Nightingale lament

'Really? Congratulations. Now piss off and play with the traffic. We are very definitely closed, not open, and why are you still standing there?'

There's nothing easier to outmanoeuver than a pushy simulacrum with a sense of its own self-importance. I gave the face my best condescending smile. 'I'm John Taylor, here to speak with Rossignol. Open the door, or I'll do all kinds of horrible things to you. On purpose.'

'Well, pardon me for existing, Mr. I'm going to be Somebody someday. I've got.my orders. No-one gets in unless they're on the list, or they know the pass­word, and it's more than my job's worth to make ex­ceptions. Even if I felt like it. Which I don't.'

'Walker sent me.' That one was always worth a try.

People were even more scared of Walker than they were of me. With very good reason.

The face in the door sniffed loudly. 'You got any proof of that?'

'Don't be silly. Since when have the Authorities ever bothered with warrants?'

'No proof, no entry. Off you go now. Hop like a bunny.'

'And if I don't?'

Two large gnarled hands burst out of the wood, reaching for me. There was no way of dodging them, so I didn't try. Instead, I stepped forward inside their reach and jabbed one hand into the wooden face, firmly pressing one of my thumbs into one of its eyes. The face howled in outrage. I kept up the pressure, and the hands hesitated.

'Play nice,' I said. 'Lose the arms.'

They snapped back into the wood and were gone. I took my thumb out of the eye, and the face pouted at me sullenly.

'Big bully! I'm going to tell on you! See if I don't!'

'Let me in,' I said. 'Or there will be ... unpleas­antness.'

'You can't come in without saying the password!'

'Fine,' I said. 'What's the password?'

'You have to tell me.'

'I just did.'

'No you didn't!'

'Yes I did. Weren't you listening, door? What did I just say to you?'

'What?' said the face. 'What?'

'What's the password?' I said sternly.

'Swordfish!'

'Correct! You can let me in now.'

The door unlocked itself and swung open. The face had developed a distinct twitch and was muttering querulously to itself as the door closed behind me. The club lobby looked very plush, or at least, what lit­tle of it I could see beyond the great hulking ogre that was blocking my way. Eight feet tall and almost as wide, he wore an oversized dinner jacket and a bow tie. The ogre flexed his muscled arms menacingly and cracked his knuckles loudly. One look at the low fore­head and lack of chin convinced me there was ab­solutely no point in trying to talk my way past this guardian. So I stepped smartly forward, holding his eyes with mine, and kicked him viciously in the un­mentionables. The ogre whimpered once, his eyes rolled right back in their sockets, and he fell over sideways. He hit the lobby floor with a crash and stayed there, curled into a ball. The bigger they are, the easier some targets are to hit. I walked unchal­lenged past the ogre and all the way across the lobby to the swinging doors that led into the nightclub proper.

Most of the lights were turned down here, and the cavern was all gloom and shadows. Bare stone walls under a threateningly low stone ceiling, a waxed and polished floor, high-class tables and chairs, and a raised stage at the far end. The chairs were stacked on top of the tables at the moment, and there were multi­coloured streamers curled around them and scattered across the floor. The only oasis of light in the club was the bar, way over to the right, open now just for the club staff and the artistes. A dozen or so nighttime souls clustered together at the bar, like bedrag­gled moths drawn to the light.

I stepped out across the open floor towards them. Nobody challenged me. They just assumed that if I'd got in, I was supposed to be there. I nodded politely to the cleaning staff, busy getting the place ready for the next shift - half a dozen monkeys in bellhop uni­forms, hooting mournfully as they pushed their mops around, passing a single hand-rolled back and forth between them. Lots of monkeys doing menial work in the Nightside these days. Some still even have their wings.

At the bar, the ladies in their faded dressing gowns and wraps didn't even look up as I joined them. The smell of gin and world-weariness was heavy on the air. Come showtime, these women would be all dolled up in sparkly costumes, with fishnet tights and high heels and tall feathers bobbing over their heads, hair artificially teased, faces bright with gaudy make­up ... but that was then, and this was now. In the ar­tificial twilight of the empty club, the chorus line and backup singers and hostesses wore no make-up, had their hair up in curlers, and as often as not a ciggie protruding grimly from the corner of a hardened mouth. They looked like soldiers resting from an end­less war.

The bartender was some kind of elf. I can never tell them apart. He looked at me suspiciously.

'Relax,' I said. 'I'm not from Immigration. Just a special investigator, hoping to spread a little bribe money around where it'll do the most good for every­one concerned.'

The ladies gave me their full attention. Cold eyes, hard mouths, ready to give away absolutely nothing without seeing cold cash up front. I sighed inwardly, pulled a wad of folding money out of an inner pocket, and snapped it down on the bar top. I kept my hand on top of it and raised an eyebrow. A short-haired plat­inum blonde leaned forward so that the front of her wrap fell open, allowing me a good look at her im­pressive cleavage, but I wasn't that easily distracted. Though it really was impressive . . .

'I'm here to see Rossignol,' I said loudly, keeping my eyes well away from the platinum blonde. 'Where can I find her?'

A redhead with her hair up in cheap plastic curlers snorted loudly. 'Best of luck, darling. She won't even speak to me, and I'm her main backing vocalist. Snotty little madam, she is.'

'Right,' said the platinum blonde. 'Too good to mix with the likes of us. Little Miss Superstar. Speak to Ian, that's him up there on the stage. He's her roadie.'

She nodded towards the shadowy stage, where I could just make out a short sturdy man wrestling a drum kit into position. I nodded my thanks, took my hand off the wad of cash, and walked away from the bar, letting the ladies sort out the remuneration for themselves. There was the sound of scuffling and really bad language by the time I got to the stage. I knocked on the wood with one knuckle, to get the roadie's attention. He came out from the drum kit and nodded to me. He seemed quite cheerful, for a hunchback. He swayed slightly from side to side as he came forward to join me, and I pulled myself up onto the stage. Up close, he was only slightly stooped on his bowed legs, with massive arms. He wore a T-shirt bearing the legend Do Lemmings Sing the Blues?

'How do, mate. I'm Ian Auger, roadie to the stars, travelling musician, and good luck charm. My grand­ father once smelled Queen Victoria. What can I do for you, squire?'

'I'm looking to speak with Rossignol,' I said. 'I'm . . .'

'Oh, I know who you are, sunshine. John bloody Taylor, his own bad and highly impressive self. Pri­vate eye and king-in-waiting, if you believe the gos­sip, which I mostly don't. You're here about the suicides, I suppose? Thought so. Word was bound to get out eventually. I warned them, I said they couldn't hope to keep a lid on it for long, but does anyone here ever listen to me? What do you think?' He grinned cheerfully and lit up a deadly little black cigar with a battered gold lighter. 'So, John Taylor. You here to make trouble for my little girl?'

'No,' I said carefully. Behind the cheerful conver­sation, Ian's blue eyes were as cold as ice, and he had the look of someone who had very straight forward ideas on how to deal with problems. And the ideas probably involved blunt instruments. 'I'm just inter­ested in what's happening here. Maybe I can find a solution. It's what I do.'

'Yeah, I've heard of some of the things you do.' He considered the matter for a long moment, then shrugged. 'Look, mate, I've been with Ross a long time. I'm her roadie, I set up the equipment and do the sound checks, I play her music, I take care of all the shit work so she doesn't have to. I look after her,

right? I do the work of three men, and I don't be­grudge a moment of it, because she's worth it. I've readied