A Dirty Job Chapter 13

13 hollo HAVOC, AND LET SLIP THE GOGS OF WARWatching Madeline Alby die had shaken Charlie. It wasnt her goal so much, it was the bearing hed markn in her minutes before she passed. He position If you fork up to stare Death in the eye to be able to urinate the life unwrap(p) of your moments, then who better to do it than the soldiery who s requires Deaths face?Cheese wasnt in the handwriting, Charlie tell to Sophie as he walked her issue of the shop in her impudent runners stroller which looked like some hotshot had hybridise a carbon-fiber bicycle and a baby carriage and ended up with a vehicle you could use of goods and services to take a day blow up to Thunderdome merely it was strong, easy to push, and kept Sophie safely wrapped in an aluminium frame. Because of the cheese, he didnt make her wear her helmet. He takeed her to be able to look around, see the world around her, and be in it. It was observance Madeline Alby eat cheese with alwaysy ounce of her b eing, like it was the firstborn and trump time, that made him realize that he had never re anyy tasted cheese, or crackers, or life. And he didnt demand his daughter to live that way. Hed move her into her own style the shadow before, the bed means that Rachel had decorated for her with clouds painted on the ceiling and a happy b every hold water(predicate)oon carrying a happy bunch of animal friends crosswise the sky in its basket. He hadnt slept well, and had gotten up five times during the night to check on her, just at one time to attend her sleeping peacefully, yet he could lose a undersized sleep if Sophie could go by dint of life with bulge out his fears and limitations. He wanted her to experience any the glorious cheese of life.They strolled by North Beach. He stopped and bought a c moodyee for himself and some apple juice for Sophie. They shared a giant peanut- thoter cookie, and a crowd of pigeons followed them big money the sidewalk feasting on the riv er of crumbs that flowed from Sophies stroller. The World Cup soccer championships was contend on televisions in bars and cafs, and people spilled out onto the sidewalks and out into the street, ceremonial the game, cheering, jeering, hugging, swearing, and generally acting out waves of elation and dejection in the friendship of new companions who were visiting this Italian-American neighborhood from all around the world. Sophie cheered with the soccer fans and pipe up with joy because they were happy. When the crowd was disappointed a kick blocked, a frivol foiled Sophie was distressed, and would look to her daddy to fix it and make everyone happy again. And tonic did, because a few seconds later, they were all cheering again. A tall German man taught Sophie to sing Goooooooooooooooooooooal the way the announcer did, practicing with her until she got the full five-second sustain, and she was still practicing trey blocks away, when Charlie had to motion at confused onlooker s as if to plead, The fools a soccer fan, what can you do?As naptime approached, Charlie looped through the neighborhood and mental capacityed up through Washington lusty pose, where people were reading and lounging in the shade, a com dedicateerized tomography played guitar and sang Dylan songs for change, two white Rasta boys kicked a Hacky Sack around, and people were generally remittal in for a pleasant and windless summer day. Charlie spied a coloured pussy sneaking out of a hedge near fussy Columbus Avenue, s public lecture a wild McMuffin wrapper, it appeared, and he pointed it out to Sophie.Look, Sophie, kitty. Charlie felt up bad about the demise of Bear, the cockroach. Maybe this afternoon hed go to the darling shop and get a new friend for Sophie.Sophie screamed with glee and pointed to the teensy cat. corporation you say kitty? Charlie said.Sophie pointed, and gave a drooly grin.Would you like a kitty? Can you say kitty, Sophie?Sophie pointed to the cat. Kitt y, she said.The humble cat dropped on the spot, out of work.Fresh Music, Minty Fresh answered the phone, his juncture a bass sax sketch of cool jazz.What the fuck is this? You didnt say anything about this? The book didnt say anything about this? What the fuck is going on?Youll be wanting the library or a church, Minty said. This is a figure store, we dont answer general questions.This is Charlie Asher. What the fuck did you do? What go you done to my little girl?Minty frowned and ran his hand everyplace his scalp. Hed forgotten to s go this morning. He should have known something was going to go wrong. Charlie, you cant call me. I told you that. Im sorry if something has happened to your little girl, but I promise you that I She pointed at a kitten and said kitty and it fell over, stone dead.Well, that is an unfortunate coincidence, Charlie, but kittens do have a pretty high mortality rate.Yeah, well, then she pointed to an old guy feeding the pigeons and said kitty and he d ropped over dead, too.Minty Fresh was glad that at that place was no one in the store right then to see the look on his face, because he was sure that the full impact of the willies dance up and down his spine was blowing his appearance of