The only people I was concerned about were the Ank, who he had already chosen to wound instead of kill, and Delovoa, who no one with even half a brain would dare attack.
So besides the Ank, besides Su Dival, besides hiring the feral kids, 19-10 had now killed a gang boss who was going to run for office. But we had a lot of people running for office. 19-10 still hadn’t shot me, however. He hadn’t even hinted he didn’t like me.
I shot Fat Neep in the neck with my own gun to cover up 19-10’s wounds.
I waited for his thugs to come running in at the noise, but I realized I was in a club and they couldn’t hear us so I walked over to the door and opened it.
A few stoic toughs came in and quickly got emotional when they saw their boss.
“Hey, bring all the other employees in here. I’m not going to shoot anyone.”
After much hesitation, I got everyone inside.
“Yeah, so, I had to kill Fat Neep,” I said weakly.
“Why?”
“I just did. Sorry. If any of you know Zadeck, I’ll try and get him to take over this organization with as little disruption as possible. By the way, have any of you seen someone around with four arms?”
No one answered.
“Seriously. Hey. Have you seen anyone with four arms?” I repeated.
“Four arms? I don’t think so. Saw two heads once.”
“I saw a guy with four legs.”
“It’s not a competition. Never mind.”
“Should we close up the club or what?”
I thought about this. If I let them keep it open without another boss supervising, they’d just rob it blind, and then spread to the wind, and then become unemployed and troublesome a week from now.
“Yeah, close it,” I said.
“Still a bunch of people flying. They won’t be coming down for hours.”
“Deadsouth is just over there. They want a taste of the real life, let them taste it.”
CHAPTER 27
“I need you to make some way to track 19-10,” I told Delovoa.
He was in one of his lab buildings working on something large and mechanical. He had on protective rubber gear and a face shield and sparks were flying.
“Lift the back of that,” he said.
I walked over and lifted. It was about the size of a car but I managed easily.
More sparks gushed out and he backed away, taking off his mask.
“Okay.”
I put it down.
“Why did you drop it?” he yelled.
“I didn’t drop it. I put it down.”
“You bent it, look.”
“I don’t even know what it is,” I said.
“You don’t have to know what it is to bend it, stupid. What do you think I was working on it for? It was bent. Now you just bent the other side.”
“I’m not a heavy lifter.”
“Clearly. Come over here and pick up this end. And don’t drop it.”
“No. Help me find 19-10 first.”
Delovoa pointed, his face angry.
“He’s over there.”
I looked at the wall where he was pointing.
“What? Where?”
“How should I know? You think I can see through dimensions?”
“Can’t you build some scanner? You said it was using unstable elements or whatever.”
“It will be contained by the armor. If it wasn’t, it would kill him. Besides, the station has radiation leaks all over.”
“From what?” I asked, alarmed.
“From you dropping big pieces of it. Belvaille is falling apart. You know that. Why do you need to track him anyway? You said his guns can’t hurt you. He didn’t even kill the Ank.”
“But he’s following me!”
“Then turn around and shoot him next time.”
“No, he’s following me in those other dimensions,” I said.
“That’s not possible. He’s slower than you when he does that. And you take the train.”
“I’m telling you, he knew where I was, twice, and listened to what we were saying. He may be listening to us now,” I said, looking around.
“He can’t. It would take too much energy.”
“But do you know if the armor can hear us? In this dimension?”
“How should I know?”
“Then how do you know it takes energy?” I challenged.
“Because it doesn’t run on fairy dust. This is just how machines work. If it’s moving, if it’s listening, if it’s interacting with anything, no matter what dimension, it needs power. He can’t possibly be following you all the time. You’d outpace his Messahn armor and he would waste his chrodite-399.”
“Then how do you explain him following me? I went alone.”
“Did anyone know where you were going?”
“Well… Fat Neep. His gang. My people. Anyone that saw me. Anyone they told.”
“Not exactly secret.”
“So there’s no way to track him or predict where he’s going?”
“I don’t know what the armor is or its signature. You can scan for anything, but you have to have some pretty specific criteria. Shiny armor with four arms isn’t good enough.”
“Is it possible to make me some armor like him? Where I could also go into his dimension?”
“Are you kidding? I had a tough enough time making the trains able to haul your jelly gut down the street. Besides, it’s not like he steps over and it’s this wide open field with just him. It would take me years to try and figure out the theories of all those interlaced manifolds, let alone make a practical device.”
I grumbled, but he had eased my panic a bit. I was thinking I had a permanent 19-10 hovering a few feet behind me.
“This is a long shot, but do you know Two Clem?” I asked.
“The actor?”
“Yeah. He’s missing.”
“Since when?”
“Months.”
“No, he’s not. I saw him a few weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“Here, here? Your place?”
“Yeah.”
“No one is supposed to come over.”
“I’m not going to be a prisoner! I have guests when I want.”
“What did he say?” I asked.
“It wasn’t really a talking session,” Delovoa answered delicately.
I rolled my eyes.
“So how can I find him?”
“Have you checked his apartments?”
“No, but I’m sure the Order has, and they say he’s missing.”
“I don’t know if he’s still in the Order,” Delovoa said casually.
“Really? Does Hobardi know?”
“Or he’s trying to take control from Hobardi. One of those.”
“Those are hugely different things! Can’t you remember which?”
“No. A fake religion isn’t very high in my priorities.”
“Can you tell me if he comes back?” I asked.
“I will if you help me fix this. And don’t drop it this time.”
CHAPTER 28
Judge Naeb declared his candidacy for Governor.
That put us at 1,843 people running for the five City Council seats and 206 running for Governor. And there still hadn’t been any declarations from the Olmarr Republic, the Sublime Order of Transcendence, or the Totki.
I should just let them all fight it out.
Actually, that might happen whether I let it or not.
We had finally moved all the women prisoners from the Royal Wing to Hank Block. We converted the roof of one of the apartment buildings. That was about the best we could do without requiring a lot of manpower to watch them.
It was theoretically possible to escape but it would be a ten story descent through electrified wire. If they escaped, they probably deserved to.
I stood outside the building looking at the rooftop prison as MTB walked up to me.