John Mackie - Hazardous Goods

Turning to the voice, I saw Elena Legenko seated at a small antique desk with an inlaid rosewood pattern. It was a small desk, and looked out of place tucked in the corner of the large office. Beside the desk was a sculpture, seemingly constructed of ivory, wood and bone. It was shapeless, as far as I could tell, but a shiver ran down my neck as I looked at it. I tore my eyes away and looked to her, perched on a small leather chair, her long legs crossed and showing far too much creamy thigh for an office environment.

Behind her, floor to ceiling windows provided a terrific view of the downtown city core, the site even more spectacular in the crisp light of late afternoon. I could see City Hall, the BMO Building, CN Tower, all of it. Etched into the glass of the windows was a perfect outline of the buildings in the distance, several shaded with crosshatching. The overall effect was surreal, as though I was viewing a satellite image laid out on stained glass.

As with the boardroom, an oval table with an inlaid image of what appeared to be the Zodiac served as the central piece of the room. And once again, Maxim Legenko sat slouched in one of the chairs, this time with a flustered look on his face. I sensed I had just interrupted a heated discussion. Both he and Niki were sweating hard, suits disheveled, presumably from their recent bout with Ted. And Elena looked as pissed at them as she was at me.

“Again you are here, Donnie Elder? You are very stubborn, yes?”

I said nothing. This was about delivering a message, and not one other piece of information.

I dropped into one of the chairs and kicked my feet up onto the table, dragging my heels on the surface as I did so. Maxim was pissed, but Elena remained impassive. An observer.

“You show a lot of nerve, Mr. Donnie Elder. Again you are disrespecting me and my friend Nikolay. Tell me — why I should let you leave this building alive?”

He seemed awfully sure of himself. Can’t say I felt the same way.

“If I want to leave, I’ll just walk out that door. And you won’t be able to do a damned thing to stop me.” His eyes flashed with anger. “But first you have to understand something. You keep coming after my friends and family, and I’m going to bring this place down around your ears.”

It was Niki who reacted first, a low belly laugh building into a freight train rumble. Maxim seemed to share his view, flashing a grin. Elena was the last to laugh, though the humor never reached her eyes.

“Mr. Donnie Elder — Donnie — there is nothing you can do to us.”

“Oh no?” I pulled my cellphone from my pocket and flipped it open, keeping one eye on Maxim. “Well, that remains to be seen.” I punched buttons until I got to the Tape function, then hit Play.

And as the audio rolled, I took another glance at that window.

“We took out the first, and we are going to take out the second. Maxim is not going to jail. You can count on it. We will find him, with or without this damnatory thing. And when we do, it is going to be the same book all over again — suicide or heart attack, car accident or falling down the stairs.”

“Same story.”

“What?”

“ Never mind. Maybe this time the cops’ll be ready for them.”

“Ready? You cannot be ready for this. These people, they can get you anywhere. Wave of the hands, hocus pocus, you are six feet under.”

I hit STOP.

Elena turned and glared at Niki, her jaw clenched in anger. But Maxim didn’t even blink, nervy bastard that he was. He leaned back in the chair, hands behind his head. Big sweat stains had leeched into the fabric of his blue dress shirt, but he made no effort to hide them. I got the feeling those stains showed up early every day. “It’s just a tape. The cops cannot use this. They can’t prove anything.”

“I suspect you’re right, asshole. But I sent it to them anyways. And I sent a copy to a contact at the Daily Times.” Thank you, Amy. “In about ten minutes they’re going to post an article on their website, publishing the conversation on that tape word for word. Tomorrow morning it’ll be front page in the business section. I’m told the prosecutor is pissed. You can be guaranteed it won’t be so easy finding that last witness now.”

All of a sudden, Maxim wasn’t looking so cocky. A drop of sweat appeared just above his right eye, and traced a wavy trail down his forehead toward his eyebrow. Niki seemed to be trying to melt his considerable bulk into the wallpaper, under Elena’s withering eye.

“Don’t kid yourself. Judges and juries find out about this stuff, and they don’t ignore it. So, little Maxi boy — I suspect you’re going to jail for a long time.”

Elena Legenko slowly turned away from Niki and stared down at the papers in front of her. It spoke to me of acceptance, perhaps resignation. Maxim, however, took a different tact. Sneering, he grabbed an object from the table — a crystalline pyramid the size of a stapler. He stared into it for just a moment, and I could hear him muttering, though too quietly for me to catch it.

Elena’s head snapped up, as though reacting to a gun shot, and Niki rolled forward on the balls of his feet. I glanced at both of them, then back to Maxim, who appeared to be waiting for something. And something was happening. The air between us shimmered slightly, like still air over hot tarmac. Maxim was still staring at me, as though expecting something dramatic.

Too bad for him.

I shifted my feet, again dragging my heels across the table top. He stared, and I stared back. I felt like I was six years old on the school bus, bound and determined that this time I wasn’t going to give up my seat.

“Enough.” We both ignored the voice, which I took to be Niki’s based on the apparent source.

“Please! Maxim!”

I glanced to Niki and saw that the shimmering air was drifting towards him. He was standing bolt upright, and looked very uncomfortable. Sweat was beading on his brow and upper lip. Maxim himself was not looking so good either, his skin taking on a slight mustard tone.

Elena angrily waved her hand, and both of the men sagged.

“You think I’m an idiot? I’m going to walk in here without protection? Don’t get in your head you’re going to do anything to me.” I’ve never been much of a bluffer, but I figure if you’re going to try it, you’ve got to commit to the fake. So I hauled the fearstone out of my pocket, and showed it to him. Then I threw it, a soft lob that I figured even he could catch.

And he did.

“What is-?”

Flash .

I was ready for it this time, and so I saw the spell in action. As the others fought to regain their sight, I saw faint tentacles of smoke rise from the stone, then coalesce and take shape. It was easy to recognize the figure. An exact duplicate sat not ten feet beyond, staring in rapt fascination without a hint of fear in her eyes.

Elena.

This golem, crude and without any real power, scared the hell out of Maxim and Niki. And I could see why. For the golem had captured something more than just her animal attractiveness or brazen confidence. It showed a hint of her power . I could see that in Maxim’s face, wide-eyed in shock and deference.

But he quickly saw through the gambit and came to his feet, snarling. Ignoring the spectre before him, he slammed the crystal pyramid down on the fearstone, shattering both into dust-like fragments.

I think in that moment I saw the true Maxim Legenko. A sinewy rage of fiery eyes and meat-tearing teeth.

Last time I thought there had been something going on. This time I knew for sure. A beam of energy, almost like a tight jet of water from a fire hose, leapt from a ring on his hand and arced across the room towards me. It was just like with Crazy Lady, a stream of particles which expanded as they approached me, pointillist in form, with the same distinct pebbles of black and yellow shimmering in the air. And again, the beam didn’t get to me. About twelve inches from my chest it just stopped . It didn’t deflect and race off in another direction. Didn’t explode on impact. It just reached a point a few inches away from me and stopped.