Acts of Violence (24 page)

Inside, the bodies
were still in the same places. I went straight through to one of the changing
rooms. Most of the lockers at the back were unlocked. They were trusting girls.
Inside one of them was a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and pullover. Boots lay in
the bottom. A far cry from what this girl would have worn when in the club.
There was underwear too, but I doubted my escapee would want to wear someone
else’s.

I emptied out a
nearby handbag and stuffed the clothes in. Somehow, I doubted I’d look too
manly with that over my shoulder, but there were more important things to worry
about. I didn’t even consider raiding the purse for money. If my guess was
right, the owner would already be in a cage somewhere. And not one of Webster’s
cages, either. The off-worlders would have these girls. The contents of the
girl’s purse would be the last thing on her mind, but I wasn’t that much of an
asshole.

With my pretty new
accessory slung over my shoulder, I descended into the basement again. It was
eerily silent. Like a crypt. I guessed it kind of was for now. At the central
area, I found the gorilla. He was still sitting in the same place. Pointed a
gun at me when he heard me coming, but put it down when he recognised me.
Although there did seem to be a hesitation. The thought of just pulling the
trigger had probably crossed his mind. Come back for a second pass.

‘What happened to
the girls?’ It was like I’d never left. As before, he didn’t respond. ‘They
took them, didn’t they? Put them in cages by now. Like animals.’

The gorilla’s jaw
clenched. His knuckles became white around the pistol grip.

‘That nice girl who
showed me up to the office earlier.’ Now the other hand clenched into a fist
and turned white. ‘She’ll be caged up now. And you’re sat here staring at a
corpse.’

He was on his feet
in a second. Dropped the gun. He was going to tear me apart with his bare
hands.

‘I’m going down to
Webster’s place,’ I said, trying not to be too unnerved by the noseless face of
imminent death.

He stood an inch
away and glared down at me. He’d wait for me to finish before deciding whether
to commence the ripping and tearing or not. The ragged breathing made me feel
unwell.

‘I’m going to make
sure he doesn’t get to carry on doing this shit. A girl’s coming with me to
make sure the slaves in those cages are set free. She could use some help. The
girl from earlier—’

‘Ella,’ the gorilla
rumbled. The voiced matched the build.

‘Ella might not be
there to save, but you can make sure the others—’

‘She’s there,’ he
said. I hesitated. I thought about whether that could be possible. I didn’t
know anything about the gorilla. He could be slow in the head and getting his
thoughts mixed up.

‘Are you sure? How
do you know?’

‘Van said the
off-worlders want to offload all the girls they owe. Quick. Most of them are
with Webster. They’ll take the dancers there. They think they can take over
like that…’ He clicked his fingers. Sounded like a tree trunk snapping.
‘They’ll want all the girls in one place. Ready to go. Ella’s there.’

‘Or will be soon,’
I said.

Seemed he wasn’t
slow. It made sense. These off-worlders were probably used to going in and
taking over from rivals and slow-delivering allies alike. They would indeed
think that they’d be back to business by sunrise. Maybe they would be. An odd
part of me hoped Webster would show them otherwise. He was a glorified
murdering, scumbag slaver. But he was our glorified scumbag slaver and I wanted
the off-worlders to be taught a lesson. But that was just a small part of me.
The rest didn’t give a shit.

‘Then get those
wounds closed up,’ I nodded at the bullet holes. ‘And meet us at the train
station down at Webster’s end. And we’ll save Ella.’

*

When the girl emerged from the
bathroom, she looked almost new. She was still too thin and her eyes still held
too many torments, but at least she was clean and warm and had clothes.
Probably for the first time in a year. Under the bar, I’d found a sandwich and
some chocolate that the barman had been saving for a midnight snack. Back in
the dressing room, I’d found that a couple of lockers also contained a few bits
of food. It didn’t add up to a grand banquet, but at least we wouldn’t be
attacking a crime lord’s stronghold on empty stomachs.

‘Well?’ she said as
she sat back down to check if she’d left anything uneaten.

