Blood Engines(66)

“He wound up dead, just like everybody does,” Marla said.

 

“So you’re operating out of simple revenge?”

 

Marla considered. She didn’t know how much Bethany already knew. Dalton had believed Marla was responsible for killing Finch, and he’d known about the Cornerstone disappearing, but how much had Bethany heard? Surface anomalies aside, Bethany reminded Marla of herself—competent, no-nonsense, straightforward, savvy, mostly businesslike, with none of Finch’s power-games, or Dalton’s monomaniacal boorishness, or the Celestial’s rudeness or avarice. Marla didn’t trust Bethany, but then, if by some quirk of space-time or magical mishap Marla happened to come face-to-face with her own identical double, she wouldn’t trust her, either. Marla was too smart to go around trusting people promiscuously. “Revenge is as good a reason as any,” Marla said. “Don’t you think? I owe Lao Tsung a lot. But you should be more concerned with your own life. Mutex is coming for you, to kill you for giving him the brush-off and, not coincidentally, to rip out your heart and offer it up to his gods. But instead, how about we capture him?”

 

“You mean kill him, surely,” Bethany said. “Unless you want to keep him alive for a while, to torture him. But that’s not a good idea with a sorcerer as adept as he’s proven himself to be. Every moment alive is an opportunity for him to regain the upper hand, as I’m sure you know.”

 

Marla didn’t see an easy way to bluff past this, so she gave in. “I can’t kill him right away. He has something I need, and I have to find out where he’s hidden it.”

 

“Mmm,” Bethany said. “I didn’t think you were the type to indulge in revenge for its own sake.”

 

“Revenge is nice as a side dish, though,” Marla said.

 

“I’m sure. Capturing him will be more difficult.”

 

“I don’t care how good he is. He can’t be as good as the two of us working together.” Marla would have said that with more confidence if Ch’ang Hao had ever answered her summons, and brought her the rare jungle snake she needed, but with Bethany’s help, on Bethany’s apparently well-protected turf, they probably did stand a chance against the mad Aztec.

 

“You’re probably right,” Bethany said. She went to the control panel and made some imperceptible adjustments, then returned to her chair. “I’m glad your interests coincide with my own need for self-preservation. All right. Let’s take him. But you’ll owe me—and my city—a favor, in exchange for not killing him outright, and letting you get the information you need. It’s not in my best interests, after all, to keep Mutex alive for any length of time.”

 

Marla could appreciate that. “A favor it is.”

 

“Do you think he’ll come here?”

 

“He seems to like house calls.”

 

“How much time do you think we have?”

 

“No telling. Let’s assume he’ll be along any minute now.”

 

“Fair enough,” Bethany said. “I should get warning once he opens the main door or touches the stairs, just like I did with you.”

 

“And then?”

 

“Oh, I have tricks. I like building things, and there are lots of nice traps secreted on the platform. I just hit you with the bright lights to let you know I was watching, but I’ve got nastier things at my disposal. We’ll hit him with remote Tasers—I’ve got the wireless kind, where the current travels on a spray of fluid, which comes from nozzles in the walls. That should drop him for long enough that we can secure and interrogate him at our leisure. I owe him a little revenge, too. I used to fuck Dalton, sometimes, and I was fond of him. He wasn’t much in bed alone, but when he brought along a couple of his mirror-selves, it could be pleasant.”

 

“I don’t doubt it,” Marla said.

 

Rondeau burst into the compartment, B close behind. Rondeau had his butterfly knife open, and B was pale and wide-eyed.

 

Marla shot to her feet. “Mutex?”

 

“Uh-uh,” Rondeau said, pointing at Bethany with his knife. “Her.”

 

 

 

 

 

13

 

 

 

Her, what?” Marla said, looking sidelong at Bethany.

 

“She’s got a freezer full of hearts back there,” B said. “Rondeau says they’re human.”

 

“And we know someone else who likes to snack on hearts,” Rondeau said. “So I’m wondering if maybe we haven’t found ourselves one of Mutex’s cohorts and co-conspirators.”