Daavisim wasn’t speaking plainly, which wasn’t like him. As I recalled, the same guy had taken Tamshius. The two acts were probably linked. Not that he robbed Daavisim to pay Tamshius—he was probably trying to start a war. This was the trigger. It wasn’t an easy thing, starting a war. You’d think it would be, but in the short term, it’s always bad for business.
“It could cause problems,” I said.
“Better done now and we start with a clean slate, or have this thing explode when the cops are here?” he asked innocently.
“Whoa! Garm will beat the crap out of you if you threaten her like that. You know she’s panicked as it is.” I wondered if the new club-owning Daavisim had been required to change personalities.
“I’m not threatening anyone, Hank,” he protested. “We’re just talking. I’m talking to you as a pal. I’m not the only one out for him, right?”
“I know there’s Tamshius,” I said.
“And I think Leeny,” he said, as if he didn’t know, but he obviously did.
And my brow furrowed. That’s three bosses Ddewn was bugging. At least. I didn’t see any connection between them, though. They weren’t geographically near each other or joined by past partnerships—of which I was aware. What was his goal?
This stuff could get so confusing. It could be a brilliant, subtle plan or it could have been the dumbest of dumb mistakes. Oluv-Jos might simply be a moron. There was no way to know.
This was when my services were usually employed. I could go between the bosses and straighten this stuff out, as I didn’t really work for anyone and they couldn’t brush me aside by blackmailing my kneecaps.
“Garm will want it talked,” I said resolutely.
“But what if they won’t repay?” he asked with exaggerated sincerity. “That’s a lot of bad blood stewing for however long those cops are here.”
I could see what he was getting at. They weren’t so blind as to miss the play going on. But now that Garm had put her foot down, they figured they could use that as cover to take out Oluv-Jos and whatever coalition, if any, was behind him wouldn’t be able to react. Either way, one side or the other would be upset.
“The simple answer is you’re going to have to speak to Garm,” I began.
Daavisim was about to respond when he started shaking uncontrollably and then collapsed on the ground.
I hurried over to check on him when I heard Jyen scream from outside. I rushed out the door. The music had stopped and there was no movement at all in the building.
Except for one person.
I looked back at our table and saw the most frightening thing I’d seen in my life.
Jyonal was floating a few feet from the ground, his arms were thrown wide, his eyes glowed with that otherworldly glare, and his face was stretched into a scream that was so ferocious I couldn’t tell if it was terror or fury.
The entire club full of patrons was lying on the ground unmoving.
“It’s not his fault,” I heard Jyen say at my side, but I couldn’t process it. He just murdered hundreds of people.
Like a light switching off, Jyonal immediately dropped to the floor, as if he had been suspended from strings now cut.
I stepped through the bodies over to Jyonal’s still form and my hand was going into my jacket. This…thing can’t live. He’s too dangerous.
Jyen stepped in front of me, her hands on my arm.
“Hank. They’re alive. It just knocks them out, they’ll be okay. It doesn’t work on me. I guess it doesn’t work on you. It wears off, I promise. When you were gone some men came over and they were bothering us…,” she trailed off. As if there could be any kind of valid reason for doing this.
I paused and looked down at one of the partiers. His eyes were closed and his mouth open. My fingers were too thick to feel a pulse, but I crouched down to examine him. I could see his chest rising and falling. I looked at others and could see them breathing as well.
“Take him. Take Jyonal home,” I said with difficulty.
Jyen started to answer.
“Take him home!”
Jyen ran over to her brother and coaxed him to his feet. I didn’t want to look at them. All I could see was this club full of bodies that had been so lively a second ago.
How was I going to explain this? How does a whole club get knocked out cold?
I could tell the doormen that…that some electrical thing happened. Yeah. Like wiring. Come quick. Yeah. They wouldn’t know. It would hurt Daavisim’s business, but they wouldn’t know.
I got to the front door. I paused to rehearse my lines. Be startled. Act surprised. I didn’t think that was a problem.