“Let me get right on that,” I said. “We betray our people and then you kill us. I have to tell you, Sparky, that your sales pitch eats dog turds.”
“No, wait, hear me out,” said the guy. “That’s not the choice I was talking about.”
“This should be good,” murmured Violin. Behind her the Knights growled like dogs.
“It is,” insisted the guy. “There are three possible scenarios. In one scenario — the one I think we can all be happy with — we sit down over coffee and you talk, and that talk will be viewed as part of the application process for joining our organization. In that scenario we’re all friends and nobody gets trigger-happy. Nobody dies.”
“Very generous,” said Violin.
“Isn’t it?” the guy said, nodding. “And your safety would be guaranteed. You become part of our team, and believe me, the pay and benefits are spectacular. We take very good care of our people and we reward loyalty. Loyalty to us, I mean. Sure, there’s a vetting process and a probation period, but once you prove yourself, you’re really part of the family. No threats, none of that. It’s how they recruited me. Now I’m on the administrative level. You can be, too.”
“Why do I get the feeling that your nose should be growing a foot every time you open your mouth?” I asked.
“I’m dead serious.”
“Unfortunate choice of words,” said Violin.
“Oops. Yeah, sorry. We really do want you to join, and if you do then you have a real future and a great life. Look at me, look into my eyes. Do I look like I’m lying to you?”
I did, and I think he was genuinely serious. He held a lot of good cards, so there wasn’t much reason to lie to us.
“But the alternatives aren’t as much fun,” he continued. “In scenario two you still tell us everything we want to know, but you make us work for it. Make no mistake, you will tell us everything, but the process of encouragement is extreme, and what they bury afterward won’t even look like people.”
“Not a fan of that one,” I said.
“No, of course not,” said the guy. “Though my friends from the Red Knights are particularly fond of it.”
“We will rip the truth from you,” said one of the Knights.
“Shove it up your ass, Count Chocula,” I said.
Violin laughed so hard she snorted. Even the guy chortled.
“What’s the third scenario?” I asked, even though we all knew what that one would be.
“Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” said the guy.
I took a long breath and let it out slowly. “There’s a fourth scenario,” I said.
“Oh? Does it involve me suddenly coming to my senses and letting you arrest me?”
“Not exactly. It involves you unburdening your soul to me. You tell us everything you know about the Seven Kings, including the identity of each King, the names of your customers, and the locations of any bases you have.”
He goggled at me for a moment, then he burst out laughing. Even his guards looked amused, and until now they’d been stone-faced. I laughed, too. Violin turned to the Knights and gave them a saucy wink.
“That’s really funny,” said the guy.
“I know, right?” I said.
“It’s also the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.
“Not entirely.”
I cut a look at Violin, and she wore a small, confused frown. She had no idea where I was going with this. I put a bland smile on my face.
“I will go this far,” I said. “I’ll tell you our names. It might matter in the way this all plays out.”
“Please do.”
“I’m Captain Joseph Edwin Ledger.”
His face went slack for a moment and he lost some color. But he recovered fast and cleared his throat.
“And the, um, young lady?”
The young lady straightened, her chin lifting imperiously. “You can call me Violin, daughter of Lilith, senior field operative of Arklight.”
You really could have heard a pin drop. I think I heard the Red Knights grinding their fangs together. The Seven Kings guy’s face kept vacillating between horrified shock and the delight of a kid on Christmas morning who thought he was getting socks and underwear and instead discovered a pony with a bow tied around its neck.
“Oh my God,” he breathed.
“Yeah. Bit of a jackpot moment,” I said.
“This slut is ours,” growled one of the Red Knights. “We will use her until she screams for death and then send her eyes to the demon Lilith.”
“You are welcome to try,” said Violin. “I’ll break your teeth out and add them to my collection.”
They hissed at her. Actually hissed, like cougars. The sound made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight out from gooseflesh skin.
Into the ensuing silence, I said, “I’m going to give you two choices, Sparky. In scenario one, you tell your guys to lay down their weapons and you come and have a confessional moment with my boss and me.”
He just stared at me as if I’d suggested he pour live scorpions into his tighty-whities.
“Scenario two,” I said, “a whole bunch of people die, and you’re the first to hit the deck. If you’re really, really lucky, you die before I turn you over to my boss.”
“You do realize,” said the guy, “that there are four laser sights on your chest. Four.”
“Sure. And there are three of ’em on your chest.”
His smile flickered. I had my gun on him and Violin had her pistol on the closest Knight. “Three? But….”
The guy’s voice trailed off as he looked down. My laser sight was rock-steady on his sternum. But two other dots flanked it.
“I don’t…,” he began, then he raised his eyes and looked at the doorway. The snouts of two rifles protruded only an inch into the chamber. An inch was enough.
“Call it, Boss,” said Bunny in my ear.
The Knights whirled and snarled.
“Nine, three, go,” I snapped.
The other laser sights shifted and found new targets. There were two pffts of silenced rifles and the guards on either side of the guy flew backward as 5.56 × 45 mm NATO rounds exploded their heads.
There was perhaps a single fragment of time when no one moved, when the realities of this new version of the game were painted in the air for everyone to read. Then it all became very fast and messy.
I kicked the guy into the two guards behind him. It was a hard damn kick, and they all staggered backward, but both guards fired at the same time. Wild shots that pinged and whanged all over the place. I dodged and drove forward as bullets burned around me. I felt one round tug my sleeve and another ricochet off the floor and clip my heel.
Behind me, Violin emptied her gun at the Red Knights. One of them slammed into her in a diving tackle that should have crippled her. It would have broken the bones of any ordinary person. But Violin was born in the breeding pits. That meant she was half human and half Upierczi. She’s stronger, faster, and a hell of a lot more durable than anyone I ever met. She could bench press me. She did it once in bed just to prove she could.
I heard a scream, but I don’t think it was hers.
The other Red Knight whirled and tried to find cover from the gunfire that had erupted from the doorway. But Top and Bunny were on their feet, running into the room, taking lots of quick little steps so as not to interfere with their aim. Their aim was superb. Rounds punched into the Knight and tore blood and screams and life from him. The rounds made him judder and dance, and the wall behind him became a splash painting of bright crimson.
I elbowed the Kings guy out of the way, and he rolled into the corner, spitting teeth. The two remaining guards were good. Tough, highly trained. Instead of trying to bring their long-guns to bear in what was becoming the most violent episode of WrestleMania, they tried to hammer me with kicks, catching me on the forehead, the shoulder, and the elbow of the arm I raised to block the barrage. I rammed my pistol up as one kick came at my face and shot the guard through the sole of his foot. The boot and the foot inside of it didn’t even slow the nine millimeter round down; it punched through and hit the man on the point of the chin, blowing out the back of his head.