Hellboy: Unnatural Selection(28)

"Look at that," Hellboy said, quietly enough so that only Amelia heard. "Damn, I've seen some stuff, but — "

"You're that Hellboy?" the barmaid said.

"No, my names Kevin."

The woman laughed, and every bit of her shook. "No, you're him. So are you really from hell?"

Hellboy scratched the table with his big right hand, adding his own signature to a hundred others. "Do you want to find out?"

The woman laughed again, fleshy ripples overlapping with those from her last outburst. "Fair enough!" she said. "Chili's good today."

"Chili's good every day," Amelia said. "We need two bowls and — "

"Four," Hellboy said. "And a large bowl of nachos, heavy on the guacamole. And a pitcher of the strongest local brew you do, which is called ... ?"

"Old Devil." She laughed shrilly.

Hellboy winced. "Well, I can't argue with that." He and Amelia watched the barmaid waddle back behind the bar and disappear into the kitchen. "Please cell me she doesn't do the cooking as well?"

"Don't know who does, but it's divine."

Hellboy made a show of looking around. "Nice joints you frequent, Ms. Francis."

"There's an American chain pub two blocks down," she said. "There've been two murders there in the three years I've been in Rio. Here ... never even seen a fight. Most people are too drunk — or too filled with chilli — to bother."

"Hmph." He fished the satellite phone and battery from his pocket, toyed with them both, and ended up leaving them to one side. Tom could wait another hour. Hellboy was sore and thirsty and hungry, and this was nice. Just ... nice.

"You're sure you're all right?" Amelia asked.

"I'm fine. Aching, but as I said, I've had worse."

"So I imagine. Some of the things you've seen ... some of the things you've done ... "

"I guess as a lecturer in mythology, you'd be interested, eh?"

Amelia shrugged, then smiled. "Damn right! The reason I started advising the BPRD is that I dream of becoming a field agent. When they approached me back in — "

"But do you believe?"

"Huh?"

The barmaid came with their pitcher of beer and two glasses, fired an incoherent quip at Hellboy, and left.

"Do you believe?" he asked again. "That was a dragon back there, and you still seem a bit shaken up about that."

Amelia poured the beers and took a long swig of hers. As she put the glass down, she was frowning, staring at Hellboy's chest but seeing right through. To the dragon, perhaps. Or back to herself, reliving her reaction to the creature's appearance. "Myth is myth," she said. "Or so I've always believed. There's always an element of truth behind every myth, but ... "

"How much have you done with the BPRD?"

"I've answered a few questions over the phone."

"This is the first time you've actually seen anything?"

She nodded. And then she smiled sadly, and Hellboy realized that he was busy trying to deconstruct the meaning of her life. Questioning her beliefs when she had just had them challenged so violently — and so comprehensively — was insensitive of him.

"I'm sorry," he said. He touched her arm with his right hand, and she withdrew. "Hey ... sorry."

"The thing with mythology is, it's safe," she said. She drank some more, finishing her glass and letting out a dainty burp. "It's secure. It's a land of stories and legends that affect humanity down through the ages, but for me it's always been just that: stories and legends. I can tell as many students as I like about vampires and werewolves and dragons, and how terrible they can be, and how awful they are. But when I go home at night, I'm not afraid, because the world I've been talking about doesn't really exist. It's theoretical. Some people believe, many more don't, but it's always very safe. Mythology isn't as dangerous as murder, or as immediate as pollution, or as vicious as the drug gangs that control part of this city. The ideas within it are, for sure, but when I close my books at the end of the day, that's where the ideas stay. And I avoid the places where the drug gangs rule, and I wear my smog mask, and everything is right with the world."

Hellboy drank and watched and said nothing, because he knew the real truth. And he was watching Amelia discover it now, for herself. There was no reason for him to go in heavy-handed and smash it home for her.