Six
Death Comes Suddenly
Suzie and I hurried through largely deserted streets, while fires burned all across the Nightside, like warning balefires set against the dark. The air was thick with smoke and drifting ashes, and the smell of bodies burning. Buildings exploded, blown apart by angelic light, like party favors in Hell. There were so many angels flying overhead now that they blocked out most of the light from the moon and the stars. Most of the street-lights were smashed. The Nightside was at its lowest ebb, illuminated mostly by the leaping flames of its own destruction. Suzie and I stuck to the shadows and sprinted through the shifting pool of light. The streets seemed eerily still and quiet without the usual massed traffic rushing endlessly past, but everyone who could leave the Nightside was long gone by now, and no-one outside was stupid enough to come in.
Angels had come to the Nightside, from Above and Below, and the night had never seemed so dark.
Down in Time Tower Square, some of the area’s major players had come out into the streets, out into the open, to make a last stand against the invading forces. Suzie and I watched from the shadows of a recessed doorway and hoped not to be noticed. The Lord of Thorns stood proudly with his staff of power, cut from the Tree of Life itself. Lightning crackled around him, and he laughed like a crow on a battlefield as angels wheeled away rather than meet his baleful gaze. Count Video leaned casually against a lamp-post, wrapped in static and shifting plasma lights, his pale skin studded with silicon nodes and sorcerous circuitry. He sniggered nastily as his long-fingered hands weaved binary magic, rewriting reality with applied description theory and insane mathematics, and the angels couldn’t get anywhere near him. King of Skin slouched into the Square, his eyes bright with glory, undoing probabilities with his terrible glamour. And Bloody Blades, reeking of sweat and musk and awful appetites, snorted and stamped his great hooves impatiently as he waited for one of the others to bring something down in reach of his great spurred hands.
And all through Time Tower Square there was a terrible sound of angels crying out in pain and rage, as magic moved in the night, denying them their rightful prey.
The angels flew in great spirals overhead, moving faster and faster, spreading wider and wider as they gathered in ever greater numbers. Soon there would be so many of them that no amount of magics would be enough to hold them back, then they would descend. One had clearly been impatient, and had paid the price. It had ventured too low, too soon, and one of the major players had snatched it out of the air and crucified it against the side of the Time Tower. Dozens of cold iron nails pierced its outstretched arms and legs, pinning it to the wall like a frog in a science lab, ready for dissection. But the angel was still alive, its light flickering feebly like a fallen star. Its golden eyes wept slow, mystified tears, unable to understand what had brought it so low. It was finding out the limitations of the material world the hard way. Its severed wings lay on the ground beneath its broken feet.
Further off in the night, in a direction that could not be named or pointed to, there was a sound like a great engine slowly turning, as older, darker, more powerful presences began to wake, to defend the Nightside. They stirred in ancient vaults, or long-forgotten graves, creatures and beings of power and legend, some of them almost as old as angels, and as dreadful.
The Nightside is an old, old place.
Suzie and I eased around the edges of the Square, scurrying from one place of relative safety to the next. The air was full of the stresses of great forces clashing, like icebergs grinding together in the night sea. I had no intention of getting involved. I knew when I was out of my depth, and for once Suzie had enough sense to follow my lead. There were powers abroad in the night now that could crush both of us like bugs and never even notice. It seemed to take forever to creep around two sides of the Square, my heart hammering painfully fast in my chest all the way, but finally we were able to slip away into a blessedly anonymous side street and run for our lives. Behind us someone was screaming, but we didn’t pause to look back. We weren’t far from Big Sergei’s Warehouse now.
And, of course, Razor Eddie. Punk God of the Straight Razor. Possibly. Sometimes a friend, sometimes not. Saint and sinner, all wrapped up in one enigmatic and distinctly unhygienic bundle. Your connection to minor deities and divinity wannabes, and as much trouble as you can handle. An extremely disturbing agent for the good, and no, the good didn’t get any say in the matter. He lived a life of violent penance for earlier misdeeds. Lots of them. The last time I’d seen Eddie was in a possible future I’d accessed through a Timeslip, and I’d ended up having to kill him: It had been a mercy killing, made necessary at least partly because of the time-traveling Collector, but even so it wasn’t the kind of thing that came up easily in the conversation. I was still trying to decide just how much, if any, of this I should tell Eddie. The situation was complicated by Eddie’s future self blaming me for the eventual destruction of the world. If I told Eddie that, I could quite easily see him killing me on the spot, on general principle. Of course, the future I’d visited wasn’t inevitable. Nothing is set in stone where Time is concerned.
