-1-
“You smell like gasoline,” Blackbird greets me.
Fuck you too I want to say to him. But I don’t.
I was hoping it was just the car that smelled, but the stench must be lingering in my clothes.
Under Rayne’s orders Jean, Minnow and I went back to Dream just before sunrise. It was late enough all the customers were gone, but not early enough for Dakota to be around. We hacked the lock and covered the entire place in slow burning gasoline. Jean lit a trick match and turquoise blue flames licked the inside of the building.
By the time someone actually sees it, the building will be half gone.
Minnow and Jean were giddy with excitement and I guess I was too. Even through it was just arson, it felt like we were doing something and not letting those Mjollner bastards get away with everything.
We’d gone back to Rayne’s house to confirm we’d done the job and Minnow and Jean started drinking. I couldn’t even get a drink in because I had to leave for my appointment with Blackbird. Rayne was in such a surprisingly good mood he gave me the keys to his personal Peugeot Onyx II--a fully operational concept car from Berlin.
My adrenaline was still pumping from setting the fire and for the first time I didn’t drive on the boring, mostly abandoned paved road to Blackbird’s. The car went up to 200 miles and had anti- gravity panels in the design let the car take tight turns without flipping, so I sped across the desert, zipping around the occasional cactus just to feel something other than the weight of this really bad thing that happened that I can’t tell anyone about.
It feels wrong being in Blackbird’s sterile little lab, away from where I could actually be doing something more to help find Zacarias, but Rayne had made an edict; we had to go on business as usual to keep up appearances. So I was here, in Blackbird’s lab, staring at eight jars of animal fetuses.
On the operation table behind me, a sedated man has his chest laying open and the agile needle of a calibrated machine is picking in and out of it.
“Have you spoken to Cielle ?,” Blackbird asks
“No,” I shrug
"Why not ?," he asks.
I ignore him.
He asks me this a lot. Blackbird is obsessed with talking to my mother and learning how they created me. Sara had created a clean patch so I could talk to Mom, but I hadn’t connected to her in months because I just spent most of my time lying to her about where I was and what I’m doing. The longer we were apart the easier it got to pretend like she and Dad just didn’t exist.
“These fetuses are mutated,” he tells me pointing to the jars. “I want you to fix them by next week.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that ?,” I ask, annoyed.
“You have access to all the information. There is nothing to say your body won’t start mutating. You should understand how to fix it.”
“Rayne has a lot of shit going on,” I say. “I don’t have time--”
“You will,” he says and walks upstairs.
“Fuck you,” I sigh once he is out of earshot. Staring into the jars I can barely tell what animals they used to be (will be?) let alone what is so mutated about them.
I stand and wander over to man being operated on by the machine, I recognize him as one of Rayne’s drivers. The surgical machine is welding a very delicate cage around his ribcage. It’s a new kind of bodyhack that acts as a way to repel bullets to the chest and lungs. Upon impact, the metal seizes up and the bullet can’t penetrate.
It’s a precise process and even with the machine there is a 60 percent change of the surgery completely screwing up and killing him. Even if he does walk out of here there is still a 40 percent chance the metal cage could crush his lungs if his weight changes even the slightest.
I hear Blackbird moving around upstairs so I sit back down in front of the fetuses and stare at them to look like I’m doing something. Blackbird doesn’t interrupt because he’s batshit crazy and gets all his best ideas by staring at things and assumes I’m the same way.
After an hour I’m saved by my Syndicate going off.
“Get over here now, collarboy,” Minnow says and hangs up.
***
-2-
I don’t see why Minnow sounded so urgent when she called until I’m standing in front of Rayne’s desk. Sitting in a chair in the corner is Sage, the pink-haired joygirl from Dream. She's wearing a short nightdress and holds a robe tight over her body, which is funny seeing as we all saw her naked on Dakota’s screen at Dream.
“Now you can begin,” Rayne tells her. “Why did you come here ?”
She turns and makes direct eye contact with Rayne, a determined look in her gray eyes.
“Dakota lied to you,” she says, her voice sounds fragile. “He keeps all of the Dream recordings. When you all left Dakota told me he was going to alter the recording before giving it--“
“Why the hell would he tell you any of this?,” Minnow spits at her. “Rayne, she’s lying--”
“He needed me to recreate some parts of the recording,” she says quickly. “ I was... with the two men who were talking about your son--”
“Looks like Dakota needs to update your virgin status,” Minnow adds and Jean elbows her as Sage cuts her eyes at Minnow.
“Enough,”
Rayne barks. "Continue."
“He wanted me to go along with the lie that we didn't know anything about those two men… if you ever came back,” she says. “And I’m not sure I could lie that well…. so I snuck out to tell you what I know and hopefully ask for mercy.”
“Who were these two assholes ?,” Minnow demands. “Men always fucking brag, what did they tell you ?”
