either side of my face and tucked his fingers around the back of my jaw.

“Wait, what are you doing?” I tried to say. It came out as: “Aaaigh, ough aah ooo oiee?”

He jerked my jaw forward, and something popped back into place. Fire swept through my jaw. I’d definitely need to put ice on it.

By the time I finished swearing, everyone had gone quiet. They were looking toward the door, and now I heard some groaning and scuffling. I managed to spin the office chair enough to see what was so interesting. My heart did a nosedive into concrete.

There were three of them being brought in at gunpoint, but they weren’t cops. The stockiest of them was bleeding from a wound in his side and another in his hip. Vei were normally pale, but this one was gray. His two friends were Vei as well, wearing the same clothes I’d last seen them in and looking like they hadn’t slept or showered in two days. In fact, I could still see speckles of blood on the cuff of the tallest one’s shirt. My blood. It was the bastard who’d cut my ear outside the hospital. Aran.

A gangster waved his assault rifle at the Vei brothers and spoke to Bohr. “They were sneaking around outside. Must’ve followed the blackhawks in.”

Bohr’s face twitched. “You.” He studied Aran, almost smiling. “Thought you’d attack us sooner.”

One of the gangsters next to Aran was holding a backpack. He unzipped it, revealing what looked like white bricks with small electronic displays inserted.

“Hmm, explosives,” Bohr said. “Trying to blow us up, yes?”

Aran said nothing. His eyes were cold as they swept across the crowd of gangsters, defiant. Then they fell on me, and his face turned to stone.

Bohr saw. “You know this man, Miles Franco?”

I met Aran’s eyes. What the hell was he doing here? Part of me wanted to kill him myself. His wounded brother groaned, his blood pooling on the concrete. I pictured Penny Coleman lying in that hospital bed. Was she still alive?

“I think I’d remember an ugly mug like that,” I said, then I shrugged. “Never seen him before.”

I couldn’t tell if Bohr believed me. The seconds of silence stretched on, only spoiled by the shuffling of the wounded Vei as he tried to rise.

Then Bohr spoke. “All right. Take them to the other room, yes? Ask questions later. Deal with our friend here first.”

The gangsters nodded and escorted the brothers away. Two of them carried the wounded one between them, blood staining their clothes. Aran met my eyes for a moment. Something in them made me shiver.

“Hmm, yes, anyway,” Bohr said as the groaning and footsteps receded, “where were we?”

“You were about to let me go,” I said.

He grinned. “Nice try, yes, a good one. Not possible. Not yet. I would, but…” He shrugged and made a face as if to say: “I just work here.”

“Well, could you at least explain why you went to so much effort to bring me here?” I said. “Was that your guy who tried to kidnap me from the funeral?”

“Funeral? No, not us. You’re very popular. You’ve become a…how do you say? A commodity in this war. Both sides want you.”

“Want me for what?” A commodity? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Did they want me because I could make a Tunnel to Tartarus?

I didn’t like where this was going. I couldn’t find Claudia’s killer if I was the target in a city-wide game of Capture the Flag. Then another thought occurred to me. “If I’m just a commodity, why are you telling me this at all?”

“Just to pass the time. Thought you might know more. Could be helpful. But not important. Ah. Here we go.” He looked over my shoulder at something I couldn’t see. I heard footsteps approaching. “Result?” he said in Vei.

“Positive,” someone responded. A Vei came past me and handed a sheet of paper to Bohr without looking at me.

Positive? Positive for what? I had a feeling another one of those miracles could come in handy right now. Maybe a better one this time.

Daniel Bohr glanced through the sheet and nodded. “Fortunate, but unfortunate,” he said to me in English. My neck prickled.

“Seriously,” I said, “you can let me go now. Don’t worry about me, I’ll get home fine. If you just wanna do something about these ropes…”

“We took blood from you while you were unconscious,” Bohr said. “Tested it. Came back positive. You’ve come into contact with Tartaran toxin, yes?”

“Yeah…”

He nodded again. “We need it.”

I tensed. “I’m not making you a Tunnel to bring any more of that shit back to Earth. It’s killed enough people already.”

“No. Not what we want.” He turned to Stretch. “Is the grinder ready?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, struggling against my bonds. “What’s the grinder?”

Bohr pointed at me with his cigarette. “The timing is not optimal, but we cannot afford to wait. AISOR will make their play soon. Take him.”

My vision narrowed. I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. Stretch strode toward me.

“Bohr!” My scream could’ve shattered glass. Stretch grabbed me by the shoulders and started wheeling me away from the group. “What the fuck’s the grinder?”

