Wild Cards [02] Aces High by George R.R. Martin Page B

temples, felt the throbbing begin to recede. The old woman. . . . What the hell was that black thing she'd hit him with when he'd tried to help her? She had taken it out of one of her bags and
    Bags! He cast about frantically for his own bag, with the carefully parceled remains of the diminutive John Doe. He saw then that he still held it in his right hand, and that it had been turned inside out and torn.
    He rose to his feet and looked about in the dim glow from a distant streetlight. He saw the doggie bags scattered about him, and he counted quickly. Nine. Yes. All nine of them were in sight, and he now saw the limbs, the head, and the thoraxthough the thorax had now been broken into four pieces and the head looked much shinier than it had earlier. From the dampness, perhaps. The jar! Where was it? The liquid might be very important to whoever wanted the remains. If the jar had been broken . ..
    He uttered a brief cry when he saw it standing upright in the shadows near the wall to his left. The top was missing and so was an inch or so of glass from beneath it. He crossed to it, and from the odor he knew it to be the real thing and not just . rainwater.
    He gathered up the doggie bags, which seemed surprisingly dry, and he placed-them on the sheltered ledge of a barred basement window. Then he collected the pieces of chitin into a heap nearby. When he recovered the legs he noted that they were both broken, but he reflected that that could make for easier packing. Then he turned his attention to the jag-topped pickle jar, and he smiled. How simple. The answer lay all about him, provided by the derelicts who frequented the area.
    He gathered an armful of empty bottles and bore them over to the side, where he set them down and began uncorking and uncapping them. When he had finished he decanted the dark liquid.
    It took eight bottles of various sizes, and he set them on the ledge with the doggie bags above the small mound of shattered exoskel' and cartilage. It seemed as if there were a little bit less of the guy each time he got unwrapped. Maybe it had something to do with the way he was divided now. Maybe it took algebra to understand it.
    Croyd moved then to the dumpster and opened its side hatch. He smiled almost immediately, for there were long strands of Christmas ribbon near at hand. He withdrew several of these and stuffed them into a side pocket. He leaned forward. If there were ribbon, then--
    The sound of rapid footfalls came and went. He spun, raising his hands to defend himself, but there was no one near.
    Then he spotted him. A small man in a coat several times too large for him had halted briefly at the windowsill, where he snatched one of the larger bottles and two of the doggie bags. He ran off immediately then, toward the far end of the alley where two other shabby figures waited.
    "Hey!" Croyd yelled. "Stop!" and he reached with his power but the man was out of range.
    All that he heard was laughter, and a cry of, "Tonight we party, boys!"
    Sighing, Croyd withdrew a large wad of red and green Christmas paper from the dumpster and returned to the window to repackage the remainder of the remains.
    After he had walked several blocks, his bright parcel beneath his arm, he passed a bar called The Dugout and realized he was in the Village. His brow furrowed for a moment, but then he saw a taxi and waved, and the car pulled over. Everything was okay. Even the headache was gone.
    Jube looked up, saw Croyd smiling at him. "How- How did it go?" he asked.
    "Mission accomplished," Croyd answered, passing him the key.
    "You got it? There was something on the news about Darlingfoot "
    "I got it."
    "And the possessions?"
    "There weren't any."
    "You sure of that, fella?"
    "Absolutely. Nothing there but him, and he's in the bathtub."

"What?"
    "It's okay, because I closed the drain."
    "What do you mean?"
    "My cab was involved in an accident on the way over and some of the bottles broke. So watch out for glass when you unwrap