The Kill Society (Sandman Slim)(46)

“Getting comfortable, are we?” says Wanuri.

“Having a cigarette picnic. Want one?”

“No and neither do you. Mount up. We’re moving on.”

I finish as much of the Malediction as I can and we head back to the map route.

It’s the same routine at the next two towns we come to. Up a hill. Crouch in the rocks like bashful lizards. Then back to blow down the Magistrate’s Yellow Brick Road.

At the second town, Doris gets on her bike but doesn’t start it.

“What’s wrong?” says Wanuri.

“I have a confession to make. I’m not exactly sure what an obelisk is.”

“Then why did you want to come on the run?”

“Camp is so depressing right now. I thought I could be more helpful out here.”

“Looking for something you don’t know what it is?”

Doris gives Wanuri as fierce a look as I’ve ever seen.

“In case there’s trouble.”

Wanuri leans on her bike. Before she can say anything, Gisco gestures, holding his arms a length apart like he’s measuring something from the ground.

Wanuri frowns.

“Now, what the hell are you saying?”

I say, “He’s saying an obelisk is a pillar.”

Gisco nods. I look at Doris.

“It’s a kind of pillar with a little pyramid on top.”

“Thank you both,” she says.

Wanuri looks us over.

“Are you done? Can we just do our job?”

“Back off,” I say. “Doris asked a legit question.”

“If I don’t back off are you going to shoot us up like the Magistrate’s trailer?”

I get off the bike and go to her.

“Is that going to be your excuse?”

Doris looks from Wanuri to me.

“What do you mean?” she says.

“For when she shoots me in the back. Tell me. Is this your idea or did Daja put you up to it?”

“What?” Doris says. “He’s wrong. Tell him he’s wrong, Wanuri.”

She doesn’t say anything.

Gisco gestures violently.

I say, “If you think I’m going down easy . . .”

“Hush!” says Doris. “Both of you.”

She yanks the panabas off her belt and gets between Wanuri and me.

“We don’t do that kind of thing to each other,” she says. “Whatever personal problems you have with Pitts, you need to deal with some other time because if something happens to him out here I will be very cross.”

Gisco goes to stand with her.

Wanuri looks over our tawdry little mutiny and gets on her bike.

“Let’s move out,” she says, and points to a nearby peak. “We’re heading there. The map says we might be able to see the obelisk from the top.”

No one says another word as we get on our bikes and head out.



It’s a half hour’s ride down to the base of the peak. There’s no road or even a path. The rocks are too loose and it’s too steep to consider taking the bikes, so we leave them behind a couple of large boulders and start up on foot. My side hurts from the long ride, but I don’t let on. I’d like another taste of laudanum or at least a shot of Aqua Regia. Instead, I have to suffer with water and a couple of aspirin Cherry gave me.

We trudge up the goddamn hill. Slipping and sliding the whole way. The hill isn’t that high, but the loose rocks we found at the base get looser and bigger the higher we climb. We practically have to crawl up the last few steep yards to keep from sliding all the way back to the bottom.

The Tenebrae sky is dim and the shadows are long, but the Magistrate was right. From here we can see for miles. Too bad there’s nothing to see. No one says anything, but you can feel it hit like a punch to the gut. We’ve come miles and climbed up the highest peak in the area for a crystal-clear view of the same shit wasteland we’ve been traveling through for how long? I don’t know anymore.

“Come on,” says Wanuri. “Let’s look at the other side. Watch your step.”

The way the rocks shift and slide, it’s like roller-skating on marbles up here. Halfway around, I slip and Gisco helps me up. Then it’s Doris’s turn. There are a few dry trees up here and she grabs one, but can’t get her footing. I help her up.

After I get her on her feet, she grabs me.

“A pillar?” she says. “With a pyramid on top?”

“Yeah.”

“Like that?”

She points into the distance.

I squint.

“Well, goddamn.”

I yell to the others, “Doris just got employee of the month.”

They look to where we’re pointing.

It stands there in murky half-light, straight, white like marble, and at least fifty feet tall. And it’s behind us. We probably passed it fucking hours ago. Our tire tracks run right alongside it, but the obelisk itself is in a divot at the bottom of one of the anonymous hills, surrounded by high rocks that block it from ground-level view.

Wanuri gets out the spyglass.

“Fuck, Doris. Fuck.”

She slip-slides over to us and gives Doris a big hug.

Gisco makes a sound and shakes his hands at the spyglass.