Premonitions

by Jamie Schultz

  “What?”

  “We need to go!”

  Brown, bless his heart, didn’t take much convincing. He made some arcane hand sign for the benefit of any of his men who were looking, shouted for the ones who weren’t deaf yet, and began backing up. His guys followed, keeping the bulk of the vehicles between them and the army of maniacs in the motel. Sobell did likewise, taking the extra precaution of keeping the bodies of Brown’s men between him and said maniacs.

  A few more shots were fired, but even the madmen over there didn’t seem to relish the idea of breaking cover and coming after them. Sobell, Brown, and the remaining men backed away to the other side of the motel. One guy took a rifle round in the chest. Sobell picked up the pace while the others fired back at the rifleman. Either they hit him or scared him off, but that was the last they heard from him.

  Sobell dashed around the corner of the building. Six men followed, including Brown.

  “What the fuck was that?” Brown shouted—not precisely at Sobell, but vaguely in his direction. “A handful of cheap thieves, and they have a fucking army now?”

  “Put your gun away,” Sobell said. “The police will be along shortly, I would imagine, and while I’d like to be long gone by then, we don’t need to draw any additional attention.”

  “More attention than that? I have eight dead guys back there!”

  “I have eight dead guys back there.” Sobell checked the lines of his suit. Not bad, all things considered. “Don’t worry—I won’t send you a bill.”

  Brown was a soldier, not really much of a criminal at all, Sobell realized, and when he considered shooting Sobell dead, it might as well have been written on his face in DayGlo magic marker. Sobell merely watched, though, as Brown made his decision.

  Soldiers did have the benefit of being predictable.

  Brown put his gun in his shoulder holster. “Where did they get all those guys?”

  “I suggest we get off the street. They might have cars.”

  Brown glanced toward the road behind them, satisfied himself that an army of crazed gunmen wasn’t driving toward them at that very moment, and nodded.

  Sobell walked into the alley adjacent to the motel, Brown by his side.

  “It appears I underestimated the number of parties involved in this proposed transaction,” he said.

  “What? Who else is there?”

  “The Brotherhood of Zagam,” Sobell said. “It was their damned old bone to begin with.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, sir.”

  “Sometimes, incredibly, even my reach exceeds my grasp.” He considered this. “But probably not this time. We will, however, need to revise our strategy.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed his driver.

  While the phone rang, he gave Brown a thin smile. “Let’s get back to my office and do some planning, shall we?”

  * * *

  “Anybody behind us?” Nail asked as Genevieve pulled the van into a sharp turn, tires shrieking.

  Karyn took a stray elbow in the shoulder, and Anna’s bony hip dug into her side, but she craned her neck around to look behind them. She couldn’t make out anything—the night was a blur of flame and police lights, strange buildings and monstrous shapes, and she had no idea which of it represented current consensus reality. At least everybody in the van had returned to normal, though. No more corpses for the nonce—always a good thing.

  “Nothing,” Genevieve said, glancing at her mirrors. “No one. Better get back to the ’burbs, though. If anybody survives that mess, you can bet your ass we’ll be the top item on their shit list.”

  “Punch it, then,” Nail said. The van surged forward, jostling everybody in back again.

  “You guys rule,” Anna said. “Incredible timing.”

  Genevieve glanced up and grinned at the mirror. “That’s right, babe.”

  Next to Karyn, Drew shifted. “Lucky you,” he said.

  “What the hell is he doing here?”

  “I just saved your ass, but don’t thank me now.”

  “Nobody likes a whiner,” Anna said, and she laughed. It was an honest, for-real laugh, a loud, rapid flight up the scale that even made Karyn smile.

  “Does anybody know where that fuck Greaser is?” Anna asked, the humor abruptly gone from her voice.

  Genevieve sighed. “Dead, last I heard.”

  “Bullshit. He took off with the bone and our money, and he set us up to take the heat.”

  “I’m glad somebody knows what the hell is going on,” Nail said, his voice underscored with sarcasm.

