Busted Flush

Shoulda

Caroline Spector

“YOU’VE BEEN A BAD, bad dolly,” Sprout said. “Now you have to go to bed.”

I walked into the room where Hoodoo Mama was watching Sprout play. Their heads were together, and it was hard for me to reconcile the hard-ass zombie chick with this gentle girl who was so tender with Sprout.

“My dolly has been very bad,” Sprout said, looking up at me.

“Oh, what did dolly do?” I asked.

“She walked funny. See.”

Sprout put the dolly on the floor. It got up on all fours and staggered around the room.

“What the fu—heck is that?”

“Uhm,” Hoodoo Mama said.

I strode over to the dolly and picked it up.

“Oh, hell no,” I said. “Joey, you can’t let her play with zombie cats.” I opened the door and dropped the cat in the hall.

“I want my dolly!”

“How about we go out shopping and find you a new dolly?” Hoodoo Mama said.

Sprout frowned. “But I want mine.”

“Tell you what, I bet Michelle will make you some bubbles.”

They turned back toward me with expectant looks. I gave Hoodoo Mama a glare, but I couldn’t be mad at Sprout. She was sweet beyond all measure.

“Okay, Sprout,” I said. “What kind of bubbles do you want? Soapy? Rubbery?”

“Balls!”

“Rubbery it is.”

I made an assortment of bouncy, soft, moderately tough bubbles. Sprout giggled and began to chase them around the room. Ever since Noel had dumped her in our lap, we’d been trying to think of ways to keep her happy. And not scared.

Once Hoodoo Mama had realized that Sprout was a child mentally, she was pissed as hell at Noel. “Fucker just dragged that poor little girl into the middle of all this shit about to go down,” she hissed at me.

“She’s in her thirties,” I said.

“That don’t mean dick.” Her hands curled into fists and her breathing was harsh. “You can tell by looking at her that she’s special.”

“Well, her father is at the center of all this mess,” I replied. “If you’re going to be pissed at anyone, be pissed at him. He snatched Drake and set all of this in motion.”

Hoodoo Mama’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t think I don’t know that. That fucker will be sorry he messed with any of this.”

Her rage was so pure and clean. I envied it. But I was also trying to avoid spending too much time with her. We hadn’t talked about what had happened in the warehouse the night of the hurricane. Just thinking about it made me feel queasy. And excited. And confused.

I didn’t know who I was anymore. I didn’t make love to other girls. I mean, girls other than my girlfriend. But Hoodoo Mama had needed me then. And I had wanted to help her, but then things got carried away. And . . . and I was making excuses.

I left Hoodoo Mama with Sprout and walked across the hall to Bugsy’s suite. Since the rest of the Committee had shown up, we’d taken over the entire top floor of the Royal Sonesta. I could hear the arguing through the door, but I knocked anyway.

“. . .you bastard . . . Weathers . . .”

The door flew open. Bugsy had a pissed look on his face. Behind him it looked like an American Hero reunion. Except there were no cameras and no one was smiling. But the furniture was better. Nice Louis XVI–style couches and chairs. All done up in tasteful blues.

Drummer Boy was missing, though. I was still trying to decide if that was a good thing. He’d been an asshole during the show, but afterward, in Egypt, he wasn’t as bad. And Curveball, Lohengrin, Rustbelt, Toad Man, and Brave Hawk were here in addition to my own team.

“Bad time?” I whispered.

Bugsy’s body began to look fuzzy. He was going all insect-y on me. “It’s not great,” he replied.

Fortune was glaring at Noel. Curveball, Rusty, and Lohengrin were leaning against the far wall of the room. They all had their arms crossed and they looked pissed.

“I don’t see what the big deal is about Weathers,” said Gardener, leaning forward in her chair. “Between us, we can take him.”

Noel rolled his eyes. “Honestly, John, where do you get these girls? TV? Weathers is terrifyingly powerful and completely mad—and he’s been around longer than most of you have been alive.”

