Acheron Highway: A Jonathan Shade Novel (11 page)

“Desk drawer again.”

I went to the desk, pulled out a sheet of paper, and wrote out a sign.
 
“Can one of you head over to my place and tack this to the building someplace where people will see it?”

Kelly took the sheet, looked at it, and chuckled.
 
“I can do that.
 
You owe me for gas.”

“Put it on my tab.”

“What’s it say?” Brand asked.

She showed it to him.

Brand nodded.
 
“That ought to work for most of the day.”

The sign read,
Zombie movie audition, Unit 212, 1:00 pm.
 
Please arrive in costume.
”

Of course, I still had to figure out a way to get rid of a hundred or so dead people before the neighbors complained.
 
It’s a glamorous life, but someone has to live it.

CHAPTER TEN

I parked Kelly’s SUV at the curb in front of Starbucks.
 
Miranda sat beside me but wasn’t talking.
 
We’d been cranking out the tunes on the ride over.
 
My favorite blues singer,
Howlin
’ Roy Porter, was singing “Requiem for Jim,” which I absolutely loved.
 
I waited for the song to end then ejected the CD and shut off the engine.
 
DGI stood across the street.
 
I’d dropped Kelly and Brand off at the dojo and promised Kelly not to put a single scratch on her vehicle.

Miranda took a deep breath.
 
“I haven’t been back to work since…”

“It’s all right,” I said.
 
“Zach isn’t here.”

She nodded.
 
“I keep telling myself that.
 
It feels so weird to not feel my heart thundering at a time like this.
 
I wonder if it’s beating faster wherever it is.”

“That makes for an odd image.
 
You ready to do this?”

“I’ve never been to any of the other floors.
 
Just my section’s suite.”

“Well, you’re in for a treat.”

She laughed.
 
“You’re a poet and you don’t know it.”

“But my feet show it ’cause they’re
Longfellows
.
 
Can we go now?”

We exited the truck and as we started across the street. I set the alarm and tucked Kelly’s keys into my pocket.
 

When we entered the DGI building, I saw Phil at his guard station.
 
His eyes grew wide when he saw me, and he shook his head.

“Oh, no,” he said.
 
“You don’t have an appointment, Mr. Shade.”

“It’s all right, Phil.
 
I’m with Miranda.”

“Ms. Hammond,” Phil said with a nod as he came around the station to block our path.
 
“I’m sorry, but you’re still on medical leave.”

“I—” she said.

But I interrupted.
 
“Back down, Phil.
 
You know how this plays.”

“Ms. Chan isn’t with you.
 
I pressed the security button already.
 
You aren’t welcome here.”

“Did they give you a raise?”

“No.”

“Then they’re not paying you enough to stand in my way.”

“I’m not the one who’s going to be in your way.”
 
He gave a hitchhiker’s thumb over his shoulder.
 
“They are.”

Five men wearing shades and black leather trench coats formed a line behind Phil.
 
I didn’t have to test their skills to know they were Sekutar warriors.
 
DGI had a program to magically engineer assassins.
 
Kelly was the only surviving warrior from the first generation.
 
Brand was the only surviving member of round two.
 
That meant the five guys behind Phil were from round three of the supposedly defunct program.

One thing you can count on from folks in the
wizarding
business is that they will lie to your face about little things like ending programs to build nearly indestructible assassins.

“Now, Phil, was that really necessary?”

“Just doing my job, Mr. Shade.”

“By calling in your vocal group?”

“Vocal group?”

“Yeah.”
 
I pointed to the warriors.
 
“The Crypt Kicker Five.”

Phil smiled.
 
“Or in your case, the Shade Kicker Five.”

I laughed.
 
“Phil made a funny.”

“We should go,” Miranda said.

“No, we’re here to get some help.”

“They’ll help you out of the building,” Phil said.
 
“The last time I let you past me, too many people died.
 
Important people.”

“Then, as now, it wasn’t your choice.”

The warriors didn’t move.
 
They simply stood there like Buckingham Palace Guards.

“Please leave, Mr. Shade, or I’ll have them make you leave.”

I held up a finger.
 
“Give me a minute.”
 
I pulled out my cell, scrolled through some names, and selected Mike Ender from the contacts list.
 
The phone rang and rang and went to voice mail, but Mike never answers his phone.
 
I waited for the beep then left a message.
 
“Mike.
 
Jonathan Shade here.
 
I’m in the lobby, and I need you to call down to Phil to let me in, or I’ll have to destroy the five Sekutar douche bags you have as a sorry excuse for security.”

I kept my eyes on the warriors as I spoke.
 