As in so many things, I decided the best thing to do was wait and see what happened, and decide then, if at all. I’d always had a real talent for putting things off till later. Hell, I could dither for the Olympics.
Suzie and I stopped at the edge of the warehouse district and looked cautiously about us. Fires were burning all around, some of them seriously out of control. The shadows danced and leapt, but the area seemed abandoned by mortals and angels. The fighting was over, and the struggle had moved on, leaving only flames and devastation behind. The air was tight and hot as a summer’s day, and twice as sweaty. I could see Big Sergei’s Warehouse at the end of the street, just another anonymous building among many. It seemed to have survived pretty much intact. The way to it seemed clear enough, but still I hung back, taking my time. Razor Eddie wasn’t above luring me into a trap if he felt it served a higher purpose. Suzie growled restlessly at my side, hefting her pump-action shotgun and looking frustrated because she didn’t have anyone to use it on.
“This whole situation stinks, Taylor.” Her voice was as cold and calm as ever, but her knuckles were white from holding the shotgun too tightly. I should really have insisted she go home, and rest and recover, but I didn’t because I needed her. She sniffed at the smoky air. as though she could smell trouble, and perhaps she could, at that. “Think about it. Why would the Collector tell Eddie his most preciously guarded secret, the location of his collection? Eddie’s spooky, but the Collector would slit his own granny’s throat for a bargain. I can’t see him putting his hoard at risk without a hell of a good reason. And everyone knows the Collector never gives away anything he can sell.”
“True,” I said. “But on the other hand, Razor Eddie isn’t an easy person to say no to. More to the point, if the Collector really has been forced to reveal the location of his warehouse, you can bet he’s already making plans to move his hoard to a new location. If we take too long getting the information from Eddie, it might well turn out to be worthless.”
“It’ll take the Collector time to move,” said Suzie. “If he really does have everything he’s supposed to have, it’ll take him ages to shift it all. Particularly if he doesn’t want to draw attention. And that’s assuming he has an alternative safe site ready to move his collection to. No, we’ve got time. I’m more concerned with how much longer we can afford to spend standing around here. I’m beginning to feel like I’ve got a target painted on me. Find me something I can shoot.”
She was right, of course. In times like these, doing nothing can be just as dangerous as doing the wrong thing. So I started off down the street, heading straight for Big Sergei’s Warehouse, as though I didn’t have a care in the world. Suzie rather spoiled the effect by slinking along beside me, gun at the ready, glaring about her like a junkyard dog. No-one shot at us, or swooped down out of the sky on glowing wings.
The front of Big Sergei’s Warehouse was a long blank wall, with no name or sign anywhere. Big Sergei didn’t believe in advertising. Either you knew his reputation, or you weren’t big-league enough to do business with him. I kept my eyes open as we headed for the front door, ready to duck and weave and run as necessary. The warehouse was supposed to be protected by all kinds of state-of-the-art defenses, everything from tailored curses to anti-aircraft guns. No-one stole from Big Sergei and lived to boast of it. Didn’t stop people trying, though. This was the Nightside, after all. The front door was said to be six inches of solid steel, protected by the very finest electronic locks, and all the windows had bulletproof glass and steel shutters. Big Sergei believed in feeling secure.
Not that any of that would stop Razor Eddie, of course.
“If Big Sergei’s got any sense, he’ll have sealed this place up tighter than a duck’s ass and gone into hiding,” said Suzie. “In which case, how are we going to get in?”
“We’ll just have to improvise,” I said, trying hard to sound confident.
“Ah yes,” said Suzie. “Improvise. Suddenly and violently and without remorse. I feel better already.”
“Unfortunately,” I said, slowing thoughtfully as we approached the front door, “it would appear someone else has beaten us to that.”
Up close, it was clear the warehouse had taken a battering. Several of the windows had been smashed, which couldn’t have been easy with bulletproof glass, and their steel shutters were buckled, hanging crookedly, or completely missing. There was a hole in the wall up by the first floor, as though it had been hit by a cannon-ball. Or a very angry fist. And the celebrated front door, six inches of solid steel protected by all kinds of heavy-duty defenses, had been ripped right out of its frame and was currently lying in the street some distance away, in a severely crumpled condition. I gave it plenty of room as I cautiously approached the opening where the door had been. Suzie stuck close to me, shotgun at the ready. I peered in, satisfied myself that there was no movement or sounds of life, then stepped warily forward into the reception lobby. Suzie crowded past me, sweeping her gun back and forth, eager for a target. The possibility of imminent violence had cheered her up considerably.
