The elevator hummed and began to descend. I hoped there would be something in it for me. Adrian stared bullets.
"Who else did you tell, Mr. Wildclown?" he snarled viciously, then turned to one of his gunmen. "No call from the desk! It must be Authority. Go quick! Get Miles and Stephan in here fast, and armor up. Get the others ready. Tell them to play it cool. You've got two minutes." Adrian pulled his own gun and checked its action, then he looked at me. "Wildclown, regardless of how I play this out. I will win."
In moments Adrian's palatial penthouse produced two more gunmen. They were just slipping into the final heavy pieces of Authority Enforcer armor. The gunman sent to get them followed doing the same. They turned over a couple of end tables and took up position in a fan shape in front of the elevator. The elevator dinged. The doors slid open.
Inside, Douglas Willieboy stood to the left of Inspector Cane. Both wore the long black leather of Authority Inspectors. Both had their hands empty, palms out. Both their faces had the strained look of having struck a truce.
"Don't shoot!" growled Willieboy. "I want to make a deal. We're businessmen, Adrian!"
Cane spoke up. "We'll offer you twenty million." He licked the fear off his lips.
Adrian smiled. "Miles, Stephan! Frisk them." As they moved I cast a quick glance over my shoulder. One gunman had returned to his position there, though his attention was on the proceedings.
In moments, both Cane and Willieboy were stripped to their shirtsleeves. The search had yielded up a pair of handguns. In addition, they found brass knuckles and a lead sap in Cane's pockets. Both Inspectors looked naked and uncertain without their weapons. Still, I had to admit that neither looked scared enough. They had some wild cards.
"You clusterfuck!" Willieboy exclaimed by way of greeting me.
"Glad you could make it, asshole!" I said, but fell silent when Adrian speared me with a look.
"I will stay in charge of these proceedings." He rubbed his palms together. "Gentlemen, I assume you both have something to offer. I cannot think you would approach me empty-handed. I hope Mr. Wildclown's presence does not bother you. He did broker this little meeting after all. Since he has been a thorn in all of our sides for so long it would please me that he should stay. I would like to hear his observations. His contempt is so thinly disguised, equal only to his naivete." Then all humor left him. "And you might want to participate in his punishment."
"You're the boss!" Willieboy took a cigarette from his pack on the table, and smiled at me around it.
Cane chewed his toothpick. He pointed a finger at me. "You fucker." He grinned and licked his fat lips. "I should have killed you…"
"After all the help I gave you." I had a definite urge to see Cane bleed profusely. "I put you onto Adrian in the first place. It was obvious Willieboy knew about him. He told me how to find him. But he kept it from your group. I gave him to you, but you let him slip away."
"Dogmeat, you're fucking dogmeat…"Cane raised a fist.
"Please," Adrian interrupted, glancing at Cane. "Now, you offered twenty million. I believe that was dollars. Ludicrously low, but let's call it ante."
"Hey, hey!" Willieboy spoke up, agitated. "The bidding hasn't started yet."
"True. But that's what it will cost to enter the game." Adrian finished his drink, and then motioned for one of his men to fix another. He smiled at me, then at Cane. "You gentlemen seem to have a great deal of animosity for each other."
"Cane introduced me to a friend of his." I frowned at Cane. "How is the Handyman? I hope he's having a tough time adjusting."
Cane growled and instinctively clenched his right hand.
Adrian chuckled.
I turned to glare at him. "I suppose I have you to thank as well, and Ms. Van Reydner. Cane and his bullies were waiting for me at the Arizona Hotel. The Handyman tried to torture information out of me." I smiled at Cane. "I gave him a bit."
Cane's face lost all emotion and paled. "I should have cut you up myself."
"Yes, I think you should have. But you missed your chance." I clenched my fists. "I believe Adrian is going to have the honor now."
"Gentlemen. Let's not turn this into a bar room brawl." Adrian had sauntered behind the bar and poured himself a drink. He took a gulp.
"I've got a question," I spoke up. "Who killed Alan Cotton first?" I jabbed my chin at Adrian. "You and Van Reydner just stumbled on it, didn't you? You were doing your sick business on Conrad Billings, and you overheard something in the next room."
Adrian smiled again. "You are a savant!"
"And you were just lucky. That was all it took. You were there. You shot Cotton, then you stole whatever it was that he was selling, and left before his prospective buyers arrived." I lit a new cigarette. "I think it was Cane who was next. He got there and found Cotton just coming out of Blacktime. Cane represents a concern that very much wanted what he had to sell. Cane gets there, maybe the Handyman's with him, and they work over Cotton really bad. They torture him, and since he was already dead, they had to be extreme. The problem is that Cotton had no idea where his Regenerics Secret was at that point. He died quickly the first time. Isn't that right, Mr. Adrian? So he could only tell Cane that he opened a door and saw a gun barrel. Then Blacktime! But he did tell Cane what his secret was. Am I right? And that's why you decided to turn him into blood pudding. So no one else would ever know."
"That's a fucking lie, Wildclown!" Cane took a step toward me. "He was already…" But that was all he choked out because Willieboy brought down both his heavy fists on the back of Cane's neck. There was an audible cracking sound, and he dropped on the carpet.
Guns clicked all around me, barrels pointed at Willieboy. He held his hands up. His voice was shrill. "No, no goddamn it. I thought he was going to take a swing at Wildclown. Don't shoot."
I knelt by Cane. He wasn't breathing. I felt his neck. It was as loose as a rag doll's. I looked up. "Jesus, Willieboy, remind me to never ask you for a massage." I wiggled Cane's head. "A bit excessive, don't you think?" I wiped my hands on my coat.
He shook his head turning to Adrian. "Don't worry about Cane. He was small time. The group I'm representing is willing to pay one hundred million dollars for the Regenerics Secret, plus percentages on the gross."
Just as Adrian's mouth was turning up into a big happy grin, the penthouse roof exploded over the pool table and it started raining Authority Enforcers. The couch around me began to erupt in chunks of bunting and wood. I leapt behind it, grabbed for my gun. I found my guard; I think it was him. His head was missing.
Chapter 58
The air was alive with staccato machinegun fire. There were the trademark repetitive chewing booms of Authority auto-shotguns. I glanced around the room, and immediately saw one of Adrian's men, decked out in Enforcer armor shooting from behind a pillar. I was in his line of fire, if he turned it on me, so I had to be sure. I saw a thin pale groove at the base of his neck where the Kevlar and plastic met skin. Gun leveled, I fired at the edge of the mask. There was a simultaneous metallic whine and groan. He slumped over in a heap. I swung around in time to see Adrian dive into a room behind the bar. Two other rooms opened onto the battlefield. Authority bullets were eating up my barricade so I snapped two shots over the couch then ducked and rolled into the room after Adrian. I spun onto my stomach. Willieboy had taken refuge in a room opposite me. He smiled as he barked into a miniature transceiver.
A foot stamped down on my hand, my gun rattled behind the door. I looked up, and caught Adrian's fist behind the ear. I rolled seeing sparks. Outside, the gun battle raged. Adrian must have had more hired guns in the penthouse because the invasion force was preoccupied. They had expected a massacre and had found the beachhead at Normandy. I slugged Adrian in the face doing my best to wipe his nose off. Blood burst from it. It was a weak hit because I was fighting from the ground, but it threw him off enough, and the gun he was holding popped once at my left shoulder.