“It’s a nightclub. There’s always more than one door. But as long as the necklace was here in this alley, you assumed we were all out here with it.”
“Got to hand it to you, you’ve managed to hang on to the woman. You’re planning to cut your own deal with Kelbrook’s fixer, aren’t you? Not a bad plan, but if I were you, I’d move fast. I’ve been in the security business ever since I quit the Guild. I’m pretty good at reading the client, and my gut tells me you don’t want to push this one too hard. Word has it Kelbrook always gets what he wants.”
“Stop talking about me as if I were an asset you could buy or sell to the highest bidder,” Alice said, fighting to control her fury. She aimed the small flamer at Hank. “I might be tempted to reach out and touch you.”
Hank flinched. She took some satisfaction from that. But he recovered his swagger in the next beat and turned back to Owen.
“You don’t have to sic the nightmare lady and her dust bunny on me,” he said. “This is just business. I don’t mind answering a few questions. Maybe you and I can do our own deal on the side.”
“I doubt your boss would approve,” Owen said.
“Let me worry about him. Go ahead, ask your questions.”
“I have two,” Owen said. “The first is, who’s your boss?”
“That’s no big secret. I work for Sykes Security. I take orders from Jake Sykes himself. What’s your second question?”
“What kind of talent does Sykes have?”
“Hell, that’s no secret, either. Sykes is a high-rez ex-Guild man. In the old days he would have been a boss by now. But you know how it is. They’ve been trying to rebrand the organizations. Make themrespectable. Sykes didn’t fit in with the new look. He would have done Guild business the old-fashioned way.”
“Like a mob boss?” Alice snapped.
Neither man paid any attention.
“Sykes sounds like the type to keep files on everyone he deals with,” Owen said, shifting to a conversational tone.
“Oh, yeah.” Hank shrugged. “He says the only way to survive in this business is to know the clients’ secrets.”
“Sounds like a smart man.”
“Smartest guy in the room,” Hank said.
“Where’s his office?”
“Ask him yourself,” Hank said.
Alice saw the shadows shift in the doorway behind Owen.
“Behind you,” she shouted.
Owen was already turning and firing. The shot struck at point-blank range. With a grunt, the figure in the doorway convulsed and then toppled forward. Owen tried to get out of the way but there was little room and no time.
The collapsing man was big and heavily muscled. He slammed intoOwen’s left side as he fell. Both hit the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. Owen shoved the unconscious man out of the way and rolled to his feet.
Sebastian chortled exultantly.
“Shit,” Owen muttered.
Seeing his opportunity, Hank bent down to grab his mag-rez.
“Don’t touch that pistol,” Alice ordered.
Hank ignored her. She knew he did not consider her much of a threat as long as she kept her distance. She also knew he intended to kill Owen.
She gripped her flamer in both hands and rezzed the trigger. The first shot missed, but only by inches. Hank jerked in surprise and staggered, instinctively trying to get out of the way.
Alice walked steadily toward him, rezzing the flamer again. This time a bolt of energy struck one of Hank’s boots. He yelped and hastily backed away from her.