The lobby was a mess. Every stick of furniture had been wrecked or overturned, and in some cases reduced to little more than kindling. The expensive carpeting had been torn and rucked up, as though whole armies had trampled across it. There were signs of bullet and bomb damage on some of the walls, and a tall potted plant in the corner had been pretty much shredded. The sheer extent of the destruction might almost have been funny, if it hadn’t been for the blood. There was spilled blood everywhere, gallons of it. The torn carpeting was soaked from wall to wall, most of still so wet it squelched under our feet. There was more blood splashed across the walls, in thick red swatches and spatters, and the occasional handprint. It dripped from the shattered furniture, and from a wide wet stain on the ceiling. I didn’t even want to think about what could have caused blood to jet almost a dozen feet into the air. I stepped around the dripping ceiling and advanced slowly across the lobby. I glanced at Suzie.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you’d been here.”
She sniffed unhappily. “No, this is Razor Eddie’s work. I’m a professional, he’s … enthusiastic. You know what worries me the most about this? Lots of blood … but no bodies. What the hell has he done with the bodies? And what’s with all this religious stuff on the walls?”
She gestured at the paintings hanging crookedly on the walls. They all depicted extremely detailed scenes from the deaths of Christian martyrs, with the emphasis very much on blood and gore and suffering. There were large crucifixes too. Extremely graphic crucifixes. And there were signs in ugly block lettering; Pray for mercy while you still can. Every day, God is judging you. No mercy for the ungodly. The Church’s way is the only way. Have you killed an unbeliever today ?
“Hard-core,” said Suzie.
“None of that was here the last time I had occasion to have words with Big Sergei,” I said. “He believed in profits, not prophets. I can only assume that the Warriors of the Cross wanted to buy so much from him that it was easier for him to rent them the whole warehouse, for as long as they were here. And they … made themselves at home. Just how many guns were the Warriors buying, I wonder?”
Suzie scowled. “Didn’t he realize they were planning an invasion of the Nightside?”
I shrugged. “If he had, he wouldn’t have cared. As long as they paid in advance. Someone was going to make a profit anyway, so why not him?” I looked around at all the blood and destruction. “The Unholy Grail has a lot to answer for. Jude said it attracted evil.”
Suzie looked at me. “Jude?”
“Our client.”
“Oh yeah. So much has happened, I’d almost forgotten about him. So, where do we go now, Taylor?”
“I think I may have spotted a clue,” I said. She looked where I pointed. By a door marked stairs, someone had drawn a large arrow, painted in blood. “The stairs lead up to the offices on the third floor. We’d better get a move on. Razor Eddie’s waiting for us.”
“Wonderful,” said Suzie.
We made our way up the stairs, following bloody arrows on the walls. Suzie took the lead with gun at the ready, checking every shadowed corner before she committed herself. There were no nasty surprises, only more damage and even more blood. A hell of a lot of people had to have died here, and recently, given how wet the blood still was. But there was never any sign of a body. The smeared scarlet arrows eventually led us to a small office at the back of the third floor. The door had been kicked in and was hanging drunkenly from one hinge. Suzie and I ducked past it, into the office. The cheap but practical furniture was still intact, but there was a long splash of blood across one wall. Not far away, there was a wall safe, with its heavy steel door torn away and left discarded on the floor. And sitting behind the office desk, slowly working his way through a pile of papers he’d taken from the safe, was Razor Eddie. He didn’t look up as we came in.
“Hello, John. Suzie. Come on in. Make yourselves at home. Be with you in a minute.”
Suzie headed straight for the open safe, grinned widely on finding it still packed with bundles of cash, and immediately set about transferring as many of them as she could into the many pockets of her leather jacket. Suzie had always been a deeply practical person.
The Punk God of the Straight Razor looked much the same as always, a painfully thin presence in an oversized grey coat that had seen better days, a really long time ago. It was torn and ragged, and apparently only held together by accumulated filth and grease. His long gaunt face was unhealthily pale, all dark hollows and fever-bright eyes. His voice was low, controlled, almost ghostly. And he smelled really bad, all the time. There are sewer rats dying of the Black Death that smell better than Razor Eddie. The only reason he didn’t attract flies was because they tended to drop dead if they got too close to him. His slender pale hands moved slowly and methodically through the papers before him, now and again setting one aside in a separate pile.
