I used to spend time with that body naked, Bugsy thought with a pang of regret. But then he noticed the fedora scrap poking out of her coat pocket.
“Hey, Ellen,” he said. “You look great.”
“Thanks,” she said.
Noel Matthews, sitting by the window, sniffed significantly and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh,” Bugsy said. “Noel. Hey. That thing where I blew your cover in Paris?”
“You mean revealing me to the most powerful ace in the world, putting myself and my family at risk, and beginning a global campaign of extortion with my death as its only goal?”
“Yeah, that,” Bugsy said. “ Really sorry.”
Gardener laughed, a slow, thick wheeze. Ellen took the clawlike hand. “Bugs,” Jerusha said, shaking her head, “you haven’t changed a bit.”
“This is a mistake,” Babel said. “Lohengrin, don’t do this.”
“Okay,” Bugsy said. “Do what? What are we doing? Why am I here? Klaus called me and said that I should come over…”
“Rusty,” Jerusha said. “I want to see Rusty again. I promised
… I said I’d stay alive for him. I don’t want that to be a lie.”
Bugsy nodded, quickly doing some mental recalculation. Jerusha and Rustbelt? So maybe he and Simoon/Cameo/Nick hadn’t been the world’s least likely couple after all.
“Rusty’s still in Africa,” Ellen said. “The best we can tell, he’s leading a popular rebellion against the Nshombos’ main lab outside Bunia.”
“Bubbles is there as well, somewhere,” Lohengrin said. “Mr. Matthews has agreed to transport Gardener to the site as a strictly humanitarian gesture of goodwill.”
“Careful, old boy,” Noel said. “You’re starting to sound like an administrator.”
“This,” Barbara Baden said, “is the most intensely unprofessional, inappropriate plan I have ever seen.”
“I’ll tell you about Vegas sometime,” Bugsy said. “Let me just make sure I’ve got this all straight. The UN is ignoring this child ace project. We are prohibited from going in to, say, help Rusty lead an unsanctioned vigilante action even though that’s exactly what he did for us in Egypt. So instead, we’re out of the kindness of our hearts shipping Jerusha from her deathbed… no offense…”
“None taken,” Gardener said.
“… to a war zone. With perhaps the intention that Cameo and I go along ‘to help out’ and if we should just happen to hook up with Bubbles, the world’s most unkillable ace, and accidentally get involved with Rusty’s war to stop these child ace motherfuckers and lose Tom Weathers all his new ace allies… Well, it wouldn’t be like we went in there looking for trouble, right? I mean who could see that coming?”
“Yes,” Babel said, a note of triumph. Cameo didn’t speak. Lohengrin’s gaze was challenging. Only Noel seemed as amused by the whole thing as Bugsy was.
“Sure, what the hell,” Bugsy said.
“You’ve got to be joking,” Babel said, aghast.
35
Thursday,
December 31
New Year’s Eve
Bunia
People’s Paradise of Africa
Bunia was a fume of smoke and gunpowder. Bunia was tumbled buildings and burning husks. Bunia was the stench of death and destruction.
Jerusha stumbled as Noel released her, blinking in the sunlight. “Holy fuck,” she heard Bugsy comment behind her. Ahead, there were people stumbling through smoke and ruin. There were also several bodies, their outlines fuzzed by clouds of black flies. The husk of a tank sat in the middle of the road leading into the town. There was little left of the vehicle except the caterpillar treads and plastic bits, and the wreckage was half lost in a mound of orange-red powder.
Wally’s work. It had to be.
“You’re sure this is where you want to be?” Noel asked. She felt him touch her arm and pulled away from him angrily.
“Wally said he’d be here. He is here.”
“Fine,” Noel answered. He pulled off his dark glasses. His eyes were molten gold. “Bugsy, can you send a few wasps out, see if you can find Rustbelt?”
Jerusha was tired of waiting. Tired of half measures when she was so close. “Wally!” she yelled, as loudly as she could, her voice shrill and the effort tearing at her throat.
Noel hissed and looked as if he were about to jump somewhere else, his gaze sweeping around them. Cameo’s eyes went round and large, her hand to her mouth. Wasps scattered from Bugsy’s neck. “Are you insane ?” Noel asked. “You have no idea if-”
“Jerusha?”
The faint call came from farther up in the town. She saw a crowd of people there dressed in ragtag fashion, some of them brandishing guns. There was a much larger figure in their midst, and Jerusha laughed-sobbed with relief at the sight of him. The rust on his body was terrible and thick, and she could see bandaged wounds and blood on him. But it was Wally. Alive.
She started walking as quickly as she could toward him, hating the old woman’s shuffle that was all she could manage, hating that after only a few steps she had to stop to rest. He was staring at her as if she were some apparition, as if he didn’t recognize her. There was a child standing alongside, a young girl; he had one arm around her protectively. “Jerusha?” he called again, and now he stirred. “Cripes, Jerusha!”
He limbered into motion like a locomotive, gathering speed, wrapped her up in his arms, lifting her, and she was laughing and he was laughing and she didn’t care that it hurt. She hugged his massive head, she kissed his hard metal mouth. “Ow,” she said finally. “Put me down, Wally. Ow… Really. Please.”
He seemed to realize how tightly he was holding her, and his eyes went wide. He put her down gently and held her at arm’s length. His gaze traveled up and down her skeletal body and settled on her thin face. “Jerusha… what’s happened to you? How are the kids?”
“It’s a long story. But the kids… the kids are fine. I got most of them out. Most…” She stopped, seeing again the faces of Efia, of Hafiz, of Naadir, of Pili and Chaga. Helplessly, she started to cry, and Rusty folded her into his iron arms again. She sobbed into his chest, then pushed away, wiping at her eyes. “I’m fine,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with me that some home-cooked meals can’t fix,” she told him, hoping that he wouldn’t hear the lie.
She glanced back to Noel, at Cameo and Bugsy. Cameo was smiling, and it was impossible to tell what Bugsy might be thinking, but Noel stared at her accusingly. Jerusha realized that her laughter had again morphed into helpless, joyous tears. “Wally, I missed you so much. I’ve been so scared for you, for both of us…” She could say nothing more, only put her arms around him. She felt his massive hands on her back, holding her as if she were a stick that might break if he pressed too hard. She kissed him again. “You stayed alive for me.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I did.” He sniffed. He seemed to notice the trio behind her then, and the steam-shovel jaw crinkled into a stiff grin. “Hey, Bugsy! Cameo! Noel! You guys came, too? Cool.” Then he was looking at Jerusha once more, and the concern was back on his face. “The kids? They’re really okay? You’re okay?”
“Yes,” she told him. “They’re okay. Noel helped me get them to the States.”
He sniffed again, nodding at Noel. “Good. That’s really good. I missed you, Jerusha. I tried everything I could to keep those leopard fellas away from you.”
“You did great, Wally.” She touched the bandages around his arm and gave a laugh that was a half sob. “We’re a heck of a pair, aren’t we?”
“We’re back together,” he said. “That’s good, isn’t it?” He looked at her as if he were half afraid she was