Devious Origins

CHAPTER 7

I sat there for a moment, too stunned to move or even speak. Finally I came to my senses and said, "We should really get out of here."

"Soon enough," Dee replied, "but I'm not leaving these jokers alone in my lair." She leaned down and started going through Red's pockets. He was too busy holding his broken right hand and gasping for breath to put up any struggle. Dee came up with a black leather wallet. She fished out a drivers license, then plucked her iPhone from the docking station and used it to snap a picture of the license. The dance music had dropped considerably in volume as soon as the phone was free of the dock. Dee silenced it completely and slid her phone back into her pocket. She continued looking through the wallet.

"Well look at this," she exclaimed. She held up a business card with a familiar red hotel-like logo on it. Hillsburrow Capital Investments. "Not very smart of you, Lefty," she said to Red, "This is what we call a clue. It links you to your employer." She held the business card by its edges as she carefully dropped it into a pocket of her motorcycle jacket. Red just moaned and cradled his right hand in response. Dee quickly checked the pockets of the other two thugs, then turned to me and said, "Hey Barry, there's a flashlight in my backpack. Toss it here."

I got up and fetched the flashlight. It was a small black cylinder with a cluster of LED lights on one end and a yellow smiley face sticker stuck to the opposite end. A pair of screws had been driven into the eyes of the smiley face. The recessed screwdriver slot in each screw head was angled in such a way that it gave the face a sleepy expression. I pressed the button on its side and verified that the light worked, then tossed it to Dee. She caught it, gave part of the cylinder a twist, then held the flashlight backwards and pressed the button again. Rather than the LEDs lighting up, now a tiny arc of electricity crackled between the eye screws.

"I call him Mister Zappy," she said as she tossed it back to me, "Use him on these jokers if they give you any trouble. I need to find that gun."

Dee pulled a couple of light blue latex gloves from one of her jacket pockets and put them on, then walked deeper into the shadows of the factory. I stood over Gray with the stunner/flashlight in my hand. Gray moaned and acted like he meant to get up. I held Mister Zappy in front of his face and pressed the button. Gray got a good look at the tiny lightning bolts jumping between the eyes and decided to stay were he was. Green was climbing to his feet, but I was too far away to do anything about that.

Dee came back from the shadows. In her hand was a sleek, black, semi-automatic hand gun. Green turned from me to Dee, saw the gun, and took a step back. He held his hands up and open in front of himself as if to say, look how harmless and non-threatening I am.

"I think it's time for you and your friends to leave," Dee suggested to Green, "and I wouldn't drag my feet if I were you. I've got friends on the way."

"This isn't over," Green responded, but he helped Red to his feet and started limping toward the door. I stepped away from Gray and let him follow. Dee walked over to a window and watched them leave. I could hear a car start and drive away. She seemed to uncoil, like a spring with a long held tension finally released.

"OK... well... that was exciting," she said.

"Exciting. I can think of a few other words I might use." I didn't elucidate.

"Oh come on, Barry, those guys were total amateur hour. We were never in much danger."

"That gun in your hand says otherwise," I countered. She looked down at the handgun as if she had forgotten she was holding it.

"Oh yeah, this. Don't worry, its harmless now. I took the magazine out and emptied the chamber as soon as I found it."

"It's empty..." My brain chewed on the fact that she had chased the thugs out with an empty gun. "So do you really have friends coming?"

"No, that was a lie," she answered, "I figured they were less likely to come back with more firepower if they thought we had reinforcements on the way. Let's pack up and get out of here. I need to score some caffeine before my adrenaline high completely crashes. Fighting bad guys always leaves me sleepy otherwise."

"What should we do with the gun?" I asked as I began collecting up leftover Vietnamese food.

"There's a big metal drop box behind the police station where you can turn in unwanted guns, no questions asked. I'll leave it there." She looked around, found and old newspaper lying near one of the windows, and used it to wrap up the gun before stowing it in her backpack.

"Speaking of the police," I interjected, "shouldn't we call them?"

"We don't know how far the corruption in City Hall extends," Dee replied, "I'm not sure the cops would really be on our side in this."

Dee, what the hell have you gotten me into, I thought.