Red Panda - The Android Assassins chapter 13

Chapter 13

The door to the holding cell opened with a clatter that would have woken the dead, but

Tank Brody did not look up from the hard bunk where he lay.

Company all ready? he asked. I was just getting used to having the place to myself.

I could leave if you like, a voice said, but you'd sit here an awful long time.

There was something familiar in the voice that made Tank sit up fast. It was hard to

see in the dim light with the comparative brightness of the hallway behind his guest,

but Brody knew at once who it was.

You, he said in astonishment, you're that cop from Spiro's place.

Andy Parker, the man said quietly, since you can't say cop without looking like you want

to spit.

Yeah, well, Brody lay back down on the bunk. Maybe I got reasons.

Maybe you do, Parker stepped into the cell a few feet, just enough to see that Brody's

face was still black and blue in places. Given the number of officers it had reportedly

taken to bring the big man down, Parker thought he had made out all right.

Why are you here, Parker? Brody asked, looking at the ceiling.

Promise to a friend, Parker answered. A couple of them, in fact.

Brody was quiet for a minute.

Spiro? he asked. That's one, Parker replied. The other one would take some explaining and

I'm not quite sold on it yet.

What's that supposed to mean? Brody asked.

Heard you slugged a cop, Brody, Parker said seriously.

The big man sat up quickly, dropped his feet on the floor and stood just inches away from

Andy Parker, towering above him. The young officer never flinched, even when Brody made

one of his great ham-like hands into a fist and held it before Parker's face. The knuckles

carried more bruises than Brody's face and were still swollen besides.

That wasn't no cop, Parker, Brody said calmly.

Punching that thing in the face did this to my hand. It was like hitting a wall. And

whatever it was, it was going to gun down innocent women and children and I don't care

if you believe me or not.

Nobody else does, Parker said. They figure you just heard about the other folks that

were killed that night and made up a story.

Somebody in that alley must have seen something, Brody insisted.

Nobody was close enough to tell what was happening, Parker shook his head, except for one little

girl and her mother won't let her testify.

Brody snorted and sat down heavily on the bunk.

They saw, he said. They're just too scared to call a cop a liar in front of a judge.

Maybe so, Parker said flatly. But it's a funny thing about that.

What?

Nobody can find the cop you hit, Parker said. He just disappeared.

I told you, Brody said. It wasn't no cop.

Leaving aside for the moment that I believe you, Parker sat down.

It leaves the law with a little problem.

If you assaulted an officer, they want you charged with that, not just resisting arrest.

Petty stuff like that nobody's got time for right now, so they want to find the guy.

From what I hear, a couple of uniforms have offered to step in and play the part.

Tank snorted again.

Cops look after cops, he said.

Maybe they do, Brody, Parker said, but if they do it's because they spend every day

surrounded by people that look at them the way you looked at me when you found out I was a policeman.

Brody had nothing to say to that.

Why don't you like cops, Morris, Parker asked.

Nobody calls me Morris except my ma, Brody said.

Answer the question, Parker insisted. Or what?

Brody looked at Parker with a challenge in his eye.

Parker said nothing for a moment, then he stood.

It may interest you to know that your file has been lost, he said.

What? Brody asked.

Not just here, Parker continued. In the prosecutor's office?

Downtown? Everywhere that it once existed, it now does not.

That's why you'd sit here a good long time if I left.

Officially, you don't actually exist.

Or at least you're not here, and you never were.

And don't look at me like that, I didn't make it happen.

Not directly.

What is this, Brody said, getting to his feet.

Parker ignored him.

All I did, he said, is do a little checking.

Turns out you first gave your story about the cop with the Tommy gun

about three hours before the other bodies were...

actually discovered.

Not your statement, but your original claims at the scene.

The timing's all wrong.

Yeah? Brody was lost.

Which means there were only two ways you could know about that,

if you were actually in on the crimes,

which doesn't fit with anyone's version of how you acted at the scene,

or if you were telling the truth.

Parker smiled for the first time.

Just a little.

Brody was quiet for a moment.

So that's when you apologize and drop the charges,

not when you lose my file and open up the cage so I can slip away,

he said suspiciously.

That's not exactly what's going on here either, Parker said.

You're getting an offer, Brody.

An offer that is going to change everything about your life

and put it in dead certain risk, too.

If you decide you'd rather take your chances on the criminal justice system,

it's not like I'm going to leave you to rot.

You go back on the books, and I make sure the prosecutor and your lawyer

know everything that I know, within reason.

Or,

or you do what seems to come naturally to you,

help people in trouble, Parker said.

But you get a lot more organized about it, and you get a lot more done.

Brody's eyes widened.

I knew it, he said. I knew you worked for him.

Did you now?

It was difficult to know how Parker felt about that.

I knew there was something I liked about you, Parker, Brody grinned.

You ain't a cop at all. You work for the Red Panda.

I'm a cop, all right, Parker bristled.

Slightly, and I'm a good one, too.

I'm sorry that you've met the other kind somewhere,

and I'm sorry it only seems to take one bad cop

to make people forget every good one they've ever met in their lives,

but that seems to be the way it is.

But I'm also more than just a policeman, Tank.

And this is your chance to be more than you are, too.

Yeah? the big man said with pride shining in his eyes.

Yeah, Parker nodded.

See, that was the second promise to a friend.

I confirmed a theory for her that there were killing machines

out there disguised like real people,

and I told her that I knew where there was a man

who had stopped one with his bare hands.

She asked me to bring you in if I could.

Bring me in? Parker asked.

It's bad out there, Brody, Parker said,

and it's going to get a lot worse.

But we're all through taking it, and we're all through waiting.

Now it's war.

She says there's a place for you, if you're willing.

She? Brody asked.

That girl?

The Flying Squirrel, Parker said sternly.

But...

Well, what about...

I don't know where the Chief is, Parker interrupted.

Maybe somebody does, maybe no one does.

Right now the Squirrel is calling the shots,

and you'd better jump when she says, Mister.

Brody was serious.

Is he hurt? Is he dead?

What do you mean you don't know?

Morris Brody, Andy Parker said,

if you walk out that door with me,

you'll always have more questions than answers,

I can promise you that.

It's a chance to do more good than most people get to do in a lifetime.

Well, that's a good thing.

I've never regretted it a single day.

But I can tell you this,

your life will never be the same.

Parker saw Tank Brody's smile for the first time,

a wide, infectious smile that seemed to light up the room.

He turned his head to the left and spat on the floor,

and turned back to Parker.

Thank goodness, he said.

Let's get going.