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The Composer of Screams Page 2


  The man cocked his head to the side. “You're here voluntarily too?”

  Maria giggled—she couldn't help it. He was adorable. “No, no. It's just that we both got this strange urge to drive a truck around.” She shrugged. “And then it turned out that it was filled with a shipment to some store, so we got sentenced to five years in prison.”

  Gloria rolled her eyes and sighed. “God, you're a freak. I don't think that is quite what he meant.”

  The Japanese man waved his hands. “N-no! That's the same! Uh...” He winced. “...kinda, anyway.”

  “Close enough,” Maria said. “Uh, you...” I frowned. “Hm. I don't know your name.”

  He relaxed. “You're right. Sorry, I came up to you out of the blue, I should have at least introduced myself.” He held out his hand and smiled warmly. “I am Akio.”

  Maria took his hand. He had a firm grip. “Maria. That's Glory—”

  “Gloria.”

  “—and that's Miss Ljunborg. Glory and I are just on lunch break.”

  “Oh, so you have jobs already? That's perfect! Would you mind pointing me to your boss? If he's hiring, I mean.”

  Ljunborg looked at him sideways. “You don't have a job? Jesus, how long have you been here, a week?”

  Akio chuckled. “No, over two years. It's just...” His good humor faded. “I was working as a dock guard up north. But a few days ago, it got burned down by one of the gangs. Christ, I don't even know which one...”

  Gloria leaned back and sighed. “God damn, I know what you mean. Seems like a new one pops up every week.”

  Old miss Ljunborg looked past us. “Speak of the devil...”

  “...and he shall appear,” the well-dressed white man walking up said with a grin. “Though I think you might be overstating my importance in the grand scheme of things just a bit.”

  Ljunborg sighed. “What do you want, Mister Judd? It's Sunday. Day for rest.”

  Mister Judd spread his arms mockingly, which also served to help highlight the two suited goons flanking him. Maria could see bulges under their shirts that were probably handguns. “Now why do you insist on speaking to me like that, Miss Ljunborg? My boys and I are working hard, even today. Is it so much to ask you show some appreciation?”

  She just scowled back. “Considering you're the reason I left my old neighborhood, yes, it is too much. Did you assholes follow me?”

  Judd covered his heart and faked staggering back. “You wound me, my dear. The boss simply decided it was a good time for the family to...” He grinned. “...expand.”

  “I already gave Butler's goons their 'protection' money,” Ljunborg spat. “I've nothing left.”

  Artemis was running a protection racket now? Victor and Maria had met him and Isaac on the boat over, and even helped him out a few times since. It really didn't seem like something he would do...

  What was she saying? A low-risk operation with a relatively high payout. That sounded exactly like Artemis.

  Akio, Maria noted, was inching closer to Miss Ljunborg, hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to protect her if things got violent. Maria tugged at Gloria's collar, pulling her out of the line of fire.

  Mister Judd shook his head sadly. “That was a mistake, Priscilla. Necessarius is, as you noted, just a bunch of thugs. You should give your money to us. After all, you have this nice shiny new place... be a shame if something happened.”

  “I already told you. I have nothing left to give. If I have to pay both of you, I don't get to eat this month.”

  “And if we let you slide on your payments, we'd have to let everyone slide. Where would we be then, huh?” Judd shook his head again. “We're not running a charity here, you know.”

  “Yes, I am well aware of that. But I still can't—”

  “Well, if you insist on being that way, my boys might feel the need to... provide an example of what could happen when you don't pay.” The thugs started cracking their knuckled dangerously.

  Akio drew his sword. Gloria glared at him and motioned for him to put it away, but it was too late. The thugs had their guns out before anyone could even blink.

  Judd smiled broadly. “You might want to put that away, boy, before you hurt yourself.”

  Maria winced. This was all getting far too dangerous. Silver moon and golden sun, why couldn't Ljunborg just pay the man? Victor and Maria could have always stolen back anything they took from her.

