All the King's Men Page 6

  God Dammit.

  “Hey! You know, the stock broker at the end of the line was an awkward sort of adorable.”

  “Yeah. Thanks, but no thanks.” Danika sighed heavily as she continued to walk away. She rolled her eyes at the remark. She didn’t need a goddamn wingman—she just wanted goddamn quiet.

  Tabitha grinned, pointing her finger as she clicked her tongue. “Oh, that’s right. He’s not quite your type, right? You like the lawyer sort. Right?”

  Danika stopped walking a few feet into the alleyway before she turned to face her stalker. She slanted to one hip. “Alright, cut the shit. Who the hell are you?”

  “Aw, such a sad little drinker after a hard shift at the market, right?” Tabitha mocked her as she pulled her gloves at the tips of her thin, bony fingers, one by one, removing them and tucking them neatly into her coat pocket.

  Smug bitch…

  “You don’t know shit about me, lady.” Danika narrowed her eyes, trying to get a better look, since there was something familiar about her that she couldn’t quite place.

  “Au contraire. You’re Danika Carlisle. Your uncle Morgan has a silly little operation underground and thinks he’s somewhat of a hero? Oh, do let me know if I’m close, maybe hot or cold, hm?” The bold, haughty undertones of her sultry, mezzo voice was a little too arrogant for Danika’s taste or tolerance. “Actually, I figured you for some loner type. Hit the bar close to home on that one. Oh! And that cute little gig you have going as clerk of the liquor store there on the corner? That’s no way to live, is it? What, with your lavish apartment up the way, across the line? Extravagant living.”

  What the fuck? Danika wondered. She’d never seen her before, because her exotic face was nothing short of memorable. Danika tilted her head, her hands at her sides, filling with the desire for a fight. “Well. You wanted to dance?”

  Tabitha ran her tongue over her teeth, quickly shucking her coat and readied her stance, bringing one hand up front and the other up to guard her face. When she clenched her fist, Danika could hear every pop of her thin knuckles. “How very savage of you. I was afraid you’d never ask.” Her hands started to shift into the large cat-like claws Danika recognized from the night she met Charlie.

  Danika also shed her jacket and stood up straight, in defense. “Perfect.”

  Tabitha charged at her and threw her first swing, but Danika dodged it. She ducked under another punch and pulled back when Tabitha swiped upward with her claws extended. She barely missed, almost scratching her face; Danika felt the air brush over her skin. Danika quickly picked up a piece of wood nearby and held it tight in her dominant hand as an improvised weapon to swipe at the woman’s legs. Tabitha jumped over the beam and swiftly kicked out, a direct hit square on Danika’s sternum.

  She flew deeper into the dark alley, unable to regain her bearings to manipulate the air for a better landing and she tumbled into a puddle of leftover rainwater. Danika nearly gagged at the added stench of mold and piss, and the strike elicited a whine in pain. Tabitha cackled with pleasure as she stalked towards her. When Danika stood up, she held up her weapon and sidestepped to pick up a piece of glass, a shard long enough to be used as a secondary weapon. She desperately needed an advantage against her clawed assailant. She swung the stick at her, and the shard followed, both of which were dodged, and then she followed up with a flurry of attacks. Pulls to the left, then over in reverse to the right. Tabitha moved out of the way for most of them, but the tip of the shard caught her chest with a long horizontal tear across her flesh. There was some resistance, but Danika held on tight as she sliced, pleased at the sight of the draw of blood.

  Trying a spin maneuver, the cat twirled and wound up for her next attack, using her claws with full strength behind her hand. She caught Danika in the back, sending her to the ground in a bloody heap.

  Danika coughed as she fell. Her breath was forced out of her, and the wound stitched together by Aldo was now ripped open again, stinging with intense pain.

  “Dani!” Charlie ran in from the street, closing in on Tabitha from behind.

  Before they could both run in and attack in tandem, Tabitha skittered up the fire escape, disappearing into the night.

