Part 8 (1/2)
”Who's the boss?” Cross asked.
”TRAP,” Tiger said, glancing at his blindfolded face. ”It isn't a person, it's a program. A computer program. We all feed to a central database, and instructions come back.”
Tiger's mind viewed a super-computer, encircled by a waist-high band on which terminals sat. Behind each terminal an operator was incessantly inputting, examining, then inputting again and again.
”A computer ...” Cross snorted. ”Computers don't understand hunter-killer teams.”
”It was TRAP that told us to bring you into this,” Tiger answered. ”Computers don't have to understand, they just have to process. They're no better than the data they feed on. And, sometimes, human 'understanding' would just get in the way.”
As she wheeled the van around a long, sweeping corner, it became apparent that they were back in that part of the city where Cross was at home. Tracker leaned forward and unsnapped the blindfold.
CROSS BLINKED his eyes a couple of times. Once sight-oriented, he said, ”Drop me anywhere.”
The van pulled to the curb. Cross jumped down and slipped into the shadows, penetrating deeper and deeper until he became one himself.
”He knows the old ways,” Tracker said to Tiger.
”He knows some new ones, too,” Tiger replied as the van pulled off. She flicked a switch to pop a rectangular gauge into life. The activated screen was blank. ”See? We lost thermal on him the minute he put on that long coat.”
CROSS EMERGED from an alley. The Shark Car was waiting, idling soundlessly. Its back door popped open. Cross stepped in. The car moved off.
”You got them, Buddha?”
”Knew where to meet you, didn't I, boss?”
”I had the transmitter on me-in the heel of my boot. But they'll probably sweep that van, find the little unit I left behind.”
Buddha pushed a b.u.t.ton. What looked like a navigation screen opened on the dashboard. A moving red dot was plainly visible. ”Maybe so,” he said. ”But they haven't done it yet.”
”Then Rhino has them locked on, too. I guess that's all we can do for one night.”
”You really think they might go for that free-pa.s.s deal, boss?”
”It's probably not their call. But that doesn't matter. They'll say so, anyway.”
”YOU GOT the package?”
”In the trunk, boss. Right next to the RPGs.”
”Okay. We might as well clean up the bear-claw thing. Chang's expecting a visit-his spot's right above that Chinese restaurant. The building is only two stories. He's got all kinds of protection on the first floor, and the upstairs windows overlook the street, so their lookout will see us the second we show-they all know this car.”
”So they see it. So what? You'd come by to pick up your money in person, right? Besides, I'll be ready to launch ten seconds after you hit the street.”
”Yeah. We really got no choice. Chang thinks we did the job on Viktor. Maybe there's all kinds of questions about how those Russians got splattered, but n.o.body doubts they're gone. All of them. That's gonna make him nervous. Chang's the kind of guy who hates loose ends. That's why I have to just walk in. Coming to pick up my money, that is what he'd expect. So seeing me might calm him down some. And we don't need him calm for long.”
”I HAVE your payment, Cross. In that silver case, over to my right. But, before you pick it up, would you indulge an old man by answering a question?”
”Depends on the question, Chang.”
”Ah. You are a man who never changes, Cross. Very well. There is no question but that you have earned your fee. But one question remains unanswered: how did you do it?”
”That I can't tell you.”
”And why would that be so?”
”Trade secret.”
”To be sure. But do not friends sometimes share their secrets?”
”They might. But we're not friends. Otherwise, you wouldn't have my payment-payment I already earned, remember-sitting between those two gunmen of yours.”
”I have insulted you?”
”Yes.”
”Then I apologize. Perhaps we are not yet friends.” The old man snapped his finger. One of the men who had been guarding the silver case picked it up and brought it over to Cross. He placed it on the floor, and then returned to his post. ”But friends.h.i.+p between us, that remains a possibility?”
”Yes.”
”Excellent. Perhaps you would like to open the case?”
”Why would I disrespect you, Chang? You are a man of your word, as am I. That was what we both respected when we reached our bargain. This is something we share. So I leave as I came, with promises kept on both sides.”
”I understand,” Chang said. He moved his head a fraction of an inch. Cross returned the gesture, bowing more deeply, but never below the range of his eyes.
Then he picked up the silver case and walked out of the room.
STANDING BEFORE the pa.s.senger-side door of the Shark Car, Cross spoke very softly. ”This case weighs more than the other one.”
”If it's a trick, it's the last one he'll ever pull,” Buddha's whisper came from under the car. By the time Cross had his door opened, the first RPG launched.
The second floor exploded in a burst of flame. The next two rounds. .h.i.t the restaurant below. The fourth went back to what was left of the second floor.
Buddha slid into the driver's seat. The Shark Car disappeared, paying no more attention to the sirens that tore the night air than did the men in their death-throes inside the building.
”Where's the RPG tubes?”
”I left them behind, boss. Take too long to pull 'em out, stick them back in the trunk. But they've all got timers. Three minutes from launch, each one's going to turn into metal dust.”
”Timers ...” Cross said, looking down at the silver case he was holding in his lap.
”Toss it?”
”There's supposed to be about three hundred K in here, Buddha.”
THE SQUAT little man's touch on the steering wheel was as delicate and skilled as that of a concert pianist. The Shark Car ripped through the city, heading for the Badlands. When it crossed the barrier and slid to a stop, Cross jumped out, yelling ”Condor!”
A teenage boy with a blue Mohawk haircut popped up, bending his body around the roll of razor wire that topped a chain-link fence in the pose that had earned him his name.
”See this?” Cross held up the silver case. ”I'm going to lob it over. You take it and put it someplace n.o.body's going to stumble over. Then get away from it as fast as you can. Don't come back to wherever you stash it until I show up again-it could be a bomb, with a timer on it. Got it?”