Chapter 40: Sharing A Ride

Granny Whitney was exactly as he remembered her: the floral dress, the over-sized purse, the hair in that tight little bun. And of course the gentle smile on her face, as if he was a favored grandson who she was delighted to see and still not sure if she intended to tear out his guts.

"You." Rick's instincts told him to run, but she was blocking the only door and her threat was more influence than raw power anyway. "Why are you here?"

"I just want to chat, dear boy. I have an offer that I think you'll l-"

"No. Just let me go on with my life."

Her eyes became harder, boring into his. "Don't be tiresome, dearie. I'm not here to harm you, and I'd never do anything so gauche as threatening your sister. Last time I got you to work for me via blackmail, and that turned out alright, didn't it? This time you can actually negotiate your terms."

Rick took a deep breath, accepting that he probably didn't have a choice. It did seem like she expected him to be useful to her, which was all the protection he had. Still, he didn't want to just give in, so Rick turned on Tom angrily. "Why are you doing this? You'd betray me for one of your enemies?"

"It's not like that." Tom stepped closer, glancing between the two of them nervously. "Look... Alger's demands were relentless and constantly increasing. I thought I could arrange something else, something better, but... it didn't go as planned."

Chuckling, Granny Whitney reached up to pat his cheek, though she needed to stretch on the tips of her toes to do so. "Tom here was very obliging in getting himself in debt to me. So when I heard he was going to meet you, I had to give him an opportunity to pay a bit of that debt off, didn't I?"

Tom winced. "She just wants to talk, Rick. At least I'm fairly sure..."

"But you were willing to take that chance with me," Rick said. He reluctantly accepted it and turned to Granny Whitney. "Alright, we can talk. What is this all about?"

Instead of answering, the old woman turned and headed back out the door, gesturing over her shoulder at them. They moved after her reluctantly and it occurred to Rick that it was no accident that they had chosen this fighting chamber on the edge of the property. There was only a small passage behind it, and instead of returning to the main area, they left via a small door he hadn't noticed before.

The street outside was quiet, almost suspiciously so. Granny Whitney walked to the curb and scrabbled around in her purse for keys before manifesting a lucrim vehicle. It was different than the previous car, this one a lime green, yet somehow every bit as much of a granny car. She glanced over her shoulder at them.

"Hop in, boys. We're just going to go on a little trip so that I can explain better."

Tom climbed into the back seat while Rick hesitated on the sidewalk. He didn't want to get into her car, but he accepted that he wasn't really any more in her power there than in the street. If she had wanted to do something to him, the fighting chamber would have been the ideal place. Eventually he opened the door and stepped into the front seat.

The vehicle immediately rose into the air, some sort of defensive field shimmering into being around it that made the world outside look fuzzy. Granny Whitney sat back with her hands clasped over her purse as if some chauffeur was driving them, then turned to smile at him.

"Sorry to do things this way, dearie, but unfortunately you're not so easy to contact these days. All branches of the Lucrim Authority keep their employees under various kinds of scrutiny that are... mildly frustrating for my purposes, to say the least."

"And so you arranged this meeting." Rick sighed and made himself meet her gaze. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Oh, but why start so aggressively? I'd much rather begin by talking about what I can do for you." Granny Whitney smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. "I understand you're having a bit of trouble with a man named Jack. You do seem to collect vendettas, don't you, dearie?"

Rick stared at her. "You mean that you sent him after me to force me into this?"

Granny Whitney put a hand to her chest. "Rick, you wound me! Do you really think that I'm the type of old woman who would threaten you with such a crude thug? No, if I wanted to threaten you, I would become exceedingly kind to your dear sister and let you work out the rest. You're a reasonably smart boy, after all."

The obvious threat left Rick grinding his teeth. As the pause stretched, Tom spoke up from the back seat. "She didn't send him, man. Jack is working for the American Basilisk, who's one of her oldest enemies. I'm not sure what she needs from you, but she actually thinks your interests align."

"That's right. Such a helpful comment deserves a piece of hard candy." Though Granny Whitney began looking through her purse, her next words were clearly directed toward Rick. "I don't care about this Jack fellow, but I do want to see Gerald frustrated. That's the American Basilisk, if you don't recall. So I think we can actually work together here."

Rick didn't answer at first, looking through the haze around the car to try to figure out where they were going. Somewhere outside Branton, and they were picking up speed as they got higher and further from the center of the city, but he wasn't sure where. For now, he put it out of his mind and focused on the old woman rummaging through her purse menacingly.

"This conversation is pointless until you tell me what you want from me. Out with it."

