Wild Cards V: Down and Dirty

  Jack stared at him, unable to form the words he wanted to say. What the fuck was Tachyon talking about?

  “There was, of course, a pogrom in Czechoslovakia,” Tachyon said, slender fingers gesturing expressively. “He reacted to the sort of ill-informed prejudice that has cursed both jokers, not to mention aces, of course, and AIDS patients alike. Exotic viruses might as well be the evil eye.”

  Jack looked down at his bare chest, gingerly touching the blue-black bruiselike markings above his ribs. “I don’ need no double-barreled curse. One to a customer, no?”

  “I’m sorry, Jack.” Tachyon hesitated. “It’s difficult to say when you were infected. The tumors are well-advanced, but the biopsy and the anomalous workup results suggest there’s a synergy going on between the wild card virus and the HIV organism attacking your immunosuppressant system. I suspect some sort of galloping accelerated process.”

  Jack shook his head as though only half-hearing. “I had a negative test a year ago.”

  “It’s as I feared then,” said the doctor. “I can’t forecast the progress.”

  “I can,” said Jack.

  Tachyon shrugged sympathetically. “I must ask,” he said, “if you habitually use amyl nitrite.”

  “Poppers?” said Jack. He shook his head. “No way. I’m not much on drugs.”

  Tachyon marked something on Jack’s chart. “Their use is frequently connected with Kaposi’s.”

  Jack shook his head again.

  “Then there is another matter,” said the doctor.

  Jack stared at him. It was like trying to look out from the center of a block of ice. He felt numb all over. He knew the psychic shock would go away soon. And then— “What?”

  “I must ask you this. I need to know about contacts.”

  Jack took a deep breath. “There was one. Is one. Only one.”

  “I should talk to him.”

  “Are you kidding?” said Jack. “I will talk to Michael. An’ den I’ll have him come see you. But I’ll talk to him first.” His voice dropped off. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him.”

  He proceeded to remind Tachyon of the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship. Tachyon seemed affronted. Jack didn’t apologize. Then he left. That was in the morning.

  —this was a special occasion. He felt as if he were drinking after his own funeral. “Cajuns do great wakes,” he said aloud, pouring another brandy. Had the decanter been full? He couldn’t remember. Now it was down close to half.

  He glanced at the phone again. Why the hell did he want to talk to anyone? After all, no one wanted to talk to him. Now that he thought about it, for the last few months living with Michael had pretty much been like living alone. Now he might as well die alone. Can the self-pity. But it was so easy—

  “So what’s up?” Michael had said, closing the door after him before giving Jack a squeeze. No other greeting. No preamble. As light as Jack was dark, tall and slender-limbed, Michael had always seemed to bring something of the sunlit street-level spring down with him to Jack’s subterranean dwelling. Not today. Jack couldn’t read him at all.

  “Huh?” Michael said. Jack turned his face away and disengaged himself from the other’s arms. He stepped back. “Something wrong?” Jack scrutinized Michael’s face. His lover’s features were the very model of glowing health. Of innocence.

  “You might want to sit down,” said Jack.

  “No.” Michael stared at him. “Just say what whatever it is you want to say.”

  Jack’s mouth was dry. “I went to the clinic today.”

  “So?”

  “The tests—” He had to start over. “The tests were positive.”

  Michael looked at him blankly. “Tests?”

  “AIDS.” He said the hateful word. His stomach twisted.

  “No,” said Michael. He shook his head. “Naw. Not a chance.”

  “Yes,” said Jack.

  “But who—” Michael’s eyes widened. “Jack, did you—”

  “No.” Jack stared back. “There’s been no one. No one else, mon cher.”

  Michael cocked his head. “There has to be. I mean, I wouldn’t—”

  “It isn’t like immaculate conception, Michael. No miracle here. It has to be.”

  “No,” said Michael. He shook his head vehemently. “It’s impossible.” His eyes flickered and he looked away. Then he turned on his heel, opened the door, and left.

  “No,” Jack had heard Michael say one more time.

  —to feel the rusty blade twisting in his gut.

  The brandy, it occurred to him, as like an emotional tetanus shot. Except it wasn’t working. All it did was make him feel worse because it lessened his ability to control what he was feeling.

