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When Lash woke up at his hideaway ranch, the first thing he did was look at his ar with his hands and wrists, his forear- like for ht at his co up, he shoved off the blanket he&039;d pulled over hi a disappear, too Which was good, but shit, how long was the transfor to take? He had to assume that if his body still had physical form, with a heartbeat and needs like food and drink and sleep, he wasn&039;t completely safe froiven all the pieces that had fallen off hi messy

He&039;d turned the est Depends on the planet

A squeak from outside drew hiers Through the crack, he watched hu Frickin&039; morons with their simple little lives Get up Go to work Co again

As a sedan went by, he iht in the driver&039;s mind and smiled as the Pontiac swerved out of its lane, buht at the two-story across the street The fucking POS powered straight into a bank of s, ss exploding inside the car

Better than a cup of coffee to start the day

He turned away and went to the shitty bureau, firing up the laptop he&039;d found in the back of the Mercedes The drug deal he&039;d interrupted on the way horifted a couple thousand dollars as well as some OxyCs, some X, and twelve crack rocks More important, he&039;d thrown the two dealers and the one custoht them here, and turned the up all night long, but frankly he was about done with this house and was thinking of burning it down

So he had a team of four And whereas none of theht them back to "life," he&039;d promised them all kinds of shit And what do you know Junkies who dealt to supply their own habits would believe just about anything you told them You just had to sell them on a future--after you&039;d scared the colons out of them

Which was a no BFD for hi the was they&039;d hallucinated so many times on acid trips, it wasn&039;t co corpse Plus he was persuasive when he wanted to be

Damn shame he couldn&039;t brainwash them permanently But that parlor trick with the Pontiac driver was as far as he could go with the influence: brief and unsustainable for longer than a couple of seconds

Fucking free will

After the computer booted up, he went to the Caldwell Courier Journal site

Hello, front page The "Farmhouse Massacre" was covered in a nue oily residue garnering all kinds of Pulitzer-light description Reporters also interviewed the police who&039;d been there, the postman who&039;d called 911 in the first place, twelve kinds of neighbors, and theupon the fine ainst the Caldwell community"

Consensus was: ritual deaths Perhaps tied to an unknown cult

All of which was just background chatter obscuring what he was really looking for--

Bingo In the last article, he found a short two-paragrapher reporting that the criht before The "fine ly allowed as how one of their late- night patrol cars had done a drive-by and found that person or persons unknown had ransacked the scene They were quick to point out that relevant evidence had already been re a black- and-white there full-time from now on

So the Brotherhood had followed up on his little one there, too? he wondered Maybe waited to see if he&039;d show up?

Shit, he&039;d oddamn shot at her And the Brothers

But he had time Hell, when his body went full- on shadow? He had an eternity

Checking his watch, he got his hustle on, changing quickly into black slacks and a turtleneck and that hooded raincoat Drawing on his leather gloves, he slid his black baseball cap on and gave a gander in thearound, he found a black T-shirt that he ripped to ribbons and wound around his face, leaving rooe that was left of his nose and the gaping reat But better

First stop was the bathroo They had all passed out in a heap on the floor, their ar, their heads here and there but the fuckers were alive

Man, they were so bottoht If they were lucky, collectively their IQ oing to be useful, however

Lash locked the house up tight with a spell and stepped out into the garage Popping the Mercedes&039; trunk, he lifted the carpeted panel, took out the bundle of coke, and loaded up both his non- nostrils before getting behind the wheel

Gooooooooood ! As a choir of chaos lit him up from the inside, he backed down the drive and headed out of the neighborhood, going the opposite way from the cops and ambulances that had arrived at the house across the street

Which now had a drive-through as opposed to a living roohway, the trip don should have been ten minutes, but because of rush-hour traffic, it wasin his mind and his body, he felt like he was at a total standstill the entire time

It was a little after nine o&039;clock when he pulled into an alley and parked next to a silver van As he got out, he thanked God for the blow--he actually felt like he had soy Trouble was, if his Extreo through that stash in the trunk in a matter of days

Which hy he&039;d called for this er

And what do you know, Ricardo Benloise was on time and already in his office: The maroon AMG he was squired around in was docked on the far side of the GMC van

Lash approached the back door of the art gallery, and waited by the video camera Yeah, he&039;d have preferred to chill on this face-to-face for a couple of days, but his own needs notwithstanding, he had sellers curing in his bathroom and he needed product for them to hit the streets with

Then he had to turn some soldiers

After all, the little Shit hadn&039;t wasted any ti how many were left after the Brotherhood&039;s raid at the farlad those

Lash had to assu to quickly cook up another batch of inductees And given that the kid had been a successful dealer, he was going to resuive hiht the vampires, but come after Lash

So it was a case of the clock ticking Lash was da with Benloise right now because he was ser would that be true? Sales et a foot in the door, someone else could

Especially if they had the special talents of a Fore-lesser

With a click, the door locks were sprung and one of Benloise&039;s enforcers opened up The guy frowned at Lash&039;s Lady Gaga rig, but got back in the game quick No doubt he&039;d seen a lot of crazy shit--and not just on the drug-trade side of things: artists were no doubt wacky nut jobs for the uy said

Lash flashed his fake driver&039;s license "About to be up your ass, motherfucker"

Clearly, the combination of the lah because a moment later, he was allowed in

Benloise&039;s office was on the third floor in the front, and the trip up there was silent The guy&039;s private space was bowling-alley uncluttered, nothing but a long expanse of black varnished floorboards that culminated in a raised platform--which was the desk equivalent of a set of lifts for shoes Benloise was parked on the dais, seated behind a teak table that was the size of a Lincoln Town Car

Like a lot of guys who had to stand tall to hit five-six on a tape

As Lash came forward, the South Aers and spoke in his smooth, cultured way "I was so pleased to receive your call after you failed toWherever have you been, my friend"

"Family problems"

Benloise frowned "Yes, blood can be trouble"

"You have no idea" Lash looked around at all of the absolutely nothing, locating the hidden cameras and doors--which were in the same positions they&039;d been in the last time "First off, let me assure you that our business relationship remains my top priority"

"I am very pleased to know this When you didn&039;t arrive to buy the pieces you were contracted for, I wondered As an art dealer, I depend on ular custoulars to fulfill their obligations"

"Understood Which is the real reason I&039;ve come I need an advance I have an empty wall in s, but I won&039;t be able to pay with cash today"