Danger’s Vice Read online

  “Infect the masses.”

  I pulled up a chair after taking a jug of water out of the unit and holstering my taser. “I don’t get it. What does that accomplish?” I upended the jug and guzzled it, Bender style. It’d been a long morning, and I was hot and tired after exerting all that energy bringing Case to the ground. “Masses of seekers on the streets don’t help a new government function. That can’t be the end game. Why not just kill the unwilling citizens, instead of infect them?”

  Case leaned forward, pulling off his helmet, his tousled brown hair sticking to the sides of his face. He ran a hand through it, mussing it up, his eyes focused on mine. “They want control, first and foremost. In order to get it, they’re willing to dose people to keep any kind of rebellion to a minimum. They know a government overthrow will be difficult, at best. But I heard a rumor today that they might have a reversal at the ready to use after the takeover is complete.”

  “A reversal?” I set the jug on the floor next to me, not offering any to Case. He’d have to ask.

  “For the seekers.”

  I stilled for a moment before tugging off my own helmet. “You’re talking about a cure, right?”

  If it was true, then maybe there was an upside to all this crap after all.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Could be a cure,” Case answered. “Nobody I talked to had exact information, just whispers about new seekers injected with Plush and it not necessarily being permanent.”

  “Why me?” I sat back in my chair, my gaze filled with suspicion, my Gem on my lap, the barrel aimed outward. “Why target me specifically?”

  He shrugged. “You killed Tandor. You were also number one on Tandor’s hit list. You’re a known threat—you and your crew. Something that could make or break their success.”

  I thought back to the events of this morning, specifically Cozzi’s fear about telling me what was going on and Ned’s frantic request for protection in exchange for information.

  Tracking Ned down would be next on my to-do list, after retrieving Luce and freeing Darby.

  Based on Case’s information, the setup Tandor used to dupe Darby just got a lot murkier. I stood. “You’re going to sit tight while I gather up some things, and then we’re out of here.” I made my way to a large stack of supplies and salvages along the opposite wall from where we sat. There should be some reflective cloth here somewhere. I bent over, moving things around so I could get behind the first layer. “And, Case, don’t think for a minute you’re off the hook,” I grumbled. “Everything you’ve said so far makes sense, but it doesn’t explain it all, and I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to inflict any more pain or not.”

  Footsteps sounded behind me. “I came here to warn you. Like I said.”

  I glanced over my shoulder, giving him a look that conveyed my feelings about his warning tactics. My eyelids couldn’t get lower without fully closing, my lips pursed. “I told you to stay in your seat. You’re pushing me too far. Goliath was right. You’re messing with life-and-death stuff here.” The problem was, a guy like Case didn’t give a shit about that. He didn’t live in fear of much. But it was in my best interests to keep reminding him.

  Then, if he actually did die, my conscience would be clear.

  Before Case could form a rebuttal, a beep sounded from my vest pocket. My tech phone was going off.

  I stopped what I was doing, pulled it out, and depressed the button before speaking. “This is Ella.”

  “It’s Jerry,” Lockland said. “Change of plans. Need to help my mother move some things. Will be unavailable until tomorrow.”

  My brows furrowed.

  Shit.

  He was talking about Claire. Something had come up that needed his immediate attention. That couldn’t be good. I depressed the button again. “I hope she’s okay.” My heart began to race. Claire was a mother to all of us. “Need any help?”

  “Johnny’s with me. Should be enough.”

  “Keep me posted.”

  “Will do.” Lockland’s way of telling me he couldn’t speak anymore.

  Case read my face correctly. “Bad news?”

  I glanced at him distractedly as I paced. “I’m not sharing anything with you, so don’t ask.” I spun in a circle. “How am I going to get Luce back?” Lockland and I were supposed to go get my craft at blackout.

  Case stood in front of me, arms crossed. I was about to tell him to get lost when Bender’s voice came out of the speaker in a growl, the phone still in my hand. “Breakfast tomorrow. Aaron should be with us.” He cut out, the static disappearing, which meant he’d shut down, preventing further communication.