“The Warriors of the Cross are an extreme, far-right Christian sect,” Eddie said finally, still not looking up from what he was doing. “Widespread, very well funded, and very much into fire and brimstone and Crusades against… well, anything with even the faintest hint of fun about it. This particular branch of the Warriors was planning a full-scale invasion of the Nightside, in search of the Unholy Grail. Big Sergei apparently sold them everything from left-over Tiger Tanks to shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, and more guns and ammunition than the mind can comfortably comprehend, then disappeared sharpish before the shit could hit the fan. Nasty bastards, the Warriors. According to what I’ve found here, they were planning to set the Nightside on fire, then shoot everything that moved until someone handed over the Unholy Grail. But they got lucky. Someone just walked in here and offered to sell them the bloody thing. They, of course, tortured its location out of the poor bastard, then went and got it.
“And then I came here and took it from them. After a certain amount of unpleasantness.
“The Warriors of the Cross have done a lot of really nasty things in the past, and I had been looking for an excuse to make clear how displeased I was with them. It’s extremists like this who give religion a bad name. They were only a small branch, of course, but I like to think I’ve sent a message.”
“A message?” I said.
“Stay out of the Nightside, for starters.” He looked up for the first time, and a smile moved briefly over his pale lips. “Wish I’d known the angels were coming. They’d probably have been even more unpleasant to the Warriors than I was. Not that I like the angels much better.”
Suzie came back to join me, her jacket bulging with accumulated cash. She gave Eddie a hard look. “What did you do with the bodies, Eddie?”
He smiled again, just as briefly. “I sold them. Got a good price, too.”
There are some conversations you know you don’t want to pursue any further. I coughed politely, to draw Eddie’s attention back to me. “You said you knew where we could find the Collector, Eddie. I really do need to see him rather urgently.”
“Ah yes. The great mystery of the Nightside; the location of the Collector’s secret lair. I’ve been there. No doubt you’ve been wondering why he should chose to reveal his greatest secret to the likes of me. Simple really. I didn’t give him any choice. A quick tour of his collection was part of the price I demanded for retrieving the Unholy Grail from the Warriors and handing it over to him.” Eddie laughed softly, a thin ghostly sound, like the wind gusting through dead branches. “I had him over a barrel, and he knew it. He was desperate at the thought of losing out on such a unique item, and I wanted to see his collection. I hadn’t known he possessed the Speaking Gun, until he told me he’d lost it. Nasty weapon. I understand you have it now. If you’re sensible, you’ll get rid of it. The Speaking Gun has never made anyone happy or wealthy or wise. It was made to destroy, and that’s all it does. Anyway, it occurred to me that if the Collector had one such weapon, he might well have others, and I wanted to know what. After all someday he might try to use them against me.”
There were many things I might have said, but I chose not to. “We did try to use the Speaking Gun,” I said. “It wasn’t a success.”
“Bloody thing’s alive,” said Suzie. “And vicious.”
“In which case, I’m amazed you’re still alive,” said Eddie. “Hell, I’m impressed you’re still sane.”
“What was the Collector’s place like?” said Suzie, sticking to the point as always.
“Big,” said Eddie. “Bigger than the human mind can comfortably conceive. Floors and floors of it, packed to saturation point, including a whole load of crates he hasn’t even got around to unpacking yet. He has so much stuff now, even he can’t be sure of everything he’s got. And, of course, he’d die before he brought in any assistance.” Eddie considered for a moment. “I’ll tell you this; he must have been collecting for a lot longer than any of us thought. He has some items you wouldn’t believe…”
“Where is his lair, Eddie?” I said patiently. “And how do we get in?”
Eddie produced a computer card out of nowhere and laid it carefully on the desk before me. It was made of brass and studded with precious gems. “This card is programmed to open all his locks. The Collector shouldn’t know it’s missing yet, but I wouldn’t wait too long before using it.”
“Eddie,” I said, “Where…”
“On the Moon,” said Razor Eddie. “In a series of caverns and tunnels, dug out deep under the Sea of Tranquility. Complete with power, atmosphere, and artificial gravity. I don’t know whether he had it made for him, or simply inherited it… Either way, he’s filled it with all the comforts of home, and all kinds of defense systems, including some he apparently looted from the future. You have to admire the man’s nerve … How you two get to the Moon, and into his lair, is unfortunately your problem. I can’t help. The Collector teleported me there and back. Any questions?”
“Yes,” I said. “Know any good travel agents?”
“Ah, Taylor,” said a calm, familiar voice behind me. “Always ready with an inappropriate quip.”
I took my time turning around. I knew that voice. It was Walker, standing magnificently at ease in the open doorway, as always every inch the cultivated city gent. Suzie had already spun round and was covering him with her shotgun. Walker tipped his bowler hat to her, then to me. He glanced at Razor Eddie, and his mouth made a brief moue of distaste before he looked back at me.