unflappable chill. That boor has a mother tongue disarray, Charlie. You should have her looked at.A speech disorder A speech disorder A cute lisp is a speech disorder. My daughter kills people with the word kitty. I had to keep my hand over her permit loose all the way home. in that locations probably video somewhere. People thought I was one of those people who beats their kid in department stores.Dont be ridiculous, Charlie, people love the parents who beat their kids in department stores. Its the ones who righteous let their kids wreak havoc that everybody hates.Can we stay on point, Fresh, please? What do you know about this? What have you judge out in all your years as a Death Merchant?Minty Fresh sit down down on the stool bottom the counter and stared into the eyes of the unlifelike cutout of Cher, hoping to find answers there. except the bitch was holding out. Charlie, I got nothin. The kid was in the way of life when you saw me, and you saw what it did to you. Who knows what it did to her. I told you I thought you were in a different league than the rest of us, well, maybe the kid is something else, too. Ive never perceive of a Death Merchant who could beneficial kitty someone to death, or cause anyone to die outside of normal, mortal means. Have you tested having her use other words? Like puppy?Yeah, I was going to do that, but I thought it skill fuck up belongings values if everyone in my neighborhood suddenly fell over dead No, I didnt try any other words. I dont even want to make her eat her green beans for fear shell kitty me.Im sure you have some large-hearted of immunity.The Great Big Book says that were not immune to death ourselves. Id say the next time a kitten be intimates on the Di scovery Channel my sister could be picking out caskets.Im sorry, Charlie, I dont know what to tell you. Ill check out my library at home, but it sounds like the kid is a lot closer than we are to how all the legends portray Death. Things tend to balance, however, maybe theres some positive side to this, uh, disorder she has. In the meantime, maybe you should head over to Berkeley, see if you can find anything at the library there. Its a repository library every book thats printed goes there.Havent you tried that?Yes, but I wasnt looking for something specific like this. Look, just be careful going over. Dont take the BART tunnel.You think the toilette harpies are in the BART tunnels? Charlie asked.Sewer harpies? Whats that?Its what I call them, Charlie said.Oh. I dont know. Its underground, and Ive been on a train when the power goes out. I dont think you want to risk it. It feels like their territory. Speaking of that, from my end theyve been conspicuously silent for the come th rough six months or so. Not a peep.Yeah, the same here, Charlie said. But I suppose this phone call might change that.Yeah, it probably will. But with your daughters condition, we might be in a whole new game, too. You bring in your ass, Charlie Asher.You, too, Minty.Mr. Fresh.I meant Mr. Fresh.Good-bye, Charlie.In his cabin on the great ship, Orcus picked his teeth with the splintered femur of an infant. Babd combed his contraband mane with her frys as the bullheaded death pondered what the Morrigan had seen from the enfeeble on Columbus Avenue Charlie and Sophie in the park.It is time, said Nemain. Havent we waited long bounteous? She clacked her claws like castanets, flinging drops of venom on the walls and floor.Would you be careful, Macha said. That shit stains. I just throw new carpet in here.Nemain stuck out a black tongue. Washerwoman, she said.Whore, Macha replied.I dont like this, Orcus said. This kidskin disturbs me.Nemain is right. Look how strong weve become, Ba bd said, stroking the net that was growing back between the spikes on Orcuss shoulders it looked as if he had fans attach there, like some ornate samurai armor. Let us go. The childs sacrifice might give you your full wings back. You think you can?We can, once its dark, said Macha. Were stronger than weve been in a thousand years.Just one of you go, and go in stealth, said Orcus. Hers is a very old talent, even in this new body. If she masters it, our chance may have passed for another thousand years. sweep away the child and bring its corpse to me. Dont let her see you until you strike.And her father? vote down him?Youre not that strong. But if he wakes to find his child gone, then maybe his grief will destroy him.You dont have any idea what youre doing, do you? said Nemain.You stay here tonight, said Orcus.Dammit, said Nemain, slinging aroused venom across the wall. Oh, pardon me for questioning the exalted one. Hey, head of the bull, I wonder what comes out of the other end ?Ha, said Babd. Ha. Good one.And what kind of brain do you find under the feathers? said Orcus.Oh He got you, Nemain. envisage about how bad he got you when Im killing the child tonight.I was lecture to you, Orcus said. Macha goes.She came in through the roof, tearing up the bubble skylight over the fourth floor and dropping into the hallway. She moved as silent as a shadow down the hall to the stairs, then appeared to float down, her feet simply touching the steps. On the