Page 19 (1/2)

Now that I had two dead chicks and a guy to investigate, I was alternating betweenfat new clue in my quiver, it was tih My usual three days ofa secret out of it

I wasn’t about to run with Quicksilver in the park, but I’d alorked through menstrual cramps with a stiff upper lip, so late that afternoon I donned my pseudo-cop clothes and duty belt Quick and I shared a roast beef sandwich snack in the kitchen before going out to get Dolly on the road

I was going trolling in blond disguise again, this ti sprawl of the Gehenna hotel and casino

I needed updated info and insight on the olf owner, Cesar Cicereau, and wanted ic, mirrors and me Before I’d escaped Cicereau’s pack of hit-olves at Starlight Lodge and before mi amor, Ric, had obliterated a bunch of the Uzi, Cesar had hoped to e walls Was I still a wanted woal, the indentured ician I’d been forced to ith briefly, who had first abetted ht just be hi Dolly at the hotel-casino opposite, the towering Babel, and hiking to the Strip, I paused to adlittering verdigris and copper glass towers Only someone who knew the owner for a ould realize the colors suggested a forest at sunset, both the tranquility of nature and the hot blaze of blood at the end of the hunt

Since a couple of Cicereau’s goons had abductedh the vast bowels of its service systerowled softly beside o inside," I told him "You ith nize you"

His wolfish ears perked and angled at my every word Almost-hu instantly and reject it He whined his frustration, but when I said, "Stay," he sat on the hot sidewalk

I hated to disappoint Quicksilver He’d saved my life more than once And I’d saved him from Haskell’s bullets We were partners

So I told hi pickup truck and waited until he drag-tailed to the spot and circled to lie down I also adjustedwith various nasty tools of the trade

With my black leather pants and motorcycle boots, a short-sleeved black shirt, and kiddie souvenir gold "shield," I looked enough like one of the city’s nuuard The outfit was hot for Vegas, but you can’t have naked cops, and I wasn’t about to don the seriously non-serious khaki shorts real Vegas cops wore I needed all the gravitas I couldand adjustedthe escalator up to the bridge over the Strip

Las Vegas heat in early sue your eyelashes off, but it’s dry heat and you don’t have to worry about anyone seeing you sweat The black leather belt was old enough to squeak in the dry air, announcing er

By the tie copper door handle of the Gehenna, I was still dry I plunged into the hotel’s dark, icy interior, leavingfor ht

I hadn’t bothered to wearto deal with anybody who’d recognize my natural baby blues

At least, I hoped I wouldn’t have to

A h the mammoth hotel’s public areas to the theater, far at the rear, and its even ht off the h the crowds there, the chile of the belt’s attached handcuffs

These cuffs were the real deal, not another handy-dandy manifestation of the form the silver faht a pair at a sex toy shop on the way to the Gehenna Hey, this is Vegas! There are way more of those than cop shops I’d also picked up a couple of canisters of pepper spray at a sporting goods store

Checking above for surveillance ca away in the canopy of stained glass leaves above the garee swiveling heads lass stares were capturing the i person

It was hard not to bump into tourists who stopped unexpectedly to coo about the "cute" aniht, cute Those eye-in-the-sky birds had probably X-rayed their clothes down to the skivvies and recorded their credit card and driver’s license nuht of my police duty belt and its array of defensive weapons had taught er That walk kept the tourists respectfully out ofto

Illuh a couple blocks of casino Near an arcade of pricey shops, the theater entrance beckoned with a ht bulbs The house would be "dark" yet, until the 7:00 and 10:00 ph the blank door

"Hey," said a voice behind uard dressed like a Robin Hood merry man

"I know I’m on an errand for the boss He left his Blackberry here"

The guard was a young guy, ju Sansouci the bother, but if you want to bother him to check, it’s okay by me" I hit the word "bother" twice, ominously

"Ah no That’s fine We don’t need to bother Mr Sansouci You go get it"

"Thanks, bro" I waved hi As I’d guessed, the staff knew Sansouci was no one to trifle with Not that I hadn’t tried, the last tiician Madrigal I could handle, if I could only find the guy

I walked down a raked aisle between rows of seats, finally doffing the sunglasses and letting ht" to the left of the stage far below It’s an old theater tradition to leave one light on so anyone co in doesn’t trip over all the technical equip of a realbulb a bit

The stage seemed deserted, but I walked slowly up the access stairs at the side of the house Madrigal had an exclusive contract with the Gehenna, perhaps for eternity None but he used this stage, none but he set it up

Out of the corner of ht soften, then flare At the saossamer steel net fell over my shoulders Before I could pull any weapons fro upside down and being drawn up into the high flies above like a wriggling fish on a line

I kicked hard to grab the super-strong filaht before allhairpins pulled out

Meanwhile, I felt a narrow ribbon of cold ed oute-o! I had a char the cutest miniature wire cutter you ever saw A Break-in Barbie accessory There should be such a doll!

Pulling the i links of the net that was for-snapped More formed to replace the broken lines as soon as I severed the froainst Mother Nature Well, a perversion of Mother Nature Madrigal wouldn’t hurtof the sort about his fanatically attached pair of ician’s assistants, Sylphia and Phasia

A doll-sirly face penetrated the broken links to rub cheeks with mine Her iridescent skin was colder than the side of an ice bucket

"We don’t want you back," she whispered, her voice like wind, or rushing water, or the pass of a dagger near your neck

"I’"

Phasia’s supple serpentmesh her spider-sister Sylphia had woven around me Phasia was the serpent-sister of the two

By noas hiked so high above the dark stage floor below that snipping net fibers would be suicidal

"Phasia!" My cry ca her coils on s and heart

I could feel the wire cutters lengthening and growing like a sterling silver vine toward Phasia’s iridescent-scaled neck

"Let her go," a voice thundered froh all of us, felt by all three