“What is it?” Cole asked. “What did you find? Can you e-mail it to me?”
Once quick glance at the young woman who normally haunted that computer was enough to tell Rico that she would be sifting through that terminal the moment he got up. “No,” he said as he deleted everything he knew how to delete. “But it’s enough. Meet me outside. I got something you need to see.”
While going through the motions of shutting the computer down, he jabbed a beefy finger toward the young woman and barked, “Go check on the crow’s nest and secure the armory!”
She, along with half of the Skinners in the immediate area, jumped up and hurried upstairs to follow through on the orders. Once they were out of the way, Rico stomped over to the rune-encrusted panel in the floor and dropped to one knee so he could tap some of the runes on the square door that Jessup had opened earlier. When the trapdoor came open, Rico pressed his finger against the earpiece as if about to shove it into his brain. “It’s not here,” he said in a hushed voice.
Cole’s response was measured and calm. “I may know something about that.”
“You got a hold of that box?” Rico asked. An ugly smirk crawled across his face when he asked, “How the hell did you manage that one?”
“I don’t have it, but I know where it is.”
“I’m coming out there and you’re givin’ it back to me.”
“I can’t,” Cole said. “Paige and I need that thing.”
Rico shut the door, set the runes to remain locked no matter who touched them next, then nodded casually to the Skinner on guard duty carrying an AK-47. “You’re damn lucky that box is still in there. Were you the one that didn’t shut it right?”
“No!” The guard reflexively replied. “Wasn’t me!”
“Good. Don’t go warnin’ any of the other newbie twerps,” he snarled. “When I find out which it was that did that, I want it to be a surprise.”
The expression on the younger man’s face showed that he was relieved to be grateful he hadn’t touched the floor panel, and his quick turn on the balls of his feet showed how anxious he was to get the hell away from the big man.
Chapter Nine
Cole sat in the car down the street, but still within sight of the Vigilant base. After being cut off so quickly by Rico, he perched on the edge of his seat waiting for him to storm out of the building. Paige had left a few moments ago, but the remains of the Chinese food she’d picked up for lunch was still scattered on the floor and backseat. Even after hell had spilled all over the world, General Tso Chicken still came in those little white boxes. On a very genuine level, that brought Cole some comfort.
Rico walked outside using a stride that seemed powerful enough to smash through any wall unfortunate enough to have been built in his path. After spotting the borrowed car, he motioned for Cole to follow him to the corner. He was headed for the Spring Street Bar and Grill, which had its windows boarded up like every other business in the area. Unlike the miniature fortress created by the Vigilant, the bar showed signs of life. Light filtered through the reinforced shutters, and voices made it outside past doors that were tightly closed in the event any four-legged visitors showed up. As Rico passed the bar, he nodded up toward the spots where Cole already knew the Vigilant cameras were posted.
A pair of figures huddled in the shadows across the street, where a house sat on a corner lot. Its yard was surrounded by a broken chain-link fence, and the grass had been torn up by so many claw marks that it looked as if it had been run over by a piece of farming equipment. A tall tree leaned toward the tiny house as if to offer the shelter that a pointed awning over the front door couldn’t provide. Judging by the broken windows and scratch marks along the walls, whoever owned that house needed a lot more than shade to protect them.
Slowing as he passed in front of a row of little, single-story houses, Rico stepped onto a lawn that was smaller than the house’s driveway to examine a satellite dish sporting a large ugly bite mark that had claimed almost a quarter of its radius. “You got that rock?”
“Not on me,” Cole replied as he closed in on him.
“Then where is it? I’m puttin’ my ass on the line here. Jessup ain’t a bad guy, but he’s not real big in the trust department.”
“So are you with him or us?” Cole asked. “After the hell we went through in New Mexico, the least that guy could do is stick with us.”
“He is,” Rico said. “Jessup’s sticking with all Skinners by ditching his own stomping ground and coming to work for the only core group that has been seriously organized. If you or Paige don’t like it, maybe you should have done some organizing yourselves before throwing in with the IRD.”
“We all jumped to the sides we thought would do the most damage to the Full Bloods. This fight’s just started, though, and we’re not far from losing it.”
Rico nodded. “You got that right. All we need to do is pull together when it counts. These Vigilant dudes may be drifting toward the whacko end of the spectrum, but they got heart and they got some heavy duty firepower from Jonah Lancroft’s personal collection. Somehow, they also got to the best stuff from Philadelphia. And since there ain’t hardly any other Skinners answering their phone anymore, the Vigilant are about all there is unless you wanna join the Army.”
“You can’t find any other Skinners?”
“We been in contact with the ones that survived the raids from the cops, but as of a few days ago, it’s been real quiet.” Rico drew a measured breath and stared at Cole intently when he asked, “Did you or Paige turn over a list of names to the military?”
At that moment Cole was certain of three things. If he’d betrayed any Skinners who were scooped up by the government, he was in for some serious bodily harm. If he tried to lie about doing such a thing, he would be found out and then subjected to even more serious harm. And finally, there was no doubt which side of the battle Rico was on. Philosophical differences aside, Rico was the same man he’d been the first time they met. “After all the shit we’ve been through, you can still ask me a question like that?”
Rico eased back just enough to let Cole know the storm had temporarily passed. “I’ve been level with you the whole time,” he rasped. “The problem with you and Paige is that you’re still thinkin’ in terms of us and them. The only ‘us’ here is humanity, and ‘them’ is them furry sons of bitches running wild through our cities. Now, I’m not sayin’ everyone under that roof back there shares my views on the matter, but that’s where I stand. When I was pissed with you guys in New Mexico, I told you so. Trust me, I’ve been telling Jessup the same things. All it boils down to is that these guys speak my language and Lancroft knew how to whip monster ass. Right now, though, I need to show you something and I need that rock to do it.”
The window of the house swung open to reveal an old man wrapped in a thick burgundy robe. His eyes may have been covered by thick lenses housed in cheap plastic frames, but he didn’t have any trouble finding a target for the pump-action shotgun in his hands. “Move it along, you two!”
“We ain’t messin’ up yer lawn, old man!” Rico barked.
The shotgun was raised to his shoulder and the home owner stared the Skinners down as if they were two Half Breeds pissing on his rosebushes. “I said move it along.”
Rico spun around and threw an angry wave at the old man. “We killed a pack of Half Breeds before they could climb through his windows and this is the thanks we get.”
“Times are hard,” Cole said.