Toad Man’s tongue snapped out and popped loudly behind Noel’s head. His tongue rolled back into his mouth and he morphed out of toad form. “You should really watch who you’re being snotty to,” he said. “Far as I know, you’re a double-crossing, cross-dressing liar who shouldn’t even be here.”

I didn’t say anything. Right now, Noel wasn’t exactly on my Favorite People list. He’d been playing, well, everyone off each other. And Drake was in the soup because of him, no matter what excuse he gave.

Oh, and if my eavesdropping was accurate, he was also screwing Niobe. If he broke her heart, I would kick his sorry ass from here back to whatever warm-beer-drinking blood-pudding-eating dental-hygiene-impaired London borough he came from.

“Fortune,” he said in his most supercilious voice, “you should be able to rein your people in by now. Regardless of their opinion of me, we have Sprout now and a way to retrieve Drake. So that should make me—what’s that American expression? Your new best friend.”

A groan ran around the room. Noel was about as popular with the rest of the Committee as he was with me.

“Everyone calm down,” Fortune said. He was looking tired. Then he stopped and got all daydreamy-looking and I wondered what Sekhmet was saying to him. Then he said, “Noel’s right. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d have no leverage with Weathers at all.”

“Oh, c’mon!” yelled Bugsy, jumping up from his chair. “Noel tried to cut my head off! I don’t care how ‘helpful’ he’s been. He’s a menace.”

I walked over to the side table where a coffee service had been set up. As I poured a cup and started loading it with sugar, I heard Curveball say, “Look, I know everyone’s unhappy with Noel, but he really isn’t the problem right now. We’ve got to figure out how to handle the Sprout/Drake exchange.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Fortune was giving her a wan smile, but she didn’t smile back.

“What I want to know is how we’re going to make the swap,” said Earth Witch. “I mean, if Weathers is as powerful as you say, he’s going to be a bitch to handle.”

Fortune rubbed his eyes, then took a pull off his coffee. “The swap team is going to be me and Michelle. Weathers wants me, so if I’m part of the swap he’ll be thinking he’s going to have a shot at me. And Michelle is there for two reasons. First, she knows Drake. And second, she can take almost limitless damage. Probably anything Weathers can dish out.”

“You got any opinions about this, Bubbles?” asked Rustbelt in his flat Midwestern voice.

By now, I was sitting on one of the chairs next to the door. I was almost back down to my thinnest and had wanted to stay there until the PR part of the mission was over. Though it made me a little less able to kick ass right out the door, it was nice not to worry about the furniture when I sat down.

“If I’m the best choice for the job, then of course I’m fine with it,” I said. I could feel my hands tremble, so I put my coffee cup down. “But we’ll need a backup plan in case things go wrong. And do we hand Sprout over even if things start to go bad?”

“Of course we’re going to have backup, Michelle,” Fortune said. “Everyone else will be stationed around Jackson Square to keep things chilled out. Weathers is extremely dangerous, but he can’t take all of us. And I don’t think he’ll do anything that’ll put Sprout at risk.”

Brave Hawk whispered something to Lohengrin, who nodded. I wondered what that was all about.

“Okay,” Fortune said as he unrolled a map of Jackson Square onto the large coffee table. “Here’s where I’m going to position each of you.”

“Are we going to meet Daddy?”

“Yep,” I said. “You remember what we said, right?”

Sprout smiled at me and tugged on my ponytail. “Yes, Daddy needs to talk to John Fortune before we can go home. I need to stay with you until Daddy and John Fortune are done talking.”

I brushed back the fine tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid. She looked up at me with guileless blue eyes.

At that moment, I hated everyone who had put her and Drake into this position. Her father, Noel, and the rest of the assholes who thought that Drake was a pawn for their megalomaniacal dreams. And I really hated myself for helping them.

She took my hand, and we went back into the living room where Fortune and the others were waiting.

