Mysterious Cairo (13 page)

Leroux apparently didn't have much of a sense of humor. I wondered if it ran in this group. "Alain's actions were regrettable, but necessary. You were jeopardizing an important aspect of our crusade against the Antipope. But we had no wish to take your life, and so brought you here."

"That's real big of you," I said, taking a bite of an apple. I hate slinging bull on an empty stomach. "If I'd known I was coming, I'd have written up a bill for damages. It was your boys who trashed my office, right?"

Leroux frowned. "I should simply let you go, knowing no more than you do now. But there is something about this place that seems to compel one to explain all. I do not fully understand it."

The "Grand Master" stood and started to pace. "You have heard of the Knights Templar, have you not?"

I searched my addled brain and found a few tidbits. "Yeah, sure. Part of the French Resistance, aren't they? Some bunch of clowns fighting GodMeeters with swords, if I remember right."

He gave a me the kind of smile you use when you're dealing with a moron. I was looking forward to wiping it off his face. "That's correct, monsieur. The Knights Templar are a modern-day incarnation of a band of crusaders who fought in this land over seven centuries ago. Some of us are from Core Earth, others Magna Verita — we are united in our hatred of Malraux and his False Church."

"What's all this have to do with me? I'm no friend of the Cyberpope and his crew," I growled.

"The Templars have branches all over the world, differing in size, wealth, and strategy regarding this war. Shortly after I came here, I realized that one of the most potent weapons in this realm was its Mystery Men. I resolved to make you my weapon."

So Montaigne had steered me straight. "Let me see if I have this doped out, Grand Poohbah. You and your boys found out all you could about the cape-and-cowl crowd — including our secret IDs — then you stole our stuff and put together a little group of phoneys."

Leroux seemed pleased that I wasn't as stupid as I looked. "Precisely. The perfect crimes, since the victims could never report what was truly stolen without exposing their alter egos. Then my men struck at the Antipope in your guises — he would be certain to respond in kind. Thus the Mystery Men would be drawn into our crusade against Malraux, in the interests of saving their own lives."

He wasn't kidding. I could just imagine what the Guardian and the Whisper were going through about now, with Cyberpapal goon squads out for revenge. But I still hadn't figured out a way to escape this nut farm. I had to keep him talking.

"But not everybody in the group thought this was such a hot idea, right? That's why Montaigne came looking for me."

Leroux's face went dark. "Montaigne was a bumbling idiot. He objected to my plan from the first, but agreed to deliver the money to Nash. I feared what instructions he might have given the gunmen, and so positioned myself to ensure that they would not deviate from my strategem. That is how you found me that morning, and why I warned you when it appeared they were about to slay you. We needed you alive.

"Montaigne protested that it was dishonorable to win allies in this manner. He slipped away that night to warn you of our plans. We were reluctant to expose our presence by hunting him down, but Malraux saved us the trouble — Montaigne was known as a Templar, and when he let himself be seen in Cairo, he signed his death warrant."

So the cyberpriests' attack on Montaigne had nothing to do with the case as a whole. They just had a mad on for him on general principles.

Leroux sat back down. He was apparently reaching a part of the story he liked. "Our plan proceeded. The death of Pere' Montes would have placed the Silver Scarab firmly on Malraux's enemies list. We would then have returned your equipment to you and allowed you to join the fight.

"But you interfered. Alain was forced to subdue you and bring you here. Our goal has still been achieved — the attack was made by the Scarab, in front of witnesses — but I now must ask you: will you join our cause?"

I was pretty disgusted after hearing Leroux's little story. If these were the kind of people fighting the High Lords, maybe we'd be better off if the Malrauxs and Mobiuses won. "Why ask me now? And even if I agree, what's to stop me from blowing your little setup in the papers?"

Leroux looked like he'd swallowed some bad meat. "We considered that. We went so far as to attempt an abduction of your secretary this evening, to guarantee your silence. Unfortunately, she is apparently quite ... capable. The two men I sent for her have not returned."

The news that Sadi was still out there somewhere gave me a little bit of hope. Remembering a move I'd seen in a movie serial gave me some more, but I needed a few more minutes to lull the guards behind me to sleep. I played my last card. "Leroux, if all of us Mystery Men fall in line behind you, who's left to fight Mobius?"

The Grand Master tensed. This was apparently a sore point with him. "Mobius is a buffoon! Malraux is the true threat to this world, for he strikes at the spirit, the soul! He must be crushed like a viper beneath our heel!"

That sounded like my cue. I kicked out and upended the table on the High Muckamuck, at the same time flipping the chair backwards. The guards were off-balance for just a second — maybe the wine on their leader's tunic looked too much like blood. I got to my feet and yanked a sword out of one of their scabbards. I was still outnumbered twenty to one, but at least now I had a chance to go out fighting. In the Nile, that's the best you can ever hope for.

The doors were out — the catwalk was my best bet. The troops were coming on the run and I was swinging the blade like "Bam-Bam" Bodansky going for the bleachers in '28. But I was still a long way away from the ladder — and if I made it, what then? More bully boys with axes, that was what. I was beginning to think this wasn't the brightest move I had ever made.

I was starting to get tired and they were starting to back me into a corner. I'd take a few with me, but that was all — until I realized what I was standing near, and thought back to Montaigne's apartment.

I was in a narrow section of the warehouse near the utilities closets and the main fuse box. The pipes were bunched here and hot to the touch, and if I remembered correctly, these places had steam heat. As the twelve musketeers closed in, I swung my blade and smashed through the pipes, sending jets of scalding-hot steam billowing out. The swordsmen screamed and backed off — I kept my distance from the clouds too, and readied part of my little stunt.

