The Sixteen Burdens (23 page)

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY
-T
HREE

A
BLANKET
OF
gray clouds wiped the color out of Los Angeles. Without its blue skies and golden sunshine, Hollywood was dull and brown, a tired lounge singer after wiping off her makeup.

Gray and Panchito arrived at Elsie’s just as a late lunch rush was clogging up the boulevard. Despite a chilly breeze, they came upon Lulu sitting out on the front steps of the girls’ dormitory. She bolted up to her feet as soon as she saw Gray.

“She’s gone!”

“What do you mean?” Gray asked.

“Mr. Siegel took her. I was listening outside the door. He said he’d cut off her fingers.”

“But why?”

“He took something from her. Said she had to show him how to use it.”

Gray and Panchito exchanged a look.

“She doesn’t know how to use it,” Panchito said. “That means it’s probably safe.”

Gray nodded, but kept his thought to himself.

What does that mean for Elsie?

Lulu grabbed Gray by the hand and began dragging him down the sidewalk.

“She’s at the dance hall. I followed them. Come on.”

“What are we going to do?”

Lulu contorted her face into a look of exasperation.

“Rescue her, dummy!”

The Bali Ballroom was four stories of tacky tropical. The dance hall itself, with its high ceilings, took up half of the height. Then, as Lulu explained, there was a floor of offices for operations, and Siegel’s own apartment on top. Elsie could be anywhere in the huge space.

Gray knew from his previous visit that the only way in was through the front. They loitered by a rare book store across the street until dusk approached, hoping to see Siegel or catch some sign of movement up above. There was nothing.

“We’ve got to make a move,” Gray said. “If only we had some kind of distraction.”

As if on cue, the answer presented itself. A green Packard pulled up front, along with other cars arriving for the evening. A man in a sharp white suit got out from the driver’s seat. He was limping a little and had a bandage over the bridge of his nose.

“Fairbanks!” Gray said. “He knows Elsie has the Eye.”

Sugar slid out of the passenger seat, graceful as a snake. She was scowling, as if on her way in to see the dentist.

“That rat!” Panchito said. “He really is working with them.”

Panchito jumped up and Gray had to grab him with both arms around the waist to hold him back.

“Ease up, Lone Ranger,” Gray said. “They must be going to see Siegel. Let’s see if we can follow them inside. We just need to get past that doorman.”

“I have an idea,” Lulu said. “Trust me.”

She led them across the street, and up to the doorman Gray had encountered last time he was there.

Frankenkong.

“What’re you doing here tonight, little lady?”

“Enzo, I caught the guys who were stealing from Mr. Siegel.”

Gray looked at Panchito. Panchito looked at Gray. They turned to Enzo and gave an abashed nod.

“These are the two masterminds who robbed Siegel’s moneyman on the way to the bank last week?” Enzo asked.

“They have no brains, I know. That’s how they did it. No one suspects a dope.”

Enzo cracked the knuckles of his softball-sized fist.

“If they got no brains then their skulls should crack easy enough.”

Whatever joke Lulu was playing on Enzo, Gray thought, she better get to the punchline fast.

“Hold on,” Lulu said. “Mr. Siegel said specifically to bring any suspects directly to him. They want to see if they can cut a deal with him.”

Enzo laughed, a big bear growl.

“Siegel don’t cut deals. He only cuts fingers. You go right ahead.”

They passed through and entered the main room of the Bali Ballroom. It was a wondrous space, with support pillars disguised as palm trees and large murals of tropical beaches along each wall. On a stage framed with a grass roof, a ten-piece band was setting up.

“Back this way,” Lulu said. She led them toward a dark corner of the room, down a dark hallway that led to a women’s dressing room. From behind the door came a scream.

Gray charged the door and pulled it open. As he did, a man fell lifeless into Panchito’s arms. It was the casino doorman, and he had a knife planted squarely in his chest. Panchito dropped him unceremoniously to the floor. Gray shot him a look.

“What?” Panchito said. “He’s dead. He doesn’t care.”

They stepped inside, looking around. A cocktail waitress cowered by the bar like a puppy who’s been swatted with a newspaper.

“Where did they go?” Gray asked. She whimpered, and pointed to an open door on the far side of the room.

“Did you call the police?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

“He asked us not to. He was very nice about it.”

Gray knew who the “he” was. The three of them walked cautiously to the open door and peered inside. It was a small back room with a poker table, the kind used for discreet, high-stakes games. In the corner of the far wall there were steps going up.

“There,” Gray said. “Let’s go.”

“What are we going to do when we get there?” Panchito asked.

Probably get captured, possibly get killed.

“I’m not sure. But stay back. Don’t let Mr. Fairbanks see you or say anything to you.”

They crept up the stairs, Gray testing his weight on each one to see if it would creak. They reached the landing at the top, a short hallway with a coat rack that led into the main room. They heard Fairbanks speaking from around the corner—his same confident, calm demeanor, as if he were at a cocktail party.

“Mr. Siegel, please do take a seat and try to relax. What a lovely apartment you have.”

“I’m gonna put a bullet through each of you.”

“No, you will not. You’ll help us on our errand and then you’ll let us be on our way, with no trouble now or ever. Do you understand?”

There was a pause.

“Yeah, I understand.”

Holding his breath, Gray peeked around the corner to assess the situation. Siegel’s living room was massive—a huge open space that ran the entire length of the building. The furniture looked expensive and gaudy, the movie-set version of an Italian villa. The gilded chairs and carved marble tables were trying their best to disguise the space as something more regal than an apartment above an illegal casino.

