Part 3 (2/2)
There wasn't any noticeable pursuit. The guys up top had been forced to leave their bikes some distance away, and Carl knew that by the time they'd got down to them they wouldn't stand a cat in h.e.l.l's chance of catching a souped-up vehicle like the one he was driving. If the mines had been able to blow a hole in the cha.s.sis, or cause Carl to crash into the canyon wall, it would have been a different storya”but when that ploy had failed so had the whole operation.
”How'd you know?” said Pasco, finally managing to finish his question.
”Maniax,” said Carl laconically. ”No imagination at all. They tried exactly the same trick in exactly the same spot three years back. It worked thena”the road was blocked and we had six wrappers stuck in a shoot-out for four hours. Lost eight men and three loads, and had to scramble the birdboys to get us out of trouble. Thing like that sticks in a man's mind.”
”s.h.i.+t,” said Pasco, in a tone which suggested that Carl had just gone up a notch in his estimation. ”Maniax, you say?”
”The guy I hit was wearing their colours,” said Carl.. ”But the question isn't who they werea”the question is, who hired them?”
Pasco frowned. He had a very ugly frown, thanks to his wrecked face. He didn't bother to wonder aloud whether they might just have had bad luck, running into a random trapa”he was as healthily paranoid as the next man, and he picked up Carl's train of thought immediately.
”The Maniax don't usually do mercenary work,” he mused. ”You think they were laying for us?”
”Maybe not,” Carl conceded. ”But they were laying for someone, and we're the ones who nearly got caught.”
”No one's supposed to know we're on the case, let alone which way we're headed,” Pasco pointed out. ”So much for freakin' secrecy.”
”If those guys were paid to stop any GenTech vehicle headed for the Underground,” Carl pointed out, ”somebody else must have reasoned things out the same way we did. Unless we have weasels deep inside our own operation, the only people who could have done that are the people who were waiting to collect from Blay. They might have got to the wreck before your guys dida”they may even have seen the Kid ride off.”
”In that case,” said Pasco tautly, ”I have to call up some real support. Your secret ain't a secret any more.”
Carl knew that he was on the spot, so he thought fast. Maybe Pasco was righta”but there was another way to look at it.
”Maybe there's still a clever way to play it,” he said speculatively. ”So far, it may be still between us and Blay's peoplea”and if they're paying off sc.u.m like the Maniax to lay traps for us, it's obvious that their own resources are limited. They must figure that they can't get to the Underground ahead of usa”not in strength, anyhow. The odds are that there are only a handful of them. If we can lure them out into the open, we can find out what this is all abouta”but if we start a big panic, they'll just fade away into the confusion when everybody and his cousin starts taking an interest in what Kid Zero has.”
He was surprised to hear Pasco laugh shortly. ”The vehicle ain't bugged,” he said. ”You can cut the c.r.a.p. If you want to carry on doing it the Doc's way, that's your business. I have to ask myself what's best for me. I'm the guy whose a.s.s is on the line here.”
”Zarathustra can do us both a lot of damage,” Carl pointed out uncomfortably. ”I have to do things his waya”and I have to do my level best to persuade you to do things his way, too. We both have our a.s.ses on the linea”but ask yourself, are you really so keen to start overruling your orders this early in the operation?”
He glanced sideways when he'd made the point, expecting to see Pasco scowl againa”but Pasco was only looking at him, with as much respect as resentment.
”For a shotgun guard,” observed Pasco sourly, ”you're a pretty smart guy, aren't you?”
”We're in the same boat, Ray,” said Carl quietly, ”riding the same frail hope. If it fouls up, you can at least go back to the Doc and say I told you so. In the meantime, let's give ourselves a chance to hit the jackpot, okay?”
Pasco still didn't scowl. He didn't say ”okay” either, but he didn't scowl. Carl was prepared to take that as a good sign.
”Anyway,” said Carl, trying to sound laconic, ”I guess you could say that we won the first round. They tried to stop us, and they failed. Next stop, the Underground. I guess they know you therea”though we couldn't really pretend to be anything we aren't, could we?”
He hoped that the reference to Pasco's limited capacity for disguise was subtle enough not to cause offence. It seemed that it was.
”Yeah,” said Pasco off-handedly. ”They know my face. But that has advantages as well as disadvantages.”
”What happened to your face, anyhow?” asked Carl, deciding that it was time to take the chance. He breathed a little more easily when Pasco didn't react in a hostile manner.
”It was way back when I started as an Op,” said the big man drily. ”I went to pick up some guy. It was a s.h.i.+t job anyhowa”freaker was only worth two grand, and he surrendered like a lamb. I was playing it strictly by the book, taking him in alive, when up pops some crazy dame with some kind of miniature fire-extinguisher which turns out to be loaded with freakin' nitric acid.”
”You never thought of getting it fixed?”
