Hammer Town Read online

  “You, too, Bud. What do I owe you?”

  “Forty-seven fifty.” Conner handed him something Elantra had never seen before. Round pieces of metal stamped with some design she couldn’t quite make out.

  “Be staying with us long this time?”

  “Could be,” Conner said noncommittally.

  Bud looked past Conner at Elantra. “She’s very pretty,” Elantra heard Bud whisper to Conner.

  “She’s not mine, Bud,” Conner said with a laugh.

  “To hear the girls round these parts talk, she’ll be yours if ya want her,” Bud said, and then changed the subject. “House is a mess, you want me to help you clean it up?

  “Nah, I got it. It will take me a couple of hours at the worst. Thanks though.”

  “Well, in that case I better make like a baby and go. I have a lot to accomplish before it gets dark. Have a good stay, Hammer.”

  “Go in peace and do good work, Citizen,” Conner replied.

  “May the work of your hands bring pleasure to the world,” Bud answered and left.

  Conner looked at Elantra. Her fake sleeping routine hadn’t fooled her. “So, I suppose you’re going to want to talk to your daddy.”

  “Please,” Elantra sat up. It wasn’t easy; the couch didn’t make one move to help her.

  “Give me a few minutes to prepare the equipment, and talk to your father myself. I’ll call you when I’m ready. Until then stay in here out of my hair.” Conner went into her room, got the unit and took it in the kitchen. She made sure the girl was still in the living room, and then she shut and locked the door and made the link.

  Tarent glared at her, and she smiled broadly back.

  “You must be Conner McVee,” he said coolly.

  Conner smiled her most confident smile. “Must be.”

  Tarent glared back and in a voice dripping acid started, “McVee, if you do anything to my daughter...”

  “Hold it! Let me see,” Conner made a big deal about looking around. “I have a really big vendetta, a bunch of very dangerous weapons, your daughter, and... Oh, yeah... You have no idea where I am. I thought I’d better remind you of that, because it was beginning to sound a little bit like maybe you were going to threaten me.”

  Tarent gritted his teeth. “What do you want from me?”

  “You know what’s funny? You killed the only person I ever loved, and I’ve spent the last five years busting my ass trying to burn you, and you don’t even know who the fuck I am. Or at least you didn’t ‘til now. No... Wait a minute. That’s not funny; it’s just sad.” Then Conner laughed maniacally. “Big shots like you... You just don’t pay any attention to what’s going on out in the streets. You’re like Teflon; nothing sticks to you. You sit up there in your big steel and glass tower playing God and ruining peoples lives, and it never dawns on you that one of those little insignificant bugs you see crawling around down there in the street might actually jump up and bite you on the ass some day. You took something from me, something you can’t give back. Now I have something of yours. I want you to pay for what you did to me, what you did to Peggy...”

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Tarent said.

  Conner’s cool chipped away and her anger took control of her features. “Don’t make me relive the moment when I had to go identify the pieces of her body at the morgue, because if I do... I’m going to snap and go absolutely bumb-fuck crazy, and you might be going to look at body parts and deciding whether it’s your daughter or not. Save your lies for someone else! I hold all the cards, dick head. Push my hand, push it just a little bit, and I’ll snap her fucking head off and mail it to you in a box. Now do you remember who Peggy was? Does that refresh your memory?”

  “I didn’t kill Peggy Mishy...”

  “I know that.” She laughed, though she was obviously not amused. “You never get your hands dirty, do you? I killed all the guys that did it.” She smiled at the look on his face then. “Yeah, that’s right. They didn’t just disappear, and Mishy didn’t do it. I did. You had Peg killed. It’s the same thing to me. In fact it’s worse. You’re the real villain. I killed the fuckers who actually did your dirty work, but I’ve never been able to get to you. Now, I have.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Tarent asked again, his own cool evaporating in the wake of Conner’s rage.

  “You got two choices, kill yourself, or admit you had Peg killed and turn yourself in,” Conner informed

  “You must be fucking crazy...”

