The Langley Case: A Nathan Roeder Mystery
Chapter 10

Meeting a girl during a gunfight

The guy at the door gave me a name and an address. Felicia Serano. Innocent enough sounding name. If I’d known how much trouble this dame would cause me, I probably never would have gotten out of bed the day before.

I met Max outside, and handed him the address. “What’s this?” He asked.

“That’s where we’re going next,” I told him. “We go, we pick up a broad, and we bring her back.”

“This is The Bicycle Man’s turf.”

I nodded. The two drinks I’d had were starting to work their magic. Two drinks, each one a double double. That was, what? Ten drinks? Five? Seventy two? I couldn’t be sure, and didn’t really care at the time. Drinks made the world seem okay, made everything seem okay. I didn’t worry about going into hostile territory, at least not as much. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be able to shoot straight, but at least I wasn’t passing out.

Yet.

Along the drive, Max complained. That’s what Max does best, I think. “You really expect to just drive in there, grab this chick, and then drive out?” He asked. “What are you, crazy? That’s never going to work. Soon as you get within a mile, The Bicycle Man’s going to spot you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “People drive around all the time.”

“Not you, Nathan Roeder. Natborns drive around all the time. You’re a Townie. You stick out like a nuclear warhead.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I was a bit slow at the time. I’ll blame the alcohol. It’s convenient.

“It means you’re an idiot,” he said. “And it means you’re going to get me killed.”

“I’ll double the pay,” I said. That cut into my overhead a bit too much. Unless I could bill him as an expense.

That settled him down a bit. “Still,” he said, “we’re being watched.”

“How do you know?”

He shook his head. “You get to learn this kind of thing when you drive a lot,” he said. “We’ve been followed since we left the gentleman’s club. By at least two other cars. You’re being tracked, and sooner or later, word’s going to get back to the last people you want it to get back to.”

“It’s a tough world,” I said. “Wear a cup.”

“You packing?”

“The Pope Catholic?”

“What?”

I shook my head. “Never mind,” I said. “I’m packing.”

He told me to open the glove compartment. Inside was the smallest machine pistol I’d ever seen. It seemed a perfect fit for Max. “Just in case,” he said.

That did nothing to boost my confidence. But, like I said, no one’s pointed a gun at me in a while.

I wondered briefly why I was doing all this. What got me into these messes? I could probably have just built a case on what I learned in Town. There was so much going on there, other murders that the old man wasn’t connected to, that I probably could have just pointed Theresa at everything else.

But I had to drag it out, just a little bit. Enough to make it worth the money she was paying me, enough to make it likely to up her fee. So I couldn’t just hand her that after one day’s work.

Besides, I was on the trail of something. I had to be. This many people wouldn’t be pointing guns at me if there wasn’t something to replace. I’d needed to get out of Town for a bit, and that’s what I did.

I could have picked somewhere smarter to go, sure. But it’s a rough and tumble world I’m getting myself into, and sometimes the best place to go when things get rough and tumble is right out in to the Sprawl. So that’s where I went.

I knew Max was right about the danger. It’s a hard world, like I said. There are only two ways to live with a hard world. Either you break, or you learn to be just as hard.

“We have to be quick,” he said as he drove. “You go in, you get her, you get out.”

I laughed. “And what will you do while I’m doing all the hard work?”

“I’ll keep the car running.”

“Why am I paying you so much, Max?”

“Because I’m fucking driving you in, that’s why. Be glad I’m doing that much.”

“That’s it though?”

Max gave me a smile. “I’ll wait for you, too.” He said, turning back to the road. “That’s what you’re really paying for.”

I have to respect Max. He’s my kind of scum. Always looking out for himself, but with a weird sense of honor that I’ve never claimed to understand. I should really feel bad about getting him shot. But then, I’m not entirely sure he didn’t tip off The Bicycle Man about me in the first place.

I wouldn’t put it past him.

