Christ's sake-' He didn't get any farther, for upon speaking the holy name his mouth burst into flame.
Shrike cursed as he attempted to beat out the flames with both hands. I sighed and handed him my mug of aqua sanguis. He downed the contents in a single gulp, extinguishing the flames but leaving his tongue and lips burnt and blackened. He took another long drag with his cigarette and this time when his body re-solidified his mouth was healed.
'You really need to learn how to watch your language,' I told him for perhaps the hundredth time since we met. He just grinned at me like he always does and not for the first time I wondered if Shrike 'accidentally' spoke holy names as simply another aspect of an eccentric street persona. After all, the man was nothing if not theatrical in his presentation.
'Well, at least we're armed,' I said. I'd felt naked without some sort of weaponry on my person, and even though what Shrike had procured for us wasn't top of the line by a long shot, it was a damn sight better than nothing, and I felt a lot better than I had upon first walking into Westerna's.
'So what's the word on the street?' I asked Shrike. 'Is anyone aware that I'm a wanted zombie?'
Shrike shook his head. 'I don't think so. You know how it works. When the Adjudicators pull someone off the street and toss them into Tenebrus, word may never get out. As far as their friends and family are concerned, they've just gone missing – and since there are any number of reasons why someone might end up with their face on a milk carton in this city-'
'No one's ever sure what happened to them,' I finished. Good. Bad enough that the Sentinels were looking for me, but as long as no one else was aware that I'd been sentenced to Tenebrus and escaped, I could Westerna's Mind's Eye projectors were showing a video from a homegrown group called the Hunchback Forty, when all of a sudden they went black, taking the music with them. The club's patrons booed and hissed, and since more of them were vampires, they had hissing down to an art. But the bartender shouted for everyone to be quiet.
'Acantha's just come on the Mind's Eye with a special broadcast,' he said. 'I'm going to switch over to it.'
There were murmurs of surprise and delight from the crowd, but Devona and I looked at each other and said the same thing: 'Uh-oh.'
The Mind's Eyes activated once more, this time showing Acantha's transmission. As usual, since the image was captured by the camerasnakes on her head, Acantha herself wasn't visible, but the voice came through loud and clear. The person her cameras were trained on was very familiar to me, as it had been less than a day since I'd seen him.
Quillion.
The voice, however, was Acantha's.
'Hello, Nekropolis! You're live on the scene with Acantha! I'm standing inside the Nightspire talking with Brother Quillion, the First Adjudicator. Thank you so much for granting me this exclusive interview, Quillion. I'm sure my viewers are aware of how rarely Adjudicators speak to the media.'
Implied in that was a big screw you to the city's other media outlets: The Tome, the Daily Atrocity, Bedlam 66.6 and others – as Acantha publicly gloated over her 'exclusive.'
Quillion, looking stiff and uncomfortable on camera, nodded.
'You're welcome, Acantha.'
'I know you're a busy man, so let's get right down to it. As I understand it, you have a message you wish to deliver to my viewers.'
'That's right.' Quillion's gaze shifted slightly upward, and he was now speaking directly to Acantha's camerasnakes, and thus to everyone in the city who was watching Acantha's unscheduled broadcast which, given the gorgon's popularity, was doubtless one hell of a lot of people.
I had a good idea what was coming next.
'Citizens of Nekropolis,' Quillion began. 'Many of you are no doubt familiar with Matthew Richter, a selfwilled zombie, who for several years has worked in the Sprawl as a private investigator. During that time he was reputed to have served his clients well. In fact, Acantha recently featured a brief interview with him on her program.'
'Yes, I did, Quillion,' Acantha broke in, more because she loved being on a first name basis with an Adjudicator than out of any real need to confirm his statement.
Quillion went on.
'Whatever Mr. Richter's past deeds, he was recently found guilty of a very serious crime, the nature of which I am not at liberty to divulge at this time, and he was sentenced to Tenebrus. As impossible as it sounds, Mr. Richter somehow managed to escape and is believed to be at large. I've alerted every Sentinel in the city to be on the lookout for Mr. Richter, but I wish to bring him back into custody as swiftly as possible. For that reason, I'm offering a substantial reward to anyone who can capture Mr. Richter and bring to him the Nightspire…' He paused. 'Relatively intact.'
'When you say substantial…' Acantha said.
'Five hundred thousand darkgems,' Quillion said, speaking the obscenely large number without so much as blinking.
I was impressed by the size of the reward Quillion was offering. I hadn't realized I was so dangerous. Evidently Acantha was impressed too for she let out a low whistle and the image of Quillion started shaking. I guessed her camerasnakes had become overly excited by the Adjudicator's news. Acantha made a few soothing sounds to calm her pets and the image steadied.
'You heard it here first, folks,' the gorgon said, sounding far too pleased with herself. After the way I'd humiliated her at Sinsation she had to be absolutely loving this.
'And for those of you who need a reminder of what Matthew Richter looks like…'
Quillion's image faded from Westerna's Mind's Eyes to be replaced by a still image of me. It was one from my disastrous interview with Acantha, pulled from her memory, no doubt. She'd selected a moment toward the end of the interview, right before I'd hit her with Anansi's Web. I was scowling and my eyes blazed with anger. I looked like I was ready to kill her.
Shrike turned to me. 'I think you should probably avoid speaking to reporters in the future.' He glanced back at the frozen image of my face. 'Seriously.'
The picture changed again, this time to an image of Acantha herself. Off to the right the extended length of a camerasnake curving away from her head was visible and I guessed one of her pets had stretched itself out in front of her face so it could film her.
'Matthew Richter: once thought to be a hero, now a wanted fugitive,' she said. 'How long will he remain at large? With five hundred thousand darkgems as a reward for his capture, my guess is not very long.' She gave her audience a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile. 'This is Acantha, saying good night and good hunting.'
The image went to black and several seconds later the Hunchback Forty returned to Westerna's Mind's Eyes.
Devona, Shrike and I sat for a moment, staring silently at the closest Mind's Eye. After a bit Devona turned to me, her normally pale complexion ashen.
'This is bad,' she said.
'Extremely,' Shrike added.
I would've loved to disagree with them, but I couldn't.
'Given the size of the reward Quillion is offering, every professional bounty hunter and mercenary in the city will be out looking for you,' Devona said.
'Not to mention all the amateurs who'll be tempted by that money,' Shrike said. 'Hell, if you weren't my friend, I'd try to collect the reward myself.'
'I appreciate your self restraint,' I said drily. But I knew they were both right. The whole damned city would be trying to find me – which is exactly what Quillion wanted, and Keket too, mostly likely.
'What are you going do?' Shrike asked.
'Try to clear my name. What else can I do? Not that I have the faintest idea where to start. We don't have any solid suspects and I have no idea what the object stolen from Edrigu is, let alone why someone would want it.'
'It's obvious why they chose you,' Devona said. 'Or rather, why they chose your body. You carry the mark of Edrigu on your hand. Whoever stole your body and animated it knew that mark would not only gain you entrance
