The Kill Society (Sandman Slim)(62)

“No. I don’t.”

“No. You don’t.”

“How do all of you fit your wings in the car?”

“We tuck.”

“You can tuck your wings?”

“Oh yeah. They fold up real small. I’ll show you sometime.”

“Quiet!’ shouts Charon. “You people and your noise. I should charge you double just for the aggravation.”

Vehuel shoots Alice a look. She mouths “Sorry” back at the boss.

A few minutes later, Charon finishes counting and goes to the support where he’d been hiding earlier. When he comes back, he’s holding a long ash staff.

“I am Charon, boatman of the Styx—”

“We know who you are, Charon,” says Vehuel.

“Don’t interrupt. Now I have to start over. I am Charon, boatman of the Styx. All may pass, but all must pay.”

“Of course,” says the Magistrate.

“In gold,” says the old man drawing out the O.

The Magistrate reaches into his duster and pulls out a dove. As it flies away, he’s already shooting playing cards from hand to hand. He fans out the deck and says, “Pick a card.”

“No,” says Charon.

“Oh, come on. You want to be paid, do you not?”

Charon makes a sour face and points to a card. With a great flourish, the Magistrate tosses the rest of the cards into the air, where they burst into flame and disappear. With another extravagant flourish, he turns over Charon’s card for us to see. There’s a picture of a gold coin in the center. People applaud. He shows the card to Charon. The old man takes it and throws it into the river. He shakes his staff.

“Do you see this staff which I hold? With it, I bar or open the way to the river. With it, I command the ships and the tide. But without gold, I’ll do nothing at all and you can all bugger off the way you came.”

“Of course, dear sir,” says the Magistrate. He snaps his fingers and there’s a gold coin there, like he plucked it out of the air. People applaud politely.

Charon takes the coin and tosses it into the river.

“Not enough,” he says. “Gold for all of them. Every soul. Every Hellion. Every one of your pretty little angels.” He smiles sourly at Vehuel. She smiles sourly right back. “And gold for your transports. Double gold for those big bastards at the back. What’re they?”

“Trucks,” I shout.

“Trucks? Funny word,” Charon says. “Yes. Double for them. And double for him. He has a big mouth.”

Everyone looks at me.

“You’re not helping,” says Alice.

The Magistrate looks back at the havoc and the angels, then back to Charon.

“Dear sir, if we had known that we would need so much gold, we could have prepared for it. As it is, you have thrown all of our gold into your lovely river.”

Charon slams his staff into the pier.

“Then you can go back the way you came and take those nosy angels with you.”

“But, sir—”

“No!”

Charon crosses his arms, clutching his magic staff tight.

Vehuel says, “Be reasonable, Charon. We must pass. We are on a holy mission.”

“Tough. Gold or you can rot on these banks like my sign.”

The Magistrate starts talking. The other angels go over and they start talking. All you can hear coming from the mob is Charon saying, “No. No. Never. Forget it. Nope. No . . .”

I go to the pier and push a couple of angels out of the way.

Charon says, “What do you want, Mr. Bigmouth?”

I take out the Colt and smack him on the head with the butt. Before he falls into the river, I grab his staff and toss it to the Magistrate.

“You’re smart. You and the halo polishers figure out how to make it work.”

I go back to the Charger and light a Malediction. Toss the pack and matches to Wanuri, who lights one for herself and gives out smokes to anybody who wants a cigarette. Even Johnny takes one.

“Smooth,” says Alice. “You realize that’s not going to do your reputation in Heaven any good.”

“Then you’ll just have to stick up for me.”

“Believe me, I’ve tried. But it’s five of them against one of me.”

I hold out a hand to where the other angels and the Magistrate are examining the staff.

“You’re warriors. You’ve seen worse than that in battle.”

“You mugged an old man!” says Alice. “That kind of thing gets around.”

“He called me a loudmouth.”

“Bigmouth, actually.” Alice cranes her neck, looking where I pushed in Charon. “I hope he’s all right.”

I point about twenty yards downstream.

“Ask him. He’s right over there.”

The old man shakes himself like an angry cat, but keeps his distance. In a few minutes, the three ships waiting upriver begin to move toward the pier. The Magistrate and the angels smile.

“Are you satisfied now?” says Alice.

“I’ll be satisfied when this is over.”

“What are you going to do then?”

“I have no idea. I don’t even know what ‘over’ means. The Magistrate will have his gun. To tell you the truth, I don’t trust him with it.”