Wild Cards 15 - Black Trump Read Online Free PDF Page A

the barrel and ripped it out of his hands. He swung the butt hard, catching the Shark flush on the chin. The guard shot backward, banged his head on the wall, and slid down to the floor.
    Ray pointed the rifle casually at the other sentry. "You going to open that," he said, gesturing at the door with the gun barrel, "or do I blast it down through you?"
    The sentry looked as if he didn't know if he wanted to be afraid or pissed. "You wouldn't."
    Ray took a step forward and jabbed the rifle barrel into the sentry's stomach. "Don't bet your life on it, moron. My name is Billy Ray. They call me Carnifex. And I'm a wild carder, motherfucker."
    "All right," the guard said, his voice quavering. Slowly he reached for the key chain at his side, selected a key, and put it in the lock. "This okay, huh?"
    "Yup," Ray said, and clipped him on the back of the head with the rifle barrel. This was getting monotonous, Ray thought. The Sharks really needed to hire a better class of goon. He slung the rifle, then reached down and grabbed one of the sentries by the collar, the other by the pants leg, and dragged them inside. He tossed the rifle and closed the door behind him. He looked around.
    "What the hell is this?" he asked aloud.
    It was a laboratory, something Ray wasn't all that familiar with. He recognized glass flasks and test tubes, stainless steel sinks and scarred wooden workbenches, but that was about it. He had no idea about the autoclaves, incubators, freezers, and the electron microscope. The room was clean, orderly, very white and antiseptic-looking. Ray approved. But there was no sign of the jokers.
    As Ray looked around with a frown on his face, the door in the back wall opened and a woman wearing a white lab coat entered the room. She was intent on reading her notebook, and almost bumped into Ray.
    She looked up, startled. "You shouldn't be here."
    Ray smiled. "Should you?"
    "What? What are you talking about?"
    Ray pointed at the door through which she just came. "What's in there?"
    "Are you insane?" She tried to go by Ray. "I'm getting Mr. Johnson."
    Ray grabbed her arm, swung her around. "I'm sure we'll meet soon. In the meantime I want you to tell me about the jokers you brought here last week."
    She looked indignant and tried to pull away, but quickly realized the futility of that. Her indignation turned to fear. "Who are you? You're not one of the regular - " She noticed the unconscious sentries lying on the floor. "Oh."
    "Very observant," Ray said. "You must be a real rocket scientist." His grip tightened. "Who are you?"
    "I'm not - " for an instant she seemed defiant, then Ray squeezed hard enough to bruise her arm. She winced and made an instinctive, abortive move to pull away.
    "You are," Ray said. He put his face close to hers. "I've had it with this pussy-footing shit. I'm going to get some answers soon or I'm going to start breaking things. And you're right at hand, babe."
    "My name is Michelle," she said quickly. "Michelle Poynter."
    "Poynter." Ray thought for a second. "Oh. You're Faneuil's assistant."
    "Yes. How did you know?"
    "Your boss is in a cell singing like a fucking canary."
    "You're from the government?"
    "Yeah. And you're under arrest. Now where's those jokers? In there?"
    He dragged her with him as he went through the door and into another room that was as big as the lab, or would have been if it wasn't partitioned off into half a dozen small cells, furnished only with rack-like beds, stainless steel sinks, and lidless toilets. They were separated from the main room by a glass wall rather than metal bars. There was nothing in the main room besides a desk and matching swivel chair.
    Some of the cells were empty. Some weren't.
    Ray looked angrily at Poynter. Subconsciously his grip tightened so hard that she went limp from pain. "What is this shit?" Ray hissed in a low, shocked voice.
    Four of the cells had occupants. It was hard to say if most of the prisoners were alive. One was sprawled in a heap