"Three."
"I swear, man, you gotta believe me, I've told you everything I know!"
"Two."
"Jesus fucking christ man, I don't have shit for you! Kill me, kill me, I don't know anything!"
One."
He started to break down, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "I don't know! Fuck you, man, fuck you, I don't—"
A splash of blood slapped wetly against the wall.
"Do you think he knew anything?"
Razor eyed Fiddler. "I don't give a shit."
Razor wasn't the most inventively named piece of chromed muscle, but he took a certain amount of pride in being the only one in Seattle for the past four months. It had taken some doing, and still took a little upkeep, but for now, the name was his and his alone.
Fiddler shrugged. "Your mess, you clean it up."
Razor grunted and slid the body into a trash bag, furiously mopping the blood from the floor and wall with the practiced air of experience.
"I like this place."
He looked up.
"No, really." Fiddler wandered over to a boarded-up window, peering through the crack. "Not too far from Bellevue, no Star to worry about, plenty of privacy and still not too remote. And washable."
The door slammed open, admitting a petite human woman and an almost unnervingly thin Ork. "Hey, Enny. Back so soon?"
She grinned, giggling slightly. ""They weren't nothing. We had some fun on the way back! Gang tried to pick on me, but Astaire here took care of them. Get anything out of the gimp?"
"Yeah, a drekload of attitude and some blood."
"Too bad. Guess this means we're flying blind?"
Fiddler slid the window open, climbing onto the sill. Tugging on a worn packet of cigarettes, he flicked open his lighter. "We've got what Imagawa told us. You didn't get anything?"
"I cracked their system wide open. Nothing." Enny wrinkled her nose as the scent of smoke filled the air. "Those things'll kill you, you know."
Exhaling slowly, Fiddler closed his eyes. "Either I'll be dead before this stuff could start, or I'll have money to burn on hospitals. Way I figure it, it don't make a bit of difference."
"So when do we do it?"
"Tomorrow at dawn." Astaire's voice was barely audible, but it commanded the attention of all in the room. "We go in at sunup, set the timers for seven-thirty, get our hoops out by seven."
"Think we can do it that fast?"
"If we don't, we're dead anyway. Knight Errant responds fast. Enny, can you cover yourself?"
"Just get me to the security room, empty the place out, and I'll take it from there."
"Good. And Razor…"
"What?"
"If you're going to kill someone, just kill them. We don't have time for you to play around."
"Fine."
"Everyone get plenty of sleep tonight, we meet back here at three in the morning, no later!"