Criminal Venture, part 4: the interview

"That's right," said Abe. "We are. And I think we have just what yuo're looking for."

Shimko realized he'd stopped breathing, and started again. For once he didn't say anything. It was no effort at all to be quiet and let Abe do all the talking. Shimko looked over at Bull. Bull started back at him with a tight squeezed face, and bulging eyes. This was some no-good magumbo. Stuff like this shouldn't happen in the real world, no-how. Shimko recalled some of his grandmother's stories, and suppressed a shiver.

"What's the project?" asked the main head. "For this sort of money, we would prefer more details."

"Can't tell you any more," said Abe. "That's all I know, myself. It must be pretty big, and they're definitely serious. These are big, made guys; there's no way they would expose themselves to their competitors like this unless it was such a big score that it would make their wildest dreams a sealed promise."

Shimko kept staring at the lead head's face. It was a lot more comforting to look there, then the rest of the freaky bastard. The head belonged old white guy in his fifties, fat in the neck, with a small bit of a combover stranded alone on the expanse of his otherwise gleaming head.

The head sighed. "Very well. Conditions are such with ourselves, that this sum is now nearly all we have. Without it, we are unlikely to last long; but with it, we are likely to last only a little longer. So, if this situation is as good as you say it is-"

"It is," said Abe. "You know I wouldn't lie to you."

"We know you wouldn't," said all the heads at once. "Because you know you could hide nowhere if you did."

"-if it as good as you say it is," the main head continued alone, "this remains our best and only chance."

The spider-thing turned around on it's 8 legs, and retreated into the blackness. There were some digging sounds, and then it reappeared with a chest.

"Behold our treasure," said the thing. Abe reached forward. The spider-thing withdrew. "No, not for you. YOu could not defend against a puppy." Another leg reached out towards Shimko, almost close enough to touch. "YOu," it said.

"What?" said Shimko. His body was almost calm enough now to deal with this. Breathe, he reminded himself.

"You take care of this for us, and make this happen, and there will be rewards in it for you. You and your cold-hearted friend, the large fellow who thinks he can't be seen behind you."

"What kind of rewards?" said Shimko.

"Shh!" said Abe. "Don't antagonize him! Sorry, sir-"

"Quiet. You tire me. Men are talking," it said. "The kind of wealth that would make all of this around you, commonplace."

Not quite the best sales pitch, Shimko thought to himself. "I get where you're going. OK. We talking share?"

"Yes, share. An equal share to Abe's." Abe looked like he was about to choke, but kept his mouth shut. "And it will also be only fair for you to share in Abe's fate, should you disappoint us."

"That's a language I understand, boss," said Shimko. "Expected. Natch. Deal."

"Good. There is one other part of the bargain, then. My daughter will-"

"No!" said Abe.

"I said quiet!" the old man's head raged. A leg whipped out like lightning. Abe jumped back, and only caught the edge of a claw across his chest.

"You can't," said Abe. "She doens't belong in this."

"She may be your niece, but she is my child," said the old head. "She will accompany our family's fortune. If our wealth disappears, she will die anyway, as will we all.

"Why?" said Bull. Shimko turned, a little startled. You never knew when the big lug will speak.

"That is not your concern," said the old head. "Now get out of here before more of my mouths get hungry."

They walked back into the light, and watched as the circle of darkness shrunk and faded back into what seemed just an ordinary wall.

"This is totally unacceptable!" said Abe.

"Looks like we're accepting it, so I don't know what you're talking about," said Shimko.

"We cant' take her!" said Abe. "She's- she's a liability! You've seen how pretty she is. She'll just be a distraction."

"Really? I like distractions...but that don't even matter. The....guy in there said she goes. I want my share. I don't think he's disposed to argue about it. You want to go in there and give him what-for? Be my guest. I'll give your share to Bull."

"Well of course that won't work," Abe said irritably. He looked down at the ruined suit over his chest. "We'll just leave her behind somewhere safe and not tell him."

"He seemd to think not anywhere was safe," said Shimko.

"Well that's just paranoi-"

The wall behind them exploded in dust and splinters. The shockwave knocked them flat to the ground. Shimko hung barely onto consciosness, face down into the rubble. He realized with some dazed pride that he had still held onto the money.

"There they are!" he heard. He looked through the smoke, and saw the skintight black flak-uniforms of the InterCity Private Police. They started climbing through the rubble of the hole they'd blown, in what otherwise looked like an ordinary alley.

Shimko pulled out his heater.

"Put that down!" Yelled the closest cop. "You can't even hurt us with that!"

