Free Six Times Deadly: A Lawson Vampire Story Collection (The Lawson Vampire Series) by Jon F. Merz

always kept open for the low-level drug pushers to duck inside away from the scanning eyes of cop cruisers.
    The door swung open, and the same wires that had dangled down the last time from the alarm still jutted at the top of my head.   Some things, it seemed, didn't change.
    The stairs went down to the basement, but I avoided them.   The basement of Tai Tung was a cesspool of broken water pipes, garbage, effluence, and big freaking rats.   Even here by the door, the stench creeping up made my stomach churn slightly.
    And I'd lost what little buzz I had left.
    I climbed the stairs and ran into a little old lady pushing a wire cart filled with empty soda cans.   She looked up, her eyes still vibrant even if the rest of her wasn't.   The sudden appearance of a lo fan in an otherwise all-Chinese place caused her to frown.   Before she could start cussing me out, I held up my hand and showed a picture of Andrew Jackson.
    " Ngoh seung jou che ."
    Her eyes narrowed and faster than I would have thought, she snatched the twenty out of my hands and pointed upstairs, rattling off a series of twists and turns that would take me to my destination.
    Apparently, the same phrase to get an audience with the local gang leader still worked.   I'd told the old woman I wanted to rent a car.
    She ambled off down the hall and I took the stairs to the 3rd floor, letting my eyes and ears become slowly attuned to my environment.   I caught snippets of a half dozen dialects obscured by paper-thin walls.   Bangs and creaks echoed across the hallway.   Kids cried and laughed.   Adults yelled.   I heard TVs and radio set to one volume: loud.
    I made my way down the hall, bypassing a pile of empty cardboard boxes someone had simply left in the middle of the corridor.   I shrugged.   Someone's take on the paper tree, apparently.
    As I neared the end of the hallway, a door opened and I found myself facing a street tough.   He didn't look even remotely surprised to see me.   Granny must have had a cell phone hidden in the cans.
    Nature of the beast in a place like this.
    "Whaddyou want, lo fan ?   You're out of your place here."
    I stopped and kept my hands where he could see them.   Knowing how they operated, there were probably at least two guns aimed at me at the moment from somewhere behind me.   Better to play this cool.
    "Tell Huang I want to talk with him."
    "-the fuck makes you think Huang wants to talk to you?"
    I shrugged.   "Doesn't matter if he wants to talk to me or not.   I'm here.   Tell him that."
    He frowned and I saw him debate whether he should just kill me.   But it wasn't everyday a round eye came strolling into their world by the secret entrance, knowing what to say and who to say it to.   Another moment of internal debate and his frown deepened.   "You got a name?"
    "Lawson."
    He sniffed.   "You say that like it should mean something."
    I shrugged again.   "Nah.   Just tell him I'm here.   I want a talk."
    He vanished behind the door and I stayed where I was, unmoving.   Somewhere close by, I thought I heard the delicate sound of gears turning and picked out the smoke detector set lower than they normally were.   They'd housed a surveillance camera in it and right now they were rolling it over me, trying to figure out who the hell I was.
    I looked up and smiled at the hidden lens.
    Then, just for good measure, I waved.
    A second later, the door opened and the kid beckoned me inside.   I stepped into a room utterly barren except for its white walls and another door.   The greeter stood there, along with three armed kids, each of them pointing an AK at me.   The oldest of them couldn't have been more than sixteen in human years.
    Greeter kept his distance.   "You packing?"
    I nodded.   "Always."
    "Show me."
    I opened my jacket and nodded to my right rear hip.   The kid nodded.   "Okay, take it out slow.   Do it too fast and these guys will punch holes in you."
    I plucked the USP out of its holster