The ringing of a cell phone pierced the relative silence of the rooftop, where a solitary figure stood, waiting.
"Richard."
"Richard! I hope this goddamn delay of yours has been a worthwhile waste of my time," a disembodied voicespoke harshlyinto his ear.
"I think you'll be very happy with the merchandise I'll be bringing back, Mr. K."
"Okay, I'll bite. What kind of merchandise?"
"For starters, there's a department store here that we should be able to load up on all kinds of supplies, a restaurant too, so there could be food. I wouldn't guarantee that anything's gonna be too fresh though," Richard tried to joke.
"You've got about 30 seconds to thrill me with something better than department stores and restaurants before I tell you not to bother coming back in," his boss' humorless voice replied.
"How about a little teen dream that should net us a fortune once we get her back to the city and working the streets."
"You have my attention. Now what else do you have to thrill me with?"
"How about more moneymakers? There's another one here that's a spirited little hellcat, we should be able to put her to work in the back rooms, maybe even get her up on stage dancing. She'd probably be too much of a risk working the streets with the other two, I wouldn't put it past her to try running on us if we did, but she still oughta bring in some good cash. Maybe even more than the others, over time anyway."
"You're sure you can handle this one?"
"Absolutely. The teen queen's a little busted up right now, nothing major, but enough to make her pretty docile..."
"Busted up is no good to me. How long am I gonna have to wait around babying her before she'll actually be bring me a profit? But that's not the one I'm concerned about. If the other one's as wild as you say she is, she could be more trouble than whatever her money making potential is worth."
"I've broken in wilder fillies than this before," Richard drawled, for the first time revealing the faintest hint of a Texas accent into his otherwise carefully articulated speech. "Besides, it's not like I'm flying completely alone here, I've got that girl I picked up from the Fort, and then that bus driver will do whatever I tell him to do. At least as long as he thinks he's getting paid for it."
"And the others?"
"What 'others'? Richard hedged.
"I really hope that by now you realize you can't play me for some sort of fool Richard."
"No, sir, Mr. K, sir."
"Because even with your talents for survival, and, uh, shall we say your skills of procurement, you're not entirely irreplaceable to me."
"Of course not Mr. K, I'd never even suggest..."
"So quit your feeble attempts at kissing my ass and answer my damn question."
"There's a couple of kids here, probably not even pre-teens yet."
"Kids aren't entirely without their uses, and I understand they're easier to train when you start them young, kind of like dogs."
If Richard was even remotely shocked at the sentiment, it didn't show. "They've also got a big brother or something..."
"Good, we should be able to make use of him right now, get him out there on the front line patrols along the throat," Mr. K reasoned, not even letting Richard finish.
"There's also a couple other guys here, I think one of them is some kind of medic."
"We can make use of that, cities always need medical providers.However, you're stalling, and I sense a 'but' coming."
"Nothing that can't be taken care of Mr. K."
"You're bullshitting me again Richard. I want the facts."
"The last two are a couple of soldiers."
"Good, nothing like having them already trained to kill when they join our ranks. You should have told me about them sooner, they're much more important than some lousy kids and doctors."
"I'm not so sure they're going to willingly join up, Mr. K. There's also a good possibility that they'll try to interfere with our plans for the girls. I get the impression that they're going to be territorial in that respect."
"Well these are your problems Richard, not mine. You have two days, if you're not at the docks to meet the boat by 4pm the day after tomorrow, you'll have to find your own safe haven."
Just like that, the line went dead. Richard stared out across the skyline, trying to come up with a solution to his problems. He hadn't lied to Mr. Kaufman, Natalie was already his to command, and the bus driver had already proven he was easily bought, something that he'dbe able to work to his advantage. The little teen was going to be easy to handle too, at least until her shoulder and ankle healed, he could even rely on Natalie to deal with her if he had too.
The hellcat and the soldiers, those were his real problems. And they all seemed to be closely tied to each other. He'd have to use Natalie to separate them as much as possible.
"Richard?" Natalie's voice called from behind him, breaking into his thoughts.
"What did you learn from the girl?"
"The two girls, they hate each other. Tara's jealous of that other one, seems to think she's hogging all the male attention around here."
