Kade Read online

  “I see,” Wilson said with a vicious smile.

  I straightened up and turned toward Polk’s Zone. Flipping the tubing from one end to the other, I strode down the center of the street. Wilson walked by my side, glaring at any who looked at us. People scattered as we walked by. It didn’t take too long to reach Polk’s Scraper.

  I pushed through the doors of the Scraper and found myself facing seven men. I cocked my head to the side.

  “Thirty-two tried. Give it your best shot,” I said, “or get out of the way and clean up the mess when I’m done.”

  They were looking into the dead eyes of a killer as I spoke. They moved out of my path.

  “Wilson,” I said, “keep these guys company. I won’t be long.”

  He nodded.

  I entered the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor. Warlords always took the penthouse for their quarters when the Scraper still had electricity. Polk was no different. I exited on the top floor and saw him standing across the room with his back to me. He was looking out the huge windows overlooking the city.

  “Is he dead?” Polk asked.

  “I’m not.”

  He spun around, eyes wide with surprise. “Why those useless…”

  He snatched the pistol from the holster at his side and fired. But I wasn’t there anymore. I dove forward and rolled to the right. Then I lunged forward again. He shot once more, and I felt a tug at my side as I dodged left. My side burned so I knew I was hit. It didn’t matter; I was on top of him.

  The pipe arced, and he screamed as the bones in his arm shattered. Then a backswing crushed his left knee. He screamed louder.

  Something moved behind me, and I dodged to the right. My hand lashed out and snatched the arrow right before it would have planted itself in Polk’s heart.

  A form stepped from the shadows, staring at me in disbelief. It was a woman in a black leather outfit. She held a recurve bow in her left hand.

  “Why did you do that?!” she almost screamed. “He deserves to die!”

  “If you kill him, he won’t learn anything.”

  Polk lay on the floor moaning.

  “He killed my sister!”

  I saw the rope looped around her shoulder, and an idea struck me.

  “Then he should suffer for it,” I said. “Give me your rope.”

  She approached slowly and handed me the rope.

  I slammed the steel tube through Polk’s shoulder and tied the rope to either end of the pipe. Polk screamed as I took the doubled end and tied it to his massive desk. Then I picked the screaming Warlord up and slammed him through the window he had been staring out of. The glass shattered, and he went over the edge. The rope went tight, and I walked away.

  As I left the elevator, Wilson turned. He saw the blood on my side.

  “You gonna live?”

  “It’s just a graze.”

  I walked over to the seven men. “Who is Polk’s second?”

  The third from the right nodded.

  “You are gonna send a message to Teresa Manora. You’re gonna request that she open a chapter of the Society right here in this Scraper. The rest of you can pull your boss back through his window, and you may even be able to keep him alive. Once that’s done, you’re on your own. I would suggest you take any advice Teresa’s people give. Don’t make me come back.”

  Wilson and I left Polk’s Scraper and found the streets packed with the poor and downtrodden. Polk was rough on his people.

  “This Zone will soon be under the protection of the Society of the Sword!” I raised my voice. “Teresa Manora is fair and just. She will help those in need and destroy those who would harm you. Your time under the heel of Kunley Polk is over.”

  I strode down the street, and the crowds parted for us.

  “Guess she won’t have a choice but to come in here now,” Wilson said. “It’s what she would want to do anyway.”

  “True.”

  “Stop when we get around the corner, and I’ll take a look at that wound.”

  “Ok,” I said. “Didn’t want to show it to those folks.”

  We rounded the corner, and I sat on a stoop in front of a building. I shrugged my coat off and unbuckled the harness for the blades.

  “Pretty deep,” he said. “Needs stitches. We need to find a medic.”

  “I’ll do it,” a voice said from our left. It was the archer from Polk’s quarters. “I was a medic in the Farmers’ Guard.”

  I nodded, and she approached. She pulled a kit from her pack. She seemed competent as she threaded the curved needle. The wound burned like hell as she stitched it closed. Then she pulled some salve from the kit and rubbed it on the area. The salve cooled the burn immediately, and she wrapped a bandage around my abdomen to cover the wound.

  “Pretty handy,” Wilson said. “And who are you?”

  “We met in Polk’s office,” I said. “We had conflicting ideas about how to deal with Polk. We compromised and threw him out a window, with a steel bar through his shoulder.”

  “I can always come back,” she said, “and finish the job if I don’t feel satisfied.”

  “Wilson Poe,” he said with his hand outstretched. “How are ya?”

  “Bella Trask,” she said, grasping Wilson’s hand.

  “The Bella Trask?” he asked. “The one who cleared the way for Wilderman?”

  “Yes.”

  “That was impressive work,” I said.

  “It was hard work,” she said. “And I’m guessing you’re Mathew Kade?”

  “Most of the time,” I said.

  “You’re the one who found the murderer of the Farmer’s daughter?”

  “True.”

  “They say you’re bat shit crazy, over in Wilderman’s Zone.”

  “Used to be,” I said. “A little less so, now.”

  She nodded.