“Well, Taylor, still keeping bad company, I see. You could do so much better for yourself.”
“By working for you, and the Authorities?” I gave him my best cold, menacing smile. “Walker, I wouldn’t piss on the Authorities if they were on fire. They, and you, stand for everything I despise. I have my pride. Not to mention scruples.”
“Yes,” said Walker. “Best not to. I’m afraid I have some bad news for you, Taylor. It seems that the angels have made direct contact with my superiors in the Authorities. Which came as something of a shock, I understand. My superiors were apparently under the impression that they had made themselves unreachable … In any case, the angels have made it very clear that either the Authorities cooperate fully in locating and handing over the Unholy Grail, or the angels will raze the Nightside to the ground. Slaughter every living being, and leave not one stone left standing upon another. Angels aren’t the most subtle of creatures, but then, I suppose they don’t have to be.”
“Which angels are we talking about here?” said Suzie. “The ones from Above, or Below?”
“I don’t know,” said Walker. “Either. Both. Does it really matter? The point is that the Authorities have far too much invested in the Nightside to allow such a threat to their interests, so they have agreed to assist the angels. To be exact, they ordered me to come and get you, Taylor. I will take you in, we’ll all have a nice chat and a cup of tea, and perhaps the good biscuits, and then you will use your special gift to track down and locate the Unholy Grail. And no, you don’t get a choice in the matter. Your presence is required. Don’t scowl, Taylor. You get to save the Nightside from utter annihilation, and put yourself in the Authorities’ good books, for once. Some people would be flattered and grateful. Now come along, dear boy. Time is of the essence.”
“You think we’re going to just let you walk in here and take him?” Suzie’s voice was very flat and very dangerous, and her shotgun didn’t waver an inch, trained on the second button of Walker’s waistcoat. “I’ve never trusted the Authorities before, and I’m not about to start now. The angels already tried to screw with Taylor’s head once, so they could get their hands on the Unholy Grail. This is the Nightside, Walker. We don’t bow down to Heaven or Hell.”
Walker looked at her dispassionately. “I don’t have any orders about you, or Eddie. You’re both free to leave and go your own ways. Unless you choose to interfere with this, in which case I really can’t speak for your safety.”
The tension in the room cranked up a whole other notch. Suzie was grinning unpleasantly, and Eddie was looking at Walker in a disturbingly thoughtful manner. Anyone else would have turned and run, but not Walker. He was the Authorities’ voice, with the power to back it up. There were a lot of stories about Walker, and the things that he’d done, and none of them had a happy ending. I took a step forward, to bring his attention back to me. He smiled charmingly, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Well done, Taylor. I knew I could rely on you to do the right thing, eventually.”
“You assured me earlier that you trusted me to sort this one out,” I said. “You said it would be best for everyone if I got to the Unholy Grail first and put it out of everyone’s reach.”
“Times change,” Walker said calmly. “The wise man bows to the inevitable. I have my orders, and now so do you. Come along, Taylor. I don’t want to have to get testy with you.”
“Do you really want to go one-on-one with me, Walker?” I said, and something in my voice made his eyes narrow. “Maybe we should, just for the hell of it. Haven’t you ever wondered … haven’t you ever wanted to know if either of us is really everything our reputations make us out to be?”
Walker looked at me thoughtfully for a long moment, and I met his gaze unflinchingly. I could feel Suzie poising for action, tense as a coiled spring. And men Walker smiled his charming smile again, and shrugged. “Perhaps another time, Taylor. Are you sure I can’t persuade you to come with me? There are forces at my beck and call that you really don’t want to meet. And surely you wouldn’t want to risk your friends being hurt?”
Suzie sniggered offensively. “Yeah, right. That’ll be the day.”
“Good-bye, Walker,” I said. “I’m sure you can find your own way out.”
Walker shook his head. “You know your father wouldn’t approve of behavior like this, John. He understood about duty and responsibility.”
“You leave my father out of this! What did working for the Authorities ever do for him? And where were you when he needed you? You were supposed to be his friend! Where were you when he married my mother? Perhaps we should talk about my mother. Would you like that?”
“No,” said Walker. “I wouldn’t.”
“No… no-one ever does,” I said, cold and flat and bitter. “Funny, that.”
Razor Eddie stood up behind his desk, and all eyes immediately went to him. He never looked like much, but just then his presence seemed to fill the room. He looked at Walker, and Walker inclined his head slightly, respectfully.
