Game Of Cages (2010) (31 page)

"Yeah, Nadia, the owner, I think. I couldn't see how. Just ... blood. Is that why you guys were sitting in the dark?"

"No," Catherine said. "I was debriefing her, and we didn't want anyone to know I was up. Don't worry, Ray, you didn't interrupt anything."

I felt my face grow warm, and Catherine smirked at me. I said: "You're pretty comfortable, considering."

"I can't help it. It's a tremendous relief to have a peer right here with us. I feel safe for the first time in days."

Downstairs, something fell over with a muffled thump. "Okay," Annalise said. Her expression was serious. It was always serious. "You don't know who's in the building?"

I didn't answer right away. It could have been Tattoo, but I thought I'd have heard his Megamoto. Then I remembered the missing third Mercedes at the red cabin. "Whoever it is, they're working for the old man. He's the only one left. If I had to guess, I'd say it's the last of Yin's guys with a new boss."

Before the room fell into darkness again, I stepped closer and confirmed what I already expected: the scrap of wood had a spell drawn on it. It was a glyph that wriggled like a nest of snakes when certain kinds of magic were nearby.

It was dead still.

She tossed the scrap of lumber at me. I caught it. The sigil flashed silver as it reacted to the magic Annalise had put on me. On the other side of the door, we could hear the floorboards creaking.

Annalise said: "Look after yourselves." Then she yanked open the door and stepped into the hall.

Immediately, I heard a sound like a series of low sneezes. Something invisible tugged at Annalise's clothes. Someone was using silencers. She raised her arm to cover her eyes and charged forward.

"Stay low," I said to Catherine. "Count to thirty, and then follow Annalise out of the building."

I swung my leg out the window into cold morning air. Then I lowered myself as far as I could and dropped onto the grass. I didn't break my leg, and no one shot me. So far, so good.

I sprinted around the side of the building. The gun in my pocket bounced against my hip; I'd forgotten about it again. I could have used it against the gunmen inside, but Annalise could handle them better than I could. Killing people was her calling in life.

I came around the side of the house just as a man in a dark suit fled down the porch steps, firing desperation shots back into the doorway. He didn't see me come at him.

I hit him from behind at full speed, knocking him face-first into the gravel. He didn't make a sound as he scraped across the stones, but I hit him once behind the ear just to be certain.

I heard the chunk of a car door closing. Well-Spoken Woman charged out from behind a parked X6 and ran down the street in her expensive shoes.

The gunman's pistol had landed a few feet from me. I snatched it up. The slide was back; it was empty. I tossed it away and took out Ursula's gun, then I ran after Well-Spoken.

It felt good to run. I liked stretching my legs, and she was not fast at all. However, she was carrying a shotgun. I held Ursula's gun ready and stepped as quietly as I could.

When I was just five paces behind her, I slipped on a patch of black ice and fell hard on my hip. My whole body jolted under the impact and my gun fired, the round skipping off the asphalt into the air.

It took Well-Spoken seven or eight stutter steps to stop her run, turn, and point the shotgun at me. That was plenty of time for someone as motivated as I was to get to my knees and aim my gun at her.

I didn't shoot and neither did she.

"It appears we have a standoff," she said, trying to sound confident.

"Except only one of us is bulletproof," I answered. I showed her the damage to my jacket and shirt. Her mouth fell open. She didn't have an answer for that. I reached out with my left hand, and she walked toward me and laid the shotgun in my palm.

Thank God. She'd been aiming a little too low to hit my bulletproof parts.

I stood and led her back to the B and B. Catherine and Annalise were standing over the man I'd knocked down. Well-Spoken stumbled and almost fell against me. I took her elbow to support her. "Thank you." She sounded grateful. "My name is Merpati." She looked up at me with wide, innocent eyes.

"I'm Ray. See that woman up ahead? She's a peer." I felt Merpati slow a little, but I urged her forward. "We have another few seconds before we say hi to her, and I want you to think about how you're going to present yourself. Helpful? Snotty? Pretty, wounded girl who needs a big guy to save her?"

She let go of my arm immediately. We walked together up the middle of the street toward the B and B. Townspeople stood in open doorways or in lighted windows, watching us.

