Still, I had to hope that death wouldn’t end up being my own.
“Got everything set?”
“Have I ever let you down?” Ren turned away from his computers and set his hands on his lap, like an obedient schoolboy. “What else would you like to put on the Renny-do list—build a large hadron collider?”
“Cute.” I held out my hand. “Info.”
“No paper. For once, I will not contribute to the demise of what remains of the rain forest.” He picked up a digidiary from his desk. It was connected to one of his computers by a wire, which he pulled out. “Digital is the way to go, my friend.”
I knew now was not the time to argue, so I took the thing from him and opened it. I’d been using one as a journal for years, at Dearly’s behest. That function’d been fairly easy to get the hang of. “Fine. You’ve got thirty seconds, Professor Merriweather.”
“I’ve set it all up. All you have to do is press the magical little buttons. On the launch screen you’ll see icons for maps, links to his personal information, his school records—”
“You got Allister’s school records? Well done.”
“C minus in Classical Logic. Suddenly so much makes sense.”
Finding the map icon, I thumbed my way in. “Says here his family has five houses? Which one is he at, then?”
“Current whereabouts I can’t do. Well …” He paused, and fiddled with his glasses. “I could technically do it. But it’d be difficult. And highly illegal.”
“Has that ever stopped you before?”
“Yes. I’m not a black hat.” I knew Ren was capable of hacking, I just honestly wasn’t sure what that “hacking” entailed. I’d known him to get past things called firewalls, into systems protected by passwords. Like, apparently, the grading system at Michael’s school. “Granted, at this point my inevitable stint in prison would be exceedingly brief.”
“Could you do it?”
“He’s New Victorian. He’s got an embedded ID chip.” I nodded; that’s what I’d been thinking. “Most efficient method of tracking him would involve breaking into the government ID database. It’s been compromised before. But I’m not going to be able to do that in the next five minutes … Honestly, I’d rather not try. Too risky.”
“Might not be so simple to find him after all,” I said, disappointed. Because I was going after him. Mink’s warning had been for the weekend, and I figured as long as Nora remained on the Erika, she’d be safe. Which meant this was my best opportunity to corner Michael and figure out what kind of game he was playing.
Alone. It was time.
“Now, I could try security cameras.”
“Come again?”
He twirled a finger in the air. “New Victoria is filled with security cameras. I was saying, if I had a general idea where he was, I could infiltrate the camera networks, perform surveillance.”
“Ren …” I was torn between the desire to hug him and the need to throttle him. “Why didn’t you say this before? We could use that to find the masks!”
“No, we couldn’t.” He lowered his hand. “I physically cannot watch every single camera in New London.”
“Yeah, but like you said, if we had some idea …”
“Which we won’t have until we get more attacks in the database, figure out if there are any patterns. Which is why I’m glad we’re canvassing.”
“Yeah, but so far we’re not having any luck with that. Coalhouse said they might clear out, and maybe they have. Once we have enough bodies on our side, though, we’ll make a personal visit to the Changed. At least get Laura and Dog out of there.” Giving up, I snapped the diary shut. “Looks like it’s going to have to be old-fashioned footwork for now, then.”
And footwork it was. Only the Rolls remained at the house, and unwilling to take it, I hopped the trolley to the surface and got off near the Morgue. Opening the digidiary again, I decided my best bet would probably be the richer areas of town. I wasn’t expecting to run into Michael on the street, but maybe something I saw or heard would push me in the right direction. I’d have to catch an omnibus there, most likely.
It was then that I heard someone beeping. Glancing up, I saw an old, tatty carriage drawing up beside a wrought-iron parking meter. I wasn’t sure if its driver wanted me, not until the window lowered and the pigtailed girl from Ratcatcher’s crew leaned out.
“Hey!” she shouted. Her voice was even more girlish than Nora’s—she sounded like a five-year-old who’d been nursing a helium tank. “Get in. We need to talk.”