  I walked over to the chair and sat, my mind racing.

  Aaron was Darby’s handle.

  Something was happening with Claire and Darby. Bender and Lockland had decided to act, likely within moments. I swore. I should’ve been there.

  Case stood like a statue in the middle of the room, which was irritating. But almost anything would piss me off right now. My family needed help, and I had no way to get to them. I made up my mind, heading toward the door, donning my helmet on the way. “Come on,” I called, “we’re leaving.” I punched off the lights and had the door open before Case caught up.

  “Where are we going?”

  “We’re going to get Luce. I can’t do anything without my craft, and you owe me for the stunt you pulled to get up here, so you either agree, or I take Seven and do it myself.” After he was out, I rigged the binder back in place and continued out to Seven, brushing by him. “And I’m flying.”

  Without comment, he walked around the craft to the passenger side.

  I hit Seven’s ignition button, but nothing happened. I sighed as I tilted my head against the rest. “Don’t fuck with me, Case. We’re in the middle of some serious stuff, and I need my craft.”

  “I agree,” he said. “But going right now, in the middle of the day, isn’t going to accomplish your goal.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “Wait until blackout.”

  Lockland would’ve said something if he’d managed to secure a bribe by a guard at Port Station. Taking Luce back by force was the only viable option. Either that, or I snuck in, which was unlikely. “It won’t make that much difference if it’s dark or not. I’m going to have to take her at gunpoint either way. I don’t know Port Station well enough to sneak in.”

  “I do.”

  My eyebrows rose. An offer of help would cost me. “What’s the swap?”

  “I want in on this.”

  “This what? Taking Hutch down?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I want to see it to the end.”

  “Your sister and Tandor are gone. You got retribution for your nephew. Why not go back to where you came from?” I met his gaze head on, not surprised to see it held a hard edge. This man had a past. He was no saint. “You’re not going home, are you?”

  “No.”

  I sighed, this time taking my time with the exhale. I wasn’t interested in why he’d chosen to stay. I wanted my craft back and my family safe, and I was willing to do a lot to make that happen, but I wasn’t going to compromise anything on my end to get it. “Fine. You can tag along until I get Luce back, which will take until sometime tomorrow, but I’m not sharing any intel. That’s all I’m offering.”

  “I want in until the end.”

  “Sorry, no can do,” I said. “I reunite with my crew once they get back, and you’re not invited. I can tell you about the seeker I saw and what went down, but that’s all I have. Take it or leave it.” He was about to counter my offer, judging by the look on his face and the tilt of his head, and I held up my hand. “I’m done negotiating. The offer stands.”

  “Done.”

  I waited a few seconds. “Are you going to engage the starter now and let me fly out of here?”

  “It’s already on.”

  Disbelieving, I hit the button again.

  The propulsion fired immediately, and the craft
bounced a meter off the ground. Case hadn’t moved. I would’ve seen it. I narrowed my eyes. He didn’t meet my gaze. Instead, he seemed very interested in the twisted rafters outside the windshield. “You have a false start on this, don’t you? What, it locks up every fifth time? Tricky bastard.” Had I tried it again, I wouldn’t have had to negotiate anything with him.

  “No false start.”

  I jammed the left lever down, moving out fast, relishing watching Case’s head whip forward as I reversed. “I don’t believe you—”

  An explosion rocked the space in front of us.

  A pressure wave shot us backward, causing the craft to swoop and bounce. Thankfully, there was nothing behind us. I gripped the controls, barely managing to hold us steady. I’d just cleared the building, and if I hadn’t been moving as quickly as I’d been, we would’ve been ripped apart.

  Hands gripping the dash, Case shouted, “Get the hell out of here!”

  “Working on it,” I gasped as I twisted the controls, arcing the craft one hundred and eighty degrees while still in reverse. If the Q7 hadn’t been built for speed, this wouldn’t have been possible. I accelerated us away, gunning the propulsion, the air displacement from the blast still causing massive turbulence in the form of shockwaves. My hands were like two iron vises on the levers. As I steadied us, I upped the speed to two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour.