"And just how am I supposed to use some worthless information like that? Hmm?"
"I...I was getting to that," she replied, startled. "Tara says that the other girl goes nowhere alone, she's either got her gay friend, or one of those guys with her."
"Then it looks like it's going to be your job to get her away from the others now won't it?"
"My job?"
"We leave in two days, your job is to get the bitch away from those soldiers. I'll deal with the teenager."
"Where are we going? You keep saying that we're going someplace, but...you never tell me where."
"We're going someplace that's safe from those things, that's all you need to know."
"But..." she choked out, cowering when he raised his fist as if to strike her. He'd already proven how many places he could hit her without leaving any visible bruises.
"Do you need another lesson? Is that it?" he gave her a terrifying smile.
"No...please...I won't ask again. I swear I won't," she cried, cringing away. "I'll do whatever you ask, please, just don't hurt me."
"Whether or not you get hurt is entirely up to you my little pet. Now I want you to tell me everything that the girl told you, without any lies, and don't leave anything out, or else you'll force me to punish you again."
Down in the security office, Emily was interrogating Tara, only in a much more snide, yet friendly, manner.
"Okay kiddo, I want the 411, what'd you learn?" demanded Emily. Once she'd been filled in on what the bus driver knew, she'd waited in the shadows outside the security office until she saw Natalie leave. It'd been a long wait, but then Aaron had joined her and she'd almost missed the other woman's exit in the process. But as soon as the other woman left, Emily went on her fishing for information quest.
"She kept asking me questions, about you and me mostly. She really seemed to like the idea that we don't get along."
"Was she trying to get you to pick sides?"
"Not in so many words, but I definitely got the impression she wanted to make friends with me. I think she also was fishing for information on who's screwin' around with who," the teen answered and then laughed over the way Emily's eyes seemed to bulge from her head.
"Why in the fuck would she care about something like that?"
"Maybe she wants a piece of your action."
"Or to laugh at your non-action!"
"Hey! I thought we was on the same side here," complained the teen.
"Sorry. Just trying to stay in practice for when we have an audience."
"Yea, right."
"Seriously, what the fuck does my sex life have to do with anything?"
"Okay, Emily, focus here. For starters, no one gives a good goddamn about your sex life, so just get over it. The whole point I was making there, she's trying to find out who spends their time with who. I just threw in the rest of it for a few laughs."
"And you're bitching at me about getting along?"
"Oops. Like you said, practice."
"All right, I guess on some level I deserved that."
"Damn right you did."
"Okay, okay. Truce," Emily said defensively. Her mind was whirling, trying to connect the information she'd gotten from Sean and Aaron with Tara's suspicions. There was pattern there somewhere. "Let's piece this thing together from the start. The guys say that the bus driver was paid to drive them from the bus garage to the docks off of Butler street."
"Right, but that they detoured here when they realized Vicki had been bit," Tara added. "What, were they afraid there woulda been a mutiny if they'd shot her on the bus?"
"They'd have had to deal with freaked out kids, and why do that when they can push it off on strangers," Emily suggested. "But the real question is why go to the docks?"
"Duh! They've got to have a boat waiting," Tara fairly squealed. "It's a way outta this fuckin' city."
"A boat to where though?"
"You always have to be a buzz killer."
"I think I know," Aaron's voice called from the doorway. He walked into the office, stopping once he reached Thomas' desk. Leaning his hips against the desk, he turned and faced the two women. "Sean pulled up a map of the area on one of the computers. If you head straight across the river, it leads right up to the back half of Greenlawn Heights."
"Greenlawn Heights? The loop..." Emily muttered.
"Huh?"
"Greenlawn Heights, it's like a loop at the bottom of a rope or something. Three sides surrounded by the River, and there's only about a half mile stretch that's all land," she explained.
"Something that could be defended fairly easily?" Aaron asked.
"Kinda. There's a lot of warehouses along that stretch, some rail yards too, I think. I know there are some tunnels that branch out under the river, to and from the Green too," Emily said.
"So, now that we have the where figured out, what do you think the how and the why are?" Tara asked thoughtfully.