Chapter #17The New Guy by: Seuzz   The new guy is built like a basketball player: tall and rangy. His sandy hair is cropped very close, and he stares back at the rest of the company out of cool gray eyes. His smile is faint and mirthless.
A low rumble of greetings go up, but given the circumstances no one is much interested in the new guy, and their attention quickly shifts back to Knotts. Patterson quietly takes a seat right behind you. Pretty cocky of the new guy to sit so close to the front, you think.
"Alright, that's the situation as we see it," Knotts says. "Chernov's girl doesn't seem to match any of the celebrities, so we're assuming she's just a starfucker. She helped Cupcake win Chernov's confidence, and the two of them rolled him up in a red carpet. Then using the data from his cell, they tried rolling the rest of us. That's why we're getting new boxes and cells for everyone, and why we're being very careful about using them to talk, and very careful to keep each other in each other's eye lines at all times." Patterson raises his hand. "I'll brief you on this later," she tells him, and he drops it.
"But why are we hunkering down," an agitated Gallion demands without waiting for acknowledgement. "If we know where these guys are, and we can get to them, why don't we hit them back?" Now he does begin to whine. "Why are we hiding when we've got our own weapons training, our own tactics— Hell, we can get Spartacus or even Nerio—"
"Because that's policy," you yell back at him. "We're soldiers, and if Diana or Dark Stars says not to touch them—"
"I know it's hard," Knotts interrupts. "No one likes playing defense, Gallion, especially since we've had celebrities in the crosshairs lots of times. But the whales don't want them taken out, even when they start dropping blockbusters on us. They're potential assets. Dark Stars wants what they've got, so they want to capture and study these guys, and they can't do that if we take them out with a bunch of head shots."
"So we're just supposed to sit here and take it?" Now you're worried that Gallion is on the verge of hysterics.
"We're soldiers," Cox says in a very deep growl. "We do as we're told."
"If it makes you feel any better," Knotts tells Gallion, "Dark Stars has big plans for us when they finally capture a celebrity. Until then, sit tight, stay alive, and don't lose your shit. Crazy Ivan can fuck with us, but if Cupcake is the worst we have to deal with, we can weather this by keeping our heads down and our eyes on each other's asses."
Gallion is very pale, but he settles down after that.
"So. Enough of the bad news," Knotts says, and puts on a pale smile. "We've got a new ex-jeep to kick around, so let's have a party." She waves Patterson to his feet and leads him out the door with her arm in his. The top of her head barely touches his shoulder, so it's a real contrast as they walk along.
You find yourself next to Muniz. "Didja know the new Chiyoko was so tall," you ask him.
"How would I? I didn't know Liu was Chinese when it was him playing Chiyoko."
"Would that have made a difference?"
"Neh. At first it seemed kind of a waste after he showed his birthday skin, kinda took the exotic tang off doing it with—" He pauses. "And then when the next Chiyoko came in all I could see was Liu when I was looking at her."
"Fuck, now that's all I'm gonna see," you mutter.
* * * * *
Knotts leads everyone to the lounge. The sight of the Celebrity Wall reminds you of the two punctures in the unnamed portrait; in all the excitement, you'd forgotten to mention it to anyone, and this doesn't seem like a good moment to say anything. So you just gather with the others at the wall opposite, which is a monument to the awesomeness of your own team, not the other.
On it hang thirteen large plaques, each emblazoned with the name of a Diana operative. Paige Knotts' plaque is on the far left, followed by those for you and Cox and Muniz; those of Stoddard and White and Liu and the rest trail off to the right, ending in a just-installed thirteenth plaque that has Patterson's name on it. Knotts must've arranged it while you were at the Barracks.
Under each plaque hang five hooks, and on each hook hangs a wooden slat on which is laminated an over-size poker card. The five cards under each name thus form a poker hand, and the rank of each hand reflects the rank of each operative. Knotts, as team leader, has the highest rank: Two pair, aces over queens. You're her lieutenant: Kings over Jacks. Muniz is rated Jacks over Nines, and Cox rates Tens over Sevens. Beneath the four Dukes are the Boobs: Stoddard, White, Liu and the late Konstantin Chernov, who are ranked with a single pair; at the bottom are the Mongrel singletons, with Gallion taking up the rear with a Jack high and a Five low.
