Authors: John Farris
High Bloods (37 page)
Beatrice had dozed off in the front seat of the ILC Humvee
I had requisitioned at the
mal de lune
site. When I got in gingerly, feeling the ache of effort in most of my body parts, she opened her eyes.
“Nobody can say we don’t have fun together,” I said.
It didn’t earn me a smile.
“I was thinking about those missing wolfmakers,” she said. “There must be a way of tracking them. Give me a few hours on my computer and I’ll locate them for you.”
“I know you will,” I said. “Meantime, how about coffee? A roll in the hay is optional, if I don’t have to do the rolling.”
Bea studied me critically. “How about a week in the hospital?”
“I hate hospitals. Okay, maybe a couple of stitches. I’ll be good as—”
Bea looked incredulous. I saw a shine of tears before she turned her face away.
“Are you nuts? That is
not
brave. It’s not being tough, either. It’s just, it’s dumb. You survived a helicopter crash and werewolves. You’re bloody and you’re hurt and being smartass about being hurt doesn’t make you half the man you think you are!”
“Hey!” I said, surprised and maybe a little pleased by her outburst.
She looked at me again, wiping away tears.
“And I, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you except—just—just keep on doing it!”
We looked at each other. Bea sniffed a couple of times.
“Does that make sense?” she said finally.
“Does to me,” I said.
I leaned awkwardly toward her and kissed her. Except for the fact that I was, as she’d correctly pointed out, pretty well flogged and needing a bath and redolent of werewolf, Bea didn’t seem to mind.
“I hope your mother will like me,” she said.
“Which reminds me,” I said.
Bea glanced at me.
“I’m entitled to a few weeks off. I’d better use most of them trying to locate Pym. If she could have come to me, by now she would have. Instead she was having conversations with Artie X. I need to know what that was all about.”
“Unless Artie erased those e-mails, shouldn’t be hard for me to—R?”
I put the Humvee in reverse and backed out of Ida Grace’s driveway.
“What?”
“You look worried.”
“I am. Because Pym may have made a discovery.”
“Discovery? Do you mean—?
“Yeah. The Holy Grail. The cure for Lycan disease she’s spent most of her adult life looking for.”
“But why—”
“Go to Artie with it? Don’t know. What I do know is that Pym has had failed trials and errors in the past. The bad news is, she was always too willing to use herself as a subject of preliminary trials.”
We waited for the gates of the
minka
to open.
“Oh, no,” Bea said softly.
I nodded.
“You can’t cure what you don’t have,” I said.
I drove up to the house. Parked, took my hands off the wheel, and watched them tremble.
“So your mother can’t come home again.”
“Two ways. As ashes in a vase, or after she’s finally found the means to change the fate of the rest of us poor benighted bastards.”
I got down out of the Humvee and that was it, I couldn’t take a step. So I just leaned against the side breathing like a foundered horse until Bea came up beside me, turned my head gently, and kissed me.
“When do we leave?” she said.
Acey-Deuce
Bisexual.
AUGIE
(Augmented Galvanomagnetic Intercept Effector)
Used for werewolf deterrence.
Beefer
Bodyguard; any man vain about his physique.
Bitch Eye
Hostile look.
Black Dahls
Stimulants; uppers.
Bleat Blog
Internet gossip sites devoted to celebrities.
Bloodleggers
Dealers in black-market, frequently tainted blood.
Boneyard Shuffle
High-fashion show with ultrathin models.
Capone’d
Women wearing the male clothing of Prohibition-era gangsters.
Cold Dish
Stale gossip.
Coochputty
Birth-control chewing gum for Lycans.
Curb Roach
Teenage Lycan hooker.
Dead-Red
Assassination target.
Flogged
Tired to the point of exhaustion.
Frenzies
Stimulants; uppers.
Gas Attack
Any speech by a politician running for office.
Geekers
Very high-tech, as opposed to stylish, sunglasses. Used by ILC agents only.
Gold Certs
Bank-issued certificates redeemable 100 percent in gold.
Hairball
Slang term for werewolf.
Hairing-up
The process of becoming a werewolf.
Heavy Dupe
Excessive public relations drumbeating, usually with spin.
ILC
International Lycan Control.
Jesus Nut
Indispensable item that holds the rotors onto a helicopter’s mast.
LUMO
For
Lunar
Module, referring to an injectable type of Snitcher.
Lycan
Any human being infected with the werewolf virus.
Mal de lune
Literally “moon sickness.” In popular usage, a staged werewolf hunt.
Molochs
Crystal meth.
Mongo Flip
Aerobatic or gymnastic maneuver.
No Gal
For Nogales, capital of the ARIMEX border territory.
Observance, the
Full-moon period of about twenty-four hours during which the
world locks down and rogue werewolves roam at will.
Off-Bloods
Persons who must change their blood at least twice a year to
remain completely free of LC disease.
OOPs
Out-of-phase werewolf.
PHASR (Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response)
Pulse rifle used for werewolf deterrence.
Priority Hunk
Fabulous example of just about everything.
Privilege, the
Smart term for the rich city-state of Beverly Hills.
Scuff
Tough guy with an affinity for high fashion; also bouncer.
SECÜR
Proprietary name for popular antipsychotic found in everything
from toothpaste to breakfast food. Just to get the day off to a good
start.
Silvertip
Any bullet intended for defense against werewolves.
Skinnydip
Changing from a werewolf back to human form.
Slabbed
Killed; most often used in murder cases.
Snitcher or Snitch
ID and tranquilizer implant mandatory for Lycans.
Squantch
Marijuana.
Tink
Small-breasted woman.
TRAD
(Taser Remote Area Denial)
Force field effective for repelling werewolves.
TQs
(From the Spanish,
tranquilo
.) The most effective drug
for suppressing the hairing-up impulse in Lycans.
WEIR
(Werewolf Identification and Records)
A division of ILC.
Whisper Tit
Popular name for the earpiece companion to the wristpac,
so-called because of its shape.
Wingless Angel
Someone who commits suicide by jumping from a high place;
an almost weekly occurrence in the Privilege.
Zippo
Any type of flamethrower used as defense against werewolves.