Nightside 02 - Agents of Light and Darkness

made a deal, and the Authorities sent me here to implement it. And while this club’s defenses are more than adequate to keep out the usual riffraff, they’re no barrier to me. I have been empowered by the Authorities to go wherever I have to go, to carry out their wishes. And right now, they want the Unholy Grail. They intend to hand it over to the angels, in return for… certain future considerations. And an end to all violence and destruction in the Nightside, of course.”
    “Which set of angels?” I asked.
    Walker shrugged and smiled charmingly. “Yet to be determined, I believe. Whoever makes the better offer. I understand it could go either way. Still, that isn’t really any of your business, is it? Give me the Unholy Grail, and we can all get on with our lives again.”
    “You know that isn’t going to happen,” I said. “Angels can’t be trusted with the dark chalice, and neither can the Authorities. None of you have Humanity’s best interests at heart. So, do you think you can take it from me, Walker? I don’t see any backup, this time. Are you really ready to go head to head with me?”
    Walker looked at me thoughtfully. “Perhaps. I’d really hate to have to kill you, John. But I do have my orders.”
    Suzie pushed past me suddenly, standing at the edge of the pentacle so she glared right into Walker’s face. “You set your pet on me. Set Belle on me. I could have died.”
    “Even I just have to do what I’m told, sometimes,” said Walker. “However much I might regret the necessity.”
    “Wouldn’t stop you doing it again, though, would it?”
    “No,” said Walker. “My position doesn’t allow me to play favorites.”
    “I ought to shoot you dead where you stand,” said Suzie, in a voice that was cold as ice, cold as death.
    Walker didn’t even flinch. “You’d be dead before you could pull the trigger, Suzie. I told you, I’m protected in ways you can’t even imagine.”
    I moved quickly to stand between them. “Walker,” I said, and something in my voice made him turn immediately to look at me. “There are things we need to talk about. Things you should have told me long ago. The Collector had some very interesting information about the old days, when you and he and my father were such very close friends.”
    “Ah yes,” said Walker. “The Collector. Poor Mark. So many possessions, and none of them enough to make him happy. Haven’t talked to him in years. How is he?”
    “Well down the road to full on crazy,” I said. “But there’s nothing much wrong with his memory. He still remembers finding my mother, and putting her together with my father. If the three of you were as tight as he says, you had to know all about it. So who commissioned him to go out and find my mother, and why? What part did you play in it all? And how come you never told me anything about this before, Walker? What else do you know about my parents that you’ve never seen fit to share with me?”
    By the end I was shouting right into his face, almost spitting out the words, but he held his ground, and the calm expression on his face never once changed. “I know all kinds of things,” he said finally. “Comes with the territory. I told you all you needed to know. But there are some things I can’t talk about, not even with old friends.”
    “Don’t just think of us as old friends,” said Suzie. “Think of us as old friends with a pump-action shotgun. Tell him what he needs to know, Walker, or we’ll see how good your precious protections really are.”
    He raised a single eyebrow. “The consequences could be very unfortunate.”
    “To hell with consequences,” said Suzie. Her smile was really unpleasant. “When have I ever given a damn for consequences?”
    And perhaps he saw something in her eyes, heard something in her voice. Perhaps he knew Suzie Shooter’s shotgun wasn’t just any shotgun. So he smiled regretfully and used one of his oldest tricks. The Authorities had given him a Voice that could not be denied, by the living or the dead or anything in between. When he spoke in that Voice, gods and monsters alike would bow down to him.
    “ Put down the shotgun, Suzie, and step back. Everyone else, stand still .”
    Suzie put down her gun immediately and stepped back from the edge of the pentacle. Nobody else moved. Walker looked at me.
    “ John. Give me the bag. Now.”
    But what was in the bag burned against my side like a hot coal, fanning the anger within me,