Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) (13 page)

“
You still feel loyalty to
your family despite their crimes?”

“
I hope to restore honor to
my family. The last generation was consumed in greed and religious
zealotry. I want to eventually renovate this manor and set up a
charity for women and children victimized by these
asylums.”

“
You may want to start with
the master bedroom.” Camilla spun toward her.

“
Why? What
happened?”

“
I may have torn the room
apart looking for my gun,” she replied sheepishly.

“
Better there than the
cellar, I suppose. I had an unfortunate encounter with some rats
the other night. I think you stirred them up when you were stealing
my wine.”

Camilla led her into the den furnished
with regal suits of armor, hunting trophies, and Victorian head
dresses. Of course, no chamber would be complete without esoteric
elements of cyberpunk, including a throne that dangled from the
ceiling by mechanical cables and tubes. It vaguely resembled a
leather seashell perfectly sculpted to mold with the occupant’s
spine.

Camilla nodded at the Vesely coat of
arms above the forlorn fireplace; a knight helmet and a
flourishing, red flag inlaid with a white cross. Vivian studied the
Latin words neatly inscribed below.

Sub hoc signo
vinces

“
What does that
mean?”

“
It’s the family motto:
Under this sign we shall conquer.”

“
A touch of megalomania in
the bloodline?” she chuckled, her eyes dancing across an array of
blades that once cut a bloody swath across Europe.

“
It was originally a war
cry from the fourteenth century. It’s actually not that unusual.
Many European families had a slogan.”

“
My family has a slogan
too.”

“
What?”

“
Failure is not an
option.”

“
Remind me how lucky I am
not to have parents.”

“
It’s not so bad,” she
said. “They’ve always pushed me to do my best. Maybe they pile all
their hopes on me because I’m their only child. I don’t have any
brothers or sisters.”

“
I couldn’t tell you
whether I had any siblings or not. I never had the chance to meet
my real mother. I imagine my father locked her up in one of the
laundries to keep her silent.”

Vivian looked absently into the
fireplace, as if she could see her future rising from the
ashes.

“
To be honest, that may be
what is driving me to go through with this crazy investigation and
put myself in so much danger.”

“
You’ve lost me. What
is?”

“
My fear of failure. From
where I stand, I haven’t amounted to anything yet. I don’t have a
job and I haven’t graduated. The idea that I can’t alter my future
terrifies me. What if I’m never accepted into the nursing program?
What if I spend the rest of my life slaving away in a grocery
store, fighting for every dollar just to stay alive?”

She shook her head in despair,
overwhelmed by a society that inevitably culminated in rejection.
She had been rejected by employers, rejected by the nursing
program, and rejected by her own flesh and blood. Nikolai was the
only one who didn’t outright throw her away.

Life could be distilled into an epic
game of survival, where the streets and employment offices
comprised the battlegrounds. Millions were lining the streets
around the world, failing to serve any basic purpose, condemned to
beg, steal, or sell their bodies if only to survive another
day.

She need only glance down an alley to
behold her future if she failed. She unraveled as Camilla’s
feathery touch fell on her shoulder.

“
I’ve only just met you,
Vivian, but you don’t strike me as the kind of woman who settles
for less. Instead of asking ‘what if,’ you should be asking
yourself, ‘what now?’”

“
Will you help me?” Vivian
yelped, spinning toward her with frantic eyes. “I don’t want to do
this all by myself anymore. You know more about the disappearances
than I do. Nikolai isn’t telling me everything.”

Camilla regarded her with
wonder.

“
You want my help?
I—well—”

“
Please, Camilla! If we
work together, I can be free of Nikolai, and you can have first
shot at this story! Isn’t that what you want?”

“
I never said—look, Vivian,
before I agree to anything, I need to know what’s happening to
these women. I don’t want to end up like them.”

Vivian sighed, crossing her arms in
defeat.

“
I can’t tell you right
now. There’s too much at stake if I just blurt it out. I need to
know you’re willing to stay by my side no matter what
happens.”

“
They’re being murdered,
aren’t they?”

Vivian’s head snapped up.

“
Why else would a detective
be extorting you for help? I can’t just follow you blindly into
hell, Vivian. I need to know what’s happening.”

Vivian brooded by the stairs without a
peep. How could she possibly whet this girl’s appetite?

“
If you accompany me to the
outskirts, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I
promise.”

Camilla begrudgingly turned her back
on her. The muscles in her legs tensed, betraying the slightest
impulse to barge out the door. She could disappear down the street
any second, but Vivian knew all the alleys if she dared
flee.

“
Okay…” Vivian’s heart
skipped a beat. “I’ll help you.”

“
You really mean
it?”

“
I’ll be honest… When I
first found you sleeping upstairs, I thought you were just a
drunken vagrant. I was going to drag you out with my bare hands and
toss you in the streets. Now that I understand the position you’re
in, I feel like there’s no escaping this.

“
I want to know what’s
happening to these missing women, and I can relate to what you’re
going through. I never really had a home of my own… So you’re
welcome to stay here as long as you want.”

Camilla wasn’t even spared a chance to
catch her breath. All of a sudden, she was pulled into a stifling
hug. Her surprise was only compounded by Vivian’s outlandish
strength.

“
Thanks,
Camilla.”

She managed a smile even with her face
pressed against Vivian’s tattoo-laden shoulder. When she squirmed
away, she was surprised by Vivian’s scowl. Her eyes were rimmed
with heavy concern.

“
What’s the
matter?”

“
I’m going to take you
somewhere called Grigorshire Palace. You’ll find your answers
there. But before we go, I need to take care of something. I want
to see my childhood home… in the outskirts. Will you accompany
me?”

