Hardbingers rj-10 Read online

  "Right. Like he's got a light side."

  Davis frowned. "Well, come to think of it, if he does, I've never seen it. But he'll go along with whatever the Oculus and the majority decide."

  "But I shouldn't turn my back on him?"

  "Like they say, you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. Miller is family—all yeniceri are brothers—so I won't bad-mouth him. He's got his faults. One of them happens to be a vicious streak about a mile wide, but he's an in-your-face type. Your back will be safe. It'll be your front you'll have to watch."

  Davis finished his beer and grabbed Jack's empty mug.

  "This round's on me."

  Jack leaned back and watched him as he headed for the bar. Something likable about Davis, something trustworthy.

  But he couldn't see joining the MV and working with them. Couldn't see himself working with anybody.

  But that was the old Jack. And the old Jack was about to disappear and reemerge as Mirko Abdic.

  Maybe Mirko Abdic would need something like the Militia Vigilum.

  Jack didn't know. He decided not to make a decision either way. He'd temporize with Davis—make no promises but not slam the door—and think on it.

  Everything, it seemed, was changing.

  12

  Gia shook her head and bit her lower lip. '"The Heir'? I don't think I like the sound of that."

  "We're on the same page there."

  They sat on the Chippendale sofa in the Sutton Square library that also served as a TV room. A Seinfeld episode that must have been in its ten-thousandth rerun was playing, but no way Jack could dredge up any interest. Same for Gia.

  "So, if this Sentinel dies, you'll be taken away from us?"

  The words stunned Jack. He hadn't seen it that way. Davis had told him he'd be changed, given powers…

  "No way I'll leave you."

  But would what he valued and cared about change as well?

  She clutched his arm and leaned against him. "Even so… let's hope this current Sentinel, whoever he is, lives another couple of thousand years."

  Jack couldn't tell her that he'd been told that the current Sentinel—so far the only Sentinel—had retired from his job and his immortality, and was near-ing the end of his days.

  So it was only a matter of time.

  Jack resisted the urge to jump up and start kicking holes in walls. His life was no longer his own, goddamn it. He hadn't signed up for this. Why couldn't the Ally have chosen someone who was slavering for it? Like Miller.

  "But what if he is killed?" Gia said. "What if you have to take his place? What will you do?"

  "Absolutely nothing. If nominated, I refuse to run, if elected 1 refuse to serve."

  "Passive-aggressive isn't your style."

  "What else can I do? In this case the only way I can fight back is to refuse to participate."

  "But if you're needed—if the Otherness starts something only you can stop—are you just going to sit back and watch? That's not you."

  Jack sighed. She was right. He couldn't see himself doing that. Especially if it endangered Gia and Vicky and the baby.

  "But that's all speculation at this point," she said. "This Militia Vigilum you told me about is here and now. What are you going to do?"

  Jack trusted his instincts and they said Avoid. But he'd learned to trust Gia's instincts as well.

  "If you were choosing for me, what would you say?"

  She pursed her lips and didn't speak for a few seconds. Then she let out a breath.

  "I'd give them a try."

  Jack winced. "Ouch." If he'd known she was going to say that he wouldn't have asked. "Why?"

  "Purely selfish, personal reasons. I know you're a lone wolf. I know you don't like to explain things. I know you like to act on instinct if something goes wrong and you can't do that if you have to explain it to someone else. I know you think the risk of something going wrong is directly proportional to the number of people involved."

  Jack smiled. "So you have been listening."

  "Of course. And all that said, I still hate you working alone. Just like I hate you traveling to Europe alone."

  "I won't be alone. Abe's contacts—"

  "You don't know them and they don't know or care about you. If signals get crossed or a connection is missed, you'll be alone in a foreign country where you don't speak the language and don't have any papers."

  Jack had thought about that, and the bad-news possibilities formed a cold lump in his gut. But he couldn't let Gia know.

  "I'll be fine."

  She shivered against him. "Maybe you shouldn't go. Maybe there's another way."