John Fortune, Sprout, and I were standing in the middle of Jackson Square. We’d done a pretty amazing job of getting some of the Quarter back on its feet. Though the lamps on the gate were shattered, the square was looking remarkably good. Gardener had replaced the trees and other plants that had been destroyed. And the statue of Andrew Jackson was unchanged. We stood at its base.

My clothes felt tight. Before coming for the meeting, I’d had one of Hoodoo Mama’s zombies pound on me a bit. I still wasn’t big, exactly, but I wanted some firepower, just in case.

We were in a good tactical position. On all four sides we had a clear sightline. Odds were that no one was going to sneak up on us here.

“Where’s Daddy?” Sprout asked.

“He’ll be here soon, honey,” I replied. “Why don’t you stay with John Fortune for a moment and I’ll see if he’s coming.”

I walked around the statue, checking our position. Cameo and Earth Witch were sitting on benches near the entrance to the park. Hoodoo Mama had helped clear the usual street people from the square, so we didn’t have to worry about civilians getting caught in the middle should anything bad go down. I knew Hoodoo Mama was still somewhere nearby, but she was really good at hiding.

Bugsy was in swarm form. He kept making swooping passes around the square. And it was hard to hide Toad Man—Volkswagen-sized toads, kinda hard to explain. From the other side of the park, I could see Lohengrin’s armor shining in the sun.

I went back to Fortune and Sprout.

“Did you see anything?” Fortune asked.

I shook my head. “Not yet. I can’t believe he’s delaying this.”

Fortune shrugged and kept looking around. “My mother says he was bad news back in the day. He’s clever and more than a little nuts.”

Sweat began beading on my forehead and upper lip. It was muggy as hell, but I was also feeling nervous. I’d gone up against Golden Boy and gotten my ass handed to me. This Weathers guy was known to be unpredictable, and there was no telling what we might get. Those old aces were scary.

There was the whooping sound of a helicopter. I looked up. We’d talked to the local flight authorities, and they’d agreed to suspend all traffic over the Quarter for the afternoon.

A black helicopter appeared over St. Louis Cathedral, heading right toward us.

“What the hell?” Fortune said. “That can’t be Weathers.”

Then, over the sound of the blades, we heard, “This is William Ray, head of the Special Committee for Ace Resources and Endeavors. We have warrants from the United Sates government for the arrest of all Committee members. Surrender peacefully or we will use deadly force.”

Then the side door of the helicopter opened and I saw one ace fly out, swooping around the square. Ropes dropped and more SCARE agents slid down, landing about fifteen feet from us. I recognized Lady Black, Moon, and the Midnight Angel from Cross Plains. I figured the rest were aces, too. No one else could handle us. The helicopter flew off.

Billy Ray emerged from the midst of the aces wearing his usual pristine jumpsuit. He strode up to us followed by the Midnight Angel. I knew they were married now. Ink had said so in one of her e-mails.

Sprout gave a frightened cry and ran behind me. I understood why. Billy Ray’s face was a mass of scars. Thick pink tissue crisscrossed the suntanned planes of his face. His eyes were cold. But I wasn’t worried. He was strong, but brute force didn’t frighten me in the least. And I had the psychological advantage. I’d taken him once already.

I saw the rest of the SCARE agents fanning out across the park. Crap. This was not good. These SCARE jerks could hose our trade with Weathers.

“John Fortune, Michelle Pond,” Billy Ray said. “I am placing you under arrest.”

Sprout had wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my back.

“Are you insane?” Fortune asked. “Billy Ray, you have no jurisdiction over us. We’re part of the UN. And there was a no-fly order for this section.”

“I’m an agent of the United States government,” Billy Ray said, coming closer to Fortune. He leaned in until his spittle was hitting Fortune’s face. “You’re on U.S. soil. You’re U.S. citizens. Do I really need to draw you a map here?”

John’s forehead began to glow. Sekhmet was getting pissed.

