Chapter Two: Counterbalance — Part 2

“You knew Jake, right?” Pablo said, squiggling his fingertip across the desktop, the passage not leaving a trace.

“He’s still alive.” Frank said, superstitiously making the sign of a triangle over the center of his forehead while uttering a whispered prayer.

“We both know that’s a done deal sooner or later, which is a good thing, I think. What did you think of Jake?”

“He was a creepy bastard, and I hated what he did for a living.” Frank said. “It’s one thing to extort corrupt business folk, but he went after kids and orphans.” Frank clenched his hands nervously, his palms starting to sweat. “He always looked at me like he was sizing me up for one of his side jobs, like I was meat to him.”

Pablo nodded, putting his hands together, forming a church with steeple, and tightening it until his knuckles popped loudly. “He ripped out the eyes from his own son, from what the police told the press. One thing’s certain; his daughter took him down clean and easy.” Pablo paused. “To have her working for us would be the tops. But she’d never do that. She’s beyond the grasp of our organization — or any organization, for that matter. We’ve got to make it look like we’re teaching her a lesson. If we don’t we’ll look weak to our fellows. We’re phasing out the organ donor program immediately, but not without at least attempting an assassination.”

Frank’s distaste expressed itself as wrinkles that crunched around his nose just under and around the eyes. “I don’t like the idea of offing a woman. A mob Queen’s one thing, but this is just a little girl who got even with her father for blinding her brother.”

“I don’t like it either, because it’s family trouble, and I like to believe matters of family should stay within the family. But I think I’ve got a solution to the gender problem. Maybe we should program a biodroid to go after her, except make the sex designator generic, and replace it with a Y chromosome focus, so it will go after her brother instead — the DNA should be close enough that it will identify him and not an innocent target, despite the lack of detail on the sex chromosomes.”

Pablo’s cold face remained stale as he leaned back in his plush office chair — the only thing in the room not made of glass. The chair was instead made of transparent plastics and cushions filled with crystal clear gel. IT was always cold to the touch, always soft, and a little like sitting against a thick patch of moss, only without the mossy give.

“That would be poetic justice if either of us actually thought of Jake in even a friendly or brotherly fashion. He’s slime, and doesn’t deserve retribution.” Frank said.

“It’s about business. One show of muscle here will save us ten little problems later. The stones definitely aren’t ambiguous about that. It makes our point to the others in our business that we’re tough and without heart.”

“Or we’re both crazy as loons. That girl’s scary as shit, man.” Frank paused, his next thoughts quietly expressed. “She hunted Jake down for close to fifteen years because of what he did. What do you think she’ll do to us, if she traces the trouble back to our door?” Frank wondered. “Do you really think ten little problems will be harder to deal with than that girl?”

“Probably not.” Pablo let out a deep breath. “Program the biodroid and send it. I want this mess out of the way so I can focus on business with a clear mind.”

Frank nodded. “Which model do you want dispatched for this assignment?”

“Send the best assassin model we have. Blind or not, we’d best assume he’s as dangerous as his sister.” Pablo folded a note and handed it to Frank.

“And if the boy survives?” Frank stuffed the envelope in his pocket.

“I’m actually hoping he’ll live. I just can’t make it look like I’m hoping he will. We made our statement of force, and we’ll let it go at that.” Pablo said, going back to his paperwork.

“You do this and she’ll come for you. If he dies, then what do you think she’ll do to you?” Frank said.

Pablo didn’t want to place too much faith in the stones, but physical death was not in their calculations. “Just do it.”

Frank didn’t like it, but he left to process the order. His nose quivered with a bad feeling, his
spectral senses, that rare quantum factor inadvertently called the Sight, warning him that Pablo’s plan would in fact, bring both of them the pain the stones promised. Orchid would be the source of that pain. Pablo also had a form of what was known to benders as the Sight, using it to a lesser and well-focused degree. Something felt bad about the situation as a whole, and it wasn’t about offing some spunk kid who was an innocent bystander in a dispute between a mega-genius and a mob superpower. Something about the positioning of stones implied that his entire life would be coming to an end soon, and that nothing would be able to change the situation for the better. Pablo had never gotten such an odd reading before, and the feeling of it terrified him.

Pablo put his stones back in their sack, trying to draw the facts nagging at him into something cohesive, something more than pudding for his brain. The stones that he pulled on this second run were dark, almost frightening. He had to choose between his business and his future. Pablo let the stones go. In making this decision, he could not turn back. This potential had already come to pass. The stone of the God and the Goddess came up last, but before the stone of The Planet. Pablo’s stone, the stone of the Manipulator, also came into play, and Frank’s Warrior stone was in conflict with his. Soon all would be made apparent. His life as a hoodlum might well be coming to an end.

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