  He felt suddenly as if he had inhaled all the oxygen there was to breathe in his home. He wanted to get out, to go up to the streets. So he carefully, with what he realized were exaggerated motions, put away the brandy decanter. Then Jack left by the same door Michael had exited. He followed the ghost’s footsteps to the tunnels and ladders that took him up to the streets.

  He walked. Jack could have taken the track maintenance car down below but decided he didn’t want to. The night was too chilly, but that was fine. He wanted something astringent to cleanse him, to flense the bruise marks, to clean out his flesh. He realized he was wishing there was now some overt pain.

  He walked uptown, not truly comprehending where he was until he saw the sign for Young Man’s Fancy. I shouldn’t be here, of all places, he thought. He’d met Michael here. He shouldn’t be in the West Village at all. And not at this bar. But by now it was too late. Here he was. Shit. He turned to leave.

  “Hey, pretty boy, lookin’ to get some tail? Or you the tail?”

  The voice was all too familiar. Jack looked up and saw the memorably overmuscled face, not to mention the body, of Bludgeon emerge from the shadowed downstairs entrance to the closed laundry below the bar. Jack turned and started away.

  There was the smack of size-eighteen Brogans on the sidewalk. Fingers like German sausages curled around his shoulder and spun Jack around. “The thing about them gorgeous eyes,” said Bludgeon, “is that all I gotta do is dig my thumbs in there and they’ll pop out like the green cherries onna wop cookies.”

  Jack shrugged the fingers away. He felt impatient and not terribly cautious. He just didn’t give a damn. “Fuck off,” he said.

  “You need one of these too.” Bludgeon put spurned fingers to his own cheek and touched the ragged, inflamed scar that ran all the way from the edge of his right eye to his bulbous chin.

  Jack remembered the triumphant shriek of Bagabond’s black cat. The feline was old but agile enough to have dodged Bludgeon’s flailing fists after the claws had raked down the man’s ugly features.

  “Cat scratches get infected,” Jack said, continuing to back toward the street. “You ought to see to those. I know a real good doctor.”

  “Chickenshit like you’s gonna need an undertaker,” Bludgeon threatened. “Mr. Maz’ll be real pleased if I bring in your cock in a sammich bag. Them Gambiones love to make sausage, specially outta yellow dicks like you.”

  “I don’t have time for this,” said Jack.

  “Gonna make time.” Bludgeon’s jaws split in the kind of smirk that can deform unborn babies. “You and me—I figure I can handle a little ’gator rassling.”

  The door of Young Man’s Fancy swung open and a gaggle of about a dozen guys spilled out onto the street. Bludgeon stopped uncertainly in midstride.

  “Witnesses,” said Jack. “Down, boy.”

  “I’ll take ’em all,” said Bludgeon, surveying his prospective victims. He smacked the macelike mutation of his right hand into the palm of his left. It sounded like dropping a beef roast off a stepladder onto a tiled floor.

  “A little gay bashing?” said the man apparently leading the others. He grimaced at Bludgeon. “You still hanging around, dork-breath?” His hand dipped inside his jacket and came out filled with blued s
teel. “Wanna see my Bernie Goetz impression?” He laughed. “It’s a guaranteed killer.”

  Bludgeon looked around the semicircle of faces. “I gotta job to protect,” he finally said to Jack. “You,” he said to the man with the gun, “I’m gonna take out your guts with my thumb. Just wait. And you—” he said back to Jack, “you I’m gonna really hurt.”

  “But another time,” said Jack.

  “Fuckin’ A.” Bludgeon couldn’t seem to find a better exit line. He lurched away from the growing crowd of onlookers and stomped down the street.

  “Pretty rough trade,” the man with the gun said to Jack. He put the pistol back under his coat. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “Thanks,” said Jack. “I don’t know the guy. He just stopped me for a light.” He turned and headed the opposite direction, ignoring the murmurs.

  “So you’re welcome, man,” said the man with the pistol. “Good luck, buddy.”

  Jack turned the corner and headed down a darker block. Christ it was cold. He hugged himself. He hadn’t worn a coat. The chill was making him sluggish. Bad sign. He tentatively touched the back of his left hand with the fingers of his right. The skin felt rough, scaly, beginning to transform. No! He started to run. He didn’t need this too. Not tonight.