"Alright, dearie. If you insist on not chatting with a lonely old woman, we can talk business." Granny Whitney flicked something from out of her purse into the back seat, then focused on him with dark, beady eyes. "These exercises by the CSLA are interfering with one of my businesses. I need you to abuse your authority working with them to remove that interference. In exchange, I will have Jack murdered for you. If you perform well enough, I'll provide additional lucrim-based compensation."

Not having expected his demand to actually work, Rick swallowed and stared back at her. Well, it was all out on the table now. He forced his brain not to flinch from the implications and responded to what mattered. "I don't want him killed, I just want him to stop attacking me."

"Trying to bargain for a larger lucrim reward, are you? I think it'd be cleaner to have him killed, but if you insist, I do have some lovely little pills you might like."

He had actually been more concerned that she would implicate him in the crime and blackmail him just like before. The most logical thing would have been to refuse her categorically and leave. There was definitely part of his mind that said it would be safer to open the door and hurl himself at the ground than to work with her. Yet he didn't think that she would give up that easily, so...

"What business, and how is my job relevant?"

"Drugs, dearie. I have many industrious little worker bees making all manner of drugs outside the city, where the residue isn't so easily tracked. Unfortunately, all these surveyors moving about have increased scrutiny, and I've lost a few workers thanks to them."

"I don't control CSLA policy. I'm just working not to get fired."

"But you do have their proprietary technology to locate, analyze, and eliminate lucrim anomalies." Granny Whitney sat back primly, eyes fixed at him like a predator. "I need you to locate an anomaly without noticing anything suspicious. After that, I will need you to run a few packages for me. Those lost workers have attracted some unfortunate attention."

Rick took a deep breath, wondering if he was insane for even considering the offer. Of course, one thing was absolutely unacceptable. "I'm not going to run drugs for you. I'm willing to do my job and not go out of my way to interfere with your operations, but I refuse to do anything illegal."

"That's no fun, dearie. I could have eliminated Jack for you, so thoroughly and effectively..."

"Don't you want to do that anyway, to humiliate the American Basilisk?"

Granny Whitney gave him a small smile, her eyes crinkling in a way that was both grandmotherly and terrifying. "Good to see you're still thinking. Honestly, I was hoping you could set up a situation where I could murder him without suspicion, just to send a lovely message. But if we can't do that, I would actually prefer to get rid of him in a way that will... upset his boss."

"I don't want to get involved in anything excessive. I'm dealing with a lot right now." Rick rubbed his forehead briefly, then glanced back at Tom, but the other man was completely silent. After thinking about just how much trouble Granny Whitney could cause him, much less Melissa, he decided that he didn't have a choice. "So you need me to get rid of a lucrim anomaly. Where and how?"

"Below us, actually." Granny Whitney flicked a finger and the windows slid down... except they continued sliding so the doors themselves faded away, leaving a large expanse of open sky on either side of the car. They hovered over an expanse of wilderness that looked much the same as many other areas outside Branton. "We took our little ride mostly because I needed a secure place for this conversation, but we've also reached the location. Take good look, dearie, because I don't want to give you any incriminating evidence."

Rick gripped the edge of the car tightly and leaned out slightly to get a better look. There weren't a lot of identifying characteristics, but he'd roughly kept track of their position. "Even if I know the approximate area, finding the anomaly can be difficult."

"I trust you'll be an industrious young man."

"And all you need me to do is report it normally?"

"There are a few other details we'll have to discuss." Granny Whitney only chuckled when he turned to glare at her. "Simple details of technique, dear boy, no new changes to our agreement. If you fulfill your end, I'll arrange something to deal with Jack."

"How, exactly?"

"By putting a little pressure on Gerald - you see, I imagine that he hired Jack in order to get someone inside the CSLA who isn't associated with him. Having that information leaked would be very inconvenient for him, so he'd be displeased to learn that Jack is drawing so much attention to himself. With the right word whispered in the right ear, he could be out of your hair for good."

That might be about the best deal that he was going to get. Rick thought that he had no choice but to accept the offer, but he remained silent for a long time, trying to think of an alternative.

"Granny's time is very valuable, dearie." Her fingers tightened on her purse. "I have no vendetta against you, truly. You might have been a pain in my ass, but you gave me what I needed and you could be counted on. Do this one thing for me and I'll be out of your life for good."

Rick scowled at her. "I thought that was the deal the last time."

"Oh, but we're only meeting again because you have the CSLA position. Without that, you'd have nothing I want and I'd leave you alone. You don't think the position is going to last long, do you? Believe me, you don't have much more time to get in my good graces."

"Alright, fine." Rick closed his eyes and wished to whoever was listening that this wasn't a mistake. "Let's talk about the details."