The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) (35 page)

I spotted the cop cars from two blocks away. My heartbeat kicked up a notch, but I didn’t change my pace. There were two vans and four cars, doors wide open, lights flashing, and no one home. As I came closer, I spotted a couple of pools of blood on the concrete, each about the size of a pizza. The wind picked up, sending an empty beer can rattling along the street toward me. I kept my eyes on the broken windows as I passed, hoping the shadows moving inside were pigeons and not angry gangsters with very big guns. My liver played jump rope with my intestines as I approached the abandoned cop cars.

I felt the creatures before I heard them, but that didn’t make me any more prepared when the two huge cyclopean creatures lumbered around the corner and stared at me, their black-and-orange fur bristling as they pounded at the street with arms bigger than my entire body. A dozen spider-dogs swarmed around the two behemoths, hooting at me and baring their teeth. They didn’t look as cute as Toto.

My mouth had gone dry. I froze in the center of the street as the creatures fanned out, slowly circling me. The Limbus creatures never came within eight or ten feet of me, but the reek wasn’t so polite. Bile crept up my throat, and I swallowed it back down.

A Vei and two human men rounded the corner, dressed in loose-fitting shirts of gray and red and white. Two carried guns—a shotgun and an assault rifle. The third had a pistol tucked into his belt, but I could see the glint of metal clutched in his hands. Animal energy radiated from him. He must be the Tunneler in control of the Limbus creatures.

“Come with us,” the one with the assault rifle said.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” I said.

He looked confused. I guessed people didn’t usually argue with so many mean-looking beasties. “What?”

“I said I’m not going with you. You expect me to walk right into whatever trap your boss has set up? Here’s fine. Tell him to meet me here, or I destroy the crystals. And bring the hostages.” I glanced around. “Get rid of these things, too. That one with the big teeth is making me nervous.”

The Collectivists exchanged looks. The one with the assault rifle looked dubious, but Shotgun shrugged like he just wanted to get on with things. I stood in place while the creatures snarled at me, their reek bathing me. I breathed through my mouth so I didn’t hurl.

Finally, the gangsters seemed to come to a consensus. Shotgun left and jogged back around the corner while the others watched me. The creatures didn’t move.

“How about this weather, huh?” I said. The gangsters didn’t reply.

Five minutes passed, then ten. And then Shotgun came back with a trail of gangsters in tow.

Bohr was at their head, the Vei walking in his jerky fashion with a cigarette between his lips. His leather jacket flapped in the breeze. I recognized several of the other Collectivists from the warehouse. All of them were armed, and most of them looked like they hadn’t showered for as long as me. A few of the humans wore Kevlar vests. And in the center of the mass of gangsters came the hostages.

There were about twenty cops, half of them in black fatigues with empty holsters and pouches, and the other half in standard cop blues. Each had their hands cuffed in front of them with their own handcuffs or plastic ties, and they kept their heads low as the gangsters prodded them along with the barrels of their weapons.

I spotted Detective Wade near the edge. His golden hair didn’t look so pretty now that it was mussed and tangled. His face was whiter than usual, and I could guess why. His left sleeve was ripped off, with a red-stained bandage wrapped around his shoulder. I met his eyes and tried to grin reassuringly. I was too far away to make out what he said, but it wasn’t hard to lip read: “Oh, fuck.”

Separated from the cops were a handful of other hostages, including a tiny man with cracked spectacles and a grandmotherly woman with curls in her hair. Even now, Doc McCaffrey looked innocent. I wasn’t sure whether to work her over with a baseball bat or ask her for some homemade cookies.

The creatures cleared a path for the gangsters. Some of the Collectivists eyed the spider-dogs and cyclops-gorillas nervously, but Bohr paid them no attention. He bared his teeth at me in a smile and plucked the cigarette from his mouth.

He cocked his head to the side and nodded to himself. “Miles Franco. It is you. I thought this might be a trick.”

“You should know it takes more than a little deadly poison to kill me,” I said.

“The crystals.” He held out a thin hand.

I shook my head. “Lose the zoo.”

“Hmm? Oh, yes. Nice work, isn’t it? We improved the Pin Hole since you…hmm…appropriated our animals the other day.”

