Voltage

The Pool Hall

The doorman moved before Hunter reached the third step inside Tally's.

He was a wide man with the kind of stillness that meant he had done this enough times that he no longer needed to perform it. He stepped off his stool and put himself between Hunter and the rest of the room without making it look like that was what he was doing.

Hunter stopped. He said one word. Kofi.

The man looked at him the way people looked at problems they had not seen before and were deciding how to categorize. Then he looked at Hunter's hands. Then back at his face. Something shifted. He stepped aside and tilted his head toward the back.

The pool hall was warm and loud with the specific noise of a room where people were pretending to be there for the pool. Hunter moved through it without looking at anyone and pushed through the door at the back.

Kofi Ackah was behind a desk with a bottle of water and four camera feeds on the wall screen showing the tables, the entrance, the alley, and the street. He looked at Hunter without surprise, which meant he had seen him come through the front entrance on the feed before Hunter reached the back room.

He said: Sit down.

Hunter sat.

You have nerve, Kofi said. Coming here.

Hunter did not waste time on that. I need five minutes. Then you decide what I am worth.

Kofi looked at him with the flat patience of a man who had learned that most people told you what they actually wanted in the first thirty seconds. He waited.

Someone is going to contact you about me, Hunter said. If they have not already. They will have money and a story about why I am a problem. What they tell you will be mostly accurate. What they will not tell you is what happens to the people they collect after they find them.

Kofi picked up the water bottle. Took a drink. Set it down. They already called me, he said. This morning. Man named Acker. Meeting tonight.

Hunter had expected this. Hearing it still had weight.

What are you offering, Kofi said.

Hunter did not have money. He had one thing Kofi had already seen demonstrated under the Drewe Street bridge six nights ago, and it had grown significantly since then.

Protection, Hunter said. Your operation runs in the same district as Acker's people. If they decide your crew is inconvenient they have the tools to make that a real problem. I can be a problem for them first. That is not nothing.

Kofi sat with it. The camera feeds on the wall showed nothing moving.

I will take the meeting, Kofi said. I will tell him I can locate you and provide access. I will not tell him about this conversation. He paused. If what you are saying about this group checks out, the protection offer is a real offer. Not vague. Specific.

Agreed, Hunter said.

One more thing. Kofi leaned forward slightly. The man you dropped at the underpass. Ferris. His left hand shakes now. His memory is not what it was.

Hunter held still.

I am not asking for compensation, Kofi said. I am telling you so you understand the weight of what you carry. Because I think you are the kind of man who needs to know it. He sat back. And knowing it will make you more careful. Which is good for both of us.

Hunter thought about Ferris pushing himself up on one elbow on the concrete. He had walked away telling himself the man would be fine in a few minutes. He had not thought past that.

He thought past it now.

I understand, Hunter said.

Kofi slid a piece of paper across the desk. Give me a number.

Hunter wrote Wire's number. Not his own. Kofi noted it and said nothing about the choice.

Hunter walked back through the pool hall and out onto Brennan Street. Cold and clear. He stood on the pavement for a moment thinking about Ferris's hand and then started walking because standing still was not going to produce anything useful.

Wire called him eleven minutes later.

Kofi just contacted me, Wire said. Acker met with him tonight at the warehouse on Felden Road. Kofi gave him your two contact names. He did not give him your location. He says Acker already knew about the water treatment plant from surveillance. And he says Acker is moving tomorrow morning. Early.

Hunter stopped walking.

He knew about the plant, Hunter said.

His surveillance goes further than we thought, Wire said. The plant is compromised either way.

Hunter stood on the pavement in the dark and thought about it for three seconds.

I am going to be there before he arrives, Hunter said. Not to run. To meet him on our terms.

Wire was quiet for a moment. That is a significant decision.

I know. Call Dayo. Tell him to stay away from the plant tomorrow. I do not want him in that space when this happens.

He will not agree to that.

Tell him anyway. Hunter started walking again. Acker wants a conversation. Fine. We have the conversation. But I pick the position and the time.

He ended the call before Wire could respond further. He walked back toward the fabrication district and thought about the plant's floor plan, the corners with the best sightlines, the distance from the primary entrance to the drainage channel, the width of the hall.

He thought about thirty-one feet of clean arc range.

He thought about the choice Dayo had told him to be clear about.

Defensive. Not offensive.

He walked and made sure he knew the difference.