The 13 Secret Cities (Omnibus) (45 page)

The Elephant stepped into the Olympia.

The last three minutes of “Slowly for Those” did not overindulge. No jam sessions, no guitar solos, just the throbbing menace of a bass line that transcended India’s fingers. Within three minutes, thirteen cardiac arrests, four strokes, nine cases of bloody diarrhea and 350 cases of spinal paralysis happened, not slowly and quietly, but instantly. Many would die, of course. About half of those who attended. But no one died in those three minutes of bliss. They all waited until after to do so. They needed to hear the Elephant. When the song ended, the applause died much too soon, because bodies had already collapsed onto the hardwood.

What happened that night in those last three minutes was difficult to ascertain. The song swelled beyond the mere scope of the speakers, and the light show faded as a purple light emanated from the backdrop, though its odd glimmer was not part of the show.

To this day, strange rumors of the last Rhinoceros set still float in the darker corners of the city and in the catacombs of the Internet. Many of the survivors report that the bass line of “Slowly for Those” spoke to each and every audience member as an elephant with black skin and white, milky eyes, a thing not of this Earth but of somewhere sinister, a place that had no business touching its edges to our own. And yet, for three minutes, everyone in Rhinoceros’ grip was said to have glimpsed the creature’s massive, bloody tusks and inhuman eyes that implied there was no end at the bottom of the spiral, only maddening smoke, eternal evil, endless concentric circles dancing in the notes of a rumbling bass guitar.
 

MORE BOOKS BY CESAR TORRES

The 12 Burning Wheels
(2010)

13 Secret Cities
paperback (Out December 2014 in the Amazon Store)

Cesar is currently at work on a new novel, due out in 2015.
 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cesar was born in Mexico City and studied journalism at Northwestern University. He is the publisher of
Solar Six Books
. He lives in New York City.

Cesar tweets at
@13secretcities.
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