‘Well what?’ I gave
her a mint. Not exactly filling, but they tasted nice.

‘What did you do in
the club?’

‘I got you clothes
and food. And mints.’

‘Are we going to
die?’

Her hazel eyes
weren’t afraid. Just curious. I sat down on the other side of the table to tie
my shoelaces. It felt nice to have dry shoes and socks again.

‘Maybe,’ I said.
‘There’s going to be a lot of guys with guns. But they’re going to be shooting
at each other too. So that gives us some good cover. Especially you. I don’t
know about the off-worlders, but I’ve never seen a girl with a gun in Webster’s
outfit. They should know not to shoot at you.’

She crunched her
mint.

‘We should go. The
longer we wait, the more girls they’ll sell off.’

My stomach lurched.
But she was right. We couldn’t hang around any longer. I passed her one of the
guns I’d taken from the club. I should probably have grabbed a few, but I
wanted as little shooting as possible. With potentially both Webster’s men and the
off-worlders down there, the less attention we drew to ourselves, the better.
We weren’t launching a full-scale assault on the place; we were sneaking in. Hopefully.

She checked that
the new pistol was full. Then she checked that the six bullets in the revolver
were still there. Refilling my own revolver emptied the ammo box in my makeshift
safe, so I had no spares. But if we got to the point of needing spares, then the
chances were we weren’t making it back out of Webster’s camp, as she’d called
it.

‘What’s your name?’
I asked.

‘Sixteen.’

Her eyes told me
that she wasn’t going to give me the name she’d used up until a year ago. I
wondered if once the girls were sold off they were given their names back. Or
were they given new ones? Maybe their new owners didn’t need them to have names.

I pulled my trench
coat back on. It was still damp. On the way out of the club, I’d checked the
little room by the front door. There were several coats to choose from, where
the patrons would have been too busy running for their lives from the gunfire
to think of asking for their coats back. I’d grabbed the most waterproof
looking one for the girl. It was transparent, edged with white. She looked a
little ridiculous if I was honest. But that hardly mattered.

We left the
apartment. The old woman down the hall poked her head out. She saw me and
pulled it back inside like a tortoise. I guessed even my neighbours believed
what the police had said about me that morning.

Outside, the rain
had finally stopped. The sky was black. No stars. Must have been full of rainclouds
still, so I guessed the dry wouldn’t last. But in Harem, you had to take every dry
moment as a gift. We climbed into the cab. It was still warm inside.

‘Where’s the
driver?’ Sixteen asked.

‘In the trunk.’

I started the
engine and pulled away from the kerb. Took it slow for a while, keeping an eye
in the mirrors. I guessed Webster had more important things to worry about now than
me, but I still wouldn’t have put it past him to have someone posted at my
apartment. But what I was really looking for was a sign that DeMartino was still
having me watched. The last thing we needed now was for him to turn up and put
us in a cell for our own good.

After a couple of
blocks I decided there was no one tailing us, so I sped up. Sixteen set the cab’s
navigation to take us to the mining operation.

If she was number
sixteen, I wondered how many girls there would be. There was no point asking,
because I didn’t know how many girls would be there from the club. It hadn’t
exactly occurred to me to count them. I didn’t know how we’d get them out. I hoped
Webster would have a flyer or two there. Or at least a truck or something. The
off-worlders would have to transport them there in the first place, so maybe we
could use whatever they did.

Eventually, we
reached the edge of the city and sped out onto the road that ran alongside the
train line. It was a risk using this road, since it was the only one, but I
didn’t think going off-road would do the cab much good. I didn’t want to end up
hiking to the camp.

Sixteen broke the
silence. ‘The train’s coming.’

In my mirror, I could
see lights fast approaching on the left. Less than a minute later, the clunking
length of metal rocketed past. I could feel the vibration through the steering
wheel and seat. The air being sucked underneath the thing messed with the car
and I had to swing off the road to get away from it.

‘Who do you think’s
on it?’ she asked.

‘Not sure. Probably
the off-worlders. Webster’s guys will be in their positions by now.’

