He was glad to see that Olive Branch was close behind the royal marine leader. She was in the same blue gingham sundress that she had worn at Poppymeadows. The only addition was a rifle slung across her back.
Olive Branch spotted Tommy and her eyes went to his bandana, then to the red-coated elf beside her. “This is one of Tinker domi’s people.” She pointed at Tommy. “He can be trusted.”
She said nothing about Toad as she scanned the room around them.
Tommy felt surprise and then relief go through him like a bolt of electricity. He hadn’t dared to hope that she was a clever girl but she had no doubt realized that as a half-oni, Tommy was in immediate danger from the marines. He wasn’t about to correct her about Tinker vs. Oilcan. The marines nodded and focused their attention on Toad.
Mokoto said that Toad could talk his way out of anything. Toad grinned and blushed and scratched his head in a way that seemed natural and endearing, but Tommy could smell the nervous sweat pouring off the man.
“Hey, Red!” Toad said in passable Elvish, focusing not on the girl but the tall marine beside her. “We’ve been worried sick about you! You just disappeared off the streets and no one knew where you lived.”
“Yeah, well, shit happened,” Olive Branch said in English.
Downstairs, the royal marines seemed to be thoroughly exploring the room filled with balls. A female voice explained that it was a play space for human children, often found at restaurants geared toward families on Earth. The information suggested that the female had been raised off-planet and could be human. Her Elvish sounded like Wind Clan with an odd foreign lilt to it. There was another person moving around downstairs other than the female who was also explaining the ball pit; they carried a radio playing the local elf fusion music station. Who had Olive Branch added to her marine escort?
Olive Branch pointed at the congealed blood pool. “Who was killed here?”
Toad puffed up his cheeks as he shrugged, looking even more toad-like. “I think Joyboy was shot. He was being Joyboy like usual — drama queen on overdrive. I don’t know if he was killed. Maybe he was only winged.”
Olive Branch shook her head. “No. Too much blood. Whoever was shot bled out like a stuck pig. Joyboy is dead; I just identified his body at the morgue. He had been shot, so this was probably where he died. What happened to Peanut Butter and the others?”
Tommy would have thought she had nerves of steel the way that she moved on past the murder, but there were tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Oh, God, Joyboy is dead?” Toad looked shell-shocked. “I was sure he was but I didn’t want it to be true.”
“Toad,” Olive Branch said with cold steel in her voice. “What happened to Peanut Butter and the others?”
The man seemed close to breaking down. He repeated what he’d told Tommy but slower, stumbling in places.
Olive Branch held up her hand, stopping Toad when he got to the information about the camera that Knickknack had installed. “A camera? Was it recording?”
“Shit! The camera!” Toad patted his pockets to find his phone. “Yeah. Hold on. Let me find it.”
Tommy stood mystified as Toad fiddled with his phone. He knew that off-world phones had more functions than those normally found in Pittsburgh, but he didn’t realize that you could link them to security cameras.
Toad found the recording and rolled it back to the night before last. “Yeah, yeah, see? There’s Jonnie pulling up and then the guys are in the van behind — Hey!”
This was because Tommy had snatched the phone out of Toad’s hands. Olive Branch leaned in close to watch the video with Tommy.
The camera had been positioned so that it could see the street for fifty feet on either side of the front door. Jonnie arrived in a pickup with a lift kit that raised the vehicle to stupid heights. The paramedic waved to a van that parked behind him as if it had followed him to Toad Hall. Six men got out of the van and glanced around as if looking for possible witnesses to what was about to unfold.
The camera had a microphone and it picked up Jonnie shouting to the Undefended as he rang the doorbell and then banged on the door. The men from the van kept tight against the wall, flanking the front entrance, so they were hidden from anyone within the house using the spyhole mounted on the door.
No wonder Toad ran once he saw what was outside his front door.
The camera picked up Toad’s shouted warning and then someone cursing out Jonnie. One of the hidden men lost his patience, took a running start, and kicked open the door. Jonnie drifted backward, seemingly startled by the violence. After the men poured into the building, there was screaming and gunshots. Jonnie ran to his pickup and drove away. The house filled with frightened screaming as a man shouted, “Shut up!” over and over again. Minutes later Knickknack and six women were herded out of the building. Their hands were tied and they were gagged. A body wrapped in a blanket and stacks of books followed.
“They’re still alive,” Olive Branch murmured. She shook her head as the van drove away. “You can’t see the license plate.” She backed the video up to where the six men had flanked the door and paused it. She showed the image to Toad. “Do you know any of these men?”
“Just Jonnie Be Good.” Toad pointed at the paramedic.
“Jonnie Be Good?” a woman echoed from downstairs. “That gobshite? May the Lamb of God stir his hoof through the roof of heaven and kick him in the arse down to hell. That one is all hands and won’t take no as an answer.”
“That’s Jonnie, alright,” Toad said.
“Where can I can find him?” Tommy intended to flee whatever circus Olive Branch had following along behind her.
Toad blew his breath out and spread his hand. “He always comes here. I don’t know where he squats.”
“I can find out where the little gobshite lives,” the woman downstairs called. “He works for the city. Anyone who works for them needs to provide a real address within the city limits; it’s some old rule from before the first Startup. I know an old geezer who works over in their HR that owes me a favor. I’ll give him a ring and see if he can give me Jonnie’s home address.”
Whoever Olive Branch had picked up, they had better access to information than Tommy and perhaps even Oilcan. Tommy couldn’t cloud the mind of six men during a fight. Perhaps it would be better to stick with Olive Branch and her marine escort.
18: OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE!
Having seen Tommy Chang’s cat ears at Poppymeadows, Olivia could not erase the image from her mind. At the Ranch, there had been a big black feral barn cat that always stood aloof from everyone and everything. The other cats would seek out humans, rub against ankles and beg for milk. The black would find a safe perch to watch Olivia at her chores and glare at her when she tried to approach him.
Now that Olivia had seen Tommy’s ears, even though he’d hidden them away under his signature bandana, he seemed very much like the black barn cat. He had said little while she talked to Toad and even less as she gathered up her marines and herded them outside. He tucked himself into corners and watched intently with his golden eyes. Where the other girls who worked Liberty Avenue called him dangerous and unfriendly, Olivia sensed only that he was leery of strangers.
She worked for years to win the barn cat over. The first thing she’d learned was to be patient and give the black tom space. Trying to catch him and hold onto him only made him more feral. She half-expected Tommy to leave immediately but he stayed, watching.
She wanted him to stay. The royal marines had some combat experience but they knew nothing about Pittsburgh. Aiofe knew modern technology but not the city or the darker side of human nature. Olivia had no real reason to trust Gaddy. Toad was a charismatic idiot who could sway people into stupid things. Olivia didn’t want this rescue mission to depend on her skills alone.