Брайан Макклеллан - Uncanny Collateral

“No idea,” I lied. “He won’t tell me, and he won’t tell OtherOps. Probably an old debtor coming back for revenge.” My breathing began to feel restricted, and I silently cursed Ada. “I’m hitting the pavement hard on this Ferryman business. I just talked to Lucy. She’s sending me some info that I’m going to check out this morning.”

The tightness disappeared, and I took a deep breath to hold in an angry growl.

“Fine,” Ada said. “Just don’t goof off. We don’t get the chance to impress someone like Ferryman too often.” She hung up.

“Goof off,” I muttered, rubbing my bar code. “Since when do I goof off?” I sat in the car for a few minutes while I waited for Lucy to send over Judith Pyke’s information. Once I had it, I went inside, said good morning to Nadine – and told her to return Lucy’s texts – then headed straight back out on the road to downtown.

Judith’s office was in 200 Public Square, one of the big skyscrapers downtown. I parked in a nearby garage, where I checked for security cameras before changing quickly into a shirt that I kept carefully folded in a bag beneath my driver’s seat. It was a black button-down shirt with a white diagonal stripe across the front and the word OtherOps emblazoned over the left breast. I could hear Maggie humming to herself as I changed.

You enjoy this far too much, I told her.

Oh, come on. You know I love it when you impersonate an OtherOps agent.

I really shouldn’t, I replied. If I run into an actual OtherOps agent, I’m screwed. I could practically see Maggie grinning at the idea. I could never quite decide whether she enjoyed watching me play dress up or just got a thrill from the danger of it. Probably a mix of both. You know, if they catch me, they’ll confiscate your ring. Or at least they’ll try to. That’s what cops do.

The humming stopped.

I walked in through the front door, wearing a black, nondescript windbreaker over my OtherOps shirt, and headed across the big atrium, where I checked in with the front desk using a fake ID. I was soon on my way up to the law offices of Wilson and Pyke. I got off the elevator on the seventeenth floor, where I went through a series of hallways before finding myself in a small reception area with frosted glass walls and a single secretary’s desk.

The secretary was a clean-shaven, immaculately professional young man with dark hair and severe eyebrows who sat straight-backed in his chair. He fixed me with that hollow secretary smile and tilted his head condescendingly to one side. “Good morning, sir. May I help you?”

“I’m looking for Mrs. Pyke,” I responded. I pulled a business card out of the breast pocket of my OtherOps shirt. It had a fake name on it and a phone number and email address that forwarded to my real ones.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” I said. “Please call her office and let her know that Agent Gee from OtherOps is here to see her.”

The secretary examined my card for a moment. “I’m sorry, but Miss Pyke isn’t in right now.”

He’s lying, Maggie said.

“Fine,” I told him, keeping straight-faced. “When will she be back? I’ll wait inside.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you in the office without a warrant, Mr. Gee.”

“ Agent Gee.” I fixed him with my best withering look. “Sir, I’ll be frank: you must be new here, because if you weren’t, you’d know that OtherOps doesn’t work like regular police. This isn’t an antagonistic visit. Just get your damn boss on the phone.”

Oh, I love it when you do your official business voice, Maggie whispered.

I had to bite my cheek to keep from cracking a smile. I unzipped my windbreaker so that he could see the shirt and official-looking lanyard beneath it. The secretary eyed me warily for a moment before picking up the phone. “She’s with a client right now, but she should be almost done. Hold on a moment while I check.”

I did a circuit of the little reception room while I waited. It was stylish but empty, with industrial-grade carpet to give it a warmer feeling, tall ceilings, gold fixtures, and those frosted glass walls to give you the impression that VERY IMPORTANT THINGS were happening just beyond that door. I can’t get anything from inside, Maggie told me. Damned law offices love to ward up super tight. But it means they’ve got some serious capital.

The woman sold her soul to LuciCorp. I sure hope she has serious capital.

Our brief conversation was interrupted by the secretary clearing his throat. I returned my attention to the man, only to find him fixed with a look of consternation.

Something is wrong, Maggie said.

I gathered as much.

I approached the desk slowly. The secretary’s face was white, and he trembled slightly. “Uh, you’re a cop, right?”

“Kind of,” I replied cautiously.

“Because Miss Pyke just gave me the code word to call the police on the gentlemen she’s meeting with.”

“Shit,” I said, moving quickly toward the door. “What am I dealing with? Who is she meeting?”

“I’m not sure! She said they were clients. It’s a group of imps; I…”

Imps. Of course it had to be imps. I didn’t wait for him to finish and hit the door running. As soon as I was inside the actual office, I heard Maggie let out a soft gasp. I’m in, she said.

Talk to me!

Head to the end of the hall and take a right. Corner office. Five imps. One standing guard, four in there with her. They’re armed. As she spoke, I produced my Glock from my endless wallet, then a little black cylinder that I screwed onto the end. It looked an awful lot like the type of silencer you see in the movies, but unlike those, this one was wrapped in black magic and actually worked like everyone thinks real silencers work. I was not, after all, a real OtherOps agent. I didn’t want to attract attention.

The office is empty except for Judith and the secretary, Maggie told me.

Good. I rounded the corner at a sprint and caught sight of a short, ugly man in a cheap black suit standing outside the door to the corner office, his attention on his phone. “OtherOps! Hands where I can see them!” I bellowed.

The imp nearly leapt out of his skin. He swung toward me, his mouth opening in surprise, which quickly changed to a snarl. He reached into his jacket. I squeezed the trigger twice without a second thought. The magical silencer made a high-pitched sound, tinkling like broken glass, and both shots took him in the chest, spinning him around before he dropped to the floor. I reached Judith’s door and set my feet, putting my shoulder into it hard enough to burst straight through the wood and into a room where all activity seemed to freeze upon my arrival.

I stood in a large executive office with a glass desk opposite a leather couch. An imp sat behind the desk playing with a bunch of paper clips. A second and third imp held a middle-aged woman down on the couch while a fourth stood over her face holding a soul mirror. All of them looked up at me, mouths open.

These fuckers are dangerous, Maggie said. Put ’em down so they don’t get back up .

She didn’t have to tell me twice.

Everyone moved at once. The three imps with Judith leapt to their feet. I took out the one with the soul mirror with three shots and the friend closest to him with another two. The third leapt at me with a scream, and I caught him by the throat with my left hand. I felt a flare of sorcery from Maggie’s ring, and the imp’s head burst into a smokeless flame so hot I had to throw him away. The last imp came out of the desk chair, gun in hand, and went down with three more shots.