Two Tribes, page 14
part #1 of Young Atlanteans Series
Xavier felt Alexia’s hand on his shoulder as Keenan smiled and addressed Valarie, with two cousins looming next to him like harbingers of doom. ‘Good evening, Mrs Johnson. May we come in? We have something important to give the children.’
His voice was soft and lulling and holding her in his thrall. An effect many Atlanteans had over humans – particularly vampires. Then, without speaking, she took a step back.
They seemed even bigger and more imposing than ever inside the flat, making Latitia hitch a breath when she and the little ones came out to the hall and saw them. The two children scooted around the newcomers’ legs before Valarie could stop them. Craning their little necks, their eyes open wide, one said. ‘Whoa. Are you giants?’
Keenan grinned and knelt down. ‘Hey, fellas.’
The smallest of the two poked out a finger to touch his large canine with eyes huge with wonder. ‘Have you come to eat us up?’
Keenan grabbed him and tickled his stomach. ‘Only naughty boys.’
The boy squealed into giggles.
‘Are you good?’
‘Yes!’ the boy said, breathlessly.
Then as soon as he let him up for air, Valarie whisked him out of his arms as if he was playing with the Devil himself. ‘Cute kid,’ Keenan said, getting back to his feet. Then, as soon as she’d ushered the others away, his smile faded and he faced the three of them.
‘What did Father say?’ Xavier prompted.
Keenan turned his head to his cousin and held out his hand. He reached into the breast pocket of his black bomber jacket and pulled out a package wrapped in brown paper. Keenan took it from him, opened it and held up a glass vial with clear liquid in it. ‘Your father sent these.’
Xavier looked from the vial to Keenan and then to JJ in consternation. ‘What, that’s it?’ A white-hot anger began to fill every cell in his body. All the hope, the waiting and discussion, for this. ‘Elixir!’ he spat. He knew exactly what it was.
JJ put out a calming hand to hold his arm and stop him exploding.
Reading his mood correctly, Keenan passed the package to JJ. ‘There are nine vials. Give them to your—’ He paused and frowned, clearly not knowing what to call them. ‘Intended,’ he said, eventually, and continued, ‘Twelve hours apart and they should survive.’
Then, without another single word of explanation, he turned back towards the door. Xavier was too angry and flabbergasted for words. It was JJ who held out his arm. ‘Wait. That’s it? Father said nothing more?’
‘Of course he didn’t,’ Xavier said through gritted teeth.
Alexia, always so tuned into everyone’s emotions, began to cry. It was ridiculous because she was the one who wanted to stay. She was simply feeling the anger, disappointment and abandonment for them all.
Keenan was a nice guy and genuinely sorry he had no better news to give them. Even through the haze of his anger, Xavier realized that.
‘You told him what we said?’ JJ persisted.
Keenan nodded, his smile apologetic. Then he seemed to relent a little. ‘Look, your dad just said that you have the elixir now, you have somewhere to live and go to school, access to unlimited funds if you need it and we’re nearby. He doesn’t see a problem. Sorry, guys.’ He turned, dipped his head slightly to fit under the doorway and his fellow guards followed him.
Xavier felt so angry he wanted to fly out after them, but JJ spoke to his mind. Wait! This doesn’t change anything.
The last guard closed the door after them and Xavier swung around on JJ. ‘What? You’re OK with that? Stuck here and palmed off with elixir?’
‘Didn’t you hear him? Unlimited funds,’ JJ whispered, eyes wide with excitement.
Xavier frowned, struggling to make sense of what difference that made. Then his meaning sunk in. ‘The royal account,’ he whispered back.
They both went for their jackets, hanging on the hooks by the door and found their wallets in the breast pocket. Xavier pulled out the black plastic card and JJ did the same. They stared at the plain black credit card that now held so much more meaning. Simple and plain, with distinctive gold writing on one side, of which there were less than five hundred in the entire world, held their names, ID number and the letters CAB, which stood for the Central Atlantic Bank: their father’s bank and now meant their complete freedom. ‘Unlimited funds,’ JJ repeated, waving the card in front of his face. ‘We’re as good as emancipated.’
