Nemesis Games

“Not sure planning had much to do with it,” Alex said. And then, “Bobbie? Stay with me here.”

“I’m here,” she said, her voice sleepy. “I’m all right.”

In the distance, Alex heard the rising tritone of sirens. Breath by breath, they grew closer. For a long moment, he thought the deck was being shaken, then realized it was just his body, trembling. At the side of the room, one of the gunmen lay slumped against the wall. His neck was at a strange angle, and blood was drying on his chest. He wasn’t bleeding though. Dead, then. The man in the suit coughed and gagged, choking. The sirens got louder. There were voices now too. A woman identifying herself as police and warning them that people were coming in.

“I was coming to tell you,” Alex said. “I’ll stay. I’ll help.”

“Thanks.”

“This was about the black market stuff, wasn’t it?” Alex said. “I guess you’ve been asking the right questions.”

Bobbie managed a smile. Looking at her now, there was a lot of blood on her shirt.

“Don’t know,” she said. “All they asked me about was you.”

Chapter Twelve: Amos

“Want some coke?” Erich asked. “Not synth. Real stuff that came from a plant.”

“Nope. But I’d take a drink if one is handy,” Amos replied. The pleasantries were just ritual, but ritual was important. In Amos’ experience the more dangerous any two people were, the more carefully polite their social interactions tended to be. The loud, blustering ones were trying to get the other guy to back down. They wanted to stay out of a fight. The quiet ones were figuring out how to win it.

“Tatu, bring the El Charros,” Erich said, and one of the two guards slipped out the door. To Amos he added, “Been on a tequila kick lately.”

“I haven’t,” Amos said. “Earth is still the only place you can get good tequila. The Belter stuff is undrinkable.”

“Not a lot of blue agave up there, I guess.”

Amos shrugged and waited. Tatu returned with a tall skinny bottle and two narrow shot glasses. Erich filled both then lifted one in salute.

“To old friends.”

“Old friends,” Amos repeated and tossed back his shot.

“Another?” Erich asked, pointing at the bottle.

“Sure.”

“Seen much of the neighborhood?”

“Just what was between here and the train station.”

“Hasn’t changed much,” Erich said, then paused while they both drank off their shots. He refilled their glasses. “Faces change, but the corners stay the same.”

“Funny, I was just thinking that same thing on my way in. Things have changed for you though.”

“Not the important ones,” Erich said with a grin and wiggled his small, withered left arm.

Amos gestured at the room, the guards, the renovated building around them. “When I left, you were running for your life. So, at least one thing’s different.”

“You guys can go,” Erich said to Tatu and his partner. They slipped out quietly and shut the door behind them. That seemed like a good sign. Either it meant that Erich was sure Amos wasn’t there to kill him, or Erich had a way of protecting himself that didn’t require other people. It wouldn’t be a gun under the desk. That was too direct for Erich. Amos started casually scanning for wires or suspicious lumps on his chair or the floor beneath it.

Erich poured two more shots of tequila then said, “I learned something important from you, when you left.”

“Do tell.”

“I’ll never be the toughest guy in any room, unless I’m by myself,” Erich said, waving his small arm again. “But I’m usually the smartest. Executing a plan can be subcontracted out. Making the plan in the first place, not as much.”

“True enough,” Amos agreed. “It’s why I’ll never be the captain of a ship.”

Erich reacted to that. He didn’t change his expression or flinch, but Amos could see the words getting taken in and filed as important.

“But always useful, you,” Erich said. “You were always useful. You on a crew now?”

“You haven’t seen me in the news?”

“I have. You look different. Shaved your head, got your nose broke a few more times. But I’ll never forget a name.”

“Well, not this one anyway,” Amos said, and then tossed his shot back in a toast to Erich. “Gracias for that, by the way.”

“So, you still with that crew?” Erich said.

“I am. Why?”

“Because you’re sitting in my office right now drinking my tequila. Still playing that out in my head. Useful guy like you can always get work. If that’s what you want, I’ve got it. But if you’re not here looking for work, what are you looking for?”

Amos grabbed the bottle and poured himself another drink. Erich tried very hard not to look nervous. He’d had a lot of practice, because he almost pulled it off. Time can change a lot. Erich had gone from twitchy little hacker with a price on his head to the boss of a respectable chunk of Baltimore’s harbor-front property. But some things don’t change. Some tells never go away. While Erich sat very still and looked him in the eye without blinking, the tiny hand on his deformed left arm opened and closed like a baby grabbing at a toy just out of reach.

“Went to Lydia’s house,” Amos said, sipping slowly at the tequila.