“Why don’t you fly home for few weeks? Or the rest of your life? You’ll probably never feel safe in LA again. And what do you have to go back to?”
Dubois nodded, slowly at first, then emphatically. “You’re right. That’s what I’ll do.“He looked up at me. “Thanks a lot, Murphy.”
He finished his beer and was starting to move out of the booth when he paused. “What are you going to do?”
I thought about it. “Well, I guess I’ll see if I can find this package the Colonel was going to bring tonight. Then, I’ll see what I can do about finding the CAPRICORN mole.
Maybe through his Professor Perriman.”
Dubois slid out of the booth, stood up and extended his hand. “Good luck. It was good to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
He grabbed his coat and walked around the corner to the front door. With my arm on the back of the booth seat, I turned and looked out the window behind me. After a moment, I saw Dubois leave the club and cross the street. I was just about to turn back to the few remaining drops of bourbon in my tumbler, when I saw three dark figures converge on him. The attackers weren’t street kids, they were professionals. As they grabbed him, a speeder landed nearby, and they forced him inside. At the same instant, two grim-faced men in suits with matching bulges under their left arms approached the front door of the club.
I didn’t bother to finish the bourbon. I bolted from my seat, trying to remember if I’d seen a back door during my earlier reconnaissance. I couldn’t recall. A quick glance out the window told me that the men in suits had entered the club. They’d be on top of me in seconds.
I looked desperately around the room and saw the full figured girl in black, sitting alone.
I hurried over to her table and sat down. “Hello there.”
She looked at me, surprised, but not unpleasantly. “High. I’m Teri.”
I shook her hand, my eyes trained on the mirror behind her. The two men in suits had just stepped around the corner and were carefully surveying the area. Teri moved her head a little to make eye contact with me. “What’s your name?”
I pried my eyes away from the mirror and looked into Teri’s lovely face. “Tex. Listen, I’m sorry to barge in on you like this, but I noticed you earlier, and I thought you might like to dance.”
Teri smiled as I glanced back at the mirror. The men had started across the room. What the hell was I going to do?
“I’m really not much of a dancer. Why don’t you just tell me about yourself? I think talking is much more fun than dancing.”
The two men were twenty feet away and getting closer. I tensed up. They weren’t going to get me without a fight. Suddenly, they turned and moved quickly in the direction of the bar. As I breathed a sigh of relief, I heard the sound of shattering glass. I spun around to see one man with his gun to the throat of the waitress. The other man was holding off several employees, identification in one hand and a gun in the other. As the waitress struggled against her abductor, a shot rang out, and the sounds of screaming joined in with the pulsating music. I jumped up from the table and ran to the door, arriving just ahead of the panicking mob.
Bursting out of the logjam at the front door, I raced to my speeder and lifted off. As I rose above the bedlam, I looked down and saw the doors of The Land Mine vomiting hordes of terrified bystanders.
As I sped through the night, jumbled thoughts rattled around my head. Who had grabbed Dubois? Were the men in suits in league with the people who had abducted Dubois, or was it just a monumental coincidence of timing? I doubted it. From everything Dubois had told me, the people who’d suddenly shown up were probably affiliated with the nameless group that had destroyed CAPRICORN. Dubois was one of the last embers remaining from a nearly extinguished brush fire. These people had tracked him down and stamped him out. But why had they gone after the waitress? Maybe she’d been involved, too.
Fifteen minutes later, I descended on Chandler Avenue. Several speeders were parked at the kerb in front of the Ritz, so I set down halfway between the Ritz and the Brew & Stew. I got out of the speeder, locked it up, and started walking towards my office. As I in passed one of the parked speeders, I heard the whirring sound of a window going down and then a female voice. “Excuse me.”
I stopped and turned to find a beautiful woman looking up at me. Her skin was very fair, and her green eyes stood out, even in the dim light from the street lamps. Her red hair was bobbed and framed her face perfectly. But what really caught my eye was the gun pointed at my chest.
“Get in.”
UAKM — CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The speeder lifted off. I was in the front passenger seat, and the beautiful woman was in the back. I couldn’t see the gun, but I could feel it. I looked out of the corner of my eye at the man driving. I guessed he was about thirty five, clean cut, with a pleasant face and a larger than usual nose.
When we cleared the roofline, the man turned the speeder and headed into the darkness, away from the city. My curiosity was piqued. “So, where are we going?”
“Nowhere.” The beautiful woman spoke from the back seat. Her tone wasn’t particularly threatening, more businesslike than anything. “Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
“Sounds good to me. I love to fly.”
The man at the wheel turned and smiled at me. “And it shows.”
Unexpectedly, he extended his hand. “I’m Agent McCovey. My partner is Agent Andrews. We’re with Interpol. I hope you don’t mind… we need to ask you a few questions, and were a little pressed for time.”
Even as I shook his hand, I wasn’t altogether certain whether I should be relieved or not.
Agent Andrews’ gun was still pointed at my head.
“If your partner’ll put her gun away, I promise I won’t jump out of the speeder.”
I watched Agent McCovey as he smiled into the rearview mirror and nodded. The gun barrel disappeared from my peripheral vision. It made me feel better, but I was still nervous and had an almost uncontrollable urge to smoke. I dragged the pack of Lucky Strikes out of my pocket and held it up. “Do you mind?”
Agent McCovey didn’t take his eyes from the airspace ahead. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Regulations?”
The agent shook his head. “No.”
Agent Andrews smirked in the back seat. I put the pack away and looked out the side window. We left the occupied areas and were heading out over the no-man’s-land to the north. This part of the city had never been cleaned up after the war and, according to rumour, was now inhabited by orc-like creatures who only came out at night and fed on human flesh.
Several tall buildings were still standing, and we descended toward one of them. There was no sign of electricity for miles. Agent McCovey skilfully navigated the speeder over the flat roof and landed. Agent Andrews tapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s get some air, shall we?”
I opened the speeder door and stepped out. The only light source was the faintly pink half-moon, the evening had gotten as cold as it was dark. I adjusted my overcoat, tied the sash tightly, then lit up a much-needed cigarette. Agent Andrews had followed me out the door and was now leaning against the side of the speeder, arms folded across what was probably a lovely chest. Despite her having held a gun to my head only minutes before, I had quite a yearning to hug her. This wasn’t unusual-I’d always been attracted to women who’d just as soon kill me.
Agent McCovey walked around from the driver’s side and stooped down to collect a handful of gravel. I eyed him warily, afraid that I was about to experience a strange, new form of Interpol interrogation/torture, but he wandered toward the edge of the roof and began throwing small rocks into the murky darkness. Satisfied that I wasn’t going to have information pelted out of me, I turned back and smiled disarmingly at Agent Andrews.