Xavier smiled wryly. ‘Not exactly. Only until he puts a stop on it.’
JJ shrugged. ‘We’ll be set up by then.’
Xavier studied his brother’s face, poised and waiting for the answer that he knew would be yes. What did they have to lose? ‘Where to first?’ Xavier said.
JJ laughed, something he rarely did.
Alexia stepped in and snatched the card out of Xavier’s hand. ‘You’re mad. What on earth do you think Father is going to allow two underage boys to do?’
Xavier snatched it back. ‘He won’t know.’
‘We’re moving out,’ JJ said.
Alexia laughed cynically. ‘Where are we moving to? They don’t even rent houses to minors, you know.’
Xavier simply looked deadpan at JJ. ‘She has a valid point.’
JJ grinned his most evil grin. ‘We’re going to pay our local tough guy a visit.’
* * *
That evening it wasn’t hard to find the two goons who’d attempted to collect money from Valarie at their flat. Early Saturday evening was a great time to catch unsuspecting people at home. The estate was full of struggling people, ripe to borrow money from the shark the two guys worked for.
JJ ordered Alexia to stay home and he and Xavier went for a walk, spreading their Atlantean senses wide.
‘What do you think Father will do when he realizes what we’ve done?’ Xavier asked as they walked leisurely along the pavement.
It was dusk, chilly, but not raining, and the streetlights were buzzing to life, casting down their gloomy light on the bins and old cars beneath them. JJ liked it, deciding that the yellow glow against the damp night air was something intrinsically English. It didn’t look or feel the same anywhere else in the world. ‘There’s nothing they can do,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Not if we stick within the parameters of his orders.’
‘Your dad won’t exactly care about that,’ Xavier said, ruefully.
JJ thought about his own, quietly confident, biological father, Jay Gardiner. Xavier was right. He would be an added complication if he decided enough was enough. It wouldn’t matter to him what orders Dante, the king, had decreed. He’d turn up wherever they were and there would be trouble. Still, he’d never been afraid of his dad, and he wasn’t about to start now. ‘We’ll just have to make such a good job of it that it simply can’t be ignored.’
Their footsteps echoed as they kicked a can between them through an underpass. ‘We’ll stay in the area, go to the same school, mix with the humans and even learn to manage them. We could even give back a little. You know … improve the area. How can he complain when we’re doing exactly what he asked?’
Xavier smiled sceptically, then laughed and pointed as they came up on the other side of the tunnel.
JJ followed his line of vision. The men they’d been looking for, including the one he’d fried, were pushing a bike along the balcony of the block of flats in front of them. Some poor guy was flailing his arms behind them, shouting, ‘Hey! How am I supposed to get to work now, eh?’
‘How do you want to play this?’ Xavier asked.
JJ watched the two men struggling with the bike into the stairwell and down the stairs. One of them had to play the part of aggressive thug and the other the leader. That’s the dynamic these humans understood and, after the last time they’d met, one they’d emulate. ‘I’ll do the talking,’ JJ said. ‘Then, if they underestimate you, they won’t know what hit ’em.’
Xavier nodded but looked thoughtful. They’d always made a good team, just like their fathers before them, but for them, the rivalry went a little deeper, a little more intrinsic, somehow. The idea wasn’t a stretch. Everyone always assumed JJ was the psycho out of the two of them and Xavier was the reasonable one. However, in Atlantean circles, no one quite knew who the ringleader was, exactly. JJ read Xavier’s aura. It was simmering between purple, green and red. Undecided. But going along with him, anyway.
The two men were clear of the building and pushing the bike, past an abandoned sofa, towards them. They slowed to a halt when they caught sight of them. ‘It’s them kids,’ the one he’d floored previously, pushing the bike, said.
‘We just want to talk,’ JJ called out, before they came to a stop a few feet in front of them.
‘You’ve got some nerve,’ the one pushing the bike said.
JJ bobbed his head, accepting it as a compliment. ‘We want to talk to your boss.’