A tad weirded out, I took a look around. I couldn’t see anyone preparing for an ambush. And admittedly, getting to the bottom of the Ratcatcher thing appealed to me. Sliding my fingertips over the pistol at my waist, I decided to go for it, and crossed the sidewalk, hopping into the passenger side. The instant I got the door shut, the girl took off.
“I’m Bai,” she said, keeping her eyes on the road but only one hand on the steering wheel. She fished around inside her worn boy’s private school jacket—at least, that’s what it looked like, with a crest on the pocket—and pulled out three letters with broken black wax seals. “Ronnie’s niece.”
“Bram.”
“I know.” She handed me the letters. “Read.”
I didn’t for a few seconds, watching to see where Bai meant to take us. After a few turns convinced me she was intending to circle the park, I opened the letters.
Five grand now, five later. Nora Dearly, Bram Griswold, 1423 Element Street, Violet Hill, Elysian Fields, New London.
Call off the girl. I will bring her myself, or not, as I see fit. Payment still in full.
Delreggio’s, 11:00 P.M., Saturday April 27th. Leave him there alone. Money will be waiting.
The first envelope also contained a wad of cash. I counted it. Five grand.
I was able to count it because I was so angry that I couldn’t even feel the anger. Like my emotional fuse box had blown in an effort to protect itself. Samedi said the Ratcatcher caught people.
He’d been hired to catch us.
Lifting my eyes to Bai, I said, “Everything.”
“I don’t know everything. I’m apprenticed to Belinda. She’s the Ratcatcher’s wife.” She turned again. “Couple months back, she started working with these guys. Dressed all in black. First they hid their faces with scarves, then with bird masks. Lot of weird folks in the underworld, so no questions asked—they paid for untraceable carriages, and that’s what she gave them. Brought in a few of their own to be chopped.”
“But then someone wanted to hire the Ratcatcher?”
“Right. And once he got back from the contact … I’ve never seen him like that before. He did not want the job. Didn’t know who it was for when he accepted the cash.”
“So that’s why he shut down on Samedi. Wouldn’t talk to me.”
“You’re good.” She grinned a bit. “And can I just say it’s so awesome that you work with the Undertaker? I had his wanted poster above my bed till Junebug stole it, the little tramp—”
“Later.” I had to know. “Did he say why he wanted us? What he wanted to do?”
Bai took a second before responding. “Kill you. The girl was going to watch.”
I’d figured as much, but I had to hear her say it. Trying to ride my numbness out to the end, I asked, “Anything else?”
“No. If you want to know who’s behind it, we d—”
“I do.” It had to be. It made sense. The masks, the warnings, the carriages. This wasn’t the Changed. I’d been barking up the wrong tree.
This was Michael. Vespertine had told the truth.
“Good. Because the Ratcatcher’s on his way out of town.” She reached into her jacket again and produced another envelope. “That’s for the Undertaker.”
“Out of town?”
“If word gets out that he took an assignment and didn’t follow through, his reputation will be ruined. Someone might even try to take him out. He’s going to lie low for a while.” She f
lashed me a purposeful look. “That’s how much he loves the Undertaker. And me. Samedi saved my uncle’s life. It was a firefight, the Undertaker killed for Uncle Ronnie … so he needs anything from me, I’m his to command, too.”
Sam didn’t want anything to do with them anymore, but they were loyal to a fault. Had to give them that. “Got it.”
“Belinda said she’d help you go after the masks, but not yet.” She slowed. “That’s it. Where do you want me to let you off?”
“Actually, if you could drive me to the posh side of town, I’d be obliged.” My phone rang—the special ring that told me it was Nora calling. The only one I couldn’t ignore.
“Can do. Mostly ’cause it sounds like somebody’s going to get his head caved in. Wouldn’t like to stand in the way of that.”
I opened the phone, managing a gruff, “Yeah?”
“Bram!” It was Dr. Dearly, not Nora. He sounded as if he were crying, or attempting to yell through water. “He took Nora! He took her!”