I had Max take a few trips around the block before I went in to get her. I figured that would at least give me time to get to know the area, and maybe give me time to come up with a brilliant plan. Nothing came, so I was stuck with the old faithful. Just go in there and do it.

As I walked, I felt my stomach grumble. The last time I ate was the first bite of the crap Max ordered at the strip club. That stuff was awful, but I guess he wasn’t there for the food. How long had it been since I’d been through a full meal?

That wasn’t the time to think about it. I knew there were people waiting for me, people who would try to kill me, if I didn’t get out of there as fast as I could. But I couldn’t leave without the dame. That much was for certain. I had no idea what The Albino would do if I came back without her, but I was pretty damned sure Theresa Langley would have me killed for losing the diary.

I walked in like I didn’t have a care in the world, but like I had somewhere I had to be. I kept my hands in my pockets, wrapping my mitts around my gun and my knuckles.

I didn’t exactly replace her. It was more a matter of just walking up the right door at the right time and hitting it with my knuckles. I wasn’t thinking much of it; didn’t occur to me what kind of girl The Albino would have me retrieve. I guess I knew in the dark corners of my mind, but I never really made four out of two and two.

Not until she opened the door.

I’ve never been one to think with anything other than my brain. It’s a curse, but it’s also a blessing. I can ignore that other voice, the voice that comes from down there. I can ignore it and just deal with the facts.

At least, I could before I saw her. Once I saw her, I was having trouble remembering to breathe, let alone my own name.

Genalt hookers are as beautiful as they get. Whatever your ideal woman, they can build it for you. Whatever traits you like, they’ve got it. With Felicia, it took me almost a minute just to get past her eyes.

They say that green eyes are as rare as they get, but I’ve heard tell that there are other colors human eyes can take on. Including purple. I’d never seen a set of violet eyes before she opened the door, but I saw them then. I watched them look me up and down, and I felt the chills going all the way down as she did. The way she smelled told me why humans had that sense in the first place. I heard a heart beating, and wasn’t sure whose it was. All I knew was that it was jack hammering.

“Hello,” she said, a little confused. The voice broke the spell, but only because it was too perfect, like it was specially tuned to turn me on.

I tried not to physically shake my head, and cleared my throat instead. “My name is Nathan,” I said, finally remembering it. “You Felicia?”

She nodded. She was staring at me, something weird in her eyes. If I’d ever actually been trained as a Reader, or if I’d been able to pay any decent amount of attention, I would have known what that look meant. As it was, I was having difficulty getting enough blood to my brain to prevent a stroke.

“You need to come with me.” I emphasized the wrong word, but need was the only thing I was able think about. I didn’t have a clear head around this dame, and I could barely hear the little voice telling me how dangerous that was.

She nodded, stepping back into her room like she was in some kind of daze. That’s when Max came up behind me. I wasn’t expecting him to get out of the car. Part of me wasn’t even expecting the car to still be there.

“We have to hurry,” he said, gesturing outside. Felicia was still inside, but didn’t seem to be doing anything.

I nodded at Max and reached out and touched Felicia’s perfect hand. “Is there anything you need to take with you?” I asked.

She shook her head, and I gently pulled her behind me, down the stairs and outside. Max’s car wasn’t far away, maybe twenty feet.

And then the gunshots started.

The first shot blasted a hole in the road, and I felt the shrapnel scrape against my pant leg. I reacted faster than I thought the drinks I’d had would have let me, sprinting forward to the car, still pulling the chick behind me. I didn’t see where Max went, but I figured he could take care of himself.

Once I had the girl behind the car, I pulled my own gun and started looking for the gunman. Two other shots had fired while we were running. That suggested a rifle, not a hand gun. That meant he could be a lot further away than my little pistol could handle.

At least he was a bad shot.

“What’s going on?” She asked, ducking down low and looking about as sexy as anyone could while doing it.

“Someone is trying to kill us.”

“Why?”