The two men looked at each other and laughed.
‘Come on,’ JJ persisted. ‘What do you have to lose? At the very least it should give you a good laugh.’
The taller guy, not pushing the bike, narrowed his eyes. ‘What would two youngsters like you want him for?’
‘Tell him we want to talk business. We have a proposition for him,’ JJ said.
The man rocked on his heels and took in a deep breath as if he was considering what he said. Then he looked at his friend and tipped his head in the direction of the road. ‘Come with us to the van while we load this up.’
JJ faced Xavier and looked him in the eyes, while the two men swerved them with the bike and headed to their van.
Xavier shrugged and nodded, so JJ led the way, following the men. So you do have it straight, what to say? Xavier said directly to his mind.
Yes, don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, he replied.
Xavier was a quiet presence behind him after that. He always understood. There was no one upmanship between them when there was a common goal. They were equally clever, equally strong, equally everything. That was the trouble. When you knew that, everything else was a game: girls, sport, fighting. Everything needed to be won and the need was getting stronger between them. They loved and respected each other, but ultimately only one would be king. This. The thing they were doing now. It was only the start. And judging by Xavier’s simmering aura, he knew it as well as he did.
CHAPTER 16
The taller one made the call with Xavier and JJ waiting nearby. It was almost dark.
He put the phone to his shoulder and called over. ‘He said, come to Trevor’s Turf tomorrow at eleven. You know, the betting shop on the High Street? His office is at the back.’
‘We’re not old enough to go into a betting shop,’ JJ shouted back.
‘Then you got a problem, don’t cha.’ Both men laughed as they got into either side of the van.
Xavier stood with JJ and watched the men drive off.
‘Come on,’ JJ said, and turned for home.
Xavier put his phone to his ear as they walked slowly back to the Johnsons’ place.
‘Who are you calling?’ JJ asked.
‘I’m calling a cab for the morning. It’s our first test. If we can’t negotiate this, then we aren’t going to be able to operate at all around the humans,’ Xavier said.
JJ nodded, knowing straight away he was right. Their plan was getting increasingly complicated.
* * *
Xavier had to wait with JJ till everyone went to bed to get any privacy. ‘You’re both mad, you know that, right?’ Alexia said. She hugged both of them goodnight from behind their chairs at the living room table and kissed the top of their head.
At last, they were alone. Then Xavier and JJ spent most of the night going over their plan. They got to sleep around 4.30 and got up with their alarm around 10. Then they rushed around to get ready before the rest of the flat got up and their cab arrived at 10.50.
The journey was short and they reached the dingy old shop, with the dusty green sign, bang on time. Xavier got out looking up at the shabby gold lettering. ‘I guess our guy is Trevor,’ he said to JJ, getting out the other side of the cab. He zipped up his bomber jacket against the cold.
‘So, I’ll start with the talking, then you take over as if you’re leading the show,’ JJ said.
Xavier nodded. It was what they’d rehearsed. ‘How are we going to get in, though?’ That part, they knew, they’d have to wing on the day. Xavier looked up and down the High Street, busy, like any other ordinary day. There was nothing sleepy about this part of town on a Sunday.
‘We could go around the back to see if there’s a back way in, or we could go right in through the front door.’ JJ looked him in the eyes and they both grinned.
Xavier nodded. No skulking for them. It was perfect; sending exactly the right message.
JJ led the way, parting the multicoloured PVC strip curtain, and walking inside. Xavier followed and was met with stares from leathery gentlemen, of varying shades and nationalities, perched at the ledges that ran the fifteen feet of either side of the shop, holding stubby little pens.
They both nodded at the suspicious faces as they walked through. The floors were bare floorboards, but the walls were covered with photos of racehorses, fighters and dogs. They came to a stop in front of the wooden counter, with an impressive bank of TVs above and a balding man in his thirties behind it. He held a phone to his shoulder and quickly sized them up. ‘Come back in about five years, boys,’ he said, immediately.
