Chapter 27: Revelation
Chapter 28: Terra Cognita
Chapter 29: Queen of the Angels
Acknowledgments
1 Assassin
I've seen it all and I've done half of it. Frankly, I was ready to cash it in. So the word from the doctor didn't hit me too hard. I was halfway through the
when Evangeline, his nurse, poked her gorgeous head into the waiting room and glanced toward me. Her fawn eyes misted as though she had just said good-bye to a beloved teddy bear.
'Mr. Ammo? Dr. La Vecque will see you now.'
I switched off the newspaper plaque and slipped it into my breast pocket. Passing by her, I reached to pat the small of her back just about where her avalanche of platinum hair ended in a cloud of curls. She didn't smile this time the way she used to. That clinched it.
'Learn to take it colder, Evvie. See?' I grinned at her.
She looked me in the eye, her tension unwinding. I gave her another pat and made my way to the examination room.
Dr. La Vecque treated most of the aging bums that hung around Fiqueroa and Fourth. I included myself in the clientele mostly because his office was just a few floors below mine.
The office reflected the social status of his patients-all the needles and drugs were kept under lock and key, same for even the most inexpensive equipment. His office and mine were located in the worst section of Old Downtown- the Arco Tower. The one that's still standing, so to speak.
After about twenty minutes of moist palms, I heard La Vecque rummaging for my file in the little tray outside the door. He entered with less of a greeting than a mortician gives a stiff.
'Sit down.' He eased his birdlike frame into a ripped swivel chair next to the examination table.
I sat on the butcher paper that covered the table and stared at him.
He was bald, beak-nosed, and looked as if he didn't take much of his own medical advice, or maybe he took too much of it. He gave the impression of being a practiced, controlled drug user. He tossed the folder he carried onto the counter, rubbed the bridge of his raw nose, and sighed.
After a moment he said, 'Do you want me to ease into this, Dell?'
'No.'
'You've got about three to six months. It's a form of cancer called osteogenic sarcoma and it's metastatic. All through your bones.'
'Sounds painful.'
'It will be. More and more as time goes by. I can give you something to help ease it-'
'Forget it, Doc. I won't end my life as a junkie.'
He looked hurt for a moment, then let it slide. Shaking his head, he leaned back to stare at me with a technician's impartial gaze. 'The State Institute for Cancer Research has a center for osteogenic sarcoma. They could treat you for free. You probably wouldn't get treatment with something as expensive as monoclonal antibodies, but I'm sure-'
'Yeah,' I said. 'I'd wind up wearing a plastic skeleton impregnated with cobalt sixty. No thanks. I'll go when I go.'
He raised what eyebrows he had. 'You're a religious man, are you?'
'I'm a man. I believe in staying that way till I die.' I scooted off the table.
He looked up at me as though I'd robbed him of some petty cash. That expression reminded me of why he chose to conduct his practice in the middle of Skid Row.
'It's this building, Dell. They never did get rid of all the radiation.'
