The Bloodline Feud (Merchant Princes Omnibus 1) (79 page)

‘Stand, bitch!’ Someone was slapping someone else’s face. Suddenly there was a hand under her armpit. ‘Fuck, what’s wrong with you?’

‘Three jumps, two hours,’ she slurred drunkenly.

‘Crap.’ A door opened and he shoved her forwards. ‘Fucking get over it or I’ll start on your fingernails. You think your head hurts, you don’t know shit.’

‘What do you
want
?’ she mumbled.

‘Freedom.’ He pushed her toward the low leather-topped sofa opposite Matthias’s desk. ‘Freedom to travel. Freedom to live away from this fucking pesthole. A million bucks
and the wind in my hair. The boss looks after his own. Drop the fort and deliver you and I’ve got it made. Loads of money.’

He pushed her down onto the sofa. ‘Now you and me are going to sit tight until your friends are over on the other side.’ He waved at the CCTV monitor on Matthias’s workstation.
‘Then I set a timer and we leave by the back door.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Meantime, there’s something I’ve been wondering. Do you give good head?’ he inquired,
leaning over her.

Something flickered at the edge of Miriam’s vision. She focused past his shoulder, saw the door open and Roland standing there with a leveled pistol. The gunman turned, and something made
a noise like a sewing machine, awfully loudly. Hot metal rain, cartridge cases falling. A scream. Miriam kicked out, catching him on one leg. Then the back of his head vanished in a red mist, and
he collapsed on top of her.

‘Oh Miriam, you really are no good at this!’ trilled Olga, ‘but thank you for drawing his attention! That creep, he makes me
so
angry . . .’ Then her voice
changed: ‘Dear Lightning Child! What’s happened to Roland?’

‘I – ’ Miriam tried to sit up, but something was pinning her down. Everything was gray. ‘Where is he?’

‘Oh dear.’ Olga knelt in the doorway, beside something. Someone. ‘Are you wounded?’ she asked urgently, standing up and coming toward Miriam. ‘It was his idea to
follow you – ’

Miriam finally sat up, shoving the deadweight aside. Strangely, her stomach wasn’t rebelling. ‘Get. Others. Go across and finish off. I’ll look after him.’ Somehow she
found herself on the other side of the room, cradling Roland. ‘He’ll be all right.’

‘But he’s – ’

She blinked, and forced herself to focus as Olga leaned over her, face white. ‘He’ll be all right in a minute,’ Miriam heard herself explain. ‘Scalp wounds are always
bloody, aren’t they?’ Somewhere a door opened and she heard Olga explaining something to someone in urgent tones, something about shock. ‘Aren’t they?’ she asked,
still confused but frightened by Olga’s tone. She tried to rub her sore eyes, rendered clumsy by her tied hands, but they were covered in blood. Then Brill rolled up her sleeve and slid a
needle into her arm.

‘What a mess,’ Brill told someone else, before the blessed darkness stifled her screams.

EPILOGUE

‘Fourteen of them, you say?’ said Inspector Smith, raising an eyebrow.

‘Yessir. Nine coves and five queans all went into the shop mob-handed, like.’

‘Fourteen.’ The other eyebrow rose to join it. ‘Jobson never reported back.’

‘There’s no sign of blood, sir, or even a struggle,’ the inspector’s visitor said apologetically. ‘And they wasn’t in the premises when me and my squad went
in, ten minutes later. Weren’t in the basement, neither. Nor any of the tunnels we’ve explored.’

‘Fourteen,’
Smith said with a tone of increasing disbelief.

‘Sir, we took fingerprints.’ The visitor sounded annoyed. ‘None of them except the Fletcher woman are in our files, and her prints were old. But we had a spook watching as they
went in. The count is reliable: fourteen in and none of them came out again! It’s a very rum do, I’ll agree, but unless you have reason to suspect that a crime has been committed
– ’

‘I have, dammit! Where’s Jobson?’ Smith stood up, visibly annoyed. ‘Are you telling me that one of my agents has disappeared and the people responsible aren’t to be
found? Because if so, that sounds like a pretty bad sign to me, too.’

‘I’ll stand by it, sir.’ The regular thief-taker stood firm. ‘We took the entire block apart, brick by brick.
You
had the pawnbroker in custody at the time, need
I remind you? And his lawyer muttering about habeas corpus all the while. There is, I repeat, no evidence of anything – except fourteen disappearing persons unknown, and a constable of the
Defense Bureau who’s nowhere to be seen. Which is not entirely unprecedented, I hope you’ll concede.’

