"Not yet. I gotta tell him. You wait with me?"

"No." She said it too quickly, too harshly, but she didn't try to soften the word with an explanation. " I talked to Sara; I need the jacket-we're going to take it to Tachyon."

"You can't have the jacket. Gimli took it with him. You'll have to wait."

Misha only shrugged at that, surprising Peanut, who had expected her to fly into a rage. "I'm going to my place. I'll come back here later."

She turned to leave.

"I don't hate you," Peanut's childlike voice said behind her. "I don't hate you 'cause you got lucky with the wild card and I didn't. And I don't even hate you for what you and the Nur did to people like me. I think I got a lot more reason to hate than you, but I don't, 'cause I think maybe the d.a.m.n virus has hurt you more than me, after all."

Misha had kept her back turned, stiffly, from his first words. "I don't hate you, Peanut," she answered. She was tired from the long day, from the flight, from the meeting with Sara and the inchoate feeling of dread that still enveloped her. There was no energy in her to argue or explain.

"The Nur hates jokers. Barnett hates jokers. Sometimes jokers hate jokers. And you and Gimli and the Russian want to hurt the one guy who looks like he might care. I don't understand." Peanut sighed. "So what if he's an ace? Maybe that explains why he works so hard for the jokers. I might keep it secret, too, if I could. I know how people treat you different and stare at you and try to pretend it doesn't matter when it does."

"Haven't you listened to us, Peanut?" Misha swung around, sighing. "Hartmann's a manipulator. He plays with his power. He uses it for his own ends. He hurts and kills people with it."

"I'm still not sure I believe that," Peanut insisted. "Even if I did, didn't what you and the Nur preached kill? Didn't you cause hundreds of jokers to die?"

His mild voice only made the truth of the accusation sting more. Blood on my hands, too. "Peanut-" she began, then stopped. She wanted to bring the veils over her eyes and hide her feelings behind black cloth. But she couldn't. She could only stand there, unable to look away from his sad, puckered face. "How can you not hate me?" she asked him.

He almost seemed to smile. "I did, once. Till I met you, anyways. Hey, your society fouled you up. Does that to everyone, huh? I see you fight against it, and I know you care, underneath. Gimli says you didn't like a lot of what the Nur said, either." Now he did smile, a tentative grin that heightened the ridges in his thick flesh. "Maybe I could come with you and protect you from Stigmata."

She could only smile in return. "Well, ain't this touching?"

The voice, so utterly unexpected, caused them both to whirl -the words had a strong Germanic accent. A hunchbacked, anemic young man in black stepped through the wall of the warehouse as if it were a mist. Misha knew that cruel, lean face instantly, knew the sickness that lurked behind the eyes. The hammering of fear in her body was reminder enough, and he had the same feral casualness of the figure hanging in Hartmann's strings.

"Kahina," he said in a jittery, quick voice, and with the use of that honorific she knew it was over. The youth was breathing like a nervous thoroughbred, smiling lopsidedly. Hartmann knows. He's found us. "It's time."

She could only shake her head.

Peanut moved to put himself between the intruder and Misha. The boy-man's sardonic gaze flicked toward the joker. "Ain't Gimli told you about Mackie? Man, everyone's scared s.h.i.tless of Mackie. You should have seen the Fraction b.i.t.c.h's eyes when I offed her. I've got an ace better than anything.. .." There was an eager satisfaction in Mackie's rambling voice. He reached for Misha. Peanut tried to strike Mackie's hand aside, but suddenly the hand shivered and began to vibrate with a fierce thrumming.

Blood fountained impossibly. Peanut's severed forearm dropped to the floor.

Peanut stood for a moment, staring in disbelief as pulsing red jetted from the stump. Then he screamed. His legs buckled; he collapsed. Mackie raised his hand again, a deep buzz-saw whine coming from the blur.

"No!" Misha shouted. Mackie hesitated, looking at her. The pleasure she saw in the boy made her sick-it was a look she'd seen in her brother, it was a look she'd seen on Hartmann's face in Allah's dreams. "Don't," she pleaded. "Please.

I'll go with you. Whatever you want."

Mackie's breath was harsh and loud; emotions crossed his pinched face like quick cloud-shadows. Peanut moaned beneath him. "He's a d.a.m.n joker. I thought you wanted them all dead. I can do it for you. It'd be quick; it'd be good." His face had gone serious now, and the sickness was like a l.u.s.t in him.

