Deck of destiny 4, p.14
Deck of Destiny 4, page 14
Steel collided with a chin, snapping his head back, and I smashed an elbow into the unfortunate guy’s nose before he could get an idea of what the fuck was going on. He hit the carpet beside the second guy, and I stepped over their writhing forms.
The last two looters backed off quickly, and one of them dug a hand into his waistband. I caught the dull metal flash of a gun and hurled the crowbar at him like a spear. He was too focused on deploying his revolver, and the point of the pry bar smacked into his shoulder.
I lunged across the open space as he recoiled with a cry, brought up the gun, and snapped a punch straight into the revolver without any fear for my knuckles. I broke two of his fingers, spun the weapon away from my face, and bulldozed him into the side of his truck. The would-be shooter’s curse exploded out of his throat as I winded him against the side of the pickup.
I slammed my boot down onto his foot, sent a spike of pain up through his leg, and caught hold of his face. He clubbed at me with his free hand, but I turtled my head into my shoulder and felt his knuckles crack off the top of my skull. I stepped back, snapped a clean uppercut into his chin, and felt his knees wobble. I twisted my hips, smashed his head into the side of the truck, and dropped him senseless to the carpet a second later. I straightened up and turned my eyes to the final raider with a smile on my face.
Blood dripped down over a brow, but it wasn’t mine. I must’ve looked like some kind of lunatic. Three guys in less than ten seconds. I’d dreamed about this kind of shit when I’d been younger, but I’d never thought that it’d actually be possible, let alone my actual reality. The black steel of a gun wobbled in the last guy’s hand, and he stared at me as I paced toward him.
“I’ll shoot,” he warned.
“Sure,” I said. “Go ahead. You can barely see through the mask, you’re shaking like a leaf, and it’s dark in here. It’s a coin toss if you hit me, and even if you do, the sound’s going to bring the cops down on your head faster than anything.”
He hesitated.
“Put the gun away,” I suggested. “Bundle up your idiot friends, go home, and stay the fuck off the streets from here on out. If I see any of you on my street again, I won’t be so nice about it.”
The gun trembled harder in his hand as he tried to tighten his resolve, but I was still moving closer. He’d already seen what I’d done to his friends with their weapons, and he threw the gun to the side a second later as though it were red-hot. He held up his hands as if I had him at gunpoint.
“I’m sorry, man, I’m so sorry…”
“Just go. Take your friends with you,” I told him. “And don’t let me catch you again.”
He dipped his head in a nod and rushed past me toward his fallen comrades. I stepped back over to my chair beside the fire escape and watched the only uninjured looter help his groaning friends up off the floor. I’d broken their will to fight back with the initial rush of violence, and it took ten minutes for the four of them to pile into the truck, drive it out of my lobby, and disappear into the night.
I watched the lights vanish into the sheets of rain with a strange sense of regret. It practically felt like cheating. The Game definitely had its benefits, but if I’d never taken on the Knarlback with Elsie by my side, I’d never have gained the strange immunity to regular weapons. The men in the truck would’ve beaten me into a pulp, taken everything they could’ve gotten their hands on, and vanished with a truck full of goods. The thought made me grimace.
I’d hurt three of them badly enough that they needed a hospital. There weren’t any cameras in the lobby, and the power was down across the city. I didn’t see any issues with a lawsuit looming on the horizon, and I waited out the next few hours without so much as another peep of light outside. Rain smashed steadily down on the street, and I took the time to think over my predicament.
The city was in shambles.
The Cowboy still had my number.
And the elves were tracking Iris.
I’d survived this long with unconventional tactics, but I’d done my best not to tangle with forces that I couldn’t handle. The thought made me smile. It wasn’t quite true. I’d tangled with the vampires, winning their respect and a place within their coven. The Black Dawn still lingered in my mind, too. He respected me, and I’d earned the respect of one of his generals. Daine and his crew of mercenaries practically ran on professional respect, and they’d accepted us after we’d spat into Wilson’s eye. And I’d talked down the Arbiters with nothing more than a bluff and the threat of exposing their corruption.
Lana’s warning about my enemies sparked in my mind as I took the stairs and moved up into the stairwell again. I was dog-tired after the earlier excitement, but I couldn’t help but feel as if I was missing something. There was an angle available to me, a way to work my way out of the tangled mess of people trying to kill me. I needed to turn my brain off for a few hours and rest.
I made it up to Lana’s room, knocked on her door, and she appeared a few moments later. She’d changed out of her white cloak and hood, and she gave me a single nod as she stepped past me and went straight toward the stairs. I almost pulled her back to check if the two of us were on the same level. She’d pulled away quickly after I’d tried to show her some affection and appreciation, and part of me was still kicking myself that I’d tried in the first place.
I shoved the concerns into the back of my mind as the Amazonian blonde vanished downstairs, and I made my way into my own apartment. The place felt oddly cold and hollow as I took a freezing shower, washed off the blood and grime from the day’s battle, and passed out in my bed two minutes later.