I tore the sleeve off my shirt and wrapped it around the hilt of the sword. Then I hacked my way through the power lines attached the the fuse box, taking my second jolt of the night. It hurt like blazes, but it worked — the lights went out.

Something Leroux had said had clicked. These guys didn't use cyberware, which meant no low-light eyes. They could swing wild all they wanted — there was a lot better chance of their hitting each other than hitting me.

I heard Leroux shout something about my heading for the catwalk ladder. I did a tuck-and-roll through some of his goons, sending a few falling into the steam bath. I was counting on remembering the layout of the place, and my ability to throw a few body blocks.

Leroux had ordered the men to stop using their weapons, for fear they'd hit each other. I had finally made my way to the ladder and started to climb. Moonlight was streaming through the windows up above — a little farther and I'd be out and away. When I came back, it would be with enough back-up to grind this place into the sand.

Then some idiot turned on the lights.

I don't know who it was — somebody with enough know-how to figure out how to kick in a back-up box. I was two rungs from the top with a guy roughly the size of a truck waiting for me at the top. He had the Sting in his hand and was pointing it at my head with a big grin. My old pal, Alain.

I was trying to figure the odds of surviving a jump to the warehouse floor when a window exploded inward and chatter-gun bullets tore through my would-be killer. He dropped the Sting to the catwalk and fell to the floor far below.

They were coming from both sides and up the ladder now. I kicked a few of them off and scooped up the Sting, but I needed more hands and maybe wings if I was going to get out of this.

All three turned out to be just outside. I heard the machine-gun roar again, and this time saw Sadi leaning in the window, shooting over the heads of the mob to keep them back. The fact that she was half-out of a window forty feet off the ground didn't seem to faze her.

"Nice to see you," I yelled over the sound of her gun. "But when did you learn to fly?"

"I didn't, darling," she answered, not taking her eyes off her targets. "I had a little help."

That was when the other explosions started. Twin .45s and a laugh that could freeze the blood in your veins, coming from the opposite end of the building. Sadi had called in the cavalry, and his name was the Whisper.

Leroux apparently realized the game was up, maybe when the nutcase in the black cloak swung through the window and started putting holes in his men. His boys were dead or in disarray — there are some advantages to using low-tech weapons, but they don't do much for morale when bullets are whizzing by. The doors had been thrown open and those who could still walk were beating it out into the night. They wouldn't get far — if the cops didn't get them, the rest of the Templars probably would. Somehow I doubted this was their kind of operation.

Sadi was out of bullets, and it seemed like a good time to leave. She was lying on a rope ladder extending from the Whisper's autogyro to the window of the warehouse, and started backing toward the craft. Once she was safely in, I got ready to follow, beating off a last swordsman as I moved for the window.

I should be grateful to that guy. If I hadn't stopped to send him to snoozeland, I might not have seen Leroux about to toss a throwing dagger at my back. How he had evaded the Whisper I don't know, unless Chuckles was just having so much fun he wasn't paying attention.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next. There was no room to dodge except by heading straight down. My only chance to stop him was the Sting, and by reflex, I aimed for the knife and fired.

I realized as the electricity coursed through the knife and into Leroux's twitching body that I hadn't checked the setting on the gun. Alain had turned it up again, looking forward to incinerating me. Instead, his boss ended up a smoking pile of ash on the floor. I could smell the burnt flesh all the way up on the catwalk — it was a stench I would remember for a long time.

I grabbed my uniform and made my way out the window and into the jet-black aircraft. The Whisper climbed in a few moments later, and in silence we flew toward the full moon.

* * *

Later, Sadi explained that the two Templars who broke into her apartment hadn't been of very hardy stock. The first one to revive bought the old "I know a thousand ways of inflicting pain" line and spilled the whole thing. Frest had already dispatched the Whisper to Cairo in answer to her call and together they tracked me down.

"I don't understand all of this," she said, gesturing at the damage done to her rooms. "We were all on the same side, all fighting the High Lords. Yet these men tried to manipulate and use you for their own ends, and when they feared their plan would collapse, would have killed you. Why, Rex?"

I swallowed the rest of my gin and set the glass down. "This is a war, angel," I said. "Sometimes we forget that, while we're stopping the latest death-ray device or harebrained scheme to to steal all the gold in Thebes. And one of the dangers of war is that you can start fighting the way your enemy fights. Allies become tools to be used, honor and truth become inconvenient and get tossed out. When the war's over, you find out you've become what you were fighting all along."

Sadi leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips. "Do you think there are other men like Leroux? Men who could do such evil, and yet believe in a good cause?"

I put my arm around her and held her tight. "I don't know, kid. We're lucky — we come from a world where it's all black and white. I'm not sure how anyone finds their way in a place that's all shades of gray."

Ed Stark

I saw it all again quite clearly.

I saw the ninja point his Chunyokai at my head. I felt the strong arms of the two MarSec agents as they pinned me back against the alley wall. I heard the laugh come from behind the black mask and I heard the taunt:

"Tak Lo Chien reaches out to you, Mr. Reynolds," the ninja spoke, "from the grave."

His finger tightened slowly on the trigger.

I saw again the blur of movement from the right as my lover, Mai Li, slammed a heel down on the instep of the second ninja with the assassination group. Wrenching herself free, she hurled herself at my would-be executioner.

In my mind, time crawled.

Putting forth all my strength and the strength of all those who fought for those they love, I broke free and dove forward. I gave the ninja a choice.

He chose wrong.

"Dammit, Mai Li, get down!"

But she didn't. The ninja fired once, twice, into her belly. Her already dead form collapsed over his outstretched gun hand. Too late, I lashed out screaming at his jaw. Mad with pain and hate, I didn't even hear his neck snap.