Fate’s Edge (The Edge #3)(18)
Author: Ilona Andrews

"All I want is to make sure that I’ve made a correct investment in Alex’s future. I’d like to speak to him and let him tell me if he is treated well and that his needs are being seen to. I promise I carry no contraband." He raised his hands palms out. "You may search me if you’d like."

He slipped just enough suggestion into that last phrase to make Bethany blush a little. "That won’t be necessary." She pointed to the right, where a group of blocky leather chairs and couches surrounded a glass cube of a table. "Please wait here."

Kaldar turned on his heel and clacked his way across the floor to the leather chairs. A hollowed-out wooden dish, shaped almost precisely like a canoe, sat on the table. The canoe held three spheres about the size of a large grapefruit made of smoky glass shot through with veins of gold. Odd decoration. He pictured himself swiping a sphere, its comforting weight heavy in his hand. In a pinch, he could use it to shatter the windowpane and give himself a head start if he had to leave in a hurry.

Two men emerged from the side hallway. One was middle-aged and blond, going gray, with the slick, clean look of someone accustomed to dealing with people of money and making a good living from it. The other was Alex Callahan. Tall, lanky, with longish hair on the crossroads of dishwater blond and faded red, Callahan walked oddly, as if he didn’t fully trust the ground to support his weight. His cheekbones looked sharp enough to cut, his cheeks caved into his face, and his neck, left bare by the collar of a too-big T-shirt, stuck out, thin, long, and bony. A mean, arrogant sneer bent his lips. His eyes radiated a manic energy and contempt. It was the look that said, "You think I’m shit because I’m a junkie, but guess what? I am better than you."

Kaldar had seen that same look on the faces of spoiled addicts before. This wasn’t a desperate soul in need of help debasing himself for a fix. This was a man surfing the edge of violence, who saw himself as a victim and the rest of the world as owing him.

Callahan was too far gone. Threats wouldn’t work. He simply didn’t care about himself or his family.

"Cousin!" Kaldar grinned at Alex.

Callahan didn’t miss a beat. "Didn’t expect to see you here, cousin."

The older handler held out his hand. "I’m Dr. Leem. I want to assure you that Alex is being well looked after. Isn’t that right, Alex?"

"Sure," Callahan said.

"Let’s sit down?" Leem suggested.

They took their places on the leather furniture, and Leem launched into a long overview of the facilities. Kaldar pretended to listen, watching Callahan. Callahan watched him back. The file back in Louisiana said he was twenty-eight; he looked forty-eight. His foot tapped the floor; he picked on the skin around his nails; he rolled his mouth into different variations of his sneer, which was probably semipermanent. He’d been in the facility for over forty-eight hours. They had detoxed him. Alex Callahan was sober, and he hated it.

Finally, Kaldar raised his hand.

"I’m sorry to interrupt, Doctor, but my time is limited. I’m due in LA for a meeting. Would you mind giving Alex and me some privacy? This won’t take long."

"Of course." Leem rose and moved to the counter, keeping them in plain view.

Callahan leaned back, bony knees straining the loose fabric of his jeans. "What do you want, dear cousin?"

Kaldar flicked his fingers. A small clear packet appeared between his index and middle finger as if by magic. Inside the packet, a small purple flower spread three petals. Bromedia. The most potent herbal hallucinogenic the Weird had to offer. The purest of highs. He’d procured it during one of the jobs he’d done for the Mirror. It involved a caravan of illegal contraband trading between the Edge and the Weird, and in the chaos of the arrest, nobody ever realized that some of the illegal goods had gone missing.

Callahan’s eyes fixed on the packet, on fire with greed. Kaldar closed his fingers for a moment and opened them, showing Callahan an empty hand. The packet with the flower had vanished.

"How did you get out of Adriana?" Kaldar asked.

"I ported us. That’s my thing," Callahan said. "Can only do it once in a while and about twenty feet tops. It went sour, the Hand’s freaks were closing in, so I got me and my old man out of the square, then we ran."

A teleporter. Kaldar had run across them before – it was a rare talent and very useful, but teleporters could only move a few feet at a time, and most of them couldn’t do any magic for a day or two after.

"What happened to your third partner?"

"Audrey had left before we got to Adriana."

A woman? Of course. Fate had decided to have a little fun with him. Very well, he could take a joke.

"She said she was done." Callahan shrugged. "My dear sister doesn’t care for me very much."

I wonder why. "Where is the box?"

"Don’t know, don’t care. Old man found a buyer somewhere. All I know, he dropped me off here to ‘get clean.’" Callahan’s voice dripped with derision. "That’s the last I’ve seen him."

"Where would your father go to hide?"

Callahan rocked back and laughed, a dry humorless chuckle. "You won’t find him. Old man’s a legend. They call him Slippery Callahan. He’s got a hideout in every settlement in the Edge. Anyway, he isn’t who you want. You need Audrey."

"I’m listening," Kaldar said.

Callahan leaned forward. "The old man is good at planning. That’s his shtick. But to pull off the heist, you go to Audrey. She’s the picker. Any lock, any door, she can open it like that." He snapped his fingers. "She doesn’t like me because of some business back, but the old man, him she hates. Daddy issues, blah-blah-blah. My sister is anal. She’d know who he sold it to, and she would be the one to get it back for you."

Whenever a woman got involved, things instantly became more complicated. Kaldar flipped the packet of Bromedia back into view. "Where can I find Audrey?"

"That’s the funny part. She’s up in Washington, near some town called Olympia. The old man said she’d gone law and order on us. Works for some PI firm under her real name. Can you believe that shit?" Callahan laughed again.

Kaldar rose and held out his hand. Callahan got up, shook it, and Kaldar slipped the packet into his fingers. Callahan palmed it with practiced ease and let go. The whole thing took a second at most.

"Half a petal in hot water," Kaldar murmured. "Any more, and you’ll regret it."

"Don’t school an expert," Callahan told him.

Kaldar headed for the door, nodding at Bethany and Leem in passing. There was no need to exchange threats and promise to return in case he was lied to. Callahan had been around long enough to know the score.