Read Cates 05 - The Final Evolution for Free Online Page B

Mexico, and the gangs and old military units were big enough that yen was useful to them. It wouldn’t be hard to run an operation in Mexico, if I could dig up the resources.
    Tiny steps told me the bartender had returned, and bigger steps in tow told me my yen had bought someone’s attention. I didn’t turn around; Remy was still sober enough to glance over my shoulder and then shrug, letting me know it wasn’t a threat.
    The girl who sat down across from me was beautiful: tan, smooth skin, long, glossy black hair, an oval face with a long nose and a full mouth with nice teeth. Her eyes were a dark green and looked back at me steadily. She was wearing canvas overalls that had been patched a hundred times over a thick, gray shirt that looked warm and scratchy. Her hands were nicked by a million tiny cuts and heavily calloused, but they were folded in front of her calmly. If she was afraid of drunk men with guns, she didn’t show it.
    “Adela tells me you need to go somewhere,” she said flatly. “Where?”
    I stared at her for a few heartbeats, smiling, giving her the old attitude. It was like clicking into a groove, well-worn and familiar: Avery Cates, Destroyer of Worlds, is not amused. “Mexico City,” I said finally. City was a grand term for what was left up there, but names stuck.
    She pursed her lips, nodding, calculating distances and risk. She glanced at Remy, who had acquired his third cup and seemed content to stare into it, then back me. “Two of you?”

I nodded. “Probably.” I couldn’t think of any reason we’d acquire anyone else, but you never knew.
    She nodded again, and leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms behind her and pushing her tits at me. That was probably a good negotiating trick, usually, and my smile became more natural. The girl had some brains. “My cousin has a vehicle. Four-wheel. The deal is: You provide a type V6 battery with working solar collector, plus ten thousand yen, and he will drive you there. We all provide our own food along the way.”
    “We?” I asked. I wondered if that was a grift, if we were supposed to stare at her tits and get all hot and bothered at the thought of her sleeping three feet away from us out in the wilderness and forget to haggle on the price. Or if she was fishing to see if we’d make her an offer to keep us company along the way. That thought made me sad, suddenly, and I made a face, waving my hand. “A working battery and a collector is gonna cost me fifty thousand yen, easy, from one of those assholes out there. That’s sixty to get up there. That’s fucking robbery.”
    She sat forward again, so suddenly I was startled into widening my smile. “Do you have a vehicle?” She waved a finger in front of her. “No, you do not. You do not like the price, you can go find someone to maybe carry you north.”
    Remy suddenly lashed out an arm and took hold of her hair, yanking her head back as he set his cup on the table carefully. She squeaked in shock, but then whipped her hands up and clawed at his face, kicking the table as she twisted in the chair. If her nails hadn’t been bitten down to the tips, she might have made the kid regret such a sloppy move. As it was, he had her neck bent down over the back of the chair and she had no leverage with which to extricate herself.
    “Be polite,” he advised.
    I looked at Remy and shook my head. “No fucking need for that, dammit,” I said evenly, controlling myself. He glanced at me and shrugged, releasing her and scooping up his drink casually.
    She sprang from the chair, her face dark, and stood coughing. No one else in the place had so much as shifted their weight. I waited to see what she’d do: curse us out, walk away, make threats. Instead, she swallowed, pushed her hair from her face, and then slowly resumed her seat, settling herself carefully. When she looked back at me she was composed.
    “Your friend should be careful with people he may be sleeping near later,” she