‘Perfect.’ Irene stepped forward, conscious of all the eyes on her. ‘You can be useful too. Gentlemen, Lily – we can stop those dragons. But I’m going to need your help.’
There was a silence that ranged from faith and trust (Kai) through horrified disbelief (Evariste) to a sort of harmony between high-grade suspicion (both Hu and Captain Venner) and consideration (George and Lily). Everyone else contributed slack-jawed incomprehension.
Finally George said, ‘Tell us what you’ve got in mind, Miss Smith. I’m interested.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
‘Kai.’ Irene turned to him, trying to sound confident. If a single person here stopped trusting her, she might lose all of them. ‘You think that if you tried to stop the dragons fighting, they’d both turn on you?’
Kai winced, but nodded. ‘I don’t have the authority to command them. I am technically of higher rank, but I can’t back it up. If it came to a fight, my power over the elements is greater than theirs, but they both outweigh me physically. And there’s nobody here to witness them,’ he added sourly, ‘at least, nobody who’s not in their service. So they wouldn’t have to answer for it.’
‘Right.’ Irene pointed a finger at him. ‘You’re the bait.’
‘A few more details, please?’ Kai said plaintively.
‘In just a moment . . . George.’ She pinned her best smile on her face. ‘You’ve seen that I can do some unusual things.’
‘I’ve seen you turn the lights out,’ George agreed, ‘and I still haven’t figured out how the hell you managed that one.’
Captain Venner snorted. ‘The woman’s a hypnotist. She gave one of your waiters a post-hypnotic order to turn out all the lights when she gave the signal.’
That was a beautiful excuse, and Irene resolved to remember it. ‘We’re in a hurry. I can do some parlour tricks to impress you, or I can get on with explaining the plan.’
George nodded and made a Go on gesture.
‘Kai here will lure the dragons to a prearranged spot above the river. Lily will be waiting with her tranquillizer gun. Evariste and I will guide the bullets to hit the dragons. The dragons will be knocked out and will crash into the river. Problem sorted.’
She could see the uncertainty in Kai’s face out of the corner of her eye. She ignored it for the moment. He knew how implausible her suggestion was, but for the moment he was trusting her and not disagreeing with her publicly. She’d explain to him – and Evariste – what she had in mind, the moment that they were out of Hu’s hearing. Because what she actually had in mind was far, far more destructive.
‘I still think we should just shoot them,’ Lily said. Her visible eye was hungry. ‘Why are you so interested in saving them, Jeanette? Whose side are you really on?’
‘See, that’s one of the reasons I employ Lily here,’ George commented to Captain Venner. ‘She asks all the right questions.’
‘I’m on the side that wants to stop this fight before any more of New York gets damaged,’ Irene snapped. ‘You saw I was a prisoner in Qing Song’s suite – do you really think I’m on his side? When he had his wolves chasing me down the street? And I believe you could shoot one of them without us helping. But could you hit the second one as well? Before it turned on you?’
‘I could try,’ Lily said, as calm as ice. But there was a note of uncertainty in her voice, and Irene was relieved to hear it. Lily wasn’t certain she could get them both. And Lily didn’t want to get herself killed. She’d stick with their deal.
‘You’re not Jeanette Smith,’ Captain Venner accused. ‘You’re not an FBI agent either. So who the hell are you, and what’s going on?’
A smile flickered over Lily’s face. She turned to George. ‘There isn’t time for this, boss. I think she can do what she’s saying, but we need to do it now.’
‘Then it looks like this is one of the few times you and I are going to be on the level,’ George said to Captain Venner. He tossed back his drink. ‘It sounds like we’re going to need some space to work in. I don’t want any of my paying customers getting injured when the lizards crash. Are you and the other cops going to play ball and clear the target area?’
Captain Venner bit back a growl. ‘Fine. If this is the only way to stop them. Where are we doing this?’
Irene relaxed for a moment. That was everyone in agreement. She could do this . . .
Then she caught sight of Hu, about to leave the room.
Lily caught the direction of Irene’s gaze and, without a moment’s hesitation, levelled a gun at Hu’s head. Her finger was tightening on the trigger as Irene lunged for her wrist.
The shot slapped into the door frame just above Hu’s head. He froze.
‘Nobody gets killed,’ Irene said through gritted teeth. ‘That’s my price.’
‘They just walk away?’ Lily demanded. Her gun was aimed at Hu’s head again. ‘After all this?’
Irene looked Lily in the eye. ‘Hu is not the biggest threat at the moment.’
‘Oh, if we’re making threats . . .’ Kai put in, his own tone underscored with anger.
‘Hu. Come back into this room and shut the door.’ Irene waited for Hu to close the door and step safely back from it before she looked at Kai. ‘I appreciate your feelings. But we’re quite clear on who the offending parties are. And Lily is not the person who touched off this disaster.’
George stepped forward, pushing Lily’s gun arm down with one hand as he did so. She let him. ‘Miss Smith – seeing as we haven’t anything better to call you – you say you want to do this somewhere alongside the Hudson?’
‘The river,’ Evariste explained, as Irene blinked in momentary confusion.
‘Right, the river. We have a map here.’ George tapped the map, which had been spread across the bar. The crowd was being held back by a combination of George’s enforcers and Captain Venner’s cops. ‘Where do you want your ambush?’
Irene beckoned Kai over. ‘Where would work best?’ she asked. ‘If they thought you were running from them and heading to the river, where could you lead them?’
Kai frowned at the map. ‘Would there do?’ he said, pointing. ‘About half a mile up from those piers, so that we don’t have to deal with the shipping?’
‘Sure,’ George said. ‘Plenty of good spots there for Lily to take her shot from. Lily, you tell one of the boys which of your specials you want from your collection, and they’ll bring it right there to meet you. Can you get the area cleared, Venner?’
Captain Venner jerked a nod. ‘I’ll get moving. See you there.’