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“In my current placid frame of mind, I’d love someone to come at me.”
“Don’t look for trouble.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got plenty on my plate. Till then, Ishii can piss his sorrows in a teapot and brew himself a hot cup of fuck off.”
Carlos comes back with our drinks.
“What should we drink to?”
“To love,” says Brigitte.
“To the few loyal customers I have left,” says Carlos.
I have to think for a minute.
“To the dead. Let’s think of them always, but not join them too soon.”
Everyone in the bar drinks to that.
JULIE CALLS EARLY the next morning.
“Wells and the other bigwigs are at a meeting downtown. If you get over here right now, I can get you in to see Candy.”
Lucky for me, I fell asleep in my clothes last night. I run a comb through my hair so I don’t look like I escaped from Greendale House and go out through a shadow.
Julie is waiting for me when I come in and pulls me into an empty office.
She says, “As far as anyone knows, you’re here to talk to her about Saint Nick. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Good. Now give me all your weapons.”
“You too?”
She puts out her hand impatiently.
“It’s procedure. And if any of the higher-ups come back early, it has to look like everything is by the book.”
I hand her the Colt, the black blade, and my na’at. She puts them in an attaché case sitting on the desk.
“Can we go now?”
She looks at me hard.
“You’re going to behave, right? I’m sticking my neck out for you.”
“I know. Yeah, I’ll be a good boy.”
She picks up the attaché case.
“By the way, before you come back you might consider a shave and a shower. You smell like a brewery and look—”
“Like Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive?”
“Like a vagrant. Let’s go.”
I follow her through the Vigil’s country club. They’ve knocked down walls and raised ceilings so they could bring in bigger equipment. Helicopters and armored vehicles like they’re going to invade Santa Monica by way of Kabul because that’s how you fight transdimensional gods. Like they’re pot farmers in the Central Valley. I’m glad to see that, as usual, Homeland Security is thinking outside the box.