I slept long and hard, and when I woke up, the power had returned. I blinked in the sudden light from overhead and rolled out of bed with a groan. Every muscle felt as if it’d been run over by a truck made of pillows, but I felt better than I had in weeks. My stamina levels felt good, the aches from my recently broken ribs and a dozen other injuries had vanished, and I felt like a new man. I pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and another T-shirt, and I made a beeline for the kitchen for coffee. I didn’t know what the day held, but I knew without a doubt that I needed to get into contact with my team in the mountains, which meant getting my hands on a new phone.
I cleaned the kitchen while the coffee machine hissed steam into the air. I filled three mugs full of South American ambrosia and made a stop at Mayce’s room. I banged on the door with my foot, stepped back, and she appeared at the door a moment later. The assassin looked fantastic in a simple bathrobe. Her purple hair was a mess, and she looked practically murderous until her eyes fell on the coffee in my hand.
“Good kitty.” I grinned and offered her a mug.
“You’re lucky,” she mumbled. “What’s going on? Could’ve sworn I heard something last night.”
I nodded. “We had a couple of vanillas come through to try and turn the place over. I got persuasive. Meet you down in the boardroom in five?”
“Aye, aye,” she muttered. “Kiss?”
The request made me grin, but I obliged her with a slow, lingering press of my mouth against hers. A soft sigh slipped out of her as she relaxed against my touch, but I pulled away before it could get too intense. Mayce gave me a half-grumpy, half-aroused glance and vanished back into her apartment without so much as a parting shot. I tried the elevator door with an elbow, and a soft ding surprised me a minute later. The doors slid open, and I checked the carriage for any serious damage from the elf drones.
They’d ripped off the doors in the lobby, but I was pretty sure that they hadn’t compromised the integrity of the elevator. I reminded myself that a fall couldn’t kill me anyway and rode the elevator down to the lobby. The doors were gone, and Lana snapped to attention as I appeared behind her with a cup of coffee in my hand and a smile on my face.
“How was it?”
“Quiet,” she told me.
She took a mug with an appreciative nod, took a long sip, and let out a sigh. “Can’t believe that it’s been so long since I’ve had this.”
“Neither can I.” I grinned. “Should I be asking you for a security report?”
“I secured the perimeter,” she assured me. “The grid went back up a few hours ago.” Lana nodded to the deluge outside. “Things have quietened down, but I found tire tracks on the carpet—”
“Little misunderstanding with some undesirables,” I told her. “I handled it.”
She glared at me. “You could’ve made more noise, at least.”
“They weren’t Players. I didn’t need backup.” I stood beside her, and we both peered out into the street for a moment. “Lana.”
She glanced at me. “Mm?”
“I didn’t—” I gritted my teeth. “I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable last night, did I?”
She smiled at me. “I made myself feel uncomfortable, Matt. It wasn’t your fault.”
I let out a sudden sigh of relief. “Thank Christ. I was worried I’d have to work something extra into the rules of the Guild—”
“I liked it,” Lana assured me.
I almost spat out my coffee.
Her smile turned a little devious. “Now you’re uncomfortable. I’d say that things are about even.”
I quickly changed the subject. “Upstairs in the boardroom in five. We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
Lana hid her grin of satisfaction.
“Be right behind you.”
I hit the doorless elevator again with a strangely elated feeling in my gut. I hadn’t expected Lana’s response to be quite as enthusiastic as it had, and it was impossible to miss the admiring look she gave me as I hit the button for the boardroom. The Arbiter turned her eyes back to the street as the elevator carried me back upstairs, and I took a deep breath as I arrived in the boardroom.
I didn’t know how the hell we were going to get out of this.
But with people like Lana and Mayce by my side, I knew it was possible.
I just had to figure out how.
Chapter 18
Mayce had already taken her seat at the ‘Mighty Table of Meeting’ as I hit the second floor.
I drank coffee as I made my way inside, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw me and held up her phone. The device’s screen had flickered on again, showed reception, and a stab of elation rolled through my body as I settled down at the chair at the head of the table.
“Everything’s up again,” she said.
“Can you call Elsie?”
“Already texted her. Iris is safe inside a trailer, and she’s got a full bodyguard keeping her there. Apparently, Elsie’s sparring with Misha’s cousin or something.” Mayce shook her head. “No idea why she’s so gung-ho on training, but she needs to slow down.”
I recalled our first bout with Sweets at the Giant’s gym.
“I think she wants to show up the Giants.” I laughed. “And she could find worse people to train with. I’m sure the coven want some of their own back after she showed them up last time. So, Iris is safe. How do the vampires feel about it?”
Mayce gave me a strange look. “Can’t imagine that they’re happy. Pretty sure that vampires and elves are mortal enemies, aren’t they?”
“They’ve been fighting wars for millennia,” Lana announced as she joined the room. “You don’t fight an enemy for that long without developing a serious hatred for who you face. I’m surprised that they agreed in the first place. Whatever you did to join their coven must’ve been something impressive for them to give you this kind of support.”
