CHAPTER
29
You’ll Probably Die
Stealing from the Docks had become an even more dangerous proposition ever since Maik Kehn had picked up that one crew and No Peak had gotten wise to the scheme. Bero did not want to end up like those other poor bastards—the two with broken necks, or even the one who got off easy with just the broken arms. He still shuddered when he thought of the Maik brothers. So he was relieved and excited when Mudt asked him if he’d been practicing with the Fullerton and could shoot straight yet. He assured Mudt that he and Cheeky had been going out to the empty fields by the reservoir and firing off rounds three times a week.
“Come over to the store tomorrow night then,” said Mudt.
The Green Bone with the goatee was shooting pool on Mudt’s old pool table in the garage of the Goody Too when they arrived. Instead of a rain slicker, he was wearing a gray trench coat and the same combat boots as before. He was friendlier this time. “It’s been more than a month and you boys are still alive and doing good work for us, so that means you’re either smart or godsdamned lucky, I don’t care which.”
“I can do more than lift boxes of fancy purses and shit,” said Bero.
“That’s what I figured. Now you’ll have a chance to prove it,” said the goateed man. He put a hand on each boy’s shoulder. “Mudt tells me you can handle the Fully guns I gave you. That’s good. So now I’ve got a job for you.
This job’s not coming from me, it’s coming from above the people who are
above me, so listen carefully and don’t fuck it up. If you do, you’ll probably die, but if you don’t, you’ll be cut with the clan, as cut as can be, which means—” He looked significantly at Bero and winked, giving the jade bolt in his left ear a little tug.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Bero.
“The Lilac Divine Gentleman’s Club, you know it?” The Green Bone smirked. Every teenage boy who lived on this side of town knew of the Lilac Divine, but it was a high-class establishment; Mrs. Sugo’s muscled bouncers glared with contempt and cracked their knuckles threateningly if anyone the likes of Bero and Cheeky loitered nearby in futile curiosity. The Green Bone did not wait for them to answer his rhetorical question; he said, “One of these nights, either a Secondday or a Fifthday, you’re going to get a call. A driver will pick you up and take you to the Lilac Divine; Mudt will arrange that.
When you get there, I want you to put those Fullys to good use. Shoot up the place, break the windows, send every customer in there diving under the bed with his limp dick in his hands. You see some nice cars, especially a real nice silver Roewolfe, you fill it with lead. Spray and pray, kekes, got it?”
“Th-the Lilac Divine’s a No Peak place.” Cheeky stammered a little.
“There’ll be big-shot Lantern Men and Green Bones inside. They say even the Pillar of the clan goes there.”
“Oh, you figured it out just now, did you, genius?” The Green Bone smirked even more broadly. “You’ll have to be quicker than that if you’re going to get out of No Peak territory alive afterward. That part’s not my problem. But you do this and come back and no one’s going to question that you’re cut, that you’ve got what it takes.”
“We’ll do it, if you promise this’ll get us in.” The words left Bero’s mouth before Cheeky could do more than twitch. Mudt and his son were sorting boxes of stolen vinyl records, pretending not to be part of the discussion, but they paused and looked up at Bero’s sudden vehemence. He didn’t care what the Green Bone sent him to do, but he was getting impatient and didn’t want to be jerked around. “There’s not going to be some other test after this, right?”
“I don’t promise you a godsdamned thing,” the Green Bone snapped.
“You do a good job, you make a big impression, show just how valuable you can be to the clan—that’s when we talk for real.”
Cheeky swallowed and nodded quickly. Bero shoved his hands into his
pockets and kept his crooked face stiff.
Years ago, in the part of the Forge where Bero grew up, there had been an older boy called Fishhook, who used to terrorize the smaller boys, who would chase and beat Bero every chance he got. One day, Fishhook got his hands on a pretty girl whose father was a union boss and No Peak Lantern Man, and shortly afterward, a couple of Green Bone Fingers arrived in their corner of the neighborhood and calmly broke Fishhook’s shins. Fishhook was never able to catch Bero after that.
All Green Bones reminded Bero of those Fingers. They walked into his world carelessly to break a person’s bones or deliver them to a better life.
They stirred in Bero not merely a boyhood awe and fear, but a deeply consuming resentment and envy.
The goateed Green Bone was no different. He smiled as if amused, but his eyes remained cold and knowing. “Wait for the call,” he said over his shoulder as he left the garage. “It’ll come soon.”