‘Bah!’ The inspector snorted. ‘Did you take the cellar walls apart?’ His eye gleamed, as if he expected to hear word of an anarchist cell crouched beneath every
block.

‘We used Mr. Moore’s new sound-echo apparatus.’ The thief-taker stood up. ‘There are no hollow chambers, sir. You can have my hat and my badge if you uncover any, as I
stand by my word.’

‘Bah.
Get out.
’ Smith glared at the superintendent of thief-takers. ‘I have a call to make.’ He waited for the door to bang shut behind the other man before he
added, ‘Sir Roderick is going to be very annoyed. But I’ll make sure that damned woman gets her comeuppance soon enough . . .’

*

Weeks passed: days of pain, days of loss, days of mourning. Finally, an evening clear of snow beneath the winter skies over New London found Miriam standing in the foyer of the
Brighton Hotel, dressed to the nines in black, smiling at the guests with a sweet solicitude she hardly felt. ‘
Hello,
Lord Macy! And
hello
to you too, Lady Macy! How have
you been? Well, I trust?’ The line seemed to stretch around the block, although the red carpet stopped at the curb – many of the visitors were making a point of showing up in new Otto
cars, the ones the Durant Motor Company was fitting with the new safety brakes.

‘Hello, my dear lady! You’re looking fine.’

Her smile relaxed a bit, losing its grim determination. ‘I think I am, indeed,’ she admitted. ‘And yourself? Is this to your satisfaction?’

‘I think – ’ Sir Durant raised one eyebrow – ‘it will do, yes.’ He grinned, faintly amused. ‘It’s your party: Best enjoy it as much as you can. Or
are you going to stand by your widowhood forever and a day?’

He tipped his hat to her and ambled inside, to the dining room that Miriam’s money had taken over for a night of glittering celebration, and she managed to keep on smiling, holding the
line against desolation and guilt. The party was indeed glittering, packed with the high and the mighty of the New London motor trade, and their wives and sons and daughters, and half the board of
trade to boot.

Miriam sighed quietly as the carpet emptied and the doors stopped revolving for a moment. ‘Busy, isn’t it?’ Brill remarked cheerfully behind her.

‘I’ll say.’ Miriam turned to face her. ‘You’re looking beautiful tonight,’ she mimicked, and pulled a face. ‘Anyone would think I was selling them pinup
calendars, not brake shoes.’

Brill grinned at her cheekily. ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she began. ‘If you put out a calendar with yourself on it, that might improve sales – ’ She held out a full
glass of something sparkling.

‘Here, give me that. It’s not suitable for young ladies!’ Miriam took it and raised it. ‘To . . . something or other.’ Her daringly bare shoulders slumped tiredly.
‘Success.’

Brill raised the other glass: ‘Success. Hey, this isn’t bad.’ She took a big mouthful, then wiped her lips with the back of one glove. ‘Do you think they’re
enjoying it?’

‘They will.’ Miriam looked at the dining room doors, then back at the front: It was almost time for the meal to begin. ‘Or else,’ she added bitterly.

‘You haven’t seen Lady Olga yet?’ asked Brill.

‘No – ’ Miriam caught her eye. ‘Why?’

‘Oh, nothing. It was meant to be her surprise, that’s all. I shan’t give it away.’ Brill did her best impression of an innocent at large, nose in the air and glass in
hand. ‘Success,’ she muttered. ‘
Most
women would be after true love or a rich husband, but this one wants to own skyscrapers.’

‘True love and a helmet will stop bullets,’ Miriam said bitterly.

‘You weren’t to know.’ Brill looked at her askance. ‘Was it
really
true love?’

‘How the fuck should I know?’ Miriam drained her glass in one gulp, so that she wouldn’t have to explain.
Was it?
she wondered, confused, still numb.
Damn it, he
should be here, now. We had so much to talk about.

‘Owning skyscrapers makes the need for a rich husband irrelevant,’ Brill pointed out. ‘And anyway, you’re still young. True love is bound to – ’ She stopped.
Another car was pulling up outside, and a small crowd of partygoers was climbing out.

‘Here, take this,’ Miriam said, passing her an empty glass. ‘Got to be the hostess again.’

‘That’s all right, don’t mind me.’ Brill took a step back as Miriam straightened her back and tried to bend her face into a welcoming mask once more.
Only another
five minutes.

