Soon, he slumps over, leaking whatever was left of himself all over the lawn. I tear off one of his sleeves and wipe Billy’s brains off Johnny’s gravestone. It’s the least I can do. Literally the least for an asshole like Johnny.
When I’m done, I toss Billy’s body into Sylvan Lake. Once I’ve put away the black blade, I clean more blood off my forehead.
Yeah. I really do hope I’m immune to this shit.
I shadow walk to where I left the Hog and ride it to Janet’s apartment. She buzzes me in, but when I get to her door, some last trail of blood blinds me for a second and I knock the door open as I stumble inside.
A gunshot. Something blasts past and hits the wall behind me. I hit the floor and roll, clearing my eyes and pulling the black blade to gut the shooter.
Except it’s Janet. They’re standing there with the Colt pointed right at me. I still have the knife in my hand. I don’t move.
Finally, they relax and collapse onto a chair.
“God, Stark. You scared— What happened to you? I thought you were one of them.”
I kneel next to them and put away the knife.
“I’m sorry. I told you I had to do something for Abbot.”
They look at me.
“And you come back like this. Could you have warned me or something?”
“Yes. I should have. I’m sorry. I just wanted to get back to you.”
They look at the floor.
“This is the second time you’ve shown up with half your face gone. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Just relax and breathe.”
They lean over in the chair. I put a hand gently on their back.
“Can I have my gun back?”
They let go and it tumbles to the floor. I put it in my coat and say, “It’s not like I planned on getting hurt when I went out.”
Janet sits up, pushing their hair from their face.
“I know. I just got scared.”
They cough a couple of times and look around for something.
“Where’s my phone? I have to call work and tell them I’m not coming in tomorrow.”
Shit. I forgot about that.
“Why don’t you let me do it?”
“Why should you do it?” They look at me for a minute. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“Go back to bed. We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“What’s going on?”
When I don’t answer, they put a hand on my shoulder.
“Stark?”
“It’s gone. Donut Universe is gone. Burned to the ground.”
They pull their hand away and cover their face. They begin to cry, quietly at first, but it soon turns into deep racking sobs, which triggers a coughing fit. I’ve never seen Janet more miserable. I put my arms around them and hold them for a minute. They lean on my shoulder and hug me back. But when Janet moves back and starts to kiss me, they turn away.
“You have blood all over your face.”
With everything going on, I hadn’t thought of that. I quickly wipe away what I can with my sleeve.
“Don’t bother,” they say. “It’s all too much.”
“I’ll go clean up.”
“No. Go home. I love you, you know. But I can’t look at you right now.”
“Okay. But let me make you some tea or something first.”
They lower their head.
“Please. Just go home. I need to sleep and I can’t sleep with you here like that.”
I stand up and say, “I’m sorry about everything. I’ll call you tomorrow and bring you some soup. This will all be healed by then.”
Janet takes my hands and kisses them. Then goes into the bedroom and shuts the door.
I get the bag from Max Overdrive and go through a shadow into my apartment.
Fuck Hollywood is passed out on the sofa with Godzilla roaring on the TV. I turn it off and go into the bathroom to wash my face. When I clean all the blood off I can finally see what Billy carved into me: Betty Boop. Sure. Why not? It makes as much sense as anything else that’s happened in the last few days.
In the bedroom, I strip off everything in case I got some of Billy’s brains on me. I’ll take a shower later. Lying in the dark, I close my eyes but can’t sleep.
I can’t really blame Janet for anything that happened tonight. Donut Universe was the one steady thing in their life. They liked the place and they had friends there. Plus, like Kasabian said, it’s where we first met.
Things would be bad enough for Janet with the city falling apart, but being with me, I bring the chaos home every day. And blood. Too much blood. I have to be more careful. But if I’m going to get close to King Bullet how can I guarantee that? I don’t want to lose Janet over something as stupid as a bad guy Abbot or his boy scouts should be taking care of.
It’s starting to feel like the bad old days, when I first escaped from Downtown. Maybe I’m better off on my own. Janet is sick of me. Donut Universe is gone. In its own way, so is Max Overdrive, which means Candy and Kasabian and too many memories to count. At least I have Bamboo House, though if King Bullet’s muppets come back that might go down too.
I hope the new scar won’t scare Fuck Hollywood too much. Hell, she might laugh when she realizes what it is. It’s nice having someone around, but the more I think about it, it might be better for everyone if she took the room in her friend’s apartment. Then I’d be on my own with no distractions or fear.
What would Vidocq say right now? Hell. It’s been only three months and I’m having trouble remembering his face. What would he tell me right now? It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. Another ghost in a city of ghosts.
I miss you, old man, but I have to work this one out on my own. That means, not what would Vidocq say, but what do I say?
And the answer is nothing. Nothing at all. My mind is a blank and my face itches as the skin knits back together, already healing from Billy’s artwork.
