• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 851 0

the most intense and unpleasant sensation Billy had ever experienced. It came in waves, timed exactly with the now-rapid beating of his heart. Kelly listened to the moan that turned into a scream, and the air pressure was only that of sixty feet. He twisted the release valve shut and re-engaged the pressurization one. In another two minutes the pressure was back to that of four bar. The restored pressure eased the pain almost completely, leaving behind the sort of ache associated with strenuous exercise. That was not something to which Billy was accustomed, and for him the pain was not the welcome sort that athletes know. More to the point, the wide and terrified eyes told Kelly that his guest was thoroughly cowed. They didn't look like human eyes now, and that was good.

Kelly switched on the intercom. 'That's the penalty for a lie. I thought you should know. Now. Ever been arrested, Billy?'

'Jesus, man, no!'

'Never been in jail, fingerprinted -'

'No, man, like speeding tickets, I ain't never been busted.'

'In the service?'

'No, I told you that!'

'Good, thank you.' Kelly checked off the first group of questions. 'Now let's talk about Henry and his organization.' There was one other thing happening that Billy did not expect. Beginning at about three bar, the nitrogen gas that constituted the majority of what humans call air has a narcotic effect not unlike that of alcohol or barbiturates. As afraid as Billy was, there was also a whiplash feeling of euphoria, along with which came impaired judgment. It was just one more bonus effect from the interrogation technique that Kelly had selected mainly for the magnitude of the injury it could inflict.

'Left the money?' Tucker asked.

'More than fifty thousand. They were still counting when I left,' Mark Charon said. They were back in the theater, the only two people in the balcony. By this time Henry wasn't eating any popcorn, the detective saw. It wasn't often that he saw Tucker agitated.

'I need to know what's going on. Tell mе what you know.'

'We've had a few pushers whacked in the past week or ten days -'

'Ju-Ju, Bandanna, two others I don't know. Yeah, I know that. You think they're connected?'

'It's all we got, Henry. Was it Billy who disappeared?'

'Yeah. Rick's dead. Knife?'

'Somebody cut his fuckin' heart out,' Charon exaggerated. 'One of your girls there, too?'

'Doris,' Henry confirmed with a nod. 'Left the money ... why?'

'It could have been a robbery that went wrong somehow, but I don't know what would have screwed that up. Ju-Ju and Bandanna were both robbed - hell, maybe those cases are unrelated. Maybe what happened last night was, well, something else.'

'Like what?'

'Like maybe a direct attack on your organization, Henry,' Charon answered patiently. 'Who do you know who would want to do that? You don't have to be a cop to understand motive, right?' Part of him - a large part, in fact - enjoyed having the upper hand on Tucker, however briefly. 'How much does Billy know?'

'A lot - shit, I just started taking him to -' Tucker stopped.

'That's okay. I don't need to know and I don't want to know. But somebody else does, and you'd better think about that.' A little late, Mark Charon was beginning to appreciate how closely his well-being was associated with that of Henry Tucker.

'Why not at least make it look like a robbery?' Tucker demanded, eyes locked unseeingly on the screen.

'Somebody's sending you a message, Henry. Not taking the money is a sign of contempt. Who do you know who doesn't need money?'

* * *

The screams were getting louder. Billy had just taken another excursion to sixty feet, staying there for a couple of minutes. It was useful to be able to watch his face. Kelly saw him claw at his ears when both tympanic membranes ruptured, not a second apart. Then his eyes and sinuses had been affected. It would be attacking his teeth, too, if he had any cavities - which he probably did, Kelly thought, but he didn't want to hurt him too much, not yet.

'Billy,' he said, after restoring the pressure and eliminating most of the pain. 'I'm not sure