CHAPTER
35
An Unexpected Reception
The one thing Bero was not short on was cash. There was an all-night clinic in the Forge, one of a few in the city where doctors of questionable training patched up wounds with no questions asked so long as one could pay for the service. In the early morning after the events at the pier, at roughly the same time that Kaul Lan’s body was being found, Bero sat on a steel table under a buzzing strip of fluorescent light while a wrinkled man with watery eyes and strings of hair like dirty floss pulled two shallowly embedded bullets from his arm and bandaged him up, unrolling the gauze with such slow deliberation Bero wanted to smack him. He’d spent hours huddled in the bushes under a freeway overpass and felt quite mad by now.
By the time he got out of the clinic, the news was raging through the city.
Bero overheard it while standing in line to buy a meat bun and soda from the first convenience store he found. Kaul Lan, Pillar of No Peak, was dead— suspected to have been assassinated by the Mountain.
Bero’s pulse pounded wildly; he was confused, but a grin rapidly began to spread across his face and he had to force it down. It was only luck—the sweet, merciful luck of the gods—that he was alive at all while that dumb turd Cheeky was dead, but now Bero was certain that even more luck was showering down on him. It had been dark and he’d run in a panic. He hadn’t noticed it, but Kaul must have been hit by the barrage of gunfire after all; he’d just taken longer than usual to die. Which meant he—Bero—had killed
the Pillar of No Peak! He began to grin again. No one else, not a single Green Bone in the city, could say that. He kicked himself for running, for not returning to the pier to check.
It took him the better part of the day to get all the way back to the Goody Too at the far south end of Junko. He bought new clothes and a hat and threw the old ones in a trash bin; then he walked, not trusting anyone, including cab or bus drivers, in case any witnesses had seen him last night and the clan was searching for him. This was loyal No Peak territory and many people were upset. Bero saw a lot of somber faces, crowds of people huddled at the windows of electronics shops to watch the local news on television, even weeping in public. The sight warmed Bero more, put a spring into his weary steps. These people on the street, they’d lynch him if they knew what he’d done. They’d string him up, cut him to pieces, light his remains on fire.
On his third attempt at knocking, Mudt opened the back door of the Goody Too. He stared aghast at Bero as if he were a ghost, then yanked him inside by the arm and shut the door. “Go out front and keep watch; shout if you see anyone coming,” Mudt yelled over his shoulder at his son, who put down the box he was carrying and hurried to do as he was told. Mudt turned
back to Bero. “What the fuck happened?”
“I did it,” Bero said. “I killed Kaul.”
To his surprise, Mudt looked horrified. “Where’s Cheeky?”
“Cheeky’s dead.”
Mudt’s mouth moved like an airless carp’s. Finally, he said, “Fuck the gods. Fuck.” He paced back and forth a few times, shaky fingers pulling at his wiry mop of hair. He spun on Bero with suddenness. “You have to get out of here now.”
Bero grew angry. This was not the reception he’d expected. “What for? I spent the whole godsdamned day walking here. You don’t know what kind of night I’ve had. I did it; I killed Kaul. So pick up the phone and call him—that Green Bone. I did what he asked, and I want in now. I want my jade; I deserve it, no question now.”
“You dumb fuck,” Mudt spat. “No one told you to kill Kaul. You were supposed to shoot up the Lilac Divine and drive away. Give Kaul a scare in his own territory, ruin his car and one of his favorite businesses, piss him off, not kill him. The idea that you two half-wits could kill a Green Bone like Kaul Lan …” Mudt gave a derisive snorting laugh. Soberly, “We’re fucked.”
“The Mountain wants Kaul dead, don’t it?” Bero demanded, refusing to believe what he was hearing. “Make a big statement, that’s what the Green Bone said we were supposed to do. You telling me you never thought we could do it?”
“A man with as much jade as the Pillar? You’re not going to take him out with a Fully gun spray from two kids who can barely shoot straight! We figured you’d cause a panic, maybe hit a few bystanders, and be lucky to get away alive. I don’t even know how it’s possible that you did it, how you’re even here …” Mudt trailed off in disbelief, then seized Bero by the upper arm and began pulling him across the back room cluttered with boxes, papers, and cleaning supplies.
Bero yanked his arm away. “What’re you doing?”
Mudt opened a closet door. He pushed aside a wheeled filing cabinet and rolled aside a flap of carpet to reveal a trapdoor in the floor. “He already phoned once, asking if you’d come back here,” Mudt said, tugging on a big brass ring to pull the door open. “He’ll come back around here today, any minute now. If he finds you, you’re a dead man, keke. If you’re lucky, they’ll just kill you for screwing things up. If you’re not, they’ll hand you over to No Peak as an offering. Though it’s probably too late for any of that; they say No Peak’s Horn is already on the warpath …”
“So you’re saying I should run?”
“Gods, you really are missing some lights upstairs, aren’t you?” Mudt muttered. He pointed down into the opening in the floor. “I don’t think anyone saw you come in, and better not to take any chances on them seeing you leave. The tunnel goes all the way down under Summer Park and lets out near the water. Dead useful for smuggling, and it’ll be dry this time of year.
If you’re lucky enough to have lived this long, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get the hell out of Janloon.”
“Out of Janloon?” Bero exclaimed. “How?”
“I’m not helping you there, keke,” Mudt said. “This is as much as I’m doing. If the Mountain finds out I’m even doing this, they’d cut my tongue out for starters.” He paled. “Goodbye jade, goodbye shine, goodbye eating solid food.”
Bero squinted at Mudt. “Then why’re you doing it?”
The man paused and looked at Bero as if he was seriously asking himself the same question. Then he grimaced as if he didn’t like his own answer.
“You made me a shitload of money and never got caught even though most of the others got caught, and then somehow, by some dumb kind of miracle I can’t even fathom, you killed Kaul Lan and show up with nothing but a bandage on your arm. I don’t know what it is with you, keke, but you got some strange luck of the gods on you, and I’m not messing with that. No way.” He pointed at the set of stairs leading underground. “Don’t touch a thing down there. Now get—before I change my mind.”
Bero couldn’t believe this was happening. He’d done everything right, taken every opportunity presented to him, been daring where others had been meek—and this was what he got for it? Earlier, he’d felt near invincible, convinced his rewards were finally coming to him. Now he saw that it was nothing more than a horrible joke. He thought about refusing to leave. He’d wait right here in the back of the Goody Too until that goateed Green Bone bastard showed up and then he’d demand his due.
Mudt was right, though. There was some strange luck on him and it was best not to question it. Just as it had told him to chase after Kaul last night, it told him now that if he stayed, he wouldn’t live long enough for his fortune to turn again.
He started down the tunnel. “It’s dark down there,” he protested. Mudt handed him a flashlight and he switched it on. When he got to the last of the steps, Mudt slammed the trapdoor shut and Bero jumped. He heard Mudt rolling the filing cabinet back into place overhead and a sudden sick panic gripped him by the throat. What if this wasn’t an escape route after all, but a trick? What if Mudt had trapped him down here, to hand over to either one of the clans later, or simply to die?
Bero swung the flashlight around. The beam shook with his fear, dancing over unlabeled crates and boxes. This must be where Mudt kept his most valuable contraband. Under other circumstances, Bero would’ve been eager to open them up and take a look, but when the yellow circle of his flashlight passed over the nearby items and disappeared down a long, beckoning tunnel, relief opened into Bero’s veins and he hurried toward it, away from the hated sting of being wronged yet again.