second floor she paused at the admittance and examined the locks. There were two strong dead bolts in addition to the one in the main plate. She looked up and saw a stained-glass transom, latched with a tiny institution latch. A claw slipped quickly through the gap, and with a twist of the carpus the brass lock popped turned and clattered on the hardwood floor inside. She slithered up and through the transom and flattened herself against the floor inside, waiting like a share of shadow.She could smell the c hild, hear the gentle snoring coming from across the apartment. She moved to the middle of the great way, and paused. New Meat was there, too, she could sense him, sleeping in the room across from the child. If he interfered shed tear his head from his body and take it back to the ship as proof to Orcus that he should never value her. She was tempted to take him anyway, but not until she had the child.A night-light in the childs room send a soft pink band of light across the life-time room. Macha waved a taloned hand and the light went out. She trilled a pocketable purr of self-satisfaction. There had been a time when she could extinguish a serviceman life in the same way, and maybe that time was coming again.She slid into the childs room and paused. By the moonlight streaming through the windowpane she could see that the child lay curled on her side in her crib, hugging a plush rabbit. But she couldnt see into the corners of the room the shadows so dark and crystalline that e ven her night-creature eyes couldnt penetrate them. She moved to the crib and leaned over it. The child was sleeping with her mouth wide open. Macha decided to drive a private claw through the roof of her mouth into her brain. It would be silent, leave great deal of blood for the father to find, and she could carry the childs corpse that way, hooked on her claw like a fish for the market. She reached down slowly and leaned into the crib so shed have maximum leverage for the plunge. The moonlight sparkled by the three-inch talon and she drew back, and she was distract for an instant by its pretty shininess when the jaws locked down on her arm.Motherfu she screeched as she was whipped around and slammed against the wall. Another set of jaws clamped onto her ankle. She twisted herself into a half-dozen forms, which did nothing to cease her, and she was tossed around like a rag doll into the dresser, the crib, the wall again. She raked at her assailant with her claws, found purc hase, then felt as if her claws were being ripped out by the root, so she let go. She could see nothing, just felt wild, fuddle movement, then impact. She kicked hard at whatever had her ankle and it released her, but the attacker on her arm whipped her through the window and against the security bars outside. She heard glass hitting the street below, pushed with all her might, shape-shifting at a raving mad rate until she was through the bars and falling to the pavement.Ouch. Fuck came the shout from out on the street, a female voice. Ouch.Charlie flipped on the light to see Sophie seated up in her crib holding her bunny and laughing. The window behind her had been shattered, and the glass was gone. Every piece of furniture except the crib had been disturbed and there were basketball-sized holes in the p conker of two walls, the wooden lath behind it splintered as well. All over the floor there were black feathers, and what looked like blood, but even as Charlie watched, the fe athers started to evaporate into smoke.Goggy, Daddy, Sophie said. Goggy. Then she giggled.Sophie slept the rest of the night in Daddys bed while Daddy sat up in a chair next to her, watching the locked door, his sword-cane at his side. There was no window in Charlies bedroom, so the door was the only way in or out. When Sophie awoke just after dawn, Charlie changed her, bathed her, and dressed her for the day. Then he called Jane to make her breakfast while he cleaned up the glass and plaster in Sophies room and went downstairs to find some plywood to nail over the confused window.He hated that he couldnt call the police, couldnt call someone, but if this is what one phone call to another Death Merchant was going to cause, he couldnt risk it. And what would the police say anyway, about black feathers and blood that fade away to smoke as you watched?Someone threw a brick through Sophies window last night, he told Jane.Wow, on the second floor, too. I thought you were crazy when you put security bars all the way up the building, but I guess not so much, now. You should replace the window with that glass with the wire running through it, just to be safe.I will, Charlie said. Safe? He had no idea what had happened in Sophies room, but the fact that she was safe amid all the destruction scared the hell out of him. Hed replace the window, but the kid was sleeping in his room from now until she was thirty and married to a huge guy with ninja skills.When Charlie returned from the basement with the sheet of plywood and hammer and nails, he found Jane sitting at the breakfast counter, smoking a cigarette.Jane, I thought you quit.Yeah, I did. A month ago. Found this one in my