ran Daix’s message. Rudy’s full of shit. Keep clear.
That was it.
I’d arrived home alone. Daix’s fabulously vague communication had arrived shortly afterwards.
What? I texted back. Full of shit how? Keep clear why? I resolved to enrol Daix in a communications seminar at my earliest opportunity.
Being Daix, she did not deign to respond.
Coronis had been busy in my absence. The house was…dishevelled, to say the least. The mishmash of paraphernalia that Mea and I owned between the two of us — an eclectic mix of books and DVDs (mostly mine), video games, knickknacks and odd kitchen gadgets (mostly Mea’s), and assorted unclassifiables — were largely transferred from their regular haunts to every other conceivable surface in the building.
Coronis stood in the midst of this chaos, engaged in a frenzy of activity. She barely looked round when I came in. ‘I can’t find anything,’ she growled. ‘All this crap and not one thing of use.’
‘Nothing about Brianne, hm?’ I said, stepping around a stack of shabby paperbacks to hang up my coat.
‘I started in her room. Nothing. Nothing anywhere.’
Having ransacked every space in the house, including the bathroom and the kitchen, Coronis had clearly done a thorough job. She was agitated; she barely stood still for more than two seconds together, and her wings were a silvery blur of motion.
‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘Coronis. It’s okay to stop.’
‘But I haven’t found anything,’ she said, the last word breaking in a sob. ‘I haven’t helped.’
I moved her way with vague thoughts of offering comfort, though I wasn’t sure what; was a hug going to help? But she rounded on me. ‘You must have come up with something, right? What did you pick up at the Puca? Do you know where she is?’
‘I’m… fairly sure I know where she’ll be tomorrow,’ I said. ‘Or at least, her skin.’ I gave her a rapid precis of the evening’s developments, acutely aware that she was in no way pleased or reassured. Her expression grew darker as I talked.
‘An auction?’ she exploded. ‘They’re selling her at a hags-cursed auction?’
‘Well, no,’ I said, gently grasping her shoulders, and inviting her to sit down. ‘They’re going to try to sell her at an auction, and I’m going to prevent them. Take a breath. Did you eat today?’
‘Stop fussing,’ she said irritably, but she did sit, and she did breathe. ‘Okay. What’s your plan, and how can I help?’
‘I’ll be there tomorrow night. So will Fi, and Daix. We’ve got a plan. Roles, disguises, schemes, everything. It’s very like old times.’ My misty smile soon faded again when I registered Coronis’s expression. ‘Er, right. The plan, is to establish whether our missing selkies are there or not, and if so, retrieve them. Plus their skins, pearls, or anything else that’s been taken.’
‘Just… retrieve them. Right.’ Coronis nodded. ‘Great plan.’
‘Details to be filled in tomorrow.’ I shrugged. ‘Or… not. I mean, we used to wing things quite a lot.’
‘That worked out well for you, on the whole?’
‘More often than it didn’t.’ I stubbornly refused to think about our last mission together. That had been the exception to a long-established rule. ‘Anyway, it’s not that we won’t be preparing at all. I’m going to the old car factory first thing in the morning to check it out. Carefully,’ I added hastily, encountering Coronis’s gimlet eye. ‘I’ll sneak. I’m good at sneaking. Once we get an idea of the space, that’ll help a lot tomorrow night. And if there’s anybody there already, all the better. I’ll spy.’ I was smiling. I couldn’t help it. When was the last time I’d got chance to commit a bit of solid espionage?
Coronis rubbed at her eyes. ‘You’re meant to be professionals, but I have to tell you, Tai, this isn’t sounding like it.’
‘Harsh but fair. No, wait. Not fair. This sort of job was child’s play, back in the day.’
‘And that was a long time ago.’
‘Truth.’ I went into the kitchen, grabbed a couple of bags of crisps, and returned to the living room. ‘Here,’ I said, handing one to Coronis. ‘Eat, then sleep. And sleep soundly, knowing that I hear you and you’re right and I will work on the details of this non-plan before the auction begins.’
Coronis, mollified, accepted the packet. We crunched crisps in silence for a couple of minutes, both of us weary. I wished I could catch a bit of sleep myself, but I didn’t feel there was time. Coronis was right: tomorrow wasn’t far away, and I had a lot of work to do if we weren’t going to screw up at the auction.
This train of thought came to an abrupt halt when the doorbell rang.
I was instantly alert. ‘What the hell time is it.’
‘After three. Who the hell rings doorbells at 3am?’
