To the leaders, I said, “You have choices to make.”
Whip and Marconi exchanged looks with McQuestion. Bengal and Mama-Killer each nodded.
Keeping one eye on Amos and Cupcake and one on the assembled, I said, “Don’t let anyone fire. It’s what Warhammer wants. Don’t let anyone leave. Any other infected will want to get away if they can’t make us fight each other.”
Casually, McQuestion shouted, “OMW weapons down! At ease. Nobody leaves. Anybody tries to leave without a direct order from me will be shot dead.”
Each of the others called out the same.
The weapons disappeared, but my eyes caught the furtive movements of a number of people.Bloody hell.There had to upward of twenty infected.
Whip tilted his head to the side, and all the leaders stepped away into a tight group. Whatever they said was short and sweet. When they came back to me, Whip said, “Test every man and woman here. Start with Hells Angels.”
This is where it would get dicey. All my people were positive. Jagger was positive, too. Ever since I heard about the nano tester I had been shuffling through ideas on how to keep him safe, and had decided it would have to be situational.
To Marconi, Whip said, “Secure any who test positive. Shoot any who run.”
“Can you make the infected talk?” Marconi asked me.
“No. But she can.” I lifted a hand to Mina, who stood about two meters away. No one but me had seen her approach. The psycho was as stealthy as a cat.
Mina smiled, just the tiniest bit. Andbloody hellit was a scary smile.
“I’ll test Mina first,” I said, “then Camilla. We can work through the HAs together. Then the OMWs. I’ll toss a coin for Black Sabbath and Boozefighters.”
“Heads,” the Booze prez said, “for first testing.”
I pulled an old US quarter and tossed it. Caught the coin and slapped it onto my glove. It showed tails up. “Boozefighters will be tested last.”
Whip nodded. “Then we talk. Until we know who our own people are, we’ll drink. Maybe play a little Five Card Stud.”
I wasn’t going to get a better deal. “Jacopo Marconi, Mina Marconi, Camilla Gamble. To me.”
* * *
Marconi’s other children and McQuestion’s daughter tested negative.
Then I told them what reactions to watch for in those waiting to be tested: fear, anger, shifty eyes that calculated a way out, that stared at someone they wanted to kill, or indicated a desire to run. They had an easy job. When I approached the HAs, four people took off. Mina brought them down with small throwing knives, hamstringing or hitting them in their glutes faster than I could follow.
The four were infected—one woman and three men, none of them Marconi’s. He had learned how to protect his people. Whip, however, was seriously pissed that he had spies in his organization.
Jacopo and Camilla left the blades in place and secured the infected people’s wrists.
The OMW had a higher number of thralls—seven in total, five of them male.
Warhammer liked owning men.
McQuestion sat with his back to the action, but I could read fury in the lines of his body.
While we worked, Jolene took encrypted intel off each infected biker’s Morphon, including evidence of Gov., military, and Hand of the Law infiltration in all the biker clubs. I had everything. Names in the Gov. Names and ranks in the military. Cops in every town. Contact info and bios of them all. Our enemies were everywhere. Warhammer’s nest was spreading faster than I had believed possible. And Jolene was absorbing it all into her databanks.
As the Marconi scions subdued the OMWs, I turned to Jagger and said, “Your turn.” He met my eyes and held my gaze as I pressed the nano-detector against his skin. Without pushing the button. “You’re clean, Asshole,” I said loud enough so the Marconis could hear me.
“Of course I’m clean. And my name is Jagger. Logan Jagger.”
“I like Asshole better.”
Jagger laughed and the sound went through me like melted butter and warm maple syrup. My nanos wanted to rip off his armor and take him on the ground. I stepped away from temptation and went back to work.
