Enemies Mine...Part 2

We were met in the lobby by a thin, tall, middle-aged black man wearing a black tuxedo, highly polished shoes, and white gloves. He had been waiting in the middle of the room, calmly ignoring the never-ending stream of humanity that simply parted around him as they sought the golden spawning grounds in the gaming rooms behind him.

As we approached however, he came to life as if having been turned on. His spoke as we came near and bowed his head ever so slightly in my direction. “Agent Rusty Bones, I presume?” His accent distinguished as someone who trained or lived in England for a very long time.

I stopped. “Yeah. I’m Agent Bones. What can I do for you?”

He tilted his head again in the faintest hint of a bow of deference. “My name is Chandler Grimes. I have been asked to take you to your party.”

“Have you now? And just what party is that Chandler?” I stared directly into his eyes, trying to gain his measure, quite aware that many people found it hard to look directly at me for any significant period of time.

He returned my gaze, unfazed and unblinking as he replied. “I am in the personal employ of Mr. Richard Arnold. He has asked me to meet you and your party and to escort you to his private chambers.”

I extended my right arm, palm up and open. “Well then, my good man, why don’t you lead the way?”

He bobbed his head one more time, looked directly at my three companions for the first time. He bowed more substantially to Raven and Zenny while he barely acknowledged Jim’s existence. He turned on a dime and began a slow, march through the ever changing stream of customers, effortlessly avoiding contact with any of them as made his way towards a roped off elevator just off the side of the main lobby.

As we moved to follow, Ravyn leaned over to me. “What happened with meeting him in a public place?”

Jim’s quizzical look asked the same question without any words.

I brought my hand up to my mouth to prevent anyone from reading my lips while I pretended to cough. “It’s OK. Trust me.”

She arched an eyebrow at that, but didn’t otherwise respond.

A security guard pulled the velvet rope to the side, allowing us to follow behind Chandler into the elevator.

“Chandler, is an elevator necessary? This place can’t have more than four floors?”

The butler bobbed his head again before he spoke. “I am following my instructions, Agent Bones.”

The door closed as Jim brought up the rear of the party. It was just us and Chandler in the spacious elevator. I decided to take a chance and shifted in my vision into the Shadowland.

Chandler’s Spirit form was a very calm, deep blue in color and matched the shape and size of his body. His form looked right at me as I looked at him. It seemed that he gave me the same sort of slight nod that he had given me before. I shifted back into normal vision just as the elevator reached the third and top floor. The door opened with a chime.

Chandler somehow found a way through us and into the hall beyond before anyone could even shift out of his way. He didn’t seem to move that fast, but he was effortlessly leading the way again down a quiet, deserted hallway full of closed doors.

He stopped in front of a set of double doors, waiting for us to catch up to him. As we approached, he pulled open both doors so that they clicked into place and remained open without anyone holding onto them and stepped inside the beautifully appointed conference room.

Once inside, his announced in a loud, clear voice. “Mr. Arnold, it is my pleasure to announce the arrival of Agent Rusty Bones and party.” He turned to wave us into the room with his gloved left hand.

Stepping inside the large room, I saw Dick Arnold and El Diablito seated next to each other at the end of a long conference table. Standing behind them were three figures. Two of the figures, one to each side, were clearly guards, although they didn’t seem to be the same kind of goons that Drake and Dick Arnold had employed in the past. These two guys were clearly not your average soldier turned mercenary types.

But it was the third figure that caused me to stop in my tracks. I couldn’t make out any actual physical features because he was shrouded in a hooded dark cloak that obscured his face. But there was no mistaking that aura as soon as I saw him, I recognized him.

“Papa Locks!”

Enemies Mine...Part 1

We pulled into the unlighted parking lot on the edge of Detroit’s Greektown district. Jim backed the large white Co-op van into the spot the attendant had indicated, but not until the man had collected a $10 bill from the grumbling Jim.

Turning off the van, Jim turned to face the rest of us in the van. “I still think you should have agreed to meet him outside. Nothing good happens in a casino unless you happen to own the thing.”

“Yeah, well I was actually trying to keep everyone from freezing to death when we met with them. Plus the crowds will hopefully keep things from coming to blows between us and minimize any possible dirty tricks they can try to pull on us.”

Jim shook his head as he pocketed the keys to the van. “I don’t know about that, with Arnold’s money and influence, I’m worried that we’ll be walking into a trap.”

“Hey, they’re on my turf now, Jim. Trust me. I’ve got it all under control.”

Ravyn looked back from the front passenger seat, incredulous. “Trust you? After all of the times you’ve walked blindly into danger? Yeah, right. We’re not all dead, you know, and we’d rather not get that way! Let’s go.”

The four of us got out of the van, our boots crunching in the crusted snow that hadn’t been cleared in the week since the last storm. The cold winter air had enough bite in to show the breath of each of the other three in the party.

Zenny pulled her hijab closer to her forehead with her gloved hands. She stomped her feet and shivered as she waited for Ravyn and Jim to join us.

“How can people live in such a cold place?”

I shook my head. “Detroit’s not bad. A lot of your fellow Iraqi’s live here too.”

She looked down at her feet, pushing the snow side to side with her left boot. “I don’t know what could have brought them here.”

Happy to have a chance to talk about my native community and show a little of my local lore I decided to expound a little bit in her native tongue. “Well, Henry Ford and his $5 a day work day brought a lot of immigrants to this area starting about 80 years ago, including a lot of laborers from Yemen and Lebanon. I think the Iraqi’s are mostly refugees from Saddam though, they didn’t start coming in large numbers until the Iran/Iraq war started. The Detroit area is home to the largest concentration of Arabs outside of the Middle East. When we’re done here, we can probably get some good food for you from a really good bakery.”

Zenny replied in Arabic. “This is one Arab who wishes that it was warmer here in the winter.” She cracked a small smile and switched back to English. “Thank you, Rusty. It is always nice to hear you speak Arabic.”

As Jim and Ravyn joined us, we began the short walk to the casino. Jim carried a small backpack that he slung over his shoulder.

Ravyn walked silently next to him, her eyes darting between abandoned buildings and nearly empty lots. “This is downtown Detroit? I thought it would be a little more alive than this.”

Our crunching steps and hushed words were just then overshadowed by a siren as an ambulance screamed down a nearby street. “It’s actually better now than a few years ago. This entire area was empty, except for a few Greek restaurants. Before the casinos and the new stadiums, this entire section of the city was a wasteland.”

Jim harrumphed, waving his free right hand about as he spoke. “But how much public money was spent to attract and build those things here? I’ll bet that those tax dollars would have been better spent on something more productive than helping the wealthy get wealthier.”

I glanced over to Jim. “At least now there is something for people to do when they come to this city. Before this stuff, there wasn’t anything to bring them here.”

We rounded the corner and saw the glitzy signs of the casino and the bustle of patrons going in and out.

I stopped. “So is everyone ready? Any questions on the plan of action?”

All three shook their heads.

“OK, then, let’s get in, do our business, and get out.”