DIRE : SEED (The Dire Saga Book 2) (28 page)

The kneeling one was Bunny.

Two men in suits, one whom I recognized from the parking garage, held pistols to the back of her skull. She’d taken some hits, going by the bruises on her face, and the tearstreaks and bloodstains.

They’d put a tarp in front of Bunny. Most likely to catch the blood and brains when they killed her.

I felt my teeth grind, as I answered Carson. “Yes. Dire does value Bunny’s life.”

Carson stood well in front of Bunny, her phone up to his ear as he smiled, and gave a thumbs up to the man sitting behind the desk. Carson was much as I remembered him, a fat, red-haired man with hard eyes.

The man behind the desk was a stranger to me. Slicked black hair, tan skin, and a suit that would have impressed me, if I hadn’t met Aegon Morgenstern earlier. He was stout but not fat, and his features were graceful and handsome. His fingers glittered with rings, and a tiny golden cross hung from his neck. There wasn’t the slightest hint of mercy in his face, as his stare held Bunny’s eyes, looking at her like she was some random piece of filth that had ended up on his floor.

“Good,” Carson said. “I’m going to hand you over to a friend of mine. Bunny’s life is in his hands, do you understand? We both want her to live. But you alone can make that happen.”

“Dire’s beginning to get the picture,” I replied. I let their security feed run as a room overlay, and checked my system resources. Good enough for a bit more, so I turned it loose on the nearby phones. Within a few seconds, I had all of them identified. Carson’s was registered to himself, and I smiled to see it. I smiled more when I took another two seconds to page through his text messages, and found that the man didn’t have the sense to erase even the most incriminating texts. Perfect.

On the display, Carson handed the phone over to the man behind the desk. He took it, turned toward the wall. “Am I to understand that you are Doctor Dire, supervillain and scientist?”

“That’s a pretty good summary,” I replied. “And you?”

“A reputable businessman, who has a problem.”

“Sounds troublesome.”

“Oh, it was. Except now maybe it’s an opportunity.”

“Businessmen are always seeking opportunities, Dire supposes.”

“She supposes correctly. Bunny had some interesting information about you, it’s why she’s still alive.”

Wait. Had she sold me out? What the hell?

“Like what?” I asked.

“She said that you’re the reason the Kriegers lost one of their major safehouses last night.”

Oh. Well, that wasn’t so bad. “That’s correct. They decided to pick a fight with Dire. Not a good idea. Dire has little mercy for those who mean her harm. Or her friends harm, for that matter.”

“Heh. You’re a busy sort, Doctor. Saw your fall on the television. You didn’t look so good, there.”

“She’s had better days, it’s true. But her goals were accomplished. Not all parties involved in that can say the same.”

On the display, he turned to face Carson, rolled his eyes, and made little snapping motions with his free hand. Carson grinned. I narrowed my own eyes. That looked like an insult of some sort.

“One minute please,” I asked. “Got something on the stove.”

I went downstairs. Martin was waiting at the foot of it, looking concerned. “Hey, uh, are you on the phone with someone? Those voices are kinda—“ I shushed him, and turned to my armor. “Open Cinnamon,” I said, and plucked what I needed from the utility compartment. “Tell you in a minute,” I told him, then headed back upstairs.

Nothing had changed, much. Carson and the stranger were talking, and he had his hand over the receiver. I poked around on the computer while they talked, found the audio for their own security system, and gave myself root for their audio-visual systems while I was at it. Then I piped the feed into the display.

“—telling you, it’ll be worth it.” said Carson. “She’s pretty much a wrecking ball in that armored suit of hers, and best of all, anything she does is on her. Totally deniable asset. Hell, she already took out a mob of the Kriegers, it’s not a stretch that she’d go after the other gangs.”

“Carson, Carson, Carson. As usual, you’re thinking too small,” the stranger smiled. “One of those mad scientist types, who’s got a focus on weaponry and suchlike? She’s more valuable in a workshop, churning out weapons for us. You think your boys would like lasers? I think so. I know mine would.  And what we don’t keep to use, we sell. Why risk her going out and fighting? She’s the goose with the golden eggs. We keep her barefoot and workin’ in the kitchen, so to speak.”

