“Sam?” says Samael.
“Thanks,” I say.
He looks at me.
“Just thanks? Nothing pithy or sarcastic?”
“I’m capable of appreciating when someone does something nice for someone I care about.”
Samael looks at Candy.
“Good Lord. What have you done to him?”
“Shocking, isn’t it?” she says. “Pinocchio is almost a real boy.”
“Fuck both of you.”
Samael, “Ah. There’s the Jimmy I know.”
He looks at his watch.
“Look at the time. I should be getting back home before I’m missed.”
“How are things Upstairs?” I ask.
“Let me just say this: Don’t die anytime soon. You’ve seen Hell and right now I wouldn’t wish Heaven on anyone. Ruach is more paranoid every day. Imagine Josef Stalin with unlimited resources.”
Ruach is the oldest of the God brothers. He’s also the son of a bitch of the family. Supposedly he’s cut a deal with Aelita to let her kill the other brothers if she leaves him alone. She’s already killed at least one.
“At least he can’t send you to Tartarus,” I say.
“There are worse things than Tartarus, I’m afraid.”
“Like what?”
Samael just shakes his head.
“If you want to get in touch with me, don’t do it directly. Go through Muninn. Sandman Slim isn’t a name I want on my contacts list right now.”
“Got it.”
And he’s gone. Just blips out of existence. It’s funny too. With all the shit that’s happened with Mason and the God brothers, I’ve never seen him nervous before.
A couple of people in the Donut Universe parking lot are pointing our way. I forgot. I wonder if the cops have put together that the hero who chased a shooter from the donut shop is that same asshole who desecrated his corpse and jacked a biker a few blocks away. This isn’t the time to find out. I find a tasty shadow by the side of the church and pull Candy inside with me.
We go through the Room of Thirteen Doors and come out around the back of the Chateau Marmont. Our digs these days. At least until someone figures out that I’m not Lucifer anymore.
About the Author
RICHARD KADREY has published six novels, including Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha from Hell, Devil Said Bang, Butcher Bird, and Metrophage, plus the forthcoming Kill City Blues, and more than fifty short stories. A freelance writer and photographer, he lives in San Francisco, California.
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Also by Richard Kadrey
Devil Said Bang
Aloha from Hell
Kill the Dead
Sandman Slim
Coming Soon
Kill City Blues
A Sandman Slim Story
Devil in the Dollhouse
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Kill City Blues copyright © 2013 by Richard Kadrey.
SUSPECT ZERO. Copyright © 2013 by Richard Kadrey. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780062230676
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