“Look around, Billy Ray,” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking with anger. This asshat had almost gotten Drake and Niobe killed. Not to mention that his Lady Black bitch had put a mad hurt on me. “You’ve got about a dozen aces. Not only do we have as many, but we’ve got a little extra somethin’ somethin’.” I pointed and Billy Ray turned around and saw what we’d been holding back for Weathers.

An army of zombies had suddenly surrounded Jackson Square. A lot of them had been floaters, which gave them a really horrible appearance. They stood there, silent, impervious, devoid of humanity.

I looked around, checking on our people. Earth Witch was flexing her hands, glancing around, looking for lines of sight. Cameo began to spin slowly, building up layers of dust. I saw a swarm of insects hovering near one of the SCARE aces, so I knew Bugsy was good to go.

Lohengrin was doing a propeller-fast pattern with his sword. The sunlight was glinting off his brilliant armor. Something small and lethally fast pinged into the dirt between me and Fortune and Billy Ray and the Midnight Angel. Curveball was making her presence known.

Noel was somewhere close by and I was hoping that Billy Ray would get the idea that this was a fight he didn’t want. Weathers was due at any moment, and the last thing we needed was a full-on brawl in progress when he showed up.

Fortune began to glow even brighter. Crap. I did not want Sekhmet appearing right now.

“Daddy!” Sprout cried. She let go of my waist and ran in front of me, flinging her arms into the air and dancing around with her head tilted back.

We all looked up. Coming down out of the sky at an incredible rate was a bright yellow streak. Then the streak landed, and a bare-chested man dressed in low-slung, faded bell-bottom jeans appeared. He had sun-streaked hair that fell halfway down his back and a peace medallion around his neck. He was holding Drake tucked under one muscular arm.

Fortune grabbed Sprout and pushed her toward me. I folded her into my arms in a hug.

“I want Daddy,” she said, pouting at me.

“I know, sweetie, but remember what we talked about.”

It was getting hard to look at Fortune now. An aura surrounded him, bright gold.

“Let the boy go, Weathers,” Fortune said.

“Oh, The Man wants me to let the boy go,” Weathers said in a nasty voice. He flexed his biceps, squeezing Drake. But Drake didn’t start crying. I wanted to bubble the hell out of Weathers.

“The Man’s got to control all the power in the world,” Weathers said. It was freaky how persuasive he suddenly sounded to me. “Can’t let anyone else use any power.”

“Let the boy go,” Fortune said again. “Sprout wants her daddy.”

Weathers glanced at me and Sprout. His face softened and you could see that he loved her. He dropped Drake, who landed hard on his hands and knees.

“Drake,” I said in as calm a voice as I could. “Come to me.”

“Let Sprout go,” Weathers said.

“Not until Drake is over here.” I stared right into Weathers’s face. I knew he had a lot of power, but I also knew I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me.

Drake scrambled to his feet and ran to me. As soon as he touched my hand, I let Sprout go.

She ran to Weathers and they embraced. Their golden heads bent together. Family reunion.

After Weathers checked Sprout and saw she was okay, he looked back at the rest of us. The expression on his face was pure, mad hatred.

“Don’t try anything,” Fortune said. “There are dozens of aces here. You can’t take us all down.”

I glanced around. The SCARE aces had obviously decided that Weathers was a bigger threat than we were. They had turned their attention from us to him and were slowly circling.

“To hell with you and the Committee, Fortune,” Weathers said. “And those nimrods from SCARE. What I want now is Bahir. I frown on people who kidnap my child.”

Fortune laughed. “You’re not getting Bahir,” he said. “You’ve got Sprout. We’ve got Drake. End of conversation.”

A cruel smile formed on Weathers’s face. Bad as his angry face was, this one was worse. There was a horrible feeling in my gut. Worse than when those helicopters had gone down in Egypt and all those people had died.