We joined the others. Annalise had her foot on the gunman's back, holding him belly-down on the gravel. Catherine was kneeling beside him. He was talking in Chinese.

"I don't understand you, young man. I don't understand."

His wraparound shades had come off, and I was startled to see just how young he was. I didn't think he was old enough to buy a beer.

Merpati said: "He wants to go back to Hong Kong. He has a sister there who needs him."

I looked back at the B and B. A tall, slender young couple stood on the porch. Kripke stood beside them. They had the shell-shocked look of people who'd just been through a disaster. "How many dead bodies inside?"

Catherine stood. "Aside from this guy's friends? Five that I found right away. Nadia is one of them. I didn't see Nicholas, but I didn't search all that hard." She looked down at the kid on the gravel. "I wonder how many of them had sisters who needed them? Or kids?"

"Enough," Annalise said. She slapped the back of the kid's head. It made a sound like a cracking walnut, and he fell still.

Damn. Whether he deserved it or not, I didn't think we were the ones to dish out that sort of punishment.

Catherine gaped at Annalise. She didn't look relieved to have Annalise to keep her safe anymore. Suddenly, she looked afraid. She stepped toward Merpati, clasped her hands in front of her body, and spoke in a low, friendly voice: "Hello, honey. Did you order all this killing?" It was a new role for her.

"No!" Merpati responded. "Never. I was forced to come here by the man who killed my employer. The old man. He ordered this. They were going to leave me at the scene to take the blame."

This was the same voice that had bartered Kripke's murder in the Wilbur kitchen. Of course, now that she'd been caught, she was all shocked innocence.

"Who was the target?" I asked. I shouldn't have butted in on Catherine's shtick, but I was angry and I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

"I don't know," she answered, turning back to Catherine's friendly face. "I wasn't involved in the planning of this terrible, terrible crime."

"For Christ's sake," I said, my voice sharp. Merpati turned toward me quickly. If she was pretending to be afraid of me, she was doing a damn good job of it. I thought I might have been stepping on Catherine's work, but the expression on her face was encouraging. I waved my hand at the dead kid. "This guy spoke German, did he? Or did that tattooed bastard speak Chinese?"

"Cantonese," she corrected, with the habit of someone who corrected other people often.

"Whatever. I'll bet the only way they could have gotten their orders was through you. You're saying the old German guy didn't make you a better offer? You didn't switch teams and bring a couple of dumb young guys with you? You're going to be stuck with that story for a while, so you better be sure."

She turned back to Catherine. "I swear. I am telling the truth. I swear."

Catherine bent low so their faces were close together. "We know that's not true, honey. I don't want them to kill you, but I can't stop them if you don't help me."

Holy crap. I was the bad cop.

Unfortunately, Merpati wasn't sold. "It's the truth," she said. Her voice quavered as she spoke--she was afraid, but she wasn't going to change her story.

"We don't have time for this," Annalise said. She stepped forward.

"Wait!" Catherine snapped. She turned back to Merpati. "Honey, you have to give me something."

Merpati looked at her and shook her head. She had tears on her cheeks. She believed she was about to be killed, and she wasn't going to give us a thing. Whatever the old man had on her, it was strong.

Catherine sighed. "Okay," she said to me. "Go ahead."

I blinked at her. Go ahead and what? I hope she wasn't expecting me to start throwing punches. I had a shotgun in my hand. Was I supposed to use it on her, with little mobs of neighbors gathering down the street to watch us?

"Ray." Catherine sounded annoyed with me. "Quickly, or your boss is going to break this woman's neck."

"What?" I was completely at a loss.

"Lord," Catherine said. "You'll use it on me but not her?"

I suddenly understood what she was talking about. I tucked the pistol under my arm and took the ghost knife from my pocket. "I used it on you because you were trying to kill me." I grabbed Merpati's wrist and swept the ghost knife through her little finger. It cut a notch in her braided gold ring, but her flesh was unharmed.

She gasped. Her shoulders slumped and her hands drew up next to her chest in a frightened, defensive posture. "Both of you," she blurted out. "I'm sorry. He sent us to kill both of you, along with Mr. Kripke, if we could find him."