“
You used to live in the
outskirts?”

“
Unfortunately, yes. We
were driven out by the incident.”

“
You survived the riots…?”
The words hung in the air like a tainted electric charge, indicting
Vivian of being somewhere she did not belong. Yet, Camilla’s voice
was honeyed with sympathy. Vivian nodded.

“
I’ve been trying to find
some clarity about the situation ever since.”

“
This thing you have to
show me… Is it what’s happening to these women?”

She nodded again.

“
So what do we do
now?”

“
I need to return to the
outskirts. There’s something waiting for me there.”

SEVEN

The lights winked on again and Vivian
vanished from view.

The scarcely lit metro tunnels were
streaked in graffiti like the primitive cave paintings of its
lesser denizens. Camilla traced her fingers over abstract symbols
that once held meaning to the nomadic artists. Perhaps strangest of
all were the footsteps ascending from the walls all the way to the
ceiling.

Another screech above her head
heralded the oncoming darkness, and a dozen lights were
extinguished.

The north entrance to the metro had
been untouched for decades. She couldn’t imagine a time when this
portion ever yielded to passengers seeking safe passage.

“
So this dope fiend named
Joakim,” Camilla murmured, “told you this is an easier way to the
outskirts?”

“
Easier than dodging trains
on the rails. And should you ever meet Joakim, I doubt he would
appreciate being labeled a dope fiend.”

“
Sorry, I meant an
entrepreneur running a pharmacy out of the sewers.”

Camilla and Vivian had set out for
Nádraži Metro when the first tide of morning sun lapped against the
streets. Not eager to re-enact her journey through the previous
tunnels, Vivian suggested a secret entrance Joakim revealed to
her.

The fact that it was long abandoned
and adorned in chains must have conspicuously slipped his mind,
although Vivian suspected the truth was far more devious. Joakim
struck her as the type who enjoyed vexing his prey.

“
He’s not so bad once you
get to know him,” Vivian grinned. “Maybe you two can hook up over
some opium.”

“
Don’t count on
it.”

“
Speaking of guys with dark
vices, what do you know about Krista’s boyfriend?”

Camilla burst into
laughter.

“
You expect me to give up
information when you don’t completely trust me? You’re out of your
mind, Vivian.”

“
You’re just beginning to
figure that out?”

The transit system sprawled before
them, doused in the ink of shadows. Ticket booths dotted the
abandoned metal landscape. The scream of shattering glass made
Camilla jump, and she spun to see Vivian crawling through a ticket
booth window. She didn’t even nurse the fresh bruise painted on her
elbow. Camilla watched with amusement as she rummaged hungrily
through the cash register.

“
What do you expect to find
there?” Vivian stopped abruptly. “When you return home, what do you
expect to find?”

Vivian stuffed a few coins in her
pocket, barely enough to buy a candy bar.

“
Closure.” She slammed the
cash register shut with finality. Breaking off a few more chinks of
glass from the window, she crawled out.

“
I remember the first time
I set foot in Vesely Manor,” Camilla said.
“I thought it would help me understand why everything
happened—if God meant for this to happen. If only that were the
case.
After a few minutes inside the manor,
I broke down crying. I felt like a little girl again, disinherited
by my stupid father. He never tucked me into bed, or fed me when I
was sick, or hugged me on Christmas morning. He was never there
when I celebrated my birthday. Instead, he grew fat and lazy in his
lavish manor.

“
The night I found you was
the first time I returned since that day. Who would have thought I
would find you in my father’s bed? I shouldn’t be surprised,
though. Obviously, it’s not the first time a woman other than his
wife laid there.”

Vivian screeched to a halt.

“
So it’s pointless for me
to return home? Is that what you’re saying?”

“
No. I’m just giving you
fair warning. You may not like what you see when you walk through
that door.”

Before Vivian’s eyes, something reared
up from the rails behind Camilla. It pounced on her, twisting her
arm in a deadly vice. She screamed as her eyes took in a brutish
man a full head taller than both of them. Adrenaline blazed through
Vivian’s veins when she saw his face, a caricature of flesh
devoured in tattoos.

“
What are you two doing
down here?” he bellowed.

“
Let her go now!” Vivian
brandished her gun. He only wrenched Camilla closer to his chest,
using her as a human shield.

Camilla scratched at the arm coiled
around her neck like a hairy python. She couldn’t breathe with his
weight pressing down on her windpipe.

Vivian fingered the trigger, torn
between firing point blank and laying down her arms. Camilla’s eyes
rounded when she saw Vivian lift the gun with a deadened look on
her face.

“
Vivian!” Joakim hurled
over the electric rails toward her. “What are you doing here? Who
is that with you?”

“
Her name is Camilla and
she’s a friend!
What’s going
on?
” He brushed past her, focused squarely
on the tattooed brute.

“
Vaclav, release her!” When
he didn’t obey, Joakim wrenched the girl away and smacked Vaclav
across the face.

Camilla fell to the rails with an
anguished grunt.

“
I told you to release her!
Now continue the search before I kick your ass all the way down the
metro. Notify me immediately if you find him!”

“
What’s going on?” Vivian
roared. “
Joakim?
”
He spun toward her with eyes as cold as ice.

“
Mikhael is missing.”
Something shifted behind Vivian, and she saw another gangster
toting a submachine gun. “He wandered into the sewers and hasn’t
returned since. He heard the voice of a woman crying out and
thought it was his mother. I’ve already dispatched several of my
men to retrieve him, but it’s a goddamned maze.”