Pomegranates full and fine (26 page)

Tango reached up and pulled her old lover’s head back, tilting his face up, just as she had seen Miranda tilt Atlanta’s face. Jubilee’s gaze met Miranda’s.

The vampire’s eyes went wide. She froze. Tango’s breath caught in her throat. “Miranda?”

* * *

Shiv asked you something,
murmured Arthurs in her mind.
You should reply before she gets suspicious.

Miranda forced her throat to work. “He’s tough,” she said. She had the vague impression of the changeling nodding and saying something about pulling away if she had to. She nodded abstractly, not taking her eyes away from Arthurs’. When she had pushed her will against his, she had been expecting to encounter a frightened mind. She hadn’t. Arthurs had been putting on as much of a show' as she had.

Which isn’t to say that I’m not grateful to find an ally,
he commented.
Shiv is very afraid that she may have to hurt me. She won’t do it, but she does have several advantages over me. If I were to try and escape on my own, she could catch me easily.
Miranda had the eerie impression that someone was walking around her mind, examining it from all sides. The unexpected loss of control frightened her. Tango had said that Arthurs was a low-grade psychic!

When she knew me, I was. But that was twenty-eight years ago. She’s changed her name, I’ve learned some new tricks.
He savored “Tango,” rolling it around in Miranda’s mind.
Nice. It suits her.
His mental voice paused. So
what did you have planned for me?
Or
did you have any plan at all?

No, Miranda confessed, half to herself, half to Arthurs’ presence. When she had suggested using her powers on the mercenary, she had actually been more frightened than he and Tango put together.

She had seen the chain bracelet sitting on a nighttable beside Arthurs’ bed, even if Tango hadn’t. A Bandog chain. Even before she had seen the chain, she had thought that Arthurs’ face seemed familiar. Now she knew where from, and the chain was in her pocket. But all she had wanted to do when she’d suggested hypnotizing the mercenary was to keep him from talking. Beyond that...

Such strategy,
Arthurs said sarcastically.
I thought I recognized you when you came in as well. You didn’t have to worry
—
I meant what 1 told her. I wouldn’t have betrayed
Solomon.

So Solomon had had Riley kidnapped! Miranda saw Arthurs’ face wince even as the thought came to her. He had realized his mistake as well.

All right. You know. Solomon had me kidnap Riley. He enchanted a dead man’s hand
so
it would lead me to him.
His eyes grew sharp instead of frightened.
What are you going to do with the information?

She was going to tell Tango. She was going to tell Tango who hired Arthurs, and where to find him. She was going to... no. If she told Tango about Solomon’s involvement, the changeling would inevitably find out about her role in the murders. Miranda almost bit her lip in horrified frustration. She couldn’t tell Tango what she knew!

Unless Arthurs was the one who told Tango about Solomon.

And
then what do you think he will say when she confronts him? Hmmm?
Don’t
you think it would be so much easier if the connection to the Bandog came to an end here?
Arthurs’ voice was seductive, but compelling at the same time. He was right. If Tango kept following the trail that led from Atlanta to Arthurs, she would inevitably encounter the Bandog. And Miranda didn’t want that to happen.

No, Arthurs urged,
you don’t. And a few simple lies are all it will take. Some misdirection. No one will get hurt.

He presented his plan to her in a burst of information. It was simple. It would benefit both of them. It couldn’t fail.

Miranda agreed.

Excellent,
murmured Arthurs.
Now...

Miranda stopped him. She tried to frame a direct question — words, not random thoughts for Arthurs to pull out of her head. It was difficult. Concepts kept getting mixed in with the words, layers of meaning wrapping together.
Is Riley (Tango) all right (angry with me)? Is he (she) still alive (going to be upset)?
Miranda flushed at the conflicting thoughts.

Arthurs laughed silently. You
don’t know Shiv at all.
Miranda glared at him, her will scrabbling against the impenetrable barrier of his mind. She captured at least part of his attention, because suddenly he stopped laughing. You
really want an answer?

Yes.

I don’t know.

Why did Solomon have him kidnapped?
Arthurs didn’t reply. Miranda tried again.
Why did Solomon...

Follow the plan, Miranda. And remember that Tango is watching.