“They want me to get them home,” I told her.
Lana froze halfway through sitting down.
“Trust me, I already told him it was crazy,” Mayce said.
“It’s not just crazy, it’s impossible,” Lana said.
“Because the Arbiters say so?”
“Because you’d have to open a stable bridge that could get that many leeches across,” Lana countered. “The Arbiters use tiny slices in reality to make it work for them. There’s a certain limit to how long it stays open and how many things you can get through it. The Arbiters don’t have that kind of power.”
“I did manage to visit the Hellforge,” I pointed out. “It’s got to be possible.”
“A slice,” Lana insisted.
I turned to face her for a moment. “So how did the elves manage it?”
She grimaced. “A longer slice. I’ll grant you the fact that they managed to bring their weapons through with them, but there can’t be that many.”
“Iris said three,” Mayce told her.
“Still enough to level the city,” Lana told her flatly.
“About that,” I cut in. “We need a way to get them out of here.”
Lana shook her head. “You have two options. Kill them or somehow forge an agreement or an alliance and bargain for them to leave.”
“How did you do it in Japan?”
Lana’s eyes went a little glassy as she gazed at the ceiling and touched the Tome with her mind. A smile touched her face as she found the information that she was looking for and quickly recounted the details to us.
“Five elfkin arrived in Fukushima under the pretense of searching out a Player who was a suspected carrier of the Hand of the Blue Dawn.” Lana frowned as she sifted through the details. “It seems that the information on the carrier is blank—”
“Wilson,” Mayce and I said together.
Lana scowled. “An agreement was reached between the Arbiters and the elfkin following negotiations with the Player in question. Meltdown of local industry and resulting environmental damage were considered minimal in the face of the threat to the sanctity of the Game.”
Mayce let out a low whistle. “Radiation poisoning, cancer, and death are acceptable losses for the Arbiters, then. Good to know.”
“What were the terms of the agreement?” I pressed. “Is there anything mentioned about a Path of Ascension? Something about what they actually wanted?”
“Nothing.” Lana growled.
Her eyes snapped back into focus, and another small smile touched her face. “The Tome isn’t entirely locked from me, then. Just pieces of it.”
“I thought you said it was getting harder to reach?” I asked.
“It is, but it’s not beyond my grasp. Even as a Guild member.”
I thought through the implications. “Any way of determining what you can reach there?”
“I usually hold something in my mind. A question or a piece of history I need.”
“Holy shit, she’s Google for the Game,” Mayce said.
I held up a hand before she could follow up with another question. “Before we go quizzing you, do they know when you’re touching the Tome? Can they trace what you’re accessing like a computer network?”
Lana frowned. “I don’t know. I’m not sure there’s any way to find out.”
“Short of asking them directly.” I nodded. “Hold off on using it too much if you can. I think it’s safe to assume that they know what questions you’re asking, and if you’re touching it. Safe bet that the Tome is the way that they track Players, their Cards, and where they are?”
Mayce’s eyes widened. “They’ll know that we’re—”
“It is,” Lana agreed.
I nodded again. “Lana, I don’t want to pull rank here, and I’m happy to listen to your suggestions, but I think it’s safer if you don’t touch the Tome unless it’s a matter of life and death, or we’re trying to throw off the Arbiters.”
“Operational security,” she agreed.
“If that’s the case, didn’t we just give away what we want?” Mayce countered.
I nodded. “I told them as much yesterday, remember? If they’re not willing to throw down directly with the elves, we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”
“And you’ve got Wilson’s Card,” Mayce breathed. “Balaris knows that.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be enough,” I said. “They want Iris. That’s what they’re focused on.” A thought occurred to me. “Unless they take it back. But I don’t know if that would be enough. Or if it’d be a spit in the eye of the Arbiters in the first place.”
“Their Game,” Mayce argued. “Are you sure you want that?”
“Card’s useful as hell,” I hedged, “but so’s Iris.”
A tense silence settled over the table.
“Sounds like you want to sit down and talk to them,” Lana said.
I nodded. “Thing is, I don’t want the Arbiters breathing down my neck while they do it. I’ve already got enough grief with them when it comes to the coven. I think it’s best if we fly under the radar for now. If we can negotiate something without their getting involved, it looks better for us and worse for them.”
“Which pisses them off further,” Mayce agreed. “I’m down.”
Lana studied the two of us for a moment. “So how do you intend to get their attention?”
“That’s the tricky part. I have no idea what’s going on out in Millbank—”
“It’s not good,” Mayce cut in. “I’ve been checking every feed I can find since you woke me up. They’re talking about getting disaster crews and the National Guard in here. EMS is clogged up, hospitals are full, and every cop has to be on overtime at this point.”
I grimaced. “I don’t want to bring them back here if they’re going to kill every piece of technology in the city. We’re going to need to figure out how to get them out of here.”