No reaction.
 
Tough crowd.
 
Literally.

“Call me back,” I said, “or I won’t be in a good mood when I come see you.”
 
Then I ended the call and stood my ground.

Miranda stood slightly behind me.
 
“We should really go, Jonathan.”

“Soon,” I said.

“He’s not going to call you back,” Phil said.
 
“He knows you can’t do anything to five warriors.”

“Clearly they’ve engineered the personality right out of the
nutless
nimrods.
 
You really think five of them can stop me if I have two Sekutar warriors on my side?”

“You only have one.”

“You haven’t been reading my blog, Phil.
 
I’m hurt.
 
I’ve been posting about my sparring partner for months now.”

“You just—”

My phone rang.
 
“Hold that thought,” I said and took the call.
 
Phil looked pissed, but I just smiled at him while I spoke to Mike Ender, the head of security for DGI.
 
“Hey, Benedict Arnold, how you doing?”

“Contrary to your take on the situation, I didn’t betray you.”

“Spoken like a true politician.”

“I played the hand I was dealt, Mr. Shade.”

“You threw me under the bus, Mike.”

“That’s ancient history.”

“Dude, it was six months ago.
 
I still have scars.
 
My therapist says I’ll never trust anyone again, and I had to order a new batch of self-esteem on eBay.”

“What do you want, Mr. Shade?”

“I need to hire a necromancer for the morning.”

“Why didn’t you simply call ahead?”

“Oh, come on, Mike, that takes all the fun out of it.”

“You like getting pummeled by Sekutar?”

“To be fair, I didn’t know your copy machine was running on overtime.”

“We’ve made a number of security upgrades since your last visit.”

“Good for you.”

“Did you say you want to
hire
a necromancer?”

“I did indeed.”

“As in
pay
for the services.”

“If you take MasterCard or Visa, sure.”

“You really should have called.
 
You could have saved yourself a confrontation.”

“I need at least one good confrontation every day before lunch or I feel like I’m losing my touch.”

“Right.
 
I’ll send the elevator down for you.
 
There aren’t any secret number sequences anymore.
 
The elevator will take you up to us.
 
We control that from here.”

“Like the
Outer Limits.
 
Do not adjust your television…”

“Something like that.”

“Cool beans.”

“We’ll discuss price when you get here.
 
Put Phil on.”

I handed my phone to Phil.
 
“Daddy says you’re grounded.”

Phil rolled his eyes as he took my phone.
 
“Phil here… Yes, sir…
 
Anything you say, sir.... He has Miranda Hammond with him, sir.... Are you sure? …
 
No, sir, I wasn’t questioning your orders…
 
I understand, sir.
 
Thank you, sir.”

Phil handed the phone back to me.

I patted him on the shoulder.
 
“You’re doing a good job, Phil.”

“Up your ass.”

“Sorry,
m’man
, some things are exit only.”

We walked past him, and as I pushed between two of the Sekutar warriors, I looked one of them in the sunglasses.

“You dance tango or salsa?” I asked.
 
I looked him up and down.
 
“No, that’s too spicy for you.
 
You’re clearly a square dancer.”

The warrior said nothing.

“They breeding you without tongues these days?”

“Jonathan,” Miranda said, “can we please just go up?
 
These guys give me the creeps.”

The warrior removed his sunglasses and gazed into my eyes.
 
Then he slowly grinned.
 
“Perhaps I’ll have an occasion to dance a jig on your skull sometime in the very near future.”

His gravelly voice sent a shiver down my spine, but I made sure it didn’t show on my face.
 
I smiled back at him, pleasant as a noonday sun.
 
“Oh, but that would get brains on the floor and you might slip and fall, and I doubt the medical here is any good these days.”

The smile remained on his face.
 
“Clearly, you don’t have any brains, so slipping is out of the question.
 
Next time you come out here, bring my grandma.
 
I’d like to meet her.”

“I’ll bet you would.
 
What’s your name?”

“Drake.”

“Do all
Sekutar
have five-letter names?”

He smirked.
 
Hey, it was a reaction.
 
I figured I was doing well.

Miranda pulled me into the elevator as the doors opened.

The warrior winked at me.
 
Then the doors closed.

“Are you stupid?” Miranda asked.
 
“There were five of those guys.
 
They looked dangerous!”

“They are dangerous.”

“So your plan is to rile them up so they’ll kill you?”

“They won’t kill without being ordered.”

“Right.
 
I’m not ready to die, Jonathan, and don’t you dare say I’m already dead.
 
I’m scared and I’m pissed and I’m stressed out.”