  “I’m surprised you know that word. Your little girl sure doesn’t, but I’m teaching her. I can teach her lots of things,” Conner licked her lips.

  “You fucking dyke, I’ll...”

  Conner clicked her tongue and shook her head. She held up her nail gun. “Don’t make me tell you again not to threaten me.”

  Tarent took a deep breath and seemed to count to ten before continuing. “Those terms are unacceptable, McVee. Why would I agree to them?”

  “Because you care more for your daughter than you care about yourself. I doubt that you do actually; it’s a long shot. But I’m betting that when I kill her it’s still going to twist in your gut, and the knowledge that all you would have had to do to save her would have been to pay for the crimes you’ve committed. Well, if you’re any kind of man at all that would have to eat your insides. Of course I doubt you’re even that much of a man, so I’ll have to settle for you losing face. The great Tarent Powers can’t protect his own daughter. Couldn’t keep her from meeting the same terrible fate as Peggy Mishy...”

  “All right! All right!” Tarent screamed. “I have to think about it.”

  “See, a real man would be eating a gun about now. You want to see her one more time?”

  “Yes I do,” Tarent said swallowing his pride.

  “She doesn’t know she’s been kidnapped. At least not by me. She thinks you hired me to protect her. It’s better for her if she continues to believe that, at least for the time being. Make it good, Tarent, because unless you turn yourself in and she comes to see you on visiting day, you’re never going to see her again.”

  “Damn it, McVee. You’re a police agent. Elantra has done nothing...”

  “Peggy didn’t do nothin’, either. You didn’t care. She wasn’t part of Mishy’s organization, and never had been. That didn’t stop you from killing her. I’m tired of playing by the rules, Tarent. I’m tired of you running free to do whatever the hell you like, when I live in a prison of grief and loneliness that you created. Being one of the good guys has done nothing but turn me into a lonely pile of scrap metal. This is my only chance to make you pay. I’ve tried to do it the right way, but you just stay holed up in your ivory tower slipping right through the legal cracks. You’ve left me with no choices. Peggy was my life. I died when you killed her. The things you did to her I’m going to do to Elantra unless you play my game by my rules. Don’t make me wait too long for your answer.”

  Tarent nodded.

  Conner got up walked over and unlocked the door. “Elantra, you can come in now.”

  Elantra walked in and Conner followed her. She sat down in the chair that Conner indicated slowly, because she had figured out it wasn’t going to rise for her.

  Conner stood behind Elantra, out of the girl’s view, but in full view of her father’s terminal, nail gun in hand.

  “Elantra, are you OK?” Tarent asked.

  “I’m scared, Daddy, but I’m OK. I want to come home.”

  “Soon, baby. It’s not safe now...”

  “Daddy, they keep saying you’re some kind of gangster. You’re not, are you?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Terminate link,” Conner ordered. The computer shut down.

  “What! Why did you do that?” Elantra screamed. “I hardly got to talk to him at all.”

  “We had reached the time limit. Any longer and someone in the net might have fixed on our location. I’m sorry,” Conner said with a shrug.

  Elantra
snarled back at her. “I don’t think you are. I don’t think you’re sorry at all. I think you like to make me angry.”

  “Could be.” Conner shrugged coolly at the girl’s anger. “Why don’t you get a bath, then get into some real clothes and we’ll go out for awhile?”

  “What makes you think that I would want to go anywhere in this awful place with you?” Elantra all but screamed.

  “You’re making a big mistake there. See, you’re living under the delusion that I’m asking you. That I might actually give a damn what you want, and see... I don’t really give a good rat’s ass what you’d like. I’m going out, and I can’t leave you here alone. So get your happy ass in there and take a shower. Once again, in case you didn’t hear me the first time, I don’t care what you want, “ Conner said.

  It turned out to be a bigger hassle than Conner had anticipated. She had forgotten just how differently the building people lived. She had to convince Elantra that getting water on her would not hurt her, and then show her how to get it the right temperature.

  “It’s barbaric! You mean to tell me you don’t have a proper cleaning cabinet?” Elantra had balked after looking in.

