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He could hear a chorus of screaming and cursing, in half a dozen dead languages, some of them ru
“Who’s New Meat now?” he said.
“What? What did he say?” said a sewer voice.
“I can’t hear shit.”
Charlie waved the porcelain bear in front of the drain. “You want this?” He tossed in another M-80.
“You like that, do you?” Charlie shouted, throwing in the third firecracker. “That’ll teach you to use your beak on my arm, you fucking harpies!”
“Mr. Asher,” came a voice from behind him.
Charlie looked around to see Alphonse Rivera, the police inspector, standing over him.
“Oh, hi,” Charlie said, then realizing that he was holding a lit M-80, he said, “Excuse me a second.” He tossed the firecracker in the drain. At that moment they all started going off.
Rivera had retreated a few steps and had his hand in his jacket, presumably on his gun. Charlie put the porcelain bear in his satchel and climbed to his feet. He could hear the voices shrieking at him, cursing.
“You fucking loser,” screeched one of the dark ones. “I’ll weave a basket of your guts and carry your severed head in it.”
“Yeah,” said another voice. “A basket.”
“I think you threatened that already,” said a third.
“I did not,” said the first.
“Shut the fuck up!” Charlie yelled at the drain, then he looked at Rivera, who had drawn his weapon and was holding it at his side.
“So,” Rivera said, “problems with, uh, someone in the drain?”
Charlie gri
“I can hear a distinct ringing in my ears, Mr. Asher, from the report of your distinctly illegal fireworks, but beyond that, nothing, no.”
“Rats,” Charlie said, unconsciously raising an eyebrow in a so are you go
“Uh-huh,” Rivera said flatly. “The rats, they used their beak on your arm and evidently you feel that they have a secret desire for cheap animal curios?”
“So that you heard?” Charlie asked.
“Yep.”
“That’s gotta make you wonder, then, huh?”
“Yep,” said the cop. “Nice suit, though. Armani?”
“Canali, actually,” Charlie said. “But thanks.”
“Not what I’d pick for bombing storm drains, but to each his own.” Rivera hadn’t moved. He was standing just off the curb, about ten feet away from Charlie, his weapon still at his side. A jogger ran by them and used the opportunity to quicken his pace. Charlie and Rivera both nodded politely as he passed.
“So,” Charlie said, “you’re a professional, where would you go with this?”
Rivera shrugged. “Not on any prescriptions you might have taken too many of, are you?”
“I wish,” Charlie said.
“Up all night drinking, thrown out by the wife, out of your mind with remorse?”
“My wife passed away.”
“I’m sorry. How long?”
“Going on a year now.”
“Well, that’s not going to work,” said Rivera. “Do you have any history of mental illness?”
“Nope.”
“Well, you do now. Congratulations, Mr. Asher. You can use that next time.”
“Do I have to do the perp walk?” Charlie asked, thinking about how he’d explain this to child services. Poor Sophie, her dad an ex con and Death, school was going to be tough. “This jacket is tailored, I don’t think I can get it over my head for the perp walk. Am I going to jail?”
“Not with me, you’re not. You think this would be any easier for me to explain? I’m an inspector, I don’t arrest guys for throwing firecrackers and yelling into storm drains.”
“Then why do you have your weapon drawn?”
“Makes me feel more secure.”
“I can see that,” Charlie said. “I probably appeared a little unstable.”
“Ya think?”
“So where’s that leave us?”
“That the rest of your stash?” Rivera nodded toward the paper bag of firecrackers under Charlie’s arm.
Charlie nodded.
“How about you toss that down the storm drain and we’ll call it a day.”
“No way. I have no idea what they’ll do if they get their hands on fireworks.”
Now it was Rivera’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “The rats?”
Charlie threw the bag in the storm sewer. He could hear whispering from below, but tried not to show Rivera that he was listening.
Rivera holstered his weapon and shot his lapels. “So, do you take suits like that into your shop very often?” he asked.
“More now than I used to. I’ve been doing a lot of estate work,” Charlie said.
“You still have my card, give me a call if you get a forty long, anything Italian, medium-to lightweight wool, oh, or raw silk, too.”
“Yeah, silk’s perfect for our weather. Sure, I’ll be happy to save you something. By the way, Inspector, how did you happen to be in a back alley, off a side street, in the middle of a Tuesday morning?”
“I don’t have to tell you that,” said Rivera with a smile.
“You don’t?”
“No. You have a nice day, Mr. Asher.”
“You, too,” said Charlie. So now he was being followed both above and below the street? Why else would a homicide detective be here? Neither the Great Big Book nor Minty Fresh had said a word about the cops. How were you supposed to keep this whole death-dealing thing a secret when a cop was watching you? His elation at having taken the battle to the enemy, something that was deeply against his nature, evaporated. He wasn’t sure why, but something was telling him that he had just fucked up.
Below the street the Morrigan looked at one another in amazement.
“He doesn’t know,” said Macha, examining her claws, which shone like brushed stainless steel in the dim light coming from above. Her body was begi
“I still can’t hear,” said her sister Nemain, who groomed the blue-black feather shapes on her own body, hissing with the pleasure as she ran the dagger points over her breasts. She was showing fangs as well, which dented her delicate jet lips. It had been her lot to drip venom on those she would mark for death. There was no fiercer warrior than one who had been touched by the venom of Nemain, for with nothing to lose, he took the field without fear, in a frenzy that gave him the strength of ten, and dragged others to their doom with him.
Babd raked her rediscovered claws across the side of the culvert, cutting deep gouges into the concrete. “I love these. I forgot I even had these. I’ll bet we can go Above. Want to go Above? I feel like I could go Above. Tonight we can go Above. We could tear his legs off and watch him drag himself around in his own blood, that would be fun.” Babd was the screamer—her shriek on the battlefield said to send armies into retreat—ranks of soldiers a hundred deep would die of fright. She was all that was fierce, furious, and not particularly bright.