The Never War

FIRST EARTH

Rose’s bodyguard kept a firm hold on both of our jackets and marched us to the elevator like two kittens being carried by the neck. I can’t speak for Spader, but my feet barely skimmed the ground. Dewey rode us up to the penthouse without a word. He didn’t look at any of us. I knew he was thinking about the laundry chute. We hit the thirtieth floor and the bodyguard carried us toward the penthouse. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and pulled away.

“Enough, all right!” I shouted. “We’re not going anywhere.”

The guy looked at me with fire in his eyes. He didn’t like being told what to do, especially by a punk bellhop. For a second I thought he was going to punch my lights out, but he held back. I would have bet anything it was because Max Rose wanted us alive and in one piece. This was good. I started to feel like we weren’t being led toward a gangland execution. At least not today, anyway.

We followed the thug into the penthouse and right to the living room where I had set up lunch for Mr. Rose and Ludwig Zell. Max Rose was there waiting for us. He stood behind a bar, dressed in another silky bathrobe, only this one was deep purple. The bodyguard stood at the door with his arms folded. If we had to make a run for it, we’d have to get through him first. That pretty much meant we weren’t going to be making a run for it.

“There you are, Buck!” he said with a warm smile. “And we got your sidekick, too. What’s your name? Flash Gordon?”

“Vo Spader,” answered Spader.

“Vo?” said Max with surprise. “What kind of name is that?”

“What kind of name is Rose?” asked Spader. “Isn’t that some kind of flower?”

I winced. I didn’t think it was a good idea to match wisecracks with a mobster. Max Rose stared at Spader for a moment, then smiled. “You’ve got brass, just like your buddy,” he said. “I like that, Flash.”

Spader gave me a sideways “Who is Flash?” look. But I ignored him.

Rose fixed himself a drink. He poured some amber liquid into a crystal glass, then gave it a squirt of bubbly water that he shot out of a bottle with a trigger. I’d seen those babies before. The Three Stooges used them all the time. I never knew people used them for anything other than water fights though.

The door on the far side of the room opened and in walked Esther Amaden. Actually, “walked” isn’t the right word. She slinked in like a cat. She was wearing another long nightgown with a violet-colored shimmery robe over it. Didn’t these people ever get dressed?

“You know my associate, Miss Amaden, right?”

“My friends call me Harlow,” she said as she draped herself on a couch. “You saved Maxie’s life. I think that makes you a friend.”

“That’s why I wanted to see you boys,” said Rose as he lowered his huge frame into an easy chair. “Harlow’s right. I think you’ve got more guts than most of the knuckleheads who work for me.” He gestured at the bodyguard by the door. The big goon looked down, embarrassed.

“So I brought you up here to say a proper thank-you,” continued Rose. “And to give you a reward.” This was looking good. Max Rose felt as if he owed us something. We had to be smart about this.

“We don’t want any reward,” I said. “We did what we had to do.”

“That’s a good little spaceman, but I’m telling you, you deserve it.”

“Don’t disappoint him,” Harlow said. “He isn’t always so generous.”

“You boys name it,” Rose said after gulping down some of his drink. “Within reason, of course. What is it you want? Money? You can’t be making all that much dough working at this hotel. Or a car? I can get you any ride you want. What is it you little Martians would like?”

This was our chance. It wasn’t about money or cars or any kind of reward. This was about Max Rose feeling as if he owed us something. If we were going to find out more about him and about his connection with the Nazis and Saint Dane, this was the time to do it. I had to come up with something fast.

“What do you think, Pendragon?” Spader asked. I could tell by the look on his face that we were thinking the same way. He saw the opportunity here too. The question was, how to handle it?

A thought blasted into my head. It was a dangerous thing to do, but I couldn’t think of anything better in a nanosecond. So my mouth started working before my brain could catch up. ”I’ll tell you what we want,” I said, trying to sound confident. “We want a piece of the action.”

Max Rose spit his drink halfway across the room. I swear, he did this huge, wet spit-take. Most of his drink was now on the carpet.

“You wantwhat!”he shouted.

“Yeah,” said Spader, sounding pretty nervous. “What exactly, is it we want?”

I had gotten myself into this. It was time to start making it work or we’d never leave this room. Max Rose stood up and went to the bar to fix himself another drink.

“We hear things, you know,” I said, trying to sound cocky but not disrespectful. “Can’t help it, working in a place like this.”

“Yeah? What is it you hear?” said Rose. He was annoyed. I was going to have to talk our way out of this… or into it. Either way, I had to talk fast.

“We hear you’re in for a pretty big score, maybe in a couple of days.”

Max Rose shot me a look, going from annoyed to angry. I was pushing too hard.

“I’m not saying we want a part of that or anything,” I assured him. “We don’t deserve nothing like that. I’m just saying we want to be part of your operation. You know, like maybe help you out with whatever it is you got going on.”

