The Brothers Locke, page 9
“Very important,” added Echo.
‘Big time,’ signed Sharp.
“And we have a very important meeting, right brothers?” continued Mouth.
“Of utmost importance sir!” said Echo.
‘Big time!’ again signed Sharp.
“I mean, I know the Crimson Corsairs are supposed to be the most notorious pirates in the Dea or whatever, but honestly, this is a pretty raggedy operation you’ve got running here Captain.” Mouth waved his arms towards the airship in the distance that had seen better days, and then pointed at the makeshift vehicle the brigands had arrived in. “So I said to my brothers: ‘Brothers …”
“‘Yes Mouth?’, that’s what we said back to him,” Echo said, who was not able to hold his grin back any longer.
“‘... what are we going to do with this coin? Because I know this big, fat, smelly, ratty-beard, low rent, sardine breathed, sick, sad, sorry, so-and-so of a brigand did not send us in here for one stinking gold coin!’”
‘Small time!,’ Sharp signed, his face also cracking a smile.
“Oh, I see,” Captain Horsefly grunted as he took another step towards the brothers. “You want to be shot in the face.”
“Not particularly,” Mouth replied. “But if you shoot us in the face, then you’ll never find the coin.”
“You don’t think we’d actually bring it with us here did you?” Echo added.
Captain Horsefly motioned for his brigands to lower their weapons. For the moment, the brothers had the upper hand. Seeing this, Mouth smiled slyly and then moved from behind the protection of the boulder.
“Where is it?” Horsefly asked, his voice hinting at the massive amount of anger that was welling up within him.
“Not so fast big boy. First, we have a few things we want.”
Horsefly crossed his arms and waited for Mouth to continue. It was clear by the quivering of his lips — which made the rings that pierced his lower lip clang together — that he was in no mood to barter but also had no choice. Mouth could see that he’d have to tread carefully and not go too far. While the pirates wanted the coin, he also had heard of Horsefly’s penchant for reckless violence when angry.
“Seeing as the coin is worth so much to you, we want to be paid for getting it back for you. Secondly, we want the vehicle. It’s miles until the next outpost or town and we’re not walking. And third … what was number three Echo?”
“Our friends,” Echo answered mockingly.
“Right! Yes! You have to let Solas go. Once you do all that, then we’ll tell you where the coin is.”
While the brothers were quite proud of themselves for their negotiating tactics, it apparently hadn’t swayed Captain Horsefly in the least. He stood still with his arms crossed and his lower lip still quivering. When they realized he wasn’t responding, Mouth’s wide smile turned into a concerned scowl.
“Is that all?” Captain Horsefly asked.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Echo said nervously.
“Good. Glad that’s over now. Boys!” Shindar and Mundlar raised their weapons again and aimed them squarely at the Locke Brothers who no longer had the protection of the boulder between them and the rifles. It seemed that Captain Horsefly had actually outwitted them by allowing them to gloat so much they gave up the only protection they had.
‘Great plan Mouth,’ signed Sharp to his brother. ‘He actually played us!’
“I don’t need you to tell me where the coin is. There’s only so much land between here and the station, we can certainly take the time to locate it behind whatever rock you stashed it under. And since you’ve become way more of a pain than you’re worth I have no real use for you anymore or your smart mouths.” Horsefly turned and began to walk back to the vehicle but gave one last command as he went. “Shoot them and bury the bodies.”
“Crap!” Echo said to his brothers. “Now what?”
“You know I hate to do this, but it seems we don’t have another choice,” Mouth said to Echo.
Sharp and Echo knew what he was planning. Mouth had not used his full voice in years. The toll it took on his vocal chords was so great he wouldn’t be able to speak for two days, and for weeks afterwards he’d barely be able to get above a whisper. Not being able to talk for someone like Mouth was torture in itself. But it certainly beat being dead.
He sucked in as much air as he could, closed his mouth, and prepared to let loose a scream so loud and powerful it would knock Horsefly and his brigands off their feet and literally shatter the weapons they held in their hands. He’d have to measure it though. Too much and he’d kill them, too little and it wouldn’t be effective enough to keep them from being shot to death. Sharp and Echo closed their ears and began to back away from their brother, knowing the Death Scream, as they had called it, would hurt their ears as well. Echo was especially concerned as his heightened sense of hearing would be most affected. It would be painful but again he knew it was the last, most desperate card they had left to play.
As Mouth prepared to open his mouth and use his gift he paused for a split second as he saw what Horsefly’s men were about to do. Shindar and Mundlar gave him the slightest of nods and in an instant turned the business end of their firearms towards Captain Horsefly.
Taken aback by the sudden realization that he had been betrayed, Horsefly balled his fist and huffed defiantly. He made the slightest of moves towards Mundlar who grinned at the prospect of letting loose a bullet at the pirate.
“Oh please do,” he said. “I have cleaned that nasty bathroom in the bottom of that nasty ship for three nasty years just waiting for this moment. So please give me a reason to pull this trigger right now. Please!”
“Hands up Captain,” Shindar ordered.
“What is going on?” Echo asked.
