“You remember that brunette we saw in Wisconsin?”
“Tristan,” Prophet said wistfully. “Her and that buffet put Shimmy’s on the map for me. She’s working at the place I’m staking out right now. At least she was the last time I was there.”
“When was that?” Paige asked.
“About an hour ago. Usually the places that never close are on the nasty side, but this one bucks that trend.”
Paige turned the key in the ignition, wishing she had Cole’s GPS to tell her how to get to wherever the bounty hunter was located. “Where are you?”
“About fifteen minutes north of Albany.”
“Albany…Missouri?”
“There’s an Albany, Missouri? I’m in Albany, New York. You heard of that one?”
Paige’s hand dropped away from the steering wheel. “How long ago did you say Tristan was there?”
“About an hour, give or take ten minutes. Why?”
“And you’re sure it was her?”
“I wish I lived in a world that was filled with women who could be mistaken for her. Trust me. It was Tristan.” Just to be thorough, Prophet described what Tristan had been wearing. If the Tristan in Bunn’s was a twin of the one in Albany, both women had also coordinated their wardrobe.
Chapter 15
The rest of the day went by in a rush. Paige used her phone’s Internet connection to put together a list of other strip clubs in the area so she and Ned could take a quick tour. There wasn’t a purple A-frame in the bunch. They also didn’t get the slightest itch from their scars. They hit Jack in the Box for lunch, and although she had a hankering for fried tacos, Paige ordered a burger and curly fries instead. Indulging in that particular brand of spicy delight without Cole just seemed like the culinary equivalent of adultery.
Upon arriving back at Ned’s place, she went upstairs to check on Daniels. The Nymar looked up from his burner and hot plate to give her a quick wave as he announced, “I think I’ve made a breakthrough!”
“It’s already been a long day. Don’t make me guess.”
The Nymar used a pair of tongs to pick up a metal bowl from atop the hot plate and swirled its contents around. “I’ve come up with a brilliant switch in ideologies where your ink is concerned. Instead of trying to inhibit the natural tendencies of the reaction between the Blood Blade chips, colloid intermediaries, and the receiver’s own plasma, I think the shapeshifter enzymes should be allowed to run their course.”
“But that defeats the whole purpose,” Paige said. “That ink is supposed to give someone
“The ink will work,” Daniels said as he continued to mix, “but just not like you thought it would. Instead of trying to concentrate it so heavily, a diluted mixture will be used as more of a general enhancement. You should see increased durability, greater speed, and thanks to the Blood Blade, the receiver’s blood won’t be permanently tainted. Your delivery system into the muscle tissue will dole out the effects over a longer amount of time.”
“What about a cure for my arm?”
“That’s not so good. Nothing has proven effective on that newest sample. Whatever was done to the metal in the Blood Blade wasn’t made to be reversible.” He took one of the metallic chips from a Baggie on the counter. “Watering down the ink in the way I suggested will keep what happened to you from happening to anyone else, but it’s too late for my holdout plan to even be worth trying.”
“And your holdout plan was?”
Without a twitch, Daniels replied, “To physically excise all of the tissue that’s currently tainted by the first batch of ink.”
“You mean cut off my arm?”
“No! Only about sixty-five percent of it. By the way, do you have any of that first batch of ink left?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll want that back to dispose of it.”
Looking at the metal chips on the counter, she asked, “What about his idea to mix these into the varnish for our weapons?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Daniels replied. “The first batch of varnish is in the paint mixer right now. The wood may not be as pliable after the process, but your weapons would be imbued with a good portion of the Blood Blade’s potency. It’s a classic gaming trade-off,” the Nymar added with a snorting laugh. “Power versus speed. Cole would’ve liked that one. Will he be back soon?”
“He should be released by tonight. Did you already give up on studying Peter Walsh?”
Daniels’s eyes widened, but quickly shrank down to their normal size. “There was something else I wanted to say about the Blood Blade…but it…escapes me right now.”
“Focus, Daniels,” Paige said as she snapped her fingers a few inches from the Nymar’s sweaty face.
“Oh, right. The uh…Walsh remains. His spore was definitely contaminated by some sort of natural chemical. Possibly something from an exotic species of flower or even snake venom. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pharmaceutical and it’s not in any records that I’ve been able to locate. Before you ask, I do have other sources looking into it.”
“Could it infect humans?”
After thinking it over for less than half a minute, Daniels said, “Not this particular strain, but it could easily mutate into something more virulent. The outer layers of flaky tissue on the tentacles contains a very high concentration of what could very conceivably be a catalyst for…” Seeing Paige’s eyes glaze over, he sputtered and eventually came up with, “There was a reaction when combined with the substance taken from Peter’s mouth. You know, that muddy stuff?”
Paige nodded.
“Typically, I like to mix and match when I have so many different unknown elements to work with. There are occasionally explosions to deal with, but there are other times that prove rather telling.” Daniels quickly shifted his attention to the rack of test tubes he’d set up near the table that bore Peter Walsh’s body wrapped in several layers of plastic. The fluid inside those tubes ranged from partially cloudy to blacker than black. “For example, when this muddy substance is combined with the substance found
“Is it safe for you to be so close to it?”
Daniels looked at the test tubes and waved them off. “Oh sure. It needs to be ingested to do me any harm. The really interesting part was when I tested the ashen substance on the tentacles themselves. It seems to be an ideal carrier for spreading Pestilence among humans.”
Hopping back a step, Paige slapped a hand over her mouth. “Jesus! Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
“Because you’ve been breathing this stuff since you first came into contact with this man. Besides, I tested that sample of your arm and there are no toxins whatsoever. I tested Ned as well and he’s just as healthy. It seems the healing serum in your system is the best possible immunization you could ask for, which is fortunate since the Mud Flu is a less aggressive strain of Pestilence that has adapted itself quite well to human physiology.”
“Will our healing serum work as a cure for everyone as well as it works for us?”
“Doubtful, since Skinners literally have the serum running through their bloodstream. Peter had some of the Mud Flu substance on his face, which would be peculiar, since it’s different than the substance that killed him. Did he come into contact with someone infected with the Mud Flu?”
“One of the guys in the strip club we just came from had that stuff on his face, and Peter fed on him.”
“Then we may have found out how Pestilence is being spread!” Daniels declared excitedly. “It’s a
“Those Nymar we found in East St. Louis said another Skinner has been kidnapping Nymar and experimenting
