Hurt World One and the Zombie Rats

by Stuart Parker

  *

  Natalie was staring out the rain sullied window of her rundown Parisian apartment. The buildings huddled together in the depths of night did not readily betray the bouts of insomnia within, just a crack of light in a window here or there. That was all the windows except Natalie’s. Her curtains were fully drawn. She stood staring out at the night, cosy in her bathrobe. She looked back at Kaptu Z in her bed. He was fast asleep like men always seemed to be after they had made love. At least he was sleeping handsome, his square jaw and dark complexion set like a piece of art on the soft white pillow.

  A hushed yelp drew Natalie’s attention to the floor. Katpu was not the only one at rest in her room. She stared a while at the black Labrador twitching with a dream on the bedroom’s threadbare fawn carpet. Blast looked healthy and quite strong considering it had spent the past two weeks in a Cocoon 41. Its coat was shining, its body lean and muscled. According to Kaptu at that moment in time it was probably the most valuable dog in the world. She had worked out for herself that it was also no doubt one of the most dangerous dogs in the world to be around. Taking it for a walk in the park could easily end in a sniper’s bullet or even a missile if the poacher, Mas, was feeling less delicate. But if it was true Kaptu could use it to get a fix on the Meltman then a missile would almost seem like sensitivity. At the Spanish Club she had performed in front of the feared gangsters of the Pestasio Brotherhood with a concoction of old alcohol, lust and violence swimming through their heads and she had not registered a semblance of the dread she was feeling now. She knelt down beside Blast and stroked her head. It was soft and warm. Blast peered up at her a moment before her heavy eyelids fell closed again. There were other eyes, however, still open. Kaptu was staring.

  ‘She’s a good dog,’ murmured Natalie. ‘You ordered her to sleep and she sleeps. And when you play fetch with her, I’m going to be the stick. Is she good at that game? I ask because if you throw me at the Meltman, I may be joining him in never again seeing the light of day.’

  ‘Blast will find you and I’ll be right behind. It’s risky, but there’s no one else who can mark Meltman with scent.’

  ‘Where did you leave it?’

  ‘The scent? On the table.’

  Natalie went to the glass vial and lightly ran her fingers from top to bottom. She unscrewed the cap and sniffed the sweet burned sweet. ‘I thought the Devil’s fragrance would be a tad bitterer,’ she murmured and replaced the cap.

  ‘Meltman will find it bitter enough.’

  Natalie left the vial and walked to the bed. She ran her fingers through Kaptu’s hair, very much like she had been doing with Blast. ‘And you think you are good enough to kill him? You and whose army?’

  His defense is his labyrinth of tunnels. He has gone deeper and deeper into the darkness until he has felt safe. He will be flustered when he realises he has not gone deep enough.’

  Natalie chuckled. ‘I wonder if my mother has sent you. You certainly talk like her. I miss her terribly. For a long time I have been thinking of throwing acid on my face so that the Meltman would not desire me anymore. I even have the acid, in my own little glass vial. Until you showed up, I was sure there was no other way I could see my mother again. The only thing that has prevented me from doing it is the fear that my mother might reject me too.’

  ‘There would at least be a family resemblance to the Meltman.’

  ‘You’re right about that. Why don’t you just give me a poison? I’ll see that he gets it.’

  ‘The people I work for don’t countenance assassination.’

  Natalie’s voice darkened. ‘Delusions of niceness won’t get you far against the Meltman.’ She let herself calm down a moment. ‘At least that helps narrow it down. You have either been sent by the law or by my mother. No one else would care if I killed someone. Being tied to either of those two, I won’t have to worry what happens to you. It will simply be a case of you getting your just desserts.’

  ‘I get the feeling you’re becoming interested.’

  Natalie released her bathrobe to the floor and joined Kaptu between the sheets, her naked body pressing up against him. She kissed his lips hard and passionately. ‘I am. And you’ll be as close as this when I tag the Meltman?’

  ‘I wouldn’t be much good for fighting if I were as close as this.’

  Natalie nibbled his ear. ‘Only good for one thing. You’re right, not as close as this.’