Dane Curse (22 page)

“Pinnacle didn’t like it. She wanted to take the team in a more severe direction than he thought was healthy. They actually fought over it.”

“Huh?” I looked up from the book. “When?”

“Doesn’t matter. But if the person you’re about to call is right, it’s happened more than once.” She quietly emptied the rest of her tequila bottle.

“Noted.” I went back to reading. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her story, it’s just that exaggerated exploits of this sort is something every cape has to deal with, black or white. Maybe there was friction like she said, but I was willing to bet it didn’t grind so hard as Fangirl was letting on. “Do you think that’ll affect her sway with the rest of Team Supreme?”

“No. They come across as a bunch of independent operators, but they’ve always followed their leader’s call. That was true when it was Pinnacle. I’m sure it’ll be the same with Glory Anna.” Fangirl shook her head. “She always wanted to be in the saddle. Now she’s got the chance.”

I could see Fangirl wasn’t happy, but this was welcome news on my side of the counter. I didn’t need subtlety, I needed raw power, and with the card she just gave me I had access to it.

It was time to get going.

“Well, thanks for the info, you call me if you need anything.” I looked back down at the comic, and skipped to the end. The final panel was full of setting sunrays and hope.

It looked just how I felt.

I closed it up, and was about to hand it back when I stopped. The back cover was defaced with squiggles in black ink. “What’s this?”

“What’s what?” Fangirl looked down and snorted. “That’s why it costs a grand. It’s your girlfriend’s signature.” She spun the book ninety degrees and the squiggles became a word. “There, better?”

“That’s Glory Anna’s signature?”

“Distinctive, right?”

“Yeah.” I studied the scrawl turning my head left, then right. “This looks familiar.”

“Ha, not likely. Glory Anna never signs things. This is only one of three items she’s marked, and I doubt you’ve seen the others.”

As I studied the signature the room started to spin so fast I had to sit back down.

“Dane? Are you alright? You look worse now than when you came in.”

“Just give me a sec. I got to see something.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the letters I had taken from Benjamin Waller’s place. I unfolded the hand written threat, and compared it to the signature. It was just a formality really. I already knew.

Then I got up, and made for the door.

“Don’t forget the number.” Fangirl held up the card. “Dane. The number!”

“Keep it,” I said. I didn’t need it anymore.

Chapter 41

I got into Widow’s car, but couldn’t bear to turn it on. I just sat there in silence. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the person who signed that comic was the same one who wrote the threat, and I had to admit, it made a terrible kind of sense. If it was actually Glory Anna Pinnacle was meeting the night of his murder he wouldn’t have thought twice about wearing civilian clothes. And if Lynchpin needed his target to be held still for a few seconds then Glory Anna was up to the task. She even wore a uniform of nearly indestructible Wonder Weave, and that plus her invulnerability meant she wouldn’t have left clothing fibers, skin cells, or any other evidence. It would also explain why she and Humphries had been so chummy. And didn’t Lynx tell me when we first met that Pinnacle wasn’t scared of the threat because it was from someone he knew?

Just like that there were no more holes in my case.

I drove back, parked Widow’s car out front, and went upstairs to find the office empty. I left the lights off and took a seat on the couch. Considering the weight on my shoulders I’m surprised the springs held. I pulled the letters out, and tossed them on my coffee table. They landed next to the train ticket. I picked it up and studied it. New York. Not a bad town if you’re into second cities. Bet no one would find me there. I’d be safe.

Putting the ticket aside for a second I grabbed the phone and dialed Lynx’s number. Again there was no answer. Then I poured myself five fingers of whiskey, and was halfway through the first knuckle when I heard someone come in. High heels beat a path into my office. Widow stopped in the doorway. “Sorry, I had to run an errand. You getting drunk in the dark?”

“Yep. If this week’s taught me anything it’s that illumination is highly overrated.”

“So the meeting didn’t go as good as you hoped?”

I didn’t say a word.

“I told you it wasn’t a smart move going out.”

“Yack yack yack,” I said, flapping my fingers the way she was her gums. “How can one tongue stay that sharp after so much use?”

“I said you-”

“Listen.” I held my hand out like a traffic cop. “Maybe you can’t tell, but the last thing I need right now is a smart mouth dame spouting off things she told me, about things she knows nothing about. If that’s what you got stenciled in your day book, then turn around and get out.”