Catherine leaned toward her. "Who sent you to kill us?"

"His name is Zahn." I heard Annalise inhale sharply. That wasn't a good sign. Merpati kept talking. "He's what Mr. Yin has wanted to be his whole life. He's a real sorcerer. When his man approached me and offered to make me an apprentice, I couldn't refuse."

Catherine's voice was quiet. "So you double-crossed your employer for him."

"I ... yes," Merpati said. "Mr. Yin ..." Her voice trailed off.

Three of the townspeople, all men, began walking up the street toward us. One carried a rifle. The others were probably armed as well, but no weapons were visible. I lifted my empty hand to tell them to stop, and startled by the gesture, they did.

"Mr. Yin was the forty-sixth richest man in the world. He was ruthless and a little crazy, but he was a good man, in his way. He loved me. He even asked to marry me, and my solicitor assured me the terms of the prenup were excellent. Here I was, just a bank teller's daughter from Surabaya, and I would have been set to take care of my parents and siblings for life. And of course my association with him would have enabled me to pursue my only real interest: magic."

She glanced at the marks on the back of my hand. We were all quiet, waiting for her to continue.

She looked at Catherine again. "When we kidnapped you, I thought we were going to get everything we would ever want. But Mr. Yin ..." She looked at me. "He wanted that spell you offered him so much that he lost all caution."

I didn't look at Annalise. I didn't want to see the expression on her face.

"When Herr Zahn approached me, I made the same mistake. Exactly the same. He promised me the secrets of the world behind the world, and I threw away everything. I lured Yin to his death. Me. When Zahn ordered me to take the few men I'd saved for myself and come after you, I knew he'd used me. He didn't care if I made it back, and if I had, he would have killed me. I betrayed a man who would have given me a good life for nothing. I'm so sorry."

She began to weep. A sorcerer had once promised to show me the world behind the world, but instead I had stolen his spell book and created my ghost knife. In the end, he had seemed like a decent guy--for a sorcerer--but I saw the world behind the world without his help. And just like Merpati, I wanted more.

With that thought, I couldn't help but look down at the dead gunman at my feet.

The townspeople were slowly moving closer to us again, and this time they had a crowd behind them. Whatever we were going to do with her, it would have to happen soon.

Annalise stepped over the boy's body and jostled Catherine aside. She laid the scrap of wood against Merpati's shoulder; the sigils didn't react. She wasn't carrying any magic.

Annalise's voice was quiet. "Where can we find Zahn?"

"He's been staying at a cabin near the fairgrounds. It's where he lured Mr. Yin and his men to kill them."

"I was just there last night," I said. "The chief of police discovered Yin's body--and the others--but the sorcerer was long gone."

"No," Merpati said. "He has a way of forcing you to think certain thoughts and turn away from certain places. Sometimes he can make people not see him when he's right there with you. He thinks it's funny."

"Merpati," I said.

"Yes?"

"I want you to tell those people"--I gestured toward the approaching townspeople--"that you came here with these gunmen to kill everyone in the building, and that you did it on Zahn's orders. You can say they forced you or whatever, but don't tell them about the magic. Make up a believable lie. Understand?"

"I will," she said. "Do I have to spend the rest of my life in jail? I'm afraid."

"No," Annalise said. "Someone will be along to debrief you and ease you out of this world. You're done, but if you talk about spells or predators to anyone--anyone--I'll personally kill your whole family. I promise."

Merpati's mouth dropped open, then shut. She nodded.

The three locals at the head of the crowd were about ten feet from us by then. "Excuse me," the man with the rifle said. "What's going on here?"

Merpati glanced at Annalise one more time. I knew she would do what I told her until the effects of my spell wore off, but the look she gave Annalise told me that she would stick to that story for as long as she had to.

Then she turned toward the three men. "These others are not involved. I will explain," she said in her perfectly accented English.

Annalise gave me a look. "Let's go." I followed her along the side of the road toward town, away from the throng of people gathering around Merpati.

"Hold it right there," one of the men said, hustling in front of us to block our path. He was a balding guy with a couple more chins than were strictly necessary, but the double-barrel shotgun in his hand was tough enough.