“Wait, what?” I must have sounded suddenly panicked, for Bai looked at me in alarm. “Who took her?”
“Coalhouse,” he said, his voice failing. “He took Patient One, too.”
For a few long seconds I actually couldn’t understand what I’d just heard. It was as if the words that had just been spoken were noises without symbolism. Gibberish uttered by a fever victim. Random finger-tappings on a table.
When my brain finally constructed meaning out of them, my hand tightened so fiercely my phone’s casing cracked.
“Do you know where?” The voice I heard was not my own. It was a level far above death-rattle-scary-zombie, a level far above growling or snarling. It was thunderous and vengeful, and it almost frightened me.
“The authorities are giving chase. I don’t know. I don’t know! He had a gun at her head! He had a gun, and …”
I heard crackling, and then Salvez’s voice was on the line. “In her phone, she had that she was going to meet a Michael Allister at a place called Kintzing’s. He told her to come alone. But nothing about Coalhouse. I still can’t understand it, I still keep thinking it didn’t happen …” The phone crackled again, and Salvez disappeared.
Confusion only whipped me up into even more of a frenzy. I hit the ceiling of Bai’s carriage, and she asked, “What happened?”
“Friend of mine has lost his damn mind! He’s taken my girl and … someone else.” I must have been something to behold, because Bai nearly shrank into her own shoulders as I talked, looking at me like a scrawny kid might look at the local playground bully had the bully laced his cereal with creatine and meth that day.
“What are you going to do?” she whispered. “Go after him?”
“God knows where he’s headed, that’s the problem! The only …”
No. Coalhouse wouldn’t do something like that.
Would he?
“Let me out here,” I told Bai.
She pulled over, and I dropped down. “You need us for anything? I don’t have much clout, but I can try.”
“I can’t use the living. I’ll have Sam contact Belinda if I need you.”
The girl nodded. I shut the door and she zoomed off. “Salvez!” I shouted into the phone.
“Yes?” he answered, coming back. “Sorry, just trying to—”
“Listen to me. Coalhouse is obsessed with the Changed, and they’ve talked about wanting both P One and Nora.” The words were hard in my throat; it almost hurt to say them. “I hate to even think it, but we have to assume he might head back there. Might. Maybe he’s got some scheme in mind. He was lurking around the Erika the other night.”
“Sweet, merciful Science.”
“I need you to call me if the people following Coalhouse lose him. Put Dearly on the line.”
At first I wasn’t sure if he had heard me, but then Dr. Dearly’s voice met my ear. “Bram?”
“Listen to me, sir. I need you to pull as many strings as you can. You know that group of zombies in Honduras we told you about? The ones that might’ve been involved in the road attack?”
“Yes.”
“I need their location, and I need the army away from them, if possible. We need every minute we can get. Call Lopez, have him help you. I’ll send you his number.”
“But—”
“The army’s already been up there, arrested people. If the army thinks there’s even the possibility that P One is there, they’ll go in hot. There are innocents in that group!” I said it. “Coalhouse has been determined to get them. He’s gone back to the camp at least once. If for some reason he’s headed up there now, they’re going to gun for him. Nora could be hurt. Do you trust me?”
There was a pause before Dearly said softly, “I trust you.”
“I swear, I will get her back to you.” I hung up, and pulled out Ren’s digidiary, bringing up the map.
The authorities were on Nora, and far ahead of me. I had no idea where the Changed were, and I needed time to assemble what few troops I had. I hated idling, but I told myself it was to emerge better prepared.
Meanwhile, I now knew precisely where Michael was.
Kintzing’s was an upscale dining establishment in a good part of town.
Upon entering, I slammed the gold-edged glass doors apart so hard that one of them cracked.
The maître d’ ducked behind his little lighted podium. Through two open, garlanded archways to either side I could see well-heeled diners scrambling away from the foyer, while others looked at them as if they’d lost their minds. I showed the maître d’ my weaponless hands and growled, “Allister. Waiting on another diner. Where is he.”