"Please." Mackie didn't answer. Misha stopped and ripped a strip of cloth from the hem of her dress. She knelt beside the stricken joker, who writhed on the floor. "I'm sorry, Peanut," she said. She wrapped the cloth around his arm above the stump, pulled it tight until the blood flow eased, and knotted it. "I didn't hate you. I just couldn't manage to say it."

Mackie's hand touched her arm, and Misha flinched. Though the horrible vibration was gone, his fingers gripped her until she cried out in pain. "Now," Mackie said. He glanced down at Peanut. His tone was almost conversational. "Next time you see Gimli, tell him Mackie said Auf Wiedersehen' "

And then he was grinning again as he pulled Misha up.

"Don't be frightened," he told her. "This is going to be fun. Lots of fun." His manic laughter cut into her like a thousand gla.s.s shards.

Thursday, 3:40 A.M.

In the alley behind the Crystal Palce a bulky figure in a black cloak approached a man wearing a clown's mask. The cloaked figure's hooded face was hidden behind what looked to be a fencing mask.

"Okay, Senator, we were the last ones out," the apparition said. "The rest of the customers are gone. The staff just left; the place is empty. Chrysalis is in her office with Downs."

The quiet voice sounded female, which meant that the Patti persona was in charge of Oddity tonight. Gregg's understanding was that the joker had once been three people, two men and a woman involved in a long-standing love relationship. The wild card had joined them into one being, though the fusion had been incomplete and fluid. Shapes humped and shifted under Oddity's cloak. Oddity's body was never at rest-Gregg had once seen it without the concealing fabric, and the sight had been disturbing. It (or perhaps "they," since Oddity always referred to itself in the plural) was constantly undergoing metamorphosis. Patti, John, Evan: never entirely any one of them, never stabilizing, always struggling against itself. Bones creaked, the flesh bulged and twisted, the features came and went.

The endless process was agonizing-Puppetman knew that best of all. Oddity gave him the emotional nourishment he craved simply by existing. Oddity's world was a wash of pain, and the trebled matrices of its mind were quick to shift into black, sullen depression.

The only constant of Oddity was the strength of its malleable form. In that, Oddity surpa.s.sed Carnifex and perhaps rivaled Mordecai Jones or Braun. Oddity also had a great loyalty to Senator Hartmann.

After all, Oddity knew that Gregg was compa.s.sionate. Gregg cared about the jokers. Gregg was the voice of reason against fanatics such as Leo Barnett. Why, he was one of the few who ever asked Oddity about itself, and he listened sympathetically to the long tale of the joker's like. Gregg might be a nat, but he came among the jokers and talked to them and shook their hands and then kept his political promises.

Oddity would have done anything Senator Hartmann asked it to do. The thought made Puppetman wriggle with delight inside Gregg. Tonight ... tonight held the promise of being delicious.

Puppetman was tired of playing it safe, even if Gregg was not.

Gregg forced that hidden personality into the recesses of his mind. "Thanks, Patti," he said. Through Puppetman he could feel a tinge of pleasure at that-the individual psyches in Oddity liked to be recognized. "You know the rest?"

Oddity nodded. What might have been a breast pushed sluggishly at the left side of the cloak. "I'll watch the place. No one gets in or out but the two you told me about. Simple enough." The words were slurring as the shape of the mouth altered behind the fencing mask.

"Good. I appreciate this."

"No problem for you, Senator. All you ever have to do is ask."

Gregg smiled and forced himself to clap Oddity on the shoulder. There were sliding things underneath. He suppressed a shudder as he squeezed slightly.

"Thanks again, then. I'll be out in twenty minutes or so."

The grat.i.tude and loyalty radiating from Oddity made Puppetman laugh, inside.

Gregg adjusted the clown's mask as Oddity leaned against the back doors. They groaned; a metal chain snapped inside. Gregg strode through the sagging doors and into the club.

"We're closed." Chrysalis was standing at the door to her office with a nasty-looking gun in her hand; behind her, Gregg could see Downs.

"You were expecting me," Gregg said softly. "You sent me a message." He took off the clowns mask. Even without a puppet's link to the woman, he could sense the mingled fear and defiance in her, a bitter metallic tang that roused Puppetman.

Gregg chuckled, letting a little of his own nervousness into the sound.

Why so uncertain?

That should be obvious. Even with the information Video fed us we don't know everything. Gimli didn't trust video enough; he didn't let her see everything. They have whatever it was Kahina and Gimli had.

And you have me.

Gregg had planned it well: Video had been a wonderful, pliant puppet for years.