Weathers gave a yank at the medallion around his neck. The leather cord broke, leaving a thin line of blood on his neck. He began to swing the medallion around. It reminded me of Lohengrin patterning his sword. It spun faster and faster, glinting in the sun.

My hands started shaking. Drake had hold of one of them, and he squeezed it.

“You were always a clever boy, Fortune,” Weathers said. The medallion whirred. “I could have used you in The Movement. But you had to go and work for the government.” He moved backward, taking Sprout with him. “Oh, wait, you work for all the governments. That makes you the worst traitor of all.”

He kissed Sprout on the forehead and opened his free arm wide. “Hop up, baby.” Sprout wrapped her arms and legs around him as if she really were a four-year-old. And he began to slowly rise into the air.

“I can’t kill you all,” he said, looking around the park. “But he can.”

The medallion flew from his hand and hit Drake in the chest. Drake stood there, frozen for a moment. Then he staggered back, pushing me into the statue of Andrew Jackson, and we both fell against the statue. Weathers shot into the sky and disappeared.

“Drake!” I cried. “Oh, my God, Drake!”

I slid out from behind him, then looked down and saw that the medallion was buried in his chest. Drake reached a shaking hand up and touched the blood, then pulled the medallion out of his chest. He held it up in front of his face as if he couldn’t decide what it was. His eyes began to glow.

A cold knife went into my heart.

I looked up and saw Cameo, Hoodoo Mama, and Earth Witch running toward us.

“Stop!” I shouted. As if that would save them.

“God help us,” I heard a velvety voice say. I looked up and saw the Midnight Angel hovering above us.

“Get out of here! Get everyone out!”

“Michelle!” screamed Cameo.

“Go! Everyone go! Now!”

I turned to Fortune. But at that moment, he started screaming. His golden glow had intensified. Squinting, I saw his hand go up to his face.

“No,” he said as his body twitched and spasmed. “No . . . NO . . . NO!” His head jerked around like a hooked fish. The scarab that was always outlined against his forehead was moving . . . getting bigger . . . expanding . . . until his flesh burst apart. Fortune shrieked, and blood covered his face and ran down his chest.

Sekhmet.

The golden radiance abandoned Fortune, and he collapsed to the ground. Sekhmet scurried toward Drake, and I was too shocked to stop her from crawling up his leg and then into the hole in his chest.

Sekhmet and Fortune had struggled for control between them for as long as I knew. But maybe she could control Drake. Maybe she could stop him.

Drake began to kick, and his back bowed. He began to babble in a language I’d never heard before. But the light wasn’t just coming out of his eyes anymore. It filled his mouth, beamed out from his ears. The hole in Drake’s chest began to sizzle and smell like frying bacon as the white-hot light poured from his wound.

“NO! NO!” he yelled in a strange voice. “By the light of all the Gods, I cannot stop him!”

“Drake,” I said, shaking him. “Drake, Sekhmet, look at me!”

He looked at me and I was afraid.

“Let it go,” I said. “But let it come to me.”

I guess there’s always a moment when we have to make a choice. And sometimes, there’s just no choice to be made. You do what you can, and you hope it’s enough.

I pulled Drake into my arms and held him as tight as I could. I hoped that Ink would find someone who would love her better. And I hoped that Niobe would be happy, even if it was with Noel. I hoped like hell that the whole damn city wouldn’t be ruined.

I hoped that I would be enough.

He exploded.

I felt my body instantly expand to its maximum size. The power raged into me like molten lead. It burned and sang and made me want to bubble forever. The concrete cracked under us as I became heavier and heavier.

The power went on and on, building inside me, but I couldn’t let it escape.

I dropped to my knees with Drake collapsing in my arms. And still the power came into me. It was like being bathed in a never-ending fire. I couldn’t have stopped it even if I’d wanted to. And I didn’t want to.

This was what it felt like to touch God.

I opened my eyes to the sky, and I looked directly into the sun overhead.

And it didn’t blind me.