  “No! Dammit!” Danika cursed, as she kicked the dumpster so hard it skidded along the pavement and struck the base of the ladder to the fire escape with a loud clang.

  Charlie helped Danika to her feet and looked to the roof. “Did you see where she went?”

  “I was standing right here with you when she disappeared, Charlie. What do you think?” Danika barked, fighting to catch her breath as she leaned down to put her hands on her sore thighs. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?!”

  Charlie was swatted away from her, so he took the cue to step away to give her space. “I-I was coming to see you.”

  “See me?” She scoffed. “Don’t you have some lawyering to do or something? Scumbags to defend?”

  “Oh, thanks for coming to save me, Charlie. No problem, Danika, anytime.” He threw his hands up and scoffed back.

  “You didn’t save shit.”

  “Hey, I’m plenty busy with work, thanks, but I was on my way to your place when I heard the fight.”

  “Aw shucks… Thanks. A real knight in shitty armor.” Danika stood upright and rolled her shoulders, feeling the blood seep out of her shirt from the slash wound on her back. “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I think I tore my fucking stitches… on my back. Is it bad?” The blood was seeping through her shirt, she could feel it.

  He made a face.

  “That bad?”

  “No…?” Charlie winced with a lopsided smile, one out of pity or sympathy.

  “Hey, remind me to invite you over for poker sometime, Charlie.” Danika said, flatly.

  “What do you want me to say?” He shrugged. “I’ll see if I can track her down. I’ll be right back.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” Danika’s phone rang at that moment, the vibration rumbled hard against her hip. She pulled it from her pocket and accepted the call straightaway. “Oh hi, uncle. Really not a good time.” She responded in a sing-song voice. She lit up a cigarette, her fingers shaky as they clasped it.

  “Danika!” Morgan’s voice cut through with great urgency, “Frost picked something up on the radar. What’s your status?”

  “Did his radar pick up the epic fight scene? Because it was pretty damn epic.” Danika groaned as she stretched and leaned against the nearby wall. “My status is: my damn back stings like a bitch. Pussycat Doll came up on me after work.”

  He clicked his tongue. “You’re still working at the store?”

  She gave an over-exaggerated scoff. “Skip on the judgment and give me a break, will you? Running around with your cape-less band of super freaks and geeks doesn’t always cover rent.”

  “Dani.” Morgan groaned with great disapproval. DZ’s was a notorious location for getting attacked, threatened, robbed, and so on. Danika prided herself in keeping the incident prevention board in their break room in the double digits, but that was bound to change soon. Thugs frequented the Borderline, and trouble was bound to follow her. “And you’re sure it was the same woman from before?”

  “Yep.” Danika nodded, rolling her shoulders again slowly to ease the muscular pain in her back, but it bled through a little more with each movement.

  “Find out anything else we can use?”

  “No, I must have forgotten to ask while she was swiping at me with her gigantic claws. No spear this time, but she probably figured if we’re out on the street level, that might be a bad choice.” Danika could still feel the warm blood dripping from the wound as she stretched between her shoulder blades. “No name. She dropped a nice coat though. Not sure if you and Frost have a magic ID machine that can pull up traces from this but it’s worth a shot, right?”

  “Atta girl.” Morgan was grinning, she could hear it. “And our asset?”

  “Our ass-et is doing
just fine—actually a little too fine. Turned up, right place at the right time, but—”

  “How about you thank him for a job well done and come back to base? Frost will need that coat anyway, and I can have Aldo prep for medical.”

  “Morgan…” Danika grumbled. She just wanted to get home. “I can take care of myself—”

  “I’ll see you in thirty. The entrance has shifted north. Use precautions to make sure you aren’t followed.” Morgan was insistent, and there was no way out of this visit.

  “Protocol. Got it. Bye.” She clicked her phone off and felt the catch of her finger along the glass and she turned her phone to examine the damage. “Shit.” The tussle had caused her phone shield to crack, but she had spares back at base. Charlie appeared back at her side, shaking his head to indicate his search had come up empty.

