Nightside 10 - The Good the Bad and the Uncanny

it’s true. I’m dying. And no, there’s nothing that can be done. We all die of something. All that’s left to me is to make arrangements for what will happen afterwards.”
    “You want me to arrange your funeral?” I said. “Or just try to keep people from pissing on your grave?”
    “I want you to take over my position when I’m gone,” said Walker. “I want you to be the new representative of the new Authorities. Because there’s no-one else I can trust to do the job properly.”
    You think you’ve heard everything, then the universe rears up and slaps you round the head.
    “What?”
    “I said ...”
    “I know what you said! Are you crazy? I don’t want the job!”
    “Best kind of person for a job like this,” said Walker. “And who more fitting than the son of my oldest friend?”
    “Oh please,” I said. “Emotional blackmail will get you nowhere.”
    “Always worth a try,” said Walker. “Look, we just went head to head over the elf, while a whole bunch of your people did their very best to terminate me with extreme prejudice. When you’re not trying to have me arrested or stepped on, you’re hiring me to investigate cases that will almost certainly get me killed. Now, call me paranoid if you like, but I’m starting to detect a pattern here. So why would you want someone like me, someone you’ve tried to run out of the Nightside on more than one occasion, to take over your job?”
    “I need a man with strong convictions,” said Walker. “A man who won’t fold when the game gets serious. A man who won’t take any shit from the bad guys. You remind me a lot of myself when I was younger.”
    “Now you’re just being nasty,” I said.
    “I have some time left,” said Walker. “Enough to teach you the things you need to know. Including how to avoid my mistakes.”
    “You mean how to avoid becoming you?” I shook my head firmly. “I don’t want anything to do with this. You know I’ve always had problems with authority figures. Why would I want to be one? Why pick on me?”
    “Doesn’t every father want his son to follow in his footsteps ; only do it better?”
    “I am not your son!”
    “Who has shaped your life more than I? Who helped make you what you are? I am responsible for you, John, in every way that matters.”
    “Only in the sense that I’m determined to be nothing like you,” I said. “I know a bad example when I see one.”
    “ ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth,’ ” murmured Walker. “Come with me, John. Come walk with me through the Nightside and see it as I see it. My portable Timeslip can take us anywhere in a moment. We can take in the whole Nightside in a single night. Watch me work. See what I have to do, to maintain the peace and keep the lid on things. There’s a lot to my job that no-one ever knows but I.”
    “I don’t want your job. I have a job, and I’m bloody good at it.”
    Walker considered me thoughtfully. “You always say you want to help people. How better than by mediating between them and the Authorities? By using their power to protect the little people from those who would prey on them? How many more people could you help, from a position of power?”
    “Get thee behind me, Satan,” I said, and he actually chuckled.
    I thought about it. Despite all my best instincts, a lot of what he said made sense in a seductive kind of way. The things I could do, with the Authorities behind me ... A lot of the people I couldn’t touch, because of their power and connections, would suddenly become ... touchable. I’ve always believed that one man, in the right place, can make a difference ...
    “If,” I said, “just for the sake of argument ... If I was to take over your position, I wouldn’t be the Authorities’ lap-dog. I’d go my own way, follow my own conscience ...”
    “That’s why I chose you,” said Walker.
    “Is there really nothing I can do to help you?” I said. “This is the Nightside. There must be something...”
    “If there was something to be done, I’d be doing it,” Walker said calmly. “Would you really try to help me, John? After all the times I’ve tried to have you arrested or killed?”
    “Of course,” I said. “You’re my father’s oldest friend. And ... for good or bad, you’ve always been a part of my life. Always there ... always looking out for me, one way or another. There were so many things I wanted to say to my father, before he died. You always think there’ll be time