“It seems that Bulk Brown is smarter than we realized,” his brother Mouth answered after gently letting out the air he had built up.
“Get in the vehicle Locke Brothers. We’ve got to go pick up your friends,” Shindar said.
The brothers started towards the car but after a few steps Mouth quickly turned and ran back to the other side of the boulder. He disappeared for a few seconds and then returned in a huff with something clenched in his right fist. Horsefly knew what it was immediately.
“The coin I’m guessing,” Captain Horsefly said as Mouth passed by him.
“Hey, it was short notice. Anyway, fun doing business with you. Enjoy the walk home!” Mouth smirked as he passed by the pirate, patting him on the shoulder with one hand while flipping the coin in the air with the other.
The pirate’s face had turned so red with anger it nearly matched his clothes. He was seething, clenching his teeth together and tightening his forehead so much that his black eyes turned into slits.
Shindar and Munldar backed away from him, their weapons still aimed, and slowly entered the vehicle. Shindar kept his sights on Horsefly as Mundlar operated the vehicle, turning over the engine and began backing it away. Once they were at a safe distance, he spun the transport around and headed towards the airship which suddenly shook from an explosion on the starboard side of the upper deck. Sharp watched out the back window of the vehicle as Horsefly stood with his arms still raised above his head and his lower lip still trembling in fury.
***
“Nice to see you held up your end and got that coin,” Bulk Brown said as the brothers exited the truck.
Solas had managed to free themselves from the cargo hold in the airship and were already walking away from the ship as it continued to burst with explosions from all sides. Mundlar and Shindar had been busy over the last few days planting explosives throughout the vessel in preparation for this day.
“Nice that you told us you had two moles inside the Crimson Corsairs,” Echo said.
“So this was all a setup from the beginning when we met them on the road?” Mouth asked.
“Smart kid,” Shindar answered. “Yes, it was. We were supposed to meet up in that shed so we had to improvise with that electromagnetic whatchamacallit.”
‘Why didn’t they tell us?’ Sharp signed to his brothers.
“Good question Sharp. Why didn’t you tell us this was the plan? Why the whole elaborate hoax?” Mouth asked.
Bulk Brown sighed as the rest of his team began entering the truck. He placed his large, heavy hand on Mouth’s shoulder and smiled at the boy.
“Honestly, I still don’t totally trust you boys. You are thieves after all. But there are a lot of things you just don’t have the credentials to know. And it won’t be the last time.”
Echo scoffed while Mouth rolled his eyes. If this was the game Bulk Brown was playing they’d have to keep an eye on him more closely. For now, he was on their side. That could all change at the drop of a hat. While they were thankful for the orchestrated escape from the Crimson Corsairs, they were also reminded at this moment that Solas — no matter how much time they had spent together — were not their friends. This was still, first and foremost, a business arrangement, and Mouth and Echo would make it a point to find out finally what Solas really wanted from them in the first place.
Mouth turned the coin over the back of his knuckles like some sort of magician about the perform a magic trick. “And what about this? Is this the whole reason you went through all of this to get us out here, to steal this coin?”
“Well now, someone’s putting on his big brain pants today! Yes, that’s part of it. But we don’t have the time to talk now. The Crimson Corsairs aren’t smart but they are ruthless. After they get those fires out and Horsefly makes his way back here, they’ll be out for blood. Let’s get going.”
Mouth thought to protest but Echo grabbed his arm to keep him from speaking. Some of the now homeless brigands were taking notice of their truck and looked to be organizing an attack. The subject would once again have to wait until later.
“Don’t be so upset. We didn’t know either,” Kale told the brothers as they entered the truck.
“That’s what happens when you’re at the bottom of the food chain I guess,” Jocelyn added.
The teenagers were covered in soot and pieces of charred wood but did not appear to have been harmed in the escape. Sharp and Mouth ended the conversation there but Echo was much more intrigued by something the teens were saying but only he could hear. Their hearts were racing so fast that he could feel the pounding in his own chest. While Kale and Jocelyn had perfected the art of appearing cool and calm on the outside, Echo’s enhanced hearing certainly knew it to be a lie.
“Are you okay?” Dana’s voice came from the front of the truck as she looked back at Sharp.
‘Fine. How about you?’ He signed back to her.
“I’m okay. My ears are ringing a bit from those explosions but I’m good. By the way, thanks for standing up for me back there. That’s not something people often do for me.”
Sharp was frozen for a second before he smiled and nodded geekily. Mouth and Echo couldn’t help but notice their brother’s unabashed crush on Dana and how she had just made him blush for the first time in his life. He waved them off, afraid that whatever cache he had with her in this moment would be tainted by their juvenile taunting. Dana didn’t see, her attention was with Bando as they were looking over the few weapons they managed to procure from the airship.
“Get some sleep,” Bulk said to everyone in the van. “We’re going to drop off Mundlar and Shindar where they need to go and then it’s off to The Great Manacle. Should take us about a day if we don’t get delayed.”
Mouth’s eye widened. “The Great Manacle? You mean we’re leaving the West?”
“Exactly.”
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t worry Mouth. It’s what you want: an end to this whole thing.”
