Without warning, they all step forward at once. They sense that the talisman is gone and want to get closer to where it was and soak up the residual hoodoo. There’s a hundred or more of them trying to squeeze into a space about the size of a phone booth. I lean forward and put my shoulder into them. I have to use all my weight to move forward. I’m getting through, but the farther back I go, the more they press forward.
The mood is changing. The place was a church when I got here. Cool and contemplative. Getting the buckle wasn’t much worse that pushing to the front of the stage at a hardcore club. Now the air is getting bad. Jittery with panic and confusion. I’ve been here before. I know what’s coming. Time to de-ass the premises.
Fuck close quarters. I pull the .460 from its holster and pop a shoulder-level shot between two zeds I want to move. The blast knocks one off its feet and rips the other’s arm loose, so it’s hanging by a few strands of tendon. With just the loose limb in my way, I push past them without slowing down. I need out of here ASAP and get into a rhythm about it. Take a step. Blow open a porthole. Take a step. Fire. Step. Fire. It’s working. I’m moving faster now. My only worry is slipping on corpse leakage or a severed arm.>“True. Would you like me to call the number?”
“Let me. It’s my town. I should be the first one through closed doors.”
“How chivalrous.”
“That’s French for stupid, isn’t it? That’s okay. If we have time, I’ll give you a demonstration of naked jousting.”
We leave through the Room and back to her car. She doesn’t ask any questions this time.
BACK IN FRONT of Max Overload, Brigitte leans over to kiss me, and this time I’m not shy about kissing her back. Cabal’s act sucked the paranoid jitters right out of me. Sometimes annoyance will keep you going when booze and fear and hope are as dead as the Big Bopper.
Brigitte says, “I could come up for a while if you like.”
“I would like, but you wouldn’t like. I have a roommate.”
She smiles.
“Does he like to watch?”
“He’d love it. But he’s a kind of a spy and that means Lucifer would be watching us, too.”
“What do I care? Lucifer probably has my calendar in his office in Hell.”
“It would be awkward for me.”
How do you tell someone you want to fuck that you can’t do it in front of the devil because you don’t want your dad spying on you?
“All right. I should probably be getting back anyway. But you owe me.”
“Before I forget, my roommate loves you more than beer and cigarettes. Would you sign these for him?”
I hand her the DVDs. She smiles and takes a pen from the glove compartment.
“Who do I make it out to?”
“Aldous.”
“What a lovely old name.”
“I’ll tell him you said that. It’ll make his week.”
“There’s something for you under the seat.”
I reach down and feel along the carpet until I touch a box. I pull it out and open it. Inside is a collapsed metal weapon.
“The gift that keeps on giving.”
Brigitte hands me the DVDs.
“I want to go back to Springheel’s house and look around soon. Want to come with me?”
“Is there a bedroom?”
“I didn’t see one, but you can help me look.”