  When we were finally in the clear, I pounded a fist on the dashboard, punctuating each word. “They…just…blew…up…my fucking house!”

  Case craned his neck to look out the window. “Thirty seconds sooner and we would’ve been dead.”

  I aimed the craft east, circling back just enough to watch the black smoke billowing up from what used to be my residence. The dark, acrid plumes were a cautionary reminder of what could’ve been. The blast had been concentrated, likely not disrupting the rest of the building. “That was a compact hydro-bomb meant for a contained explosion,” I said. “My question is, how did they get it up there without us knowing? None of my traps had been tripped when we arrived.”

  “They must’ve used a launcher.”

  I shook my head as I maneuvered us toward the sea. “We would’ve heard something, and launchers leave vapor trails. That blast was local.”

  My residence was gone. Just like that. It was just fucking gone.

  “It could’ve been on a timer,” Case conceded.

  “I don’t think so. My guess is a wireless detonator. They weren’t expecting me to accelerate out that quickly.” The fact that someone had gotten up there and waited until we’d come back outside to activate was more than a little disconcerting—it was infuriating.

  I’d found out about Tandor’s arrival in my city a few days ago, and since then, my world had been completely rocked—and now blown up.

  As I flew, my mind raced.

  “Where are we headed?” Case asked.

  “Back to the barracks,” I said, distracted. “This explosion changes everything.”

  “Did you lose anything important back there?”

  Important was code for irreplaceable.

  “Yeah, my damn peace of mind.” I’d been living and surviving in this city for twenty-seven years, mostly on my own, and had never lost so much in a single event. “Back there was a culmination of years’ worth of salvaging. These guys are going to pay for what they did. That was my life, the way I make my living.” If they blew up my canals residence, I’d have to start over. I had a small residence near Government Square, but that was just for show. An address to give out if I was ever arrested. The thought wasn’t very appealing—it actually bordered on horrifying.

  “They made a mistake,” Case said.

  “Are you kidding me?” I almost shrieked, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. “The only mistake they made was not killing me.”

  He shook his head. “No, I mean they left us a trail.”

  “What trail?”

  He turned in his seat, his helmet in his lap. “The only one who saw us take off together and could give them any solid information was the guy I paid on the roof to watch my craft.”

  I thought back to that surly old man. He’d retreated fairly quickly. It was possible he had a tech phone in his possession and whoever he was communicating with had to be someplace close-by. “So we get that guy to talk, find out who paid him, and track these assholes down.”

  “The sooner the better.”

  “We can’t do it now. This area’s hot. It needs to cool down before we head back. And when we find them, I might blow their shit up. Just for the fun of it.” I steered Seven toward the ocean. “I mean, fair’s fair.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Kid,” I said, rubbing a temple, “I don’t think I heard you correctly. Say it again.” Daze being happy to see us was an understatement. He was thankfully feeling better, and by the time we’d arrived back at the bunker, he’d been literally bouncing off the walls. The medi-pod, it seemed, had fixed his ailments. He was almost completely healed, at least by outward appearances.

  Daze held a bag of prepackaged food a meter from my face, shaking it proudly. Dried, pale flakes bounced around inside. “I found these. They were way back in the corner. I dug them out. They’re really old, but you can still eat them. It says to add hot water. Nobody would’ve found them if I hadn’t been here.” He tilted his chin up in the classic Daze pose. “They were tucked deep inside a hole in the wall. I think somebody was trying to save them for later. You wouldn’t have even seen it. You’re too tall.”

  “Yeah, that’s great, but what did you say about the pico again? That’s the part I need.” I was reclined on one of the two couches, focusing my mind on a solid plan for tonight. Getting Luce back was imperative. Then we had to deal with the old man.

