Nightside 09 - Just Another Judgement Day

the challenge. She wasn’t scared. Suzie didn’t get scared or intimidated. Those were things that happened to other people, usually because of Suzie. She sat down abruptly on the edge of the couch, next to me. Close though she was, she still didn’t quite touch me. I caught Walker noticing that, and he nodded slowly.
    “So close,” he said. “In every way but one.”
    I gave him my best hard look, but to his credit he didn’t flinch. “Is there anything you don’t know about?” I said.
    He smiled briefly. “You’d be surprised.”
    “It’s none of your business,” said Suzie. “And if you say anything to anyone, I’ll kill you.”
    “You’d be surprised how many people already know, or guess,” said Walker. “It’s hard to keep secrets in the Nightside. I am merely . . . concerned.”
    “Why?” I said bluntly. “What are we, to you? What have I ever been to you, except a threat to your precious status quo, or an expendable agent for some mission too dangerous or too dirty for your own people? And now, suddenly, you’re concerned about me? Why, for God’s sake?”
    “Because you’re my son,” said Walker. “In every way that matters.”
    He couldn’t have surprised me more if he’d taken out a gun and shot me. Suzie and I looked blankly at each other, then back at Walker, but he gave every indication of being perfectly serious. He smiled briefly, holding his dignity close about him.
    “We’ve never really talked, have we?” he said. “Only shared a few threats and insults, in passing . . . or discussed the details of some case we had to work on together. All very brisk and businesslike. You can’t afford to get too close to someone you know you may have to kill one day. But things are different now, in so many ways.”
    “I thought you had two sons?” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.
    “Oh yes,” said Walker. “Good boys, both of them. We don’t talk. What could we talk about? I’ve gone to great pains to ensure that neither they nor their mother has any idea what it is I do for a living. They know nothing about the Nightside, or the terrible things I have to do here, just to keep the peace. I couldn’t bear it if they knew. They might look at me as though I were some kind of monster. I used to be so good at keeping my two lives separate. Two lives, two Walkers, doing my best to give equal time to both. But the Nightside is a jealous mistress . . . and what used to be my real life, my sane and rational life, got sacrificed to the greater good.
    “My boys, my fine boys . . . are strangers to me now. You’re all I’ve got, John. The only son of my oldest friend. I’d forgotten how much that time meant to me, until I met your father again during the Lilith War. Those happy days of our youth . . . We thought we were going to change the world; and unfortunately we did. Now your father is gone, again, and you’re all I’ve got left, John. Perhaps the nearest thing to a real son I’ll ever have. The only son who could ever hope to understand me.”
    “How many times have you tried to kill me?” I said. “Directly, or indirectly?”
    “That’s family for you,” said Walker. “In the Nightside.”
    I looked at him for a long time.
    “Don’t listen to him,” said Suzie. “You can’t believe him. It’s Walker.”
    “The words manipulative and emotional blackmail do spring to mind,” I said. “This is all so sudden, Walker.”
    “I know,” he said calmly. “I put it all down to midlife crisis myself.”
    “And where does all this leave us?” I said.
    “Exactly where we were before,” said Walker. “We’ll still probably end up having to kill each other, someday. For what will no doubt seem like perfectly good reasons at the time. But it means . . . I’m allowed to be concerned. About you, and Suzie. And no, you don’t get a say in the matter.”
    “We’re doing fine,” said Suzie. “We’re making progress.”
    She let one arm rest casually across my shoulders. And I hope only I could tell what the effort cost her.
    “Let us talk about the Walking Man,” I said. Everything else could wait till later, after I’d had more time to think about it. “He’s never come here before. So, why now?”
    “In the past, the Nightside’s unique nature kept out all direct agents of Heaven and Hell,” said Walker. “But since Lilith was banished again, it appears a subtle change has come over the Nightside, and many things that were not possible