He wasn’t lying. I could sense the Tunneler’s work, and it wasn’t leaking energy nearly as bad as it used to. I could still do better, but I wouldn’t be able to get control of the creatures so easily this time.

“Send them home,” I said. “Make this safer for everyone. I only want to deal with things with actual intelligence.” I jerked my head toward Wade and the other cops. “And those guys.”

Bohr cocked his head to the other side and took in a lungful of smoke. Then he gave a jerky nod and waved with his cigarette. The Tunneler paused, glared at me, then turned and walked away. The creatures followed, still growling. Their stench hung around like it had been painted onto the air.

Bohr stepped closer, his posse following. “Better?”

“Much. You might want to give those things a bath.”

“I’ve acted in good faith, as you say,” Bohr said. He couldn’t hide the hunger in his eyes. He pointed at the hostages. “Here is what you want. Now I want the crystals, Miles Franco.”

I looked over the hostages once more. Kowalski looked like he was going to pass out. I met McCaffrey’s gaze for a moment. Her smile made me want to smash her dentures beneath my shoes. I forced myself to breath.

“You promised not to hurt any of them,” I said. “That asshole detective over there looks pretty hurt to me.”

“He struggled,” Bohr said simply.

“He can barely stand. You’re not going to make any friends with the cops doing this.”

Bohr’s lips peeled back in another grin. “They did not like me anyway. Now they know not to underestimate me, yes? No matter. This will be done soon.”

“Yeah?” The wind gusted, sweeping my jacket behind me. The rest of the city was alive with traffic and sirens and construction work and people chatting in their offices, but here we could’ve been the last people on Earth. “Tell me, what do you want? What do you think these crystals will get you?”

“Do you know what they did to me?” There was no anger in his voice, but he jabbed his cigarette toward McCaffrey and Kowalski. “They stole everything I ever did. They broke my life. Some of my companions were their victims as well.”

“You could’ve gone to the cops,” I said.

“Like you did, Miles Franco? You know the ineffectiveness of your human police. I worked on Earth, but I am a Vei. You know the way we settle things.” His eyes danced with fire, and his slitted nostrils flared.

“So why haven’t you killed them already?”

“That would never be enough. They don’t deserve death. I will make it so they never existed. I’m going to scour AISOR from history, and everything they’ve done. I will break Tartarus if I can, and if not, I’ll break the connections between the worlds. They have only brought destruction.”

Jesus. This guy’s more than eccentric. He’s high-functioning, but he’s certifiably bat-shit.
“Bit overdramatic, isn’t it? Do you even know what you’re doing? I read the papers you guys wrote. Well, I skimmed them. You did an awful lot of talking about the interconnectedness of the worlds. What if you screw up Tunneling for good? What if you collapse the worlds in on themselves? Hell, what if you just manage to erase yourself in the process? You’re connected to all this too.”

“No matter,” he said, his voice cold. “The question is whether you are willing to take that risk. How badly do you want these ones, hmm?”

I looked over McCaffrey and Kowalski. I blinked, and Claudia stood behind McCaffrey, staring at her with dead eyes. I blinked again, and she disappeared.

“Badly,” I said.

“Then please, the crystals.”

“Sure,” I said. “Except I don’t have them with me.”

He looked like he was going to bite his cigarette in half and swallow it. “Do not joke with me.”

“Who’s joking? I’m not thick enough to stroll down here in the middle of the day with the crystals in my pocket.” I gestured around. “Not with so many friendly gangsters ready to plug me as soon as I hand them over.”

Bohr ran his tongue along the points of his teeth, his eyes darting around at his people. His hand drifted inside his jacket, and I caught a glimpse of an ivory handle. I kept a smile on my face, but inside, all my nerve had dripped into my shoes. This was the only way to play it, but Bohr wasn’t the most stable guy I’d ever dealt with. I kept a careful eye on all the guns trained on me, resisting the urge to wipe away the sweat beading on my forehead.

“Where are they?” Bohr said, mouth twitching.

“I think we both know I’m not going to give it up that easy. I’ll take you to them. Not your whole gang. You.”

“You push your luck, Miles Franco.”

“I’m good at that. You can bring a bodyguard if you’re nervous. I want McCaffrey, Kowalski, and the pretty boy detective.”

“Hmm, and the rest?”

