ARC: Peacemaker Read online

  “Get in,” he said.

  I didn’t argue.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I got back to Caro’s apartment sometime after 3am. The guy in the scrubs pulled the sedan into the loading bay around the back of her building.

  “Leave his gun with me, I’ll deal with it.” It was the first time he’d spoken.

  I dropped it in the drink holder and got out. But I couldn’t leave without asking him one thing, so I knocked on the window.

  He rolled it down and waited.

  “Why did you leave me in the parking lot and then come back?” I asked.

  He pointed to the back seat and his long, dark kit bag. “Magnetised license plates. Best change them if you’re going to run over someone.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  He nodded and pulled away into the traffic stream.

  I watched him go with a numb of exhaustion.

  Caro must have been watching because she rang while I stood there.

  “Come up,” she said. “Gate’s open.”

  I walked the foyer, lift and corridor on automatic pilot.

  She opened the door before I could knock and I staggered past her to her couch.

  “Who was that guy?” I whispered.

  She looked me over and went and poured me three fingers of whiskey. “He specializes in retrievals.”

  “Retrievals? He ran my abductor over. Twice! I heard his fucking bones snap. Then he didn’t say a damn word to me on the way back.”

  She frowned then went and poured herself an equal measure. “You’d better start from the beginning.”

  The story drained out of me in a matter of minutes and left me staring at the rim of my glass, savouring the slow burn the whiskey had left in my belly.

  “Aquila was there, just before the attack. Then she vanished,” I added. “She was in the park too.”

  “Strange you should be seeing her again. Must be the stress.”

  “I guess.” I wanted to tell her more but the words just wouldn’t come. “I have to sleep now.”

  “You want the bed?”

  “Here’s fine,” I said stretching out.

  “Did you call the Marshall and dancer boy?”

  I put the glass on the floor and rolled over. I may have answered her question. But I didn’t really know…

  And then I was awake again and the sun was fighting with the edges of the blind. I felt too exhausted to do anything other than open my eyes.

  “Ginny?” Caro was curled in a chair opposite, her tablet on her lap. On the table to her side sat a box full of disposable phones. Another on the floor by her feet.

  “How… How long?”

  “It 3pm,” she said.

  “I’ve been asleep twelve hours.”

  “Pretty much. What do you need?”

  I sat up suddenly. “Work, it’s…”

  “I called Superintendent Hunt. Told him the basics of what happened, leaving out the incident with my guy. He said to tell you you’re on leave for the moment. He’s sending a protection detail here.”

  “But I don’t want–”

  “You should eat before you start arguing.”

  I stopped and fell back overwhelmed by a sense of weakness. “Fine.”

  She got up and went to her kitchenette, which was even smaller than mine – no more than a sink, a microwave and a fridge. From it, she somehow produced toast and guava juice.

  When she handed them to me, I noticed how pale she looked.

  “How are you travelling?” I asked.

  “Finish your food.”

  I nodded, sipping the sweet juice and crunching the toast in greedy bites. The blackness receded from around the edges of my eyes, and the world gained a little more colour. When I was done, I put my feet on the floor and brushed my hair back. “Talk now.”

  “I’m having the pills you gave me checked out. They’re clean-skins – produced and packaged directly for the black market. No batch numbers, no brand, which means we won’t be able to get a locational trace on them until the ingredients are fully analyzed. But straight up, I can tell you that they were made in one of the eastern US states.”

  “OK, so Leo Teng’s been in the States.”

  “Good chance, yes. Interesting thing is his passport, which I got a look at courtesy of Aus-Police’s less-than-spectacular firewall on the Evidence Collection Repository, doesn’t tell the same story.”

  “Have you been hacking enforcement sites?”

  “Me? Heavens no. That’s what BC is for.”

  “BC.”

  “Short for BitCoin. It’s a personal joke.”

  “Did you call BC on one of those?” I asked pointing to the box of burners.

  “My guys, you know, Ginny. They guard their privacy.”

  “Not so good if the police searched here, Caro. Looks like you’re running a drug empire or an illegal import business.”

  “I’ve got a good hidey hole,” she said unperturbed.

  I sighed and returned to the puzzle at hand. “What about if he’s been given the meds by someone else, and he hasn’t been there at all.”

  “Possible,” she said. “But it still suggests a connection.”

  I nodded. “Bull says the dead guy in the park was an undercover intelligence officer infiltrating a dangerous group called Korax – the crow and circle. He never said which country the undercover guy was working for though. Maybe he was from the US.”

  “That would explain the Marshall’s presence.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Ginny, that detective worries me.”

  “Did you find out any more about her?”

  “Nothing on the record. But there is a whisper around that her family was illegal immigrants. Not something she’d want coming out. Under retro-immigration laws they could be extradited.”

  “Good reason to be testy but why come after me?”

  “Maybe someone is squeezing her about that.”

  I took in a long, deep breath and concentrated on letting it all go, pushing my diaphragm out hard. Steady. Steady. Steady. “Your guy, Caro. He killed the taxi-driver. I should report that.”