  For the moment, they seemed to have a standoff. Akio still hadn't sheathed his sword, and the goons were wary enough not to just start shooting. But that wouldn't last long, and a swordsman wouldn't be able to take out two armed thugs by himself.

  “What is going on over here?” a voice called.

  “Oh, come on,” Gloria hissed. “What now?”

  Necessarius, that was what.

  A single pale young man, unarmed and with the Necessarian black and red band on his arm, strode up without fear. He was a stark contrast to Judd. Where the first man was dressed in a fine suit, Artemis' man just had on jeans and a white t-shirt. “Is there a problem?”

  Judd narrowed his eyes, dropping his friendly mask. “Nothing that concerns the 'sarians. Run back to your crippled master, little dog.”

  The newcomer ignored the jibe. “Funny, because it looks like you're harassing...” He checked a small notepad. “...Priscilla Ljunborg. Our records show that she is all paid up on her protection money.”

  Mr. Judd didn't seem impressed. “So?”

  The Necessarian smiled. “So that means she's under the protection of Necessarius, Gabriel. I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”

  No one spoke for a moment.

  Then another.

  The silence stretched on for what seemed like forever.

  Then Ljunborg broke it. “Huh?”

  The new man's brow crinkled into a frown. “You are Priscilla Ljunborg, are you not? From Sweden, imprisoned for embezzlement? You gave a thousand dollars last month to our collector.” He checked his pad again. “Physical description matches, as does the address and everything else. Have we made a mistake?”

  Ljunborg was almost at a loss for words, but that still put her ahead of the rest of us. “Uh, no, that's right, but...”

  Judd stomped forward and shoved the young man in the shoulder. “This is our territory now, kid. You should be paying us.”

  The 'sarian raised an eyebrow. “So I assume you will continue to accost Miss Ljunborg?”

  “I'll accost whoever I damn well please!”

  Artemis' man sighed. “I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but our protocols are quite clear on the proper response in this situation.”

  Gabriel Judd's head exploded, and the thunderclap of a gunshot echoed around the street.

  Maria screeched and jumped back, but Gloria and Priscilla held their ground, only wincing a little as they were splattered with blood and gore. The few bystanders screamed and ran in every direction, but mostly away from the Ljunborg home.

  The thugs were far better trained than Maria was, and whipped out their guns without a moment's hesitation.

  Another head exploded. The thug on the left collapsed to the street, while the last mook looked on in horror. It took him a minute to realize that he wasn't dead.

  “I-I'm...” he stuttered. “I-I'm...”

  “A messenger,” the Necessarian said patiently. He still didn't have any weapons drawn, and Maria finally realized that he must have snipers posted somewhere or other. Artemis did like to be prepared. “Go back to your boss. Remind him who is in charge over here.”

  The thug took a step back, tripping over the corpses of his friends and falling to his butt. He whimpered and scrambled to his feet, running as fast as his legs would carry him. He even dropped his gun in his mad flight.

  “Well,” the 'sarian said quietly, mostly to himself. “I'd say that went surprisingly well.” He turned to the others and smiled. “How are you all doing?”

  Maria couldn't speak. She couldn't tear her eyes off the c
orpses, lying like discarded dolls not five feet away. They had been people, not five minutes ago...

  “We're fine,” Miss Ljunborg said with only the slightest quaver in her voice. “And how about yourself, Mister...?”

  “Sinclair,” the 'sarian replied with a smile, holding out his hand to shake. “Sergeant Irvin Sinclair, at your service.”

  Maria ran off to the street and puked in a gutter.

  She heard Akio talking behind her. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Gloria replied. “Maria just isn't used to death. She's here because she did something stupid, not something violent.”

  The 'sarian made a clicking sound of disapproval. “Be that as it may, at the rate she's emptying her stomach, I doubt she'll be able to stand for long. Billy!”

  As Maria heaved up the last of her lunch—dammit, that was a good lunch—she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”

  She looked up to see a kind-eyed boy about her age smiling at her. He had the Necessarius red and black band on his arm, but he didn't seem to have any weapons.

  “Y-yeah,” she managed weakly. “I just need a minute...”