  "Maybe there is, but Abe has spent months setting this up and I trust him like I trust you. But getting back to the MV, they won't be any help to me in the Balkans."

  "1 was thinking on a more day-to-day basis. Your methods are like walking a high wire without a safety net. This MV group could be your safety net."

  Jack cleared his throat. "The problem with a safety net is that it's a very human tendency to be less sharp, less focused if you know it's there. You might become a smidge cavalier about falling because hey, no biggie… the net's there to catch me. Net or not, I don't want to fall. Ever."

  "Okay, here comes the personal, selfish part: I'd worry a lot less if you had something, someone to fall back on."

  "Kind of a moot point, isn't it. I'll be pretty much retiring from fix-its once I become Mirko Abdic."

  "But you can't retire from this war you've been drafted into." She bit her lip. "Maybe this invitation to join the M V is a sign."

  That took Jack by surprise. He leaned back and looked at her.

  "A sign? Since when do you believe in signs?"

  "Why not? I never believed in ghosts until one tried to kill the baby. I never believed anything like the Lilitongue could be possible, but it was only a few weeks ago that it invaded this house and wouldn't leave. So why not believe in signs?"

  A wave of guilt swept over him as he considered what she'd been through because of her relationship with him.

  "Case made. In spades. But what makes you think it's a sign?"

  She raised her shoulders in half a shrug. "I'm not sure. The timing, I guess. Becoming Mirko Abdic… it will give you a legal identity, make you a card-carrying citizen. You won't be a lone wolf anymore. You'll be a member of a pack, part of something larger than yourself."

  "Yeah. I know." That had been the hardest thing to accept about this whole plan. "But let's get back to signs. What does the MV have to do with my new—?" And then he saw it. "Joining something larger than myself. And the MV is another larger something."

  He found the symmetry vaguely unsettling.

  "Right. So even if you're no longer Repairman Jack, you're still involved in this insane war. That's not going to stop, and it's not something you can take on alone. It might wind up that you need them and their Oculus as much as they need you."

  "I don't—"

  She punched him lightly on the arm. "Come on, Jack. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto."

  Maybe she was right, but he couldn't see himself becoming a card-carrying member of the MV.

  "I'll think on it."

  "Give it a try. Mix with them awhile. If it's not a good fit, you walk away. If you think it has possibilities, you hang on awhile longer. Where's the downside to a trial run?"

  Good question. But it didn't make the decision any easier. He guessed he'd—

  "Mom! Mom!" Vicky came running in holding out her right fist. "Look what happened!"

  She opened her hand to show them.

  At first Jack didn't know what he was looking at: white, boxy, smaller than a Chiclet, with reddish discoloration on one side. Then he recognized it.

  A tooth.

  "It just came out!"

  Gia gripped Vicky's jaw. "Let me see. Is this the one that's been loose?"

  Vicky nodded as she opened wide and stuck the tip of her pinkie into an empty socket in her left upp
er jaw. "Righ' 'ere."

  "That's great, honey. Looks like you made another five dollars."

  Vicky grinned. "No, this one's worth ten. At least!"

  Jack slapped his forehead. "Ten bucks for a tooth? Where are the pliers? I'm going to pull all mine out and—"

  "It's only for teeth that/a// out, silly."

  "Yeah, but ten dollars! The Tooth Fairy only left me a quarter when I was a kid."

  Gia gave her daughter a sidelong look. "You got only five dollars for the last teeth."

  "Yeah, but those were incisors and canines. This is a molar. It's worth double."

  Incisors and canines… how did she know this stuff?

  Gia smiled. "Where does it say that?"

  "In the Tooth Fairy Rule Book."

  "Well, if you can show me that, I'll believe it. Otherwise I think the Tooth Fairy will think five is plenty."

  "Aaaw."

  13

  Jack hung around until after Vicky went to bed. They gave her half an hour before creeping upstairs to check on her. They found her curled into a ball under her covers, her long-lashed eyes closed, her hair, released from its braids, fanned out like a dark cloud on her pillow. The picture of innocence.