“John doesn’t have to go anywhere he doesn’t want to,” said Razor Eddie, in a voice like a death sentence. “And don’t think you can threaten me, Walker. I have known worse things than Authorities or angels.”
“And I’m just plain mean,” said Shotgun Suzie.
“I have seen the Unholy Grail,” said Razor Eddie. “The Collector wasn’t fit to have it, and neither are you, or the angels. It is a thing that doesn’t belong here, and the only person I trust to get rid of it is Taylor. Go now, John, Suzie. I’ll keep Walker occupied.”
Walker looked at me almost sadly. “You didn’t really think I’d come here alone, did you?”
A gaudily colored blur swept past him and into the office, blasting through the open doorway almost too fast to be seen. Something buffeted me in passing, almost knocking me off my feet, and rushed on to slam into Razor Eddie. The sheer force of the impact lifted him off his feet, smashed him clean through the closed window behind him, and sent him tumbling helplessly through the smoky air to the ground three stories below. Suzie was only just turning round, and trying to bring her gun to bear, when the blur turned and swept back, and a single horribly clawed hand slapped the shotgun out of Suzie’s hand, then whipped back to tear out her guts. The black leather jacket blew apart in an explosion of tatters, and Suzie cried out once, in shock and pain, as her stomach opened up like a great mouth, and her intestines fell out in a rush of blood. She collapsed to her knees, grabbing with shaky hands at the thick purple ropes spilling out of her. More blood gushed out, soaking her lap and legs, and pooling on the floor around her.
It only took a few steps before I was kneeling beside her and holding her in my arms, but it seemed t take forever. I held her shoulders tightly, trying to stop her shaking. Her face was bone white, and already wet with sweat. She rolled her eyes at me and tried to say something, but her mouth was loose and ugly and wouldn’t work properly. There was no fear in her eyes, only something that might have been a terrible resignation. One bloody hand groped around for her shotgun, but it was on the other side of the room. Her other hand was still trying to stuff severed bits of intestines back into her stomach. The stench of blood and guts was almost overwhelming. Suzie was breathing clumsily now, great heaving gasps, as though every breath was an effort.
She was dying, and both of us knew it.
And then the blur came to a sudden halt before me, solidifying into a familiar shape, one I hadn’t seen in years. I should have known; it had to be her. She struck an elegant pose before me and smiled a happy contented smile. She always did like to show off. In one white-gloved hand she held the Speaking Gun’s case, taken from Suzie even as she ripped out her guts. She waggled the case a few times before me, as a trophy, then slipped it casually under one arm.
“A little extra, I think, on top of my exorbitant fee. You don’t object, do you, Walker darling?”
Walker started to say something, then stopped himself.
“Hello, Belle,” I said, in a voice I didn’t recognize. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Oh, years and years, darling. But you know me. Always happy to bump into old friends.”
Belle. Short for La Belle Dame Sans Merci . Tall and elegant, beautiful and sophisticated, supernaturally slender. She had poise and style and vicious charm, and an aristocratic disdain for small-minded things like ethics or morality, good or evil. She was what she was, and delighted in it. Her face had a marvelous bone structure, a broad forehead, purple eyes and a heavy, sulky mouth. Belle was a freelancer—intrigue, murder, theft, and conspiracy, or anything else you might desire, as long as you could pay for it. She’d done it all in her time, and always on her own terms. She drifted from one European capital to another, leaving a trail of broken hearts and broken bodies behind her, and never once looked back. Mostly she stayed out of the Nightside. Said the place was beneath her. I think she just felt happier away from any real competition.
To give her her due, she’d always been ready to take on anyone, anywhere, and she’d never been known to lose. Mainly because Belle had armored herself in trophies taken from her many victims. On her back she wore a werewolf’s pelt, thick and grey and shaggy. She skinned the hide off him herself, and now she wore the pale grey fur all the way down her back, with the emptied head pulled forward over her head like a hood. The skull’s long canines dented her forehead, above her purple eyes. It wasn’t just garment; her magics kept the pelt alive and plugged into her own system. It was her skin now, her fur, and as a result she had a werewolf’s ability to regenerate. Her burnished golden breastplate was made from a dragon’s hide, and it formed utterly impenetrable amour. Her shimmering white elbow-length gloves were in fact a vampire’s lily white skin, flayed from the undead victim by Belle’s own fair hand. On one of her hands, heavy claws pushed through the white glove; claws taken from a ghoul and fused onto her own fingers. The thigh-high leather boots were new. I didn’t know who she’d got them from. Belle’s magics made her various armours a part of her, made her, for all practical purposes, unkillable.