The maître d’ squeaked out something about “our best table” and pointed to another set of closed wooden doors. Without waiting, I strode in that direction and kicked them open. They banged against the walls of the next room, letting out a sound like a cannon and causing several varnished paintings to tremble. There was only one table inside, and Michael was seated at it.
“The devil?” he said, standing up, expression hovering somewhere between disgust and mortal fear.
“You got him,” I said as I closed the distance between us. “We need to talk.”
“What is the meaning of this?” He stood his ground. “I told her to come alone. You filthy thing, setting foot in a good establishment!”
“Again, you mean?” Finishing the work I’d started back on the airship in December, I decked him. Upward. He flew back and slammed into the wall, but remained conscious. Sinking to his feet with a moan, he cupped his hands around his nose, blood dripping onto his ivory cravat.
I got down into his face. “I know you meant to kill me tonight.” His eyes went wide. “You’re coming with me. You got any weapons, you better drop them now. Or they’re going into my personal collection, and you won’t like what I do with them. And give me your phone.”
Michael weighed his odds and rose to his feet. He reached into his jacket and produced a pistol, which he dropped on the floor. He did the same with a knife from inside his waistcoat. After finding and handing me his black cell, he turned around and marched forward at an even pace, clearly attempting to hold on to some of his nobility.
“What is going on?” Several employees had gathered in the foyer, including a tuxedoed gent I took to be the owner. “Have you called the police? You can’t just let ruffians come in and disturb the customers. Especially the dead! You can’t just let …”
I met his eyes as I walked in, wordlessly challenging him to continue.
He didn’t. “Never mind.”
“Call the cops on me. Go ahead,” I told him as I removed the cash paid for me from my pants pocket and slapped a few bills on the podium. “That’s for your door.”
After the glass doors closed behind us, Michael stopped and said, voice infuriatingly pompous, “Let’s at least do this in my carriage. I’m not about to argue with a subhuman creature out on the street.”
“Sounds grand,” I said. “I’m incredibly ho
nored.”
He led the way to an enameled blue carriage in the covered parking lot, opened the door, and insisted I enter before he did. We sat opposite each other. The carriage was a fancy little number, with a hand-painted carpet and leather seats. Warily, he called out, “Worth! Open the partition!”
The embroidered partition didn’t move. “You sure about that?” I said as I shut the door, then lowered the interior blinds. It was dark outside, but I wasn’t a fool.
“I want my driver to watch us,” he said. “He has a gun. Worth!”
Slowly, the partition slid down. Tom and Chas turned around in the driver’s section, the first waving, the second blowing a kiss. Tom had taken Worth’s little cap. I had no idea where they’d stashed the driver. I didn’t really care.
Michael’s eyes shot back to me. “What did you do?”
“Worth, drive,” I said.
“Aye aye, Captain,” Tom said. Activating the carriage, he pulled out of the parking lot. Michael was knocked against the side of the cab as Tom turned onto the street, and he reached out to grip one of the handles mounted along the interior.
“I won’t string you along, because we have precious little time.” I pulled the letters from my jacket pocket and tossed them in his lap.
Michael blinked, though no immediate emotion entered his eyes. It was like his brain spontaneously stopped controlling his face. “I have no idea what those are.”
“Yes you do.” I leaned even closer, close enough to strike out and bite him if I wanted to. He squeezed himself back against his seat, even as he lifted his chest, attempting to look as if he wasn’t afraid. “But I don’t care what you meant to do to me. Why did you invite Nora here?”
“That’s none of your concern, abomination.” He was starting to sound scared.
Quick as a switchblade, I reached out, grabbed his nose and shifted it back and forth, letting him hear the crunching of his own cartilage. He screamed. But he didn’t talk.
“What did you do?” I snarled, releasing his nose. “Why was Nora coming here? Why did you tell the Ratcatcher not to bring her?”