New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

fury and then to remorse with unnatural swiftneipore on Ralf's face, stood out sharp as glass. For a

'Yeah. Well, budroe, you'll be on your way to a famemoment he had felt as if he was leaning outside

reunion if you don't gratify Gusto. He wants those t~imself, teetering on the brink of a nightmare cliff

kilos.' ~that mawed beyond the particled world. Now he was

'And he can have them. I'm in this for the payoff I'~imself again, and it was difficult to imagine that not going to run it.' ~hat he had seen was real. But he couldn't take the

'Fine. Then tell me where I can cop.' chance -

'Forget it. Only I know where it's hidden. We ~ 'Hold on, Mike. There's a roofer waiting for you in a together or not at all.' !white Chevy wheelside of your car.'

'Sure, and just how long before you're mobile? I co~~ 'Huh?'

be so much fish chow by then.' 'Call it a case of the dread. Fever jitters. But stay 'We go tomorrow.' isharp.'

'You think you'll be all right? These meds don't ev~ 'Yeah. Sure.'

know what's wrong with you.' When Ralf left, Henley leaned back and closed his Henley nodded, but his eyes were glazed over, h~yes. A cold magnetic brilliance was running along the face distracted. The afterimage of the black sun h~urface of his skin, and he seemed to sense that eerie

expanded so that it covered everything like a ~hispering he had heard in his nightmare, sensed it film.

Ralf's face was a reflection in a dark rn~r~e way the deaf hear sounds through the small bones wormed

with far-off, unaccountable lights. The ro0~f their heads. Somewhere deep within himself the suddenly

seemed foreshortened, and Henley was st~ightmare was continuing, an evil pushing out into ing through

mistings of shadow. A blue light wh0~he world. He had a feeling that if he let himself he source seemed

to be somewhere behind the bed s~uld fall towards it, that it was pulling him fused his vision, and movements other than wt~a~ ! He stared at the wall directly opposite, tried to root knew were there attracted his attention. Anot~rnself in its cracks, but it was beginning to shimmer. scene was superimposed on the room. It was a ped~e was certain that it was starting all over again.

62 New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos The Star Pools 63

Then, just as he was reaching for the call switch The man rubbed the side of his head and looked up solidified. He was suddenly warm, and the sunli ~th a scowl. 'Gusto wants his scag, plain-brain.

What

slanting through the blinds was reassuring, yello~ ou expect - CIA?'

wine ~: 'Yeah, well you tell Gusto it's his soon as I cop it. My After a moment's thought, he reached out, and t~uch ~as laid up or he d have had ~t by now.

time he pressed the buzzer. When the nurse arriv~'He wants it right away, marshmallow.'

he was sitting at the edge of the bed, wearing, ~'Sure, sure. Everybody's double-time. You think I'd hoped, his most alert and gracio,u,s smile. 'Would still be in the country .if I was runnin.g it? Come on!'

mind getting my clothes, please? I m signing out. He pulled the man to his feet, pushed him back a pace, and retrieved the Walther. 'Tell him he can have it Ralf left the hospital through the service garage emerged at Twelth Street and Seventh Avenue. car was

parked in the Wavefly Building's lot, ant approached it the long way. When he got to the con

~omorrow,' he said, backing up to his car. 'Same drop.' Ralf threw the gun under the seat, slid behind the wheel, and drove off.

For nine days, since Henley turned up at St Vinof

the lot, he froze. There was a white Chevy park :ent's in a coma, he'd kept on the move, not daring to

near his car. ~~turn to his fiat. He knew Gusto would kill him. The Without hesitation he circled the lot ~[~nan had a notorious temper. But handling the hit man gave him some confidence, and he decided to get back

approached the Chevy from behind. When he ~ig~ . .

his apartment He c~rcled the block slowly once and

within four cars of it, he lay down and bellycraw~tø ú .

oped the lobby cautiously Nonetheless, as soon as he

until he was alongside its left rear door. From wh~c . . ú .

rv ~ut h~s key m the latch, he reahzed that he had

he lay, he could see the latch was up. He su eyed~~

surrounding cars as best he could. No one was in si~~)lundered. _

The door of the opposite apartment burst open, and

In one fluid movement, he unsprung his butterfly bl~ '

and jerked open the door. ~o men pounced on him, shoved him into his rooms.

There was a black man inside who was peer through a drillhole on the opposite door. Ralf burst in and the man swung around with a Walther automatic in his right hand.

Ralf was quicker. He chopped the gun out of his hand with a slash of his arm, then pulled him into a sitting position and boxed him on the side of the head.

h nrn cocked low He was carrying a shopping bag In

With a fierce tug, he dragged him out of the car, wa~~

One of them handcuffed him immediately. The other bolted his door and led him by the nose to the bathroom. They were big, wild, mongrel blacks with natty lenims, their hair twisted into spikes.

One had a beard and was missing half of his left ear. The other wore wraparound glasses and a pink hat.

In the bathroom, they knelt him down before the toilet the butterfly under his nose. 'All right, rughead, any more surprises. Who put you on me? Hey cool out, Ralf pleaded. I m clean with Gusto.

The bearded one laughed, said, 'My name's Duk Parmelee. And that's Hi-Hat Chuckie Watz. We the boys goin' to take your face apart.'

Hi-Hat Chuckie Watz took four cans of drain cleaner and a bottle of Clorox out of the shopping bag and emptied them into the bowl. The Duke continued 'Gusto wants you to know, he's hurt you ignored him.'

Hi-Hat grabbed Ralf behind the neck and shoved his face towards the fuming water in the bowl.

The acid vapours seared up into his sinuses and scalded hi eyes.

'Yaww? Ralf bawled. 'Don't! Please! Don't! I got the stuff!'

Hi-Hat eased up, and Ralf pulled back with a gaq

His face was slick with tears, and he was quaking. 'Where is it?' the Duke asked.

'My touch has it stashed. Tomorrow, I'll lift tomorrow.'

Hi-Hat steered Ralf's face towards the blue burnit water. Ralf screamed, but the fumes gagged him, and he went into a glide.

The Duke pulled him back and slashed him across the face with a sharp-ringed hand. 'Cry for me, man - cry and I won't make you drink that soup.'

Ralf was crying, his whole body was shuddering.

Henley Easton took a cab from St Vincent's to Pennsylvania Station. From there he rode the train to Garden City where he rented a car. After eating at a McDonald's, he had fifty dollars left. The nightmare hadn't recurred, and he was beginning to feel confident. It was his plan to get to his cache and head west.

He didn't want to burn Ralf, but he felt that he had no choice. The coma he had been in changed everything. No doubt Gusto and his black mafia felt ripped after a nine-day delay. They would be too suspicious to make him a good deal. It would be best now, Henley figured, to find another market and leave Ralf behind to answer questions.

Henley spent the night in a motor inn where he nspected his foot for the first time since leaving the Hospital. There was no swelling, but the lips of the wound were a scaly black. Just looking at it made him feel drowsy. He put his sock on, lay back, and slid off into a dark sleep.

The next morning he went down to the stream early. After he uncovered his cache and secured it inside the cat's spare tyre, he got behind the wheel to go, but something stopped him. He stared through the windshield at the larkspur, the myrtle, and the great bellowing fireweed that dotted the slopes like embroidery. He felt woozy suddenly, as if he were swaying with deep sea rapture out over whispering distances -

with

sobs. , ~

'Just you remember,' Duke Parmelee said, you ~

juke and everybody knows you a juke. If you don't hav~ becvming no one, everything, e.ndless space.