The Operator

His pace quickened, his head down to avoid being lured into looking at the main camera when the TV under it blared an attention-getting cartoon.

Who doesn’t like Tom and Jerry? he thought wryly, taking a tiny EMP button from his pocket and readying it. Peri hadn’t noticed him lifting it, whereas she would have missed the Glock he would have rather taken. The tactical blast would short out anything transmitting within a thirty-foot radius, cameras included, and he checked to make sure his phone was off.

Her heels clicked smartly, her voice pleasant as she said hi to the woman with two kids in a stroller passing her. Jack slid to the side and nodded, waiting until the kids’ voices vanished before looking up again. There was no guilt in him for using Harmony. If she was after Michael, she was dead anyway, and where Michael and Bill were, Peri was sure to follow.

Motion confident, Harmony reached for one of the double glass doors that led to the stairway. Jack’s hair shifted in the equalizing pressure, and he jogged to catch up as it swung closed. Her feet were vanishing up the curve of the stairway. Eager, he hit the EMP button and raced up the stairs.

Instinct screamed, and he ducked as he spun onto the next landing, turning it into a controlled fall as he hit the cement. A stick of wood rapped smartly on the worn iron railing above him.

“You picked the wrong woman to jump, candy ass,” Harmony said, and he scuttled backward to the cement block wall as she made ready to swing at him again.

“Wait—” he managed, and then her eyes widened in surprise.

“You,” she whispered, stepping forward, the whoosh of air from her martial arts baton making him slip down a few stairs. It was padded, but it would still hurt.

“I’m looking for Peri,” he said, then used his arm to block a kick, retreating a few steps more.

“Aren’t we all.” Harmony pulled back, her frown deepening when she noticed the little red light was out on the camera in the corner. Lips pressed together, she slipped her bag from her shoulder and gracefully iced down two steps, body balanced and ready to smack his head as if it were a softball on a tee. “Funny us running into each other. Steiner will never believe it. I sure as hell don’t.”

Jack put his hands up in placation. “She didn’t betray you. She was running. I was running. We didn’t plan it.”

“I don’t care. You’re coming with me.” With a howl, she lashed out with a front kick.

Jack lurched back, narrowly avoiding it. “God, woman. Will you just listen?” he complained, all the way down to the first landing. “I need your help, not WEFT’s. Peri wants to kill Bill. Michael will be with him.” Harmony’s anger shifted, tainted with the bitterness of betrayal. “You want Michael?” he said, forcing his shoulders to relax. “I sure as hell don’t.”

Harmony’s baton drooped. “Steiner didn’t like you escaping,” she said, gaze flicking to the dead camera. “Killing his men. He wants you bad. Maybe enough to put me back on active duty if I bring you in.”

The hard part was over, and a flash of tension zinged to his groin. He always did like manipulation. “Steiner doesn’t want me.” He risked looking down and away as if unhappy. “I’m just a link to Michael and Bill.” Tossing the hair from his eyes, he glanced up. He couldn’t have planned this better, with her standing over him, justified in her confident strength. “Peri needs my help to finish Bill. She doesn’t want to admit it, but it’s true.”

Squinting mistrustfully, she looked at the defunct camera again. Slowly the baton rose.

“You want to spar some more?” he said flippantly. “Can we go back to your dojo and do it on the mats? My back is killing me.”

That brought a wry smile to her face, and warning him with her eyes to be still, she came down a step, her martial arts stick lowered. “Why would you help Peri?”

Jack glanced sidelong through the double glass doors, but no one was coming down the long hall. He had time. “She was my partner for three years, and I don’t want to see her dead. Once Bill is gone, she can vanish. She wants out. She deserves it.” Yes, she deserved it, but she was not going to get it.

“Thanks for the info,” she said, motioning for him to go up the stairway ahead of him, presumably to her car. “You won’t mind repeating that for Steiner, will you?”

He hesitated as if thinking it over, but he already knew what he was going to do, and, head bowed as if in capitulation, he scuffed his way back up the steps.

“Smart man.” Harmony reached for him, hand twisted to snap a restraining hold on him with the help of the baton.

Jack’s hand flashed out, shoving her into the wall. She hit hard, her head thumping into the cement. But it was the breath being knocked out of her that bought him a precious three seconds.

Smiling, still smiling, he jammed his arm under her chin, forcing her head back. His other hand was on her bicep, pinching a nerve to numb her arm. If he bore down hard enough, it would take days to come back, if ever.

“Knock it off,” he said, giving a squeeze, and he saw her anger flash into pain as the baton dropped, clattering on the step. “You’re not that dumb. Bringing me in won’t get you anything. You’ve been sidelined by your own people. You took Peri out of custody. You’re why she’s free. You need the entire pie, not the crust. But that’s not why you’re going to help me.”

“Help you?” she said, strained, eyes flicking from the baton to him. “No way in hell.”