right?”
“No she isn’t. Dig her up.”
The Carousel watched AXIS power go up more levels faster than an elevator on meth. He went to the laptop. The Blue Boss was between issues but the BPD database was at AXIS fingertips.
Apple Gotti
was tagged…mentioned in the notes on a meth bust. The Carousel shot a finger at Rock Hero. Rock Hero sprang up, went to his side.
“Pick up this guy.”
“Done.”
Rock Hero left the room.
Mermaid Gangster: “What’s his power?”
The one named Kafka Kardashian said, “Hotness.”
The Sirens passed the same giggle. The Carousel couldn’t give the straight answer or they would never take AXIS seriously.
“He’s trending.”
The next day he took them to an anonymous city building downtown.
In a third floor office they watched through observation glass as Rock Hero did the interview in a blank room with two chairs. The guy was a young dark-tanned muscle head with a buzz cut and a braided beard, tank top, shorts, big tattooed legs, big bare feet in beach sandals. His big arms stayed crossed, his chin tilted up, nose running, the beady eyes tweeked-up.
“Where did you meet Apple Gotti?”
“At a floating crash.”
“What’s a floating crash?”
“A mini-rave that goes from street to street.”
“What was the name she gave you?”
“Apple Gotti.”
“You two became acquainted?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“We left.”
“You left the floating crash?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did you go?”
“We went to a beach.”
“What did you do there?”
“We tweeked.”
“Then what?”
“We banged.”
“May I ask what you did sexually?”
“She wanted to bleed a little. I dealt it up.”
“Anything else?”
“Just some good hard beach fucking.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Weird stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like…weird stuff. She started out trying to guess what I did.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m a bouncer.”
“Did she guess it?”
“More or less. She knew I did something physical. Look at me, that’s not a biggie, right? But she guessed I do stuff off the clock. Because I do stuff off the clock, if you know what I mean. I guessed she did porn at some time or other. Turned out I was right. We watched one of her movies.”
“What type of porn was it?”
“S&M porn, a lot of dungeon time spent punishing both males and females, their faces sealed in zippered leather masks, boobs bound in wire, balls strung, dicks squeezed into balloons, wrists shackled, hardcore domme Apple Gotti verbally abusing them with the torture. A guy was standing with head and wrists in a stock while she spent five minutes stringing his nutsac. Then she pulled the string, choked his nuts. Apple Gotti twisting a chick’s nipples with a nipple clamp. This went on for minutes. I was fighting to stay awake. Then another scene in a different location woke me up. I stayed awake. Apple Gotti stuck a nail into the palm of her hand, drew blood. She held her hand out to a bound-up chick. The chick stuck out her tongue, licked the blood off her hand clean. Not a simulation. The real thing, her blood the right color. Her face showed zero expression, zero pain. Freaked me out.”
“What else did you talk about?”
“The talk got weirder. She told me she was a professional killer. She said she had a list of people to kill. She said she had to stay in Brutalia because it’s a great town to be a hitgirl.”
“What did you think of that?”
“I thought she was tripping.”
“Did she say who she was planning to kill?”
“She said she was going to kill every person who will live longer than her.”
“Did she seem mentally unstable to you?”
“Yeah but I had no problem with it. She said she was taking the night off. All she wanted to do was get high and fuck somebody she didn’t have to kill afterwards. I got lucky with her.”
“Did you exchange addresses?”
“No.”
“Phone numbers?”
“No.”
“Any plans to meet
Beatrix Potter
Neil Postman
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Hao Yang
Kasey Michaels
S. L. Viehl
Gerald Murnane
Darren Hynes
Brendan Clerkin
Jon A. Jackson