Carson chuckled. “Hey, if you want to look at the long-term, all right. I mean, so long as you have our back, it’s all good. I don’t give three shits for her.”

Who was this stranger, anyway? A mafia type, going by the situation and what Bunny said earlier. So he probably wasn’t using an alias. I looked up his phone, found it registered to one Louis Cavaliogne. While I was at it, I poked through his text messages, too. A bit more disappointing, there. He, at least, knew the value of avoiding incriminating statements on electronic communications. Still, there were a few things I could use.

“You think this bitch is really leverage?” Louis said, considering Bunny.

“Oh yeah. Dire backs her friends one hundred percent.” Carson nodded.

“More than I can say for you, traitor,” Bunny snarled. I gasped as one of the men belted her on the temple, sending her sprawling to the floor.

“Watch it!” Carson snarled, walking over, and kneeling down next to her. “You’re the fucking traitor! You’re the one who tried to fuck us over!”

“You lying shit!” Bunny yelled, struggling to rise. One of the gunmen drew back his foot, looked at Louis. The head mafioso raised a hand, shook his head. He had an amused look on his face.

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for this city! For our people. For our cause.” Carson berated her as he stepped back, letting her rise as best she could. “And you’d throw it all away? We are on the cusp of victory! The Kriegers are weak thanks to your friend, the SCK are gunning for them as we speak, and all we have to do is swoop in and finish off the winner. And with Louis and his men at our back, we’ll do it easy. We can do this, Bunny. We can do this.”

She shuddered, and mopped blood from her face. “By cutting a deal with the devil.”

“You’re one to talk! How many has Dire killed?” He grinned. “No saints here. So what’s the difference? What’s to fear?”

“If it’s all so noble, then why not tell Huginn? Why stop me from telling him the truth?”

Carson sneered. “Are you really that dumb? Really that fucking naive? Huginn already knows!”

She stared at him, eyes going wide, hands trembling. “You’re lying!”

“Huginn knows! Munin knows too! This was approved at the highest fucking levels!” He took a step forward, spreading his arms, and she stepped back, all of her trembling, now. “Me? I’m the disposable fucking middleman, Bunny. I’m the necessary evil here. No offense, Louis.”

“None taken,” he said, lighting a cigar as he watched the drama.

“You... why would they... this is the Mafia, Carson. The Mafia. They’re as bad as the other gangs. Worse, in every way.” Bunny was whispering now, strength draining from her as she stumbled, grabbed for the wall. “They run drugs. They run guns. They run slaves, Carson. They force women into prostitution. They force kids. They’re evil, just... evil.”

Carson followed, voice rising as he stabbed a finger at her. “Yeah, so they are! And you know what? It wouldn’t have mattered, if you hadn’t found out. If you hadn’t gone poking. Our troops would have been clean. Only a few people would have had to get their hands dirty. And at the end of the day, we’d run the city, minus a few areas that Louis takes care of, of course. But no, you had to come in, making noise, yelling about things you didn’t fucking understand. Getting people worked up. Giving them the Wrong. Fucking. Idea.”

“It’s the truth,” Bunny whispered.

Carson sighed, and put his hand on her shoulder. “The truth gets people dead. The lies let us live, and prosper. You never got that. Get it now, okay? This is your last chance. Play it smart. Beg Dire to cooperate. Or you can die. Choice is yours, kid.” He pushed her down until she was kneeling again. She didn’t resist.

“Hey now,” said Louis. “You want that, get it on your own time and not in my office.”

“Nah,” Carson said, backing up and scooting the tarp with his foot until it was in front of Bunny again. The gunmen resumed position behind her. “Just making it clear that the situation hasn’t changed.”

I grinned a hard grin, then raised my phone to my mouth again. “Sorry about that, Dire’s back.”

I watched Louis glance down at Bunny’s phone, as the vibrations ticked his palm. He raised it to his ear. “That you Doctor?”

