Elizabeth Bear - Hammered

Valens shrugged, stepping forward to look through the glass. “I can handle Casey. Don’t worry about that. She’s got the experience, and she’s got the need.”

“She’s also got a history of substance abuse.”

“That works for us, in this case.”

“Is she going to survive the surgery?”

“Looks good so far. She went in this morning.”

“Ah.” Alberta bent down to pick up her shoes and balanced on each foot in turn to slip them on. “Why is it that you expect her response to differ from theirs?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

Valens shrugged. “A number of factors, frankly, and some of them boil down simply to having the experience to know when to let the wheel slide through your hands until the skid corrects itself. Metaphorically speaking.”

“You have a lot of faith in this woman, Fred.”

“I do,” he answered. “And I have faith in my ability to get her to do what we want her to, as well.”

“Ah.” She scuffed one foot on the carpeting, settling the shoe. “Very well then. But I need something to present to the board by the end of the year. Or I’m on the street, and you’re not far behind.”

Valens gave her a tight, thoughtful nod. “I’m aware of the situation.”

“I sure as hell hope so,” she said, eyes narrowing. “We beat the Chinese, or we may as well take our bat and ball and go home. Unitek isn’t interested in honorable mention. And my ass is on the line as much as anybody’s. The space program is my baby and if we don’t see results soon, it will not go well.”

“Mining the asteroids?”

“Profitable, but only in space. The board hasn’t yet made the conceptual leap to really grasp that the future does not lie down a gravity well.”

“I know it. And the Chinese know it, too.”

“Yes, but they’ve had even more problems with navigation than we have. They lost their second one last Tuesday on its first powered run. The Li Bo. I was just informed.”

Valens grunted. “They’ve still got the Huang Di nearly half built. Third time’s the charm. Have there been any further sabotage attempts on the Montreal ?”

“No. And she’ll be ready by Christmas. I am assured.”

“Well,” Valens said, scratching his chin. “So will we.”

“We can’t afford to lose another ship, Frederick. They’ll scrap the program.”

And us.

Some things don’t need saying.

10:15 P.M., Saturday 16 September, 2062

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Razorface leaned across the center console and laid a hand on Mitch’s shoulder. “Roll up the windows, man,” he ordered. “This is Bridgeport.”

“Good advice.” Mitch toggled the windows up and flipped on the climate control.

In the backseat, Bobbi resettled herself, her injured leg propped across the bench seat. “We need to go back to Hartford, gentlemen.”

“You got a plan?” Razor swiveled to look at her. She shook her head, and he grunted. “I gotta check this out. Then we talk about it.”

“I’ve got a plan,” Mitch said. He felt eyes resting on him as he focused his attention on the road. Bobbi’s vehicle had proximity sensors, but many of the ones sharing the road did not. A skinny dog bolted across cracked asphalt, almost under the tires, and he tapped the brakes to give it half a chance.

“Tell me, Michael.” Bobbi leaned forward. He saw her wincing in the rearview.

Mitch took one hand off the wheel and shook a cigarette out of his pack before tossing the rest to Razor. “We find Barbara Casey. Head south, maybe, make her chase us, then double back. Get the drop on her. Then we put a bullet or three in the back of her head.”

His own voice sounded chromed to him. He noticed small creases at the corner of Razorface’s eyes as the gangster resettled his leather coat around his shoulders, leaning against the door.

“She can get ronin from all over the East Coast,” Bobbi said. “She will hire more if she needs to; she does not have to come after us herself.”

“I bet she set up that little deal at the warehouse to see if anybody would jump on seeing Emery backing her up.” Mitch heard cellophane crinkle as Razor rolled the pack of cigarettes thoughtfully between his fingers.

“I got Emery,” Bobbi said from the backseat.

Razor turned his head to the side and half-smiled back at her. “I owe you for that, killer.”

“But I gave too much away. I should have stuck around and infiltrated.”

“She was probably tracking your feed,” Mitch said. “I would have been.”

Bobbi blew a long iridescent strand of hair out of her eyes, but sat back, satisfied. “Still, we sprung the trap, and the fox got away, neh? And knows now the hunter is near.”

“Been thinking,” Razorface continued in his measured fashion, “what you need a half dozen ronin for. Not just us. But you get rid of Emery. Get rid of me. I already slapped Garcia’s face. He gonna want his own back.”

“Hartford’s going to have a war.”

“Hartford gonna have a war, Mitch.” Razorface lit the cigarette he’d shaken loose, stifling a cough as he took the first drag. “You wanna stand back and let that happen?”

“That’s what I don’t get, Razorface. Why is a corporate hired gun stirring up trouble in Hartford? I don’t see what purpose that serves.”

In the backseat, Bobbi coughed delicately, leaning away from the coiling smoke.

“Fuck, you don’t see? Pretty plain to me.” Razorface glanced down, staring at the cherry-red coal glowing like a precious stone against the back of his hand. “She gotta be worried we got some proof she did Mashaya. Something that’ll link her and her company to the Hammers.”

The steering wheel felt sticky against Mitch’s palms as he navigated them down a one-way street. “I called my pal in West Hartford P.D. He’s going to try to find some excuse to get into that warehouse.”

Razorface chuckled. “Probably clean as a baby’s butt by now.”

“Probably. I still haven’t heard your theory about the gang war.”

Razorface’s chuckle hissed through his teeth. “Easy. She hangs doing Mashaya on you, the Hammers on me or Garcia, gets a few Hammerheads and a few Latin Kings dead. Get us three killed by bounty hunters. You get a gang war spilling over into where the white people live, you take the PR hit to wrap a case up easy. Dirty cop dead along with a gangster who turned out to be just another black motherfucker preying on his brothers, after all. Nobody goes looking for the people who really did it. Happen all the time.”

“Nobody hurt but the dead.” Mitch felt pain and realized he’d bitten his lip. I bet Razorface got out of that habit pretty quick.

“’Zactly.”

The silence stretched while Mitch chewed over the implications and possibilities. “That’s a lot of fuss to cover up a crime.”

“Pretty big crime.”

“Have you still got boys you can trust?”

“Turn here. We going to find out.”

Razorface directed them to a paid lot a block from the warehouses. Gritty, graying brick buildings, their shattered windows overhung with ivy, framed the parking lot. Mitch scanned the rooflines nervously as he stepped out of the vehicle and keyed the door locks.

Bobbi sniffed deeply as Razorface helped her down. “Do you smell that, gentlemen?”

The air carried a faintly sweet-salt aroma. Wind rippled through Mitch’s hair, heavy as a silken drapery, moist as a sweating hand. “Hurricane Rhonda. I thought the radio guy said we weren’t going to get it.”