***
Sim Sam was nothing if not efficient in covering his tracks, even from his own boss. The Miscellany had his hands in so many operations throughout the entire Dea — both the East and West — that it was inevitable that things would fall through the cracks. This was an advantage to Sim Sam who was able to run his own operations with a healthy cache of wealth and resources at his disposal.
Avidity, a city of technology and wealth, stuck out like a sore thumb in the East among the collapsing cesspools, crime riddled small towns and dilapidated cities that were crumbling under their own corruption from the inside out. Not to mention the areas that held more supernatural properties veering towards the dark and macabre. It provided a refuge for someone with Sim Sam’s skills. He could hide as an underling to The Miscellany and even at times use his employer’s reputation to get his own personal goals achieved.
He was a smart man however and would not bite the hand the fed him. His loyalty was to The Miscellany and that would not change in the foreseeable future. No one else could provide Sim Sam with the resources he had in Avidity and there was no reason to look elsewhere.
His most recent project had provided its fair share of complications however. His business relationship with Doctor Psi came at a considerable cost for her research and her experiments. Fudging the numbers was not easy but he was making due. The results of this investment were promising as the latest specimen she had created had more than impressed him during his last visit to the doctor’s private laboratory.
“If I was a gambling man, which I am not, I’d be inclined to take you on your word right now. But seeing as you are holding all the cards in this situation, I’m going to need a bit more information out of you son,” Sim Sam said as quiet, yet as forcefully as he could while looking down at a newspaper.
A younger man sat at a table behind him, his back turned to Sim Sam, and answered the question while going about his meal. “Isn’t the point though that Doctor —”
“She,” Sim Sam corrected him.
“Sorry. My apologies. Isn’t the point though that she not leave any traces? I mean, we are talking here out in the open anyway, in this cafe, with families and everyone’s grandmother running around shopping at your stores.”
“If you weren’t aware, this is Avidity. It’s hard to have a conversation in this city without someone’s eyes and ears on you.”
“Almost everywhere, except here I assume.”
“You’d assume correctly. The Miscellany made a few areas off limits to surveillance, so you are now the beneficiary of that knowledge through me. There are no microphones here but eyes … eyes are still everywhere.”
“Understood,” the young man said before shoving a large helping of scrambled eggs into his mouth. “My name is No One.”
The name brought a smile to Sim Sam’s face. “Understood.”
“She says the trials are done and your product is ready.”
“How successful?”
“Passed all tests. Exceeded actually.”
“Now there you see, that’s something you’ve said finally that I want to hear.”
“You have the payment though? She will need more to finalize the product.”
“Outside this food court there’s a balcony that looks out over the lake. Go up there and stand by the trash can in ten minutes. You’ll be taken care of.”
No One paused before saying anything else. A few children were heading in their direction to sit at a nearby table. They were full of smiles until they saw him. He clearly did not look like he was from the city. His clothes were tattered and worn in, his face rough and dirty, and his dark hair greasy but pushed down flat in some attempt to make himself presentable. No One was from Icagoro and it showed all over. While the citizens of Avidity had very few cares and had every want and need provided for them by The Miscellany, Icagoro’s citizens were still suffering from poverty and crime.
He didn’t take offense to the children turning their noses up at him and scurrying off. He instead smiled at them, showing his rotten teeth, which accelerated their departure from the area.
“One more thing,” he said, now peering back down at his plate of food. “She wants to know when you want to deploy.”
“Tomorrow,” Sim Sam stated before folding up his newspaper and putting it down on the table. “If you wouldn’t mind son, please have a look at this article in the paper after I’m gone. It’ll be of interest to you.”
Not waiting for an answer Sim Sam pulled his considerable bulk from the cafe table and made his exit. No One waited a few moments before finishing his meal and then gathered his tray to leave. He turned and saw the newspaper sitting on the table where Sim Sam had been and discretely snatched it to take with him. While following the fat man’s instructions to find the trash can on the balcony, he opened the paper and began looking at the news articles.
Avidity had three newspapers and all were essentially propaganda pieces for The Miscellany and the way of life in the city. Articles giving opinions about the East were often “us against them” diatribes by angry columnists, peppered between quality of life stories that supported The Miscellany’s idea of social justice that Avidity was supposedly founded on.
It was all lies and spin, and No One couldn’t care less about these stories. He was from a city that in many ways suffered because of Avidity’s strong arm tactics but politics was not for him. What was of interest was what Sim Sam had written in bold letters at the bottom of page six. It was a location and a time. No One knew the location but had to read it twice because he couldn’t imagine the deployment of this secret project would be set for such a place. He tore out that section of newspaper, tucked it safely in the inner pocket of his jacket, and waited by the nearby trash can. Seconds after he arrived a small child ran past him, dropping a backpack on the ground, and continued running without looking at No One.
At first, No One was concerned that the nearby shoppers would notice what had happened. He then realized that they were so entranced by the numerous video screens running advertisements and propaganda videos about The Miscellany that they hadn’t noticed a thing. Smirking, he picked up the bag and casually made his way out of the shopping center to his next destination.
