Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,71

was I-don’t-give-a-shit me. Anyway, it wasn’t anybody Vic wanted to spend the rest of her life with.” I sighed. “Is this making any sense at all?”

A’marie frowned and thought about it. “It is, but I don’t know what it has to do with what’s happening here and now.”

I waved my hand like I thought I could pull the right words out of the air. “It’s like… look, it’s too late to be the person Dad and Vic wanted. It’s not in me, and they’re gone anyway. But the person I know how to be isn’t completely worthless. I never cheated or hustled anybody, and there are damn few pros who can say that. I pay my debts. Even if I hadn’t met Timon, I still would have paid Rhonda somehow. When I make a deal with a backer or whoever, I keep it. And I have to hold the line on all of that, or I’m really not anybody.”

A’marie sighed. “You’re saying you have principles. And this stupid plan you came up with already bends them as far as you’re willing to go.”

“Something like that.”

“Okay, then. We’ll try it your way. What all do you need?”

I told her. As I expected, some of it, like a laptop with Internet access and a replacement gun—just in case—was no big deal. The rest was trickier, but she came back a couple hours later and told me she had it taken care of.

That meant it was time for another sneak to the Miata. I hopped out of my physical body for a second to look around the alley. As far as I could tell, nobody was watching the door or the car. So we dashed out, jumped in, and drove away.

It was another nice day, and the top was down. The sunshine and the wind in my hair took away more of the frazzled, jumpy feeling left over from everything that had happened the day and night before. Or maybe I just felt better because doing feels better than waiting.

A’marie parked near one of the shrimp docks on McKay Bay. As I stowed my new Glock 27 under my seat, I said, “Too bad we don’t know the spell to call him like Timon did. Although I guess that wouldn’t be very smart in the daylight.”

“This may not be very smart anyway,” A’marie answered. “Murk isn’t known for being friendly.”

“Well,” I said, “at least he isn’t all that big.”

The way she looked at me told me I’d said something retarded.

“When he came up out of the water,” she said, “he was only small because otherwise, some human might have spotted him even in the dark. He’s a kraken.”

“What’s that?”

“Except for when he decides to shrink, something really, really big.”

“I’m kind of sorry to hear that. But this still doesn’t seem any dumber than a lot of the other things I’ve done.”

She laughed. “You’ve got me there.” She reached inside her tuxedo jacket and brought an orange plastic prescription bottle with a Walgreens label.

But I was pretty sure the pills inside weren’t from Walgreens. They looked like blobs of green Play-Doh a kid had rolled between his fingertips. I swallowed one, and she took the other.

For a second, the pill gave me heartburn. Then it suddenly felt hard to breathe, like I was standing on top of Mt. Everest. I turned to A’marie. She was panting, too.

“It’s all right,” she wheezed. “This is supposed to happen. Or at least that’s what Darnell said.”

“And if you can’t trust your drug dealer, who can you trust?”

Still gasping, we got out of the car, then took off our shoes. I stripped down to the swim trunks she’d found for me. She got rid of her jacket, vest, tie, and shoes, but kept her shirt, pants, and socks. She couldn’t wear a bathing suit and show the world her goat legs.

Then we grabbed our goggles. The magic in the pills was supposed to let us breathe and even talk underwater, but apparently we still needed air spaces in front of our eyes to see clearly.

I had a pair of fins, too. A’marie didn’t. She’d said they wouldn’t stay on.

We crossed a strip of sand, pebbles, and saw-grass and waded into the water. I was glad it was cool, but not cold. We spat inside our goggles and rinsed them out to keep them from fogging up. I pulled on the fins. Then it was time to go under. I got that far, then froze. Because my body was