In response Midori punched his arm. “Hush, you.” She swept up the picture, pressed it against a convenient brick wall, signed away, and then passed it back. “Here you go, you old darling.”
“Excellent. The lads on nightshift shall be green with envy.” The doorman again inspected his two young charges. “Coming home?”
Jack nodded. “For now.”
As before, no one save Stan could see the new arrivals, so they were forced to weave amidst oblivious types as the three of them crossed the park, past the fountains and a flock of white doves, and then a newspaper stand with a headline that grabbed Jack’s attention: ‘Big Bill Blows It’.
“What’s the deal there?”
Stan chuckled. “Our illustrious mayor was arrested yesterday for mob connections and graft. I dare say he won’t be running for another term.”
“Politicians always get off scot-free,” Midori countered. “Haven’t you people learned that lesson?”
“A degree of optimism never, ever goes astray.”
After waiting for a tram to rattle through the intersection, the trio crossed over and entered Timely Tower. In the foyer, the Equalizers banner was absent from its perch above the elevators — replacing it was a 75 x 45 cm brown coir doormat with the Equalizers logo on its 15 mm brush pile.
Stan followed Jack’s gaze.
“Stolen,” the doorman said, shaking his head.
“The doormat is a nice touch.”
“We had to improvise. I don’t know what this world is coming to.”
Midori harrumphed. “You were the one singing about being optimistic just now.”
“Even so. The flag was taken the other night, when Mac over there,” Stan nodded in the direction of a security guard with a noticeable black eye, “was knocked senseless by thugs-unknown, trussed up in the broom closet…and that terrible business went down. I’m so sorry, Jack.”
“Forget about it.”
Midori leaned in close. “What terrible business?”
“Later,” Jack replied, a frown pleating his forehead.
“You know, we could have the banner replaced,” said Stan.
“It’s only a piece of material. Besides, I think the thing has had its day.”
“A very good philosophy.”
“Our old friend optimism,” retorted the woman with them.
From there, Jack and Prima took a lift to the penthouse, accompanied by ‘A Walk in the Black Forest’. It had the girl humming again.
“This tune drives me bananas,” Jack muttered.
“Oops. Sorry.”
“And enough with the optimism quips.”
“Never entered my mind.”
When he pulled the concertina door across, they found the headquarters of the Equalizers curiously quiet and barely illuminated. It was dusk outside the windows, which added to the gloom, but Jack was more than grateful to note that the flowers from his last visit had been removed.
They stepped out into the hallway, memories flooding through Jack’s mind — things he’d much rather forget — just as he saw the drawings of all the Equalizers, past and present, mostly dead and gone. He attempted to smother these diversions as he checked for sign of anybody, and the two of them entered the main room.
“Never thought I’d set pointe shoe in Equalizers high command,” Midori said lightly. “The place is like a crypt.”
Jack tore his eyes from the gloomy, totemic masks on the surrounding walls. “What makes you say that?”
“Let me think now — because it’s so lifeless? Like a concert hall minus the audience.”
“I guess you’re right. Hello?” he called out. “Brick? PA—?”
“Where the hell have you been?”
The two newcomers recoiled. Slap-bang before them, in a space a split-second before devoid of life, was a seven-foot giant of a woman with hands on her hips and an angry, expectant expression planted on the kisser.
“Hello, PA.” Jack returned her a languid smile.
“Hello, my foot. Answer the question.”
“My, that’s a lovely haircut,” Midori ventured, sounding edgy all the same.
Pretty Amazonia flicked a glance the other woman’s way, and then whipped it back to Jack. “Also, what’re you doing with her? Well?”
“Easy, now. Prima’s okay.”
“Nonsense. She’s a Rotter. A dangerous one.”
Jack looked from one to the other, brandishing the same half-mast smile. “I think those old distinctions are dead and buried.”
“Really?” His teammate, he noticed, was impatiently tapping one boot.
“Yeah — really.” Moving diplomatically between the two women, Jack faced his teammate. “Sorry I disappeared on you.”