“!”
Ladd went sailing through the air thanks to a powerful sideswipe.
“………?!”
He hadn’t taken major damage, but he knew some sort of force had deflected his charge.
Meanwhile, the people who’d been watching that charge had seen everything.
Recognizing the approaching danger, the bear had snapped out its paw like the spring mechanism on a mousetrap and knocked him sideways.
Since he was Cazze’s pet bear, his nails had all been blunted, but the true terror of a large bear isn’t in their claws or fangs. To humans, their physical strength is more than enough of a threat by itself.
People said that a full-strength swipe from the hand-sized paw pads of a bear over six feet tall was pretty likely to kill you.
The impact alone would snap your neck or your spine.
The bear was used to this, too. Right before its paw connected, it had eased up and shoved Ladd out of the way, rather than trying to smash him.
For some reason, the circus had had a lot of enemies, and they’d been attacked by roughnecks quite a few times. His trainer, an individual by the name of Parrot, had taught the bear how to neutralize an enemy without killing them as one of his tricks.
“Whoa there, Cookie. I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” Shutting off the loudspeaker, Claire patted the bear’s head, grinning. “Sorry about that. This guy’s got a habit of swatting away folks who rush him with murder on the brain.”
Explaining that he’d been trained to do it was apparently too much work, so Claire fudged it by calling it “a habit.”
Ladd got to his feet. His temples were twitching. “Is that right…? Well, I’ve got nothing against the bear. I bet animals are desperate to live, anyhow. He’s done nothing wrong.”
“Good. So no problems, then.”
“Except…that means the owners should take responsibility, yeah? If you’re keeping a dangerous bear as a pet, you must not have the tiniest suspicion that you could die. In that case, I’d better discipline the owner instead, right? You get me?”
Ladd seemed to have decided that Claire was the bear’s owner. Cracking his neck, he started forward again, but he found himself held at gunpoint from both sides.
“That’s enough of that.”
“You don’t want your head blown off, do ya?”
Somewhere in there, Gabriel and Juliano had circled around and put Ladd between them.
“…? What the hell are you?” Ladd scowled.
“If you intend to harm that bear or its owner, then you are an enemy of the Runorata Family. Our enemy. In your position, I’m sure you understand what that means.”
“We’re saying we’ll let you off the hook if you stop now, so get lost.”
When he heard those two remarks—one superficially polite, the other not so much—the corners of Ladd’s lips rose.
“Well, ain’t that somethin’. That means we’ve been enemies this whole time.”
He was pinned between two guns. Naturally, these two weren’t amateurs; they wouldn’t hit each other if he moved. They were standing slightly behind him and off to either side.
Even so, Ladd’s composure didn’t slip. “This is great. I’m just living how I want, and these stomach-churning enemies keep showing up, one after another. If I was Holmes, it’s like I got a different Moriarty showing up every day. It don’t get better than that! Yeah! My life’s coming up red, red roses! I’m about to dye it that bright-red color, see…?”
He swayed menacingly, then began shuffling like a boxer.
“With your blood!”
✦ ✦ ✦
And then—a gunshot rang out.
✦ ✦ ✦
It hadn’t come from either twin, but instead from behind Ladd.
Ladd put distance between himself and the twins, then looked toward the noise.
A bespectacled man in ragged clothes was standing there.
It was the man who’d been at the clinic, the type of guy Ladd hated.
Victor Talbot had been pointing his gun at the ground. Now he raised it toward the sky, bellowing at the whole group.
“That’s enough, you bastards! Don’t you dare throw your weight around like that in front of an agent from the Division of Investigation!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The Division of Investigation.
When they heard that, several people exchanged looks, but most of the group just seemed perplexed.
What’s a DOI guy doing here?
Why are his clothes so torn up?
To the people who’d gathered in Central Park, the DOI was an enemy they’d prefer not to mess with, but a lone agent didn’t seem like much of a threat.
Still, that gunshot had been a problem.
They assumed Central Park had been closed off, due to maneuvering by either the Runoratas or Huey. However, if anyone had heard that gunshot, the police who’d been gearing up to capture the bear might flood in.
And indeed, they’d begun to catch glimpses of police uniforms in the crowd that was watching from a distance, at the park’s entrance.
“Whoops. I completely didn’t notice; we’ve got a Division of Investigation agent here? That’s not good, huh, Cookie. You’d better settle down or he’ll shoot you dead.”
Maybe the grizzly understood: He moved his head in what looked like a nod, then crouched on the spot.
Once the bear was settled, Claire called to the surrounding group again.
“We’re a little jumbled right now, but it’s pretty simple, right? Me, plus everyone else who’s with Huey and the Runoratas, versus everyone who’s not.”
Even before he said that, the two camps had begun to form on their own.
The twins and Chané stood near the bear, and the members of Larva gathered around them, ready to defend.
Ladd, Graham, and the hitmen hired by the Gandors lined up in opposition.
The only ones who didn’t belong to either camp were Lua and Shaft in the car, Isaac and Miria, and a beet-red Victor.