Shimko pointed it in the air. "I don't understand, officer-" he said. He fired overhead, at the section of the wall right above the hole. A large chunk of debris slammed down on top of the police.

"Fire at will" Shimko heard. He proceeded to get the hell out. He paused halfway around the corner to the hallway, and saw that Bull still lay unconscious behind him. Shimko cursed. he knew he had no choice; brothers were brothers. He put the money around the corner, and hurried back to help the Bull.

The pile was starting to move. Must be the latest generation of cop suits. And he'd left his can opener at home.

Abe started coming to. "What- who-"

"Shut yer yap and give me a hand!" yelled Shimko. Bull wasn't light even on a diet. And the last diet he'd been on was during that salmonella epidemic in the Juvenile Prison System breakfast nook at County.

"Time to go," said Abe. He got up and headed for the hallway.

"You slime-" Shimko screamed. He looked back. ONe of the cops was brushing off the last of the rubble, and was just starting to raise his gun -

When the girl appeared. She turned around the hallway, hair flying, face in a fierce and angry grimace. She raised her arm and...

bright, searing heat and light such as Shimko had never seen or felt shot out, and hit the first cop in the chest. Protective uniform or no, he flew out of the hole and back into the alley. The impossible lightning from the young girl's arm continued. It aimed now at the other two police still struggling from the debris. They two were picked up and swept away. "Fall back!" Shimko heard a cop's voice cry, from beyond the wall. "What the hell was that?" he heard another cop's voice ask.

That's a damn good question, said Shimko. For once he agreed with the cop.

The blue-and-purple flame and light went away. The girl fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Abe," said Shimko. Abe stared down at the girl. "ABE!" Shimko yelled. Abe turned to him.

"Pick her up, and get moving!" Shimko said. "That's only going to hold 'em back until they get thru to base and get more support."

Abe picked up the girl."She's breathing normally," said Abe. Shimko looked over at him, irritated.

"Whoop-te-doo!" said Shimko. "You know a way out of here?"

"We can only try this way." Abe pointed the way down a hallway, the opposite way of how they had originally come into this place, that long time a few minutes ago back when Shimko had thought he understood reality.

"There's a private entrance the police might not know about, that enters into the sewer on 4th st."

"Hole to a sewer, huh? I can see how Spider-guy'd love that...Say, think there's any chance he can help us out with these cops?"

"Sadly, if he hasn't appeared by now, then something must have happened to him. He must be beyond our care..."

"Well then, don't just stand there!" said Shimko. Shimko went aronud the corner, and retrieved the treasure that had been put under his care. He put it over his shoulder, and huffed and heaved until he'd gotten enough of Bull up in the air that he could move.

They began to carry their unconscious burdens down the hallway, as quickly as they could.

"How far down this hall we got to go?" said Shimko, huffing.

"Patience!"

"Shove your patience," said Shimko. "That girl you're carrying probably ways a hundred pounds. I got to carry meatsack McLardass here."

They reached a doorway, and stepped inside. They were in a gaslit room at the top of a set of stone stairs, that led down to what looked like a river. An aged gondola waited there, tied with a rotting rope to a stone post. The smell immediately informed Shimko this was the sewer.

Abe swung the door shut behind them. It clicked shut, and the edges of the door and hinges then faded and disappeared.

"That won't keep them long," said Shimko. "They're real bloodhounds, especially after they got kicked like that from your innocent little niece here."

"I'm only too aware," sighed Abe. Abe carried the girl down a stairwell, and placed her into an aged gondola that waited in the sewer. he started to get in next to her.

"Hey!" said Shimko. "A little help here, huh? You want me to spread my brains across these stairs, taking Bull down 'em by myself?"

Abe sighed again, and walked back up. Together they helped the still-unconscious Bull into the gondola.

"It might have been better if you left him behind," said Abe.

"It might be better if you never say anything like that to me again," said Shimko. "And don't forget you still owe me money. That's coming out of your share. With interest. And add a new suit to it, too."

"Don't worry," said Abe, as he sat down and cut the rope holding the gondola to the post. "You'll have all plenty of opportunity to have a thousand suits worth twice your current rags, and any other set of clothes your taste should desire."

He took a pole out of the floor of the boat, and began to push them down the sewer. "That is, as long as we don't get killed."

Shimko shoved Bull Markham over a bit in the back of the Gondola, and took out a cigarette. He leaned back a bit on Bull's unconscious carcass, lit the cigarette. He gazed at the back of Abe's head thoughtfully. "Yeah, well," said Shimko. "There always is that, isn't there?"

(to be continued)