Stretch leaned down and whispered in my ear. “You don’t wanna know.”

NINETEEN

Stretch was right. I didn’t want to know.

The grinder looked like it had started life as—of all things—a tanning bed. But now that it was standing upright and was filled with spikes, syringes, and saws, it looked more like an iron maiden. It even had its own generator. The machine stood in the center of what used to be a bathroom, but all the stalls and sinks had been removed. I knew why they’d put the grinder here. Blood wouldn’t stain the tiles. If I’d been standing up, I think I would’ve fainted.

“It’ll process your entire body and extract the toxin from every cell,” Stretch explained helpfully. He pointed out a spike that looked like an ice pick. “Mr. Bohr says a lot accumulates in the brain and spine. Not the cerebrospinal fluid…” He pronounced “cerebrospinal” very carefully. “…but the blood vessels. The machine is very efficient. It even gets it out of the bones. Supposed to, anyway. You’ll be the first to try it.”

I tugged at my ropes a few more times. My heart was going so fast I couldn’t tell when one beat stopped and the next started.
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll be sedated. You won’t feel a thing.”

A couple of the gangsters moved to start the generator and prepare the machine. Several hoses led out of it, leading to sealed containers on the floor. The short Vei woman who’d prepared me a drink was there as well. Like the others with their weapons slung across their shoulders, she left her gat in her belt. I guessed they figured I wasn’t much of a threat right now. I had to agree with them.

“Hey,” I said, not even bothering to be embarrassed by the way my voice cracked, “don’t you think I’d be more valuable alive? I can get into AISOR for you. Feed you information. They like me there. Tell Bohr that.”

“No,” Stretch said. “You should’ve listened when I gave you the message.”

“Yeah, you’re right, my bad,” I said. My jaw was aching from when he dislocated it, but it probably wouldn’t be bothering me much longer. “Let’s start over.”

“Shut up,” the Vei woman said. She checked my pulse. I had a flashback to Doc McCaffrey’s examination room. I guess all her hard work was going to end up in a bucket under the grinder. The thought made me crack a smile. A crazy smile. I started giggling.

“What’s he doing?” Stretch said, frowning.

The Vei woman shrugged. “Don’t know. Probably gone insane. Help me get him up.”

Someone sliced the ropes around my wrists. I immediately started flailing, but Stretch grabbed me by the upper arms and lifted me off the chair. He didn’t even seem to be straining.

Stretch pulled off my jacket and shoved me into the machine. I would’ve fallen down, but he held me up with one hand while he fixed leather straps into place at my wrists and around my neck. One of the other gangsters did my ankles. Then he moved back to the door with his friend and let his gun slip into his hands in case I got any ideas.

“You guys are fucking insane, you know that?” I said.

Stretch glared at me, but the woman spoke up before he could do anything. “Move. I need to get him ready.”

The giant grudgingly moved aside and the woman took his place. I worried I was going to spew on her, but then I realized that wouldn’t be so bad. She ripped open my shirt and pushed the sleeves up. She pulled tubes and needles out of the machine and pressed them against my skin. I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to see. Something sharp pricked a vein in my forearm.

A strange peace settled over me. Maybe it was time for me to die. I’d survived more than any human had a right to. I’d done things that no one should do to anyone. I’d done my best. That was all anyone could ask of me. At least now I could relax.

I opened my eyes to find the Vei woman studying my face. Her eyes had an orange color to them that was rare among Vei. They glowed like the lava lakes of the Blackglass region of Heaven. She leaned in close and pressed something into my hand. Two somethings. One round and metallic, the other smooth as glass.

“A gift from Desmond,” she whispered.

I stared. A conversation came back to me, drifting across endless ages, or maybe just a couple of days.
Desmond’s source inside the Collective
.

She turned away, and I gripped what she’d given me tight to conceal it from Stretch. The woman moved to the back of the room, glanced back at me once, and nodded almost imperceptibly. I didn’t respond.

Stretch came back to inspect the machine. I think he was just pretending he knew what he was doing. He rubbed his chin and nodded. “Let’s get on with it.” He grabbed hold of a face mask with a thin hose attached and moved to place it over my mouth and nose.

“Wait,” I said. “Before you do that, I just wanna know something.”

He paused. “What?”

“Who killed my friend? Who killed Claudia?”

“Why?”

“Because.” I strained against my neck brace, trying to lean forward. “I need to know. Was it AISOR? Was it Kowalski?”

“Kowalski is a coward. He wouldn’t have the guts.”