Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

the front. I’ll sit between him and the most obvious source of danger. You’re staying at the curb.”
    “Doing what?” Kyle shot back. “Playing with my dick?”
    “Whatever turns your crank.” Jake pulled out the shotgun and hooked it into a simple shoulder sling. When he put on his jacket, sling and gun vanished. “Five minutes after I go in, bring the car around. If you hear shots, open the car doors. We’ll be in a hurry.”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “You like Archer’s plan better?”
    “I’ll take the shotgun,” Kyle said. “You drive the car.”
    “You ever worked crowd control before?”
    “No, but—”
    “I have,” Jake cut in. “That’s why I’m wearing Kevlar and you aren’t.”
    Kyle opened his mouth, but no sensible argument came to him. “Shit.”
    “Yeah, that about covers it. Let’s get the car ready.”
    “Why bother with it? The Dragon Moon is only three blocks away.”
    “If you’re trading bullets, three blocks is a long way.”
    The elevators opened. The two men walked out into the garage. Their footsteps echoed. Without a word Jake knelt down and started unscrewing the license plates on his car. When he was finished, he reached into the glove compartment and unrolled a piece of white paper that had big numbers on it and small print. It resembled the temporary registration that a new or used car carried instead of plates. With quick, almost angry motions, he taped the paper to the inside of the rear window.
    “You carry that around all the time?” Kyle asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “You’re scary.”
    “Your brother’s scary. I’m cautious.” Jake pulled car keys from his pocket and threw them to Kyle. “Drive.”
    “Is that shotgun legal?” Kyle asked as he got behind the wheel of Jake’s sport utility vehicle.
    “Depends on how charitable the guy with the tape measure is feeling.” Jake slammed the door. With quick, sure motions he pulled on surgical gloves.
    Kyle didn’t ask why. He knew. But he didn’t know about the shotgun. “What’s it loaded with? Birdshot?”
    “Buckshot.”
    Kyle whistled musically. His gut was feeling better with every passing second. “Buckshot. That stuff will go through interior walls like shrapnel.”
    “I’m counting on it. That’s why you’re staying out on the sidewalk. Honor would never forgive me if I shot her favorite brother.”
    Archer walked out of the condo and into the cold darkness. Against the streetlights, rain flared like tiny comets before arcing down into black oblivion. Dawn, when it finally came, would be a dreary affair. He flipped up his jacket hood. Not only did it keep rain off his face, it concealed his features. He couldn’t have been more anonymous if he tried.
    Since it was downtown, there were a few people moving about. A jail bondsman or a stockbroker leaned against a bus stop, talking fast into a cell phone. A woman darted out of one doorway and into a waiting cab. Other than that, the streets were left to the gentle army of raindrops. The panhandlers who hadn’t headed south for warmer turf were still at the local flophouses or missions, soaking up coffee, gospel, and heat before heading out to beg quarters for that first pint of fortified wine.
    Archer checked his watch, pulled out his cell phone, and punched in the number he hated to call. He didn’t scramble the transmission, because he didn’t think the government had the right decoder at their command. Yet.
    April Joy must have told her aides to put through anything from Archer Donovan whenever it came in. He was only halfway to the Dragon Moon when she got on the phone.
    “This better be good,” she said.
    “Is Qing Lu Yin one of yours?”
    “Son of a bitch.”
    “Did you twist him, or is he yours straight up?”
    “Where are you?”
    “If Yin is good for murder one, do you still want him?”
    A half beat of hesitation, then she said, “Depends on who he did.”
    “My half brother.”
    Archer waited. He didn’t have to wait long. April wasn’t stupid or fainthearted.
    “Yin’s brother Ling sells us information from time to time, when it can be used against rival triads,” she said, “but he isn’t ours. Neither is Yin. Red Phoenix owns both of them body and soul. Don’t trust Yin.”
    “Even if you told me he was yours, I wouldn’t trust him. He’s selling the kind of rainbow pearls men kill to own. Len’s pearls.”
    April thought hard and fast. “What are you going to do?”
    “Buy them. One way or