  “Are you crazy? He saved your life. And if you report any more dead guys, Detective Chance will throw away the key on you.”

  “But there were witnesses. Some guys… and lots of CCU. The guy in the takeaway joint may have even seen.”

  “Hamish has dealt with that already. Trust me.”

  If there was anyone in this world that I did trust it was Caro, but it didn’t make me feel any better. “What’s it costing you though?”

  “This one’s for free. Hamish and I go a long way back. But Ginny, that’s the second attempt to kidnap you.”

  “Third actually. Happened in Mystere as well.”

  “You have to start carrying… permanently. And don’t go places alone anymore.”

  “I have to meet this Kadee Matari. The talisman we got off the guy who followed us to Hoofs and Horners: she can help us identify it. There’s something else too. I found an illegal recording device out at Los Tribos.”

  “What? When?”

  “The day after Nate arrived. It had been fitted into the rock. No battery and no card though.”

  “You should let me look at it. And you should let me come to meet this Kadee Matari with you.”

  “No. Not in Divine Province, you’d attract too much attention out there.”

  Caro made an irritated noise. “Then take Hamish.”

  “No. He runs over people.”

  A knock at the door saved me from her reply.

  She screened the visitor from her sec-cam. “Looks like your bodyguard is here.”

  “Comforting,” I said with sarcasm, wondering which security company Bull had used.

  Caro opened the door and Sixkiller strolled in. He tipped his Stetson. “Ma’am. Ranger. How are you both today?”

  “You’re my bodyguard!”

  “Come to escort you home and stay with you around the cl
ock courtesy of Parks Southern and the US Marshall Service.”

  Bull, I thought with feeling, I’m going to strangle you.

  A half hour later we were standing outside my apartment door. “I’m going to find this Kadee Matari in Divine Province. You want to go get the bone feather and pick me up when I’m showered and changed?”

  He shook his head. “No deal, Ranger. My instructions are very specific: around the clock.”

  I clenched everything that would clench. “Whatever.”

  It took me an entire shower to loosen my jaw. So far, Sixkiller had caused me only aggravation and anxiety. I doubted that was going to improve any time soon.

  Dressing in jeans, a jacket and boots made me feel a whole lot better. I strapped on my shoulder holster and slipped my badge in my jacket. My job gave me the right to carry a weapon. Outside the park though, my power to arrest was limited but my badge would identify me as law enforcement and maybe buy me some benefit of the doubt.

  I found Sixkiller sprawled out on the couch, his feet apart, and avoiding touching John Flat’s outlines.

  “When they gonna rub this out?” he asked.

  “Like Detective Chance’s going to confide in me?”

  “Yeah right, thet women’s got a flea in her ass.”He straightened up, elbows on knees feet tucked in. “I’d like to hear the details of last night, Ranger.”

  I folded my arms. “And I’d like to hear the truth about what you’re doing here and everything you were briefed on about the trip.”

  We stared at each other in the kind of passive impasse where the silence hung and hung.

  Into it intruded a quick, loud knock. And the door opened.

  Heart.

  This uncomfortable little threesome was getting together way too regularly for my taste, so I dispensed with any niceties. “Wait outside, Marshall, I’ll be there directly.”

  Sixkiller shrugged, got up and stalked past Heart, closing the door behind him.

  “Virgin?” The dark rings under his eyes sucked the anger from me. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

  He stood silent in my embrace for a bit then kissed me on the cheek. “I came here and waited for you last night. You didn’t come home.”

  “Unplanned detour,” I said into this hair. “My taxi driver decided to abduct me as I left the diner. Managed to lose him out on the Million Mile. Things got messy after that and I crashed at Caro’s.”

  He pulled back from my embrace and took my hands in his face. “That’s the quick and sanitised version, I’m guessing. Are you alright?”

  “Tired, sore, pissed off but alright. And I owe you… Chef said you told him how to best back the detective off me.”

  A little colour seeped into his face. “I’ve found that cops respond best to the threat of news coverage. They can’t afford not to manage their profile these days, with the whole regional vigilante thing going on. But you don’t owe me anything; I owe you an apology. I had to leave right when you were being questioned. When I came back you’d gone and the police were searching the diner.”

  “Something wrong?”

  The emotion in his eyes, cooled. “Just some aggravation with a client.”

  I kissed him on the mouth. “Well be careful with that. I have to go now but I’ll call you later.”

  “With the Marshall?”

  I pulled an unhappy face. “My boss has assigned him to watch me round the clock until things settle.”

  He surprised me by saying! “That’s a relief.”

  “You don’t mind? I got the feeling you didn’t like him.”

  “I want you safe. If he can do the job then I’m happy.”

  “I can keep me safe, Heart. I don’t need anyone else to do that, but it seems my employer has other ideas.”

  He smiled and put his lips to mine, kissing me in a lingering, loving kind of way that was different from the usual passion between us.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Just let him help, Virgin. Please!”

  “Oh, is that what you call it? My mistake.”

  “Fond farewells?” said Sixkiller while waited for a taxi at the Cloisters rank. Hump day in this part of the city was one of the busiest for tourists and the queue was longer than usual. I wasn’t in the mood for self-cleaning business suits and early bird travelers.