Arthurs pushed her out of his mind.

* * *

Miranda seemed to be taking an awfully long time to seize control of Jubilee’s will, but Tango knew that that was only a feeling. It had been only a minute, maybe a touch longer. She was being impatient. But they were so close now! Miranda and Jubilee were still, eyes locked onto eyes. Tango wondered if she should check on Miranda again.
No. Patience,
she told herself,
patience.

And then Jubilee drew a slow, rasping breath. Miranda gritted her teeth. “I’ve got him,” she said.

“Who hired him?”

Miranda relayed the question. Jubilee replied unwillingly, the information almost having to force its way out of his mouth. “A streetgang leader named Indigo.”

A gang leader? “Why?”

“Because I needed the money.”

Tango clenched her teeth. “No. Why did Indigo want Riley kidnapped?”

“He wanted revenge. Riley murdered a member of his gang.”

Tango froze. “Riley?” She glanced at Miranda. “Could he be lying?”

The vampire shook her head slowly. “Not under my control.”

“But Riley wouldn’t do something like that.” Riley was a prankster, not a killer. But... maybe he had killed a man. Maybe he was a killer. Tango tensed unconsciously. You could never tell, could you? You never knew. She looked back at Jubilee. “Ask him if he knows more.”

Miranda did ask — and Jubilee did know more. Indigo ran guns for Pentex, distributing them to other gangs and punks on the streets. Someone Riley was close to had been killed by one of Indigo’s guns. Riley had been looking for revenge as well. When Indigo couldn’t capture the changeling himself, he had turned to Jubilee. Jubilee had traced Riley to San Francisco, hired Atlanta Hunter to bring him back, held him here until the effects of her bracelet had worn off, then handed the captive changeling over to Indigo. Indigo’s base of operations was a warehouse at the end of Towns Road off Kipling Avenue.

Tango was sitting on the edge of Jubilee’s bed by the time he had finished. She just stared at the mercenary. “Why?” she murmured.

“Is that a question?” asked Miranda wearily. “If it is, what more do you want to know? Isn’t this enough?” “No. I mean, no, it isn’t a question. Do you know where Towns Road is?”

Miranda shook her head. “No again. But Kipling is on the other side of the city. If you want to go check it out, I can do to Jubilee what I did to the man in the back yard and put him to sleep. That would keep him out of the way.”

“If this warehouse is that far away, I think I’d want to have Jubilee with me in case something went wrong.” Miranda seemed startled. “It wouldn’t be a problem for me to put him under. He’d be safe here. And what could go wrong? He’s told us everything.”

Tango just shook her head. “It’s not that I doubt your abilities. It’s just that... I know how slippery Jubilee can be. He might have found a way around your control. Something about this just isn’t right.” Tango drew her knees up to her chin, sitting with her feet on the bed. “Why did all of this happen? Why didn’t Riley tell me something was wrong when he was in San Francisco?” She put her head down on her knees. And what did it have to do with the yellow file he’d mentioned in his frantic message?

Her head snapped back up. “The yellow file!” she spat excitedly. “Ask Jubilee about the yellow file!” Miranda blinked. “What yellow file?”

“Someone broke into Riley’s apartment while he was in San Francisco and searched it. They stole a yellow file out of a hidden compartment. Riley left a message later saying to take that file to the duke.” Tango jumped up. “Ask him about it. Was he the one who broke into the apartment?”

“Jubilee?” asked Miranda. “Did you break into Riley’s apartment?” The mercenary nodded slowly. Miranda glanced at Tango.

“The file,” she prompted her eagerly.

“What was in the file?”

Jubilee was silent. “Ask him again!” Tango ordered. “Ask him what happened to it!”

Miranda licked her lips. “Jubilee, what was in the file? What did you do with it?”

“The file...” Jubilee said slowly. Then his voice quickened with certainty. “The file had details of Indigo’s gunrunning operation. And some other notes.” Tango leaned forward. “I gave it to, Indigo.”

“Damn it!” cursed Tango. She clenched her hands into fists.

“But I made a copy first.”

Tango stared at him. So did Miranda. “Where is the copy, Jubilee?” the vampire asked.

