Spares - Michael Marshall Smith [16]
It was the two men from the floor below, standing at the top of the stairs. Come to see what was going on, to see if there was money to be made from it.
“Fuck off,” I suggested. The rat-faced one in front leant against the banister, all cool indifference.
“Or what, homeboy?” he said, with a blank-faced smile. I knew the look. You learn it on the day you discover that with most teachers, if you just front them down, they won’t be able to do anything. It’s a lesson you can take out into the world, into any number of grimy situations. Most people, if you front them hard enough, will not call your bluff.
I am not most people. That’s part of my problem.
I jammed my gun into rat-man’s forehead hard enough to dent his skull, and spoke very clearly.
“Or,” I said, “I blow your head all over your friend’s face. And then blow his head off. And then go down to your apartment and kill everyone I find until I run out of bullets or you run out of friends.”
He looked at me, eyes wide, and took a step backward onto the staircase. Then he spat fluently at the floor beside me. He was going, but protocol required some exit line. I felt like ricocheting off the walls, but I waited for it. You’ve got to let them have their line. It gives them a sense of closure, and the episode finishes for good. If more people let their enemies have the last word the world would be a safer place.
“Be seeing you,” he said, eventually.
“That’s getting old,” I snarled. “You’re not even the first person this evening to say that. Think of another and E-mail it to me.”
They clattered sullenly down the stairs.
I turned and saw Suej standing in Mal’s doorway, her eyes wide and filled with terror.
The others were gone.
I hadn’t rescued Suej from anything, simply brought her somewhere worse. I held her close, watching over her shoulder as Mal’s blood hardened on the floor, and knew that we weren’t going anywhere tonight.
Suej sat in an old and bedraggled armchair in Howie’s private office, sipping from a mug of coffee. The smell of it filtered across to me, as I sat in front of Howie’s desk and looked at my hands. It reminded me momentarily of Ratchet; a strong, rich coffee aroma, in a place which was secure.
Maybe we should have stayed at the Farm, I was thinking. Maybe this was just one long fuck-up, and all that could happen was that it would get worse. I glanced at Suej, and then looked away. I should have been worrying about the spares, but all I could think of was Mal. The things we’d seen, the things we’d done. Right back to The Gap, twenty years ago. All that was gone now, turned into a dream because there was no one alive to share it with.
The guys at the hidden entrance yukked when we arrived, evidently thinking, “Mr. Howie was right: here’s the strange dude again, lurching toward his fate.” They started trying to charge for Suej, took one look at me, and decided it wasn’t worth it. Or maybe it was Suej’s face that did it, the blank Incomprehension, and loss. This was the first time in her life David hadn’t been within reaching distance, and she looked miserable and alone—almost like a real human being. It was also the first time I realized that I wasn’t going to be enough, that being surrogate Daddy only went so far. Exactly the sort of news I needed at that stage.
On the way through New Richmond’s tunnels I’d got the bones of what had happened from Suej. Mal had been doling out the first bowls of noodles when he’d thought he heard a noise outside the door. He tried to get the spares into the loft space of his apartment. Only Suej and David had understood; she went up the ladder first, David trying to herd the others toward her. Panic, incomprehension, and fast, flashing movement: it must have been just like when we left the Farm, except that I wasn’t there and they had to try to cope with it on their own.
Then a knock at the door—hard—a “Let me the fuck in” knock. Mal opened it, gun held behind his back, first turning out the light. Usually a sound tactic—but it just meant that the killer mistook him for me, and blew his lights