Hero Stalker

Part Forty-Three

That's how I ended up sitting in a back office beneath a nightclub with an officer of the Black Knives. Dancing footsteps pounded above us. I sipped a Coke I'd made sure to open myself. The woman sat on the other side of an obscenely neat desk, with papers stacked high in an outbox and a coffee can of pens arraigned by color.

"They call me Bird." She poured herself a cup of coffee. Two fingers on her left hand had been chopped off at the base. "I know your friend Slasher very well. Did he send you here?"

I took a sip of Coke and tried not to imagine Slasher and Bird having sex. "No."

"Then how did you know where we were?"

"It's very loud. I could hear it from three blocks away." No way I'd sell out my source.

Her eyes narrowed. "Do I look like a woman who appreciates jokes?"

Actually, she looked like my fourth grade teacher, Ms. de Soto, who'd once threatened to staple a student to a Frisbee and throw him on the roof. But Ms. de Soto hadn't had a pair of crossed black knives tattooed on the back of her neck. "No, ma'am. Sorry."

She punctured a creamer container with one of her long, pointed fingernails and poured it into her coffee. "What do you want to know?"

"I'm looking for Harpy."

"As I imagine every Centurion in this city is tonight. Why come here?"

"Because some Centurions are wasting their time. Harpy needs to be captured now."

"So after a week of being a Centurion, you have already decided the methods of your leaders are worthless. What a smart girl you are." She took a sip of coffee. "Why should I tell you where Harpy is? He would make a bad enemy."

"And I would make a good friend." I gritted my teeth. "Tell me where Harpy is and I'll owe you a favor."

She turned and met my eyes. "What kind of favor?"

"I have contacts in the BPD." I have my boyfriend. "And I have access to the Centurion computer systems." If I can figure out how to use them without Cypher knowing. "I'm not going to kill anyone, but I could fix a problem. A big problem."

"Harpy fixes problems much more permanently." But Bird paused for the slightest minute. Two years with Valerie had taught me to recognize that as a sign of weakness. God knew I did it enough myself.

"Harpy's ambitious," I said. "There's only room for one top dog in Bayton's criminal underworld. He stays free and next thing you know he's the head Black Knife. All the old officers are problems he'll want to fix. Permanently." I leant across the table. "Tell me where to find him."

"How will you capture him? He's evaded you before."

She had a good point. I gritted my teeth. "In his robot suit. But he's got to take it off sometime. I just need to find his lair. I'll follow him all over Bayton if I have to."

Bird chuckled. "And you think the other Centurions are wasting their time. Fine. Harpy needed a chemical known as cryothene. Despite only being used in medical procedures, it is considered a controlled substance. Only certain Chinese labs make the concentrated amount he wanted. We imported it for him. In return, he declared we had poisoned this city and killed our guards when they made the delivery."

"That's awful," I said.

"Yes, being shot in the head is awful." Bird shook her head and frowned. "ArterIsland. Out in the harbor. We delivered the cryothene to a dock by the ruined lighthouse."

Arter Island. It lay to the north of CenturionTower. I'd sailed past it with James last summer. No one dropped anchor there. Some said the Black Knives stashed drugs there. Some said it was haunted. James hadn't wanted to find out. An excellent place to build a murder machine if you had a way to ship it to the mainland.

"Thank you for your help." I got to my feet.

"Don't thank me. Just remember your promise."

Like I would forget. "Why do they call you Bird?" My curiosity got the better of me. "Are you psi-positive?"

She laughed. "No, not me. I used to be a pilot. You remember Harvey Queen?"

"The banker?" He'd jumped from his office window after his Ponzi scheme had been exposed.

"I taught him how to fly." She smiled. "Break our deal, and I'll give you a free lesson."