  “No, actually, that makes total sense,” Genevieve said. Karyn was inclined to agree, but she kept still. Her initial enthusiasm at reuniting with Anna had dimmed, and she couldn’t help remembering the last words Anna, hands wet with Tommy’s blood, had said to her.

  Didn’t see this coming, did you?

  Except she had, hadn’t she? And—

  Fuck that noise. None of that now. She looked out the windshield, trying to lose herself in the weird scenery before her, but the only thing that registered was Anna’s shoulder, stiff and unyielding next to hers.

  “Why else would Sobell be gunning for us?” Genevieve continued. “I thought he was cleaning up the evidence, but that’s not really his style. If he didn’t get the bone, he thinks we screwed him.”

  “I don’t even know if he wanted the fuckin’ bone,” Nail said.

  “What?” Anna said.

  “Somebody told me he was there, at Mendelsohn’s, the night all that shit went down. That he had business with a demon. Didn’t say nothin’ about a jawbone.”

  “‘Somebody’?” Genevieve asked. “Like who?”

  Nail shifted. “Like, a guy.”

  “This guy reliable? How the fuck would he know?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He tell you anything else?”

  “Not really.”

  “There was a demon there, though,” Anna said. “Something awful, anyway.”

  “He wanted the bone,” Genevieve said, and though Karyn couldn’t read her face in the rearview mirror, her voice had a strained note in it. “I know he did. He had to.”

  “Watch the road, huh?” Nail said.

  “Is Gresser dead or not?”

  “That’s what I hear,” Nail said. “Word is definitely that we killed him and ran off with the goods. Whether he’s actually dead or not, who knows? Doesn’t really matter at this point.”

  Genevieve nodded. “So, regardless of what he wants with the bone, Sobell’s got reason to be pissed at us.”

  “Him and the Brotherhood,” Anna said. “When we make enemies, we don’t mess around.”

  “How’d you end up with them?” Nail asked.

  Anna crossed her arms. “Adelaide,” she said, the word clipped and brittle. Karyn tensed even further, her shoulders drawing in until she had to take short, shallow breaths.

  Nail frowned. “Anybody going to explain that?”

  “No,” Karyn said.

  The remainder of the ride passed in uncomfortable near silence, with only the occasional passing car relieving the drone of the engine. Karyn’s neck ached, and the wonders and horrors around her had lost their ability to either charm or distract. She closed her eyes and tried not to feel Anna’s movements next to her.

  The hell of it was, Anna had been right. Right about Tommy, right about Karyn’s responsibility, even right to be furious. Soon they’d get to the safe house, and Karyn would have to face her in the light, to look her in the eye and read the recriminations—all true, all accurate, but only all the more painful because of it.

  I got Tommy killed, Karyn told herself, as she had a hundred times, either in an effort to accept the idea or, more likely, to flog herself for it. I’ll spend the rest of my life dealing with that. />
  Genevieve pulled the van up in front of an empty house, lights off and the yard bare in the gray-yellow light reflected from the dirty sky.

  “No,” Karyn said. “Not tonight. If we need to get out in a hurry, I don’t want to have to run four blocks to the van. Can you bring it around back of the place?”

  “You know something about something?” Nail asked.

  “No. Just don’t feel good about not having wheels tonight.”

  “I hear that.”

  Genevieve took the van down the street and eased it into the narrow alley behind the row of houses. Chain-link fences protected the yards on either side and hemmed in the alley. “Nowhere to park,” she said.

  “Block the alley. Nobody comes through here at this time of night.”

  She turned off the van. They got out, and Karyn led them through the back gate. A motion light came on next door, but the houses stayed dark. Karyn stopped in front of the back door, waiting. Had the curtain twitched over there? She tried to remember anything she could about the neighbor, and came up with a total blank.

  Who cares if somebody’s looking? This is your house, basically. You’re stalling. A few more moments, and they’d all be inside, face-to-face, nothing to hide behind and no way to avoid each other. No way to avoid Anna, more to the point.

