“I happen to be a fan of the truth.”
Dan shook his head sadly. “He died helping us. We got him killed.”
They hadn’t twisted the wire down too hard. Dan Garrett talked tough, but he hadn’t even let it cut into her skin. Hammer knew she could wiggle a hand free and get herself out of this in no time. They had gone around the corner to talk privately. It would only take a second. Her guns were sitting on the counter. They’d never see it coming.
This was stupid. They didn’t trust her, and why should they? Sullivan was honorable enough to not put a bullet in her head and dump her body in the woods, but she couldn’t tell about Garrett. Since Mouths were so good at twisting their words, their lies didn’t even register. She hated Mouths because they were one of the only types that she couldn’t judge. He’d sucker-punched her and she’d walked right into it. As a professional, that was flat-out embarrassing.
She could skip out the back, run for the car. By the time she could contact the OCI the Grimnoir would be long gone. Crow would be suspicious, but she could just say that they’d surprised her and tied her up. It wasn’t too far from the truth. The wire wasn’t that tight. She probably wouldn’t even leave much skin behind…
Hell with it. As her daddy used to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. She left the wire alone and waited for the Grimnoir to finish their conference. Besides, they could come back around the corner any second and it would look real suspicious if she was in the process of untying herself.
The walls were thin. She could hear voices but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. When they came back in she would try to convince them that she was telling the truth. She had to watch herself, though. The normal alarm bells that would be going off when somebody lied to her simply didn’t work with Garrett.
Sullivan raised his voice. Something had ticked him off. The conversation tapered off again and she didn’t get to hear anything else. They came back a minute later, looking glum. Sullivan untwisted the wires around her wrists. “Sorry about this.” He knelt down and freed her ankles. He was surprisingly gentle about it. “And I’m real sorry about the whack on the head.”
She rubbed the circulation back into her hands. “And the general indignity of it all?”
“That too.”
“And my car?”
“Don’t push it.” Sullivan went over and took a seat. Garrett stayed leaning against the wall.
“You’ve put us between a rock and a hard place,” the Mouth said. “There’s layers here, and we’ve got to figure out which ones are legit and which ones are a scheme, and I don’t have your advantage in that department, so you’re just going to have to forgive my rudeness while we sort this out.”
“That’s okay. I hear Sullivan likes puzzles.”
Garrett suddenly flinched and jerked his hand back as if it had been shocked. “Huh?”
Hammer noticed that Sullivan had clenched one hand into a fist and was studying his ring. “Incoming message,” he said. “Lance.”
“I got it. If you’ll excuse me,” Garrett said, and he hurried from the room, leaving her alone with Sullivan.
“What’s that all about?” she asked.
“We can use these to set up communication spells,” he explained patiently. “Probably a lot neater before they invented the telephone and all, but as you can see, not a lot of lines around here… And I probably shouldn’t be telling you anything else.”
“That’s interesting.” Hammer had always been intrigued by all the mysteries of the Power. She’d pieced together several useful tricks over the years, but according to her investigation, Sullivan was supposed to be a wealth of knowledge. “You remember the first time we spoke. I wasn’t lying about one thing. I do find Actives a fascinating topic.”
“Well, you came to the right place. Once we get this sorted out and if I’m not in the electric chair or Rockville, I’d love to talk about what it is you do. I’ve been cataloging as much as I can about how the Power works.”
“So I did have you pegged, Mr. Librarian. Mind of a scholar in the body of an ox.”
“Scholar? Maybe if circumstances had been different. Here in the real world I’m just too damn good at fighting. It keeps cutting into my reading time.” He chuckled. “Listen, Hammer-”
“Pemberly.” She decided then that she liked this big, honest, tough guy. On first impressions, some people might mistake Sullivan for simple, but he was anything but. “That’s my name.” Sullivan nodded slowly, as if analyzing if she was trying to con him again. “Friends call me Pem.”
“I’m sure they do, but I’m not there yet. I’m going to explain some things to you. Dan’s going to explain some more. The Grimnoir are a good bunch. The folks running it are secretive sometimes to the point of stupid, but with the way things are going now I can maybe see why they’re like that. We do good things and we defend a lot of folks who can’t defend themselves.”
That sounded a lot like her father. “You trying to sell me something?”
“I save the fancy talk for the Mouth. What I’m trying to say-” Sullivan stopped and jerked his head toward the front of the house. “You hear that?”
Someone was shouting.
Sullivan swept back his jacket and pulled a big automatic from a holster on his hip. “Hang on.” He walked quickly down the hall. Hammer ran over and picked up her guns. If Crow had somehow followed her here
… That was too horrible to think about. She followed Sullivan into the front room. He got behind the wall and peeked out one corner of the window. “Aw, hell.”
“What is it?” She moved up on the other side of the window and looked out.
It was dark, but she could make out a lone figure standing in front of the farmhouse. He raised his voice and bellowed. “Jake Sullivan! Come out and face me!”
“That’s the Imperium diplomat I talked to.”
“Diplomat, my ass. Iron Guard,” Sullivan said through clenched teeth. “Tough bastards. Remember earlier when Dan mentioned Unit 731?”
“Yeah?”
“You got a rare Power. Trust me, you do not want to get captured by the Imperium.” Sullivan moved to the other side of the door and picked up a large, strange-looking rifle. He pulled the bolt back with a clack. A bandoleer of magazine pouches went over one shoulder. “Go get Dan.”
“Jake Sullivan! I am Toru. Are you a coward? Face me, Heavy!”
Sullivan put one hand on the latch and took a deep breath.
“What’re you going to do?”
“I’ll hold them off and kill as many as possible. We’re probably surrounded. I’ll cause a ruckus and distract them. Once they’re concentrating on me, then you two run for your lives.”
“I’m a good shot.” She hoisted the Bisley. “I can help.”
He grabbed her hard by the arm and pulled her around. “Listen to me. Iron Guards don’t die easy.” Sullivan glared at her. “Don’t be stupid. Get out of here. I’ll catch up.”
I’ll catch up. It was the first time he’d actually lied to her tonight.
Sullivan threw open the door, kept as much of his body behind concealment as possible, and aimed his bullpup BAR at the Iron Guard. It was dark, and the only illumination was from the lantern light leaking through the doorway, but the Iron Guard was only ten yards away. It was an easy shot. “Evening, Toru.”
“Mr. Sullivan,” the Iron Guard responded politely.
He had to keep Toru talking, let him gloat to buy the others time to escape. This place was flimsy. A machine gun in the trees would shred the farmhouse. Toru wouldn’t have announced himself unless his men were already in position. That honor-bound son of a bitch probably wanted to fight him one on one to make up for last time. That seemed like the Iron Guard thing to do. Good. He’d use his Power to make a mess of things and hopefully Dan and Pemberly could make it out the back. There would be more Imperium in the fields, but hopefully Dan’s Japanese language practice would finally pay off. “Nice night for a fight to the death.”
“Most nights are.”
“How’d you find me?” He said me instead of us on purpose. Hopefully the Imperium didn’t know about the others.
“I had a Finder put a spirit on the woman looking for you. She struck me as someone who would not give up
