Suspect Zero, Part 3

<I’ll be serializing the story from Monday-Friday this week. Feel free to share the url, link to the page, etc. RK>

Part 3
The redhead said, “I’m Julia. Where are you men headed tonight?”

“It’s a work night for my young friend and me. No rest for the wicked. Say hello to the nice girls, boy.”

“Hi. I’m, uh, Gabriel,” he said. He could see some of Julia’s red hair out of his peripheral vision, but he didn’t want to turn his head in case he saw Penny.

“You’re cute, Gabe. You sure it’s a work night for you, too?”

“Definitely for him. He about screwed the pooch on our last job, so he’s going to make up for it on the next. Aren’t you?” The old man turned his wolf eyes on Gabriel. He slipped a hand into his hunting jacket and slid out the .45, tucking it under his leg with the grip out just a little.

Julia leaned back and whispered something to her friends. They all laughed, high-pitched and a little sloppy. Gabriel wondered if it was about him. He realized they were drunk. He set his hand on the knife.

“No fair keeping secrets in the cab,” said Suspect Zero. “First rule of trucking, ladies.”

The blonde spoke. Gabriel was relived that her voice wasn’t anything like Penny’s.

 “Rachel thinks that maybe you’re, you know. I mean this is like a rolling bedroom. Maybe you two are a little Brokeback Mountain?”

The killer glanced back over his shoulder at the drunken girls. All three of them started laughing. He elbowed Gabriel in the ribs and the boy smiled nervously.

“You hear that, boy. The think we’re fruit salad. A couple of dandelions. Tell him.”

Gabriel half-turned in his seat.

“Uh no. It’s not. We’re not homosexuals.”

The girls burst into laughter.

The brunette repeated “Homosexuals,” in a low voice, mimicking him.

Gabriel slid the Ka-Bar out of its sheath.

Suspect Zero laughed along with the girls.

“Naw. It’s not like that, girls. We’re a couple of true blue all Americans and straight as apple pie.” He hooked a thumb at Gabriel.

“The quiet one here is my apprentice.”

“Why does a truck driver need an apprentice?”

“Cause the boy needs schooling. You think it’s easy reading a map and pissing in a jar while doing 60 down the interstate?”

Together the girls made an Ewww sound.

“I never tried,” said the blonde.

“Give it a go sometime. Expand your horizons.”

The brunette spoke up for the first time.

“You don’t have any of those jars back here, do you?”

“No, little lady. They get chucked out the window over bridges and at parked highway patrol cars.”

He grinned at the girls as they whispered to each other. Julia leaned back between their seats.

“Too bad we didn’t meet you two earlier. Maybe we could have walked on the wild side tonight.”  The blonde and brunette fell on each other trying to stifle giggles.

“Never say never, girls.” The killer turned his nearly black eyes to Gabriel. “What do you think, son. Should we take these ripe young ladies on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride?”

“I…I don’t know,” he said, moving the knife from down his leg and up into his coat.

The killer shook his head in mock disdain.

“You see? It’s not so much that I need an apprentice as the boy needs a teacher. He can’t even recognize Heaven when it’s breathing over his shoulder.”

“You talk funny, mister. I like it,” said Julia. She rested her hand on Gabriel’s arm. His body stiffened and sat up straighter.

“Why thank you, Julie. I like how you smell,” said the killer.

The brunette leaned forward between the seats and pointed.

“Can you turn left up here?” 

“Sure.”

The killer jerked the wheel right hard enough that Gabriel and the girls slid against in their seats and hit the wall. They were on a narrow pitch black block where the all streetlights had burned out. Gabriel saw the killer slip the pistol out from under his peg a little and pull back the hammer.

“Sorry, girls. Guess I heard wrong. The boy and me’ll get you sorted out in just a minute.”

“What’s with all the bags back here? They smell kind of funky,” said the blonde.