  “Yes, I do. It’s called a shower. You go inside, and instead of having this horrible machine steam you and then vacuum all your pores and fluff your hair, water streams down on you. You take a wash cloth and soap like so and scrub the dirt off. Then you rinse.”

  “I might as well go to the gym...” She was still bitching when Conner left the room. Thirty minutes later she was still in the shower.

  Elantra had been in the virtual pool a hundred times, but it was nothing like the feel of real water on your skin. It wasn’t even close. Finally the water got too cool and she got out. She waited for something to turn on and dry her off, but it didn’t happen. The water didn’t stop running, either. She looked at the two knobs she had seen Conner McVee turn. She grabbed hold of one and twisted. The water slowed down. She turned the other and the water went off. She smiled proudly. It wasn’t all that hard. But she was still wet, and it was starting to lose its novelty. She was also getting cold.

  Conner McVee walked in with some sort of cloth in her hand, she made no attempt to hide the fact that she was looking at Elantra’s body. She smiled, apparently liking what she was seeing, and Elantra wanted to slap her smug face.

  “Cold?” Conner asked, paying special attention to Elantra’s erect nipples.

  “Yes,” Elantra said through chattering teeth. “So are you getting your thrills?”

  “Not yet,” Conner said with a wicked smile. “Here.” She threw Elantra the towel. “Dry yourself off.”

  Elantra barely caught the towel, and she used it to cover herself. “How?” she asked.

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Conner took the towel and started to dry Elantra.

  “Hey, hey!” Elantra protested.

  “I’m just showing you how to do it so next time you can do it yourself.” Conner towel dried the girl’s head, rubbing her body up against Elantra’s in the process. “And now I’m getting that thrill you were asking about earlier,” she breathed in Elantra’s ear.

  “OK, OK!” Elantra grabbed the towel out of Conner’s all too willing hands. “I think I have the idea now. I think I can do this myself.”

  Conner smiled. “It won’t be as much fun.”

  “Maybe not for you,” Elantra said hotly. Conner laughed as she left, closing the door behind her. Elantra started drying herself off. It was a lot of work, and McVee was right, it wasn’t as much fun.

  “Your clothes are on the shelf there. You want me to help you get dressed?”

  “I think I can manage on my own. Thanks anyway,” she hissed back.

  “If you need any help...”

  “I won’t.” She felt of the cloth; it felt good. The pants were made out of some sort of heavy blue cloth, and the bright red blouse was very soft – like Mr. Buttons. She put them on, and they made her feel instantly warm. She liked the way they felt even if she wasn’t particularly thrilled by the way they looked. Her hair was still wet. “Conner McVee, my hair is still wet.” Conner walked in, opened a drawer manually and pulled out a thing that looked like a weapon. There was a thing hanging off of it with two little prongs on it. Conner pushed the prongs into some holes in the wall and pushed a button on the machine. It made a hideous noise and warm air blew out of it. She handed it to Elantra, who looked into the end of it. When the hot air blew in her face she dropped it. Conner caught it just before it hit the floor.

  Conner laughed and turned the machine off.

  “You help me only to have an excuse to touch me.”

  “Yeah... But do you want my help or not?”

  “Show me how,” Elantra said in an exasperated tone.

  Conner grabbed a broad-toothed comb out of the drawer. “This is a comb. I’m going to drag it through your hair to get the tangles out.”

  Elantra made a face. “Will it hurt?”

  “Probably not. It may even feel good.” Conner carefully combed the tangles out of Elantra’s shoulder length hair, and then she started to blow it dry, enjoying running her fingers through the length of it. When Elantra’s hair was dry it fell in soft ringlets all around her face.

  Conner looked into Elantra’s eyes and felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time, something emotional, internal. Something more than the external lust she had been feeling just moments before. It was crazy! She couldn’t afford to get attached to anyone, and of all the women in the world certainly not this one. She owed it to Peggy to make sure that Tarent paid, one way or the other. Elantra looked quickly away.