All I know for certain is that if I’m going to ever get back something like a life someone is going to have to kill King Bullet. If not Abbot, then me. And if it is me, I don’t know how much of me will be left at the end. I’ll probably end up on my own, whether I want it or not.
In the morning, I stumble out of the bedroom without bothering to shave or even comb my hair. There’s only one thing in the world that I want: coffee.
Fuck Hollywood is on the sofa eating a bowl of cereal.
“Morning, sunshine,” she says. “You’re looking perky today.”
I bump into a chair and stop in my tracks.
“Goddammit. I forgot to get coffee.”
“I got some,” she says cheerily.
“You’re my hero.”
“I know.”
I make a pot, and she slides down the sofa so I can sit. There’s some kind of astronomy show on the TV. We’re whizzing all over the solar system at warp speed. I point to the set with my cup.
“You like this stuff?”
She starts to talk and almost dribbles milk all over herself. Finally, she swallows and says, “Stars and planets and shit? Sure. Don’t you?”
“Sometimes I feel like I’ve seen too much of the universe and don’t want to see one more inch.”
“Aww. Someone needs a burping.”
“Stars are nice sometimes. We buried Vidocq under the stars.”
“Yeah. Candy told me.”
“There aren’t any stars in Hell. I guess I missed them there.”
She looks at me funny and says, “Where? What did you say?”
I shake my head.
“Never mind.”
Fuck Hollywood puts down her cereal and pushes my hair back off my forehead.
“Did you get hurt again?”
“You can still see it?”
Squinting, she says, “A little.” She looks harder and makes a face. “Is that—Betty Boop?”
“Shit. Well, I can’t go out until this is done healing.”
She grabs her phone and holds
it up to take a picture.
“Come on, Betty. Smile pretty for me.”
“Please don’t.”
“Come on.”
I put a hand on her phone and lower it.
“Seriously. Not today.”
“Are you all right? Your stupid head aside.”
I take a big gulp of the coffee and scorch the back of my throat.
“I don’t know,” I say. “What do you do when you feel like you need to do something, but doing it might hurt someone you care about?”
“What kind of something?”
“Part of it’s revenge. Which I know isn’t exactly noble. But there’s something else. I might be able to help save the city from the people who came into the bar the other night.”
“That’s a good thing. What’s the problem, then?”
“What if I lose Janet?”
She crosses her legs and turns to face me.
“That’s a tough one. But why do you have to save the city? Don’t you have super-duper magical friends who can do it?”
“That’s the problem. They won’t. At least not yet, and I’m afraid they’re going to wait so long that there won’t be anything left. At least not for civilians.”
“Who are civilians?”
“You. Regular people. If the virus doesn’t get you, I’m afraid the crazies will.”
She clutches a pillow to herself.
“Can we please not talk about them anymore?”
“Sorry. But what if no one else is going to stop them?”
“So, to save Janet you might have to lose them.”
“Something like that.”
Fuck Hollywood blows out a long stream of air like she’s winded.
“Dude. I have no idea. But I think if Janet found out that you could have stopped those people who killed Charlotte and Babadook and didn’t, they’d be pretty pissed.”
I pick up the coffee and drink some more.
“I think you’re right.”
“And what about everybody else?” she says, getting more animated. “Are you going to let Candy and Carlos get hurt? Me? You said you’d take care of me.”
I put an arm out and she slides down to lean on me. With Buzzard gone, I don’t know who else she has in the world.
“I will take care of you. You and everybody else.”
She shrugs.
“Then I guess that’s your answer.”
“I guess it is.”
She gives me a quick peck on my unshaven cheek and sits up. Instead of reaching for her cereal she rubs her hands on her legs.
I say, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she says, looking at her hands. “I just feel weird. Like I itch all over. My skin is crawling. Maybe it’s the new soap we’re using at the bar.”
“I’ll save you from the big things, but you’ll have to handle dry skin yourself.”
Shaking her hands out, she says, “I’ll get some hand cream on the way to work.”
“That means we’re open today?”
“Yep. Normal hours and everything.”
“But no muscle outside.”
“Carlos gave up on regular security. I think he’s hoping you’ll handle it.”
I drink the last of my coffee and go back for more.
“No problem. I have some things to do, but I’ll be there.”
She gestures to her forehead.
“What about Betty?”
“I’ll do some healing hoodoo and hope I don’t explode my head.”
“If you go out, don’t forget your mask.”
“I won’t.”
Fuck Hollywood goes back to her cereal and stars. I finish my second cup of coffee, then go in to brush my teeth before calling Abbot. He picks up on the second ring.
“Hello, Stark,” he says. His voice still sounds weak. “Have you thought over my proposition to look into King Bullet?”
“Damn. Jumping right to business. The Council must be nervous.”
“We are. Things are quickly going from bad to worse. King Bullet and his Shoggots have taken over some city services. Many of the police precincts. Most of the transportation system. Do not get on a bus for any reason.”
