“If … you ever…” he began and then stalled. Some things there really are no words for. We locked eyes for a moment. He nodded and I returned the nod.
“Yeah, man,” I said, “you too.”
* * *
I stood at the door to Grinner’s hospital room. He was asleep in the bed, his hands still heavily bandaged and a full beard covering his face. Christine, his tiny bird of a wife, was asleep next to him in one of those shitty recliners every hospital room had. She wore a Scooby-Doo T-shirt and had earbuds in. I could hear her phone playing music lightly. Little Turing, their baby son, was in a traveling crib near the windows. The lights were off and the TV was showing an old Star Trek with Captain Kirk fighting some jack-off in a giant lizard costume. I walked in and stood at the foot of the bed. I felt lead in my stomach. I looked at the crib, at Christine. I carefully laid a manila envelope on Grinner’s lap and then walked back to the door.
“Hey asshole,” Grinner rumbled. “’Bout fucking time you showed up. This caper have a happy ending?”
I turned.
“Better than my average, I have to say,” I said quietly.
“Yeah, you wake up Turing, Christine will have your ass.” He nodded toward the envelope. “What’s that?”
“The rest of your payment,” I said. “Bearer bonds, about twenty-five million in paper. Go out and buy yourself a new razor.”
He picked up the envelope and I saw a little frustration that he couldn’t open it. He set it down. “Okay,” he said. “You’re paid up ’til next job.”
“No next job,” I said. “No more. We’re quits, you and I.”
“Bullshit, what the fuck you talking about?” he said, still trying to keep it down to keep from waking Christine or the baby.
“Look at you,” I said. “You’re damaged fucking goods. What the fuck do you think I need with a hacker with no fucking hands? I got no more use for you.” I turned and headed out the door.
“Hey,” he said. I stopped, turned again. “It’s not your fault. No one put a fucking gun to my head to come out here, no one made me tell the guy with the gardening shears to go fuck himself. You and me, we’re solid, okay?”
“What about them?” I said. “What if fucking Ankou had come after them to get to me? What if you were sitting next to a crib looking at stumps where your baby’s hands should be? We solid then?”
Grinner shook his head. “You know, it’s a good thing the universe gave you all that power, because you are one dumb son of a bitch.” I frowned. “You still don’t get it, do you, asshole? You’re family. We’re family. We look out for each other, we keep each other safe best we can, and we don’t bail on one another. Shitty as this world can be, you take what you can get, y’know.” I stood there and I did feel pretty dumb.
“Would you guys stop arguing and kiss already,” Christine whispered in her sweet, lilting voice, “before you wake up the baby and I have to fucking kill both of you.”
“Besides,” Grinner said, picking up the envelope again, “this feels a little light.” We stood there for a second; neither us knew how to say it. Finally Grinner said, “Get the fuck out. You still owe me, hillbilly, don’t forget that.”
“Yeah,” I said, “I guess I do.” I walked over and kissed Christine on the forehead. She didn’t open her eyes, just made kissy lips at me. I walked back out the door. “Good luck jerking off,” I said. “See you around.”
“Count on it, asshole,” Grinner said.
* * *
I took a cab to LAX. The radio played “Under the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The city was beautiful at night, black glass and white light. If you didn’t look into the darkness too hard, you wouldn’t see the cracks. We drove by a porn theater, its sidewalk hustlers washed out in the buttery light of the marquee. I thought I saw Bambi for just a second, in her cheerleader costume. She blew me a kiss.
* * *
In the terminal I stuffed my canvas working bag in one of my storage lockers, one of my homes. No way I wanted to explain the shit in that bag to the TSA. I swapped out IDs and shut the locker. I found myself looking into the eyes of the Dragon.
“Just going to slink back off into the night, huh?” Lauren said. Anna was with her.
“Better than having you busting my balls about that job,” I said.
“Do you realize how many wizards all over the world would gnaw off their own arm for the chance to join the Nightwise?” she asked.
“Getting chosen to be the new Maven has really gone to your head,” I said. “Fine,” I sighed, “offer me the job.”
“Okay, you want the job?” she asked. I nodded.
“I’ll take it,” I said.
“Really?”
“Sure,” I said. “Now, I quit. That finally fucking settles that, doesn’t it?”
“Asshole,” she said shaking her head and smiling.
“You round up the rest of the Dugpa?” I asked.
“Once Gida rolled over on them, it was easy to pick them up and break up their networks,” Lauren said. “She and Max Winder were both exiled off Earth yesterday. There are a few minor operators that ran, and our other branches are looking into cults in other parts of the country, but they are finally shut down in L.A. Gida was one of the greatest mages of the age; what a waste.”
“Power doesn’t guarantee wisdom,” I said. “I’m the poster boy for that. Did she mention … a child that she had while in the cult, probably raised by another member?” Dragon gave me a cop-scan, sensing there was more to the question. She nodded warily.
“Yeah, she did say she had a kid, but that she managed somehow to not turn her over to the cult. She
