Read Online Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan - Free Book Online
Authors: Richard K. Morgan
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do that.” Orr wasn’t plugged all the way into this. He was still angry, speaking slowly. “Yeah, I mean. Okay.”
“ ’Ware?” Kiyoka again, some complex counting off from one hand, an inclination of her head. “Jet?”
“No, there’s time.” Sylvie made a flat-palmed motion. “Orr and Micky. Easy. You run blank. This, this, maybe this. Down.”
“Got it.” Kiyoka was checking out a retinal screen as she spoke, eyes up and left to skim the data Sylvie had shot her. “Las?”
“Not yet. I’ll flag you.
Go.
”
The Maori-sleeved woman disappeared back into her room, emerged a second later pulling on a bulky gray jacket, and let herself out the main door. She allowed herself a single backward look at Jadwiga’s corpse, then she was gone.
“Orr. Cutter.” A thumb at me.
“Guevara.”
The giant gave me a final smoldering look and went to a case in the corner of the room, from which he took a heavy-bladed vibroknife. He came back and stood in front of me with the weapon, deliberately enough for me to tauten up. Only the obvious—that Orr didn’t need a knife to grease me—kept me from jumping him. My physical reaction must have been pretty obvious, because it got a derisive grunt out of the giant. Then he spun the knife in his hand and presented it to me grip-first.
I took it. “You want me to do it?”
Sylvie moved across to Jadwiga’s corpse and stood looking down at the damage.
“I want you to dig out the stacks on your two friends there, yes. I think you’ve had the practice for it. Jad you can leave.”
I blinked.
“You’re leaving her?”
Orr snorted again. The woman looked at him and made a spiraling gesture. He compressed a sigh and went to his room.
“Let me worry about Jad.” Her face was clouded with distance, engaged at levels I couldn’t sense. “Just get cutting. And while you’re at it, you want to tell me who exactly we’ve killed here?”
“Sure.” I went to Yukio’s corpse and manhandled it onto what was left of its front. “This is Yukio Hirayasu—local yak, but he’s someone important’s son apparently.”
The knife burred into life in my hand, vibrations backing up unpleasantly as far as the wound in my side. I shook off a teeth-on-edge shiver, placed one cupped palm on the back of Yukio’s skull to steady it, and started cutting into the spine. The mingled stink of scorched flesh and shit didn’t help.
“And the other one?” she asked.
“Disposable thug. Never seen him before.”
“Is he worth taking with us?”
I shrugged. “Better than leaving him here, I guess. You can toss him over the side halfway to New Hok. This one I’d keep for ransom, if I were you.”
She nodded. “What I thought.”
The knife bit down through the last millimeters of spinal column and sliced rapidly into the neck below. I switched off, changed grip, and started a new cut, a couple of vertebrae lower down.
“These are heavyweight yakuza, Sylvie.” My guts were chilling over as I recalled my phone conversation with Tanaseda. The
sempai
had cut a deal with me purely on the strength of Yukio’s value in one piece. And he’d been pretty explicit about what would happen if things didn’t stay that way. “Millsport-connected, probably with First Family links. They’re going to come after you with everything they’ve got.”
Her eyes were unreadable. “They’re going to come after you, too.”
“Let me worry about that.”
“That’s very generous of you. However—” She paused as Orr came back out of his room fully dressed and headed out the door with a curt nod. “—I think we have this handled. Ki is off wiping our electronic traces now. Orr can torchblast every room in this place in about half an hour. That leaves them with nothing but—”
“Sylvie, this is the yakuza we’re talking about.”
“Nothing but eyewitnesses, peripheral video data, and besides which we’ll be on our way to Drava in about two hours’ time. And no one’s
“ ’Ware?” Kiyoka again, some complex counting off from one hand, an inclination of her head. “Jet?”
“No, there’s time.” Sylvie made a flat-palmed motion. “Orr and Micky. Easy. You run blank. This, this, maybe this. Down.”
“Got it.” Kiyoka was checking out a retinal screen as she spoke, eyes up and left to skim the data Sylvie had shot her. “Las?”
“Not yet. I’ll flag you.
Go.
”
The Maori-sleeved woman disappeared back into her room, emerged a second later pulling on a bulky gray jacket, and let herself out the main door. She allowed herself a single backward look at Jadwiga’s corpse, then she was gone.
“Orr. Cutter.” A thumb at me.
“Guevara.”
The giant gave me a final smoldering look and went to a case in the corner of the room, from which he took a heavy-bladed vibroknife. He came back and stood in front of me with the weapon, deliberately enough for me to tauten up. Only the obvious—that Orr didn’t need a knife to grease me—kept me from jumping him. My physical reaction must have been pretty obvious, because it got a derisive grunt out of the giant. Then he spun the knife in his hand and presented it to me grip-first.
I took it. “You want me to do it?”
Sylvie moved across to Jadwiga’s corpse and stood looking down at the damage.
“I want you to dig out the stacks on your two friends there, yes. I think you’ve had the practice for it. Jad you can leave.”
I blinked.
“You’re leaving her?”
Orr snorted again. The woman looked at him and made a spiraling gesture. He compressed a sigh and went to his room.
“Let me worry about Jad.” Her face was clouded with distance, engaged at levels I couldn’t sense. “Just get cutting. And while you’re at it, you want to tell me who exactly we’ve killed here?”
“Sure.” I went to Yukio’s corpse and manhandled it onto what was left of its front. “This is Yukio Hirayasu—local yak, but he’s someone important’s son apparently.”
The knife burred into life in my hand, vibrations backing up unpleasantly as far as the wound in my side. I shook off a teeth-on-edge shiver, placed one cupped palm on the back of Yukio’s skull to steady it, and started cutting into the spine. The mingled stink of scorched flesh and shit didn’t help.
“And the other one?” she asked.
“Disposable thug. Never seen him before.”
“Is he worth taking with us?”
I shrugged. “Better than leaving him here, I guess. You can toss him over the side halfway to New Hok. This one I’d keep for ransom, if I were you.”
She nodded. “What I thought.”
The knife bit down through the last millimeters of spinal column and sliced rapidly into the neck below. I switched off, changed grip, and started a new cut, a couple of vertebrae lower down.
“These are heavyweight yakuza, Sylvie.” My guts were chilling over as I recalled my phone conversation with Tanaseda. The
sempai
had cut a deal with me purely on the strength of Yukio’s value in one piece. And he’d been pretty explicit about what would happen if things didn’t stay that way. “Millsport-connected, probably with First Family links. They’re going to come after you with everything they’ve got.”
Her eyes were unreadable. “They’re going to come after you, too.”
“Let me worry about that.”
“That’s very generous of you. However—” She paused as Orr came back out of his room fully dressed and headed out the door with a curt nod. “—I think we have this handled. Ki is off wiping our electronic traces now. Orr can torchblast every room in this place in about half an hour. That leaves them with nothing but—”
“Sylvie, this is the yakuza we’re talking about.”
“Nothing but eyewitnesses, peripheral video data, and besides which we’ll be on our way to Drava in about two hours’ time. And no one’s
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