Plain and simple: I happened to like Selene, psychotic Gutter Girls and all. I didn’t like Graves. At all.
He could go to hell. Next time I saw him, I’d probably send him there.
A few minutes later I crossed the street with Poddar. The Cowboy was already in place, walking his doggy. I noticed sleek black floaters dropping down on the surrounding rooftops. Every one of them was loaded with badass dames with attitudes. Selene wasn't taking any chances.
The Gutter Girls had arrived in force.
There was a casually dressed chump at the front door of the Hideout, lounging like a bum with nothing to do. The alert way he looked at us and the way he slid his hand behind him said otherwise.
"Something I can help you mugs with?”
Poddar didn't even slow down. As the goon cursed and grabbed the scattergun behind him, Poddar leaped forward and struck him in the throat and stomach. As he continued to batter the poor rube senseless, I introduced the door to the heel of my size elevens.
The chopper squad inside looked up, eyes widening. Too bad for them. The Mean Ol' Broad was in the mood for violence, and I let her have her way. Her angry roar filled the hallway and decorated those cheap suits with lead buttons.
Rob and Stinker burst in as I dropped down to reload. The Cowboy’s.45s blazed the goons who ran down the stairs toting Thompsons. Those unlucky enough not to be dead were treated to Stinker’s bad side.
Poddar sprinted past, pausing only to pick up a Thompson from a dead suit before he raced upstairs.
"Dammit Poddar, wait for us."
"C'mon.” Rob grinned. "Can't let the Prince have all the fun."
We followed the sounds of Poddar’s yells and maniacal shooting. I almost tripped twice on the stiffs he left in his wake. Looked like he wasn't against using a heater after all.
I kinda liked that.
Upstairs opened up to a hallway which led to an old coffee house. I almost got my head plugged by the goons holed up there, making a desperate stand against Poddar the Insane Prince. Just when I thought of waking up the Magic Dragon, the windows crashed in behind the goons. As the gun-toting Gutter Girls hosed them down, I took time to get my bearings. I figured Tommy would be in the main auditorium if he were anywhere.
He always did like an audience.
I put the Broad back in her slip and gestured to Rob and Poddar "Put your iron away, boys."
They looked at me like I'd just farted a troll.
"Are you crazy?"
"Like a fox. You gotta learn to listen to the ol' Troubleshooter. 'Specially if you wanna keep on living. Now put 'em away."
They reluctantly obeyed while I slowly opened the theater doors and strode inside real casual-like. The place was almost pitch black, but I managed not to trip over my own flippers.
About halfway down, the lights snapped on.
The upper balcony was packed with chopper squads pointing heat at us. They stood still as statues, but the air hummed with their anticipation to fill us with daylight.
"I should have known.” A spotlight clicked on the stage where Tommy Tsunami stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Pretty dramatic, even for a gangster.
"Who else would pull off a stunt like this? You still owe me for the Gaiden, Mick. I loved that joint."
"Put it on my tab, Tommy. And the way I hear it, you're in much larger debt than I am."
"Really? To whom?"
I couldn't have planned it better if I tried. At that exact moment, Selene and her Gutter Girl trio slid down from the rafters. She was a leather-clad blur who had her Bushido sword at Tommy's throat almost as quickly as he aimed a gold-plated Beretta at her head.
"To me." Her eyes blazed.
The doors banged open. Gutter Girls of all sorts spread through the aisles, yelling at the top of their pretty lungs. The goons on the balcony had to split their attention between the ladies and us. The tension was so thick I could taste it.
It tasted like cotton candy.
I sat down in one of the cushy theater chairs and lit a gasper. “You know, I never cared much for the theater. But now I’m starting to like it a lot better.” I blew a trail of smoke toward the ceiling.
“Now I may be wrong here, but it seems like we can all go out with a bigger bang than the Cataclysm, or talk like the sensible adults we aren’t. Like maybe about a missing leg. And a missing dame who goes by the name of Kilby. Ball’s in your court, Tommy boy.”
His eyes slowly slid toward me, which wasn’t all that easy to do with a razor-edged blade at his throat that could core his Adam’s apple if he swallowed.
“I tried to keep you out of this. All of you. You have no idea what’s going on here. You were better off chasing ghosts in the West Docks.”
“What the hell does that have to do with my leg?” Selene’s pearly whites were clenched tightly. “You better pray it’s not damaged, or you’ll be missing a few members as well. Starting with the one you cherish the most.”
Tommy followed her downward glance and smiled. He had guts, I had to admit.
“The leg is undamaged. And I’m not the one who ordered the theft in the first place. I only intercepted it. It was my full intention to return it to you completely intact.”
“But only after you found out what the secret behind it was, right?” I nodded. “I get it. You’re both Gestalt, so there’s rules and codes of conduct and all. But what I can’t figure out what kidnapping Ms. Kilby had to do with this. What’s the angle in that?”
“Maybe you’d better ask her yourself. Since I never kidnapped her in the first place.”
The door by the stage opened. The gasper fell from my mouth.
Ms. Kilby walked in, safe and unharmed.
“Donna?” Poddar looked positively stunned. I would have found it hilarious were it not for the other dame who walked in with Ms. Kilby. One I instantly recognized.
“Angel?”
Unlike Poddar and me, Ms. Kilby was as unruffled as ever. “I can explain.”
I had to smile. “Maybe you should. Let’s call a truce for a minute, guys and gals. Something tells me we’re all after the same thing.”
Chapter 15: The Tattooed Leg
"For the first time I think the Troubleshooter actually has a decent idea.” Tommy Tsunami still aimed his solid gold Beretta right between Selene’s eyes while her Gutter Girls faced off against his goons. She still played barber with her blade against his throat. Poddar still stared in shock at Ms. Kilby, the dame he'd been fretting over for the last twenty-four hours.
Me? I couldn’t help laughing. Because it was all so damn hysterical.
"Take your time, ladies and gents. It's not like there's a rogue synoid with mental pain projection who’s running around trying to find a leg and kill say, about a few thousand people to get his hands on some Grim War. Whatever that means."
“It’s the Grimoire, you idiot.” Tommy looked pretty pissed. A gangster and a grammar Nazi. Who would have known?
Selene glowered, but slowly took the blade from Tommy's throat. He kept his smile as he lowered his heat. The tension faded just a notch from the rest of the family, which was good because it was hard to breathe with everyone locked in kill mode.
Tommy shrugged. "Very well. I won't even hold it against you that you broke in and killed a few of my boys. I understand the viewpoint you had of me was somewhat slanted."
"Would that be the theft of a particular leg viewpoint, or the kidnapping of a particular dame viewpoint, Tommy? I get a little confused sometimes."
He looked at Ms. Kilby. She cleared her throat.
“Mr. Tsunami and I have come to an arrangement.”
"What?"
She remained unruffled. "I was waiting for Selene at one of our meeting places — a housing complex in the West Docks. Tommy showed up before Selene did. He warned me the New Man was on my trail. We left just before the synoid showed up. I saw the place explode behind us. It was… terrible.”