  Wilderman was the head of the Zone where the Obsidian Corporation had its headquarters. When I left that place, I hadn’t been in the greatest shape mentally. Several people had taken offense at some of the things I took with me, and it had been ugly. It had been seventeen years, and people still remembered me in Wilderman’s.

  “What sort of trouble are you into?” Bella asked.

  “Kidnapped girl,” I said. “Started with a shopkeeper. Sold her to a Caravan Master who had a deal with the Clowns to hold her until the ransom was paid.”

  “Had?”

  “He can’t make deals anymore,” Wilson said. “Hard to do that with a bullet in your brain.”

  “I see,” she said. “So, now the Circus?”

  “I need to sleep before I deal with the Clowns,” I said. “My place is not too far away. I’m on the edge of Stiner’s.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Wilson said. “We traveled all night last night. I can report to Teresa, as well.”

  “Then let’s get to it,” I said.

  “If you can use another person, I will join you,” Bella said.

  “Clowns don’t bother you?” Wilson asked.

  “They are a disgrace.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “but a damn scary bunch.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re welcome to join us if that’s what you want,” I said. “But this may get really ugly before it’s done.”

  She nodded. “It’s the least I can do after you removed the guards around Polk.”

  “So be it.”

  We walked south toward Stiner’s.

  In all honesty, I wasn’t looking forward to a confrontation with the Clowns. Right after the Fall, the Circus sprang up. It was a place where you could buy anything your black heart desired. If you wanted to shoot another person, they would provide someone for the right amount of money. If you wanted to hunt someone down, they would provide a weapon. If you wanted to have sex with a child, they would provide one. Any twisted thing a person could think of could be bought at the Circus. It was a twisted abomination with occupants who should be in an asylum. And the Clowns were the guards. They we
re a fierce group of twisted bastards who would give the Knights a run for their money, one on one.

  The problem was, there were about forty or fifty Knights of the Society of the Sword. There were close to two hundred and fifty Clowns. They followed a core group of thirty. Those thirty were some of the toughest bastards in this fallen city. Their numbers were why they hadn’t been eliminated before.

  I hated Clowns.

  “Any plans on how to go about this?” Wilson asked.

  “I’ll do some thinkin’ about it tonight, and we’ll see in the morning,” I said. “I’m thinkin’ a straightforward approach would be best. We need information from the bastards. You can buy anything from the Clowns. If they refuse, well, that’s when we have to get creative.”

  “From what is known in Wilderman’s,” Bella said, “the Clowns will respond to money.”

  “That’s what I’m countin’ on,” I said.

  We reached Stiner’s without incident.

  “I expected another attack before we got here,” Wilson said.

  “You’re not disappointed at the outcome, are you?”

  “Oh, my God, I’m startin’ to think like you,” he said. “Teresa should put a warning label on orders when they send us out to your general vicinity.”

  “Careful,” I said, “you’ll hurt my feeling.”

  “Feeling?” Bella asked. “You only have one?”

  “Yep, and he’s hurtin’ it.”

  She shook her head.

  We approached an Old World building.

  “Used to call these banks in the Old World,” I said.

  “I’m familiar with the term,” she said.

  We pushed through a door that used to be glass and crossed a large room filled with rubble and trash.

  “Nice place ya have here,” Wilson said.

  “This is the nice part,” I said and opened a door on the left side of the room. Across the room was a huge, metal door. “This used to be the bank vault.”

  I worked the dials on the vault door and swung it open. The inside was pristine. I motioned my companions forward.

  “Welcome to my home.”

  They passed me, then I entered and pulled the vault door closed. As the door clicked shut, lights turned on.

  “You have electricity?”

  “Made a deal with Stiner a long time ago. I run my place off his Scraper in return for mounting the solar system on his roof. It’s mutually beneficial, so he had no problem.”

  On the other side of the Vault was a wooden door. I led them through it, and we descended a set of stairs that turned back and forth under the city. They ended at another door in a small hallway. We entered a huge room with concrete floors and walls. They were very old walls, except for two that filled huge, round holes at each end of the massive room.

  “Is that an old subway car?” Bella asked.

  In the center of the room was a luxury car from a train.

  “I’d love to take credit for building this place, but it was mostly done before I found it. It belonged to Allen, the former Warlord. When Stiner took this Zone from him, he didn’t know this place existed. So, I collapsed the tunnel from the Scraper to here and moved in. I did put the stairs in and make the new entrance in the Vault.”

  “Where’s that door go?” Wilson asked.

  He was pointing across the huge room to the reinforced metal door at the head of a set of concrete steps.

  “Goes to the Tees,” I said. “The tunnels that open on the sewer system.”

  “Why do ya ever leave this place?” he asked. “Climate control, electricity, I bet you even got runnin’ water.”

  “Yep,” I said. “Even a water heater.”

  “Oh my,” Bella said. “Hot, running water?”

  “The baths are that way.” I pointed to the back corner where I had erected some of the partitions from an old place they used to call Chinatown. The material was a sort of paper stretched between frames of wood. I had found it interesting. The paper had crumbled, so I had replaced it with white fabric I found in an Old World hotel.