“What I hear is that I should steal more cars.”
“I said nothing of the kind.”
“I can read between the lines. Don’t worry. It’s our secret.”
“Dammit, this is serious.”
“Calm down. I did look into King Bullet, at least some of his asylum fodder.”
He coughs a few times and says, “Did you learn anything useful?”
“A couple of things. It turns out that autophagia thing you were talking about is true.”
“What do you know about it?”
“Just that after Billy, my Shoggot friend from last night, realized he’d given me some of his secrets he ate his own brains.”
There’s a pause for a couple of seconds.
“Stark, half the time I don’t know if you’re making these things up just to test me.”
“I’m telling you. It happened. The good news is that he said a couple of things before he checked out. This King Bullet asshole says he wants the city. Why, I don’t know. But he’s got some serious Charlie Manson–level true believers working for him.”
“He does at that. And on that score, we have important new information too: not all Shoggots are scarred. The ordinary ones are the groups working into city services, and worse. We think they might be in the utilities companies, which means that, conceivably, they could black out the city.”
“That’s great fucking news. Are they anywhere else?”
“We think they might be in some of the local hospitals.”
“I might be able to confirm that. Billy and some of his friends were dressed as EMTs. They had an ambulance and everything. The question is, now that you have all this new information, are you and your people going to do anything about it?”
Abbot sighs.
“Sadly, the Council is still hesitant.”
I don’t say anything for a few seconds, trying not to shout. When I feel like I’m under control I say, “They’re always hesitant. It’s just like with the people stuck with the ghosts in Little Cairo.”
“Understand, we can’t just charge and make a spectacle of things. We have agreements with civilian leaders to get only so involved with day-to-day life in the city.”
“Day-to-day life is falling apart and you’re not doing anything to stop it.”
I’m about to shout at the useless bastard when something clocks and my stomach tightens.
“God, I’m stupid,” I say. “You told them you’d talked to me about dealing with King Bullet, didn’t you?”
“I said that I’d asked you to look into the situation.”
I run my fingers over Betty on my forehead.
I say, “You’re not sending in your people because if I fix things, it looks good for you. But if something happens to me, I’m just some expendable stooge. And don’t tell me it’s the Council doing it and not you. If you wanted to overrule them, you’d find a way.”
When Abbot speaks, his voice has the officious tone of a junior high principal.
“They think, and I have to agree, that we need more information before we act.”
“Sure. What’s a few more dead civilian nobodies and my donut shop when you have your mansions to look after?”
“What donut shop?” he says. “What are you talking about?”
“And even if the crazies turn off the power, you can hoodoo your lights and air-conditioning back on like nothing happened.”
“Look,” he says, and this time he sounds pissed. “If you had something solid that I could take to the Council. Some way that we could get to King Bullet himself. I know that they’d listen to reason.”
“Because they’re always ready to jump in and help the little guy, right?”
I think about what Billy said—King Bullet’s party at city hall tonight. Should I tell him about it? Back when t
he ghosts were running wild in Little Cairo, the Council was ready to hang me out to dry and nuke every civilian in the neighborhood. Would they do the same again? Go scorched earth on the meeting, taking out me and any poor asshole office workers pulling the late shift downtown? Can I trust them enough not to do it again?
I say, “King Bullet is hosting a party at city hall tonight. That might be a good time to introduce yourselves.”
He doesn’t say anything for a minute.
“Abbot?”
“I’m here. It’s just that city hall is a problem.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We can’t just go charging into the center of civilian power without an understanding first.”
“What the fuck does ‘understanding’ mean?”
“The Los Angeles city fathers have always been wary of the Sub Rosa community treading too closely to them. For the Council to go on an armed mission, we’d need permission. And that requires negotiations.”
“Well, call the mayor and tell him what’s going on.”
“It’s not simple.”
This again. I can’t fucking believe this shit.
“You wanted something solid and I gave it to you, but you still won’t do anything.”
“Can’t—”
“Won’t.”
“Of course, you could be our unofficial representative at the site.”
And there it is.
“You are so useless. Fine. I’m going in and doing things my way. Unofficially, of course.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it. Call me when you get back.”
“Fuck you.”
I hang up and stand there for a minute, thinking bad thoughts. Is Abbot being straight with me? I’m handing him Public Enemy Number One and he’s worried about stepping on some city hall shitheel’s toes. Abbot and the Council have always held back when they want me to do something hardcore. What do they want more: King Bullet gone or for me to disappear? Maybe tonight they think they can get a package deal. Let us do each other in while they kick back and drink Chardonnay. I don’t know. I’ve got to think about this. I thought Abbot was a stand-up guy, but how well do I know him outside of the few deals we’ve made? He’s the Augur. Power is his business. Everything else is secondary. Including me and a load of nine-to-five civilians downtown. I need to think about this more. But mostly I’ve got to watch my back. If something happens to me, what happens to Janet and Candy and the others?
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