  Conner took a deep breath, and put the comb and hair dryer away. “Go on out and wait for me, and don’t do anything stupid.” The girl nodded and left the bathroom silently.

  Damned empathy! The girl had felt something, too. Hammer had felt it with her implant, and she’d seen it in Elantra’s eyes. First lust, and then confusion. Conner wasn’t particularly surprised; the building brat had probably never been touched that much by human hands in her entire life. It was only natural that she would enjoy it, and only natural that it would confuse her.

  Elantra walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Conner had built a fire and it blazed. Elantra had seen a computer image of a fireplace, and she now realized that was what it was and not a cat potty port. The fire was beautiful and hot. The whole room was getting warm. She was warm, but not from the fire.

  When Conner had looked into her eyes she had felt a strange tingling sensation, like a slight electrical charge was running through her body. She had wanted Conner McVee to touch her. She had wanted to touch Conner McVee, not so much on the outside, but inside in her soul. The weird part being that she had never really believed in the whole soul thing.

  Elantra had never actually had sex with a person, but she’d had virtual sex dozens of times. What she had felt in the program had been very close to what she had felt when Conner McVee had looked at her, and that just wasn’t right.

  Conner walked out of the bathroom dressed in much the same way she had been before. She sat down on the couch and pulled some long tubular things onto her feet. She threw some at Elantra. “Better put these on. It’s going to be cold out tonight.” Elantra watched how Conner put them on, and then she did the same thing. They were warm and soft. She smiled.

  “What are these clothes made out of?” she asked.

  “Cotton fiber. It’s a plant. Beats the hell out of poly and rubber doesn’t it?” Conner asked with a smile.

  “It’s soft.” She watched Conner put on her boots. Conner threw her a pair and she pulled them on.

  Conner smiled. “You look like one of us now,” she said.

  “I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” Elantra said pulling a face.

  Conner laughed. She stood up and grabbed her leather jacket from the chair where she’d put it. Then she threw on her tool belt. She tossed Elantra a blue cotton jacket, and the girl put
it on.

  Elantra looked around quickly. “Where’s Mr. Buttons?” she asked in a panic. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Conner McVee didn’t like the cat.

  “I put him outside where cats belong...”

  “He’s only ever been outside today. He doesn’t know how to take care of himself anymore than I do...”

  “He’s a fucking cat,” Conner said.

  “He’s the only thing I have of my life,” Elantra said in a panic. “I’m a billion miles...”

  “Oh, at least that...”

  “... from everything I know. Mr. Buttons...”

  “OK, OK. I’ll get the fuckin’ cat.” Conner went to the door, opened it, and the cat ran in. “If that fucking cat shits in my house again...”

  “You use fuck as a slang term to show that you’re displeased,” Elantra said having a proud moment.

  Conner took a deep breath and counted to ten.

  They ate dinner in the same restaurant they had eaten lunch. Elantra insisted that she was never eating something that had once had feet, and then ate all of her burger and part of Conner’s. The food was just too good, like nothing she had ever eaten. She was beginning to see why people were drawn to a Constructionist lifestyle.

  The club was a separate one-story building with bright lights all over it. The signs had writing on them instead of pictures so you couldn’t really tell what they said, unless of course you could do that reading thing that all the Constructionists seemed to do. Elantra only hoped it wasn’t some perverted sex den like the ones they’d passed in SlumTown.

  “Now listen to me,” Conner was saying as Elantra was staring at all the lights. Conner took her chin and made her look at her. “By now everyone in WrenchTown knows I’m here. If I didn’t show up at Heaven’s Gate...”

  “Heaven’s Gate?”

  “That’s the name of the club... The point is that they expect me to come in tonight. I don’t want anyone, not even my own people, to know who you are. That there is anything at all strange about you being here with me. Here’s the story. You’re a friend of mine who’s thinking of becoming a Constructionist. Do not tell anyone that you are Tarent Powers daughter or that you’re here hiding from Mishy. And in case you’re contemplating telling someone for whatever reason your sick building brat little brain might have worked out, I have an audio implant which allows me to detect a pin dropping in a crowded subway.”