Max Rose poured his drink and squirted more fizzy water. I could tell he was thinking about what I had said. The question was, whatwas he thinking? The answer would probably mean the difference between life and death for Spader and me.

“What did you hear about this score I got coming up?” he asked.

I shrugged. I had to keep up the tough-guy act or he’d eat me alive. “Not much,” I said. “Just that there’s some big payoff coming in for something you did, and that there might be more where that came from. A lot more.”

I didn’t want him to know we knew about Ludwig Zell and his connection with the Nazis. That would put us dangerously close to the category of knowing too much. Rose looked at me. I felt like he was deciding whether to keep up the conversation or grab his gun and shoot me. I really hoped he was feeling talkative.

“That’s all you know?” he asked.

“That’s it,” I said. “But you’re the smartest, best-connected guy we’ve ever met. It would be an honor to work for you.” I figured throwing in a little butter couldn’t hurt.

“So that’s it,” Max Rose said. “You want a job.”

“That’s it,” I answered confidently.

“Why should I trust you two?” he asked. “You’re nothing but snot-nosed kids.”

“With respect, mate,” said Spader. “We’re snot-nosed kids who saved your life.”

Max glanced over to Harlow. Harlow raised an eyebrow. “They’ve got more smarts than any of the clods you got on the payroll now,” she said. “Maybe you should give ‘em a small job to start. You know, as a test.”

Rose looked at Harlow with a mischievous little gleam. “You got something in mind?” he asked her.

Harlow stood up and slinked over to us. She walked around us, sizing us up like a cat plays with a mouse. Of course, right after a cat does that it usually kills and eats the mouse.

“Why don’t you send these boys down to see Farrow,” she said slyly.

“What for?” Rose asked. ”To give him a message,” was the answer. “Have them tell Farrow to lay off. You’ll give him a pass for sending his hitman up here, but only if he lays low for a couple of days. Let him know that if he doesn’t back off, you’ll come down on him, hard. If he listens, you won’t have to worry about him until after your score comes in.”

“And if he doesn’t listen?” Rose asked.

“Then you’ll know you’ve got to take care of business,” Harlow answered.”Hisbusiness.”

Wow. Harlow may have been beautiful and talented, but she had some cold blood running through her. She liked playing dangerous games. Trouble is, I didn’t. There was no way I wanted to go meet this Winn Farrow dude. From what everybody said, he was a psycho and more dangerous than Max Rose.

“I don’t get it,” I said, trying not to sound chicken. “I thought we proved ourselves last night?”

“Yeah, maybe,” answered Rose. “But you turned yellow. Buck. You didn’t shoot when I told you to. If somebody’s gonna work for me, I gotta know they got the guts to do what I tell ‘em, when I tell ‘em, no matter how ugly it is.”

Harlow walked behind Rose and played with his hair while he spoke.

“I got enemies,” he said. “Hard to believe since I’m such a sweet guy, but it’s true. That gunman last night, I know him. He works for a competitor of mine.”

“We know. Winn Farrow,” I said. “Your old partner.”

Rose looked up at Harlow. “I told you these boys were smart,” she said.

“Yeah, Winn Farrow,” said Rose. “I have no beef with the man. He’s got his business, I got mine. But lately he’s been getting a little, I don’t know, jealous. You’re right. I got a big score coming in. I don’t want Farrow doing anything to mess that up. So here’s what I want you to do. Go see my old friend and tell him to back off. That’s it. Just tell him to back off. Tell him I’m mad, and by all rights I should hit him back for what he did. Hard. But for old times’ sake, I won’t. But if he doesn’t mind his own business, then I’ll come down there and put a hurt on him like he’s never seen before.”

“That’s it?” asked Spader. “All you want us to do is deliver that message?”

“That’s it,” answered Rose. “Do that for me, and you’re in.”

“He’ll kill us,” was all I could say.

Rose laughed. “I figure one of two things will happen. Either you boys make it back in one piece and I’ll know I won’t have any problems from Farrow, or you’ll come back in a bunch of little pieces, and I’ll have a war on my hands.” He then broke into a grin that can only be described as evil. “So, how bad do you two still want a piece of my action?”

Gulp. I knew the answer to that. We were going to have to accept Rose’s offer. But that meant we would have to meet Winn Farrow and his gang of cutthroats. These were the guys who tried to kill Max Rose. These were the guys who tried to kill us. These were the guys who Saint Dane had taken to the flume and used to kill Uncle Press. As suicidal as this mission was, we had to go.

At least we were getting closer to the truth. I had no doubt in my mind that when we met Winn Farrow and his gang, we’d find Saint Dane. I just hoped we’d stay alive long enough to do something about it.

(CONTINUED)