The Getaway God (Sandman Slim 6)

“I want to see her.”

“She’s being processed. You can see her when she’s done.”

“No. Now.”

Julie gets right in my face.

“Shut up and listen to me. I just did you a favor. Washington has classified Saint Nick’s revived bodies as Lurkers, and under a new statute, any dangerous Lurker can be killed or detained indefinitely. My team had every legal right to kill a Jade attacking a civilian, but I gave them orders to bring her in. So you can fucking back off and wait until things cool down. And stop barking orders at me.”

Julie turns and goes out, slamming the door behind her.

I want to follow her and make her take me to Candy, but if what she said about the new law is true? Then she really did do me and Candy a favor, and there aren’t many ­people who would do that.

“You sure like the feisty ones, don’t you,” says Mason. “How’s Alice these days? Heard from her recently? I hear that things aren’t going too well in Heaven. I hope she’s all right.”

I knock on the door to be let out and head straight for an exit. Out in the parking lot I put my fist through the window on the side of a Vigil van.

Ow.

I forgot they use bulletproof glass. When I pull my hand back, I’ve peeled all the skin off my knuckles. I lean against the van, pull out a Malediction, and light it up. Out in the gloom across the drowning grass, a ­couple of Vigil cops play golf under a big umbrella.

I WAIT TWO goddamn hours, fidgeting and burning through the rest of the Maledictions. Outside, even the other smokers don’t want to be around me and the tire-­fire smell. My bloody knuckles don’t help any chance of meaningful social interaction. I’m tempted to spook these dainty fucks by lighting my last smoke off the Gladius, but I’m in too foul a mood for that kind of fun.

I check the time on my phone. It’s close to what should be dawn. A gust of wind blows rain all over us, sending the Vigil agents back inside. Most of the good boys and girls are off to bed, leaving just a skeleton crew. If I need to go Wild Bunch on them, this would be a good time. But for now, I’ll wait and play by the rules like a good dog.

Around seven A.M., Julie comes outside.

“You can see her now,” she says, and heads back into the clubhouse. I follow her down to the Alcatraz end of the place, passing Mason’s cell on the way. I know he can’t see me, but I have the feeling the fucker is watching me somehow. I need to find out more about how he got out of Tartarus. What’s going on Downtown. And who I should snuff first, Merihim or Deumos.

Julie lets me into a small cellblock that holds a series of ordinary-­looking jail cells. A sink. A cot bolted to the wall. Bars to keep the prisoners in, like any county lockup. All the cells are empty except for the one on the end. It’s wrapped in strong Kevlar netting so that whoever is inside can’t get their claws through it.

Candy has her back to me when I reach the cell. She paces back and forth like a caged animal. Her hair is in tangles. Some of her nails are broken off at the quick. When she turns to face me one of her cheeks is swollen, like she took a rifle butt to the face. She’s mostly out of Jade mode. Mostly human-­looking, but her eyes are still black, her pupils red pinpoints. I go up and grab a fistful of the net.

“You all right?”

She comes closer, but stops a few feet from the bars.

“I’m fine. Never better.”

“You look like hell.”

“Go peek in a mirror and then tell me how bad I look.”

She starts to pace again.

“They say you tried to kill a civilian.”

She puts a hand on her chest and opens her eyes all wide and innocent.

“I wasn’t trying to kill anybody. I was just hungry.”

I glance over to Julie. She has one hand resting gently on her gun.

I say, “This isn’t your fault. Something went wrong with the potion. Allegra will figure it out and you’ll be all right again.”

Candy stops pacing and comes right up to the bars.

“Fuck Allegra. Fuck the potion. And fuck you. You want me to feel all right? I feel great. Like I’m myself for the first time in years.”