“Still is, yes. Ah, quick question. You know that Dire’s a supergenius, yes?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, she’s deduced the situation. No need to discuss it further.”

“Ah, alright. I appreciate that, I’m a busy man.” He leaned back in the chair. “So, what’s your answer?”

“First, Dire has something to say to Carson. Could you hand him the phone, please?”

I watched on the display, as Carson took the phone, held it up to his ear. “Yeah?”

I slipped my earplugs in, held the screamer grenade I’d pulled out of my armor up to the phone, dialed it down to minimum radius, and triggered it.

Carson’s head exploded.

I nodded in satisfaction, as I studied the red and gray sprays across the upper part of the room. Splatters of Carson were dripping on the paintings, staining the floor, smearing the desk, and covering the gaping, stunned faces of the mafiosos.

I’d rather thought the principle was workable. The key had been identifying Bunny’s phone, and adjusting the hardware speakers via my hacked control of the device. They’d amplified and focused the sonics nicely. Though it had burned out the hardware, more’s the pity.

I checked my tap on the casino’s audio systems, and turned on the room’s intercom. “Well, that was easy. So, Louis, Dire assumes she has your undivided attention, now? Good. Listen closely.” I plucked the earplugs from my ears.

One of the gunmen was bent over in a corner, vomiting on a statue. The other one had dropped his gun, was frantically mopping his face, mopping his clothes, trying to get the fragments of Carson off of him.

Thud!

Carson’s body fell over, and Louis jumped out of his seat as blood sprayed from the stump of the fat man’s neck, pumping and spurting, splattering all over the floor, the desk, and the lower back wall. Louis took a step back, another, shaking as he fumbled for a handkerchief, and mopped his face. Some mixture of anger and fear? Hard to say.

“Here’s the first part of this deal, Louis. You’re going to give Bunny a set of car keys. Yours, or one of your men’s, it doesn’t matter. They’ll have to be currently present in the room, though, because—” I hit the lockdown button, and the office’s door went ‘clunk’, and settled in its frame. “—none of you are leaving this room until we’re done here.”

“How about a different deal?” Louis snarled, pulling a silvery gun from a shoulder holster. “How about you fucking can’t take all of us before we plug your dyke girlfriend here?”

“Well, before you try that, here’s something to consider, Louis.” I tapped in more commands on the phone system, and sent calls to every phone in the room.

The vomiting gunman scrabbled for his pocket, couldn’t coordinate his hands, and ripped his jacket off, hurling it into the corner. The one who had been mopping his face was crying now, hands lowered, standing there sobbing as his phone rang, and rang, and rang. And Louis? He lowered the gun, as his own phone chimed incessantly, closed his eyes as he realized just how fucked he was.

I silenced the phones. “Yep, that’s about the size of it. Any phone, any time. Any one of them can be an instant death sentence for you. No matter how you try to hide, no matter what precautions you take, if you ever,
ever
try to go after Dire or one of her friends
ever
again, it’ll be one short scream, then beef stroganoff all over the place. Now give her keys.”

He reached into his breast pocket, fished out a pair, and tossed them to Bunny. She caught them, stood.

“Alrighty!” I said, grinning. “Second part of the deal! One of your boys here escorts Bunny to the car. She drives off with his phone. Once she calls Dire and confirms that she’s happy and safe, Dire lets the rest of you live. Er, leave. Did Dire say live there? Hahahahaha. Well, that too.”

Louis opened and closed his mouth, pausing to spit out some of Carson. The gunmen who’d thrown away his coat stared, then turned, and emptied the rest of his stomach into the corner.

“Dire, can you hear me?” Bunny asked.

“Oh yes. Could before, quite easily.”

Louis facepalmed.

“Awesome. You mind if I change the deal?”

“Not at all.” I hoped she didn’t press her luck. I didn’t have any screamer grenades left, and didn’t have any way to stop them if they tried to hurt her. Not that they knew that, they were pretty well sold by the kayfabe, couldn’t tell it was a bluff.

“I’d like to clean up and get a change of clothes before we hit the road. Think that can be arranged?” She smiled at Louis.