After the long masquerade
The razors open
Come out and dance on the blade
So here's a tip of the hat
To all the melancholy people
So uncertain what they 're ready to feel
(Waitin' all night)
Diamond cut diamond
Silk cut steel
During the second verse Matt and Gloss came out, doing a sharp turn around the floor timed to the lyrics. It wasn't really interpretive. Doc supposed that might have made people nervous.
So here's a tip of the glove To all the solitary people Undercover in the world of the real (Hidin all night)
Diamond cut diamond Silk cut steel
Pavel was standing in the doorway, making a hand signal. Pa-trise nodded and looked away. Pavel stared, then went back into the foyer.
So here's a tip of the shoe To all the predatory people Overeager for the whip and the heel (Playin' all night) Diamond cut diamond Silk cut steel
Carmen and the dancers took their bows, disappeared through the curtains. The room lights came up.
Everybody turned around.
Two new people were standing just inside the door. One was a tall, dark-skinned woman with black-and- white hair. She had mirrored sunglasses above lips like a surgical incision. She was wearing a long trenchcoat of silver-gray leather over a loose white cotton suit; no shirt, a thin strip of metallic silver cloth around her long throat. Her hands were thrust into the coat pockets, not casually.
The other was the shortest elf Doc had ever seen, a man built like a bull, his white hair cut down to fuzz on his skull. He had sunglasses as well, heavy-framed black ones. Doc had to check again that he was really Trueblood, and not an albino human, but the ears were definite, as were the weirdly delicate hands-really weird, on those piston forearms. He wore a black team jacket for the Topanga Toons, heavy gray trousers bloused into cycle boots. His wide belt had a bunch of pouches and clips; a white rod, thin as a pencil and eighteen inches long, rode in a sleeve, and there were handcuffs hanging on the other side.
They were eops. They didn't look like any eops Doe had eer seen before, but he knew anyway.
Someone at another table said, in an awful fake British accent, 'I say, Patrise, we're nor being bally raided are we?'
'Relax, Nigel,' Patrise said, with complete unconcern. 'The
Mirada is not raided. Have another brandy.' He stood up. 'Officers. We haven't had the pleasure: my name is Patrise, and this is my establishment. Won't you please share our hospitality?'
The two cops came to the table. The tension level dropped a hairsbreadth.
'I'm Lieutenant Rico,' the woman said. 'This is my partner, Lieutenant Linn.' The words might have been steel blanks rolling out of the mill.
Patrise said, 'Newly arrived.'
'Special assignment. For the Shadow Cabinet.'
'Yes, who else. Do sit down. Is there something I can offer you? Coffee?'
Linn put his fingertips together. Rico said 'Coffee would be nice of you.' They sat down. Alvah played 'A Nightingale Sang,' and couples came out to dance. The club settled back.
Lieutenant Rico didn't talk much. Lieutenant Linn made an appreciative gesture when his coffee was served, but didn't talk at all.
Patrise said, 'You're on special assignment here, you say.'
'I did.'
'Not voluntary? I think I should be insulted for my city.'
'Is it your city, sir?'
'People make cities theirs. Robert Moses and Richard Daley in their ways, Samuel Johnson and Colette in theirs. Excuse me: and Robert Peel, Eugene Vidocq, and Eliot Ness in theirs.'
Rico said, 'And Capone and O'Banion and Moran?'
'Bugs or Colonel Sebastian?'
Rico turned her head. The silver glasses hid anything that might have been called expression. She said, 'You have a reputation as well, Mr. Patrise.'
'You're not looking to change employers.'
'The Cabinet wants the situation here dealt with.'
'Do you mean Whisper Who Dares?'
'I mean the situation.'
'That's an admirable desire of the Cabinet.'
'They want to avoid a gang war.'
'You didn't say 'at all costs'.'
'Should I have?'
'No. The Shadow Cabinet never writes a blank check to anybody.'
'That's true. It's also true that it takes two sides to have a war.'
'Oh, no, Lieutenant. There you're wrong. It takes far more than two sides. There are all those people behind the lines: the ones who support it, supply it, stand facing the walls when the colors pass, and generally say Why Not, all making their particular contributions. All the really good trades are triangle-plus.'
Patrise went on, his tone light, friendly, even merry. 'You're an officer of some experience, Lieutenant, you and your partner; your reputation has been here before you. How many Ruthins and Sil-verlords have you hauled off how many pinkies? How many Vamps and Snaketooths and miscellaneous starving freelance shiv artists have you scraped off the sidewalk, only to see them returned or replaced by your next turn around the beat? And has there ever been an end of shift when you took off your weapons and armor and said to yourself, 'At last the world is safe for law and justice'?'
Lieutenant Rico said pleasantly, 'I won't take that as an insult, sir.'
'Not meant as one. I am, as I am certain you and your partner are aware, a voting member of the Shadow Cabinet. Which means that the other members were confident I would not be outvoted. So which arch-ironists pulled you off that unending duty to visit my city and, you'll excuse me, deal with a gang war?'
He had never raised his voice. If anyone beyond the table had heard him above Alvah's music, they had paid no attention.
Rico said, 'Thank you for the coffee, Mr. Patrise.' She started to rise.
'There's another act onstage in a moment. I think it would be for the best if you stayed that much longer.'
'Is that a threat, sir?'
'I never make threats. It's a promise.'
Rico stood quite still, drumming her fingers on the chair back. Then she sat, Linn following. The lights dimmed.
Fay sang.
It was a happy song-upbeat, at least. Doc didn't recognize the lyric-but you could never get up and dance to Fay's music. Something suspended all action deep down. Something about The Voice in joy was nearly unbearable. Doc realized that he had never heard her sing a really sad song. People might die of that.
Or, he thought, of joy.
When she finished, Rico was entirely still; Linn's head was bent, his eyes closed, an ivory Buddha. Finally Rico said, 'Thank you for your hospitality, sir.'
'You're welcome always.'
The detectives left. As always after Phasia's set, others began drifting out as well.
Patrise said, 'So what do you think, Stagger?'
'Linn is a dynamics master, no question about it. No indications from Rico; she might have a touch of pure receive, but I doubt it. Pickups tend to be brittle. She didn't strike me as brittle.'
