The Getaway God. Richard Kadrey

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СКАЧАТЬ dream changes. I’m back in Vigil headquarters. Their first one, down south of L.A. Aelita is there. She’s an angel. One of God’s most hard-core. Pure Old Testament rage. She runs the Vigil with Wells. Only she’s crazy, or maybe I make her crazy. The knowledge of my existence does. I’m Abomination. Nephilim. I shouldn’t exist and yet God lets me live. She does Ferox’s trick. Pig-sticks me with a flaming angelic sword. Kills me good. My first death. But I got over it and stabbed her right back. Still, I can feel her sticking me more than I can feel any satisfaction in getting revenge.

      My stomach burns like it’s filled with fire and metal.

      All these scars. The road map of my life. My armor. Sometimes being hard to kill isn’t exactly a blessing. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s my punishment for being born a freak. I don’t think even God knows at this point. He’s broken up enough these days I don’t know if I’d trust any answers he gave me.

      Aelita declared war on God before she died. Wanted nothing more than to murder him. Here I am with her former friends trying to do the same thing to the Angra Om Ya. Who’s right and who’s wrong doesn’t matter anymore. Maybe God did trick the old gods out of this universe and steal it for himself. But here’s the scary question: which God is worse? The Angra, who might be competent, but want to wipe us out, or our God, who isn’t good at his job, but if not benign, is at least indifferent to us? Parental neglect is starting to look pretty good right now, isn’t it?

      Maybe the Angra are entirely in the right to want back in, but if they’re coming back means wiping us out, then fuck ’em. This isn’t Metaphysics 101. This is self-defense. Anyway, what else am I going to do? Where else am I going to go? Hell is boring and Heaven sounds like a Disneyland fireworks parade forever.

      My Shoggot scar burns and I feel mountain-size teeth crunching my bones.

      But why be a Gloomy Gus about Armageddon? I survived Hell and Hollywood and the 1989 remake of Godzilla. I can survive this. The pain in my gut eases up.

      Besides, I still have the Mithras and the Singularity. I can burn the universe to the ground or I can start it over brand-new. True, I’ll be toast, but when I make that last big fuckup at least Wells won’t be anywhere around to say “I told you so.”

      [Chapter 6]

      IN THE MORNING, Candy is feeling sick again.

      “What’s it feel like?”

      She shrugs.

      “Anxious. My stomach hurts like I haven’t eaten for days. I have a headache like there’s thunder in my head.”

      “You’re not …”

      “Pregnant?”

      She gives me a soft kick.

      “Allegra’s a doctor, asshole. That’s the first thing she checked. Besides, the pregnancy thing isn’t really an issue for Jades. We only make babies when we want and that’s only when we’re told.”

      “What do you mean when you’re told? You never said anything about that before.”

      “It’s not a big deal. There’s a council in charge of things like how many of us there are in the world and when we need more. Don’t worry about it. They’re not going to ask me to pop out little Jadelets.”

      “How do you know?”

      “Because I’m fucking a monster. The biggest monster on Earth. You’ve polluted my precious bodily fluids.”

      She says it like it’s a big joke, but she’s never talked much about Jade life before.

      “Tell me the truth,” I say. “Did I fuck up some big deal for you? Get you on the outs with the other Jades?”

      She sits up and puts her hand on my arm.

      “You didn’t fuck up anything. I chose to be here with you, remember? If any of the Jade Ommahs have a problem with that, they can take away my cookies and my merit badges and I won’t care.”

      “Thanks. If that ever changes you better tell me.”

      She gives me a push.

      “Shut up and go to work, drama queen.”

      I lean against the bedroom door and pull on my boots.

      “I have to spend the day with cops and you get to hang out in bed.”

      “Sucks to be you,” she says.

      “Maybe I should call in sick.”

      “Maybe you should go and get us some money and find out more about what was going on in that meat locker. Don’t you sort of wonder about that?”

      “Not really.”

      “Well, I do. Don’t come back without some answers and ice cream.”

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      She turns the light off and I shut the bedroom door. I’m going to have to trust that she isn’t bullshitting me when it comes to the Jade stuff. I want to know more about it now, but if I ask her about that she’ll want to talk to me about Doc Kinski, my real father, and I’m not ready to do that. Maybe if I can get her talking first she’ll forget about my crap.

      And what the hell is an Ommah? The Shonin is supposed to be Mr. Wizard. Maybe he’ll know.

      I step through a shadow and come out in the Vigil HQ across town.

      [Chapter 7]

      I HEAD INTO the Shonin’s room, but the place is empty. There’s a note taped to the door with a map and a red X over a nearby room. I find it around the first corner. There are heavy curtains over the window in the door. Someone has left a drawing on the clipboard attached to it. It’s a clipping from a newspaper. A butcher-shop ad with a cow sectioned into the different cuts of meat. Someone has drawn a little headstone and Xs over the cow’s eyes. I never knew feds had a sense of humor.

      The inside of the morgue is almost as cold as the meat-locker freezer. Wells and the Shonin are there. Wells is reading aloud from the report I sent in last night. Both men look at me and Wells stops reading.

      “You took your sweet time getting in today.”

      “But it looks like I haven’t missed brunch.”

      The room smells of incense. All thirteen bodies from the meat locker are laid out on stainless-steel tables, with their heads propped up next to them. The top of each head has been sawn off, revealing the gray brain matter. Each brain sports three incense sticks jammed right into the head meat.

      I look at Wells.

      “You give me a hard time and this guy’s one step away from turning these people into bongs.”

      “Very funny. This man has been СКАЧАТЬ