‘In my experience? No one with the best intentions.’ I dropped my crisps, and drifted towards the door. There’s a motion-triggered light on the porch, and a spyhole in the door itself; some of my old, paranoid habits never did leave me. I moved silently on the carpet in stocking feet, and peered through the door.
Rudy stood waiting.
My thoughts flew back to Daix’s near-incomprehensible message. Rudy’s full of shit. Keep clear. I still didn’t have much of an idea what that meant, but his turning up on my doorstep at this hour clearly wasn’t a good development.
I padded silently back through to the living room. ‘Cor,’ I said softly. ‘Go into your room and shut the door. Wedge it with something heavy. Don’t come out until I say.’
Coronis didn’t argue. She was gone in a moment, the door closing behind her.
I went back to the front door, walking normally this time, and yanked it open. ‘Rudy!’ I beamed, slurring the name slightly. ‘Hey!’
‘Tai.’ He gave an easy smile. ‘You took your time.’
‘Just got in. Had to pee.’
‘Oh? Drinking party?’
I nodded enthusiastically. ‘Was at the Puca. Downed… a few drinks.’ I giggled.
Rudy shook his head, still smiling. ‘Drinking on duty, hm? Not too professional.’
‘Duty?’
‘The other Fatales here?’ He leaned slightly to one side, trying to see around me into the house.
‘Pheriko and Orandine? No. They don’t live here, Rudy.’ I made an expansive gesture. ‘Said it wouldn’t work for us to live and work together.’
‘I’m not talking about your bandmates,’ said Rudy. ‘I’m talking about your old partners.’
So. Rudy had heard stories after all. I let the drunk demeanour fade a little. ‘And why are you looking for them?’
‘I’m not. I’m just making sure.’
‘I never gave you my home address, did I?’
‘Nope.’
Rudy moved fast. He blocked my attempt to shut the door on him, barged inside, and grabbed me by the hair, pulling it and twisting it. I felt a sharp pressure in the small of my back: probably a knife.
‘Ow,’ I snarled. ‘Rudy, what the fuck.’
He shoved the front door closed, and pushed me ahead of him into the living room. ‘You keep in touch with them all this time?’ he said, speaking rapidly. ‘Stayed friends?’
‘Not even a little bit.’ I kept a wary eye on him as best I could, letting him walk me into the centre of the room. He stood looking around, visibly frustrated.
‘Right, sure. So Fionn wouldn’t, say, give you anything important to keep for her? Like when the two of you showed up at Eventide together?’
‘Not to my knowledge—ow.’ Rudy had yanked my head back, a gesture of frustration.
‘So all this mess. That wasn’t you having the same idea?’
‘What? Rudy, I’ve no idea what you—ow!’
‘Did you find it, Tai? You’d better hand it over.’
‘I’ve no idea what you’re on about, but you’re pissing me off.’
‘Poor baby. I’m talking about Fionn’s sealskin. Are you keeping it for her?’
‘That’s what you’re after, hm?’
‘You give me that sealskin and maybe I won’t torch your place.’
‘Tsk. Rudy, you were always the nice one.’
‘Much good it did me. You never looked twice at me, did you?’
‘Is that what this is about? I wouldn’t fuck you?’
‘Stuck-up bitches think you’re—’
He got no further with this charming sentiment, for I’d turned in his grip, grabbed the hand that held the knife, and yanked it away from me. In the same movement, my free hand landed him a smashing blow to the jaw. He stumbled back, clutching his face.
‘Now, if you thought these were some sort of cute affectation,’ I said, holding up my gauntleted fists, ‘you’ve learned differently.’
His face twisted with rage. His arm whipped up; he hurled the knife at my head.
I dodged with embarrassing ease. ‘Appalling throw,’ I chided. ‘Face it, Rudy. You aren’t cut out for this shit. You’re a drummer, not a thug.’
He began grabbing random articles from the heaps of stuff around him, chucking each one at me. He had some aim, and strength enough to throw with force. I winced as something heavy struck my arm, and bounced off.
‘Did Brianne put you up to this?’ I persevered. ‘Met her at Eventide, did you? I bet you were flattered by the attention. Egotistical enough to imagine she meant it. What has she had you doing for her, hm?’
‘That sealskin,’ he growled. ‘I’ll find it, with or without your help.’
‘So that’s your big assignment? Smash and grab? Take back the trophy, win your prize?’ I was growing angry. The next object he threw — a book — I caught mid-air and hurled back at him. It hit him in the face.
Rudy didn’t answer. Hags knew what bullshit he’d spun to justify his actions to himself, but I could see I wasn’t going to reach him with words.
‘Her sealskin isn’t here,’ I spat. ‘Nor is it with Daix, so forget that idea. Now get the hell out of my house.’