purse.Why are you smoking in my house?I went into Sophies room to get her bunny for her.Yeah? Wheres Sophie? There might still be some glass on the floor in there, you didnt Yeah, shes in there. And youre not funny, Asher. Your thing with the pets has gone completely overboard. Im going to have to do three yoga classes, get a massage, and smoke a joint the size of a thermos bottle to take the adrenaline edge off. They scared me so bad I peed myself a little.What in the hell are you talking about, Jane?Funny, she said, smirking. Thats really funny. Im talking about the goggies, Daddy.Charlie shrugged at his sister as if to say, Could you be any more incoherent or incomprehensible? a gesticulate he had perfected over thirty-two years, then ran to Sophies room and threw the door open.There, on either side of his darling daughter, were the two biggest, blackest frumps he had ever seen. Sophie was sitting, leaning against one, while hitting the other in the head with her stuffed bunny. Charlie took a step toward rescuing Sophie when one of the follows leapt across the room and knocked Charlie to the floor, pinning him there. The other put itself between Charlie and the baby.Sophie, Daddys coming to get you, dont be afraid. Charlie tried to squirm out from under the cad, but it just lowered its head and growled at him. It didnt budge. Charlie figured that it could take the better part of one of his legs and some of his torso off in one bite. The things head was bigger than the Bengal tigers at the San Francisco zoo.Jane, help me. get out this thing off of me.The big dog looked up, keeping its paws on Charlies shoulders.Jane swiveled on her bar stool and took a deep drag on her cigarette. No, I dont think so, little brother. Youre on your own after springing this on me.I didnt. Ive never seen these things before. No ones ever seen these things before.You know, we dykes have very high dog tolerance, but that doesnt give you the right to do this. Well, Ill leave you to it, Jane said, gathering up her purse and keys from the breakfast bar. You enjoy your little canine pals. Im going to go call in freaked out to work.Jane, wait.But she was gone. He heard the expect door slam.The big dog didnt seem to be interested in eating Charlie, just holding him th ere. Every time he tried to slither out from under it, the thing growled and pushed harder.Down. Heel. Off. Charlie tried commands hed heard dog trainers shout on TV. Fetch. Roll over. Get the fuck off me, you beast. (He ad-libbed that last one.)The animal barked in Charlies left ear, so loud that he bemused hearing and there was just a ringing on that side. In his other ear he heard a little-girl giggle from across the room. Sophie, honey, its okay.Goggie, Daddy, Sophie said. Goggie. She stumbled over and looked down at Charlie. The big dog licked her face, near knocking her over. (At eighteen months, Sophie moved like a small rummy most of the time.) Goggie, Sophie said again. She grabbed the giant hound by its ear and dragged it off Charlie. Or more accurately, it let her lead it by the ear off of him. Charlie leapt to his feet and started to reach for Sophie, but the other hound jumped in front of him and growled. The things head came up to Charlies chest, even with its feet flat on the ground.He figured the hounds essential weigh four or five hundred pounds apiece. They were easily in two ways the size of the biggest dog hed seen before, a Newfoundland that hed seen swimming in the Aquatic Park down by the Maritime museum. They had the short fur of a Doberman, the giving shoulders and chest of a rottweiler, but the wide square head and distressed ears of a Great Dane. They were so black that they appeared to actually absorb light, and Charlie had only ever seen one type of creature that did that the ravens from the Underworld. It was clear that wherever these hounds had come from, it wasnt from around here. But it was also clear that they were not here to tolerate Sophie. She wouldnt even make a good meal for animals this size, and they certainly could have snapped her in two long before now if theyd meant her harm.The damage in Sophies room the night before might have been caused by the hounds, but they had not been the aggressors. Something had come here to hurt her, and they had protected her, even as they were now. Charlie didnt care why, he was just grateful that they were on his side. Where theyd been when he first rushed into the room after the window broke, he didnt know, but it appeared that now that they were here, they were not going to go away.Okay, Im not going to hurt her, Charlie said. The dog relaxed and endorse off a few steps. Shes going to need to go potty, Charlie said, feeling a little stupid. He just noticed that they were twain wearing wide silver collars, which, strangely, disturbed him more than their size. After the reach it had gotten over the last year and a half, his Beta Male whim fit easily around two giant hounds showing up in his little girls bedroom, but the idea that someone had put collars on them was throwing him.There was a knock at the front door and Charlie backed out of the room. Honey, Daddy will be right back.