Danger Money (25 page)

I was headed back towards the
Bronx
when a idea finally made itself known in my mind. I think it was the sign for the Botanical Gardens that did it, the plant I needed didn't normally grow on the eastern coast of the North American continent. I got off at the next exit, and took a walk over to the back of the Gardens.

After scaling a fence that for once didn't have any security (what was there to steal at a garden, right?). I found the things I needed then went back to the train station. Once there I headed to Penn station, and from there got a train out to
Long Island
.

Siedman lived out there in a place called Old Westbury, and I got off the train in a nearby town. Once there I looked around until I found an electronics store. I was able to buy the few chemicals I needed there, even if I did get a few strange looks.

Down the block I bought a blender, and a few other odds and ends. Then I went looking for a place where I could be undisturbed, which wasn't very easy, it was about five in the evening now and people were coming home for the day. Eventually I ended up waiting till nightfall and just broke into a shop that sold food for the daytime work crowd.

Which was fortunate, because it made my job a lot easier. Riacin is fairly easy to make if you don't want to distill it too much. But it was nice to have a large sink available, and a hood fan.

It was after
midnight
when I had finished, I cleaned up very carefully, and disposed of my materials in a dumpster out back. Then I stole a car and drove back into the city. I stopped in
Brooklyn
and called the number I had for Siedman.

"Hello?" Answered a woman's voice, "Mr. Siedman's office."

I hadn't expected to get him anyway, not this late. But I was still surprised there was somebody in, I had figured on voice mail.

"Could I leave a message for Mr. Siedman please?"

"May I ask what it is in regards too?"

"Could you tell him I would like to meet him at the Tromo-Do on Saint Marks place tomorrow at three please?"

"And you are Sir?"

"Mr. J," I smiled. I knew I was making it way too obvious, I just hoped he thought I was this dumb. "His old friend from the Palace."

"I'm sorry sir, I'll need more information than that if you want me to give him a message."

I wondered if she was stalling, or just being obstinate.

"Not telling him would be a bad career move," I laughed. "Trust me, Mr. Siedman is not someone I would want mad at me!" And I hung up the phone and left.

I drove back to where I’d stolen the car and left it where I had found it. Then I stole another one and drove to within a few miles of his house and parked it behind a store. It was three in the morning and I made very good time on foot towards his estate.

17

I watched the house through my binoculars, I didn't want to get too close as I could see it was well guarded. I didn't see Jocel or any of her people however, I hoped they were searching for me in the city. With any luck that call would throw them off my trail until it was too late.

Around seven in the morning I saw him leave the house, and fly off in an aircar. Aircars weren't normally allowed to fly this close to
New York
, and private ones were illegal. I guess presidents of major corporations were an exception to the rules however.

I continued to watch as the guards, both hidden and obvious, left to follow him to work. All but two. I watched them for another hour, worried about what I might have to do, when a woman left with a young child. The remaining two followed them.

I hadn't known that Siedman was married and had a child, not that it mattered.

I waited another hour until nine, to make sure there weren't any unpleasant surprises. But I guess they were expecting me in
Greenwich Village
later today. So I crept up to the house and carefully broke in. The alarm system was good, but not good enough. Neither was the back up.

Once inside I quickly looked for the master bedroom and bath, finding it I sniffed the toothbrushes until I found the one with his scent. Not hard as there were only two there.

Then I very carefully worked my poison onto the bristles, so it wouldn't show. That took a while because I wanted to be sure I had enough. Not that it would take very much, Riacin was potent - more so than Cyanide. Even in a raw a state as this.

Then I carefully backed out of the house, making sure not to leave a trace. Once I was well away I went to the local train station and headed back to
New York
. I had an appointment to keep, lest he get suspicious and realize it was just a grouping tactic to open himself up somewhere else. Siedman wasn't stupid, I just hoped he wasn't too paranoid like I was.

On the train I ignored the looks I was getting and wondered what would happen. This wasn't the smart thing to be doing, I knew that much. But I honestly didn't know what I should do. I had nowhere to go, nobody to go to. I sure couldn't run forever, I had been found on
Alexandria
and I was sure to be found no matter where I went. You couldn't run from a corporation as large as Tri-Star.

