Nightside 02 - Agents of Light and Darkness

turned to look at me. “Because you belong here. Because … even monsters need to feel they’re not alone. Look, what do you want here, Taylor? You’re interrupting a classic.”
    “Bruce Lee again?” I said, just to tease her. And because I knew I’d got as much honesty out of her as both of us could stand.
    “Don’t show your ignorance. This is Jackie Chan.”
    “There’s a difference?”
    “Blasphemer. Jackie’s got some great moves, but Bruce Lee is God.”
    “Speaking of whom,” I said casually, “I have a case I could use some help on.”
    Suzie sat up and gave me her full attention for the first time. “You have a case involving Bruce Lee?”
    “No. God. There are angels in the Nightside.”
    Suzie shrugged and gave her attention back to the television screen. “About time. Maybe they’ll clean the place up.”
    “Maybe. But there’s a distinct possibility there might not be much left of the place by the time they’d finished with it. They’re looking for the Unholy Grail. I’ve got a client who wants me to find it first. Thought you might like to help. The money really is extremely good.”
    Suzie produced a remote control from somewhere underneath her and put the film on hold. Jackie froze in mid kick. Suzie looked at me. “How good?”
    “I’m offering fifty thousand, out of my fee. You get twenty-five up front, and the rest when the job’s done.”
    Suzie considered, her face impassive. “Is the job very dangerous? Will I have to kill lots of people?”
    “Odds are … yes and yes.”
    She smiled. “Then I’m in.”
    And that was it. Suzie didn’t really care about the money; she never did. She just went through the motions, so people wouldn’t think they could take advantage of her. With her, it was always the job that mattered, the challenge. The only feelings of self-worth she had came from testing herself against forces that could destroy her. I took the money out of the envelope Jude had given me, peeled off half, and dropped it onto the couch beside her. She nodded, but made no move to pick it up. She didn’t have a safe, or even a strongbox, on the unanswerable grounds that no-one was going to be stupid enough to steal from her. There were less painful ways to commit suicide. She turned off the television, stubbed out the last half inch of her cigarette on the leather couch, flicked it away, then fixed me with a steady stare.
    “You have my full attention. Angels … and an Unholy Grail. Kinky. Bit out of our usual territory. Would silver work against angels?”
    “Not even if you loaded it into a bazooka. You could probably strap an angel to a backpack nuke and set it off, and he wouldn’t even blink. Angels are major hard-core.”
    Suzie looked at me for a long moment. It was always hard to tell what she was thinking, behind the cold mask she used for a face. “You religious, Taylor?”
    I shrugged. “Hard not to be, in the Nightside. If only because there are no atheists in foxholes. I’m pretty sure there is a God, a Creator. I just don’t think he cares about us. I don’t think we matter to him. You?”
    “I used to tell people I was a lapsed agnostic,” she said easily. “Now I tell them I’m a born-again heretic. I hung out with this bunch of Kali worshippers for a while, but they said I was too hard-core, the wimps. Mostly … I believe in guns, knives, and things that go bang. All of which we’re probably going to need if we’re going after the Unholy Grail. I take it there will be competition?”
    “Lots and lots. So you don’t have any problems, about going up against angels or devils?”
    She smiled coldly. “Just give me something to aim at and leave the rest to me.” She frowned thoughtfully. “There was a weapon I heard of once … The Speaking Gun. Created specifically to kill angels. The Collector tried to bribe me with it one time, to get into my pants…”
    “I think we’ll save that for a last resort,” I said, diplomatically.
    She shrugged. “So, where do we start?”
    “Well, I thought we’d go and have a word with the Demon Lordz.”
    “Those gangsta wannabes? I have seen puppies in toilet paper commercials that were more threatening than that bunch of poseurs.”
    “There’s more to them than meets the eye.”
    She sniffed. “There would have to be.”
    I stood up. Time to get the show on the road. “Grab what you need, and let’s get moving, Suzie. Above and Below have already tried to lean on me. I’m