  She squared her shoulders, unlocked the door, and went in.

  * * *

  “Leave the light off,” Karyn said just as Anna reached for the switch. “In case the neighbors are nosy.”

  Anna put her hand in her pocket, feeling like a dumb kid. Where’s my head at? I know better than that. Low light came through the thin curtains, enough to illuminate the bulk of the couch and coffee table. Nothing had been moved. The safe house looked the same as always, the same as it had a couple of days ago when she’d swung by looking for Karyn, the same as it had the last time she’d scoped it out with Karyn, shortly after they’d moved Karyn’s aunt into the home. Years ago, now.

  “So what happened?” Genevieve asked, worry in her voice.

  “I was looking for Karyn,” she said, unable to keep the bite out of her tone as the hours of frustration and worry boiled off as anger. “The phone was dead, and she never came back to the apartment after Tommy, so I settled for the next best thing—her pusher.”

  “Don’t,” Karyn said softly.

  “Don’t what? You bailed on us! You fucking disappeared, and I wouldn’t have even known you weren’t dead if you hadn’t taken your bag from the apartment.”

  “Anna, don’t—” Genevieve began, but Anna cut her off.

  “Stay out of this.”

  Genevieve looked at Anna for a long time, then finally nodded. “Anybody got a Sharpie or something?”

  Everybody in the room turned toward her. “What?” she asked. “Whatever else is going on, Enoch Sobell is looking for us, and you can bet he’s not staking out random street corners waiting for one of us to walk by. He’s breaking heads, and trashing our homes, and he’s probably whipping out arcane shit I never even heard of. If he’s got so much as a hair off one of our heads, we’re screwed. Gimme a couple hours and a marker, and I can hide us.” She surveyed the room one more time. “Chalk would be better, but I know enough not to expect miracles.”

  “Try the junk drawer in the kitchen,” Karyn said.

  “Yeah. OK.” Genevieve turned to Anna. “You sure you’re all right?”

  Anna nodded. Genevieve studied her face for a long moment, then nodded once in return and left.

  “Oh yeah,” Nail said. “I could eat a goddamn bear, so I’m gonna check the fridge.”

  Nobody moved for a moment, and then Nail put a heavy hand on Drew’s shoulder. “My boy Drew here is starving.”

  “Uh, yeah. Starving,” Drew said.

  “We ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Nail said as he walked into the kitchen. “Take your time.”

  Karyn nodded. “Thanks, guys.”

  The silence thickened, became something almost perverse. Every sound seemed overloud in Anna’s ears, from the clank and rustle of Nail pretending to raid the refrigerator in the next room to the obnoxious chirp of a cricket that had gotten in under the baseboard somehow. And yet she couldn’t even hear Karyn breathe.

  Anna sat on the chair in the corner, taking a strange sort of comfort in its stubborn uncomfortableness, and watched Karyn across the room on the couch, pressed against the far end like Anna might suddenly leap forward and attack her.

  Anna wished she could see Karyn’s face. She’d started adjusting to the dimness, but being unable to make out details made any conversation even more difficult. “You sure you don’t want a light? Maybe just the hall light or something?”

  “I’m sure,” Karyn said. Her voice held notes of weariness deeper than Anna had heard in a long time. Maybe ever.

  Low murmurs from the kitchen. Distant sound of the highway, a river that slowed but even at this hour never dried up.

  “You’re all scratched up,” Anna said.

  “Yeah. Running around in the dark.”

  “You went to see her.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “She hook you up?”

  “No.” Karyn’s figure slumped, a low heap in the darkness. “I’m . . . I’m totally out. Couple days now.” Motion, and Anna thought she might be chewing her fingernails. “Another good reason to keep it dark in here.”

