The Jehovah Contract

' she shouted at me so rapidly that she stumbled over the words. '

We can talk here, a lot faster than in real time. I can do this with anyone. Or so I thought. I used it to get money. The old farts thought they'd got laid and I didn't even have to touch them.

Honest.

That's why you caught me off guard. I couldn't grab your mind like that.

'

My voice came from somewhere else, as if I weren't talking. '

I got your distress call. You could have given us more explicit directions.

'

She looked terrified. '

What distress ca-

'

A scream shuddered around me. The grey fog vanished. I stood facing a screaming child. Zack still held his blade aloft, as if I'd only been gone an instant. I aimed with both hands and fired.

The pistol blasted, its report filling the chapel like a physical presence. Through the blinding flash and explosion, I saw Emil grab at his hand and howl.

'

Abbadon!

' he shrieked. 'You'll pay for this, Ammo!'

'Deduct it from my tab,' I said.

Ann glared at my client with a savage hatred. She made cutting motions in the air with her knife.

Emil stared at me, then at her. His lips curled back, and his voice reached straight up from the gutter.

'You! You fucking

mother!

I'll get you for this. Nobody betrays me!'

'I'm not betraying you,' I said, stepping up to the altar to lift the kid's shuddering body off the black velvet. 'I still intend to fulfill our contract. I'm getting new leads all the time. You've been an inspiration.'

He never took his eyes off Ann.

'You'll regret this alliance,' he said.

'I learned not to have any regrets,' I said, stepping down from the altar with my small burden. 'I've had a full life, and I don't give a damn what happens next. You're looking at the man who's going to pull the cosmic trigger and blow Number One into stardust.'

'You talk a hard line, Ammo. Let's see some delivery.'

He turned to storm out the side door of the chapel. I didn't want to imagine which direction he went from there. I'd glanced at the bullet wound through

his

hand.

It didn't bleed. Not a drop.

9

Isadora

'A thousand men yet none,' Ann said. She walked beside me, leading the way with the flashlight beam.

We departed the chapel, leaving the candles to flicker behind us. I wasn't worried about anything catching fire in this damp tomb. And if it did, the city fathers would probably applaud me for an act of urban renewal.

The flies were gone, the plaza silent.

I shifted the kid to piggyback when we reached the thigh-high water. 'She put on a pretty swell act for a virgin.'