Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End (8 page)

Lilith pulled him close.
His pupils were saucers that could swallow the moon, should saucers
choose to do such a thing. She kissed him impulsively. “You’re
never going to get anywhere with all your talking,” she said,
flashing him a quick smile before wandering off-stage.

Dionysus nodded, and looked
over at Jesus. She was unplugging her gear. Loki was talking to a
woman with a crossbow.

In a fluid movement, Lilith
swept down on the girls who had flocked her during the show, and
seemed to propel them past the makeshift stage. “This party’s
beat,” she called after the band. “Let’s go!”

Loki was stunned. “With
this much energy... Can’t just leave it lying around. We’ve gotta
do something with it.”

Lilith shrugged. “I’ve had
my fill. Come on. I know where we should all go. Four stars, hot
tub. Trust me.”

Dionysus perked up. “Hot
tub?”

Loki gave a nod to the
breakdown crew, who immediately jumped into action. The party
continued on madly, ignorant of the band slipping out the
door.

From buses to dorm rooms,
across the screens of cell-phones, laptops, and flat-panels, the
show and ensuing chaos broadcast through the minds of a dormant,
desperate populace.

Chapter Four

“
You having fun yet, you dour son-of-a-bitch? There was a time
that you weren’t so dour,” Lilith said to Loki. She was stretched
out in the passenger seat, one of the girls sitting on her lap
sucking a lollipop. She was porcelain white, a pin-cushion of
piercings.

“
It’s still sinking in. You have any idea what you’ve done,
here? Fugitives to guerrilla rock demagogues in what? Several
weeks?”

“
Sounds like fun to me,” she said. They kept passing that
lollipop back and forth, not breaking eye contact.

“
I’m starting to see that, yeah,” he said.

“
No plan, though. That’s your job.” She smiled.

Loki nodded, making a
mental note to start chain smoking in no more than 30 seconds. The
challenge thrilled him, even if it made him anxious as fuck trying
to keep this band of nutcases out of jail, or worse.

“
What’s your name?” the girl on Lilith’s lap asked.

“
Loki.”

“
I’m Amber.”

Lilith interrupted by
shoving her tongue down Amber’s throat.
OK, then
, Loki thought. He felt a
rumble in his chest and instinctively swerved into the other lane.
A wildly careening sedan shot past, its sub-woofers rattling the
equipment.

“
Fucking savages!” he screamed out the window before
accelerating and changing lanes again, the bulk of the Behemoth
forcing them onto the shoulder. He thought he heard the sound of
guard-rail shrieking against paint-job as he shot away.
Now
he was having
fun.

He caught an image in the
rear view, lit vividly but momentarily by passing headlights. A
strip of a disembodied, shapely leg, wreathed in red fishnet.
Probably the girl Lilith had introduced as Ariadne. She was elfin,
even tiny, but perfectly proportioned and far from frail. He didn’t
have a read on her yet. Mary, another who had joined their group,
had long dark hair and charcoal eyes. One of those quiet, watching
types. Could be in MENSA or special-ed, for all he knew.

The group in the back were
sitting in a circle, passing around a hookah that let out great
clouds of hash and opium smoke. Cody was silhouetted behind them as
he leaned against the window, clearly drunk, strumming on his
guitar. Some experimental Italian film was playing on the large
screen monitor with the sound shut off.

“
Semiotic invisibility?” Dionysus was saying. “Really, it’s
just a matter of misdirection and sorting. What use you are sorting
for.”

“
Sorting?” Jesus asked pointlessly, letting out a great deal
of smoke at the same time.

“
Oh, sure. If you’re looking for a drink, you go to the guy
behind the bar, not the introvert in the corner. It’s an old trick.
Mismatch. You're not the droids they're looking for. Conform to
expectation. When they retell the story, you’re not
there.”

Ariadne shook her head at
him disparagingly, her bob cut bouncing to and fro, but she leaned
her head against his shoulder.

“
I can dig it,” Jesus said, not really paying attention. Mary
was oiling her feet.

Loki tossed cigarette
number two out the window.

“
It’s really–” Dionysus started.

Loki cut in. “–OK, I’m
sorry. I gotta ask. You are drowning in pussy back there, and you
want to talk about ‘invisibility’ and ‘sorting’?”

“
Well. Yeah. Why?”

Ariadne scowled. “Excuse
me, I’m not ‘pussy.’”

“
Don’t take it personally,” Dionysus said. “Loki 1.0 runs
software programmed in an object-oriented language. It undervalues
subjective things like emotions or self-consciousness.”

Loki laughed and shook his
head. There must be some reason why he liked that bastard so much.
But what he said was, “Consciousness is post-hoc.”

“
Post-hoc ergo propter-hoc!” Dionysus screamed
back.

“
Oh shut up, you don’t even know Latin.”

“
Sorry to interrupt whatever it is you’re talking about, but
where are we going, anyway?” Artemis asked. She sat poised like she
thought she was
Le Femme
Nikita
, one hand on her crossbow. That
girl was a special sort. Introduced herself as part of the
“security detail” at the show. When Loki jokingly asked for her
credentials, she showed him her crossbow. Which made her crazy
cause she could use it, or crazy cause she couldn’t. Either
way...

“
A hotel,” Lilith said, putting Amber’s lollipop back in her
mouth. “I put it in the GPS already. You’re going to love
it!”

“
How are we paying for this little venture?” Loki
asked.

“
Paying? Are you joking?”

Loki nodded. “I’m starting
to like you, kid.”

