Читать книгу The Getaway God - Richard Kadrey - Страница 12

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.