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“My God. He’s back from the dead.”
“That’s one vote in favor of the hog.”
I look back at Candy.
“What do you think?”
She purses her lips, thinking.
“On the one hand, it’s really irresponsible and dangerous for you to be running around on something built by lunatics for a lunatic,” she says. “On the other hand, you’re pretty hot on the bike, and being more like your old self, maybe you’ll be a little less depressed all the time.”
“I’m not depressed. Maybe a little off . . .”
Kasabian picks up the twenty and puts it back in the till.
“Are you kidding? You look like a kid who nobody showed up at his birthday party.”
“He’s right,” says Candy.
“Then that’s it. I’ll get some tools, hit a bike shop, and I’ll fix it up tonight.”
Kasabian says, “And when you move the bike from around the side of the store, drive that four-wheel piece of shit back there and cover it with a tarp.”
“That’s a good idea,” says Candy. “At least until we can figure out what to do with it.”
“And take the plates off too,” says Kasabian. “If the cops find it, don’t make their job too easy for them.”
I get up.
“Okay. It’s a plan.”
“Great. I’ve got to get to work now,” says Candy, and starts upstairs.
I follow her up.
“I’ll go with you. I wanted to check in with Vidocq and he said he’d be at the clinic today.”
“So, you are going to take a cab?” Kasabian calls up the stairs. “The monster who kills monsters does not take cabs. No good can come from this.”
I close the door and Candy and I get dressed for the normal world.
Or as normal as ours ever gets.
ALLEGRA’S CLINIC IS in the same building as Julie’s detective agency. Julie upstairs and Allegra downstairs. Allegra worked at Max Overdrive when I first got there. Then she discovered she had a talent for healing and took over the clinic after Doc Kinski was killed. Allegra has patched me together after fights more times than I can count. Perhaps more important than that, though, she and Vidocq are an item and I think introducing them is one of the best things I’ve done since crawling out of Hell.
While Candy heads upstairs I go into the clinic. Fairuza is in the waiting room doing paperwork for a couple of Lurkers. Fairuza is a Lurker herself, a Ludere. Blue skin and horns, and always in a schoolgirl uniform. She also plays drums in Candy’s band. When she sees me, she straightens.
“Hey, Stark. Go right in. You’ve got the two of them all aflutter about whatever it is you gave them.”
“Thanks. Kasabian says hi.”
“Hmm,” she says, and looks at her papers. She and Kasabian have had an on-again, off-again thing. I guess it’s off again.
I go through the waiting area into the exam room.
Vidocq and Allegra are inside talking quietly. Her hair is close-cropped and shaved on the sides. She recently got a tattoo on her right forearm—two snake skeletons wound around each other in the shape of a Caduceus—and the ink looks good on her café au lait skin. She and Vidocq are huddled over an odd device with a lot of stacked lenses, a bit of Kinski’s old hoodoo medical gear. Engrossed in what they’re doing, neither she or Vidocq looks up when I come in. Allegra just motions me over when she hears me close the door.
“Stark, get over here and look at this.”