I shook my head. “I’d rather not talk about it,” I said. There was another sound of a shot, closer this time. I looked over the car towards the sound, and I saw nothing. This wasn’t good. “Max!” Wherever he was, we needed to get him into the car and get out of there. I’d drive myself, if I knew how.

There was another shot, then the hissing of air. Sounded like it was coming from a tire. I don’t know much about cars, but I was pretty convinced that was a bad sign.

When Max yelled “Fuck!” that pretty much clinched it for me.

I leaned my head sideways and looked out over the hood of the car. When no gunshot ripped off the side of my face, or even slammed into the car, I felt confident enough to really look around. It took me a few seconds, but I found them. Three of them all told. Two up on roofs, one down the street. All of them had rifles. All of them were far away. Probably too far to hit, but not technically out of range.

“Max, what’s the range on that pistol of yours?”

Max opened the car door closest to me and slipped out, hiding behind a wheel so that his entire body was protected. “It has two settings,” he said. “It can hit the broad side of a barn, or it can shoot a lot of shots really quick.”

“Range?”

“I imagine it’s got one, yeah.”

Felicia shook her head. “Can you drive the car?” She asked.

Max looked at her a little longer than necessary. I’m not sure his eyes ever reached her face. “Tire’s flat,” he said.

“Will it move?”

He shrugged. “Not well.”

“Let’s get it out of here, at least,” she said. “Somewhere away from the crossfire. If they want to come get us, at least make it a little bit harder for them.”

Smart chick. “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Can you get it running?”

The window in the driver’s side shattered as Max reached for the door. “No,” he said. “I can’t.”

“Oh, for god’s sake.” Felicia shook her head and gave the sexiest glare of disappointment I’ve ever seen. “Give me the keys.”

Max handed over the keys; I’ve never seen him do that before. He even opened the door for her. She slid across the seat, giving Max and I an ample and much appreciated look at her posterior. She pushed the keys into the slot beneath the steering wheel and turned them. The car roared to life, and was promptly hit by three more shots. I didn’t see where they landed, just heard the thuds.

“A little help?” She shouted.

I leaned back enough to be able to see one of the guys on the rooftop, and fired a few warning shots to let him know I was there. None of my warning shots hit the mark; one hit a few inches from him, though.

While I was shooting back, they stopped shooting towards. It was enough for Felicia to get the car rolling, even if she couldn’t see where she was going.

Once we were a bit away from the house, she stopped the car. “You can change the tire, right?”

Max swallowed hard. I knew how he felt. “Yeah,” he said. “I can do it. But those guys—”

“You deal with the car,” she said. Then she turned to me. “Nathan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You deal with those guys, okay?”

I didn’t want to say ‘no’ to her. And the way she looked at me just made me feel even more like I didn’t want to deny her anything. Ever. I nodded my head and moved over to the corner.

There were three of them, and sooner or later, they’d have to come this way. If they didn’t, if they circled around, they might not get there in time. I hoped Max was a quick change.

If they came around the corner, I could take them out one at a time. But if they were scattered, and they heard gunshots, they’d come around guns blazing. I slipped my hand into my pocket and came out with the knuckles.

As I pulled my hand out, the first thug came tearing around the corner. The impact of my fist might have knocked him out. The jolts of electricity guaranteed it.

I leaned around and shot the second guy in the chest. As he collapsed, it occurred to me that maybe I shouldn’t be killing The Bicycle Man’s people. He’d never forgive me for it. Bad karma.

I pressed myself against the wall and waited for dear old number three. He came around gun first. I grabbed him at the wrist and pulled him forward into my fist. He grabbed my wrist as it flew through the air. I pulled him close and slammed my head into his face.

He fell to the ground, clutching his nose. “Son of bitch!” he shouted. “Why did you do that?”

I grabbed him by the shirt front and slammed him up against the wall. “I’ll do the asking. You do the bleeding.”

“What?”

I pulled back and pushed him in to the wall again. “Why are you trying to kill me?”

He wiped the blood from his eyes. “Nathan?”