The door opened. ‘Olga!’ she exclaimed.

‘My dear!’ Olga swept forward and insisted on planting a kiss on her cheek. ‘I brought you a present!’

‘Huh?’ Miriam looked past her. The door was still revolving – slowly, for the occupant seemed to be having some trouble. Finally he shuffled out and slowly advanced.
‘Uncle, you aren’t supposed to be out – ’

‘Miriam.’ He stopped in front of her, looking faintly amused. His costume was, as ever, impeccable, even though he must have found it passing strange. ‘I thought I should come
and see the new business that the prodigal has built for us.’ His smile slipped. ‘And to apologize for nursing that viper. I understand he cost you more than money can ever
repay.’

‘Oh hell.’ She frowned at him.
Easy for you to be gracious, now Roland’s dead and you don’t have to worry about your precious braids anymore
– But somehow
the harsh thoughts didn’t have any fire behind them. She crossed the six feet between them. ‘Uncle.’ He did his best to return the hug, although he winced somewhat. She leaned her
chin on his shoulder. ‘I’m pleased to see you. I think.’

‘It was all her idea,’ he said, jerking his chin over his shoulder.

‘Her? Why – mother!’

The revolving door ejected another late guest who seemed to be walking with a slight limp. Bundled in a voluminous gown and leaning heavily on a cane, she glowered truculently about the hall for
a moment, then spotted Miriam and beamed.

‘Hello, dear! You’re looking every inch the princess tonight.’

‘Hah.’ Miriam walked forward and kissed her mother on the forehead. ‘Wait till you meet my disreputable friends.’

‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world, dear. We’ve got a family tradition to uphold, haven’t we?’

‘Indeed.’ A thought struck Miriam. ‘Where are you staying tonight? I’ve got a suite here. Olga, if you don’t mind – ’

‘I
do
mind,’ said Olga. ‘If you want me to give up the guest room, I demand the imperial suite here!’

‘But you know that’s booked – ’ Miriam began, then the doors revolved again and her eyes widened. ‘What are
you
doing here?’

‘Is that any way to greet a friend?’ Paulette grinned widely as she looked around. ‘Hey, plush! I thought this was going to be all horse manure and steam engines!’

‘This is Brill’s fault,’ Olga confided. ‘When she heard about the party, she began plotting – ’

‘Yeah!’ Paulie agreed enthusiastically. ‘We couldn’t let you keep the limelight all to yourself. Say, is that really a gaslight chandelier? Isn’t that
amazing?’

‘Children, you’ll be late for dinner!’ Brill interrupted. ‘Take it up some other time, huh? I don’t want to miss Sir Brakepad’s speech. Isn’t he
cute?’

She gently moved them in the direction of the dining room, steering Angbard discreetly. Miriam followed behind, arm in arm with her mother, and for the first time in months she dared to hope
that the worst was behind her.

Praise for the Merchant Princes series

‘A marvelous romp through this world and others, told by a master of the imaginative thrill-ride. These books will remain on my shelf for many years to come’

Karl Schroeder

‘Inventive, irreverent, and delightful . . . an alternate world where business is simultaneously low and high tech, and where romance, murder, marriage, and business are
hopelessly intertwined – and deadly.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

‘Shocks, surprises, reversals, and elaborations keep tumbling from Stross’s nimble fingers . . . These books are immense fun’

Locus

‘Fantasies with this much invention, wit and gusto don’t come along every day’

SFX

‘Fans of the author’s previous work will recognize his trademark skill at world building – you can almost see the filth on the streets of New England, feel the
closeted oppression of the Clan hierarchy, and experience Miriam’s terror at the horrifying circumstances she finds herself in’

SciFiNow

‘Fast-moving action with a number of interesting characters . . . Stross’s ability to combine interesting ideas with solid plotting is one of his great
strengths’

Asimov’s Science Fiction

‘A rollicking, pacy read and delivers on the fun’

Interzone

‘One of the defining phenomena of twenty-first century SF is Charles Stross, for the quality of his work at its best . . .’

Time Out

‘For sheer inventiveness and energy, this cliffhanger-riddled serial remains difficult to top’

Publishers Weekly

‘An intriguing and thought-provoking world’

Vector

‘It’s official – Charles Stross can do anything. And what he likes to do best is take hoary old chestnuts – say, the space opera or the alternate-Earth
fantasy – and roast them over an open fire until the heat has cooked them into something deliciously new and strange . . . It’s never less than completely engrossing’