  “Do you mind if I use them?” she asked. “I haven’t had a hot bath in so long.”

  “Go ahead.”

  She headed to the back with her pack in hand.

  “This place is amazing,” Wilson said. “Wonder how many of these sorts of places are scattered around the city?”

  “I’ve only found the one,” I said. “Although I have found a lot of caches scattered around.”

  “Always wondered how you always have coin.”

  “Found a lot of that over the years.”

  I hung my coat over a fork of a coat rack I had found in an old building. Then I loosened the buckles and removed the knife harness. There was a lot of blood on my shirt and a jagged hole where the bullet had ripped it, so I threw it in a trash can by the door.

  I entered the kitchen and opened the cooler. I pulled out a pot, carried it to the burners, and left the pot of stew sitting there to heat up.

  “A good meal and a night’s rest before we hit the Clowns.”

  “You expect a fight tomorrow?”

  “You know what I expect.”

  “We’re all gonna die while the Clowns dance around us naked?”

  “That fits,” I said. “I can’t think of anything much worse.”

  “Humph.”

  “Indeed.”

  “That smells delicious,” Wilson said. “What is it?”

  “Stew.”

  “I smell carrots.”

  “Yep.”

  “Where the hell did you get carrots?”

  “I have a small garden box on the roof,” I said. “Bought some seeds from the Farmers last year. I sometimes can my own food instead of trading the jars back to the Farmers. It’s something I enjoy when I’m not on a case.”

  “That’s a handy skill.”

  “True,” I said. “I don’t like to be completely dependent on the Farmers. I’m slowly building my stores up.”

  “You think there’ll be trouble with the Farmers?”

  “At some point, there will be,” I said. “They have too much power. It’s just a matter of time ‘til something breaks. You’d be smart to work toward the same independence.”

  “Teresa said something similar a few weeks ago.”

  “Have you ever met the Steadholder?”

  “Nope.”

  “He’s seventy years old,” I said. “His rules are what the Farmers live by. How much longer do you think he’ll live? When he goes, I don’t like to think about the odds of another like him in charge.”

  “I see your point,” he said. “What if they end up with a Blechley? Or a Polk?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I think the odds are pretty good the next Steadholder will be much like this one,” Bella said behind us. “I’m sure he is grooming his successor.”

  “That hasn’t worked too well throughout history,” I said. “Usually, the successor is corrupted by the fact that their rule was given to ‘em.”

  “What history would that be?”

  “Pre-Fall. Human history,” I said. “You can hope for the best, if you want, but prepare for the worst.”

  “He believes in expecting the worst so he’s never disappointed,” Wilson said.

  “That’s a sad view of life, Mister Kade.”

  “That’s what I said,” Wilson added.

  “And you live your life in disappointment,” I said. “For instance, you thought you would be the next one to use the bath. And now you’re disappointed.”

  I headed for the back to soak in the hot water.

  There are a few moments of peace in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 8

  I awoke refreshed. My bed was in the train car, and I heard Wilson snoring on the sofa outside the car. I shook my head and eased upright with a twinge of pain from the bullet wound in my side. It wasn’t as bad as many of the wounds I’d taken in my life. There were scars all over my bod
y from the various ways people had tried to kill me.

  “Damn!” I heard Bella say from the door to the other half of the car. “You’ve been through the mill.”

  “Years of rough living,” I said as I pulled a new shirt around my shoulders. “Could be worse.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Coulda killed me.”

  “I guess you have a point.”

  I pulled a pair of socks from a drawer and sat on the bed. I pulled the socks up and grabbed my boots.

  “Where do you get all these things?” she asked. “That is an Old World set of drawers.”

  “Came with the place,” I said. “Allen really made the place nice before Stiner killed him. I’ve added a few things, but mostly just useful things. I don’t really care about the luxury. It was here when I got here, so I use it.”

  We exited the car. The snoring stopped, and Wilson sat up.

  “That may have been the best night’s sleep I’ve had in years,” he said. “I see why Teresa likes you now.”

  “The bath would be enough,” Bella said. “I’d have your babies just for that.”

  I laughed. “You’re both welcome here anytime.”

  “Don’t make promises like that,” Bella said. “I’ll never go back to Wilderman’s.”

  “Teresa might get mad if you stayed here,” Wilson said. “She’s staked a claim on Kade. At least now, we know why.”

  “Who is Teresa?” she asked. “You’ve mentioned her several times.”

  “Teresa Manora.”

  “The Teresa Manora?” she asked. “Matron of the Society of the Sword?”

  “That’s her,” Wilson said.

  “I take it back then,” she said. “No babies for you. I think I’ll head back to Wilderman’s after helping you. I’m not pissing off that woman, not even for the whole city.”

  “I can see that,” Wilson said. “She ordered me to back him up, and I’m about to go face the Clowns rather than disobey her.”

  I chuckled.

  “She likes puppies.”

  “Jesus, Kade,” Wilson said. “I’ve seen her dogs. They’re some sort of mutated breed. They’re big as horses.”

  “She likes big puppies,” I said with a shrug. “But they’re puppies, nonetheless.”

  Bella laughed.