It wasn’t until he said that, in that tone of voice, that I realized who I was talking to. “Brett?” I asked.

He smiled, then winced at the pain. “Jesus Nathan, I didn’t know it was you.”

“I guess you wouldn’t have shot at me if you did?”

“Fuck no. I definitely would have shot you. Can you blame me?”

I thought back to what I had done. She had been worth it. But it had really screwed Brett over. “That’s fair,” I said. He moved to walk away, tried to brush my hands off his shirt. I slammed him up against the wall. “But the fact remains, Brett. I’ve got questions. You’ve got answers. And if they don’t match, I’m going to make you real close friends with that wall behind you. Suede?”

“I dig, Nathan.” He groaned a little bit and slumped in my hands. I lifted him higher, not willing to take any of his shit. “What do you want to know?”

“First, how did you guys know where to replace me this quickly?”

“We’ve been following you.”

“How?”

“We got a tip.”

I wasn’t in the mood. I thought about putting my gun in his mouth. That’ll make any canary sing. “From who?”

He shook his head. “I can’t tell you that,” he said. “I don’t know. Even the Man doesn’t know. The word came from on high.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been following you since you left Town, Nathan. Something you Townies should not be doing.”

I immediately thought of Max. “How did you know when I left?”

He didn’t answer right away. I slammed him against the wall again. “Would you stop doing that, Nathan?”

I dropped him down and stepped away. He bent over and coughed a bit. “Jesus, Nathan. Do you have to be so fucking rough all the time?”

“Like you would have just talked if I didn’t rough you up a bit?”

Brett stood up straight and gave me a glare. “You could’ve just pointed your gun at me. You didn’t have to break my nose.” He rubbed his side. “And a rib, I think.”

I shook my shoulders to keep them loose. “Forgive me if I’m not as kind to people who try to kill me.”

“The way I remember it,” he said, bending over to protect his ribs a bit, “you’re just not that kind.”

“Fuck you, Brett.”

He sniffed the air. “You been drinking?”

I looked at him. “You been breathing?”

“I don’t know how your liver does it, Nathan.”

I shrugged. “My parents could afford the best,” I lied.

He gave me the finger. “I need to get this thing straightened,” he said, pointing at his nose.

“Want me?”

He held up a hand. “You’ve done enough, thanks.” He looked around. “I see you knocked Chip right out. What happened to Phil?”

I pointed around the corner. Brett looked at the downed body of his compatriot. “Meh,” he said. “Never liked him anyway. Prick cheats at cards.”

“So do you,” I said.

“I know. That’s why I didn’t like him. Competition’s bad for business.”

I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out my gun. I didn’t point it at him just yet. “Get back on point, Brett. Who told you I was out here?”

“I’d tell you if I could, Nathan.” He shook his head, then leaned in close like he was going to tell me a secret. “It came from on high.”

“What does that mean?”

“The Man heard it from upstairs.”

“The Man talks to god now?”

Brett shook his head. “Someone from the Tiers, Nathan. They’ve got you pinned. Honestly, I don’t see how you’ve made it out here so long in the first place. Can I go now?”

I shoved him the first few steps. “Yeah,” I said. “Get out of here.”

“What about my gun?”

I looked at him. “What am I, new?”

He stumbled off, holding his bleeding nose with one hand and his ribs with the other. I turned back to Max. The car was ready to go.

“Where are you taking me?” Felicia asked once we were moving.

I wasn’t really listening. I was still stuck on what Brett told me. Someone in the Tiers had not only followed me, but fed information about where I was to the people out in the Sprawl who wanted me dead. They were trying to kill me, same as pointing a gun at me themselves.

Only a hell of a lot more cunning.

I had no idea who I was dealing with, and that was starting to bother me. The sooner I got my hands out of this case, the better. I needed a drink.

“You two hungry?” I asked.

“I know a great place,” Max said.

“Food, not sightseeing.”

“Fine,” he said. “How about noodles?”

“I love noodles,” Felicia said. That pretty much ended the conversation.