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“They could of…assumed.” Ray scowled.
“Attacking Central was a one-time deal. Whoever they were going after, it had to be someone they knew was there. Not suspected. Knew.”
“But I wasn’t there,” he pointed out. “Or I wasn’t supposed to be. I’d been released—”
“And gone running to me. And the first time we left the wards around my house, what happened? What immediately happened? We were attacked.”
“By Zheng.”
“Who works for your old boss. Who, as you told me, is a major player in the smuggling trade. And who wanted you to bring in something big.”
Ray had been unfolding the tux pants, but he paused to look at me incredulously. “Something big like a bunch of crates. Not big like an army!”
“Well, naturally he would say that.”
Ray shook his head furiously. “It isn’t like I have any loyalty to the guy, you know? But Cheung…he don’t play that way. It’s like you said, there’s a difference between a crook and a traitor, and he’s no traitor.”
“He’s a smuggler and a triad leader.”
“Yeah? So am I. Or I was. Now I’m freaking Batman—”
“I thought I was Batman.”
“Yeah, right. Who shelled out like a year’s profits to the scalpers tonight, huh? Bruce Wayne had the money; Bruce Wayne bankrolled the operation. And Bruce Wayne was the Batman.”
The Batman currently had a knee on the seat and his ass in the air, trying to get the tux trousers on without putting any more wrinkles in them. Which left me staring at a bony butt covered in gaily striped red and blue silk. I didn’t know what kind of underwear The Batman wore, but I was betting that wasn’t it.
“I told you, I’ll pay you back for the tickets.”
“Sure, like you got that kind of money. Like you got any money. Hell, I should be subsidizing you.”
“Hey, that’s right. If I’m your master, don’t you owe me—”
“Nothing. That’s not the kind of deal we got.”
“I don’t remember us specifying what kind of deal we have.”
“Exactly.”
We were nearing the front of the line, where the light from the house was starting to illuminate the car’s interior, even through the tinted glass. So as soon as Ray zipped up, I pulled him back down. “Okay, say Cheung isn’t a bad guy. Say he was just offered a ton of money to let some people use your bastardized portal system.”
He nodded. “That I might buy.”
“Okay. So when he failed to come up with you, his clients were going to want to know why, right?”
Another nod.
“And Cheung probably told them that he couldn’t get at you, because you were back under the Senate’s control. He must have had people watching the house, waiting for another chance to grab you after Zheng failed. And they saw you drive off with Marlowe. Who took you back to Central. Which was when the bad guys decided that they were just going to have to go in and get you.”
“Attack Central. For me.” Ray still didn’t believe it.
“Yeah.”
“Then why did that creepy-ass necromancer say they wanted Radu?”
“Because they needed someone to get them through the portal, of course.”
Ray slowly leaned over, rested his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands. “I know I’m going to regret asking this,” he said. “But what portal?”