Sage’s eyes roll into her head as she thinks and then she looks down at her legs.
“I don’t know. These two had to pay me which the initiated Mjollner never do…but considering they were allowed in they’re probably new recruits or close friends of someone important.”
“What else,” Rayne demands.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know,” Sage says quietly. “Everything with the Mjollner is split between business and pleasure and they rarely mix. They can’t talk business around us.”
Rayne stands and she shrinks back in her chair. He snatches the Syndicate from her ear and gestures to one of his bodyguards.
“Take her to the basement and lock her in,” he orders.
“No!,”she shouts as the guard easily pulls her up. “I told you the truth, I swear! I need to go back before my roomates realize I left--”
“That’s not happening anytime soon, my dear.” Rayne tells her. “ I went to that whorehouse as a show, I wanted to see which girl I could scare into betraying Dakota. If your own pimp can’t trust you to keep quiet, how the hell am I supposed to?”
“I won’t talk ! ,” she shouts “I promise!”
Rayne shakes his heads and the guards escort her out. Once the door closes Jean lets out a small laugh.
“What the fuck are you going to do with her Rayne ?,” he says. “Imagine the rumors of Rayne Washington keeping a joygirl in his house.”
“Shut up,” Rayne responds and Jean just laughs. He’s not usually this casual with Rayne and I realize he is very high.
“Rayne, I think you need to let the slut go,” Minnow says. “She can go and get the tape from Dakota. Then we can see these guys’ faces.”
“I’m not risking her turning on us,” he says. “I’ll keep her for information. Once my son is back I will release her.”
“Fine,” Jean says. “Now what ?”
“She said they were new recruits,” Rayne repeat. “ I’ll have a hacker spider the networks for new Mjollner associates in the last year and have a dossier created. Then we will have the girl look through them.”
“Whose going to do the hack ?,” Minnow asks. “Is Sara, um better ?,”
“She’s still…adjusting. But I’ve got more than one Grace.”
***
As we enter the Sprawl cars honk at me and I swerve to keep in my own lane.
“I feel like you should know how to drive now, little brother,” Jean slurs at Luce. “I mean you only need one leg—let’s have some fucking fun. Huh ?,”
I look in the rearview mirror and see Jean smirk to Minnow in the backseat. They both crack up laughing. I’ve never seen them both so shitfaced. They’d been snorting something together in the backseat since we left Rayne’s house.
“I can’t believe we’re babysitting,” Minnow says for the 10th time in the last 40 minutes I’ve been driving. She kicks the passenger seat where Luce is sitting. “Cause, Alan Gay I was going to fuck you like…a fucking…something, Alan. You know ? Because we never did after we made up but now I can’t because of him. I hope you brought your fucking homework, bitch.”
“Fuck Alan ? Alan ? Over my dead body,” Jean laughs, kissing her on the cheek.
“That’s disgusting, brother,” Minnow says mimicking him. “I’m horny, Alan Gray. And you, brother, you better not die, Jean, okay ? No more dead bodies!”
He laughs and starts kissing her.
“Way to be a fucking cockblock,” I sneer at Luce in the passenger seat. “You should have stayed with your Mommy so we didn’t have to watch you.”
“Watch me ?,” Luce scoffs. “First of all you don’t have to watch me I’m 14-years-old and secondly I’m the only fucking sober person here.”
“I’m sober,” I say, despite having been taking nips off of the whiskey Rayne kept in the glove compartment of the car the entire ride. El makes it in the illegal distillery he has in the back of the Luxor.
I’d have to re-fill it with water and pray Rayne never notices.
“I just want to get Ma’s hacking shit and then I’ll stay in my room until we leave tomorrow. You guys can do whatever the hell you want--”
“Oh! You want a picture of me to jack off to ?,” Minnow asks, she stands up and leans over until half her body is in the front seat.
“You smell like poison,” Luce says pushing her back. She kicks his headrest, causing his head to jerk forward. This pisses Luce off and he turns around and with his hands in a fist. He tries to punch her, but Minnow’s quick.
He grabs her high heeled shoe off her foot and throws it at her, he misses and it cracks one of the windows.
“Hey!,” I shout, jerking Luce back into his seat. "Fuck, Rayne's going to kill us."
“Kids, kids, kids,” Jean sighs as Minnow retrieves
her shoe. "Calm the fuck down."
Rayne had sent us back to the Sprawl for the night to get some real rest and get Sara's hacking equipment. We couldn't do much until the joygirl started talking and honestly I am so ready to go to sleep in my own bed.
As I pull to the curb near Treasure Island a figure smacks into the front windshield leaving a smear of blood and a trail of hair.
Fuck. I’d know that blonde hair anywhere.
I jerk the break and jump out of the car and kneel down beside Perse. She look like a corpse, but her chest is still moving. There’s a huge cut on her neck and her skin is wet and sticky. That couldn't just be from throwing herself in front of the car.
