But at least, other than for a few anime types, they looked pretty much like real women, if real women had been designed by the Mattel Company. But that did not make it any better. If anything, it was somehow worse, only I wasn’t exactly sure how. But I was feeling less than comfortable as we were led across the room to a booth in the far corner, where a friend was waiting.
“Hey, short stuff.” A Chinese vamp who threatened to make Louis-Cesare look petite grinned up at me with a cutie pie on either knee. “I’d rise, but as you can see . . .”
What I could see that the girls were either more fakes, or else they’d gotten extensive plastic surgery with Jessica Rabbit in mind. Or maybe one of the anime girls, since they were both Chinese. They could have been twins, except that one had a blue cheongsam and a short, blonde bob, and the other a slinky silver cocktail dress that Radu would have loved and a fall of long, straight black hair.
“Is that a gun in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?” Zheng asked, apparently reading my mind.
I looked down to see that I was still clutching my .44. I put it away but didn’t apologize. “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot the tits,” I told him.
“That would be a shame,” he agreed. “They’re our mascot.”
And then he did get up, dumping the cuties and hugging me. “How the fuck you been, anyway?”
“Weird.”
He pulled back and grinned. “Know the feeling.” His eyes went to my receding hair line. “New style?”
“Decided to punk out.”
“It suits you.” He shook Louis-Cesare’s hand, and gestured at the booth. “Sit down, sit down. These two were just leaving.”
The girls took the hint, slinking off to charm some other table, and we slid into their place. “What the hell?” I asked, looking after them.
Zheng grinned at me some more. He was looking prosperous, in a dark gray suit that managed to camouflage most of the muscles, and was jazzed up by a discreet, paler gray pinstripe. He had a gold watch on one wrist, a matching ring on the other hand, and a tie tack with a ruby the size of my thumbnail.
Unlike his city, he seemed to be doing okay these days.
His attire, which matched the swanky clothing of the rest of the room, made me feel slightly out of place in my black jeans, matching T-shirt and leather jacket. But at least Louis-Cesare looked nice. He wasn’t dressed up—he rarely was if not at court—and only had on a dark blue button up with equally dark jeans. But, somehow, on him it matched any suit in the room, bringing out the red in his hair and the sapphire in his eyes.
Or maybe that was just me.
“Got a nice set up, Lily does,” Zheng was saying, when I tore my attention away from my husband. “And she thought it up all by herself, I’m ashamed to say. Can’t believe I missed that one.”
“Lily?”
“The proprietor. She’ll be along eventually.”
“And what set up, exactly, does she have?” Louis-Cesare asked, because he seemed as confused as me.
“Exactly what it looks like.” Zheng took a drink from the heavy crystal glass in front of him, then waved it around. “A lot of people vacated the area after the big boom, including most of the girls. Lily, who is—or was—a working girl herself, soon had too much work to handle. So, she got this idea . . .”
“To make herself some help?” Louis-Cesare asked, checking out the completely unbelievable proportions on the cigarette girl who’d just wiggled by.
Zheng nodded. “It started with these cards she had made up, business type things. Used to put them in the phone booths around the city, in shops, anywhere they’d let her. For advertising, you know.”
I kicked my husband, who was still watching the cigarette girl. She had a black spangled, Playboy-Club-without-the-ears outfit that did tend to draw the eye, especially from the back. Which was no excuse, damn it!
“I didn’t think you were the jealous type,” Louis-Cesare murmured, as a waiter came by to take our order.
“I’m not. And I was, if wouldn’t be here. They’re not real.”
“Oh, they’re real enough,” Zheng said. “That’s the beauty of it.”
I eyed the figure on a voluptuous redhead in a glittery gold gown who was slinking our way. “No way in hell.”