Page 81 of Duke

I touched the play icon at the center of the screen, and the blurry image began moving, resolving into Temple, handcuffed and gagged, eyes wide and fearful.

She tried to talk past the gag, and a gloved hand reached out and yanked the gag down. “Duke, they got Puck, at that cabin. I don’t think he’s dead, but—baby, I—”

She was cut off by the gag being shoved back into place. In the background, beside Temple, was another woman, darker skinned with long black hair, gagged and bound as well.

A hand reached for the screen, and the images went still and blurry again.

“You see, Mr. Silver? It is in your best interest to cooperate.”

Outside I heard a helicopter in the distance. Rage was seething inside me, then, black and thick and all consuming.

“It was never you, you see. I knew who Temple was the whole time. She was the target all along, as a matter of fact, you were just a bonus addition.” A pause. “You met some of my…chattel, I believe the word is, down below, yes? Well, your new friend Miss Temple Kennedy, and the other woman, Lola Reed, who is associated with your large comrade Thresh, I think…they are going to join my operation. I know several wealthy gentlemen who will pay a rather staggering sum of money to possess a beautiful, and famous, woman like Miss Kennedy.”

“People aren’t for sale, you bastard,” I shouted.

“Of course they are,” Cain answered, his voice smooth and unperturbed. “It’s an ancient, time-honored business, the sale of woman flesh. And rather lucrative, I might add.”

I took another peek outside the door, and saw that the helicopter was getting closer, approaching over the horizon. I could make out the tail markings, now: N10043Z.

Harris.

How was Harris here?

What about Puck, and the girls?

What the fuck was going on?

I took a breath as I swung back behind the doorframe, switching mags.

I prepared to roll out and face the firing squad—

And then I heard Anselm’s Barrett belching thunder, and that fifty cal machine gun started ripsawing, and chaos erupted.

I heard small arms fire from the mercs, and the Barrett, and the fifty cal, and a lot of screaming and shouting, followed by silence.

“Yo, dumbass get out here,” Thresh called.

I stepped out; the mercs were all dead, but I didn’t see Cain anywhere as I jogged through the mess toward the helo, which was hovering a couple feet off the ground.

I reached the strut, and Thresh reached down with his right hand, grasped mine, and yanked me up and in. I found my footing, and faced my best friend, noticing he was sporting a similar busted left arm—although that was no news to me, I’d just forgotten. The scene in Nevada seemed ages ago, now, although it had only been a matter of a week, if that.

“Thresh, you big bastard. How are you?”

He clapped me into a one-armed hug, and then backed away, as Harris brought us skyward. “They’ve got our girls, buddy.”

I nodded. “Yeah, Cain showed me a video.” I glanced around, saw Anselm with his rifle in a seat, and Harris in the pilot’s seat, but no Puck. “In the video, Temple said Puck had gotten shot or something. Where is he? What the fuck happened?”

Thresh winced. “Yeah, um, well…we heard shooting so we hauled ass back to Puck’s cabin—”

“Wait, back up,” I interrupted. “How did you get there? And why?”

“We were stashing the girls there. Puck said nobody knew where it was, that it would be safe. We figured they’d chill there while we came and got you.” A shrug of his huge shoulders, though his dark, angry expression belied the casualness of the gesture. “They were on the ground less than fifteen minutes and they got ambushed. Puck laid into ‘em, but they popped some tear gas on the girls, snatched ‘em, laid Puck out, and took off.”

“So where’s Puck?”

Another shrug. “We don’t know. He wasn’t there. Saw a little bit of blood where he’d been, but he was nowhere to be seen, nor were the girls. There were a bunch of tire tracks near the base of the mountain not far from the cabin, but…” Thresh lifted his good hand in a helpless gesture. “They vanished.”

“Puck keeps a dirt bike near the cabin. Think he went after ‘em?”