“In the basement. In a box marked ‘Books.’”

“Stay with him, Miranda.” Tango scrambled to her feet.

“Wait! I can...”

But Tango was already out the door and down the hall, running through the kitchen. When they had come in the back door of the house, they had come up a half-flight of stairs. There had been stairs leading down from the back door as well. Tango paused at the top of them. There were light switches beside the door. She flicked at them until the lights in the basement went on.

The basement wasn’t much to look at, just a hard concrete floor and bare, unfinished walls. In one corner, however, was a small pile of boxes. Tango went over to them. There were actually three or four labeled ‘Books.’ She opened the first and dumped it out. Just books and nothing more than books. She reached for a second box.

Behind her, the stairs creaked. She whirled around, knife at the ready. It was Miranda. “I told you to stay with Jubilee!”

“I put him to sleep. There’s nothing he can do.” The vampire walked all of the way down to stand at the bottom of the steps. “What do you think you’re going

to find in the file?”

“I don’t know, but get back upstairs! I don’t trust Jubil—”

From outside came the sound of a car engine roaring to life.

CHAPTERELEVEN

Till Laura dwindling

Seemed knocking at Death’s door:

Then Lizzie weighed no more

Tango ran for the stairs. Miranda tried to act clumsy, to get in her way and slow her down, but the changeling pushed right past her, shoving her effortlessly to one side. She yanked open the back door and charged outside, around the corner of the house. Miranda ran after her.

Arthurs was already out of the driveway and driving down Hillock Street in reverse, not taking the time to turn around. Tango was pursuing him grimly, moving faster than a human could. She might even be able to catch him when he paused to change gears. If he didn’t shoot her first. “Tango!” Miranda yelled. “Watch out!"

She was almost too late. Streetlights flashed on the barrel of Arthurs’ revolver as he stuck his arm out the car window and fired blindly. The gunshot was loud, the eerie flare of green flame that the revolver produced shockingly bright. It was hard to say what happened first: Tango throwing herself aside in reaction, or a chunk of asphalt a couple of feet from her exploding into black splinters. Arthurs reached the end of the street, brought the car to a screaming halt, threw it into first, then took off again with a squeal of tires. Tango was back on her feet, but there was no way she was going to be able to catch him now. She stopped at the end of Hillock and stared after the receding car. Jubilee must have been long out of sight by the time the changeling began walking back down the street. Lights were starting to come on in other houses along the street as people reacted to the gunshot. Hastily, Miranda wrapped a cloak of shadows around Tango as soon as she was close enough. With luck, anyone looking out their windows now would see only a vague figure.

But Tango was walking slowly. Miranda shrank back into the shadows of Arthurs’ house — such shadows as there were, of course. All of the activity had brought on the lights connected to the motion detectors. The house might as well have been on fire. If the gunshots hadn’t attracted the notice of the neighbors, the bright lights would. Miranda hoped that the cool, polite uninvolvement of Toronto would be enough to keep people from calling the police. She wasn’t going to count on it, though. The atmosphere was different out here in the suburbs. People weren’t quite so willing to look the other way, and the arrival of the police would make things difficult. “Move it, Tango,” she muttered to herself.

The changeling took her time, walking with her face emotionlessly blank. “What happened?” she asked flatly as she walked up the driveway.

“I don’t know,” Miranda lied. But she did. She had let Arthurs go. She hadn’t even tried to put him to sleep after he had improvised the bit about the copies in the basement. She had simply let him retrieve his gun and run while she went downstairs after Tango. What else could she have done? Arthurs’ plan had been to escape while the women were gone. If Tango had taken the mercenary with them out to the warehouse on Towns Road, he wouldn’t have had any chance to get away. And because the warehouse, and the story about Riley and Indigo and everything else, was a lie, too, Tango would have questioned Arthurs again. And this time she would have found out about the Bandog. “I put him under. Do you think he could have resisted my control somehow — because he’s psychic?”

“Wouldn’t you have known?”

Miranda almost bit her tongue, but managed to say smoothly, “I don’t know. I’ve never tried to control a psychic before.” She caught Tango’s arm. “We should leave before the police come. We were lucky at Atlanta’s. We won’t be lucky twice.”