I turn her over and see she’s been burned so bad her flesh is melting.
“Pers,” I say. “What happened ?”
“Me and some girls,” she says breathily. “ W..were leaving the Luxor…we got jumped. They set us on fire… I got away. I.…followed them here. They saw me and cut me and…I think they’re still… Help me, Alan.”
Blood gurgles out of the wound on her neck.
I want so badly to help her, but I don’t know shit. I know she needs to stop bleeding and she needs to have her burned skin covered and she needs oxygen and she needs Blackbird. And he’s too far away to get her there in time.
“It’s okay, Perse,” I tell her even though it’s not. I take off my jacket and tie it around her neck to stop the bleeding.
The car windows are rolled down and everyone inside heard everything. Jean jumps out of the car looking shaken. He's high as fuck, his eyes are dilated and he’s swaying, but he’s the best I’ve got to help me get her inside.
-3-
A sharp whine comes from down the street and a speeding red car blurs down the road. It side swipes our car and then keeps going, only teetering on it’s wheels for a second before picking up speed.
I watch Minnow quickly climb out of the backset and into the driver’s seat. I stumble backwards to get in the car before she takes off. I am probably not going to save Perse’s life today, but I can make those assholes pay. I open the backdoor and roll into the backseat just as she starts the engine.
“Get Perse inside and cover her with cold wet towels. Call Ivy and tell her we need oxygen. ” I yell to Jean through the open window as Minnow takes off.
Luce looks back at me from the passenger side and exchanges a concerned look. Minnow is like a girl possessed as she tails the red car. I don’t even think she realized Luce was still in the car.
“Let me drive--,” I call to Minnow as she picks up speed. She’s half in the road, half on the sidewalk trying to keep up with the red car.
“I am sick of these motherfuckers fucking with us!” she screams
She managed to catch up to the red car, it's a Lamborghini, and bumps their back bumper before they pick up more speed.There is a holographic Mjollner crescent on their license plate. They cross a bridge and are headed into
the West Side of the Strip where they will most likely have backup.
"Let it go, Minnow!," I shout to her. "This is their territory, they'll kill us."
She doesn't listen. The Mjollner car swerves into an alley and she follows, swerving to barely miss pedestrians, but manages to knock down a lot of city cameras.
The Mjollner car slows down and makes a quick tight turn into another off road to swerve into a wide alley. Minnow follows but she doesn’t slow down in the turn--- which should have caused our to flip—but the Anti-Gravity won’t let it.
She takes her advantage and speeds up until she is right in front of them before doing a 180 degree turn and cutting the engine, creating a blockade between the end of the alley with Rayne’s car. The Mjollner car doesn’t see us in time to stop and T-bones into the passenger side of our the Peugot with a crunching boom. The Mjollner car hits with so much impact that one of the people in their car flies through the windshield and lands with a snap on the cement.
“Fuck!,” Luce shouts.
The impacted caused the car door to smash into his side.
His face is nicked from the shattered window glass. His arm sits at an angle it shouldn’t be.
I hear the Mjollner car doors open and some shouts. Followed immediately by the cracking of bullets from a machine gun ricocheting off the alley.
“Now, what’s your plan ?,” I hiss. “You weren’t thinking, Minnow.”
Minnow doesn’t even look at me as she pulls the glock out of the side door where Rayne keeps it and kicks open her car door. Sighing I pull it out my semi-autmotatic, suddenly torn between leaving Luce here injured and unarmed or helping Minnow.
I reach over to the passenger seat and grabbing Luce by his non-damaged shoulder, drag him into the backseat until he is lying down on the floor. He clinches his teeth in pain, but doesn’t say anything.
“Stay here and stay down,” I tell him in the most authoritative voice I can summon.
"She's going to get us killed," he hisses.
I decide to ignore that. I open my door slowly and slide out of the car to see Minnow crouching down beside the car, using the broken side mirror to watch our attackers. Seeing me she hoists the mirror up and throws it against the side of the alley. The sound startles the Mjollner and she stands up walking straight towards them, holding her weapon in a very distracting spot right between her legs.
They must be thrown off by seeing a young girl in a pink dress and heels coming towards them because she just has to take three shots and they all fall.
Minnow turns her attention back to me for only a second. Her eyes are filled with an insane rage. I’ve never seen her like this before.
She keeps walking, her hips sways and heels making a rhythmic click as she goes to the man who was thrown from the Mjollner car on impact. His head is still moving and he’s more of a kid than a man—he could even be younger than me.
“I can’t feel my legs!,” he is shouting. “I can’t feel my--”
Minnow hovers over him and crouches down putting her gun to his head.
