Busted Flush

I didn’t say anything. Right now, Noel wasn’t exactly on my Favorite People list. He’d been playing, well, everyone off each other. And Drake was in the soup because of him, no matter what excuse he gave.

Oh, and if my eavesdropping was accurate, he was also screwing Niobe. If he broke her heart, I would kick his sorry ass from here back to whatever warm-beer-drinking blood-pudding-eating dental-hygiene-impaired London borough he came from.

“Fortune,” he said in his most supercilious voice, “you should be able to rein your people in by now. Regardless of their opinion of me, we have Sprout now and a way to retrieve Drake. So that should make me—what’s that American expression? Your new best friend.”

A groan ran around the room. Noel was about as popular with the rest of the Committee as he was with me.

“Everyone calm down,” Fortune said. He was looking tired. Then he stopped and got all daydreamy-looking and I wondered what Sekhmet was saying to him. Then he said, “Noel’s right. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d have no leverage with Weathers at all.”

“Oh, c’mon!” yelled Bugsy, jumping up from his chair. “Noel tried to cut my head off! I don’t care how ‘helpful’ he’s been. He’s a menace.”

I walked over to the side table where a coffee service had been set up. As I poured a cup and started loading it with sugar, I heard Curveball say, “Look, I know everyone’s unhappy with Noel, but he really isn’t the problem right now. We’ve got to figure out how to handle the Sprout/Drake exchange.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Fortune was giving her a wan smile, but she didn’t smile back.

“What I want to know is how we’re going to make the swap,” said Earth Witch. “I mean, if Weathers is as powerful as you say, he’s going to be a bitch to handle.”

Fortune rubbed his eyes, then took a pull off his coffee. “The swap team is going to be me and Michelle. Weathers wants me, so if I’m part of the swap he’ll be thinking he’s going to have a shot at me. And Michelle is there for two reasons. First, she knows Drake. And second, she can take almost limitless damage. Probably anything Weathers can dish out.”

“You got any opinions about this, Bubbles?” asked Rustbelt in his flat Midwestern voice.

By now, I was sitting on one of the chairs next to the door. I was almost back down to my thinnest and had wanted to stay there until the PR part of the mission was over. Though it made me a little less able to kick ass right out the door, it was nice not to worry about the furniture when I sat down.

“If I’m the best choice for the job, then of course I’m fine with it,” I said. I could feel my hands tremble, so I put my coffee cup down. “But we’ll need a backup plan in case things go wrong. And do we hand Sprout over even if things start to go bad?”

“Of course we’re going to have backup, Michelle,” Fortune said. “Everyone else will be stationed around Jackson Square to keep things chilled out. Weathers is extremely dangerous, but he can’t take all of us. And I don’t think he’ll do anything that’ll put Sprout at risk.”

Brave Hawk whispered something to Lohengrin, who nodded. I wondered what that was all about.

“Okay,” Fortune said as he unrolled a map of Jackson Square onto the large coffee table. “Here’s where I’m going to position each of you.”

“Are we going to meet Daddy?”

“Yep,” I said. “You remember what we said, right?”

Sprout smiled at me and tugged on my ponytail. “Yes, Daddy needs to talk to John Fortune before we can go home. I need to stay with you until Daddy and John Fortune are done talking.”

I brushed back the fine tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid. She looked up at me with guileless blue eyes.

At that moment, I hated everyone who had put her and Drake into this position. Her father, Noel, and the rest of the assholes who thought that Drake was a pawn for their megalomaniacal dreams. And I really hated myself for helping them.

She took my hand, and we went back into the living room where Fortune and the others were waiting.

John Fortune, Sprout, and I were standing in the middle of Jackson Square. We’d done a pretty amazing job of getting some of the Quarter back on its feet. Though the lamps on the gate were shattered, the square was looking remarkably good. Gardener had replaced the trees and other plants that had been destroyed. And the statue of Andrew Jackson was unchanged. We stood at its base.

My clothes felt tight. Before coming for the meeting, I’d had one of Hoodoo Mama’s zombies pound on me a bit. I still wasn’t big, exactly, but I wanted some firepower, just in case.

We were in a good tactical position. On all four sides we had a clear sightline. Odds were that no one was going to sneak up on us here.

“Where’s Daddy?” Sprout asked.

“He’ll be here soon, honey,” I replied. “Why don’t you stay with John Fortune for a moment and I’ll see if he’s coming.”