Chapter Nine:
Adversaries
Jondy put a hand on her hip and stared down at her adversary. "Don't even think about it, mouse-breath." The feline in question merely lifted her paw and began to give it a rather thorough cleaning. Jondy shook her head.
"No way, girl. Trust me, this is not a good day for you to be tagging along." Milly put down her paw and snuggled down deeper into the pocket of her owner's backpack. Jondy stared down at her for a moment and then shrugged. "Fine then, tag along." She leaned over and stuck a finger in the cat's face. "But don't come crying to me if something happens, and you get hurt." Milly looked up, an expression of feline innocence on her furry face. "Some good you would have done at Manticore," Jondy mumbled, placing her hand back on her hip. "Yes, sir, Colonel Lydecker, sir," she said in a mocking tone. "My cat insists upon coming on this reconnaissance mission, sir. Sheesh!" Only when Jondy turned to walk back towards the kitchen and the waiting pot of coffee did she realize that she had an audience.
Max and Original Cindy stood in the doorway. Original Cindy took a sip from her steaming mug, held up a hand, and announced, "I ain't even askin'" before turning and walking into her bedroom to get dressed for work. Max simply took a drink from the glass of milk in her hand and raised an eyebrow.
"Insubordinate little cuss," Jondy said with a grin. She walked towards the kitchen. "You know, the CIA tried to train cats to be spies way back during the Cold War. It didn't work though," she turned her head just enough to deliver the next barb back over her shoulder. "They had minds of their own, and they kept running in front of taxis!"
Milly emitted what could only be described as a feline version of "hmmph!" twitched her tail, and disappeared into the backpack once again. Jondy sighed and reached for a cup of coffee. Max sat down her now-empty milk glass and reached for her own coffee cup. "Do I want to know what that was all about?"
Jondy sipped her coffee. "Today I'm going to find out what Perez is doing in Seattle. So far, I know he's been on Clemson, and the other day I thought I saw him over on South Market. The little sleazeball has to be hanging around somewhere, and I'm going to find out where." She glanced back through the doorway. "Unfortunately, Milly has it in her head that she will be tagging along."
"So, can't you just leave the cat here?" Max took a bite out of her bagel.
"Wouldn't work. She'll never forgive me, and then she'll give me the silent treatment for a week, and I just don't want to go through that again."
"Again?" Jondy grinned at Max's bemused expression.
"Like I said, she has a mind of her own. I've learned from past experience." She reached across the table and took a bagel of her own from the bag.
"Uh-huh . . . " Max looked, and sounded, skeptical. She sat down her coffee cup and gave her sister a concerned look. "Jondy, are you sure you're okay?"
Jondy sighed, the grin sliding off her face. "I'll survive." She swallowed and stared down at the air holes in the bagel in her hand. "We were made to survive, right?" Max stood and walked around the counter to give her sister a hug.
"I know I can't bring him back," Jondy said after a long moment. She was having trouble pushing out the words around the lump in her throat. "But I can stop that son of a bitch, and so help me God, I will. He will never do this to anyone else ever again."
Max pulled back, expecting to see pain or tears in Jondy's eyes, but all she saw was determination. Jondy wasn't about to give in, and for a moment Max was ashamed of herself for holding the thought that she might. She'd known her sister's strength and determination for far too long to start to doubt her now.
Jondy crept down the alley, blending carefully into the shadows. She'd spent the day slipping in and out of alleys in some of the busier sections of the city, being careful not to be seen. Now, as the sun was beginning to set, she was searching for clues in the nooks and crannies along South Market where Perez had disappeared from view two days earlier. She was hoping that he had some connection to this area, but she didn't know what. He had to have been there for a reason, and he couldn't have been there to throw her off course when he didn't even know she was in Seattle. He couldn't have known when she'd only just gotten there, could he?
But what was he doing on Clemson? she asked herself for the millionth time that day. It couldn't have been a setup. That was impossible. Perez would have had no way of knowing that she would venture into Rydin' Forties turf that day, and even if he knew of her weak connection to Jam Pony and had sent the package himself, he would have had no way of knowing that she would have anything to do with that run. She frowned. It just didn't make any sense.
Stepping out of the shadows, she made her way back down the alley. There were no clues here to find, but as she glanced out onto the street, she found that she was no longer alone. Walking towards her was a rather husky-looking man. Oh great. She pondered her options for a moment. He was certainly large and an obvious threat to anyone her size . . . except for an X5, of course. She could take him down easily enough, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to bring unnecessary attention to herself, and she hoped that she could get out of the situation without having to do so. She loosened the straps on her backpack, hoping that if he decided to grab the bag, it would slide right off of her shoulders so that Milly would be less likely to be hurt. She tried to play it cool as she walked back towards the street.
As she approached and passed the man, he made no move towards her, but his eyes followed her down the alley. The moment he passed behind her line of vision, he made his move, jerking her backpack upward. Jondy tucked in her arms and let it slide off her shoulders. She turned around to face him, trying not to show by her stance that she was fully capable of kicking his ass in three seconds or less.
"Well, well, little girlie, what have we here?" His voice was raspy and low with a strange sort of glee mixed in. He knew that his size was intimidating, and he apparently enjoyed pushing his weight around. He held the backpack out in front of her, then dangled it above her head, just out of reach, or so he thought.
Jondy placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. Just what I need, she thought. Six feet, two hundred and fifty pounds of brawn, and only three ounces of brains to go with it. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said in calm annoyance.
"And what are you gonna do, little girlie girl, girlie girl," he chanted, swinging the backpack from side to side for a moment. He reached over to unzip a pocket. "You got any money, blondie?"
"Don't mess with my stuff. I'm warning you." He chuckled as if he found the thought of her threats amusing.