From a cabinet behind the wet bar Knotts takes a cardboard box containing more of the slats, and everyone watches keenly as she awards Patterson his five cards, reflecting his success on the four final trials in his period as a jeep, plus his Chiyoko hazing: There are low murmurs at the five of spades for Intelligence Collection; soft chuckles at the seven of hearts for Chiyoko; silence at the eight of clubs for Assassination; murmurs again over the nine of diamonds for Black Bag; and laughter and applause at the jack of hearts for Honeypot. Patterson himself turns pink. Gallion, you notice, wears a very tight smile: only his having a ten behind his jack puts him a rating ahead of Patterson.
Cox helps Knotts with bottles of hooch and shot glasses. "The skins!" she says after everyone has a glass. "The skins!" everyone else roars in answer, and drinks.
It's a low-key affair that follows, with relatively little drinking, but celebrations for new members are always subdued. Everyone tries to play it cool, and to ignore the hazing that went into earning the new guy his fifth card.
And of course it's subdued for other reasons: the three names still on the wall, though they are not attendance. "So do we get to do something with the Celebrity Wall?" Gallion asks you and Muniz.
"Did anyone come back from his meeting with Cupcake?" Muniz retorts. "Only the guys that come back get to take a shot." Gallion fills a tumbler with some ice and Scotch and wanders over to the line of portraits. Muniz watches him, then glances over at Patterson, who's stooped over to talk to Knotts. "I hope the new guy's got a cooler head than Gallion."
"At that altitude? Come October there'll be snow on his upper slopes. Trouble is, he'll probably be just green enough to not be scared."
"We should show 'em some of Yam's home movies, of the time Elmore and Firecracker gave 'em a visit."
You chuckle—not at the memory of the carnage they spread, but of the way the newest ex-jeep will probably react—then fall silent and frown. One thought will follow on another, and in this case it runs from Yam to Hoxton and thence to the faked call that Knotts got from Carrero. "Have the celebrities held a premiere at Yam since then? I mean, at their new digs?"
"I don't know," Muniz says after a moment's thought. "Why?"
"Because of the trail Cupcake was laying. In his calls to Carrero and here, it's like he was trying to lure us out to Yam. I was wondering if they knew about Yam's new site."
"I'm sure they know all about all of us," Muniz says glumly.
True, you reflect. Still, something about the phone call bothers you. But you can't put your finger on it. Then Knotts interrupts your train of thought.
"Okay everyone, here's the new buddy system," she calls. "We'll be partnering most senior with least senior. Patterson will partner with me. Gallion, you're with Kips." You glance over, but Gallion is still absorbed by the Celebrity Wall. "Liu, you're with Cox. Muniz, you look after Stoddard and White until we pull Lamb back in. I know it's been awhile since you've had roomies, but try not to—"
"Hey!" Gallion calls, and there's a quaver in his voice. "What's the deal with Scotty's picture?"
The temperature in the room instantly drops. Knotts' tone is freezing when she replies. "What did you say?"
Gallion is staring hard at the dartboard. You feel your mouth go dry. "Scotty's picture," Gallion says. "It's got—"
"It's got a hole in it, I know," Knotts says. "Someone was clumsy with the darts."
"Actually it's got two holes in it," you say, and everyone turns sharply in your direction. "I found another one in it this morning, when I came in," you stammer. "I forgot to mention it because, uh—" You shrug helplessly.
Knotts stares hard at you, but she's quickly distracted as— "Jesus. Oh, Jesus!" Gallion cries, and stumbles back from the portraits. He drops his glass, which shatters on the floor.
Knotts hurries over, and you hurry after in the general rush on the portraits. As you crowd around, Knotts calls for everyone to step back, and you and Cox push everyone away.
"No more monkey business," Knotts says, and yanks the unnamed portrait from the wall. She hides it in the crook of her arm. "Party's over. Everyone home. Now." She marches off.
She may have gotten the picture down before anyone else saw, but you got a look at it first, and at the four puncture marks in it: wounds that are neatly and evenly spaced, like the corners of a diamond. You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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