“Don’t take this out on me I’m just trying to-”

“Get out!” I reached past the train ticket, grabbed her car keys, and threw them. They seared a hole in the glass not a foot from her head.

Widow froze. The look she gave me was one I’d never seen before. Then she backed out the door, and closed it. I heard her collect her keys off the floor, and walk out without a word, leaving me all alone.

Well, not alone. Not completely. I had my thoughts, and nearly twenty years’ experience working in the city, but neither proved to be what you would call an asset.

So I finished my drink.

And I poured another.

When that one was gone, I reloaded. When the bottle ran dry I got a fresh one. I didn’t think the booze would help, but at this point it couldn’t hurt, and besides, I wasn’t even seeing double yet, though with a little determination I knew I’d get there.

After a while the silence began to wear on me so I turned on the radio. It was set to a blues station where guys with no money sang of sorrows, with the occasional woman piped in to complain about loving married men. Like those are real problems. I was being set up by the three most powerful people in the world. Even the throatiest of blues singers didn’t know how good they had it.

But I listened, and waited for an idea on how to handle my problem to present itself, which was exactly what I was doing when the stars came out. Only by then it wasn’t an idea I needed, it was hope.

Chapter 42

The call came in around four in the morning.

“What do you want?” I said, trying to sound sharp.

“That’s not a nice way to answer your phone.” The voice on the other side was soft. Honey dipped. And I nearly jumped to my feet when I heard it.

“Lynx?”

“You got it in one, tiger.”

“I thought you were… Where have you been?”

“The answer to that question isn’t nearly so interesting as where I am now.”

“Why?” I reached over, and turned on a lamp. “Where are you now?”

I could hear her smile. “Outside your office building.”

I got off the couch and looked around at the mess. “You’re coming up?”

“Only if you tell me where it is,” she said.

“Fourth floor, end of the hall. It looks like a dead end, but that’s just a hologram.”

“I’ll be right there.”

I slammed the phone down, and tore around the room like a tornado leaving order in my wake. Anything too ugly to be left out got shoved in my closet or desk drawer. I got most of it up when I heard the “knock, knock.” I ran into the waiting room, and opened the door as nonchalantly as I could. Lynx was there wearing a long, tan overcoat and broad brimmed hat.

I scooped her up in my arms. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“Good to see you too.”

“Right this way.” I let her go and we went back to my office.

We took a seat on my couch, and Lynx reached over to touch my stomach. “So first off, how are you faring?”

I grabbed her hand. “Been better.”

“I bet,” she said. “I saw your highlights from yesterday. That was some nice work, champ. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I was surprised. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Well, you find strength you didn’t know you had when someone slaps a collar around your neck.”

“I know what you mean. I’d have to be shot to hell to have one of those things clamped on me.”

“I was shot to hell and they still failed,” I said. “Now where have you been?”

“I told you I had some business to take care of.”

“That was a while back.”

“Two days.”

“It felt a lot longer. And anyway I thought I’d be able to reach you.”

“Sorry.” She looked at her lap. “I had to keep a real low profile. I’ve been mustering support, and avoiding my dad while I did it.”

I nodded. “After I heard about the other board members I started to worry.”

“Scary, right? We think he’s behind that, too. Blood Angel was head of weapons procurement, and Black Orchid took care of chemical development.”

“And Gravel found the body.” 
It all checked out.
 “But thinking isn’t proving.”

“Alright then, here’s what I can prove: Dad was the last one who accessed the Black Bleach. It was almost two weeks ago. I got the date, the time, everything. Also, there was a large payment made to Gun Guys for an unspecified delivery that matches the amount we paid for the Kaos exactly. Here.” She handed me some papers. I cycled through them and sure enough there was a readout with his name next to the room number where the Black Bleach was held, as well as an order form with a transfer code for a whole lot of cash to Gun Guys. “That came from our Swiss shell company, the same one who owns the chemical lab.

“This is amazing,” I said.

“Actually there’s more,” Lynx handed me another document. “I checked his work phone records and came up with nothing, but when I searched his place I found a disposable cell. I ran its history and not only has he been in contact with the SPECs, he’s also called-”

“Team Supreme.”

