“Admit it. You used canned olives in your martinis.” Nothing. Tough room. Maybe Wells is right and it’s time to pick a side. If I’d said yes to him, do you think any of these dour cocksuckers would have cracked even a polite smile? I’m not holding my breath. Lucifer wouldn’t have laughed either, but at least he wouldn’t be morally superior about it. We’re just bugs on God’s windshield. No one owns me. These are the good and righteous people who sat on their fat asses and let Mason and Parker murder Alice and send me to Hell. And then they let him waltz away. I might not have been a good guy before, but I loved someone and I wasn’t broken into a million little pieces. I wasn’t as hollow and dead inside as a locust husk. I know whose side I’m on. Mine. I walk outside and leave through the front gate, Wells’s gunsels trailing behind me like a line of black ducklings.
THE PHONE RINGS four times. I’m about to hang up when she answers. “Hey. What are you doing?” “Nothing important. I’m reading the Light Bringer script, trying to learn my lines. What do you think it tells us about the world that I have less to say as Eve than I do when I make my pornographic films?” “Want to go talk to a guy with a rep for using Drifters to do his dirty work?” “Drifters?” “Zeds. Golems. The dead boys from last night.” “Ah. Prazdny, you mean.” “Zed has less syllables, so I win. Do you want to meet the guy?” “Who is it?” “Cabal Ash.” She spits out something in Czech. I can’t understand it, but I don’t think it’s “yippee!” “Sure.” “Where are you?” “At Simon’s. Where are you?” “At Max Overload. I could get a car and pick you up.” “No thank you. Simon told me about you and cars. I’ll pick you up.” “Okay. Don’t forget to bring the toy you were going to show me. The Drifter de-boner.” “Ah. I was waiting for you to say something sexy. I thought for a moment that all you remembered about the night was the business behind the bar.” “I remember the business inside the bar, too. You always remember losing your virginity.” “Good boy. I’ll see you in half an hour.” “I’ll be out front.” Kasabian looks up as I thumb the phone off. While I was talking he was pretending to work. “That was her, wasn’t it?”