Yet even with what she'd managed to funnel to him, even with what he'd garnered from government intelligence agencies and other sources, he was still grasping in twilight. A misstep here, and it might all be over.

Gregg had always been cautious, had always sought the safe path. Recklessness was not something with which he was comfortable, and this was reckless. But since Syria, since Berlin, it seems he'd been forced to choose this path. "Sorry I couldn't make it during your business hours," he continued, his voice nearly apologetic. " I felt your meeting might be too private for that."

Good. Let them think they're negotiating from strength, at least for a bit. You need to know what they know. Chrysalis lowered the gun; muscles expanded under her transparent arm and across her chest-the dress she wore did little to conceal her body. Red lips that seemed to float on gla.s.sy flesh pursed.

"Senator," she said with that breathy fake accent that Gregg disliked, " I a.s.sume you know what Mr. Downs and myself would like to discuss."

Gregg took a breath. He smiled. "You want to talk about aces," he said.

"Especially ones who are-so to speak-up the sleeve and who intend to stay that way. You want to see what I might be able to do for you. I think it's usually called blackmail."

"AA, that's such an ugly word." She stepped back into the office. Her lips tightened, the horror-show skull eyes blinked. "Please come in."

Chrysalis's office was luxurious. A polished oak desk, plush leather chairs, an expensive rug over the center of the hardwood floor, wooden bookcases on which gold-leaf spines were lined neatly in sets. Downs was sitting nervously. He smiled tentatively at Gregg as the senator entered.

"Hey, Senator. What's shakin'?"

Gregg didn't bother to answer. He stared hard at Downs. The little man sniffed and sat back in the chair. Chrysalis brushed past him in a wave of perfume and took her seat behind the desk. She waved at one of the empty chairs.

"Have a seat, Senator. I don't believe our business will take that long."

"Exactly what are we talking about?"

"We're talking about the fact that I'm considering telling the public that you're an ace. I'm sure you'd be very unhappy with that."

Gregg had expected Chrysalis to threaten; she was no doubt used to getting results from that tactic, and he didn't doubt that she considered herself safe from physical violence here. Gregg watched Downs from the corners of his eyes.

The reporter had shown himself to be the nervous type on the wild card tour, and he couldn't control his agitation now. Sweat beaded on his forehead; he rubbed his hands and squirmed in his seat. If Chrysalis was at ease with this, Downs was not. Good. Puppetman came alert. We made a mistake not taking him. Let me have him now.

No. Not yet. Wait.

"You are an ace, aren't you, Senator?" Chrysalis asked the question coolly, pretending nonchalance.

He knew they expected him to deny it. So he simply smiled. "Yes," he answered just as calmly.

"Your blood test were faked?"

"As they can be faked again. But I don't think I'll have to do that."

"You're rather overconfident in your ability, then." Gregg, looking at Downs rather than Chrysalis, could see the uncertainty. He knew what the man was thinking: A projecting telepath? A mental power like Tachyon's? What if we can't control him?

Gregg smiled calmly to lend credence to that misconception. "Your friend Downs isn't so certain," he told Chrysalis. "Everyone in Jokertown knows about Gimli's empty skin being found last night in an alleyway, and he wonders about whether I had anything to do with that." It was a bluffGregg had been as surprised (and delighted) as anyone else at the news-but Gregg saw the color drain from Downs's face. "He wonders if I might not be able to coerce your cooperation through my ace."

"You can't. And whatever happened to Gimli had nothing to do with you, not directly," Chrysalis answered forcefully. "No matter what he thinks. My best guess is that you've a mind power, but with a rather limited range. So even if you can make us say yes now, you can't enforce it."

She knows! Puppetman s wail echoed in Gregg's head. You've got to kill her.

Please. It will taste good. We could make Oddity do it....

She suspects, that's all, he answered.

What's the difference? Have them killed; we have puppets who would find pleasure in it. Have them killed and we don't have to worry.

Kill them now and we have more trails to cover up. Misha wouldn't talk; we still don't know what evidence Chrysalis was given. Gimli's taken himself out of the picture, but there's still the other man in Video's memory-the Russian. And Sara. Puppetman's scorn was a barb.

Shut up. Sara we can control. Chrysalis will have plans made against her own death. We can't risk that.