Belle was very much a self-made woman.
Most strikingly, the two halves of her face didn’t match. The left half was a distinctly darker shade than the rest of her body. One victim had got close enough to rip half of Belle’s face away. So after she was dead, Belle took half the victim’s face as a replacement. The new skin was younger, tighter, and a perfect fit.
Belle would go anywhere, and do anyone, as long as the check cleared. Or as long as the enemy was a challenge, or had something Belle wanted.
I clutched Suzie to me, cradling her shaking body in my arms. She was trembling violently now, as shock took hold. Blood ran in sudden spurts from her slack mouth, and dripped off her chin. I could almost feel the life going out of her. Part of me wanted to throw myself at Belle and tear her throat out, make her pay for what she’d done. But I couldn’t do that. I had to be smarter, sharper, than that. Belle was armored against all attacks, physical or magical. Or so she thought. My only hope was to keep cool and talk calmly with Belle. Keep her mind occupied, distracted, while I slowly and very surreptitiously focused my gift on her. Do it right, and she’d never even notice. As long as I narrowed my concentration right down, into a single cold needle, I should be able to slip my gift past her mental and magical defenses just long enough to do what I had to do. It was dangerous. If Belle even suspected what I was planning, she’d have my throat out in a second, and to hell with her mission. And even so small a use of my gift would still blaze like a beacon in the night, revealing my presence to those who were always hunting me. So I had to be careful, and focused, and utterly underhanded.
Luckily, I was good at that.
“Been a long time, Belle,” I said, in something very like a normal voice. “What is it, six, seven years since we worked together on that Hellstorm business? I thought we made a good team.”
“Don’t try to appeal to my better nature, darling,” Belle said in her marvelously cool and smoky voice. “You know very well I don’t have one. We made good partners, John, but we were never more than that.”
“I heard the Walking Man got you, stalking you through the catacombs under Paris.”
“Oh he very nearly did, darling, but I’m so very hard to kill. Unlike your little sweetie there. Poor Suzie. Never did know what you saw in her.”
“You’re a lot faster than you used to be, Belle. Been taking vitamins?”
“See these new boots, darling? Aren’t they simply super? I skinned a minor Greek deity to get them, so I could have his speed.”
“Give it up, John,” said Walker. “Come with me now, and I promise you I’ll see Suzie gets help. No-one has to die here. Don’t let your pride get in the way. I’m the good guy, this time. I’m saving the Nightside from destruction.”
“I’ve been told,” I said, still looking at Belle, “that if either set of angels gets their hands on the Unholy Grail, Armageddon could come early.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” said Walker. “The dark chalice doesn’t belong among people, John. It’s always been trouble. Let it pass to others more suited to control it.”
“Ah, Walker,” I said. “Always ready with an inappropriate homily.” I smiled sadly at Belle. “You must know you can’t trust him, or the Authorities.”
“I don’t trust anyone, darling. But Walker paid in advance, so I’m all his, for as long as the money lasts. And after this unfortunate business is over, and they’re finished with you, I’ve been promised that I can root through your living brains until I find the source of your special gift. Then I’ll rip it out and stick it in my own head. And your gift will become mine. Isn’t that sweet? It means you’ll always be with me. Now put Suzie down, dear, and come with me. Or do you want to dance a little first?”
I put Suzie carefully to one side, laying her tenderly on the bloody floor. Her eyes stayed locked on mine. I stood up and faced Belle. The whole front of my coat was soaked in Suzie’s blood. More of it dripped from my clenched hands. I grinned at Belle, cold as ice. “Let’s dance, darling.”
She laughed in my face. “You wouldn’t hit a lady, would you?”
“Sure,” I said. “Know any?”
And while she was still laughing, I hit her with my sharply focused gift, driving it right past all her defenses. I can find anything, with my gift. This time, I found the single small magic that Belle used to hold all her acquisitions together, that made it possible for her to access all their various attributes. And it was the easiest thing in the world for me to tear that magic away from her and crush it with my mind. Belle screamed once as the magic vanished, and her control over her various armors disappeared with it. The werewolf pelt fell away from her back and head, revealing only bare meat showing, red and glistening, with no skin left to cover it any more. The long gloves and boots cracked and rotted and fell apart, leaving bare muscles and tendons showing on her arms and legs. And half her face, the younger half, slipped away from her head, disintegrating into dust. Belle shrieked horribly, half her face a horror show.
I stepped forward and hit her once, breaking her neck. She was dead before she hit the floor.