“Yeah.” Her mouth fell open in a half smile. “How did you know?”

“I’ve got my ways, but it means we’re facing both the SPECs and the most powerful team of white capes ever assembled.”

“What? I just thought he was tipping them off.”

I proceeded to tell her what I found over the past two days, and she hung on every word, listening intently and nodding slowly. When I wrapped it up her face tightened, and the soft lines around her mouth went hard. “This is worse than I thought. What do we do next?”

“That’s the thing kitten, I got no idea at all. If it was just your dad I had the option of going to the SPECs, but when I found out Humphries was in it, all I could do was run to Team Supreme. Now even that road’s shut down.” I took a deep breath and handed her the paperwork. “Nobody will believe my story, so the only thing I can think of is full frontal assault, but the fact is that’s suicide because we’re vastly outgunned.”

“So. You’re just going to up and quit?”

The words cut holes deeper than the ones in my gut. “I never quit.”

“Really? Doesn’t look like it from here.” She reached over and picked up the train ticket.

I snatched it back, and tossed it in the trash. “I need a plan is all, but I can’t figure a way around this.”

“I can.”

That snapped me to. “You want to fill me in? Because I’ve been cutting this up all day without success.”

“That’s because lover, the problem you’re trying to solve isn’t the problem you have.”

The whiskey must have done a bigger number on me than I thought because that made no sense.

She said, “You think that you have to engage each SPEC Agent in the city, the combined might of Team Supreme, and every sneak thief and assassin my father employs.”

“And I don’t?”

She shook her head. “No, you don’t. The problem’s not that big.”

“Really? So what’s your solution?”

“The same one David used on Goliath.” She paused. “Let me ask you, what do you do when you have to face a guy twice your size? Twice your strength? Twice your speed?”

That was easy. I had done all three of those things this week. “Look for a soft spot and press on it hard.”

Lynx nodded. “That’s right. And where’s the weak spot? Or better yet, who’s the weak spot?”

I thought about the homicidal hero, government schemer, and black cape crime boss I was facing. “In this particular problem there isn’t one.”

“Come on. Of the three who can you outright attack and get away with it? Without bringing the federal authorities down on your head.”

“That’s simple. Lynchpin. But-”

She nodded. “And if you do, if you cut off his legs, how do you think he’ll respond? Is he the type to go to Impenetron quietly? Will he keep his lips shut to protect his close friends the SPECs, or the ones in white capes?”

“No. I think he’d point fingers so fast in so many directions that he’d look like a Hindu God.”

“That’s right, he’ll spill everything he knows, on the record, and then we can nail Humphries and Glory Anna. He’s the weak spot. He’s who we go after first.”

“Some weak spot. The guy who leads the largest pack of antisocial black capes, all of whom if asked, would murder me with zeal and gusto, does not an easy target make. You’re right about his position though, that I can see, but who cares? I can’t even access his office.”

“That’s true, Dane,” she said with a smile. “But I can.”

Her words were sinking in like rain on concrete. “Are you saying that you can beat Lynchpin, one on one?”

“No. Not alone at least.”

“Who else you got?”

“No one. Yet. But I might be able to bring in the rest of the board. After what’s been happening nobody on it thinks they’re safe, and once they hear what you just told me I think they’ll provide that army you’re after.”

I turned to Lynx. “You can do this? To your own father?”

“I loved…” She took a deep breath. “I loved Benjy, and he killed him. What he did, it’s unforgivable.”

“But he’s your father, Lynx.”

“Parents have to love their children. That wisdom doesn’t cut both ways. A lesson he and his partners can muse on in Impenetron after I get him to confess to what he did. Now what’s it going to be, are you in?”

“You got to ask?”

“At a boy. Let me make a few calls.” Lynx walked into my waiting room, and closed the door behind her, while I went into the bathroom to prepare for the fight of my life. The holes in my body still ached, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t push through, especially with the newfound hope I had.

I changed the gauze on my gut, splashed some water on my face, holstered Lois and Rico, and covered it all with a black overcoat. Tossing on my hat, I took one final look in the mirror. If you had said a couple of days ago the guy staring back at me would be on his way to do battle with Lynchpin to implicate the head of the SPECs and Glory Anna herself in the murder of Pinnacle, I wouldn’t have believed you.

But then again, it had been a busy couple of days.