  “Let’s go. You’re driving.” Danika rolled up the coat and kept it close to her body as she started to take off in the direction Charlie came from, spotting his car a few feet away.

  *

  “Claws?”

  “Long black claws. She didn’t fully shift like she did last time. I was just sitting at Hunter’s and she strolled up. Kept asking me personal questions. I went to leave, but she just followed me, and wouldn’t bugger the fuck off.” Danika shook her head.

  Morgan grunted as he folded his arms. “Yes, we know how personable you are, my darling niece.”

  Danika scowled, her eyes shooting daggers at him. “Anyway. I left but she followed me. Spouting off about how she knows me. You too, Morgan, and this whole op. Fluent with English but had an accent, I couldn’t pin. Mediterranean maybe? North African?”

  “That’s oddly specific. You have that good of an ear?” Charlie quipped, his eyebrows raised.

  “I pegged you, didn’t I?” Before Danika could blow a raspberry at him like she wanted, Aldo quickly turned her neck to have her face forward. She hissed when Aldo tugged a little too hard with his needle.

  “Okay so North African, maybe Egyptian?” Morgan asked.

  “Sure.” Danika would have shrugged but she remained perfectly still, for her shoulder’s sake, and Aldo.

  The healer pulled the last of the nylon thread through and cut the ends. “Quit getting into fights, would ya, kid? Even with my touch, these things take some time to heal.”

  Danika rolled her eyes.

  “And don’t roll your eyes at me.”

  She would have thrown her hands up if they weren’t being pinned down. “Alright, Aldo. Next time I see the Crazy Cat Lady, I’ll tell her to give me a couple of weeks before we throw down. That good enough for you?”

  “Perfect.” Aldo firmly pat down on the gauze he placed over the wound as he taped it down. The old blind man reached for his walking stick, and then he stepped away, turning to head back into the depths of the infirmary. “Watch yourself on those painkillers too, kid. They help but you don’t need to be addicted to them.”

  As soon as they were alone, Charlie hummed to himself as he stared at the woman’s photo on the surveillance pull like it was an art piece at the Met in New York. “I recognize her. I’ve only seen her in passing, though.”

  “In passing?” Morgan’s thick eyebrow arched in curiosity.

  Charlie nodded, still not turning away from the photo. “Yeah. I’m still relatively new at the firm, but I’m sure I’ve seen her around. Strangely enough, before the attack, I’d never seen her before in my life.”

  “Wonderful.” Danika turned to her uncle, who was also busy studying the photo projected up on the screen. “All of our stuff was heavily redacted, right? I mean, blacklisted from most databases. How would she know all of that—my name, yours… the Alliance.”

  “Huh. Might be more than one operative, then.” Morgan sighed heavily as he ran his hand over his face, sounding off the sandpaper scruff of his beard. “We should figure out who she’s working for.”

  “That sounds…paranoid.”

  “It sounds accurate.” Charlie said.

  Danika frowned.

  “Hey, you said it yourself. Government files are out. She knows you and Major Carlisle, it’s possible she might know the rest of us. She already came after me, now you. Maybe it will be someone else next.”

  Morgan didn’t say much, but his face read something to the effect of Charlie having a point. Danika hated conceding to the fact that they were right.

  Charlie continued, “They’re analyzing her stuff downstairs and if we find a name or anything else on her, that will help. I’ve never spoken to her myself, but I’ll try to find out more when they come by again.”

  “You’re positive they will?” she asked.

  Charlie nodded. “From the fancy manicures to the expensive heels, our ‘cat’ looks like she’s made of money. If the company she keeps deals with my firm, they’re bound to stop by again at some point. They always do.”

  “Great work there, gumshoe.” Danika threw two thumbs up his way. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I guess my work here is done.”

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Spoken like a true parent, even though technically a surrogate. Morgan turned his full attention to her.

  “I’m not staying here, uncle. Nice try.”

  Morgan pressed the button at the terminal, locking the door before she could escape. Instead of it opening with a hiss, it stayed completely closed and Danika walked right into it. She grunted and kicked it, almost denting it as she did.

