Day and Night
Chapter 29
Lennox Macbeth looked disbelievingly at the woman. "You want me to hunt down and kill Demona?" he asked, then burst out laughing.
Mace Malone's representative looked annoyed. "You were a Hunter, as I understand," the black haired woman named Charity noted.
Macbeth wondered who gave them their information. His being a Hunter wasn't commonly known. It was also oddly incomplete, as far as it went.
"We are also willing to pay you well," Charity added.
"No. I'm sorry, but no," Macbeth said firmly.
The woman frowned, "My employer does not appreciate being told no."
Macbeth looked at her, then let himself imagine the many, many ways he'd killed over the years. He let that show in his face, just a bit, and the woman paled visibly.
"Was that a threat?" Macbeth asked flatly.
"No!" Charity squeaked. "No, I...," she trailed off.
"Get out of my office. Now," Macbeth ordered, and the woman fled.
Macbeth worked with New York University's antiquities department, as well as being a heavy donor. He knew where the bodies were buried, historically speaking, and had personally led teams to Scottish artifacts.
He had NOT expected a gangster associate to show up at his university office.
Macbeth got up from his desk, taking out his cellphone and dialing. "Could I speak with Dominique Destine?" he asked.
"May I ask who's calling?" the woman asked pleasantly.
"Mr MacDuff," he replied wryly.
"Oh! You're on the priority call list," the woman said warmly, "I'll put you right through."
There was a short period with hold music. 'Huh. Lorenna McKennit,' Macbeth recognized the tune, a modern recreation of medieval music.
"Macbeth, what can I do for you?" Demona asked briskly.
"For one, why would a mobster want you dead?" Macbeth asked.
"Huh?" Demona replied.
"A agent working for Mace Malone approached me, thinking I was still the Hunter," Macbeth explained, "wanting me to kill you."
"Ah," there was a beat of silence then Demona explained, "It's apparently my fault." She then explained about accidentally saving Tony Dacon from Mace's assassination attempt.
"Ha!" Macbeth snickered.
"I'm SO glad this amuses you. I assume you refused the job?" Demona noted.
"Of course," Macbeth replied. He paused, "As you're functionally unkillable, I almost want to see how this all plays out."
"Gee, thanks," Demona hung up.
A much more cheerful Macbeth went back to work...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Elisa Maza blinked, "They're WHAT."
Matt Bluestone looked amused, "According to sources, Mace Malone is looking for a hitman to go after Demona."
"Why...," Elisa started then realized, "her saving Tony Dacon?"
"Yup," Matt agreed. He added, "My source says that she's bumped against a couple of his operations, too."
Both of them knew his 'source' was his Illuminati friend. One wondered what he wasn't passing on to Matt about this?
"I'll pass it on to Goliath and Demona," Elisa said thoughtfully before adding, "not sure what else we can do."
"We both know how unlikely it'll be for us to nail Mace or Tony," Matt sighed.
"Any news on the Pack?" Elisa checked, knowing Matt was the lead on that case.
"Not much," Matt admitted, "we know all the accounts they hit were mob based, either locally or out of town. And no one is talking to us."
"You had to subpoena the bank's video records just to nail down who was accessing each account," Elisa nodded, having heard the gossip in the station.
"Yup. The other thing we're worried about is the mobs targeting the Pack themselves," Matt added.
"Have we heard if there's a price on their heads?" Elisa asked.
"Not yet, but I expect it's just a matter of time," Matt shrugged. "Wonder if they knew this would happen?" he mused.
"Would they really care about someone putting a hit out on them?" Elisa mused.
"Hmm?" Matt frowned.
"I mean, with the cyborg conversion and genetic changes, it's not like the Pack can ever go back to a 'normal' life anyway," Elisa pointed out.
"Well, yeah," Matt agreed. "Maybe they'll pool their money and buy a private island or something...," he said.
"Ha. Bet you none of them will be able to hold on to all that money," Elisa shook her head wryly.
"Not taking that bet," Matt replied.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Jon Canmore frowned as the woman representing Mace Malone met him in his office. "You want Demona dead?"
"Correct. I understand your Quarrymen support such measures?" Charity asked calmly.
"Oh, yeah," Jon agreed, "the Gargoyles are monsters that need to be destroyed."
"We are also willing to provide some funding and materials," Charity added.
Charity saw his eyes light up with greed and hid a smile. The 'main' group of his Quarrymen had been hit by the cops under domestic terrorism charges. So he had lost both a lot of men, and stockpiled arms and money.
"We still have Hunter armor," Jon nodded, "but admittedly we could use more weapons."
"We have access to top of the line Cyberbiotics gear," Charity noted. "Give us a time and place, we can drop them off. What quantity?"
They discussed figures, then Jon shook her hand. "I will kill the demon," he said intently, "I swear it."
"Good luck," Charity said as she left his office.
Reflecting on the meeting, Charity wasn't entirely comfortable with Canmore. Looking into his eyes she got the feeling he was a fanatic, and fanatics were unpredictable. He hadn't even asked her why they wanted Demona dead! Still...
With a sigh, Charity took out her encrypted phone and dialed, "Mr Malone, I was able to enlist Canmore. MacDuff turned me down."
"The information we had said MacDuff hated Demona," Mace noted.
"Possibly. He still refused," Charity said. "Canmore should be sufficient," she added.
Mace grunted. "I wanted numbers. Demona's a tough customer, I've heard," he said.
"Sorry, sir," Charity sighed.
"All right, he'll have to do. Get back here, there's work to do," Mace hung up.
'Not even a 'Thanks, good work' huh?' Charity thought as she headed off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Huh. There's a price on our heads," Panther noted as she surfed the dark web.
"How much?" Hyena asked curiously, the cyborg relaxing after a bout of wild sex with Jackal.
(Which Panther, Coyote and Wolf had heard. Ick. Anyway...)
"Ten thousand each," Panther said.
"That's chump change!" Jackal said, offended.
"How much do you think it should be?" Coyote had to ask.
"Oh, hundred thousand at least," Hyena said. "I mean, come on. We're ALL extremely dangerous to try to shoot."
"Other than Wolf," Panther teased.
"Unlike the rest of you," Wolf said with dignity, "I can just dump my gear, fade into the crowd and walk away."
"But you'll never be as pretty as we are," Jackal said cheerfully.
"Hey, we got a message from the boss," Panther reported, accessing the secure email they used.
"Another job?" Coyote asked eagerly.
"Another job. And it's a doozy...," Panther agreed.
To be continued...
Notes: Haven't used Macbeth in a bit. Wanted also to follow up on Jon Canmore and his various stuff.