“Give her some more,” the barukan leader said. More shine. There was no way they could’ve done this ten years ago without killing her. Thanks to Espenian medical advancements, it was much harder to die from SN2 overdose. Shae thought this was terribly funny and began to laugh uncontrollably.
“Crazy bitch,” the barukan growled. They threw water over her, and when she stopped sputtering, the man said again, “The Euman Deal. What is it? What’s the Mountain’s big plan? We know they’re cutting in the Matyos somehow.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Shae slurred. A small, still functioning part of her brain stirred weakly. What were they talking about?
“The Matyos are moving money to the Mountain,” the barukan leader said slowly and impatiently, speaking as if she were an imbecile. “What are they getting for it? You’re the fucking Weather Man of No Peak, you know what Ayt is up to, don’t you?”
Did she? She knew . . . she knew what they were saying must have something to do with . . . with what? With something that had once seemed clear and important but that was now impossibly out of reach. “I don’t know.” Tears spilled out of her eyes and down her face. She was so tired. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.”
“Throw her back in the tub,” the barukan said with weary anger.
Hands began to lift her yet again and the last of Shae’s willpower unspooled as rapidly as a thread on a spindle. “No,” she sobbed. “No no no no no no—”
Somewhere in the house, a phone rang.
_______
From the third-floor room of an apartment building down the street, four hundred meters away, Vin Solunu set up his Fullerton TAC-50 sniper rifle well back from the open window and closed his eyes as he adjusted the aim. The windows of the house he was targeting were completely blocked. Every once in a while, someone peeked through the slats of the closed front blinds. All the other windows were covered with black plastic. At this distance, he was at the farthest edge of his range of Perception, which meant he was confident no one inside the house could Perceive him in turn, but he’d also never placed a Perception shot from so far away before, and with the stakes so high.
Lott’s voice came to life in his headset. “Vin, what’s going on in the house?” The Horn was waiting in a vehicle on the street below with several other Fists, ready to attack under cover of darkness.
“There are six people in there right now,” Vin said into the radio mic. “Two of them aren’t moving. I think the other four are the barukan piss rats we’re looking for, along with the three others who are standing or pacing around outside as lookouts.”
Vin heard the Mountain Green Bone behind him in the apartment mutter, “Can he really Perceive that from over here? I can’t Perceive shit,” and Kenjo replying, “Quiet, let him concentrate.” Vin found it a touch unnerving that one of the two men guarding his position was a member of the Mountain clan, whose name he didn’t even know, but that was not the most unnerving aspect of this situation by far.
The Pillar had struck a deal with Ayt Mada, who had in turn struck a deal with the Matyos barukan to betray the kidnappers in the Faltas gang. In short order, the Matyos had provided a list of all the known Faltas safe houses in Leyolo City within an hour’s drive of the spot Shae and Wen had been taken. When the private plane carrying the Horn and a dozen other carefully chosen No Peak Green Bones landed in Leyolo City, the information was waiting for them, along with a contingent of Mountain Green Bones who’d been tasked to help in the search.
Reconnaissance on all seven of the addresses was conducted via drive-bys at a cautious distance. Vin doubted any Keko-Shotarian barukan would have the training to Perceive farther away than the length of a relayball court, but they would certainly have sentries patrolling around their position. Tato, whose talent in Perception was second only to Vin’s, thought she sensed the Weather Man inside one of the houses. Vin confirmed that it did feel like Kaul Shae’s aura, although it was flaring erratically and he could not be completely sure it was her. Photographs of the building were taken from a distance and the images faxed back to Janloon. Wen hadn’t seen the outside of the house, but she could describe the size and layout of the main floor based on what she was able to remember. It aligned with the shape of the house Vin was now concentrating on.
All evidence told Vin they had the right place. Eyes closed, finger on the trigger, breathing as lightly and steadily as possible, he could sense the different jade auras inside the house vibrating with strong emotion: fear, pain, anger, urgency. From this distance, they were like colored tea lights dancing in his Perception. Fortunately, the walls were merely stucco and insulated drywall, not brick or concrete, but he had no way of knowing how thick the windows were, or if there was furniture in the way that would stop a rifle bullet or change its trajectory. Ideally, his target would be directly in front of a wall or window. And the timing of the whole operation had to be perfect. As soon as the first shot went off, the men inside would know they’d been found. They would kill the prisoners unless Lott and the other Green Bones in the car arrived in seconds.