I should know, I had killed a lot of people who had tried.

When I got to Penn Station I went in search of a place to clean up. There weren't any public baths for my kind in the city of course. Eventually I bribed a bellboy with the remainder of my cash and got a quick shower in some nameless hotel. He looked surprised as a spotted cat emerged from where a black one had entered.

"What's a matter, never seen a cat change its spots?" I laughed as I walked by him and out of the place. It was
two o'clock
and rather nice outside, so I walked all the way down to Saint Marks. Surprisingly I was unmolested the whole way. When I got to the Tromo-Do I wasn't too surprised that nobody said a word as I walked in and found a seat in the back. They even served me a drink when I ordered one, and humored me by letting me open the bottle myself.

Hey, I made a career out of being paranoid, if I stopped now nobody would believe it. Right?

It was ten to three. I sat and looked around at the people who were seated in the place. Most didn't seem to care I was there, a few seemed unhappy, and two seemed to be trying really hard to ignore me. I assumed those two were corporate security. The rest were probably just regular folks. At
three o'clock
I finished my beer and stood up.

And guess what? Dammed if Siedman didn't show up himself, I guess he still trusted me to behave and follow orders. He probably wanted to make a big show out of the whole thing as well. I shucked my jumpsuit, leaving it on the table with a heavy 'thunk' from all the hardware inside. The corporate people twitched, but seemed to relax a whole lot more as I was now naked as the day I was born, and obviously had left a lot of dangerous hardware well out of reach.

"Mr. Siedman," I said as I made my way over to where Siedman stood watching. "I'm sorry to have been gone so long, but I wasn't able to get back any quicker. It seems a former employee was trying to keep me from coming back to work."

"Anybody I know?" He asked quietly.

"Knew," I said and smiled nastily. "And they told me some really horrid lies too." He looked a little concerned at that, but smiled as I continued quietly, "But you know how some people will say anything to survive."

"Yes I do Jotun," and he stuck out a hand, which I shook smiling dumbly for his benefit. "It's good of you to come back," He continued and motioned to the car out by the front door. "And don't worry about that person, they needed to retire anyway. You actually did me a favor."

I headed to the car, limping a little as my leg was sore from all the walking I had done that day, and I sure didn't need to hide it anymore.

"You okay?" he asked seeming concerned as I reached for the door.

"It's nothing sir. I'll be able to go back to work for you immediately."

It took a major act of will power not to turn around as I opened the door. I could smell the excitement all over him. Plus he wasn't following me very closely at this point.

"Why hello Jocel," I purred as I opened the door. "Funny meeting you here." And I jumped at her just as I felt the sting of a dart in my back. For her part she just hit me with a shock rod and watched me twitch until I passed out.

The last thing I heard was Siedman bragging to his bodyguard as he closed the door. "Old age and Treachery gets these fools every time, remember that ..."

I knew I would.

I came too suddenly, I didn't know where I was, only that it wasn't safe. I tried to jump up but I was shackled and could only flop around. As I opened my eyes I remembered what had happened, and saw Jocel standing over me grinning.

"Not so smart, are we Jotun?" And she hauled off and kicked me in the leg digging in with her claws.

I nearly yelled from the pain, the bullet wound was still tender and she opened most of it back up. But I got myself under control.

"That was for the pepper gas in the face the other day!" She snarled. "This is for leaving me naked and tied for two days on
Alexandria
!" She drew her leg back.

"What about what I did to Tresha?" I smiled.

"And I'm not forgetting about
Chicago
either." she hissed, and then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of me. Quite professionally too, didn't break a thing and I didn't pass out for over two hours as she covered me with bruises from head to toe. She probably would have gone on even longer but when I threw up on her, she lost her temper and accidentally knocked me out. At least I think that's what happened, it's hard to tell when you're getting your head kicked in by a pro.

