The Getaway God (25 page)

“Of course not. That was nothing. That wasn't even the appetizer before dinner. It was just to see if I should invite you for a full meal.”

“Should you?”

“Do you want to know how the Qomrama works?”

“The Shonin will figure it out.”

“Not in time.”

“How do I know you know anything?”

Mason closes his eyes. A minute later I hear the door to the cell open and the Shonin comes in.

“What did you do?” he says.

Mason laughs when he sees the Shonin.

“This is mankind's savior? You're like third prize at a backwoods Halloween fair.”

The Shonin says, “What did you do?”

“I proved I know how the Qomrama works.”

The Shonin starts to say something, but I hold up my hand and he quiets down.

I say, “What did he do?”

“The Qomrama opened the magnetic chamber and left it,” the Shonin says. “It's floating in the center of the room, a ball of fire and ice. Boiling the room one minute and freezing it the next.”

I look at Mason's beaming face. “Why should I believe you'll teach us anything?”

“You have my word,” says Mason. “Every time you win a game I'll tell you something about the Qomrama. I want you to learn it. I want to see you use it. And I want to see you fail so that in the end, you'll know that I was always the better magician.”

“If I said I'd play, how would it work?”

“Simple. I call the games and we play. Every time you win, I tell you a secret.”

“And when you win?”

“I get to hurt you.”

“What does that mean?”

“Anything I want.”

“This is just between you and me. You can't hurt anybody else.”

“I can do anything I like.”

“Don't take the bait,” says Julie. “He's crazy and he'll never tell you the truth.”

“She's right. I'll continue my work,” says the Shonin.

Mason looks at him.

“Do you know the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans?”

“I know many spiritual books.”

“Chapter four, verse seven. Recite it.”

The Shonin thinks for a minute.

“ ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven: and whose sins are covered.' ”

“Very good. Now, recite that backward in Hellion and you can make the Qomrama do the little trick I did a moment ago. You can also use it to return it to its original resting spot.”

“That can't be all,” says the Shonin. “A spell of that power would require meditation on a sacred object. A mandala or angelic sigil.”

Mason holds up his hands from the table. Using the sharp edge on one of his cuffs, he's cut an inverted cross in a hex circle into his right palm.

I put my hand in my pocket around the Colt. Then let go and take my hand out. I turn to Julie.

“You have two hours to find Candy or I'm killing this guy, 8 Ball or no 8 Ball.”

She checks her phone.

“I have a message. I'll see how the search is going.”

She leaves and the Shonin goes to Mason's side of the table.

“You're been a very bad boy from what I hear.”

Mason gives him a bland, condescending smile.

“I know that in your quaint foreign land what you did to yourself is considered a holy act, but here it would get you 5150'd. You're going to have to forgive me if I'm unimpressed with the elaborate way you chose to sublimate your masochistic tendencies.”

The Shonin wags a finger at Mason.

“We had boys like you at the monastery. Big power. Little brains.”

“You didn't have anyone like me. Tell him, Jimmy.”

I don't say anything.

Mason's scarred face clouds over.

“Tell him.”

I look at the Shonin.

“I doubt you ever had anyone like him.”

“Or him,” says Mason, pointing to me.

The Shonin throws up his hands.

“Fatty and Big Balls, a mutual admiration society. I'm going back to work.”

As the Shonin heads for the door, Mason calls after him.

“Be careful with the Qomrama. If you get the recitation wrong she has a nasty bite.”

The Shonin goes out, and before the door closes, Julie comes back in.

“We found her,” she says.

I get up.

“Where is she?”

Julie puts up her hands.

“Wait. You need to know something. She's under arrest.”

“For what?”

“She attacked a homeless man and almost killed him. They're both lucky we have a serum that reverses the effects of Jade venom. The man will live.”

“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.”

“Like hell you do. Doc Kinski took you out of the killing life so something just like this wouldn't happen.”

“Fuck Doc too.”

That's new. I've never heard her talk that way about Kinski.

“You can't run around taking down random ­people and you know it.”