  Christ. Anna had been with Karyn during a couple of pretty bad episodes, but if she’d really gone through the rest of her blind since their last visit to Adelaide, Anna couldn’t imagine what she was going through. What she’d put herself through. She coughed. There was no way to sugarcoat this next bit, and as much as she’d like to forget about it, that wouldn’t do Karyn any favors.

  “Adelaide sold us out,” Anna said. “I’m not sure what they offered her, but she sounded like it was a big deal.”

  Total silence from Karyn.

  “I think they were gonna hold off payment until she could track you down. She was pretty far gone, though. I’m not sure she’s going to be any help. I mean, I think they might kill her.”

  No response.

  “How does that even happen? I mean, doesn’t she see everything?”

  Karyn’s voice floated across the darkness in a whisper. “Seeing too much is just as bad as seeing nothing. It gets . . . confusing. You know that.”

  “Yeah. You’ve told me,” Anna said, and bitterness surged within her. “What the hell were you thinking? You know I was looking for you, carrying around a bag with a quarter of a million dollars in it?”

  “I don’t deserve a cut. I didn’t finish the job.”

  “Doesn’t matter. It was in my car, so I guess the fucking Brotherhood’s got it now.”

  Karyn moved again, and this time Anna heard her sigh. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have come looking for me.”

  “That’s bullshit, Karyn. You don’t just walk out on your friends and disappear like that. Not because you fucked up, not for anything.”

  The murmuring in the next room had gone quiet, or the sound of Anna’s breath in her own ears drowned it out. Her eyes had adjusted well enough now that she could see Karyn massaging her temples, eyes closed, expression unreadable from here.

  “The guys need you,” Anna continued. “This is your outfit, for Chrissakes.”

  “Do you have any idea what it’s like?” Karyn said. Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, barely audible over that goddamn cricket. “I didn’t ask to be the oracle.”

  “Cry me a river.” Karyn had nothing but a bullshit argument, and Anna was scoring points left and right, so why didn’t she feel any better?

  “You know I almost got you shot in the head back there? I saw a wound in the guy that grabbed you, a bullet hole, and I knew Nail could make that shot. Was going to make that shot. I told him to sho
ot. He wouldn’t do it. Said he’d hit you instead. But, hell, I saw the evidence right in front of me—he would make that shot.”

  Anna shrugged. “He made the shot. What’s the problem?”

  “He never fired. One of Sobell’s guys got the bastard.” Karyn opened her eyes, twin gleams of silver faint in the shadows. “Nail would’ve killed you.”

  “Might have killed me.”

  “Jesus Christ. You’re not listening. Everybody thinks I know the goddamn future—I don’t know shit. I have guesses, maybe a little better than average, but everybody takes my word like it came from God or something. I can’t take this shit anymore.”

  “Nail didn’t.”

  “What?”

  “Nail didn’t take your word like it came from God. You said he could make the shot, he knew better. So he didn’t shoot. Yeah, you’ve got the inside info, but that doesn’t mean everybody just puts their brains on automatic and goes with it.” She’d made her point, but she couldn’t resist going a little further. “Maybe if your head wasn’t so fucking huge, you could see that.”

  That got Karyn to sit up straight. “Which is it? Either my head’s so goddamn big we can’t all fit in the room with it, or you all really do need my help. You can’t have it both ways.”

  “Why not?”

  Karyn’s eyes widened, silver slivers opening to ovals. “That’s not fair.”

  “Poor baby.”

  “So now what? We sit here for another hour and fight while you get off one-liners at my expense?”

  Anna felt a pang of guilt at that, as she’d just been thinking much the same thing, yet the urge to get off another one still swelled inside her. She quashed it as best she could. “We can have the whole knock-down, drag-out fight later. For now, I just need to know—are you with us?”

  Karyn nodded.

  “We’ll get this thing with the blind figured out. We’ll find somebody else. Or if all Adelaide wants is the highest bidder, we’ll make that happen somehow.”

  “Sure.”

  “You all right?”

  Another nod, but even in the grayscale shadows of the living room, Anna knew it for a fraud.

  * * *