  Gia gently slipped her hand under the pillow and extracted the tooth from its resting place. Then she pulled a five-dollar bill from her pocket.

  "You're not giving her ten?" Jack whispered.

  Gia smiled. "Five's plenty. She knows there's no Tooth Fairy but she's a little operator who likes to see how far she can push the game. Don't worry. She expects five, so she won't be disappointed."

  Jack felt his throat tighten as he watched her slip the bill under the pillow. Everything pointed to dark days ahead. He had to find a way to protect these two—make that three—from whatever was coming. But how?

  He felt leaden and inadequate as they tiptoed out of the room. Maybe he should look into the MV. Maybe they'd have a way.

  "Meet you downstairs," Gia said. "I have to make a quick trip."

  "To 'sprinkle'?"

  She smiled. "Yes, but don't worry—I don't have diabetes."

  "So I've been told."

  As Gia stepped into the bathroom, Jack fished a five out of his pocket and tiptoed back into the bedroom where he added it to the stash under Vicky's pillow. As he turned and started back out, he heard a little voice behind him.

  "Thanks, Jack."

  14

  After he got home, Jack sat by his front window and watched the sidewalk across the street. He stayed up till after midnight, but the watcher never showed.

  SUNDAY

  1

  Cal Davis watched Miller yawn.

  "Tired?"

  Miller gave him one of his patented flat stares. "What do you think?"

  They sat at a card table, playing gin. Cal had just won the latest round, but they'd been fairly even through the night. The long night. He glanced at his watch: 7:30. Only half an hour left to the shift. He probably looked as tired as Miller.

  "I think I'm glad. I hope you're exhausted."

  Miller's stare morphed into a glare. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Just what I said. Because you're the reason we've had to go to twelve-hour shifts."

  "Bullshit."

  No—truth. And Miller knew it. Sending Zeklos down to the minors had screwed up the customary eight-hour rotation. They'd already been too short-handed to do that right, and the loss of Zeklos had tipped the apple cart.

  The Oculus killings and attendant yeniceri losses had thinned the ranks—and not just by death. Some of the less devoted members of the corps had turned tail and run. For a while those who remained had hunted them down and terminated them, but now they didn't have enough manpower for that.

  "We could have kept Zeklos for guard duty and just not sent him out on ops."

  Miller snorted. "He'd have found a way to mess that up too."

  Cal shook his head. "You're really something, man."

  "And as for the shift change," Miller said, jabbing a finger at him, "the twelve-hour deal works out better. Sure we're stuck with longer shifts, but now we've got more flexibility. We might even be able to start taking vacations again."

  Cal heaved a mental sigh. Vacation… when was the last? Long, long time. That had been in Aruba. He'd found an array of unattached women down there. A true paradise.

  Maybe Miller was right. Maybe the twelve-hour rotation would work out.

  The door chimed. Miller rose and checked the video monitor.

  "Well, well, well. Look who's here."

  "Zeklos?"

  "No. The Oculus's new best friend."

  "The Heir?"

  Cal suppressed a grin as he jumped up and joined Miller at the monitor. Yep. Here he was, waiting on the step.

  His talk with Jack yesterday must have worked. Cal had come away thinking he'd failed—miserably. Talking to the guy had been like having a heart-to-heart with a wall. Hadn't shown the slightest trace of interest. Either he had an A-class poker face, or something had changed his mind.

  "You can call him that," Miller said. "I think he's a phony. What's he doing back here?"

  "The 0 invited him, remember? And so did I."

  Miller wheeled on him. "You?"

  "Yeah. Tracked him down yesterday and pitched him on throwing in with us. My silver tongue must have worked its magic."

  "You mean your shit tongue. I thought we were done with this jerk."

  "Buzz him in."

  Miller shook his head. "Let him cool his heels."

  Cal reached past him and pressed the door release.

  "Now."

  2

  Jack was about to hit the CALL button again when the lock buzzed open.

  He gripped the knob with a gloved hand, but hesitated to turn it.