“Let the cops go. Or keep them somewhere out of the way until this is over. Same as McCaffrey’s people. I don’t want you wasting them all when you have your precious crystals.”

Bohr crushed his cigarette butt beneath his heel, his fingers flexing on the ivory handle.
Have you used up all your luck yet, Miles?
I asked myself.

“Perhaps you do not have the crystals at all,” Bohr said. “Perhaps I should kill you now.”

I fished in my pocket and retrieved a single crystal. I held it above my head. It glinted green in the sunlight.

“A sample,” I said. I tossed the crystal to him. Behind Bohr, McCaffrey’s eyes widened, her hungry gaze following the crystal as it arced through the air. Bohr caught it one-handed, and McCaffrey’s face went impassive again. She seemed almost serene, even with a gun barrel pressed against the back of her head. What was her play going to be?

Bohr brought the crystal up to his eye and examined it. “How do I know it is real, hmm?”

“Can’t you feel it?” I said. “Don’t you hear that song in your head?”

He frowned and cocked his head again. “I hear nothing.”

“Don’t you trust me?” I asked. “After all we’ve been through together.”

He brought the crystal to his ear and listened. After a few moments, he shook his head. “Nothing. Test it, yes?”

He tossed it back to me. The instant it touched my skin, I heard it calling again.

“Be quick, Miles Franco.”

“What do you want me to do? AISOR’s the one with all the chemical analysts.”

“Use it. Should be enough for a small change, yes? What do you want?”

I looked at the crystal and scratched my chin. “I’ve been broke all my life. Maybe it’d be nice to be rich, for once.”

I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, opened it, and showed Bohr there was nothing inside but a large pile of receipts and a driver’s license.

“Make it work,” Bohr said. He gestured to the gangsters behind him, and one of them shoved Detective Wade out in front and forced him to his knees. Bohr pulled the ivory handle from under his jacket and pressed something. The thin spike instantly extended to its full length. He pressed the point against Wade’s forehead. The cop looked like he’d forgotten how to breath. Bohr stared at me. “Do not delay, hmm?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “That’s the hostage you’re threatening me with? I don’t even like the guy.” Wade set his jaw and widened his eyes at me, his nostrils flaring. I grinned at him, trying to look more confident than I felt. “All right, all right, you know I can’t stand those puppy dog eyes.”

With my empty wallet in my left hand and the crystal in my right fist, I closed my eyes. The song grew louder in my head, and the sound of the gangsters shuffling in place and the wind coming down the street died away. My hands were slippery around my wallet.

I waited, counting the seconds away in my head. With every one that passed, my gut tied itself a little tighter. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. My skin prickled.

The song changed. No, it didn’t change. Another tune laid itself over the top. A nonsense tune, a distant sense of chaos. Reality shimmered, and something seemed to crack far away to my left. Maybe it was my muscles playing tricks on me, but my wallet felt slightly heavier. The crystal still dug into my palm, pulsing as always.

I opened my eyes and lifted my wallet. At the same time, while everyone’s eyes were fixed on my left hand, I palmed the crystal with my right and slipped it up my sleeve. The sense of disorder still sang distantly in my head.

“It is done?” Bohr asked. His spike had drawn a drop of blood from the center of Wade’s forehead.

I opened the wallet so everyone could see it. A thick wad of crisp hundreds sat inside.

“Next round’s on me,” I said.

I glanced at McCaffrey. Her eyes were shining, her smile lines creased and deep.
Proud of yourself, Doc?

Bohr wasn’t so reserved in his expression. His face was practically split in two by his shark grin. “Good. Very good. Yes. The crystal is used up?”

I showed him my empty right hand.

“Yes,” he said, turning his attention back to my wallet. “See, we all come out happy.”

“We’re good?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, yes.”

He waved at the Collectivists and retracted his spike from Wade’s head. The cop sighed and deflated like a kid’s bouncy castle.

“Lock the police officers and the others in the basement,” he said to one of the gangsters. “Leave two guards, but pull everyone else out. We will notify the police where they can find their comrades when this is done.”

The gangster nodded and hurried away, dividing up the rest of the Collectivists. My heart wasn’t trying to punch its way out of my chest anymore, but I wasn’t done yet. I tried to look like I wasn’t about to pass out.