Maggie was watching now. The repulsive torture scene not quite so repulsive anymore.
Mdoba rattled on. “Once I finished feeding the Kapasi brothers to the lizards, I was gonna open the cage and let the monitors loose. Let ’em shit the evidence all over Loja. Once I hosed that basement down there was no way it coulda gotten traced back to me.”
After another dose of morphine, I asked, “What’s Simba’s relationship with Mayor Samir?”
“They’re working together.”
This final confirmation announced Paul’s vulnerability in bright lights. “How so?”
“Simba approached Samir before the elections, asked him, ‘Why split the power four ways when we can split it two?’ You see what he meant? Bandur runs the drugs, gambling, loan-sharking, and prostitution in Koba. Chief Chang runs KOP. Mayor Samir runs the city government, and Simba runs his slavery operation. Get rid of Bandur and Chang, and you got only two left-Simba for the illegal shit and Mayor Samir for everything else.”
The battle lines were finally clearly drawn-Simba, Nguyen, and the mayor versus Paul, Bandur, and me. “How is the mayor planning to bring down Chief Chang?”
“I don’t know that part. Simba never told me. All I know is they talk every day, so they can coordinate things.”
“Who tipped you off about our witness?”
“Mayor Samir.”
“Mayor Samir?”
“Yeah. He came to my boat to tell me.”
“He was on your boat?”
“That’s what I said. He told me that a cop-”
“Which cop?”
“Some guy named Kim. This Kim told the mayor that you guys had a witness, so the mayor came and told me about it.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“I just told you.”
“Tell me again.”
Mdoba used a nursing-home voice-slow, loud, and deliberate. “He said that Kim from Homicide Division came and told him that there was a witness to the Vlotsky murder-some peeping-tom kid. He recited the kid’s name and address for me, and then he left.”
Make Yuan Kim our rat-fink cop.
Maggie stepped over and leaned into Mdoba’s line of vision. “Do you have proof that the mayor came to your boat?”
“I have it on vid. I know how to cover my ass. He may be mayor, but he ain’t half as smart as he thinks he is.”
“Where’s the vid?”
He was grinning now. “How ’bout lettin’ me walk outta here?”
Sasaki said, “Tip, I think Juno could use your help.”
Tipaldi moved in fast. He yanked one of Mdoba’s hands toward the monitor who was hungry for seconds.
Mdoba shrieked. “STOP! STOP! I don’t know where it is. STOP!”
Tipaldi stopped. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
Mdoba panted, “I gave it to my girlfriend. I told her to hide it.”
“Where’d she put it?”
The monitor was snapping at Mdoba’s just-out-of-reach hand.
Mdoba said, “I don’t know! I told her not to tell me where she put it. If you don’t let me outta here, she’ll have it destroyed. Call her. She’ll tell you.”
We needed that vid. It was our smoking gun. I turned to Sasaki. “What do you say?”
Sasaki fingered his lapels, shaking his head no.
“Paul needs this,” I said with determined desperation. “You have to do this for him.”
“Leaving a traitor alive is bad for business, Juno. We can’t have people thinking it’s okay to betray us.”
“He’s already lost most of his fingers. Tell people you let him live so that when people see his hands, it’ll remind them of what happens to traitors.”
Sasaki was thinking it over.
I said, “Paul won’t survive without that vid, Matsuo.”
Sasaki rubbed his face with a pinkyless hand and gave the smallest nod.
I called Mdoba’s boat. Malis’s buxom hologram dropped into the kitchen. I had it one-way conferenced-everybody could hear her side of the conversation, but she could only hear me.
“Have you ever met Mayor Samir?” I asked.
“Sure. He came to the boat to talk with Sanders.”
“What about?”
“You want the vid, don’t you?”
“How’d you know?”
“Sanders told me to hide it. He said that if he got in trouble, I should use the vid to get him out. Is he in trouble?”
“Yes, he is.”
“How can I be sure?”
I let Mdoba’s voice on the line. “Do what he says, babe. Everthing’s gonna be okay if you just do what he says.”
“Are they going to kill you?”
“Not if you do what Juno says. Okay?”
I cut Mdoba off then spoke to Malis. “I want you to bring the vid to me.”
“I want money,” she said. Mdoba tensed.
“I don’t think you understand,” I said. “If you don’t bring me the vid, he’ll die.”
“I understand just fine. Go ahead and kill him, I don’t care. How much can you pay?” Mdoba was fucked-sold out by his squeeze.
Mdoba turned wild at her betrayal. He was shouting and flailing his half-hands. The kitchen air crackled with lase-fire. Mdoba took three hits, the last to the head. Tipaldi kept his lase-pistol on target until Mdoba slumped over dead. Tipaldi put his piece back in his belt.
Maggie was stunned. I shrugged.
Malis and I settled on price. She told me she was already on her way back to Koba to retrieve the vid. She said to meet her at Club Dynasty on Bangkok at 2:00 AM.
I rang up Paul. His holo dropped into the Kapasi brothers’ living room, setting off another round of hysterical lizard fits. “Paul, it’s Juno.”
“Yeah.”
“We have confirmation that Mayor Samir and Carlos Simba are conspiring together. They’re planning to take you and Bandur out.”
Silence dragged on the other end. Paul said, “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have proof?”
“Mdoba’s girlfriend is selling us a vid of the mayor telling Mdoba about our witness. We’re meeting her at-” I almost said the name of the place, but I smartly held back. No telling who could be listening in. “We’re meeting her in a couple hours.”
“You want backup?”
“No,” I said. Yuan Kim was a confirmed rat. C of D Banks was a likely rat. And it might not stop there. At this point, I didn’t trust any cops not named Paul or Maggie. “We better do this alone.”
“I understand. Bring it to my office as soon as you get it. We’ll hash out how to go about getting the mayor neutralized.”
“Got it. I’ll see you there.”
Paul sounded more exhausted than relieved. “Thanks, Juno.”
I clicked off.
Maggie came up from behind and spoke in a quiet voice, not wanting Sasaki and Tipaldi to listen in from the kitchen. With all the lizard chatter coming from the cages, she didn’t have to worry. “How long is this going to take?” she asked. “We have to get moving.”
“It’ll probably take Tip another ten or fifteen minutes to finish cleaning up. We’ll hitch a ride back to Koba in Sasaki’s flyer. We have plenty of time.”
Maggie didn’t look pleased about the idea of riding back with Sasaki and Tipaldi. “They didn’t have to kill him.”
“He was no use anymore.”
Maggie shook her head disgustedly.
“What?” I said. “You really care what happens to a piece of trash like Mdoba?”
“It’s you I’m worried about.”
“What does that mean?”
“You act like this was no big deal. They fed a man’s hands to a monitor for god’s sake and you could care less.”
“What do you think we did to that guy in Tenttown? And that bartender?”
“We didn’t kill them.”
“No. I just beat the shit out of them.”
“I know,” she said, and she covered her face with her hands. “That was wrong. I shouldn’t have let you do it.”
“If I hadn’t done it, we’d still be wondering how our witness got killed right in front of us.”
“This isn’t why I became a cop, Juno. I wanted to do good.”
“We are doing good, Maggie. We’re going to stop a corrupt mayor.”