The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

turned the brass knob. It opened inwards and behind it he
saw a long narrow corridor. Thankfully an empty one. There were doors on either
side of the corridor every ten yards or so. Bedrooms? Bathrooms? Only one way
to find out. He scurried over to the first door on the right and opened it. He
peered inside. There was a double bed in the middle of the room with a bedside
table and not much else, other than a set of walk in wardrobes and a small door
in the corner. He checked both ways down the corridor to make sure no one saw
him, then he slipped inside the room and closed the door behind him. He headed
over to the door in the corner. This had to be an en suite bathroom, right? He
poked his head around the door and was pleased to see that he was correct, for
once. There was a long royal blue bath against the far wall and a matching
toilet and washbasin on his left. A light blue shower curtain hung down from a
rail above the bath. He stepped inside and bolted the door shut behind him.
    He thought about the phone
conversation he had overheard between Panda Girl and Jessica. Jessica had
indicated that he would be of no further use to her once she had her hands on
the book. What a bitch. After all he had done for her. That book was the only
thing keeping him alive. The minute he gave it up he would become food for the
immortals.
    In the interest of keeping
himself alive he made a snap decision.
    He would hide The Book of Death.
    He took his satchel off and laid
it on the floor. Then he pulled the book out. The cover was still a little bit
damp and edges of the pages were looking a bit crusty courtesy of Flake hitting
it with her car and knocking it into the snow earlier in the day. He carefully
placed it down in the bathtub. He didn’t want anyone hearing him place it
there, and in the hopes of making it reasonably difficult to find he pulled the
shower curtain across to conceal it from the sight of any casual passer-by
dropping in for a shit. It wasn’t the best plan by any means, but it was a
plan. If he bumped into Jessica he could pretend he’d forgotten to bring it
with him and claim he had to head back to the Tapioca to get it from his safe.
    As he was busy congratulating
himself on coming up with a half decent plan he heard the door to the bedroom
open. It seemed that someone may have found him
already. He heard footsteps coming towards the bathroom door. Then the handle
shook. Someone was trying to open the door from the other side.
    A muffled voice called
through the door. ‘Who’s in there?’
    Sanchez panicked. ‘Just
a minute!’ he called out to buy himself some time.
    There was no sense in looking
like he had anything to hide, so he crept over to the toilet and flushed it.
Then he picked up his empty satchel from the floor and hung it over his
shoulder again. He unlocked the door and strolled out in as calm a manner as he
could in the circumstances.
    Standing outside the bathroom
with a fierce look on her face was the Panda Girl with the stupid black eye
makeup and the baseball cap.
    ‘All done,’ said Sanchez. He waved
his hand in front of his nose and added, ‘I wouldn’t go in there for a while if
I was you.’
    Panda Girl looked down at
Sanchez’s satchel and then back up at him. ‘Your satchel’s empty!’ she scowled.
‘Where’s the book? What have you done with it?’

 
    Forty-Four

 
    Bull spoke on behalf of
everyone. ‘Oh sweet Jesus,’ he whispered. ‘God have mercy on us all.’
    He rushed back to the window and
stared down into the courtyard below. His eyes confirmed what he had seen on
the monitors. Swarming into the courtyard through the large iron gates at the
end of the driveway was an army of flesh hungry zombies. And there appeared to
be an infinite number of them piling in from the woodland opposite the Casa de
Ville.
    Tex confirmed it verbally.
‘Fucking zombies!’ he said, staring at his bank of monitors. ‘Thousands of the
muthafuckers. Where the hell did they come from?’
    ‘Devil’s Graveyard, I’m
guessing,’ Bull replied.
    The zombies had charged in and
there was now one almighty scrap taking place in the courtyard. The vampires
and werewolves were hopelessly outnumbered and the sudden onslaught had
completely overwhelmed them.
    Bull had seen some violence in
his time. He’d been in the thick of some pretty serious war zones along with the
rest of his team, but as he watched the carnage in the courtyard below, he knew
he was witnessing something