“I apologize for that,” the killer said. “Dirty laundry is part of the work and work has been messy lately. Leaks. Busted fan belts. A little blood, too. Everyone is skinning their knuckles and worse in his line of work. Isn’t that so, Gabriel?”

The boy nodded in reply, feeling Julia’s fingers flex on his shoulder.

“Why don’t you dig under your seat, son. Put on some music for the ladies.” He turned to Julia and flashed her a grin. “Something loud to cover up the sound of screams.”

Julia smiled back and slapped him arm playfully.

“Dirty old man.”

“When the wolf smells chicken he knows it’s dinner time.”

The killer made two more sudden turns.

“Here,” said the brunette.

“Here? Here seems downright impolite.”

Julia pointed at dim lights ahead. “Club Wasteland’s right up there by the corner.”

The killer squinted.

“Really? Well I’ll be damned. I’ve been driving these streets for days and never noticed. Looks like fun. Wish I’d known about it earlier.”

“It’s probably not your kind of place,” said the blonde.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, girls. You never know who you’re going to meet on a night like this.” He let the hammer down on the gun and pushed it back under this leg.

“Open the door for the young ladies, Gabe.”

Gabriel leaned forward as the three girls slid out from behind him and stepped down into the street. Julia gave his thigh a squeeze as she left.

“Thanks, mister,” she called.

“My pleasure, girls. You have a nice time tonight. Take a walk on the wild side for me and the boy.”

“We’ll do our best,” Julia said.

“Hey Gabe,” called the blonde.

He looked at her. Penny stared back.

“Yeah?” he said.

She smiled at him. “Good luck with the pissing lessons.”

Girl laughs and the killer joined in. Gabriel pulled the door closed.

They pulled away and when Gabriel looked out the window the girls waved to him and blew kisses. He gave them a small wave back.

He turned to the killer.

“You let them go.”

Suspect Zero slid the gun from beneath his leg and put it back in his pocket.

“You noticed that, did you?”

“You had your gun out.”

“And you had your knife. You waiting for an engraved invitation?”

Gabriel stared ahead not knowing what to say.

Suspect Zero backhanded him gently on the arm. 

“I was just messing with you,” said the killer. “I wasn’t going to hurt ‘em. Bunch of drunk girls? Too obvious. Too easy. We’re the random factor made flesh. What we do transcends regular people’s notions of reason which means some get to live and others die and no one but us knows why. Tonight those girls’ll run wild and tomorrow they’ll hear about what happened at the warehouse back yonder. They’ll tell their friends that they were stranded right by there. How they could have run into the killers if a couple of friendly fags hadn’t picked them up. See what I’m saying? Knowing how close they came, each of those girls carries a little piece of us with them and when they tell their friends about tonight they’ll pass it on to them. And then they’ll pass it on. That’s how legends start. That’s the beginning of immortality.”

Gabriel looked at the killer hard, like he’d never seen him before.

“Immortality? All these fucking rules? This isn’t fun. When does it get to be fun?”

“Fun? You think this is Pac Man? This is work. The work. We can take joy in it, try to make each kill as lively as possible, but fun and games aren’t why we’re here.”

It’s why I’m here, Gabriel thought. His stomach burned. This isn’t what he’d been looking for at all. Finding Suspect Zero, getting him at arms length from his blade wasn’t going to be like this. It was supposed to be perfect black madness. Racing engines, burning cars and the road boiling under their feet. Dice with devil heads and a landscape of pale skin with sticky red tracings like all the roads they would travel, crushing the weak, the stupid and the innocent under their wheels. And when he’d taken what he could from the man, there’d be the explosion of pleasure when he ripped dad’s Ka-Bar across the older man’s throat and took the truck as his prize. That’s how it was supposed to be. Instead, here I am with a scrawny fucked up old Ward Cleaver. I swear to god, one more piece of advice and the knife comes out. He didn’t need this Killing For Dummies bullshit.

Gabriel asked, “How do you choose them?”

“We can talk business later. You hungry? I could use a bite.”



copyright Richard Kadrey 2010