Page 85 (1/1)

Bursting out the door, I’m confronted by a crowd so enormous that everyone in it is hidden and when I appear everything grows calto be allowed in and I dive into the throng, pushing through it, constantly turning around, saying "Hello" and "Excuse reat" and "It’s cool, baby," and once I’h the maze of bodies I spot the two of the to subdue her, and she keeps breaking away, rocking the cars parked along the curb, hysterical, setting off their alar in air in great gulps, panic-stricken but laughing too

I try to run past Baxter to get to Chloe but he whirls around when he hears ainst the wall of a building, shouting intoat Chloe, "Get out of here, Victor, just leave her the fk alone," and Baxter’s s behind hilare at ined-seems secretly pleased Over his shoulder Chloe’s face is ravaged, tears keep pouring fro "That wasn’t o"

"It’s a hoax," I’o limp and finally Baxter relaxes too and a cab behind Chloe slon and Baxter quickly breaks into a jog and when he reaches Chloe he takes her ar cab but she looks ataway, deflated, unreachable, and then she’s gone and a s Baxter nods atout theof a passing lis back into uards stand behind the barricades barking orders into walkie-talkies and I’h the crowd and then I’ up to the entrance, cries of grief billowing up behindup into the sky and filling the space above the crowd, and I’ up one flight of stairs and then another, heading up to Damien’s office, when suddenly I sla Lauren to a private staircase that will lead them down a back exit onto the street and Lauren looks like she’s breathing too hard-she actually seeh her face is so twisted up it doesn’t see as he closes the door behind thely fast, struggling through the crowd, tooby, indistinct faces, just profiles, people handing ether in a drunken h the darkness totally awake and people just keep di on to soh the crowd avoiding anyone who calls my name and Lauren and Damien seem miles away as they vanish into a li at the car as it disappears into theuntil so

Everything looks washed out and it’s cold and the night suddenly stops accelerating: the sky is locked in place, fuzzy and un to search arette, when I hear someone call my name and I look across the street at a li beside it, her face expressionless, and at her feet, on leashes, are Mr and Mrs Chow When they seeat their leashes excitedly, teeth bared, yapping, and I’ , Alison drops the leashes

Chapter Nine

Florent: a narrow, bleak 24-hour diner in the ri the coke I picked up at a bar in the East Village soht where I lost my tie, and a copy of the News is spread out in front offor hours, uselessly since it reveals nothing, and behindup lights I had gone by my place at around 4 but souy, twenty-five, , s there a very long tiuy-someone in the cast I hadn’t met yet-sat in a black