  Big decision, this. Joining up with these guys, with any guys… it didn't feel right. He'd thought on it all night and had arrived at the conclusion that

  Gia had a point: The Otherness was too big to lace alone. So where was the downside of giving it a try? If he didn't like it, or they didn't like him—Miller, he was sure, had already made up his mind about that—he'd walk away. At least he'd have given it a shot.

  He rubbed his chest with his free hand. The burning and itching had returned, but not as severe as yesterday. Maybe the scars were getting used to the place.

  He turned the knob and heard a bell as he pushed through. Took his eyes a few seconds to adjust from morning sunshine brightness to the dimmer light within. When they did he found himself facing Davis and Miller and two more yenigeri he hadn't seen before. Davis and Miller had empty hands, but the other pair had their pistols out as they moved his way from the partitioned rear of the space.

  Davis gave them an all-clear wave. "It's okay, guys." Then he turned to Jack with a smile. "Welcome back."

  Miller scowled. "What are you doing here?"

  Jack looked at him. "And a gracious good morning to you too, Mister Miller."

  "You didn't answer my question."

  "Back to have another tete-a-tete with your fearless leader. You okay with that?"

  Miller said nothing but his scowl deepened.

  Davis turned to one of the yenigeri. "Tell the 0 that the Heir is here."

  As the guy headed for the stairs, Jack heard a chime. Davis stepped back and looked at what Jack assumed to be a monitor, then jabbed a button.

  The lock buzzed, the bell rang as the door opened, and in stepped Zeklos.

  Miller threw his hands in the air. "The rat-faced boy joins the bunco Heir. Now my day's complete."

  Zeklos's eyes darted back and forth, hunting for a friendly face, or at least one not overtly hostile. Jack felt sorry for the little guy.

  "Zeklos," Davis said, his expression neutral. "What's up?"

  "I am going to Idaho camp."

  "Fuck!" Miller shouted. "You hear what he just said?" He pointed at Zeklos. "That's why you're outta here!"

  Zeklos took a step back. "What? W
hat did I say?"

  "You just mentioned the location of a training camp!"

  "But he is Heir."

  Jack said, "And 'Idaho' isn't exactly a pinpoint location."

  Miller's pointer swiveled toward Jack. "You stay out of this! This is a yenigeri matter!"

  "A bully is a bully, yenigeri or not."

  Miller took a step forward. "You mind your own lucking—"

  "Easy," Davis said, grabbing a tree-trunk arm. "Can't we all just get along?"

  While Miller gave Davis a long, hard glare, Jack glanced at Zeklos and found the little guy staring at him with an odd look in his eyes. Jack could almost read his mind: First this guy returns my gun, then the Oculus calls him the Heir, and now he sticks up for me.

  Although that hadn't been Jack's intention—bullies just plain pissed him off—he figured he'd made a friend. Zeklos appeared to be on the outs with everyone else here, but he still might prove to be a source for another slant in the workings of this enclave.

  Finally Miller turned back to Zeklos.

  "If you're going back to camp, what are you doing here?"

  'They cannot take me until next week."

  "So?"

  "So…" His Adam's apple bobbed. "So, until that time, I do not have anyplace else to go."

  "Let him hang around," Davis said.

  Miller gave him a disgusted, you-are-such-a-pansy look and turned away.

  Jack shook his head. The MV sure as hell looked like it needed some leadership. Wasn't anyone in charge here?

  The yenigeri who'd been sent upstairs returned.

  "He wants to see him right away."

  "Shit," Miller said, shaking his head. "Okay, but we pat him down first."

  "I don't think so."

  "Sorry," Davis said. "No one but yenigeri are allowed to be armed in the presence of the 0."

  Jack thought about that. Not unreasonable. For now.

  "Okay." He pulled the Glock from the small of his back and his PK-11 from his ankle holster. "But this is the last time I give up my iron. I'm either trusted or I'm out of here."

  Miller flashed his non-grin. "Then you're outta here."

  "That'll be up to the 0," Davis said. "Let's go."