She flicks the bars with one of her broken nails.

“Listen to you. All you do is kill, but no one else is allowed or you won't feel special anymore.”

“I don't kill random civilians in the street.”

“No. You kill other creeps no one cares about. I'll have to remember that for next time.”

She smiles and tugs at the net. Julie comes closer to the cell, ready to pull her gun.

“You always did think you were better than me, didn't you?” says Candy. “I was your pet monster. Something you could take home and feed and fuck so you could show your friends the wild girl you tamed.”

“If you really think that, why are we even talking?”

Candy goes over and sits on the cot.

“Go and rescue someone, hero. I don't need you condescending to me anymore.”

She stretches out and rolls over so she's facing the wall. I wait a minute to see if she's going to say anything, wanting to say something else myself, but having no idea what.

“Come on,” says Julie, and leads me to the jailhouse door.

Before we go out I turn around.

“You might have gone crazy, but I didn't. I'm going to figure a way out of this.”

From the cell I hear, “Go away, please. Just go away.”

Outside, Julie says, “She's been like that since we brought her in.”

“Yeah.” Then, “Sorry about yelling at you. Thanks for what you did for Candy.”

“You're welcome. See how easy it is to be nice?”

“I'm always nice. It just comes out funny sometimes.”

“Most of the time.”

“I know.”

Julie leads me to the break room. I spot Vidocq, nursing a cup of tea.

“What are you doing here?”

“Marshal Sola called me when Candy was arrested. She thought you might need someone to talk to.”

“I need someone to punch.”

His eyes go to my knuckles.

“It looks like you already found that.”

I look at my hand. The bleeding has stopped and a scab is forming. Still, it's pretty ugly to look at. I pull a paper towel off the roll and wrap it around my hand.

“I've never seen her like this before, and I've seen her turn Jade plenty of times.”

“You've never seen it because she's never been this way before. She's been poisoned.”

I sit down across from him.

“Keep talking.”

“I tested the rest of the Jade potion Allegra had on hand. Not only has it been watered down, but there's a toxin in it I can't identify. I'm sure it's responsible for her behavior.”

“Now all we have to do is convince the Vigil and the entire federal government that a murderous Jade didn't mean it and is really sorry.”

“It's a problem, I admit.”

I go over to the counter and pour myself some coffee. I want Aqua Regia, but this isn't the time for a fuzzy head.

“If you make more of the real Jade potion, will the Vigil let you give it to her?”

He shrugs. Sips his tea.

“I have no idea, but giving it to her now would probably be pointless. Whatever she was given was meant to hurt her, not kill her. We need to wait until it clears her system before giving her anything else.”

I swallow some coffee. It's some kind of sweet caramel blend that's been burning all night, so it tastes like a candy bar someone left on an engine block. I push the cup out of the way.

“I can see someone poisoning me, but why her?”

“A distraction perhaps? You're working on very important matters. There are ­people allied with the Angra who would love to see you not in a proper state of mind.”

“Between Mason and Candy, I guess they pretty much succeeded.”

Vidocq leans forward and whispers.

“Then it's true? Saint Nick is Mason Faim?”

I nod.

“Don't go telling anyone. I want to keep this quiet as long as I can.”

“I can understand why he would want to leave Tartarus, but why come back here?”

“That's what I want to know. It's sure as hell not to teach me the ABC's of the 8 Ball.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” says Vidocq.

“Yeah, that.”

I look around to see if there's any normal coffee. I can't find any.

“You know, if it comes down to it, I could walk Candy out of here through a shadow.”

“It's pointless to think like that. Right now she needs rest and medication more than she needs you.”

“She said something like that too, only louder.”

“Go home,” says Vidocq. “You must be exhausted. Waiting here like this benefits no one.”

I rub a knot of muscles at the base of my neck.

“Maybe you're right. I need to talk to Mason again later and I want a clear head for that.”

“I'll stay here. If anything changes, I'll call you.”

“Thanks,” I say. Then, “How's Allegra doing with all this?”