‘Like you’d tell me the truth—’
Unwise. Rudy received the benefit of another polite introduction to my gauntlets, and retreated from the encounter with a bleeding face and a possible fractured jaw. He backed up, howling — and ran.
I gave him thirty seconds’ head start — just long enough for him to imagine himself unpursued, and for me to acquire a coat, and shoes — and then I took off after him.
If I was lucky, Rudy would flee straight back to Brianne — and I’d be only a minute behind him.
Whether Rudy was trying to reach Brianne or not, I soon realised where he was headed.
He ran straight for the Selkies’ Pearls club.
Obviously the news of its abrupt demise hadn’t reached him.
‘The fuck,’ he snarled, and stopped, panting for breath and cursing, before the burned-out wreck of the once luxurious nightclub.
I hung back in the shadows, unwilling, just yet, to let him see me. He hadn’t seemed to imagine that pursuit might be a possibility — further proof of his utter amateurishness. I wondered what the hell Brianne was thinking, employing a dilettante like him. Was it just because she realised he and I knew each other? Did she imagine he’d have some kind of leverage over me? I could imagine Rudy boasting of the connection.
When he’d finished swearing, and got his breath back, Rudy pulled out a phone. I’d had to stop in the shadows of a building across the street; too far away to hear what he was saying, but that it pertained to the state of the club was certain, for he gestured repeatedly at the burned husk, and once I heard him shout, ‘It’s fucking wrecked.’
At long, long last he seemed to grow wise to the likelihood of pursuit — or whoever he was talking to had alerted him to the idea — for he began turning in circles, looking around for… well, me, probably.
I let him imagine himself safe.
He said something else into the phone, shaking his head. Something emphatic. I wasn’t followed, okay? Stop worrying. I know what I’m doing. Something like that, most like. The sort of thing characteristic of the kind of shithead Rudy had turned out to be. Overconfidence teamed with a degree of ignorance so profound, it’d almost be cute, if he wasn’t such a dick.
I waited until he’d hung up the phone before I considered my move. He didn’t seem to know what to do next, right away. He stood staring at the club, radiating indecision.
Then he turned, and began to head back my way.
I stepped silently out of my hiding spot and waited for him to notice me.
Took him a little while; he wasn’t paying attention.
‘Shit,’ he swore, when at last it occurred to him that those weren’t just fetchingly-proportioned shadows ahead of him. ‘Tai. Fuck.’
‘Yes, it is I,’ I agreed, stepping forward. ‘Though why this should come as such a huge surprise I’ve no idea. You should’ve listened to your buddy. I mean, of course I was going to follow you.’
I was close enough to see the expression of acute rage that crossed his face. Jeez, how had I missed all these charming personality traits in Rudy? The nice guy routine should never have worked so well on me.
Fuck, I’d lost my edge.
‘So,’ I persevered, when he didn’t speak. ‘What were you expecting to find out here, hm? Meeting up with the lovely Brianne, perhaps? Or someone else?’
‘Like I’d tell you.’
‘You should. Honestly, Rudy. Just because I showed up at Eventide with Fionn, doesn’t make us bosom buddies.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying we didn’t talk for the past eighty years and with good reason. We’re far from friends now. If you’d just told me you were in the market for a certain sealskin, maybe we could’ve helped each other out.’
Rudy watched me, wary. Good; maybe he’d learned a thing or two. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?’
‘You mean when you were trying to remove a kidney by main force? You’re right. Perfect conditions for a cosy chat.’
‘I was told the two of you were thick as thieves. That you’d always back her up.’
‘Brianne’s information is eighty years out of date. She hasn’t exactly shown up to talk to me, either.’
‘So you’re… what, playing her?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Why?’
‘Scores to settle.’
‘Scores? Like what?’
‘If you’ve heard the tales, Rudy, you might recall there used to be four of us.’
He nodded. ‘Happen I’ve heard mention of that, yeah.’
‘Yeah. Well. Fi bailed on us at Ravensbrück and we ended up losing Silise. She deserves to know how that feels.’
I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping it would assuage the faint pang of guilt I felt. It was a lie, if only a small one. Fi hadn’t bailed. She had fucked up, but then, we all had. We were all responsible for Sil’s death. But I needed to make Rudy — and by extension, Brianne — believe that I blamed Fi.
I waited while all this sank into whatever Rudy considered his brain. ‘You said you don’t have her sealskin,’ he said.
‘I don’t. No way she’d trust me with it now. But I’ve been working on her. I’ve got access to her studio, maybe even her flat. If anybody could get it, it’d be me.’