  In Divine Province, on the other hand, people observed siesta at midday on midweek, which made it the ideal time for me to go hunting Kadee Matari.

  “And it would be your business… why?” I asked.

  “You seem particularly hostile this morning, Ranger. Would you care to enlighten me why that is so?”

  I glanced around. The queue had spread back into the Cloister’s foyer but most people were on their phones, distracted. No one seemed to be listening, so I dropped my voice.

  “You’ve been forced on me with little or no explanation. Then I have to get you out of one scrape after another. Last night when I really could have done with your help, you spend the evening staring down the cleavage of the woman who I wouldn’t trust to make my toast and then you KO the bouncer who’s offended her honour. Meanwhile, I’ve been detained illegally by the police and then kidnapped by a taxi driver. And just to add some flavour to the whole scenario, you’ve spun me some wild yarn about other worlds and other worldly creatures that are here to effect some monstrous change to our society. I think you’re completely off your nut and they’ve sent you to protect me!”

  His eyes grew wider and wider as my rant went on. When I’d run out of steam he said nothing. Then he burst out laughing.

  I hadn’t heard him laugh before. It was a wildly abandoned sound from deep in his chest.

  “Do. Not. Laugh. At. Me,” I ground out.

  He mopped his eyes and reined in his mirth. “My sincerest apologies Virgin, but I’ve never met anyone who speaks their mind like you do. It’s disconcerting… and downright funny.”

  “I’m feeling anything but downright funny, Nate.”

  The laughter fell from his face. “And so protecting you from the attacker in your apartment, and giving my blood to help you recover from the Mythos scratches were unacceptable actions? From where I stand, you’re blessed that I was there.”

  “Well that’s a matter of opinion. But in the spirit of the greater good and coming out of this alive, I will continue to work with you but only if you tell me everything.”

  “Everything?”

  Right about there, my remaining shred of civility vanished and I raised my voice. “Don’t be so fucking obtuse. Either tell me what’s going on… or get fucking lost.”

  “There’s no need to be vulgar, Ranger.”

  I folded my arms and tried to burn him alive with my stare.

  A taxi pulled in and retracted its doors, rescuing us from increasingly curious bystander glances.

  “Only get in if you’re going to talk to me, Marshall,” I asked softly.

  He hesitated then nodded. “After you, ma’am.”

  I let the ma’am slide. He folded his body into the back seat after me and we didn’t speak until we reached the connecting bus that would take us the normal tourist route to Divine Province. I wasn’t giving my short-cut up to the Marshall. I didn’t trust him enough.

  The bus offered more privacy than the taxi, so I re-opened our conversation when we got clear the Western Quarter. There were only a few people on board, and none of them sitting close. The driver sat behind his everything-proof shutters watching a football game on his screen, while the bus steered itself along the Coastal freeway.

  “You said you work for a division of the Marshall Service, so tell me about it.”

  He stared past me and out the window. “My division watches and analyses unexplained trends in human behaviours. Pattern changes. We’re not the only ones. Most Intelligence agencies have a similar section. The Marshalls liaise directly with a fraternal group at Langley.”

  “How does that work?”

  �
��Mostly, in practice, they issue edicts to us and we enact them. But we have expertise in Native American culture, so they defer to us on things pertaining to it.”

  “So you’re saying that every country in the world has a division of their spy service devoted to spiritual shit.”

  “An unsophisticated and simplistic summary... but yes.”

  “Since when?”

  “I haven’t seen any official record on it but my guess is that the secret services began with the Spiritual Divisions.”

  I digested that for a bit, letting the swaying rhythm of the bus rock me. The air conditioning blew cold air onto my face, causing the back of my throat to itch. “And how do you define spiritual?”

  He let out an impatient breath and it was hard to miss the look of irritation on his face. “The Marshall Service’s definition is a hundred and fifty page document. But if I can condense for you: it means anything not classified as Traditional Human Reality.”

  I mirrored his irritated look. “That’s pretty fuzzy and weird.”

  “I don’t claim to know about everything that exists beyond the mundane but I do know some things. In my time with USMS, I’ve investigated or tracked over fifty different kinds of Mythos or talismans.”

  “Talismans?”

  “Sometimes the talisman is more powerful than the creature.”

  “Like the bone feather from the guy in the alley.”

  “Maybe. If we find out exactly what it means.”

  “Which is why I’m sitting on a bus with you.”

  He nodded and fell silent but I wasn’t prepared to let it lie yet.

  “So you came here because our secret services think we’ve got trouble from the spirit plane.”

  “Patterns have been emerging that point to this city and its fringe groups, with Birrimun Park as the lens point.”

  “So your intel thinks I’m just collateral damage on that? Wrong place, wrong time?”

  “Actually no, Virgin. We think it has something to do with your father.”

  That kinda froze over all my organs. “Dad?”

  “Yes. He had connections deep in the community here, amongst many of the spiritual groups. If I tell you something, can you keep it together?”

  “I don’t make deals like that. But if you want my compliance… my assistance… you’d better not stop now.”