Faisal’s eyed flared with contempt. “It’s just this kind of blanket mentality-this stereotyping-that the Sectarian Defense League has been put in place to prevent!”
He turned his dark gaze fully on us and pointed accusingly.
“The world is changing,” he continued, “whether your high-and-mighty Enchancellors choose to deal with it or not, and weare the future of the new world order, gentlemen. Not you and your kind. You are dinosaurs, and like those pea-brained giants, you are headed down the same road.”
Connor pushed through the crowd toward Davidson, and I followed. I blocked the doors to stop Davidson in case he tried to leave, but he made no move. Connor drilled into him. “Is this how the Office of Plausible Deniability is handling things nowadays? For God’s sake, David, fighting people like these is part of the reason the D.E.A. was founded!”
“Listen,” Davidson said, throwing an arm over Connor’s shoulder. “These are complex times, Connor. You and Babe Ruth there can’t simply run around threatening everyone you meet with a Louisville Slugger.”
Davidson was trying to smooth things over, but it was too late. Whatever calming spell his voice had woven over us was now gone.
“I can’t believe you’re standing up for these guys!” I said. I reached for Davidson’s lapels to shake some sense into him, but my hands found no purchase. Dave Davidson moved with a speed I hadn’t thought possible, almost inhuman, and he was now standing a foot farther away.
“You don’t want to do that,” Davidson said with a cold stare. He adjusted his tie, all the while splitting his gaze between the two of us.
“You thinkthese are complex times, eh?” Connor started. “Wait until Inspectre Quimbley tells the Enchancellors. Then you’ll see complex.”
Faisal Bane cleared his throat and the three of us turned.
“Gentlemen,” he said. He waved at his employees dismissively and they returned to their desks. “I trust that your business is with each other and it need not concern me or my staff. We’re terribly busy around here at the moment, much to do…”
“A shipment of sacrificial lambs coming in?” I scoffed.
Faisal ignored me and continued. “Mr. Davidson, I suggest that you and your two-man A-Team take your issues outside. Unless you’d like me to put in a call to the Mayor…?”
“Hey,” Davidson said, looking a little worried. He held up his hands in surrender. “Easy, easy.”
A second later his composure was back.
“No need to bother His Honor,” he said with a carefully balanced political chuckle. “I’m sure the D.E.A. and I can handle this back at their headquarters.”
“And just where would that be?” Faisal asked a little too quickly. Greed sparked to life in his eyes, like a lawyer’s at the scene of a fresh accident.
Davidson went to speak, but I beat him to it.
“That information isnot part of the public record, Mr. Bane. Sorry to disappoint you.”
“You’re a government agency,” Faisal said, “much like ours and far more secretive than us, it seems. You’re required to be listed publicly. Just as we were.”
“You’re working under the assumption that we’re set up like you,” Connor replied. “Do you have any idea how long we’ve been around? Longer than the fat cats downtown and certainly much longer than any of these newly formed charters governing your institution. Don’t try to tell me how things run. We work under special charter, designated on a ‘need to know’ basis by the borough of Manhattan. I find it highly doubtful that anyone, including Mr. Davidson here, considers you and your group as a member of those ‘need to know’ types. Isn’t that true, Mr. D?”
“For the record,” Davidson said, “I’m not sure.” Connor’s question had thrown him. For once, something worked to our advantage. I was sure that Faisal Bane would love to know all about us, but until Davidson figured out the boundaries, he wouldn’t disclose anything further.
Davidson smoothed the lapels on his jacket and slowly backed toward the door, but I was still blocking the way. Connor nodded and so I reluctantly stepped aside.
“I’ll be in touch with both of your organizations as soon as I’ve had a chance to confer with both parties separately,” Davidson said, and slipped out of the doors before anyone could say another word.
A moment of silence followed in the reception area.
“So,” I said, raising the bat again. “Is there anyone I should slug?”
Connor smiled appreciatively, but shook his head no. “That’s all right, kid. Stand down. We’ll be leaving here peaceably.”
Relieved that I didn’t have to smack anyone’s bitch up, I waited for Connor to join me at the door. Not a single office employee attempted to bar our way. We were leaving in the nick of time as far as I was concerned. My nerves were shot. I had never been in a situation where I felt so outnumbered so quickly. I wondered if the bulk of D.E.A. operations went like this. With only a few months under my belt, it was hard to determine what was run of the mill and what was not.
“I’m going to make this easy on you, Bane,” Connor said, turning around. “This is the moment when you insert your ‘parting threat,’ but let’s just skip it, okay? I’ll save you the trouble and we can just quake in our boots in the elevator.”
Faisal stared at us for a moment and then held out his hand to his assistant.
“Jane,” he said through clenched teeth, “clipboard.”
The contempt was thick in his voice, and Jane handed it over as fast as she could. She flinched as he snatched it from her, raised it over his head, wound up, and threw it toward us. It flipped end over end before smashing into the glass of the door, sending a ripple of cracks out from its point of impact.
The clipboard and a small shower of frosted glass fell to the floor. Most of Bane’s workers were doing a terrible job of pretending to work. None of them wanted to draw his attention.
Having held our ground (although I was actually quaking in my boots), Connor and I threw the doors open and left.
“Have that door replaced,” I heard Faisal shout to Jane as he stalked off, “and bill it to the Mayor’s Office.”
13
We called in our incident at the Sectarian Defense League to the Inspectre, and after a quick rundown of what had happened, he dispensed a Shadower team to keep an eye on their Empire State Building offices. Connor and I headed back down to the D.E.A. but I wasn’t happy about it. Filing the paperwork on our encounter was going to be a nightmare.
When we arrived back at the Lovecraft Cafй, I had hoped for the comfort of my office chair, but I had no such luck. There was already a buzz of activity concerning our discovery. Assistants were placing calls and scrambling hurriedly off into the bowels of the D.E.A. while the Enchancellors summoned the two of us to a private council. Once Connor and I stood before them, it was clear that I had misjudged the magnitude of our agency. The crowd consisted mostly of unfamiliar faces, faces that scrutinized Connor and me as we gave our account of our run-in with the Sectarian Defense League.
Afterward, we were dismissed from the assembly, but told to wait. Eventually Inspectre Quimbley emerged from the room with a serious look on his face and whispered something to Connor that I couldn’t hear. I had been on the verge of falling asleep with all that had happened already so I was surprised when, without any explanation, my partner grabbed my arm, led me out through the coffee shop, and hurried us toward the subway stop at Astor Place. That had been hours ago.
Connor was being tight lipped about just what we were doing, but if I were to guess, it had something to do with experimenting on how long it took my ass to fall asleep on the hard, orange plastic seats of the R train. While designed for commuting, they were clearly not meant for extended journeys. The blur of moonlit buildings and urban graffiti sped along outside the window as I stretched my back and shifted in my seat. We had covered the entire length of the R line several times over. The entire time, Connor had sat next to me, calmly doing crossword puzzles. Occasionally he would ask me for a three-letter word for “feline” or a twenty-letter word starting with “X” and having the clue “Ancient mythic cult from the Lower East Side.” Other than that, he seemed quite content to sit in silence all along the rails of the subway.