  “Go home,” Gloria insisted. “You know you'll be useless the rest of the day. I'll tell the foreman.”

  Maria nodded and struggled to her feet, the new 'sarian—Billy, she assumed—helping her stumble along.

  “Necessarius, right?” Maria heard Akio say as they shuddered past. “I've heard of you, and I think I'd like to hear more. Anyone I can talk to?”

  “There's my captain, back closer to base. You know, we own a few apartment buildings nearby, and new recruits get free lodging as part of the contract, if you and your sword are interested.”

  “Karasu.”

  “Pardon?”

  “My sword. It's called Karasu.”

  “You named your sword Crow?”

  “Actually, I prefer to translate it as 'Raven,' but I suppose 'Crow' is more accurate.”

  Once Maria and the 'sarian were out of hearing range and she felt some strength returning to her legs, she turned her attention back to Billy. “Don't you have anything better to do?” she asked. She didn't mean to, but it came out sounding snarky and insulting.

  But he understood, and just smiled. “No, I'm just a messenger. Thankfully, I'm not on cleanup duty for this kind of thing. My stomach is about as strong as yours.”

  Maria coughed. “Yeah, I understand... and my place isn't too far, anyway, so I guess I'm not taking you too far out of your way...”

  “I wouldn't mind if it was. No trouble.”

  It only took ten minutes or so to reach her apartment. Victor and Maria had gotten lucky, getting a place so close to their jobs. As she unlocked the door, she blinked, realizing what was bothering her.

  “Oh! I still haven't introduced myself!” She held out her hand to shake. “I'm Maria Pittaluga. Nice to meet you.”

  He grinned, and grasped her hand firmly. “William Huntsman. The pleasure is all mine.”

  Chapter 3: OCCULTA

  TURGAY

  Turgay Corvi was eighteen years old and an ave anthro—an eagle, to be exact. It had only been about a week ago that he got his feathers. It was an expensive and mostly useless procedure, but it was the last in the long list of toys that made him a full anthro. Hollow bones, improved eyes, talons, beak... any one would have been expensive for him, but Soaring Eagle paid for them all.

  It was his reward for stealing the toy box from Necessarius.

  It was Friday morning, and it was a bit cold in the back of the shipping truck where they were keeping the device. The most recent screamer attack was yesterday morning, and it had the 'sarians scrambling to patch giant holes in their defense. Apparently they lost a full company or more, and so they needed every man they could get on duty.

  That meant they weren't paying attention to a couple of aves trying to smuggle the hottest item in the city.

  Turgay didn't have anything against Necessarius, and neither did Soaring Eagle. They were just in the way, that was all. She had given them all direct orders to not kill anyone unless absolutely unavoidable, which Turgay was grateful for. He had never killed anything sentient, and didn't feel like starting now. Besides, the 'sarians could forgive grand theft. Murder made them vengeful.

  He hadn't been involved in stealing the toy box back from the Guruhi a couple nights ago. That had been left to a different group, who were not under orders to minimize casualties. It might sound harsh, but the Niktuku had done worse than leave a few bodies around when they stole it from the aves, and the Guruhi did the same to them.

  “We need to make sure it doesn't get nabbed again,” Pigeon said. Turgay had no idea why he was called that—he was a crow anthro—but he didn't ask.

  Turgay rolled his eyes. “If I had been in charge of security from the start, this wouldn't have happened. Skies above, what idiot thought it would be a good idea to drive through Nosferatu territory anyway?”

  Once the box was on the truck last Monday, Turgay had gone separately, with most of the grab team. They just weren't built for the physical task of securing it from hostiles. Clearly, at least one of them should have gone with them regardless as an adviser, but the warhawks were arrogant bastards, and no one wanted to deal with them.

  Of course, now that they were dead, everyone missed them, but that was normal. Just because they were jackasses doesn't mean they deserved to be tortured and killed.

  Pigeon shrugged. “Dunno, Guy. But I've looked at the maps, and the choices were Nosferatu or Necessarius territory. Guess they thought they chose the lesser of two evils.”