The man Gray surmised was Jack Siegel sat nearby in an upholstered chair, wearing a neatly pressed pinstripe suit and a few massive gold rings on his fingers. A slim henchman of some sort stood at his side. Sugar leaned against a window with her arms crossed, and Fairbanks stood in the center of the room, as if he were the host of this awkward party.

“Now, Mr. Siegel, would you be so kind as to tell your man to bring out Elsie?”

Gray saw Siegel’s energy bend toward Fairbanks. The hate in his eyes softened, and he nodded to the man beside him.

“Max, get the girl.”

A few moments later, Max brought Elsie out by the arm and stood her by a fireplace, a rococo thing with white pillars and marble sculptures of Roman gods on the mantle. Elsie had her hands tied in front of her, all of her fingers still intact. She was in the same dress from the movie premiere, and she had dark circles beneath her eyes.

“Thank you,” Fairbanks asked. “It’s Max, is it? Please stay where you are, Max.”

The man’s energy bended and he nodded, eager to comply.

“Elsie, dear, are you all right? You look wretched.”

“I’m swell,” she spat out.

From where she was standing, she’d be able to see Gray and the others in the narrow foyer if she would only turn. Gray saw Panchito flick at the air with his fingers. A patch of Elsie’s hair blew away from her scalp. She silently flinched, and turned to see the three crouching in the entryway.

“I’m going to get you out of here, Elsie, don’t worry,” Fairbanks said. “First, I need the Eye.”

“
He
has it.”

The look Elsie gave Siegel could have burned a hole through his hat.

“Mr. Siegel, now tell me the truth. Do you have the Eye?”

Siegel suddenly opened his mouth, as if by puppet strings.

“Yes, I do.”

“Please hand it over to me now.”

Siegel reached around his own neck and pulled out a chain from under his dress shirt. The Eye was attached to it. He handed it to Fairbanks, who slipped it in his outer jacket pocket.

There was a crash from downstairs and then heavy footsteps. Gray looked back; someone was coming up through the back room. When he turned his head back around, Gray saw everyone in the room had turned toward the door. They were all looking right at him.

He stood and stepped into the room. Panchito and Lulu had the good sense to hide behind the long coats hanging on the coat rack.

“Gray, what are you doing here?” Fairbanks asked.

Sugar was across the room in the blink of an eye with a knife under Gray’s chin.

“Don’t hurt the boy, Sugar.”

“This one’s dangerous,” she said. “He’s got power, I can’t explain it. Let me put a knife through him.”

“Sugar. Step away from the boy and go back to your spot.”

Her energy bent toward Fairbanks. She nodded, and in a flash was standing back at the window on the far side.

Fairbanks frowned apologetically.

“Gray, I’m sorry about what happened. I—”

The giant doorman bounded angrily into the room.

“Quickly, what’s his name?” Fairbanks asked Siegel.

“Enzo.”

“Good evening, Enzo,” Fairbanks said with a smile. “Stop where you are. Please wait there quietly unless you’re needed.”

The man looked confused but did as Fairbanks said.

“Please, Gray, come join us,” Fairbanks said.

Gray had no intention of obeying, but he had a sudden, uncontrollable desire to please Fairbanks. He found himself walking to the center of the room.

“Please, sit.”

But Gray didn’t want to sit. He didn’t want to do anything Fairbanks asked of him. Even as his energy bent toward Fairbanks, he felt every molecule in his blood pulling it back to him.

“No.”

Fairbanks narrowed his gaze.

“No?”

“You’ve betrayed your friends. And you’ve sided with Atlas.”

“If that were true, I wouldn’t have to compel Sugar to be here with me,” he said. “She found me in my car and thought I was unconscious, so she didn’t think to plug her ears.”

Across the room, Sugar was shooting daggers with her eyes at Fairbanks. She looked as if she’d prefer to be shooting daggers at him with her hands.

“I’ve sided with no one but myself,” Fairbanks said. “Not Atlas, not Charlie, and not even Mary. I’ve realized that no one truly trusts me. Not with a talent like mine.”

He gave Gray a mirthless smile.

“So I’ve decided I’m going rogue,” Fairbanks said. “Like Zorro. Or Aladdin. Or any other character I’ve ever played. I have to do it on my own.”

It was a different tune from what Fairbanks had been singing last week.

So much for sidekicks.

“The lesson I’ve missed until now,” Fairbanks said, “is that the hero doesn’t have to be adored; he just has to do the right thing. So now I’m trying to do the right thing, even if you hate me.”

From the corner of his eye Gray saw Panchito thrust a vase right at Fairbanks. It hit him squarely in the back of the head and exploded into shards. He fell to the ground.

Everyone stared at Fairbanks a moment. A fog seemed to lift from the room. Sugar, Siegel, and his men all began to eye each other.

Uh-oh.

Siegel was the first to act. He made a dive for Fairbanks, either to kill him, steal the Eye, or both. Sugar was at Fairbanks’s side in an instant, to protect him or attack him Gray wasn’t sure. She kicked Siegel squarely in the chest, so fast he didn’t have time to react.

Max made a dive for Sugar but she threw a knife that caught him in the thigh and forced him down. Enzo, the doorman, stood poised to attack but he knew Sugar was too fast to catch.

Sugar became a blur of motion. Gray tried to follow her energy but it was going in one big circle around the room. She pummeled everyone in the room, including Gray and Elsie. Like dominoes, everyone doubled over from an attack they were helpless to stop.

Finally Sugar stopped by Fairbanks. She grabbed his collar with both hands.

“Don’t anyone follow,” she said. “Or I’ll be making your throats smile.”

No one seemed inclined to try. She pulled Fairbanks toward the narrow foyer. As she did she backed into Lulu.