Nightside 02 - Agents of Light and Darkness

about you, or Eddie. You’re both free to leave and go your own ways. Unless you choose to interfere with this, in which case I really can’t speak for your safety.”
    The tension in the room cranked up a whole other notch. Suzie was grinning unpleasantly, and Eddie was looking at Walker in a disturbingly thoughtful manner. Anyone else would have turned and run, but not Walker. He was the Authorities’ voice, with the power to back it up. There were a lot of stories about Walker, and the things that he’d done, and none of them had a happy ending. I took a step forward, to bring his attention back to me. He smiled charmingly, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
    “Well done, Taylor. I knew I could rely on you to do the right thing, eventually.”
    “You assured me earlier that you trusted me to sort this one out,” I said. “You said it would be best for everyone if I got to the Unholy Grail first and put it out of everyone’s reach.”
    “Times change,” Walker said calmly. “The wise man bows to the inevitable. I have my orders, and now so do you. Come along, Taylor. I don’t want to have to get testy with you.”
    “Do you really want to go one-on-one with me, Walker?” I said, and something in my voice made his eyes narrow. “Maybe we should, just for the hell of it. Haven’t you ever wondered … haven’t you ever wanted to know if either of us is really everything our reputations make us out to be?”
    Walker looked at me thoughtfully for a long moment, and I met his gaze unflinchingly. I could feel Suzie poising for action, tense as a coiled spring. And men Walker smiled his charming smile again, and shrugged. “Perhaps another time, Taylor. Are you sure I can’t persuade you to come with me? There are forces at my beck and call that you really don’t want to meet. And surely you wouldn’t want to risk your friends being hurt?”
    Suzie sniggered offensively. “Yeah, right. That’ll be the day.”
    “Good-bye, Walker,” I said. “I’m sure you can find your own way out.”
    Walker shook his head. “You know your father wouldn’t approve of behavior like this, John. He understood about duty and responsibility.”
    “You leave my father out of this! What did working for the Authorities ever do for him? And where were you when he needed you? You were supposed to be his friend! Where were you when he married my mother? Perhaps we should talk about my mother. Would you like that?”
    “No,” said Walker. “I wouldn’t.”
    “No… no-one ever does,” I said, cold and flat and bitter. “Funny, that.”
    Razor Eddie stood up behind his desk, and all eyes immediately went to him. He never looked like much, but just then his presence seemed to fill the room. He looked at Walker, and Walker inclined his head slightly, respectfully.
    “John doesn’t have to go anywhere he doesn’t want to,” said Razor Eddie, in a voice like a death sentence. “And don’t think you can threaten me, Walker. I have known worse things than Authorities or angels.”
    “And I’m just plain mean,” said Shotgun Suzie.
    “I have seen the Unholy Grail,” said Razor Eddie. “The Collector wasn’t fit to have it, and neither are you, or the angels. It is a thing that doesn’t belong here, and the only person I trust to get rid of it is Taylor. Go now, John, Suzie. I’ll keep Walker occupied.”
    Walker looked at me almost sadly. “You didn’t really think I’d come here alone, did you?”
    A gaudily colored blur swept past him and into the office, blasting through the open doorway almost too fast to be seen. Something buffeted me in passing, almost knocking me off my feet, and rushed on to slam into Razor Eddie. The sheer force of the impact lifted him off his feet, smashed him clean through the closed window behind him, and sent him tumbling helplessly through the smoky air to the ground three stories below. Suzie was only just turning round, and trying to bring her gun to bear, when the blur turned and swept back, and a single horribly clawed hand slapped the shotgun out of Suzie’s hand, then whipped back to tear out her guts. The black leather jacket blew apart in an explosion of tatters, and Suzie cried out once, in shock and pain, as her stomach opened up like a great mouth, and her intestines fell out in a rush of blood. She collapsed to her knees, grabbing with shaky hands at the thick purple ropes spilling out of her. More blood gushed out, soaking her lap and legs, and pooling on the