"Girlie girl," he chanted again. Jondy shrugged.
"Last warning. Don't mess with my cat." The man gave her a cocky grin, his eyes sliding down over her slim body in a way that made her want to retch, and reached his arm down into the pocket he had just unzipped. Milly, who was getting rather annoyed at being jerked around in her pouch, yowled and leapt away from his grip, leaving him with several scratches on her way out. He threw down the backpack and reached for the gun at his waist as Milly took off down the alley in the opposite direction.
"Stupid little bi--"
He never finished his thought. Jondy sprang into action, spinning through the air and catching him by surprise. One foot kicked the gun from his hand and sent it spinning off into the shadows. The other connected solidly with his chin, knocking him back against the building at one side of the alley. Before he could register what was happening, she was already ramming a fist into his gut, knocking the air from his lungs. Grabbing the arm he raised in a useless attempt to ward her off, she swung him through the air, his body making a "thump" as it slammed into the metal dumpster across the alley. He slid down to the ground in a motionless heap.
Jondy stood, hands on her hips, and looked down at the unconscious man. She shook her head, strangely disappointed that the entire episode hadn't even caused a shortness of her breath. She prodded his inert body with her foot and checked to be sure that no one had witnessed what had just happened. "Now see," she said, annoyance in her voice. "I told you not to mess with my cat." Turning around, she leaned over to retrieve her backpack and went off to find Milly.
Perez was furious. He paced back and forth across the floor of the abandoned apartment, his shoes thumping against the uncovered hardwood floor. "So what the hell happened, Bender?" he demanded of the man in front of him. Bender's nose was still bleeding from the force of being thrown against a dumpster, and his hand was throbbing from the impact of the foot Jondy had used to kick the gun from his grasp. There was a matching throbbing in his head.
"I told you, boss," he said again. "Three guys came out of the alley and--"
"I did not tell you to pick a fight with 'three guys,'" Perez interrupted. "I told you to hang around South Market and keep a lookout for that nosey little blonde bitch, and then follow her when she showed!" he yelled into Bender's face. "What part of that is too difficult for you to understand?" He paced back across the room and reached into his shirt pocket for a cigarette. "She saw me there the other day, and I know she'll be back." He stopped to glare at Bender. "Are you lying to me? Was she the one who did this?"
Bender's stomach dropped. There was no way in hell that he was going to admit that one little girl had done this to him. "No sir, boss. It's like I told you, see, I thought I saw her and I followed her into this alley, and the next thing I know, these three guys are roughing me up." Bender puffed his chest out. "Ain't no way some little girlie girl is gonna take me out."
Perez looked down at the cigarette he still held in his hands. "Yeah, well, I don't know who or what the hell she is, but this one could if she wanted to." He crumpled the empty cigarette pack in his hand. "Would have been easier if the little bitch would have died in LA like she was 'sposed to." He paced back across the room. "And what the hell was she doing on Clemson?" Perez ground his teeth. He knew the woman didn't work for Jam Pony because she hadn't had the proper ID badge. He wished he would have gotten a better look at the brunette, but he'd been so distracted when the blonde showed up. . . Shit! He was going to have to keep an eye on Jam Pony, just in case she showed up.
He turned and paced back over to Bender. "And what am I supposed to do with you? I can't very well send you back out there. If she's seen you, she knows you're up to something, so you're no good to me anymore."
Bender was about to respond when a third man strode purposefully into the room. His arms were covered in tattoos and scars, leaving him with a rather rough appearance. One large scar across his forehead indicated that at some time in his life he had been in a knife fight, and this wound had probably cut down to the bone. The bulges in his loose clothing indicated that he was heavily armed, and he made no attempt to hide it. Perez turned to face his visitor. "And what do you want?" he asked irritably.
"We had a deal," the man ground out angrily. "You aren't following up on your end of it." Perez finally placed the cigarette between his lips and lit it with a match. He took a puff and stared at the man in front of him.
"Our deal involved certain information which I have yet to receive. I've been carrying out my end of the bargain. Three of your five friends are out of the way, but I haven't received anything from you yet, Skull."
The other man leaned forward, closer to Perez. Several gold chains fell forward and sparkled in the lamplight, and another ugly knife scar became visible through the armhole of his wife-beater, the trophy from a past victory. "And how do I know you'll finish the job if I give you what you want now? Everything was set up yesterday. He was right there at the door when he got the package, a clean shot, and what do you do? Go after the delivery girl. You were supposed to get Ice, not some ho on a bicycle," he snarled. Perez blinked and calmly returned the cigarette to his lips.
"Well, it's like this. Until I have some indication that you will be upholding your end of the deal, I'm going to be awfully worried. I'm the best shot on the west coast, and I dearly love my work, but when I'm nervous, sometimes my aim goes off." He paused a moment before adding his final blow. "Of course, if you aren't willing to carry out your end of the deal, I could always let your . . . friends know about our . . . negotiations. I'm sure they'd be interested."
Skull straightened and made a quick move for the gun hidden at his waist, but not quick enough. By the time he had trained his gun on the other man, three armed men had stepped out of the shadows behind of Perez, all with guns drawn. Perez calmly lifted the cigarette to his lips and took another drag. Skull pondered the situation for a moment, then slowly returned the gun to his pocket.
"I trust that you will be getting me that information, Skull," Perez said calmly.
"And I trust that you will be fulfilling your end of the bargain." He leaned forward slightly. Though Perez's men still had guns trained on him, Skull didn't hesitate. He hadn't gotten as far as he had in life by backing down.
Perez was silent for a moment. "You know the way out." Skull narrowed his gaze, turned, and left.
In all of the excitement, no one noticed the shadow outside the window as it slithered back down the side of the building and disappeared into the night.