Anton
We lay low in Harlem until dawn. Even the cold can't stop the music from playing all night. I buy new clothes from a street vendor and find a car waiting for me near the college. We cross the Tappan Zee and follow traffic north on the Thru-Way. Becki sleeps. I take the Harriman exit, a town named after the Persian principle of evil, and drive east through a highway built at a time before cars went as fast as they do. It twists like a Indian following the drunken snake Delaware river through rounded forests too rugged for any habitation but a few fishing camps hastily constructed on the banks between floods. Leafless, the trees resemble the bristles of a porcupine.We will find the boy at work outside Parlor City, a town named for its record setting population of taverns. A shot and a beer in each was the tradition, but those numbers would have been fatal for any that claimed to have succeeded. Now the residents get wasted on industrial ash and dumped carcinogens. Drinking the water is not recommended. I won't have to see it today, a sad shell of former glory, like the abandoned ruins of Rome or Middle Earth.
The bar is more of a shed with a wheel-chair ramp off a broken country road that is largely ignored by authority, and can get rowdy on a Saturday night. I was buying coke at this place before the paint was smudged and peeling, before even the roof sagged. There are two cars in front of the bar. I park beside the manager’s cherry-red convertible and yank out a strand of Becki’s hair.
She comes awake with a start, looking around. “What’s going on?” she asks, rubbing her head.
“We’re here,” I say, drawing the gun from my jacket and handing it to her. I don't think she fully understands what she is holding until surprise puffs her eyes. “It’s easy to use, just point, and pull the trigger until he’s dead, got it?” Becki catches her emotions, looks at the gun, and looks at me. She nods. "Good," I say. We get out of the car. From the trunk, I collect the four-foot parcel wrapped in black silk and tied with a silver cord.
“What’s that?” she asks.
“Don’t worry about,” I respond, and hope I won't either. Bub and Mephis have a table in the corner. They are drinking champagne, which is a good way to get beaten up in a place like this. The fat manager is behind the bar studying a clip-board, but doesn't recognize me. A handful of life-long-losers sit near the juke box. I don't see the boy.
Becki and I sit at the corner table. A girl wouldn't need to look half as good as Becki to draw attention in a place like this, but none of these slobs recognize who she really is. Mephis pours a glass for me. I'm pleasantly surprised there are real champagne flutes. I sip. “Classy!" I sit back to savor the mouthful. The manager is pretending not to notice us. “Have you seen him yet?” I ask, throwing back the rest of my flute.
Mephis nods. “He’s been hiding in the back since we arrived.”
“He knows," Bub says, recoiling from the anger he sees in my face.
I take breath sharply. "How?" I ask.
Bub shrugs. His suit looks like a tarp over a woodpile.
"No idea," Mephis says. "Can't you feel his heart pounding from here?"
I shake my head. "It's nothing. He thinks we are police. Let's do this." I point to Mephis and to the front door. Mephis exits. I wonder if it would be too much if I cut a line in here. It shouldn’t cause too much trouble, as everyone will be dead in an hour.
Bub waits at the table when I lead Becki to the bar. “When I snap my fingers, blow the fucker away,” I whisper. I rap my knuckles on the oak rail. There was a time when a person was proud of this place.
The manager looks up impatiently. “Can I help you?” He usually leaves Jesse to deal with the customers, but he thinks I'm here for him, and he's trying to look guiltless.
“Hi... Kevin,” I say confidently, showing him the tin badge I bought in a dime store. “I’m Special Agent Anton Lazarus.” I flash it fast and he wouldn't know the difference. “Federal Bureau of Investigation.” His armpits soak through almost instantly. "I'm looking for a Jesse Black. I'm told he works here.”
“Ye... Yeah,” he stammers. When it finally sticks in his craw that I ain't lookin' fer him, Kevin snorts and laughs. "FBI? What did he do?"
I take a deep breath and sigh. "Is Mr. Black here today?”
