you, if any. You will speak only when spoken to, you will perform all tasks given to you. You will cast your eyes to the ground when Mr. Capone or any of us pass. Should you disobey any of these orders, you will be gagged, tied to a cinder block, and hurled out into the living world, where you will sink quickly to the center of the earth. Do you understand these things as they've been explained to you? Do you need anything repeated?'
They waited for Mary's response, but she said nothing, just glared at them, refusing to cast her eyes the slightest bit downward.
The gray-suited thug got right in her face and shouted, 'I said, do you need anything repeated?'
'No,' she finally said. 'How long will I be imprisoned here?' 'No questions!' he shouted. Then he said, 'You'll stay like this as long as he wants you to. Maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe forever.'
Speedo had been right-if only she had listened to him. She could only hope that Pugsy Capone would be curious enough to come see her himself-if only to gloat over his victory. A face-to-face encounter could only help her situation.
Mary finally cast her eyes down, and, satisfied, the gray-suited thug stepped back. 'Your blimp is now the property of the Death Boss,' he said, 'and so are all your Afterlights.'
Mary tugged at her chains but it did no good. Her miscalculation had not only cost Mary her own freedom, but her children as well. The anguish stabbed as deep as a blade in living flesh, but she would not let it show. Instead, she said with all the defiance she could muster, 'It's not a blimp. Any imbecile can tell you it's a rigid airship.'
To which the largest of the thugs calmly replied, 'It is whatever Pugsy Capone says it is.'
Then they left her there to stew in her own intentions, chained to a flying statue that couldn't fly.
Pugsy Capone, Death Boss of Chicago, Lord of the White City, was a very shrewd Afterlight. Shrewd enough to have trapped almost a thousand Afterlights under his 'protection.' He was a spirit who not only saw afterlife as a competition, but as a competition where points were scored by creating the greatest amount of misery. The thought of dethroning the infamous 'Mary Queen of Snots,' was the stuff of dreams for him, and had a very high point value, indeed. However, as Mary had hoped, the thrill of capturing her eventually gave way to his curiosity. It took a while-mainly because he had a new toy: the Hindenburg, which he insisted on calling a blimp, and no one dared to correct him-not even Speedo, who was told he'd be sleeping with the magma if he didn't pilot Pugsy anywhere he wanted to go.
It took a week for him to tire of tooling around the airspace above Chicago, and then his thoughts turned to the legendary girl sealed away in the Hall of Transportation. He would not lower himself to go to her; however, he had his three favored foot soldiers bring her to him.
After a week, Mary's spirit had not been broken. It would take more than shackles and solitude to humble Mary Hightower-although there were a few times that she became a bit delirious, and fantasized about Nick putting their battle aside, and barreling into Chicago on his train to rescue her. Her own fantasy infuriated her, because Mary was not, nor would ever be, a damsel in distress.
Finally Pugsy's boys arrived, unshackled her, and led her out into daylight, toward the giant Ferris wheel. She held herself high all the way there. Her presence there drew crowds that were quickly dispersed when the thugs gave them the evil eye.
The Ferris wheel was more than a mere amusement park ride. Its long rectangular gondolas were the size of railroad cars, each one capable of carrying dozens of people to vertigo-inducing heights. The door to the lowermost gondola was open, and Mary was led inside to what must have been the Death Boss's throne room.
The throne was a red leather armchair, and the boy who sat in it was not at all what Mary expected. Pugsy Capone was a chubby thirteen-year-old in a pinstriped double-breasted suit that was noticeably tight. Mary wondered whether Pugsy immediately decided that since he was stuck wearing the clothes of a gangster, he ought to be one, or if he had simply forgotten who he was, and so defined himself by his attire. Mary suspected he had been in Everlost at least fifty years, by the style of his suit.
It was easy to see how Pugsy had gotten his name. He had unpleasantly bulging eyes, and his nose was pushed up and back, exposing his nostrils, as if he had died while pressing his face up against a window. He looked so much like a pug dog, Mary half expected him to bark.
His thugs took their place behind him, and folded their arms, taking on a posture of invulnerability and arrogance. There was also someone else present-a girl who lurked in a corner, looking on with mild interest. She had waves of unkempt blond hair filled with nettles and thorns, skin so tan it was difficult to determine her race, and a gaudy pendant with a sky-blue gem hanging around her neck. Mary found the girl's cool gaze more disconcerting than Pugsy's bug-eyed glare.
'I'm willing to listen to your pleas of mercy,' Pugsy said in a voice that would forever crack between octaves, having not finished changing while he was alive.
'I'm sorry to disappoint you,' said Mary, 'but you'll be hearing no pleas of mercy from me.'
Pugsy shifted uncomfortably in his big armchair.
'What have you done with my children?' Mary asked.
The thug in the gray suit spoke up. 'Who said you could ask questions?' But Pugsy put up his hand to silence him. 'I've put them in storage until I decide what to do with them. As for you, I was thinking it might be fun to chain you to the center of the Ferris wheel and watch you go round and round. What do you think?'
Mary fought back her urge to scold him for being such a thoroughly vile little urchin, and instead offered him her kindest smile.
'Come now,' she said, 'surely the Death Boss of Chicago is above such pettiness. You must realize I'm far more useful as an ally than an ornament.'
That gave him pause for thought. If he hadn't realized it before, he was ready to consider it now. Here was the chance Mary had hoped for!
'You've built quite a civilization here in Chicago,' Mary told him. 'You are to be congratulated.'
'Flattery from the Sky Witch! You really must want something from me!' He chuckled softly, and his henchmen took it as their cue to chuckle loudly.
'Do not call me that,' she said, forcefully but respectfully. 'My name is Mary Hightower, and it is the only name I answer to,'
'I know your name,' said Pugsy, with an air of disgust in his voice. 'So are you gonna tell me why you trespassed on my property?'
'I believe it's best if we discuss matters of importance alone,' Mary said. His thugs looked ready to stand their ground, and Mary noticed the girl in the corner smile, perhaps impressed with Mary's boldness.
Pugsy looked to his thugs. 'Send us up to the top, and wait for me on the ground,' he told them.
'Yes, boss,' they said, ever obedient.
Then he turned to the girl. 'Why don't you go skinjack someone, and get today's sports scores.'
It was the first thing that Pugsy said that really caught Mary by surprise.
'Whatever you say,' said the girl with a toss of her crazy, nettle-nested hair, then she sauntered out behind the three thugs, eyeing Mary all the way.
In a moment the Ferris wheel grinded into motion, and the large car began a long, slow arc up and away.
'You trust a skinjacker?' Mary asked him.
'Sure,' said Pugsy, 'she comes in very useful-no matter what you say in your books.'
'So, you've read my books, then?'
'Only what I could stomach.'
'You should attempt to 'stomach' more,' Mary suggested. 'I've shared all the things I've discovered here-all the things I know.'
'Yeah, well I know things too.'
Pugsy stood up and went to a window to admire the view. Mary knew he wasn't very tall, but she didn't realize how short and stocky he was until he stood up.
'So now that we're alone, are you gonna tell me why you're here?'
Mary decided to take the direct approach. 'I propose an alliance between you and me. A partnership between equals.'
That made him laugh. 'Equals? How do you figure that?' And he gestured out the window at his vast land holdings. 'I have no need to look,' she said. 'My view from the Hindenburg is just as grand as yours.'
'Oh,' said Pugsy, 'but this view is priceless.'
