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“What I had to,” I said. “Revived an old terror to stop a new one.”
“I was under the impression you had destroyed the vile thing.”
“I did,” I said. “But some things just won’t stay gone. You should know that.”
“I was there when a Shotgun Suzie appeared out of a possible future, with the Speaking Gun grated on to her mutilated arm,” said Walker.
“I know,” I said. “I was there, too.”
“Are you really prepared to put Suzie at such awful risk to preserve the new Authorities?”
“Yes,” I said. “Because you’re not the only one who understands about duty and responsibility.”
“And Suzie?” said Walker.
“She’d want me to take the risk,” I said.
“Yes,” said Walker. “She would, wouldn’t she?”
Upstairs, in the barely furnished back room, the new Authorities were preparing themselves for war. Julien Advent, the great Victorian Adventurer, sat at his ease in a chair tilted back against the far wall, polishing the slender steel blade that usually lay concealed in his sword-stick. His handsome, almost saturnine, features were completely without fear or concern. Julien had never cared whether he lived or died, as long as he was fighting on the side of the right. He had a certainty in his cause to match that of the Walking Man.
Jessica Sorrow, that gaunt and still scary presence who used to be the Unbeliever, was striding up and down in her flapping black leather jacket, scowling at anything and everything. She’d only recently found faith in the everyday world and the people around her, and she was clearly furious at the prospect of having it all taken away from her again. Everyone else was keeping a cautious eye on her, and giving her plenty of room, just in case things started disappearing around her.
A
Shifting plasma lights sparked and sputtered on the air around Count Video, as he hovered in mid air in the middle of the room, concentrating on his weird binary magics. I always knew he could be a Major Player, if he could just grow a pair. I suppose there’s nothing like imminent death and the destruction of everything you believe in and care about to bring out the true nature of a man.
King of Skin was crouching in one corner of the room, surrounded by dark and nasty images that could only be glimpsed out of the corner of the eye. I still couldn’t believe he was on the side of the Good, if only because the Good usually wouldn’t have him on a bet. But still, here he was, preparing to stand and fight with the others, when I would have bet good money he’d have been legging it for the horizon by now.
Larry Oblivion sat alone, not looking at anyone, frowning heavily, caught up in whatever dead men think about. Of us all, he had the least to lose.
The new Authorities, who had been and might yet be again my future Enemies. I could walk away and let them die. Except then, I would be the kind of man the Enemies always said I was. And I hate to be predictable.
They all looked up with some kind of hope as I walked in, ignoring Walker and Chandra. I smiled and nodded to all concerned, doing my best to look relaxed and confident. Julien Advent got up from his chair, slipped his blade back into the stick, and strode forward to shake my hand in his usual hale and hearty way.
“I knew we could rely on you, John. What have you found that will stop the Walking Man?”
“He’s found something,” said Walker. “But you’re really not going to like it.”
“Oh bloody hell,” said Larry Oblivion. “He hasn’t got Merlin up and walking around again, has he?”
“Worse than that,” I said, savouring the moment despite myself. “I bring the Speaking Gun, and all that goes with it.”
It went very quiet in the room. They all knew of the Speaking Gun, what it was and what it could do. I watched them considering the possibilities of whether it might actually be the one thing that would slap down the Walking Man, against whether just using it would go against everything they were trying to achieve. And damn all their souls in the process.
“Maybe we should have asked Chandra Singh to find something,” said A
“No,” Chandra said simply. “I have tested myself against this Walking Man and failed. John Taylor is your only hope.”
“Then we are in deep trouble,” said Count Video.
“You have got to be kidding!” said Larry Oblivion, striding forward on his silent feet so he could glare right into my face with his dead blue eyes. “We can’t risk using the Speaking Gun! It’s . . . evil! More dangerous than the Walking Man himself!”
“Yes,” said King of Skin, giggling suddenly. “It is. And that’s why it will work.”
“Oh, it’ll work all right!” said Count Video, shifting uneasily from foot to foot. “It’ll kill him, then kill everyone else! That’s what it does!”
“I remember the Speaking Gun,” said Jessica Sorrow, and everyone stopped to listen. She knew more about the unseen world than we ever would. “I can hear it, drawing closer. It moans and sings and hates. It is a hunger that can never be satisfied, a rage that can never be eased. Because that is how it was made. It has murdered angels and delighted in the destruction of God’s work.”
“But can it stop the Walking Man?” said A
“The Walking Man is both more and less than an angel,” she said finally. “He was designed to perform a function, just like the Speaking Gun. Who can say what will happen when the divine and the infernal come face-to-face?”
“Well, that was about as helpful as we had any right to expect,” said Count Video.
“No-one’s ever killed a Walking Man,” said King of Skin. “But they can be broken. It seems to me that a gun constructed to kill God’s messengers should be just what we need to do the job.” He sniggered suddenly, his sleazy glamour beating on the air like musty wings. “I can’t wait to see . . .”
“You disgust me,” said Larry Oblivion.
King of Skin smiled. “It’s what I do best.”
“Going head to head with the Walking Man is our last resort,” Julien Advent said firmly. “I don’t want any killing unless it’s absolutely necessary. There’s still a chance we can reason with the man, make him understand that we’re not what he thinks we are. Make him understand what it is we’re trying to achieve.”
“I think he already knows,” I said. “And I don’t think he gives a damn.”
“We can’t allow ourselves to be destroyed,” said Larry. “We are the last hope of the Nightside.”
“Whether we want to be or not,” said Count Video.
“I knew your father,” said Julien. “This is what he wanted for you. He would be so proud of what you’re doing.”
“You always did know how to fight dirty, Julien,” said Count Video. But he smiled a little as he said it.
“I just want to see a Walking Man go down,” said A
“It doesn’t have to come to that,” Julien insisted. “I refuse to believe that God would allow His servant to wage war against the Good once its nature had been made clear to the Walking Man.”
“I’ve met the man,” I said. “And I think the God he serves is strictly Old Testament. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and to hell with repentance. Mercy and compassion, and just possibly reason, too, are not in him any more. He gave all that up long ago, for a chance to punish the guilty.”
“We have to make a stand,” said Julien. “We’re all of us powerful people, in our own way. Perhaps together we can do what no-one else has . . .”