“Don’t worry about it, honey,” Eva said. “We can take care of ourselves. We’ve lost plenty of agents, sure, but so has Hector. We’re still plenty strong. I got a hold of enough, and they’ll contact others. The ones I couldn’t raise,” she shrugged, “they’re probably in public places and have their radios off. When they feel it’s safe to turn them back on, they’ll check in.”
We waited many long minutes, staring at the monitor with the sprouted agent. There was a window visible behind Bowlsley. He had finished pruning and was arranging some of the agent’s long bones in a flower box.
“That guy’s just plain sick,” I said. Eva only went hmpf.
Eventually there was movement in the window and we saw Lola the pigeon settle down. It looked straight at the camera and hopped forward.
After a few seconds Meche asked, “Isn’t it going to do anything?”
“They’re trained to wait,” Eva said.
“If Bowlsley doesn’t turn around…?” I began to ask.
“The pigeon will eventually come back,” Eva said.
“I guess this isn’t gonna work,” Meche said.
“Give it time,” Eva said.
There was a sudden flurry of movement in the window. The pigeon seemed to disappear, replaced by a demon raven as if by magic. One more Lola down. Bowlsley turned toward the movement.
“Oh, sure,” Meche groused, “now he turns around.”
“Well, it was worth a shot,” Eva said with a sigh and turned away.
“One of Hector’s messengers,” we heard Bowlsley say. There seemed to be a quaver in the florist’s voice, or maybe it was just the lousy sound. I was about to say something about rotten timing when the raven hacked. Something seemed to fly out of its mouth. Bowlsley stepped forward and bent down. “A m-message for m-me?” he said, straightening up. Eva’s head snapped back around toward the monitor. Bowlsley unfolded the note.
“Jesus!” Eva breathed, sounding impressed.
Meche ‘scowled’.
Bowlsley got very agitated as he read the note. “I knew it!” he exclaimed, crumpling the note and throwing it away. “I knew he was out to get me the whole time!” Bowlsley went off camera. “He’s going to have to find himself another florist!” There were some rattling and banging noises, and then silence.
“Lucky break,” I said.
“Hey, don’t knock it,” Eva said. “Unless Hector has a large stash of Bowlsley’s special sproutella—and Bowlsley didn’t leave the formula behind—maybe we just did some good work. If we can’t take care of Hector tonight, this might even things up a little for the next attempt, especially if we can pick up Bowlsley before he goes to ground.”
“Eva,” I said after a moment, “I know you don’t want to talk details, but if Salvador wants as many agents as possible to rendezvous with him, he must be planning something big. Right?”
“I’m not going to argue with you, sweetheart,” she said. I chose to take that as an affirmative.
“Hector must have a lot of protection,” I guessed.
“He wouldn’t still be here if he didn’t.”
“Does he ever see anybody? I mean, when someone wants to buy a Double-N ticket, do they deal with Hector directly or through one of his gang?”
“As far as we’ve been able to find out,” Eva answered, “anyone who wants to buy a Double-N ticket, buys it from Hector himself.” She folded her arms and gave me the ‘paperclips-are-not-toys’ glare. “Where are you going with this, Cal?”
“Well, it just seems to me that an attack by a bunch of LSA toughs is exactly the kind of thing Hector would be ready for, but anyone in the market for a ticket can get to him without all that fuss, right?”
“We’ve sent agents to try to buy tickets before, darling. You already know how well that worked out.”
“Yeah, but those were agents. I’m not exactly your average LSA man, am I? And besides, I’m still on top of that mountain so far as Hector knows, unless he figured his note would make me bolt into the next world the second I read it. Either way, I don’t think the man’s staying up nights worrying about me.”
Eva shrugged. “Maybe you’ve got a point, Cal, but I still don’t see what you’re aiming at.”
“I gotta find out what happened to those tickets and try to get them back, Eva. If I can get to Hector, maybe I can do something about it.”
“Maybe you can, but you’d be taking an awfully big risk. Even supposing you manage to get in to see him, you might not get back out.”
It was my turn to shrug. “Yeah, but I’m probably not getting out of this world anyway. If I can do a little good while I meet my destiny, I can take it.” Eva projected an unhappy frown, but said nothing. “So here’s the plan,” I said. I looked down at myself. Not a pretty sight, even in the best of times, and these weren’t anything like good times. “First, I’m gonna need new clothes, something that doesn’t reek of sled dog. A really sharp suit would be ideal. I need to look loaded if Hector’s going to take me seriously.” Eva nodded. “Trouble is, I’m tapped out. Glottis and I emptied our accounts in Zapato to help finance the trip to the end of the line. Olivia footed the bills since we left Rubacava, but she didn’t give me her bank card. Can the LSA help out?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?!” Eva exclaimed, incredulous. My spirits started to sink, but then she said, “If you think the price of a new suit will help bring down Hector, you’ve got it. But what about Mercedes?”
“Well…” I began.
“You’d better include me,” Meche said. “You’ll be more convincing as a couple, you know.”
“That’s good,” Eva said, “really good! A lot of Hector’s customers are old marrieds.” She shook her head. “Why the hell didn’t we think of that before?”
“Search me,” I said. “So, once we get dressed up, we try to get in to see Hector. I’ll need a gun so we’ll have something to talk about when I get there.”
“I can fix you up, no problem,” Eva said. “Have you ever fired a sproutella gun?”
“No, but I’ve handled guns.”
“Well, these ones have a different kind of kick. And the aim is a little tricky. You should practice. But first you need to get your new clothes before the shops close.”
“Yeah, good idea,” I said.
“I’ll get you guys some money,” Eva said and left the room.
“I haven’t been shopping in ages,” Meche said.
“Just remember we’re in a hurry here,” I said. “We go in, get new outfits, and come right back out again.”
Meche shook her head and muttered, “Men!”
Nuevo Marrow
We went topside and got our new clothes. We weren’t as quick about it as I had wanted to be, but… well, I’m a man and Meche’s a woman, and I’ll leave it at that. When we got back to LSA headquarters, Eva was waiting for me with a gun and good news.
“Take a look at this,” she said, holding out a green canister, “but be careful.”
“What is it?” I asked as I took it.
“Glottis had it sent to me,” Eva said. “It seems a little man in overalls ran past him a while ago and dropped this.”
“Bowlsley!” I exclaimed.
“Looks that way. We did a test. This is the fast-acting sproutella.” I quickly handed the canister back, thinking I’d be happier not knowing how they tested it. “We might be able to duplicate it. If we can, it might shift the balance of power our way. Anyone hit with this stuff doesn’t have time to shoot back.” I shivered. Eva noticed and said, “I know, Cal, but they shoot us so we have to shoot back.”