When I came back too again, I was moving. Or rather I was in the back of an airtruck that was moving. As I opened my swollen eyes I noticed that it was not the same truck I had been so expertly beaten in. At least somebody had been kind enough to clean me up.

I tried to move and gasped with the pain. My body felt like one whole bruise.

"Don't move," A quiet female voice said, "you'll only feel worse."

"Can't imagine how!" I coughed and then cried out in pain as I rolled over to face my new keeper.

"I warned you, your back has some deep cuts."

"Yeah, Jocel was pretty pissed at me." I looked up to try and see who it was.

"Tresha!" I gasped when my eyes finally focused for a moment. "What are you doing here? Come to get a few kicks in yourself?"

"No," she turned away and looked embarrassed. "I'm not like that. Besides you weren't that bad to me."

"Jocel didn't seem to think so!"

"That's just because you made a fool out of her four times. And Siedman rubbed her nose in it too."

"Four times? I only counted three," I mumbled dizzily, my head hurt something fierce.

"After we got you he fined her for getting blood on the seat of his limo. A quarter of a mil."

"Shit, no wonder she hates me. Where we going anyway?"

"I don't know, nobody does."

"Well, it's probably only a one way trip for me anyway." I said with a sigh. "Do me a favor, ask Jocel to come back here okay?"

"Why?" She said looking surprised, "she'll just beat you some more."

"Don't ask, just do. Okay?"

She thought about it a minute, then shrugged and went to the front of the truck. It was then that I noticed there was a door that opened into a cab. As she opened it I could see the Wolf driving, the male Ferret with a large gun watching me, and Jocel.

Who turned and looked at me, rather madly too as Tresha talked to her. But she got up and came over, with Tresha in tow.

"Leave us please Tresha?" I said quietly.

"Yes please do," purred Jocel. "I wouldn't want to upset you."

"So, do you like pain? Is that it?" She asked once we were alone.

"Hell no, but I'd rather spend my last few minutes among my own kind, is that so strange?" and I tried to smile up at her, failing miserable I'm afraid, my face was far too swollen.

"Trying to charm me won't work Jotun," She hissed.

"Oh, I'm just giving credit were credit is due. That's all. I didn't think there were any cold hearted bastards left in the company now that I was gone. Other than the Human's that is."

"Why you…" And she kicked me in the ribs, I felt one snap that time.

"See?" I coughed. "Even I never went in for the torture thing, at least not unless I needed information. You seem to do it for fun."

"Do you know what you cost me?" She hissed. "Siedman fined me half a mil!"

"Tresha said it was only a quarter."

"She doesn't know about the fines after what happened on
Alexandria
and in
Chicago
!" She hissed again. "After this, I'll be lucky to get any good jobs."

"After this you'll be dead." I whispered.

"You're not one to be making threats!" She laughed.

"I'm not," I said and sighed in pain. I wished my head would stop pounding, it made it hard to concentrate. "Listen we both know that when this truck gets where it's going, I'm dead. Hell I don't even know why they've let me live this long.

"But I know Siedman, and I'm a mess he has to cover up. I could ruin him and he knows it. Don't you think that he'll decide to play it safe and wipe out you and your friends as well?"

She pondered that idea for a couple of minutes.

"I'm not letting you go. So you can give it up!" She growled.

"That's not what I'm after. I lost my team, all of them. That's why I really don't care what happens anymore. I've gotten my revenge and I'll pay the devil his wages. But I suggest you cut your team loose and start looking for a deep hole. Maybe his replacement will let you live."

"His replacement? What are you talking about?" She started, but just then the truck banked and the door opened.

"What is it Frack?" she yelled at the Ferret annoyed.

"We just got new orders. We're to go to someplace in
Colorado
."

"What?" she looked confused.

"I'm serious boss. We're to be there by six eastern and drop him and you. Then split."

I laughed and she growled down at me.

"What time is it?" I asked still laughing, temporarily ignoring my pains.

"
Twelve midnight
Eastern, why?"

"Oh, just wondering." I laughed some more, then started to choke in pain from the rib, It was definitely broken alright. She started to haul off to kick me, but then suddenly thought better of it and stopped.