“Yeah,” he says, wanting to make sure I don’t do any background checks on him. “Hey Jess!” he says, in a forced struggle not to laugh. "You got visitors!” Kevin goes in the back room where he can watch from his office door out of sight.
On the other side of the wall, Jesse Black is about to shit himself. He is receiving little relief from the erroneous belief that he can banish me. With the time I've had to reflect, I see now that unrecognized multiple-personality disorder puts a modern-day Messiah in a precarious position against the real thing.
He steps through the door.
I snap my fingers in front of the girl.
Shit.
“Eleazar!” Abraxas shouts as he enters. His broadsword bursts into flame. “It ends here.”
I point to Bub, who throws the black parcel to me. The silk burns away as my own sword ignites in black flame. “You don't have to do this to yourself, my brother,” I hiss.
Abraxas leaps at me. We cross blades, and I have all I can do to push him back. "I'm not like you," he says.
I can’t afford this fight. I shove him off and brace myself for defense. I sniff the air. "You're exactly like me now. I can smell it in you, your cells have merged with Martin entirely. You're man and machine." I swing, but he blocks. Liquid flame splatters off our swords, igniting tables and chairs with a more Earthly fire. Abraxas tries to impale me as he gets up, but I bat him to the side.
Becki is distracted, and Jesse grabs the gun. I spin, slicing at his writs, Martin wraps his arms around my leg and brings me to the ground. Jesse can't get the gun away from Becki, but is keeping her from aiming. He can't beat out her determination. My kind of kid.
Martin and I are also on the ground wrestling. I’m holding him down with his sword-arm pinned under my knee, but I can’t get the angle or leverage to make a killing blow. Kevin is trying to escape, most likely to a telephone. Bub steps in to break his neck and collects a kitchen knife from the bar to dispatch the bar patrons, who probably would have been content to watch until the end and return to their drinks. With my free hand, I grab Martin and spin our bodies to smash him into Bub. Martin lets go of me and the two fall in a tangle of limbs.
Abraxas rises quickly, trying to plunge his sword into me. Bub kicks him in the spine, knocking him off-balance, but not so long that Bub can avoid Martin's chop to the chest. The white fire shines in his eyes and mouth and Bub's body caves in. The great scream of a hungry Hell pierces the air as Bub’s flesh rots away and is sucked into the Abyss.
I’m poised to plunge my sword through the dusty foot print on Martin’s back when the gun goes off. Normally, I can burn away a fired bullet before it can ruin my clothes. However, when Becki accidentally pulls the trigger as she tries to club Jesse with the weapon, I’m not prepared. Of all the places the random shot could have gone, who would expect it to go through my neck. The force of the blow sends me sprawling and I drop my sword. The flame extinguishes as it spins across the floor under a table.
Becki, thinking I’m dead and that she’s now in real trouble, lets go of both the gun and Jesse Black. She runs to my side, even though I’m already half-way to my feet with my wound nearly healed. “Anton, are you hurt?” she’s crying out, helping me up, but I’m batting her away, more because I can hear Jesse’s thoughts as he takes aim at her.
Seeing he now has an advantage, Jesse takes aim on the girl that was trying to kill him. So much for turning the other cheek. I knock her aside in time, and the shot goes between her and myself, hitting Martin in the chest as tries to attack. He goes down but doesn't drop his weapon. Jesse is scrambling for my sword.
I can’t concentrate on that, as I jump back on top of Abraxas, pummeling his face, keeping him from using his sword. “Fucking get him!” I scream at Becki. Jesse catches the grip of my sword and turns it on me.
Becki shoulder-checks him in the gut, knocking both of them down. Martin takes advantage of my distraction and punches me in the jaw. I fall away and he stands. He looks back and forth from me to Becki and jumps at her. He grabs a handful of her hair and breaks for the door. I still can't see straight.
Jesse is up also, holding my sword, running for the back door. I look back and forth between them. I can’t let Martin do what he is going to do with the girl, not after I’ve worked this hard. I chase them out the front door.
Go to Chapter 58
No comments:
Post a Comment