“Where is he ?,” she asks.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about--,” he pants. ”Please I’ll help--”
“Where the fuck is the baby? Tell me or I will kill you right now--”
“I don’t--”
“WHERE IS HE ?,”she screams. She starts kicking his face bloody with her heeled shoes. “Where.Is.He. Tell. Me. Now.”
I grab her arms and push her away before she kills him. She raises her gun to me and I twist her arm, this time disarming her. It’s the only thing I’m really good at.
“You fucking--”
“You’re not
helping,” I yell, tossing her gun to the ground.
I get on my knees lean over the man.
“Just tell me who sent you ?” I ask.
He is silent.
“Who sent you ?” I repeat.
“What is this good cop, bad cop bullshit ? You’re going to kill me anyway, I’m not telling you shit,” he says.
“I promise I won’t kill you.” I say. “We have bigger fights than you. I may be able to help you. Just tell me who sent you and why ?”
“Bishop doesn’t tell us why,” he whispers and then spits blood in my face.
“Bishop... Is he the Rektor ?”
“Doubt it,” he says. “I don’t know shit. Fuck this. Fuck you. Shit, we should have just said no--”
His head jerks back as a bullet cracks his skull and his eyes fill with blood.
“Minnow!,” I shout turning to see her literally holding a smoking gun. “He was talking--”
“No he wasn’t. He was just jerking you off while he waited for backup, collarboy” she says grabbing the Syndicate in his trembling hand.
After we figure out how to pop the trunk on the red Lambo we put the four
bodies in the trunk of the red Mjollner car. I open the gas chamber and shoot a few rounds in it to ignite the car. It throws up cracking sparks before becoming consumed in flames.
She gets lucky that Rayne’s car still drives and I don’t put up a fight as she gets in the drivers seat and backs it out of the alley and tries to blend in the best she can until we make it back to our part of the city.
I sit in the backseat with Luce and watch as he starts to close his eyes.
“Hey, you may have a concussion. Don’t sleep,” I tell him.
His watery eyes are all red tinged and he just stares at me and not saying anything which is alarming in its own way.
“Hang in there, Luce.” I say awkwardly touching his shoulder.
Following the rules of traffic it takes us a half hour to get back to Treasure Island. Minnow cuts the engine off in front of the complex and looks at me defeated.
“Let’s get this over with,” she sighs.
“Who do you think is up there ?,” I ask
She shrugs.
We take the stairs and I have to keep snapping in Luce’s face to keep him from falling asleep mid-step. Minnow knocks on the door and then slowly opens it.
Jean is sitting on the couch and he’s sharing a bottle of wine with Ivy. And Sara.
“Shit,” she whispers jumping up and kissing Luce’s forehead.
“I’m okay, Ma,” he says.
“How bad is it?,” Rayne’s voice says. I jump when I
see Rayne’s face projected in the corner of the room. He's in his conference room in Mojave.
I mumble through what happened.
“You killed all the witnesses ?,” he asks.
“Yes,” Minnow says
“ Good. El reported they found the bodies of 4 of
his waitstaff,” Rayne continues.”The Mjollner are taking things too far. They’ve always been violent soulless people, but now they are acting like animals. They need to be remined of who is in control. Our next attack needs to be decisive and fatal.”
“Don't be an idiot, Rayne.,” Sara says. It feel like the first sentence she’s said in days. “Really look at what is happening. You do something to them, they do something to us. Retaliation isn't the answer. ”
“It won't fix things, but it's a step,” Rayne explains. “They started this by shooting out the Luxor. They’ll attack even if we don’t. I’m not going to roll over like a little bitch and take it.”
“Listen to yourself !” Sara shouts, exasperated. "Are you forgetting that they have leverage over us ? ”
“Which is
exactly why Rayne is right," Jean says quietly. "We have to attack back. Rias isn't a factor--they’d never risk doing anything to him. Or they
lose their best bargaining chip.”
“My son is not a toy in some gang war,” Sara says.
“I know Sara,” Rayne says briskly. “But we need to face the facts that he could be gone already and I want to fight--”
“He is not gone,” Sara says quickly. “I feel it--”
“It’s been three days,” he says. “You think these monsters know how to keep a baby alive ?”
Sara stands up to the screen and then turns to look at us. She looks so tired.
“You’re in over your head, Rayne," she says. “You haven’t gotten us anything except dead ends and dead bodies--”
“Sara--”
“If this was happening to anyone else you would call me in to deal with it. Ivy knows the politics. Minnow and Jean are my people. Let me take the lead on this.”
Rayne looks up defeated.
“How can you ? You’re too emotional over--”
“Rayne,” she snaps. “I didn’t say it would be easy, but I don’t think we have any other fucking choice.”
-----
A/N
So, I just realized Minnow basically drifts in that car...
Also, I know it's a weird choice but ever since I head I Feel The Earth Move, I've wanted to write a murder scene to it. So...yeah.