One2's Arc

Chapter 4 of 8

Rex was right. The runner had reached Marcus Vane by now. One2 and Rex were only two men against a whole block. Push too hard and they would get cornered fast. One2 needed more bodies. Bodies willing to follow a dead man. He turned from the arcade machine and walked into the dark. Rex followed, rifle up, muttering about how nobody sane would sign on with a corpse. They found a fire burning in a lot two streets over. A big man stood by it in a white football jersey, the number one on the chest. Gold teeth flashed when he grinned. A pistol sat easy in his hand. Rex stopped dead. "Beno Lace," he whispered. "Runs the Takeover crew. Down south boy. He don't scare." One2 knew the name. Before the outbreak, Beno had bought guns from One2's crew. They had done business. Bad business, mostly, but business. Beno saw One2 and stopped grinning. He raised the pistol. "Heard a corpse was walking my streets stealing souls." His thumb found the hammer. "Give me one reason." One2 could not talk. He reached into his coat instead. He pulled out a fat bundle of hundreds and dropped it in the dirt at Beno's feet. Then another. Then a third. Franklin's face stared up from the mud. Beno looked at the money. He looked at One2's dead eyes behind the cracked shades. Slow, he lowered the gun. "Well now," he said. "A dead man who still pays." He crouched and scooped up the bills. "Vane's been squeezing everybody. Me included. You wanna take his block?" His gold teeth showed again. "I got fifteen guns say yes." A voice cut in from the shadows. "You always did trust a fat man too fast." A young woman stepped into the firelight. Red jacket, red boots, black dots down the sleeves. She smiled like a friend. Her eyes did not. Rex went stiff. "Ladybug," he breathed. "Runs a crew of women. Sweet face, cold heart." Ladybug circled One2, studying him. "A soul-stealer," she said. "That's new. Vane took two of my corners last month." She stopped in front of him. "I don't follow men. But I'll fight beside a monster, if the monster wins." She held out a small red hand. "My girls make thirty guns." One2 looked at the hand. He took it. Cold met cold. Behind him, Rex let out a long breath, half relief, half fear. Two had become four. Four became an army. Beno's Takeover crew and Ladybug's women, bought with old debts and dead eyes. One2 flexed his fingers. He was not cornered now. He was a general. But he saw the way Ladybug watched Beno, and the way Beno watched her, and knew neither one would stay loyal a day past the moment he stopped winning.