”No. Every time I look in a mirror, it reminds me to be careful. I've been careful, ever since. People who bury their mistakes make 'em over and over again. And it seems to make it easier to scare the s.h.i.+t out of the punks. It makes it just that little bit easier to get information out of people who'd normally be reluctanta”makes it clear that I'm a guy who doesn't like to be delayed. Psychological thinga”maybe you'll get to see it real soon.”
Carl nodded. ”Did you ice the dame?” he asked, casually.
”Naw,” said Pasco. ”Took her in alive. b.u.mped into her once, after she got outa”it was on a Missouri ferry in the Kansas City PZ. Said h.e.l.lo, real polite, but she couldn't wait to get off the boata”I thought she was going to jump over the side in mid-stream.”
Carl chuckled. ”That's s.h.i.+pboard romances for you,” he said. ”They never last.”
Pasco even condescended to laugh at that one. Maybe, Carl thought, he wasn't such a bad guy after all.
Maybe.
They hit the Underground before nightfall and sealed the sneaker. Its sensors were smart enough to take care of anyone who even tried to approach it without first-cla.s.s ID, so Carl had no worries about leaving it. Pasco judged that it was best to have a drink and take a look around before they started making connections with the GenTech weasels, so they went into the main bar and suggested to a couple of slummers that the table they were occupying ought to have had a RESERVED sign on it.
Pasco seemed to be well-known in the Underground, and when he said h.e.l.lo to people they said h.e.l.lo back, in a nervous sort of fas.h.i.+on which Carl had never observed before. Carl began to see some of the advantages of looking the way Pasco did. He would have been recognized whatever he looked like, but this way the recognition always carried with it just that hint of intimidation.
As they sipped their liquor Pasco pointed out some of the people with whom Kid Zero had previously been a.s.sociated.
”The Atlas Boys are hanging out by the pool tables,” he said. ”And over by the entrance to the arcade there's one of the Low Numbers with his old ladya”Mike Quin and Two-tone Tess. No sign of Ace the Acea”but he's a has-been anyhow, too old for the gang game. I'll lay odds that the sams in the comer are Yakuza, but whether they're M-M affiliates I don't know.”
Carl looked around. The Atlas Boys were impossible to miss, owing to the fact that the least of them had twice as much muscle as anyone else in the room, but the two j.a.panese guys looked deceptively harmless. ”Is it always this crowded?” he asked.
”Sure,” said Pasco. ”Nearest thing to a PZ there is this far out in No-Man's-Land. The Spiders run a tidy joint and everybody likes it that way. But it's what you might call a precarious balance of power. Once tipped, the whole place could go up in a shooting war. It's usually safe to ice the minor actors, if you do it in a reasonable manner, but if the Kid does show, we'll have to be careful.”
One of the Spiders had drifted over to their table. He had the falsely casual air of one paying a duty call.
”Mr Pasco,” he said politely. ”Good to see you back again. You quit the org to go freelance again?”
”Naw,” said Pasco lazily. ”I'm too old for all thata”I like the quiet life now. Just brought in a pal to show him some of the sights. This is Carl Preston. Carl, meet Romeo Carmona.” Pasco p.r.o.nounced the name Ro-Mi-o instead of Ro-MAY-o, but the Spider didn't correct him.
As Carl shook hands with the Spider Pasco added: ”With a name like that he should be in the mafia, but his ancestors came from the wrong part of Italy, ain't that so, Romeo?”
”That's so,” confirmed the Spider politely. ”But we're too far west, anyhow. The families are strictly east coast these days. Any friend of Mr Pasco's is welcome here, Mr Preston. You staying long?”
”Not long,” said Carl amiably. ”We just dropped in to take a look, on our way to somewheres else.”
”Just got time to look up a couple of old friends,” added Pasco, leaning across to offer his own hand to be shaken, pa.s.sing on a big bill as he did so. ”Purely privatea”n.o.body's business but our own.”
The Spider nodded, and strolled away. Pasco finished his drink unhurriedly, and watched Carmona pa.s.s the message on; then he stood up, and said: ”Let's go.”
They walked through the arcade where the electronic gaming machines were. Carl saw that Pasco looked at the horrorshow booths as they went past, but he didn't pause at all. In the darker corridors beyond the arcades the big man quickened his pace, and checked back a couple of times to see whether they were being followed. There was no sign of anything amiss.
”Pity,” muttered Pasco. ”Would be nice if someone'd tip his hand, but I guess if there's anyone here who knows what we're about he'd keep his head down.”
Eventually, they came to a heavily-armoured door in a shadowed alcove. Pasco showed some ID to a camera-eye, but some time pa.s.sed before they were admitted into the apartments beyond. There were four rooms in all but three of thema”the bedroom, bathroom and kitchena”were hardly more than closets. The main room was lined with a profusion of consoles and screens which would not have seemed out of place at the heart of a GenTech research station.
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