  Turgay sighed. The ferrets were significantly less organized than Butler's men. There would have been a good chance the truck could have gotten through their domain without being noticed. Just bad luck.

  He felt the truck roll to a stop, and someone pounded on the side. That was the signal. Pig and Turgay grabbed opposite sides of the box and started rolling it towards the doors at the back. The device itself didn't have wheels, but they had it in a crate on a roller pallet.

  One of the fledglings, who didn't have any noticeable ave toys yet, opened the doors and helped them bring it off the truck. It was only a hundred and fifty pounds, but that was a lot to aves. They were built for speed, not strength. It would have been easier if their truck had an elevator pad, but someone had decided to be cheap.

  They got it down without too much trouble, and Turgay looked around. They were inside a small warehouse, maybe ten stories tall, that was almost entirely empty. Their drivers had found more than enough room to bring the truck in completely and close the big entrance gate, so they could unload their stolen goods in private.

  “Open it up,” a woman said, stepping out from behind one of the few crates in the warehouse. “I want to see it.”

  The woman was one of Soaring Eagle's most trusted lieutenants, Delia. She was a hawk anthro, with dark brown feathers, a sharp black beak, and keen eyes. She was wearing a tight short-sleeved shirt and jeans, but didn't seem bothered by the cold. She just stared at the crate they had pulled out of the truck, fixated.

  Turgay opened it up quickly. He didn't need a crowbar, since his talons were strong enough to pry off the top. The inside was filled with golden straw, and some of the lighter pieces stirred into the air as he lifted the lid. Pig and the fledgling finished pulling it off and putting it to the side, while he brushed aside the packing to expose a pallet of shotgun shells, carefully packed away in their individual boxes.

  Delia narrowed her eyes. “What is this?”

  “Patience, Honored Hunter,” Turgay said. “This is just the smokescreen.”

  The three of them—the Alpha didn't help at all—unpacked the shells carefully. Under the second layer of them there was a plywood false bottom, which Turgay removed. Underneath... was the toy box.

  It didn't look like much. If anything, it looked like a mirrored metal coffin, though with air vents on the sides. There was a sm
all keyboard for controlling it, but that was hidden under a recessed panel for the moment.

  Delia, however, was entranced. She brushed the reflective surface lightly with her talons, but flinched back as if afraid she would hurt it. She didn't need to worry. The thing was covered completely in that amorphous metal stuff. She wouldn't be able to dent it with a sledgehammer.

  This wasn't just any toy box, it was the original. The one that Necessarius had first bought from the fey and then used as a template to build a few dozen more. Turgay had seen one of the copies when he got some of his better toys. They didn't have the amorphous metal covering, since it was far too expensive to bother.

  She licked the edge of her beak. “It... works? You tested it?”

  Turgay shook his head. “No, unfortunately. That was the plan, but then the ferrets intervened. We figured taking it straight here would be the best option.” They were still under orders to maintain strict radio silence. The 'sarians would be tearing the city apart looking for this thing, and advertising themselves was a horrible idea.

  The Alpha nodded. “Good. It's good that you don't know. The less people that know the details, the better.”

  Turgay frowned. There was a trick to doing it with a beak. “Honored Hunter, if there's been some change of plans that we need to be aware of...”

  She waved her talons, dismissing his worries. “No, no, of course not. But if you're tortured, it's best if you don't know where this is going. That way, you can't sell us out.”

  Turgay sighed. What did that have to do with knowing whether the thing even worked? But he nodded as if he understood. “Where do you want this, then?”

  Delia paused. “I'm not sure. One moment.” She turned and called to someone he couldn't see. “Kioman! Where's your car?”

  “Look, we can just leave the toy box with you,” he said. “Pigeon and I—”

  Turgay stopped as he looked at him.

  It couldn't be. It just wasn't possible. No one could be that stupid.

  Pigeon was on the phone.

  And the caller ID clearly said “MC.”

  Turgay grabbed the cell and threw it as hard as he could away from them. “You idiot!” he hissed, grabbing Pigeon's shirt and pulling him close. “What is wrong with you?!”