The Getaway God (Sandman Slim 6)

“Now that I think about it, yes, I did kill Blackburn. I’m sure of it. Still, you might want to ask Tuatha about the clogged kitchen plumbing. Terrible timing too. While she’s planning her husband’s funeral and all.”

“All these lies. They’re obvious and boring.”

“Is our biblical flood boring?”

“You’re not claiming credit for the rain, are you?”

“No. That’s the Angra. Just their approach brings calamity. Can you imagine what it will be like when they arrive?”

“It’s like you’ve got Tourette’s. All the shit that comes out of your mouth.”

“I take your fear and give you the king of spades.”

“I take your never seeing daylight again and give you a deuce of clubs.”

“Tell the lovely Ms. Fortune to count her nightgowns. I bet she’ll find one missing. Covered in blood and down the drain with her hubby’s guts. Your turn.”

I don’t want to believe him, but he seems to be telling the truth. Maybe he meant what he said. Tartarus made him even crazier than when I put him in. He talks like a suicidal Hellion. Does he want me to kill him or does he want to kill himself? I’ll tell Wells to put more guards on him.

“You think you’re coming on like the Devil, but you sound more like a bawling brat.”

“That’s something else you took from me,” Mason says. “My chance to become Lucifer and move my legions against Heaven.”

“Heaven would have destroyed you. I saved your life.”

“Thanks oodles. I take your humanity and give you a four of spades.”

I keep trying to make sense of it all, the game and Mason. What does he really want? My brain vapor locks. I can’t think of what to bet.

“You’re not doing very well today,” he says.

“You said there weren’t any rules in this infinite crap.”

“Like life, there are always rules. They are just not necessarily logical. But you’re even less logical than usual.”

“I think you just made up this game as payback for last night.”

“Does that mean you forfeit?”

The cell door opens and the Shonin shuffles in. If a skeleton can look more skeletal, that’s how he looks. Blackened skin flakes off his face. His hands tremb

le and he has trouble walking in a straight line. He stops and leans against the wall. I go over to him.

“What are you doing here?”

“You need to stop this foolishness. Your personal feelings for the girl and your past with Mason are making you unfit for work. You should go. Let me play him.”

“Even if you’re right, he won’t play you. This whole thing is to show me up.”

“I’ll play him,” says Mason.

The fucker always did have good hearing.

“I mean, if you’re incapacitated. Besides, the game is almost over. There’s just a few more hands.”

“Let me finish,” says the Shonin.

He takes a step toward the table and his legs give out. I grab him by the shoulders and lift him up. He’s just bones and robes. He weighs nothing. By the time I have him up, the cell door is open and guards are coming in, their guns drawn.