  “Open the damn door.”

  “Dani,” He licked his lips and placed his hands on his hips, the tell-tale signs that he was going into lecture mode. “It’s not a matter of staying here for fun or for work, it’s for your safety.”

  God, I hate it when the old bastard is right. She thought.

  That cat. Tabitha. She knew where Danika worked, what bar she frequented, and even knew where she lived. Leaving the safety of the bunker would be a stupid move, and even though she was known for making wrong turns here and there, deep down, Danika knew that staying here would be for the best.

  After mirroring her uncle with her own hands on her hips and an ice-cold glare in his direction, she sighed. “Fine. I’ll take my old bunk, assuming you haven’t incinerated all of my old stuff.”

  Morgan shook his head. “All intact. You know your way around. Have a good night, Danika.”

  “Don’t bother me unless it’s a Richter scale level ten emergency. I mean it, Hard Rock café, you hear me? Level ten.”

  “Hard Rock…what?” Charlie was confused.

  Morgan smirked. It was an old nickname she came up with in her teens when she started to learn her comedic sarcasm. Charlie didn’t need to know why, just yet, but he was smart enough to deduce that it may have had something to do with Morgan’s abilities. Danika had a way of subtleties, in that sense, or lack thereof.

  “I’ll be here too, if you need me.” Charlie added.

  Danika snorted. “Thanks, but I’ll be just fine. Charles.”

  Under the Radar

  Catch, Release.

  Catch, Release.

  The stark white ceiling had been the point of focus for the last fifteen minutes, a broad target. Danika threw the ball in the air. It was therapeutic for her and allowed for some time to think. This habit formed when she was a kid. She would take her brother’s baseball and toss it as high as she could. She’d let it hit the ceiling every now and again, until she would inevitably throw it too hard. Her parents didn’t enjoy repairing the holes she’d put in the ceiling, but that never stopped her.

  Again…

  Catch. Release.

  The pleasant ringtone, aptly named “Spring Morning” that she was using as her alarm faded in. Analog audio of birds chirping, the wind blowing, and a smooth acoustic guitar started to build, but she reached over to her phone and gave the screen an unrefined smack to silence it at once. Danika set the baseball back on the nightstand and sat up. She rolled her shoulders, stretched her arms and took a deep breath before kicking her feet
over the edge to stand.

  Now that there was some sunshine coming through the windows, Danika could see everything a lot clearer now, and her appearance was startling. She walked over to the small mirror mounted on the wall and let her fingers pull her hair out of the rat’s nest that it had rolled into during the night.

  The room she was in brought back memories. As Morgan promised, everything was in its place. Almost everything that belonged in here, in her dual living quarters she’d shared with her partner all that time ago, was left untouched. Her picture frame that had one of the last photographs of her entire family together was hanging on the wall, the edges yellowing due to weather and wear. A couple of old jackets that didn’t fit anymore hung next to some of Carter’s wardrobe. His hats were all lined up on a shelf above his bunk. His dog tags were on the desk next to the television she hadn’t bothered to plug in, and a photo frame lie face down next to that. For a second, she considered reaching for it to set it upright on the desk, but she didn’t budge. She knew what photo she would see if she turned it face up, and Danika didn’t want to get lost on a trip down memory lane.

  Not those memories, at least. Not now.

  She got up and changed into something that made her feel somewhat presentable and sauntered over to the common room, which she had avoided in past week since she’d been back in HQ.

  As the door slid open, Danika was greeted by a pair of large amethyst-colored eyes framed by long, dark eyelashes. She might have gotten a better look if the girl wasn’t so damn close.

  “Dani! Hi! I’m Callista Greene, but it’s just Callie, really. Nice to finally get to meet you.” She extended her thin, pale hand to shake. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “Like… wise?” Danika raised an eyebrow and gave an uneasy smile before taking a step back to let her patience recharge. It wasn’t even lunchtime and she didn’t have it in her to put this pretty young thing in her place for violating personal space. After all, she was taking Frost’s advice and meeting the others on base.