  Stress symptoms. He almost giggled.

  He looked for a subway entrance. It didn’t matter which. Red globe or green. BMT, IRT, or PATH. Uptown or downtown. Just as long as the stairs led down.

  He searched for the telltale steam from a manhole cover. The sewers would do. That would be better. There’d be no people in the sewers. Those tunnels, warm and slimy, would lead toward the bay. Good hunting. Fine with Jack. He thought about his ’gator teeth ripping into albino gar. That was okay. Bagabond didn’t give much of a shit about mutant fish. Food. Blood. Death. Exhaustion. Blankness.

  Jack stumbled toward the deeper darkness, homing in on a warm grating.

  I’m losing it, he thought.

  He saw Michael’s face. Bagabond’s. Cordelia’s.

  Yeah, he’d lost it all right. Everything.

  Jack plunged into the night.

  Thursday

  The volume of the bootleg mix of the new George Harrison album was sufficient to shiver the framed pictures on the office wall. But then the size of the office wasn’t enough to provide much challenge to the cassette deck’s amplifier. It wasn’t a large office and didn’t occupy the corner of the office tower, but it was a separate office regardless, with permanent walls, and it did have a window.

  Cordelia Chaisson was happy with it.

  Her desk was old and wooden and held, besides the computer, stacks of albums, tapes, and press kits. The pictures on the opposite wall were photos of Peregrine, David Bowie, Fantasy, Tim Curry, Lou Reed, and other entertainers, whether aces or not. In the midst of the photographs was a framed cross-stitch sampler reading DAMN, I’M GOOD. Tacked to the wall behind and to Cordelia’s right was a large rectangle of poster board. It held a list of names, copiously emended with cross-outs, question marks, and shorthand notes such as “check film startup,” “rel. fanatic,” and “won’t perform Brit. hol.”

  Her phone beeped to her. It was a few moments before Cordelia noticed. She thumbed down the volume control on the deck and picked up the receiver. Luz Alcala, one of her bosses, said, “My sweet lord, Cordelia, do you think you could perhaps use the headphones?”

  “Sorry,” said Cordelia. “I got carried away. It’s a great album. I’ve already turned down the volume.”

  “Thank you,” said Alcala. “Any word yet on who’ll cut the promos for us?”

  “I’m going down the list. Jagger, maybe.” The young woman hesitated. “He hasn’t said no.”

  “Have you called him in the last week?”

  “Well … no.”

  Alcala’s voice took on a mildly reproving tone. “Cordelia, I admire what you’re accomplishing with the benefit. But GF&G has other projects to consider as well.”

  “I know,” said Cordelia. “I’m sorry. I’m just trying to juggle a lot of things.” She tried to sound more upbeat—and change the subject. “The clearances came through for China this morning. This means we’ll be beaming to better than half the world.”

  “Not to mention Australia.” Alcala chuckled.

  “Including Australia.”

  “Call Jagger’s agent,” said Alcala. “Okay?”

  “Okay.” Cordelia hung up the phone. She picked up the small, intricately carved, stone lizard-shape from the desktop where it had nearly been covered over with a heap of glossies. It was actually an Australian crocodile, but she had been assured that it was her cousin and therefore appropriate as a fetish. She preferred to think of it as a ’gator. Cordelia replaced the figure, setting it in front of the small, framed black-and-white photo of a young aboriginal man. He scowled seriously out of the portrait. “Wyungare,” she whispered. Her lips formed a kiss.

  Then she swiveled her chair around to face the poster board on the wall. Taking a thick marker, she began crossing out names. What she ended up with was a list of U2, the Boss, Little Steven, the Coward Brothers, and Girls With Guns. Not bad, she thought. Not damn bad a-tall.

  But—she chuckled with satisfaction—there was more. She reached up again with the marker—

  The three of them had eaten an early lunch at the Acropolis on Tenth Street, just off Sixth Avenue. Cordelia had offered to take them to a plusher place. After all, she had an expense account now. The Acropolis was a mere café, indistinguishable from thousands of others in the city. “The Riviera’s only a few blocks away,” she’d said. “It’s an okay place.”