  On the way back to the barracks, I’d tried to get a hold of Bender and Lockland, but neither answered. I was beginning to worry—not the fretting kind of worry, but the kind that settled in your gut like a heavy stone. Only a severe emergency would’ve caused the guys to leave without me. I was an asset, not a liability. Whatever was happening with Claire and Darby, it was something that couldn’t wait.

  That was never good.

  Daze plopped down on the couch across from me, the bag still clutched in his fist. Case was in the waste room at the back of the massive space that made up the barracks. “I said I really have a pico. I told Tandor my dad used to have one but that he took it with him when he left. But it was a lie.” Daze’s face was intense as he relayed the story. “I convinced Tandor that telling you I had one would be enough to get you to go to Port Station. But I really did have one. He didn’t know I’d taken the quantum drive yet. Isn’t that cool?” He was momentarily distracted by the flakes as he gave the bag another shake, examining the contents two centimeters from his eyeballs.

  I hadn’t been able to quiz Daze on everything that had happened. He’d been near death after I’d shot Tandor and had still been groggy this morning. This was our first official debriefing.

  I sat up, unfurling from my reclined position, my mind now at rock-solid attention. “Yes, that’s super cool. Your brain is big and vast. But you’re going to have to back up a bit more. How and where do you have this pico?” Getting this info out of Daze before Case came back had just become a big priority. I wasn’t interested in sharing this with the outskirt. In fact, I wasn’t interested in sharing anything with him, even though I’d agreed he could help me. I didn’t trust him. How did I know for sure he wasn’t behind the bomb that blew up my house? It was a little miraculous that we’d gotten out just in time. And in my world, miracles didn’t exist.

  “It’s back at my residence,” he answered, like it was no big deal. Shake, shake. Full examination of the flakes once again.

  “Like, as in the place I was at in Port Station two days ago, the one where I almost got killed?”

  “Yep.” He finally set the bag on the table between us, angling his head to look around the room, searching for the next thi
ng that could captivate his attention.

  I wanted it to be this conversation.

  Crossing my arms, I made my voice stern. “Is it under the stairs like you told me?”

  “Nope. It’s under my bed. In the floor. I put it there real careful before I left. I had to go, you know, because my mom died.” His mouth slid down into a frown as he stared at the floor, his toes barely reaching the ground, his shoes making intermittent scuffing sounds as he kicked his feet back and forth.

  I had to keep reminding myself he was just a twelve-year-old kid. A child interested in playing games and having fun.

  “And you’re sure Tandor had no idea you had one?” I asked. “You didn’t brag to anyone else about it? Not even Rennie?” His friend Renata had been used as a pawn in Tandor’s game to get Daze to cooperate. I was pretty sure she was dead, but nobody had confirmed it, and there wasn’t an easy way to find out.

  His gaze met mine, his chin beginning to tilt upward. “I didn’t brag. None of the runaways would know what it was anyway. I told Renata that I had some cool stuff, but not what it was. We were just goofing around one day, and she told me she hid stuff, too.”

  I stood. “Well, that settles it, then. I’m heading back to your place tonight before I pick up Luce.” My face was set as I addressed the kid one more time. “You’re not sending me on a wild-goose chase again, are you?” That was a nice way of saying Daze was a talented actor. I’d fallen for everything he’d dished, thoroughly and completely. If I thought about it too hard, I’d get pissed again, and that wouldn’t help either of us. “Because if you are, things will get tricky between us really quick.”

  Instead of taking offense at my stern tone, Daze bounced up and down on the couch on his butt, his hands braced by his sides, a look of excitement on his face. “I can go with! I’ll show you where it is. I promise it’s there. It’s not a lie. Tandor was a bad guy. He forced me to do things I didn’t want to do. But not anymore. Because you killed him.” He smiled widely, his eyes bright and adoring, like I’d slain his personal dragon—which I kind of had. Daze abruptly stilled, a serious look sweeping over his features. “I promise never to lie to you again.” The kid actually placed a hand over his heart. “If I do, may seekers rip my heart out and eat it until I die.”