Up From The Deep by Vaughn Jackson (highly recommended books txt) 📕

it handles. You know me. I’m the Hand of Shadows.”

“You keep the secrets,” she said.

“Until now,” he said with a grim look.

“And who is the new hand that made you have a change of heart?”

“The Hand of Gold.”

“Money?”

“Business and logistics, more accurately,” Kurtis corrected.

“And why does the business lady have control of the kaiju plan?”

“If we collapse to world governments and take charge, we control the economy. Not only that, but rulers can demand tribute from their people. We’d have all the money, and no one could stop us.”

“Megalomania,” Skylar mumbled. “Plain and simple.”

“Exactly.” Kurtis brushed his hair out of his face. “Ever since her sister died, she’s been ruthless. Cruel and demanding, with no room for dissention. She lured your creature—”

“Inkanyamba.”

“—to Las Vegas as a test to see how easily it could destroy the armed forces here.”

Skylar felt a spike of anger in her chest. “That bitch.”

“Do you see why I need your help?”

“Let us go.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Me and Lieutenant Greenwood. Let us go back to San Francisco and talk to the people there, so we can bring her down…together,” she added begrudgingly.

“I can’t do that. You won’t keep your word.”

“Kurtis. If you want me to trust you, you have to trust me.”

He thought for a minute. She saw the logic running behind his eyes as he stared at the opposite wall. “Okay,” he said, “on one condition.”

“What condition?”

“You’re getting sprayed again.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“On the chance that you decide to betray me, I need to know that my home is safe and secure out of your people’s reach,” he said. “You get the spray, or you have to stay.”

Skylar sucked her teeth. “Fine.”

“I promise it’s completely harmless,” he said with a reassuring smile. “And you’ll be back in no time.”

“When I wake up, you’re getting decked.”

He shrugged. “I probably deserve it.”

“Fuck you,” she said.

#

For the second time in too short of a span for her comfort, Skylar had woken up from a drug induced sleep. This time, however, she was pleased to find that she had not woken up in a strange man’s bedroom. She chuckled at the fact that a sterile medical room brought her more comfort than plush carpets and fancy furnishings. She turned her head to see Devonte sitting in a chair beside the cot.

“How the tables have turned,” she said, realizing how dry her throat was in the process. She swallowed hard to try and get some moisture.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

The two shared a laugh before settling into an overwhelming silence.

“What happened?” Devonte asked. “We all saw Inkanyamba break loose on TV, and I thought—”

“How did I get here?” Skylar asked.

“Some guys in SWAT gear said they found you passed out near the wreck of your helicopter. They brought you here on Lieutenant Greenwood’s orders they said, but she was also unconscious when you arrived. It doesn’t add up.” He looked at her expectantly.

Skylar took a deep breath. She knew this wouldn’t go over well, but she wasn’t about to lie to her best friend. “It was Kurtis,” she said. “He…rescued us.”

Her friend stared at her in disbelief. “He what?”

“Our helicopter went down when Inkanyamba summoned the storm. We crashed and he was there.”

“And you went with him?” Devonte grew agitated, his grip tightening on the arms of his chair.

Skylar felt her own temper flare. “It’s not like we had a choice, he had guns and we were disoriented. He took us to a safe house or something. Devonte…he said he wants to help us.”

“Help us? Is that what he was doing when he shot me?” Devonte shouted.

“No, but I think things have gone too far even for him.”

“Oh that’s great, so now that he’s not happy with the plan he decides to switch sides?” he seethed, not looking her in the eye. “And you believe him?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” She averted her eyes as well. “I don’t trust him. But what if he really does want to help? We could use his resources.”

“And what if he decides to betray us again, and this time he kills me, or…what if he does something to hurt you?”

Again, for the second time in far too soon, Skylar felt her face flush with embarrassed warmth. She looked away from Devonte. “We’ll just have to keep an eye on him.”

“An eye, or a gun,” Devonte muttered.

“If we can convince everyone else, it will probably be both,” Skylar said.

“Good,” Devonte said.

“You didn’t see how upset he was about everything, D. I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about him.”

“Then I’ll leave that to you,” he said in response, “I intend to worry about him, and fuck him up if he steps out of line.”

“Yeah, you and your last remaining arm.”

“Hey,” he said, “I tried to talk the doctor into hooking me up like Raymond. Apparently, it ‘wouldn’t work for soft tissue damage and would also be irresponsible for her to use bleeding edge technology on a civvy’,” he said, doing his best impression of what Skylar could only assume was the doctor.

“Like Raymond?” Skylar asked.

“Yeah, I wanted her to turn me into a hard-boiled detective with a real soft spot. I even promised to narrate my thought process out loud all the time if she did.”

“Raymond doesn’t seem like noir kind of detective,” she said, “now stop being an ass and tell me what happened!”

“Science happened.” Devonte kicked his feet up onto the desk. “Do you know what happened to Raymond’s back?”

“I heard that he broke it,” she said thoughtfully, “but I noticed he gets around pretty well. Always wondered how.”

“Cybernetics. Think of it like a highly advanced shock absorber.” He tapped a few keys on his computer and pulled up the schematics for something that looked like a cross between a claw and a metal ribcage. “Just a heads up, but you didn’t see these details,” he said with a wink. “Basically it supports his spine while also negating almost all of the potentially harmful vibrations that travel throughout the body whenever he moves.”

“Fantastic!”