  C.C. Ryder was having none of it. She wanted an anonymous meeting place. She asked that they meet well before the mealtime rush. She wanted Bagabond along.

  She got what she wanted because Cordelia needed her.

  So they ended up in the Naugahyde booth with C.C. and Bagabond on the side facing both Cordelia and the door. Cordelia looked up from the menu and smiled. “I can recommend the fruit cup.”

  C.C. didn’t smile back. Her expression was serious. She took off her nearly shapeless leather porkpie cap and shook out her spiky red hair. Cordelia noticed that C.C.’s brilliant green eyes looked very much like Uncle Jack’s. I’ve got to call him, she thought. She didn’t want to, but she had to.

  “See the raccoon rings?” said C.C., pointing to her own eyes. Today she didn’t look much like one of rock’s top lyricists and performers. The effect was deliberate. She wore jeans so old and worn, they looked acid-washed. Her floppy John Hiatt sweatshirt appeared to have endured almost as many washings.

  “Nope,” said Cordelia. C.C.’s skin looked smooth and white, almost albino in its lightness.

  “Well, there ought to be.” A bare smile ghosted across C.C.’s lips. “I’ve been losing sleep over this whole thing with the benefit.”

  Cordelia said nothing; kept looking the singer in the eye.

  “I know this is Des’s last hurrah,” C.C. continued. “And I know the cause is a good one. A joint benefit for AIDS patients and the wild card victims is something whose time is long since due.”

  Cordelia nodded. This was looking good.

  C.C. shrugged. “I guess I gotta come out of the anxiety closet sometime and perform in front of live folks.” She smiled for real. “So the answer is yes.”

  “Super!” Cordelia leaned across the table and hugged C.C. fiercely. Startled, Bagabond half-rose from her seat, ready, it seemed to Cordelia, who saw the motion from the corner of her eye, to tear out her throat if she were actually attacking C.C. Cordelia did hear a low snarl, much like one of Bagabond’s cats, as she disentangled herself from C.C. and settled back in her seat.

  “That’s wonderful!” said Cordelia. She stopped burbling when she saw C.C.’s face. She could read the expression. “I’m sorry.” Cordelia sobered. “It’s just that I’ve loved your music, loved you as a writer for so long, I’ve wanted to see you perform your songs
more than just about anything.”

  “It’s not going to be easy,” said C.C. Bagabond looked at her concernedly. “What have we got, ten days?”

  Cordelia nodded. “Barely.”

  “I’m gonna need every minute.”

  “You’ve got it. I’m going to give you someone as a liaison with me who will get you whatever you want, whenever you need it. Somebody I trust, and so do you.”

  “Who’s that?” said Bagabond with evident suspicion. The muscles of her gaunt face tightened. Her brown eyes narrowed.

  Cordelia took a deep breath. “Uncle Jack,” she said.

  The expression on Bagabond’s face was not pleasant. “Why?” she said. C.C. glanced aside at her. “Why not me?”

  “You can help C.C. as much as you want,” said Cordelia hastily. “But I need Uncle Jack to be involved with all this. He’s competent and he’s levelheaded and he’s trustworthy. I’m in over my head,” she said candidly. “I need all the help I can scrounge.”

  “Jack know about this?” said Bagabond.

  Cordelia hesitated. “Well, I been waitin’ to tell ’im.” She realized the Cajun was starting to creep through more as she got flustered. She took a mental grip on herself. “I been leavin’ messages on his phone machine. He hasn’t been answering.”

  Bagabond leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. A minute went by. It seemed a long time. The Greek waiter came by to take their orders. C.C. told him to come back shortly.

  When she opened her eyes again, Bagabond shook her head as though clearing it: “I don’t know when the boy’s going to answer your calls.”

  “What do you mean?” Cordelia felt a listing feeling as though her plans were papers sliding off a carefully leveled table.

  “It’s all broken up,” said Bagabond. “Jack’s a ways off—probably about New York Bay, I’d judge. He’s getting his rocks off duking it out with the kind of critters you don’t see in the Castle Clinton Aquarium. As much raw meat as he’s getting”—she smiled humorlessly—”I couldn’t say whether he’s going to get home for dinner anytime soon.”