by John Shirley
“How’d you do it?” Gatewood asked. “Reinstating me—a guy who ‘went AWOL.’ Tall order, man.”
“Amazing what you can do with a little blackmail,” Constantine said, shrugging. “When I told them about my close acquaintance with Norm the chopper pilot and his little trips sneaking secret prisoners into Abu Ghraib—well, it was either kill me or accommodate me. And they decided to accommodate me. The gits would’ve been smarter to kill me, of course . . .”
“It is all thanks to me!” Tchalai said. “I got us into the CIA! Everyone owes me a great debt!” Then she laughed.
“Maybe they’ve got bangers and mash,” Constantine said, as they walked up to the pub.
Tchalai snorted. “They can’t have food worth eating at this pub, John! You should come back to Paris with me!”
“Come on in, love. I’m not going anywhere till I have a pint.”
“Oh, d’accord, very well . . .”
But Constantine hesitated outside the door a moment. He had the irrational feeling that he might yet realize he wasn’t actually here, that this was a dream, or another astral wandering from some cell in Iran.
Right on cue the door of The Cutter opened and Rich stood there, grinning. “Con Job! Saw you through the window! You’re back! Come on in and buy me a drink! I’m flat broke, mate!”
Constantine nodded to himself. This was the real thing, all right. “Right you are, Rich. I’ve come all the way back here just to buy you a drink.”
“Where you been, John?” Rich asked, scratching his groin.
“Oh—Iran, mostly. North Africa some. Catacombs of Paris. You know.”
“What—all this time, wandering about them places? When you could’ve been here, buying me something wet?”
“Spent a lot of time in a monastery, believe it or not, mate.”
“A monastery?” Rich hooted in mock outrage. “Someone let John Constantine stay in a monastery?”
“Yeah. Funny old world, innit?” Constantine said, as he ground out his cigarette and went into the pub.
About the Author
JOHN SHIRLEY is the author of numerous novels, including Crawlers, Demons, and Wetbones, the recent motion picture novelization of Constantine, and story collections, including Really Really Really Really Weird Stories and the Bram Stoker Award-winning collection Black Butterflies. He also writes scripts for television and film, and was co-screenwriter for The Crow. The authorized fan-created website is www.darkecho.com/JohnShirley/ and his blog is www.JohnShirley.net.
Table of Contents
Back Cover
Preview
Titlepage
Copyright
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HELLBLAZER: WAR LORD
Dossier on John Constantine
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About the Author