Rudy said nothing, so I tried a smile on him. Sweet, coaxing, flirtatious. ‘Work with me on this, Rudy. Better than fighting, right?’
‘If this is some kind of play—’ he warned, trying to sound tough.
My smile widened. Hooked. ‘I know, I know. I’ll let you extract a kidney. Hell, I’ll serve it on a silver platter for you. Toasted.’
‘Okay, so. What are you suggesting? You’ll get the skin?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then what? Flog it to Brianne and disappear with the cash?’
‘I could — if Brianne didn’t hate me. She won’t even talk to me. I’ll need your help to get to her.’
‘So we split the proceeds.’
‘Fifty fifty.’
He wasn’t sold. He was suspicious. Good. I’d hate to think so poorly of his sense as all that. ‘You don’t need the cash,’ he said.
‘Neither do you.’
He shrugged. ‘There are other perks.’ Like, Brianne’s favour, whatever he thought that was going to consist of.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘Other perks. Like revenge. You ever hate someone that much, Rudy? So much you’d do anything to make them pay?’
‘Never knew you had it in you,’ he said. Hags curse him, he sounded impressed.
I stepped a little nearer. ‘Yes, well. Turns out you underestimated me, hm?’
He smiled. ‘That’s more like it,’ he said, and touched my hair. Just ran his fingers through it, as though he had every damned right to feel up any part of me he chose.
I resisted the impulse to slug him, but it cost me. ‘You get my number along with my address?’ I said, matching him smile for smile.
‘You bet.’
‘Great. Call me, and I’ve got your number. I’ll call you when I’ve got the goods.’
Following a few further pleasantries unworthy of recounting, I was able to retreat. I did so at a saunter — a sashay, even — though I badly wanted to just cut and run. Sleazebag. People like that can be so easy to fool, because shit like this looks perfectly reasonable to them. If Rudy had no problem enslaving Fi for the sake of getting in with Brianne, why would he suspect my motives when I proposed to do much the same?
If I ever got a chance to extract a kidney or two from Rudy, he’d be a goner inside of a week.
Better yet, I’d let Fi do it. She has those knives. I doubt she’s had an opportunity to use them in a while.
I waited until I was well clear of Rudy before I dropped the act. When Rudy’s call came in, I immediately passed his number to Daix (‘Made a “deal” with Rudy, no thanks to your spectacularly unhelpful message. Contact details as follows’).
Then I called Fi.
‘You know that Rudy wants to sell your ass?’ I said when she picked up.
‘So I discovered. Didn’t Daix tell you?’
‘After a fashion.’
‘She said she’d warned you. Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine. I mean, of course I’m fine. Rudy’s a piece of cake. Do you happen to have your sealskin handy?’
Her voice grew guarded. ‘Why?’
‘I’m going to have to wave something compelling in front of his face or I’ll never get him to take me to Brianne.’
‘I see.’
‘I mean, I could try just taking my bra off but I doubt that’d be enough at this point.’
‘Tai.’
‘Yes.’
‘You are not taking my sealskin anywhere near these people.’
‘Okay, but then do you happen to know a way to fake a selkie skin? And it’d have to be a damn good fake, Fi.’
‘No.’
‘Besides, there’s the whole auction thing going on tomorrow and I’m still down to attend as a seller but high and dry on the saleable goods part.’
‘Still no. You can’t fake a selkie skin. Any idiot could tell the difference, and Brianne isn’t an idiot. Neither is whoever’s hosting the auction, I imagine.’
‘This is a problem.’
‘It’s all right. I have a solution.’
‘Oh?’
‘I’ll tell you about it later.’
‘…Do you happen to have two solutions? ‘Cause I’ve sort of double-booked myself here and I can’t give the same sealskin to Rudy and sell it at auction.’
‘Can’t help you with that. Pick one.’
‘Damnit.’
‘Thinking on the fly is all well and good—’
‘Until someone loses an eye. Got it.’
‘Or a partner.’
‘Ouch.’
We were silent for a moment after that. Even I didn’t have the heart to joke the memory of Sil away.
The problem wasn’t a problem, I decided. I’d go to the auction tomorrow, and if nothing came of that, I could use Rudy later. Always nice to have options on top of options, and maybe an extra option just in case.
‘Anyway,’ I said after a minute. ‘I’d, um, better go home and let Coronis out.’
‘You… what? Out of where?’
‘I might have left her barricaded into her bedroom. In my defence, I got excited about hightailing it after Rudy and forgot about her.’
‘Tai.’
‘I’m not used to having civilians in the field, Fi.’
‘Go liberate Coronis. Then come see me.’
‘Ma’am.’
I hung up.