Kage Baker by Rude Mechanicals

Author:Rude Mechanicals
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-12-27T13:56:11+00:00

“Yeah,” said Joseph. “I was so close! No trouble getting in, at least once I’d got up all those damn stairs. I found a bathroom window open on ground level. Flushed the toilet and walked out bold as brass. Nobody even noticed. The gin was flowing free, let me tell you. All kinds of Industry old-timers there. Half the people who used to work at Edendale and box-lunch extras of DeMille’s.

“They were pretty lively, for a bunch of has-beens; there was this big front room where they’d pushed all the furniture to the edges and rolled up the rugs, and they were dancing to Victrola records. Which made it hell to get through the room, see, which I had to do because Harlequin and Columbina were doing the Lindy clear across on the other side. So I just sort of insinuated myself out on the dance floor and tapped some guy on the shoulder, and there I was Lindy-hopping with this dame dressed as Marie Antoinette when this dog came leaping in!”

“He cut in on you?” Lewis inquired, steering around a curve with a precipitous drop on one side.

“No, not a guy dressed as a dog; a real dog! A Saint Bernard!”

“Oh, dear. And I guess he wanted to rend you limb from limb?”

“No; this one couldn’t tell I was a cyborg. He was a happy dog. He loved me. In the least dignified way imaginable, O.K.? Marie Antoinette broke away from me, just shrieking with laughter, which pretty much blew my plan of unobtrusively partner-swapping my way across the dance floor to Columbina’s arms.

“There was this sideboard at one edge of the room with canapés and drinks and stuff, so I went over there with the dog still lurching all over me. I grabbed a martini for myself and dropped him a couple of deviled eggs; did he lose interest in me? Not a chance. He jumped up and tried to put his forelegs around my neck. Then he noticed my martini, and dove into it nose-first.”

“He spilled your drink?”

“No, he drank it! The mutt was drunk! That was why he was so goddammed happy. You know what drunk dog breath smells like?”

“Please don’t tell me.” Lewis peered forward, straining to make out the fading heat trail that wound on ahead.

“So I set about three martinis on the floor for him and he ceased waxing amatory, thank the gods, just started lapping ‘em up, and I looked around to see Harlequin Larry and Columbina Muriel retiring from the dance floor to a settee in a nice dark corner. I pushed through the crowd and worked my way along the wall, sort of over and around the furniture. I overheard all kinds of snippets of conversation that would make me a fortune, if I was inclined to blackmail somebody.

“In fact—” Joseph pounded his fists on the dashboard. “In fact, I remember Arnaud Fletcher talking about this other party that’s going on tonight! That must be where the son-of-a-bitch is headed!”

“Well, where is it?” asked Lewis.

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