JJ did his thing and immediately met the guy’s eyes. Look at me, he whispered straight to his mind. He carefully entered the surface of his cerebral cortex and gently suggested that Trevor was waiting to see them. ‘We’re not here to bet, Mr?’ JJ said, smoothly.
‘Mike! Mike Jones,’ the guy said, doing a complete three sixty, now eager, as if he was meeting some kind of celebrity.
Xavier smirked. Humans were so easy.
Mike lifted part of the counter, built on a hinge and pointed to another doorway behind him. ‘He’s in the office right down the hall.’
‘Thanks, Mike,’ JJ said and they breezed through as easy as anything.
A narrow corridor was on the other side with peeling magnolia walls, covered by the now-familiar pictures of photo finishes and prize racehorses. They walked to the very end, where a dark-wooden door was closed to them.
JJ knocked.
‘What?’ a gruff voice shouted from the other side.
JJ tried the handle and then a bolt clanked the other side. A face of an older guy appeared with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. ‘Who are you?’ he barked. ‘How did you get back ’ere?’
‘Who is it?’ came from behind him.
‘Some kids. Who let you in ‘ere?’
‘Mike,’ JJ said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. ‘We have a meeting with Trevor at eleven.’
A smile spread across the oily skin making an already roman nose look really hooked. He peered back behind him. ‘They have an appointment with Trevor,’ he said, in a mocking aristocratic accent.
There was a chuckle behind him. ‘Let ’em in,’ the voice said. ‘But they might ’ave a bit of a wait while I nip to the cemetery and dig him up.’ Loud peals of laughter followed, but the guy pushed the door wide and the two of them walked cautiously into the room.
Four men, all smoking, were sitting at desks pushed together to make an oblong where two faced two on either side. Another desk was at the far end where a man with grey hair, in his late fifties or early sixties, sat on the other side. He was the one they’d came to see.
* * *
Xavier hung back a little and observed. The four men were putting stacks of money through a money-counting machine. The guy behind the desk grinned and took a puff on a huge cigar. ‘Boys? What can I do for you?’
‘Trevor?’ JJ said.
They all laughed again and the guy behind the desk narrowed his eyes and took a loud puff on his cigar. ‘You taking the Michael, Son?’
The laughing suddenly stopped and there was an excruciating moment of silence. Xavier shifted uncomfortably, getting ready to run. However, the man grinned and the room collectively relaxed. ‘I’m Trevor Junior, you could say. My ole man was the name over the door. Passed away three years ago, so you can call me Mr Cooney.’
The men all laughed at him again. He was clearly putting them in their place, but JJ didn’t miss a beat. ‘I’m JJ. This is my brother, Xavier.’
Mr Cooney put up his hand to stop him. ‘I know who you are. You been staying with the Johnsons. You had a bit of a run-in with my boys a couple of weeks back, I believe.’
Xavier watched as JJ’s aura pulsed yellow as he furiously tried to hold the conversation together so as not to antagonize the situation. A troubling tingle was crawling up his spine that he didn’t have time to analyse; he was forced to tamp it down. His pulse doubled, it felt stiflingly hot and he continually wanted to cough because of the smoke. He decided it was time he butted in to take the heat off JJ. ‘What my brother is trying to say is that we are looking to branch out in business and we’re here as a courtesy. We know you are a spokesman and somewhat of a public servant in the area. I thought we could help each other out.’
The men all laughed again, but a little more nervously this time, cautiously keeping their eye on Mr Cooney and how he would react. He looked wide-eyed from Xavier to them and back again as if he’d never heard anything like it. ‘By all means. Let me know what it is I can do for you.’ The regal wave of his hand suggested that he was treating it all as a joke, making it feel like a farce quickly becoming out of control.
JJ took another turn. ‘Can we talk privately?’ he said.
The guy looked amused, like he was more than a little intrigued to see how it would play out. ‘A minute, boys,’ he said, nodding towards the door.
The men slowly stood with a scrape of their chairs and filed out of the room. A big guy came in and leaned against the wall. ‘He stays, though,’ Mr Cooney said.