The Behemoth pulled into a
gas station, belching out clouds of exhaust. They all stepped into
the night air, stretching their legs and blinking in the harsh glow
of the lamps set in the overhang above the pumps. (All except Cody,
who had passed out face-down on his guitar after loudly declaring,
“Nap time.”)

Loki shook his head. “$4.96
a gallon. Jesus Christ.”

The rest of them sauntered
inside as he fueled the monster. A long line of fashion victims,
methed-out truckers, nervous businessmen and suburban housewives
trailed from the counter all the way to the back of the store,
where there was a rusted metal box endlessly rotating shriveled
meat turds. Against this core sample of American nightlife, they
stood out. Jesus was way in the fore, seven feet tall in her
platforms and wearing a long pleated leather skirt.

“
Whew,” Jesus said loudly. “After an orgy like that one, I
sure could use a hot tub.”

The rest of the line went
dead silent.

The final stop of the
evening was an incredibly overpriced hotel.

A valet approached them
uncertainly.

“
Leave the keys in the...uh...truck?”

“
The fuck I will. Just tell me where to park,” Loki
said.

The side-door opened, and
the valet’s jaw followed suit.

The hotel doors
glide
, Loki marveled.
That was how he knew the place was worth $500 a night. The lobby
was ultra-modern and all the furniture looked like it was designed
by Escher.

“
Is that supposed to be a chair?” Loki asked.

Dionysus squinted. “I think
it’s decorative.”

“
A decorative
chair
.”

“
Come on,” Dionysus said.

A crowd of attendants, bell
hops, and random hotel lobby trash stared in bewilderment as their
little army approached the concierge. Their boots and heels clicked
loudly on the marble floor.

“
D-do you have a reservation?” the concierge asked.

“
Watch and learn,” she said to Loki.

Then, “Hey,” to the
concierge, all smiles and breasts.

Everything clustered around
one focal point, a sublimely tranquil red center surrounded in the
black fluttering of the mob.

At first I can’t clearly
make out this center. I perch on the tip of my toes despite myself,
and then I see what the commotion is about. My God. No, my
Goddess.

The rest are a gauché
pastiché of whatever they’re passing off as punk rock or beatnik
these days. One of them may even be a transsexual. Post-op, pre-op,
who knows. I’m not about to find out. This goddess shouldn’t
surround herself with such garbage.

I’m left clutching the
table and reeling by the time we’re face to face. What is it that
you’ve always craved, that’s always pulled you through another day?
And what would you do if it suddenly manifested in front of you,
clothed in downy skin?

Anything, anything they
say. She’s talking fast now, and for the first time in my life the
only thing I can think about is myself. That’s funny right? I’m
hypnotized by the smell of her breath, sweat, and perfume, and all
I can think about is
me
. Climbing an endless ladder, pieces of myself doled out
slowly, almost imperceptibly, in exchange for another rung. A grand
luxury suite, fourteen hundred square feet, yes, yes. What has this
long life of service given me? By all accounts, I had done well,
but what had I done for myself? Why am I here? Why am I giving them
a room on a tab? My best instincts reel, but I see my hands
floating over the keypad, I see the key card grasped so delicately
between her candy-tipped fingers.

Fuck this place. I don’t
care.

Here is your room card,
Miss Parsons.

The troupe made their way
to the elevator, Lilith in the lead with the key card in her
hand.

“
That was like some kind of Jedi mind trick that you just did
there,” Dionysus said. “And did I hear that right? Miss Parsons?
Like Jet-propulsion laboratory occult nut, L Ron stole his cash and
started Scientology with it Parsons?”

They stopped at the
elevator. “I really don’t feel like talking about my grandfather
right now,” she said.

The elevator dinged and the
doors closed behind them.

It was packed tight: the
troupe, a nervous, middle-aged business man and his shrew-faced
wife. Ding. A momentary wave of nausea passed through all of them.
Amber was coiled around Lilith like a garment.

Ding. Another
floor.

Jesus slid next to the
business man and winked. “This is getting me sooo hot,” she
said.

The man swallowed,
hard.

She put her arm around his
shoulder. “I know what you look at when you’re up alone in the dead
of night. You dirty, dirty boy.” His wife looked away,
blushing.

Ding. Their
floor.

They stumbled down the
hallway, high on giddiness, lust and hash. A maid rushed passed,
saying Hail Mary’s to herself as she went.

They approached the door to
room 777. Lilith turned to Loki before opening the door. “Wait
here. We need a guard.”

“
What? You want me to sleep in the damn hallway?”

“
You’ve got thinking to do. I like it when you think,” she
winked at him.

“
Look. I’m not like that concierge. Like, I see your breasts
and suddenly I’m just a brain-stem attached to a penis.”

Lilith shook her head. “It
was about catering to his delusions. The breasts only get you in
the door. Anyway, listen. If you need something to keep those
industrious hands occupied, I could really use the smoke detectors
in our room shut off. Within about...ten minutes?”

“
That’s not–”

Artemis patted her
crossbow. How the fuck did she get that in here? “I’ll help. If you
don’t mind, that is.”

“
I don’t– Screw it. Why not?”

Lilith let them in and then
shut the door with a loud click.

The corner suite had the
same aesthetic as the rest of the hotel, full of hard lines and
stark, incoherent furniture. Ariadne whistled. “These are some
digs. How much did this cost?” She started putting her hair in
pigtails. Black and red, shaved underneath.

“
Don’t worry about that,” Lilith said, “Girls, there’s a hot
tub in there just dying to meet us.”