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“Do you believe what they said?” asks Vidocq.
“I have to go in and find out.”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean do you trust them? You have not harassed the Dark Eternal the way you have other gangs, but what’s to stop you from doing so?”
“If they think you’re coming for them, they might be sending you into a trap,” says Brigitte.
“I don’t think so. The Dark Eternal and I have steered clear of each other for a while.”
“Is it true that’s because they paid you a large sum of money?” asks Traven.
“Yes. And because they mostly feed on crooks and the fools that come crawling to them and I don’t have a problem with that.”
Traven nods. I don’t know if he exactly understands, but he seems to accept that I’m not a simple sellout. I’m a complicated sellout.
“If the Dark Eternal wanted me gone, they could have sent an army. What I think is really going on is that Tykho knows the 8 Ball is valuable and that it gives whoever has it power, so she wants it. She’s sending me in with a Dark Eternal rep, a guy called Paul Delon. He’s the one with the map.”
“Tell me about this Paul,” says Vidocq. “Do we really need him? Couldn’t we take his map and use it ourselves?”
I shake my head.
“First off, Paul isn’t human. Candy and Brigitte would recognize him. He’s another Trevor. An automaton built by a Tick-Tock Man named Atticus Rose.”
“What?” says Candy. “The last two tried to kill you.”
“And we killed them. There’s no choice here. Robby the Robot has the map in his head. Without him I could wander around the place for weeks. All I want is to find the 8 Ball and make sure Paul never even touches it. I think I can handle that, but having more people would help. Is anyone willing to come into Kill City with me?”
Everyone except Kasabian raises their hands. I look over at him.
“You like horror movies, Kas. Aren’t you interested in seeing a real-life House of Usher?”
Kasabian shakes his head. He’s working over the food like he’s Muhammad Ali and the buffet is Sonny Liston.
“I’ll leave it to you prima ballerinas. My dancing days are over,” he says, tapping his bad leg with his fork.
“You’re missing all the fun.”
“Bring me back a snow globe so I’ll know what it was like.”
“I guess that just leaves us,” I say. “But I don’t want all of us. Allegra, I’d like you to stay behind.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re basically going to the moon and that means someone is going to get hurt. If that was you, none of us knows how to fix you. And if one of us gets hurt, everyone would feel better knowing that the best doctor is at the clinic and not one of the second stringers.”
“He’s right, my dear,” says Vidocq. “I know it’s not what you want, but it’s the smart thing to do.”
Allegra crosses her arms and leans back in her chair.
“Fine. I’ll stay.”
I say, “You can also keep an eye on that other thing we talked about.”
She nods.
“Yeah.”
“If there are any problems with that, you can crash here with Kasabian.”
