F. Paul Wilson: Hardbingers

Fuck! Cal felt his trigger finger spasming.

"And the 0?" He steeled himself for the answer.

Jack shook his head. "You'll have to look elsewhere for an answer to that."

"Why Zeklos, of all people?"

"I tried to prevent that. Didn't work out."

"You cut out his heart?"

"Only his, and that was for effect. It brought Miller and his posse where I wanted them."

"You took them out? All four of them?"

A nod.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Just a guy. You hurt me, I hurt you back."

Just a guy? Obviously the wrong guy to hurt.

"But why? How did we hurt you? We were going to take you in."

"You people—you, your Oculus, the Ally… especially the Ally—killed my baby and put the woman I was going to marry and the little girl I was going to adopt into a coma."

"No!" Diana wailed. "My father would never do that!"

Cal felt his knees soften. The woman and kid on 58th Street… no. Couldn't be.

"But the Alarm said… it showed… why would the Ally want them dead? It had to have a good reason."

"By its standards it did. You've heard the expression 'a spear has no branches,' I assume."

"Of course I—oh, no."

"Oh, yes. But that's not all of it. One of your LaGuardia victims was my father."

Cal felt weak. He stepped away from the door and sat heavily on the bed.

Diana stared at him with wide onyx eyes. "What is he talking about?"

Everything that hadn't made sense about the ops now became diamond clear. They'd been Jack's branches.

"Is it true?" Diana cried. "Is it true ?"

"Not the kind of thing I'd make up," Jack said.

Cal stared at Jack. "Then you really are the Heir."

"Seems to be the case. And there doesn't seem to be one goddamn thing I can do about it."

Cal shook his head. "I'm sorry. Man, I am so sorry."

"Sorry doesn't quite cut it."

Cal nodded toward Diana. "Killing her won't make things better."

"Haven't you been listening? I'm here to talk."

"To her?"

"No. To the Ally. I want to make a deal." He waggled his pistol at Cal. "Now get out of here. I don't want you hanging over us while I do this."

Cal looked at Diana and saw her black eyes pleading with him.

He shook his head. "No way. I'm not leaving her alone with you."

Jack raised the pistol and leveled it at Cal's face so that he was looking down the barrel.

"Out."

Cal shook his head again. "Shoot me if that's what you've got to do, but staying with her is what I've got to do."

"No-no-no!" Diana whimpered to Jack. "He's my friend!"

Jack sighed and lowered the pistol. "Like I said, been enough killing."

Cal saw something else in his eyes now—a sense of urgency.

"All right, Diana," Jack said. "Turn around and face me. No funny stuff. Just do as I say and this will all be over in a few minutes."

Cal watched as Diana shuffled a hundred and eighty degrees until her back was to him. Again he looked for a shot but couldn't find one. Oddly, he felt almost glad about that. What they'd done—what the Ally had done to this man… he'd been put through hell. No, not through… he was still looking for the exit.

"Now," Jack said to Diana. "Look at me. Look into my eyes, look at my face. Concentrate. Send a message or whatever you do to the Ally—Christ, I hate calling it that—and tell it—"

"I cuh-cuh-can't!"

Cal said, "It doesn't work that way. She's a raw feed. She can't send a message. She doesn't even know whether or not the Ally is tapping in."

Jack's eyes flashed as he glanced at Cal. "It damn well better be listening. I've got some news for it." He focused back on Diana. "Now just watch and listen. That's all you have to do."

"But I—"

"Shhh," he said softly, pressing a finger gently against her lips. "Let me worry about who's listening."

As he leaned back and raised the pistol, NO-NO-NO-NO ! reverberated through Cal's brain. But then, to Cal's shock, he placed the muzzle under his own chin.

Diana cowered away, but Jack gripped her shoulder.

"Don't worry. No splattered brains here. Maybe later, but not yet." He cleared his throat. "Listen up, you son of a bitch. You've expended a lot of time and effort turning me into one of your spears. Maybe you plan on me becoming your big weapon. Well, get this: You could very soon be looking for a new Heir.

"So here's the deal. You bring back Gia, you bring back Vicky, and you bring back Emma. Or you step aside and let the Lady bring them back. I don't care which as long as all three are back.

"What do you get? You get me. I'll be your butt boy. I'll do your bidding. But only in return for getting them back. And don't try to pull a monkey's paw on me. I want them back the way they were before your clowns ran them down. If that doesn't happen, I pull this trigger. And I will do it. So it's simple: If they go—I go. Without them I won't have much to live for, and I won't have anything in this world to protect from the Otherness. So I'll opt out, and you can start looking for another guy to screw. Got that? Back the way they were or sayonara."

He looked at Cal over Diana's shoulder, then rose to his feet.

"Now what?" Cal said.

"Now I go home."

Cal stood and faced him.

"After what you did here, what you did to Zeklos and the others, you can't believe we'll let you go."

"Like I said: Been enough killing. I could have used frags instead of flash-bangs. If I had, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You force me to shoot my way out, I probably won't make it, but…" He pulled another H-K. "These are loaded with Devastators. I'll take some of you with me. Guaranteed."

Explosive bullets… Cal didn't want to lose any more men.

Jack sighed. "And if that's not enough reason, I've got one more."

"Like what?"

"You don't really want to kill the Heir, do you?"

Cal let out a breath. Yeah. That was the kicker. They'd be undoing so much of what they'd worked for all their lives. He didn't know what to say or do.

"Feeling empty?" Jack said. "Helpless? Impotent? Welcome to my life since you blew a hole in it."

Cal knew he had to let him go, and not simply because he was the Heir.

Jack's father. And then that pregnant woman and her little girl… he remembered how they'd been laughing together at lunch… and what the yenigeri had done to them a few moments later.

Yeah, Jack had killed five yeniceri, and Cal mourned them, but it had been self-defense. He'd done it to protect his loved ones. And Zeklos and Miller and the rest would be alive still if they hadn't run down those two—no, three innocent people.

He owed this man something.

"I don't know if I can convince the others."

"Get them all downstairs. I'll handle the rest."

Cal wondered what to tell them. Maybe say they needed a strategy meeting out of earshot… by the laundry room. That might work, especially since he was sure now that Diana was in no danger. And he had a pretty good idea how Jack would get out.

"All right. I'll give it a shot, but no promises." He focused on Diana. "You'll be safe here. Don't leave the room till I come back for you."

"Don't leave me!"

"I'm not going to hurt you," Jack said. "And you'll be safer in here if things go wrong out there."

"He's right," Cal said. He stepped toward the door, then turned back to Jack. "Good luck with the woman and the girl. I hope they make it. The baby too."

Jack's lips tightened and he gave a small nod, but he said nothing.

C30

Jack watched the door close behind Davis. He slumped back. Not in the clear yet. Getting out could prove harder than getting in.

He glanced at Diana and found her staring at him with her whiteless eyes.

"Are you really the Heir?"

"Not by choice."