I leaned over her and grabbed the werewolf pelt. It started to come apart in my hands, but I thought it would hold together long enough for what I had in mind. I looked around for Walker, but he was gone. Presumably in search of reinforcements. I knelt down beside Suzie. She was lying ominously still, scarcely even breathing. I pushed her guts back into the tear in her stomach, then held the werewolf pelt over the gaping wound. I crushed the pelt with both hands, wringing the last of its blood out of the pelt so that it dripped into the open wound. Werewolf blood, with all its regenerative properties. For a moment I couldn’t breathe, then the edges of Suzie’s wound slowly crept together, and vanished, as though it had never been there at all.
The pelt crumbled and fell apart, and I threw it away. It had done its job. I sat Suzie up again and cradled her in my arms, rocking her slowly back and forth. Her breathing became stronger, and more regular, and suddenly her eyes snapped open, wide and questioning. For a moment she just breathed steadily, as though it was a new thing and not to be trusted, and then her bloody hands went to her stomach, where the wound had been. Finding nothing, she looked at the unmarked flesh for a while. Then she smiled tremulously and turned her head back to look at me. I nodded and smiled, and she smiled back.
She slowly raised one hand and touched my face with her fingertips. I sat very still, afraid to do anything that might break the moment. Her fingertips moved slowly, hesitantly, across my cheek, my lips, delicate as the breath of a butterfly’s wing. And then she pushed herself away from me, almost throwing me away. She knelt on all fours, with her back to me, breathing heavily and shaking her head back and forth.
“Suzie…” I said.
“No. I can’t do this!” she said, in a voice so harsh it must have hurt her throat. “I can’t . Not even with you.”
“It’s all right,” I said.
“No it isn’t! It’ll never be all right. No matter how many times I kill him.”
She rose unsteadily to her feet, looked around for her shotgun, and snatched it up from the floor. And then she shot Belle in the face three times, until there was hardly anything left above the neck.
“Just in case,” said Suzie. “Besides, look what the bitch did to my best jacket.”
I got to my feet and looked at her resolutely turned back, and for once in my life I didn’t have a damned clue what to say. There was the sound of hurrying fee outside in the corridor, and Suzie and I both turned quickly to face the door. I think right then both of us would have been happy to see Walker with reinforcements. We could have used something to hit. But it was only Razor Eddie, appearing abruptly in the open doorway with his pearl-handled straight razor in his hand. He saw Belle’s body, and relaxed a little.
“Where the hell were you?” said Suzie, lowering her shotgun.
“It will take more than a three-storey drop to kill me,” said Eddie, in his pale ghostly voice. “But there’s a limit to how fast even I can take three flights of stairs. Still, you seemed to have coped quite well in my absence. Where’s Walker?”
“He made himself scarce when the trouble started,” I said. “No doubt he’ll soon return, with backup.”
“Someone’s coming,” said Eddie. “I can feel it. Someone’s coming, but it isn’t Walker.”
And we all looked round sharply as we suddenly realized we weren’t alone in the office any more. Standing by the desk was a grey man in a grey suit. Up close, even his face looked grey. The angels had found me.
“Get out of here, John,” said Razor Eddie. “There are more coming. Lots of them.” He moved forward to put himself between the angel and Suzie and me. “Move! I’ll hold them off.”
He raised his left hand, and in it was the Speaking Gun, poisoning the air with its presence. The angel began to glow, a light so bright it seemed to come from another place entirely. Suzie and I ran for the open door. We clattered down the stairs at full speed, a terrible pressure building on the air behind us. It felt like a storm was coming. It felt like thunder in the blood, and lightning in the soul. We hit the lobby together and kept running. And from far away and close at hand, we heard the awful sound of a single backwards spoken Word. Something screamed, so loudly I thought my head would burst. Suzie and I ran out into the street and kept going, and the whole damned warehouse exploded behind us. The shock wave almost blew us off our feet, but somehow we kept going, and didn’t stop running until we were at the end of the street.
We finally stumbled to a halt and looked back, breathing harshly. The walls of Big Sergei’s Warehouse collapsed slowly inwards, and disappeared in a great outrushing of black smoke. In a moment, there was nothing left of the building except a great pile of rubble.
“Think Eddie got out in time?” said Suzie.
“I think so,” I said. “Razor Eddie’s always been very hard to kill.”
“Isn’t that what they used to say about Belle?”
“We’d better get moving,” I said. “More angels will be on the way.”
“Terrific. Where can we go that will be safe from angels?”
“Strangefellows,” I said, trying hard to sound confident. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Oh, that’s always dangerous.”
“Shut up and run.”