Mississippi Roll: A Wild Cards Novel by George R. R. Martin

Author:George R. R. Martin [Martin, George R. R.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2017-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

5.

Things were hopping in the Bayou Lounge, and the Amazing Ravenstone and the Jokertown Boys were killing it.

Wanda liked the talking bird, though Leo was a little suspicious of it. (As a general rule, he was suspicious of anything that could talk without moving its lips. Much less anything that could talk without any lips at all.) But Ravenstone had a set of horns, albeit smaller than his own, and Leo felt a tug of solidarity with the jokers onstage. That friendly tug was replaced with a pang of primal concern when the raven flapped over to his table, fixed him with a beady-eyed stare, and said—plain as day—“Who sees in the dark?”

Leo gave the Ravenstone a puzzled frown, and the magician gave it back. “Lenore?” he called the bird.

She replied, “In the dark!”

“Lenore, my dear…” He held out his arm.

The bird cocked its head back and forth, then hopped up and flew back to her handler’s extended wrist. People clapped a little uncertainly. The magician played it off with a flourish and returned to the setup for his next trick.

Leo wasn’t much interested in whatever the next one might be. The old detective was distracted, and getting fussy.

This whole ghost-hunting business was utter nonsense, and he was annoyed that Wanda had glommed on to the handsome hunters. They couldn’t possibly be any help, because there was no such thing as ghosts. There shouldn’t be any such thing as talking birds, either, and he didn’t fucking love magic shows like the bulky moron seated to his left.

“Excuse me a minute,” he finally said. He rose to his feet and pushed his chair under the table.

“Leo?”

“I just want some air.”

He pretended to walk toward the public restrooms, but passed them and headed back out to the boiler deck instead. He sighed in a deep breath of overly warm air that smelled like river water and seagull shit, and sighed out a gust that smelled like the two drinks he’d downed during the show.

He leaned forward against the rail.

The night sky was blue and very dark against the city lights of Vicksburg, sparkling along the shore and beyond it. The mighty Mississippi slapped softly against the boat’s hull. Laughter and cheers rose up from the Bayou Lounge, where his wife was probably enjoying some filthy thoughts about a man young enough to be her grandson.

Something about that damn bird stuck in his head.

Who sees in the dark? A nonsensical message from an avian brain the size of a caper, that’s all. Not a clue. Not a sign. Just a glitch in a magic show.

He thought about it anyway. He wondered what the answer was, if there even was one.

A rousing cheer and a cheerful thunder of applause rose up from the Bayou Lounge, so the magic show was probably over. The audience was probably finishing up drinks and wandering up and out to the decks to watch the city lights and get crapped on by the occasional bird.

Wanda and the Dead Report’s crew spied him and collectively flagged him down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.