The inner debate took only a moment. "I'm a politician. This isn't France, where the wild card is chic. I'm in a fight where Leo Barnett will use joker hatred as a tool. I've already seen Gary Hart's career wiped out by innuendo. I'm not going to let that happen to me. Still, people might look at whatever evidence you have and wonder. I might lose votes. People will say that blood tests can be faked, they'll look at Syria and Berlin with suspicion. I can't afford to lose ground to speculation."

"Which means we can come to an accommodation," Chrysalis smiled.

"Maybe not. I think you still have a problem."

"Senator, the press has its obligations. . ." Downs began, then fell silent with the withering gaze Hartmann gave him. "Aces magazine is hardly the legitimate press. Let me put it this way-your problem is that you don't know what I'm capable of. I will tell you that Berlin and Syria weren't accidents. I'll tell you that even now Gimli's little cadre is being arrested. I'll tell you that there's no way you can escape me if I want to find you." He turned his head slightly toward the door. "Mackie!" he called.

The door opened. Grinning, Mackie entered, supporting a stumbling woman wrapped in a long cloak. Mackie jerked the cloak from the woman's shoulders, revealing her naked and streaked with blood. He shoved the woman from behind, and she sprawled on the carpet in front of the horrified Chrysalis.

"I'm a reasonable man," Gregg said as Chrysalis and Downs stared at the figure moaning on the floor-"All I ask is that you think about this. Remember that I will contest any evidence. Remember that I can and will produce that negative blood test. Think about the fact that I don't even want to hear the faintest whisper of a rumor. And realize that I leave the two of you alive because you're the best sources of information I know-you hear everything, or so you'd have me believe. Good. Use those sources. Because if I hear any rumors, if I see a piece in the papers or Aces, if I notice that people are asking strange questions, if I'm attacked or hurt or even feel vaguely threatened, I'll know where to come."

Downs was staring slack-jawed at Misha; Chrysalis had sunk back against her desk. She tried to meet Gregg's eyes and failed. "You see, I intend to use you, not the reverse," Gregg continued. "I hold the two of you responsible for silence and safety. You're both so d.a.m.ned good at what you do. So start learning who my enemies are and work at stopping them. I'm vindictive, and I'm dangerous.

I'm everything Gimli and Misha were afraid I might be."

"And if anyone else ever learns that, I'll consider it your fault. You might damage my presidential campaign by being heroes, but that's all. You cant prove anything else. After all, I've never actually killed or hurt anyone myself. I'd still be on the streets, afterward. And I'd find you without any trouble at all.

And then I'd do to you what I'd do to any enemy."

Puppetman was chuckling in his mind, antic.i.p.ating. Gregg smiled at Chrysalis, at Downs. He hugged Mackie, who was watching him eagerly. "Enjoy yourself," Gregg told him. He gave Chrysalis a small nod that was chilling in its nonchalance and left the office. He shut the door behind him, leaning against it until he heard the whine of Mackie's ace.

He let Puppetman loose to ride with the youth's strange, brightly colored madness. He hardly had to nudge Mackie at all.

Inside, Mackie knelt and cradled Misha's head in his arms. Neither Chrysalis nor Downs moved. "Misha," he crooned. The woman opened her eyes, and the pain he saw behind them made him sigh. "Such a good little martyr," he told her. "She wouldn't talk no matter what I did, you know," he said to the others admiringly, his eyes skittering, bright. His hands roamed over her lacerated body. "She could be a saint. Such silence in suffering. So frigging n.o.ble." The smile he gave Misha was almost tender. "I took her like a boy first, before I cut her at all. Anything to say now, Misha?"

Her head rolled side to side, slowly.

Mackie was smiling fitfully, breathing hard and fast. "You couldn't really have hated the jokers," he said, looking down at her face. "You couldn't, or you would have talked." There was a strange sadness in the way he said it.

"Shahid." The word was a whisper from swollen; bloodcaked lips. Mackie leaned close to hear it.

"Arabic," he told them. "I don't understand Arabic." His hands were buzzing now, screaming. He ran his fingers around her b.r.e.a.s.t.s like a caress, and blood followed. Misha shrieked hoa.r.s.ely; Downs gagged and threw up. Chrysalis remained stoic until Mackie slid his hand down Misha's stomach and let the coils of intestines spill wetly out over the carpet.

When he was done, he stood up and brushed away the gore covering the front of him. "The senator said you'd know how to take care of the mess," he told them.

"He said you knew everything and everybody." Mackie chuckled, high and manic. He began to whistle: Brecht, the Threepenny Opera.

With a casual wave he strolled through the wall and away.

Thursday, 7:35 P.M.