‘But surely he’ll
have them watching the line?’

‘Without a doubt. Maybe
they sent a flyer ahead to clear the station.’

I hoped the gorilla
had found somewhere safe and quiet to wait for us. Telling him to meet us at
the station probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but I didn’t know of anywhere
else. I didn’t want him in the car with me.

The train was gone
now, so I pulled back onto the road and accelerated. I’d pull back off once we
got closer and we’d use the commotion its arrival was sure to make to sneak in
from the side.

The mountain took
shape on the horizon. It was only a small one. A big hill, really.

Memory hit me too
late. Like a premonition. A tinkling came from my pocket. And vibrating.

‘Shit.’

‘What is it?’

I reached into my
pocket and pulled out the comm unit. He’d given it to me so he could track me
and make sure I didn’t do anything stupid. I’d forgotten about it. Now I was
doing something stupid. I stuck the blob onto my head, above my ear. The
pressure activated some kind of sucky thing and it stayed tight against my head
despite my hair. I hoped it would come off as easy.

‘Detective Mason’s
office,’ I answered.

‘Hello, Mr. Mason.’
DeMartino’s voice seemed to be inside my head. ‘Could you possibly explain to
me why the tracker for that comm unit shows you in the middle of the desert?’

‘The desert? Oh no,
I’m sitting on my couch sipping an appletini. Must be a glitch.’

‘I see. Well, I’m
sure you won’t be interested in the images I was going to send of Webster’s
mining operation. After all, you don’t need to know how many men there are,
where they are and where the girls are being kept if you’re sitting on your
couch.’

‘Well, the cops
broke my holo emitter, so I can’t watch anything. Why don’t you send those
images over and I’ll entertain myself with them instead.’

‘I’ve gathered
Lawrence and all the cops he thinks can be trusted and we’re on our way as I
speak to take Webster down. The UPSF teams won’t be far behind. I’ve marked in
red an area that seems safe enough for a meeting point. Purely for your
entertainment of course.’

The connection went
dead. The comm unit projected an image in front of me. I swore. The image was
partially transparent, but I couldn’t make out the damn road. I took the unit
off and handed it to Sixteen.

‘Who sent you
these?’ she asked, flipping through the images.

‘The UPSF agent.
They’re on their way now to take out Webster.’

‘Then we have to
get there quick and get the girls out before they caught in the crossfire.’

I didn’t argue.
Part of me hoped that she’d suggest we leave it to the cops. But the rest of me
knew better. Besides, her story had really fucked me off. I wanted to kill the
old man and his men. I’d spent all night evading Cole Webster. Now I was
driving up to his front door. And he wasn’t going to be pleased to see me. I’d
make sure of it.

DeMartino had sent
us six images. I was sure that to a trained agent they’d have been useful. Only
two of them helped me though.

One showed the
layout of the entire operation. It was smaller than I expected. Small mountain,
small operation. After the train station, there were two roads. One headed out southeast
to Webster’s mansion. The other continued due south to the main camp. First
came some buildings that I guessed housed those guards and miners who lived on-site.
Then were some larger buildings that must be for processing whatever had been
mined. Probably for processing the blue dust and making it into an addictive
drug too. After that was just another wide road the rest of the way to the
mountain. To the side of the larger buildings were what looked like old shipping
containers. I was sure that’s where the girls would be. In the middle of that
maze was a red circle. DeMartino’s meeting point.

The second was a
thermal image. White dots speckled the same overhead view. It wasn’t quite as
bad as I’d pictured in my head. There were perhaps a few dozen men. Ten or so
were dotted around the mansion, though I guessed there’d be more inside. About
fifteen were gathered around the train station. Their positions made me think
they were staying out of sight, so anyone coming by train wouldn’t see them
until it was too late. The remainder were spread throughout the rest of the
camp.

A single white dot
sat about half a mile west of the train station. I guessed that was the
gorilla. He’d been smart enough to stay back. Probably had a scope trained on
this road so he’d see us coming. I checked the navigation screen and saw that
I’d have to pull off the road soon to get across to him.