“You’ll noticed I haven’t scream at you for taking off without an escort,” Tom said as he eased the car onto the beltway.
“And?” I said.
“An explanation would be nice, instead of you moping there.”
“I’m not moping, I’m thinking.”
“Aren’t those two the same when it comes to you?”
I sighed. “Tom, don’t you think that with abso-fucking-lutly everything that’s going on, I’m entitled to some time without you picking at my brain?”
“You had a two-hour flight with no one to talk to. Doesn’t seem to have done you much good.”
“Am I special?”
Tom stared at me and almost rear-ended a pickup, catching himself at the last moment. “What kind of question is that?”
“Straightforward, I thought.”
“You’re one fucking special lay, I can tell you that.”
“That’s what I thought.” I went back to looking out the window
“What’s going on with you?”
“You ever have your life upended?”
“Brislow, I’ve had all the law enforcement in the country after my tail for just about the whole of my life. I’m the definition of upended. Fuck, these last two years have been the longest I’m been in one place. You know how weird that is for me?”
“Yeah, but have you ever thought you knew what your life was about, only to find out you were wrong?”
“Magic did throw me for a loop, but it didn’t change who I am, so I guess not.”
I nodded. Like anyone could know what it was like to be chosen.
“How are the Orrs dealing with the death of one of their own?”
“Arnold’s a wreck. I have no idea about the others.”
“So we shouldn’t expect any of them to step in and take charge?” The tone in Tom’s voice scared me
“What happened?”
“The Mastrotsis were hit hard.”
“They’re in Greece, right?”
“Yeah, Damian sent a dozen teams to try to get into the hearth there. They stopped it, but at a cost.”
“Who’s heading to shore up their forces?”
Tom snorted. “The families in Europe are too busy fighting about who has the authority to make that decision to actually help.”
I cursed and tried to remember the names of the European families. It would have to wait until the office, where I could contact them and squeeze their balls until they did the right thing.
“How about the slander campaigns?”
“Both sides are still going, Arnold’s plan to expose priests who do blood magic paid off. The anti-gay clips are being taken down where they’re found, but Damian’s slicers spread those things everywhere, we even found a virus broadcasting them from one of our own server. Longer is pissed about that. But on the whole, they seem to be canceling each other. Most people ignore them, and even a few of the extremists not directly under Damian’s control have ceased their activities.”
“That sounds like a win to me.”
“I’m just waiting for the shoe to drop.”
I sighed. “I’m going to have to take over running the war.”
“Figured as much.” Tom said.
“Excuse me?”
“First thing you did, once you were done bitching, was ask how things were. And you’re already making plans on how to deal with Europe. You’re a natural leader.”
“No I’m not.”
He eyed me. “You’ve gotten almost all the families top contribute someone to Steel Link. Those are the same families who are currently at each other’s throat wanting to be in charge, instead of working on helping each other. You got the Green men to agree to embed one of theirs with us, and last I heard the people you sent to talk to those sister women are actually having conversation.”
“They’re called the Convent[do I have that right?] and they are as much threatened by Damian as we are, it’s in their favor to help.”
“Never mattered before. Frank says this is the first time factions have communicated, even during the dark ages, it was each faction for itself. How did you not notice that about you Brislow?” understanding dawned on Tom’s face. “That’s what the ‘am I special thing’s’ about.”
“Not just that, He’s been sending me dreams.”
“He, your god? Good for you, I guess.”
“You don’t sound bothered.”
“Should I be? Or is this back to your specialness? Brislow, I keep you alive in spite of your best effort to get yourself killed. Unless those dreams are prophetic, why should I care?”
“They’re more like historic.”
“Then it’s more Frank’s stuff.”
“I just don’t get why me? What’s so special about me?”
“Why do you have to be special?”
“He sends me dreams. He came down from wherever he goes and initiated me Himself, twice. That’s never happened before.”
“Okay, you’re special.”
“But—”
“Why do you care?”
“You’re not making any sense Tom.”
“That’s because you’re over complicating things. So you’ve been picked by a god for some divine reason. Let me ask you this. What would you have done different up till now, if you hadn’t been special?”
“I wouldn’t have this library of powers, for one thing.”
“So Denton Brislow, ordinary Society guy, would you have stayed in your apartment when the shit hit the fan?”
“Of course not.”
“Why not? You don’t have immense powers, Damian controls the Gray Church, he can mind control people, he mind controls your ex-partner into hating your guts.”
“I kind of did that one myself, he just—”
“Stay with me, Brislow. Why would you risk your life taking on someone like Damian if you have no powers?”
“Because someone has to. Maybe I don’t have powers, but I can still help. I have my skills to contribute. Steel Link has nothing to do with powers.”
“And there you have it, ladies and gents, even without any powers, Denton Brislow is still the idiot who’ll throw himself in front of a bus to save someone. There, he just makes my job a million times more difficult.” He grinned at me. “Forget gods and all that junk. You’re special because you fucking care.”
“Plenty of people care.”
“I’ll give you that, but how many of them have the guts to kick all those stubborn elders in the ass until they do the right thing? And let me point out the irony of me, probably the least religious guy in existence telling you to have faith that you’re the right guy for this job.”
“I don’t think that’s irony.”
“You’re really going to argue semantic on this?”
“That’s at least one argument I might have a chance to win. I’m kind of tired of having you be the voice of reason. You’re a cold-blooded killer.”
“I’m also older. Don’t let the new chassis fool you. There’s a lot of mileage under this hood.”
“Okay, fine. Then why isn’t He sending me dreams that actually help, instead of the history lesson? I could really do with a guide book on what to do next.”
“What kind of history?”
“His, pretty much from the moment became what he is. Right now He’s following the old hyena who has one of His fangs, from before. It turned him into one happy sex maniac.”
“So like the rest of you guys.”
“Yeah, although I think he’s getting younger. It’s tough to say for sure. The passage of time is linear, but He seems to jump gaps.”
“Like a highlight reel?”
“Yeah. There’s still way more than I know what to do with.”
“Tell others about it. Frank might know something that helps. He might know people.”
“Let me ask you this,” I said, and Tom groaned.
“I thought you were tired of me being the voice of reason here.”
“Funny. What does it say about a god that he lets an entire family line die just to save one child?”
“You.”
“Me, another kid; just, could you ever trust that god?”
“I don’t know. Depends on what the rules are.”
“He’s a god, He doesn’t have rules.”
“There are always rules, Brislow. You were a cop, everyone has a motivation. Everything happens for a reason. If the actions make no sense, you’re missing information. I mean right off the bat, you know your god can’t affect me, no matter how much I might piss him off. He can only affect his own followers, so that’s one rule. Lust and vitality, there’s another. Only men, that’s three. How many other rules? You say he let it happen, how do you know he even knew it was happening?”
“He saved me.”
Tom looked at me. “You sure about that?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m alive, and Damian said my dad couldn’t have…” I trailed off. I was going by what Damian had told me, again. “Fuck. I hate you right now,” I said without vehemence.
“I’m used to it, don’t worry.”
“So, the dreams, you think that the same deal? Some rule I don’t know about?”
“Could be. Could also be that you can’t process that straightforward of a process. Maybe he needs to feed it to you in small bites you can swallow.”
“That’s another dig at me intelligence, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s comment on how a god is downloading information into your brain and he probably doesn’t want to burn it out.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“I didn’t say—”
I looked at the car’s ceiling. “Do you hear me? It would nice if for a fucking once you told me clearly what the fuck you want from me!”
I turned to Tom and opened my mouth, but he was already miles away from me, and falling ever further away and darkness engulfed my sight.
