Charlie Huston - Every Last Drop

I flick some ash on the floor.

— No. No status quo this time around for any of us. The Horde girl, she was already talking about investing in some guns. Bright kid, that girl. She sees the writing on the wall. Everyone's gonna have to pick a side. Especially seeing all the bodies I left lying around Queens. Not that I was trying to make a point or sign my work or anything, but Predos gonna know I was there. Figure he's already got his people arming up and closing the gates.

I wave some smoke from between us.

— No filling that hole in, Terry. No sealing it up like it was never there. Its there. And whether I walk out of here or not, too many people know now. I got no idea if the truth wants to be free, but its out of the cage. And its gonna kill some people. Anyway. You told me once there was a war coming. Looks like it's here.

I scratch my chin.

— So. You want to call those tough boys and Hurley into the room and make a mess of me and try to get me to change my tune when Lydia gets here?

I point at the door.

— Or you want me to get lost so you can start making a plan to change the world?

He looks around the room, a man suddenly across a border, not sure how he got there. Then he nods. Claps his hands once. Stands. -Yeah. OK. You better take off.

He bounces his head up and down.

— Yeah, man. Brave new world. Brave new world. Change. Embrace it or get swept aside. That's the, you know, the deal. Like a wave, change is. This one, this one will be like a tsunami. And I think I need to have some alone time to get my balance for this.

He points at the door.

— Yeah, you do your thing, Joe. Probably better you're not here for this. I need to do some clear thinking. Look at myself in an unadorned light and come up with some truth.

I drop my smoke, grind it on the floor.

— Fine. You change your mind and want your boys to kill me, you got between here to the front door.

He reaches for me.

— You know, man, I'm just wondering. I'm just wondering if I shouldn't thank you for this. This is, you know, this is a unique opportunity for us all. And I'm not sure I shouldn't thank you for bringing it on.

He squeezes my shoulder. -But you're gonna die for it, Joe. Not tonight. But, you know, pretty soon.

He lets go of me. -As soon as someone has a second to spare, they're going to kill you.

I head out. -Your hand is shaking again, Terry.

— An1 how was it, Joe? All knitted up between the two a yas?

I stop on the stoop to light a fresh one.

— Well, you know how it is with old pals, Hurley. You have your fights and your disagreements, but in the end, you're too far under each other's skin to really hold a grudge. -Glad ta hear it, Joe, glad to hear it.

He takes my gun, knuckles and razor from a pocket. -An will ya be needin' dese?

I take them from his hands. -Thanks. Hate to need them and be caught without.

I go down the steps.

— Keep the welcome mat out. Sounds like Lydia and some of her girls are coming by.

He raises a thick finger.

— Dem ladies, ya know dey don't like ta be called girls. -So I hear. So I hear. -Take care den, Joe.

— Thanks. And a piece of advice for you, if you like. -Sure, an why not? — Think about rolling up your trouser. -An why would dat be?

I walk down the street, trailing smoke. -What I hear, there's high water on the way. And everyone's gonna get wet.

Jeo Pitt 4 — Every Last Drop

How you get what you want is, you make sure no one knows what it is you want.

Now, the world full of new hazards, everyone charting new courses to avoid collisions that are inevitable, I give in.

Pulled, I go west. To where forces draw me. I have time now. To take what I want.

But a new gravity catches me on Eighth Avenue. Catches me and smashes me down and drops me in an alley with my back to a wall and my ass in a pile of trash.

It bears down, rage distilled.

And stops, hovering over my head.

I cough up some of my own blood and spit it at his polished shoes. -Christ, Predo, don't you have more to keep you busy right now?

The two enforcers make a move toward me, and something comes out of Predo s throat that makes them stand down and hang back at the mouth of the alley by the car that Predo burst out of to grab me and throw me into this pile of garbage.

I give him a look.

— Did you just growl?

He stands, rigid, sweep of bangs hanging over his lowered forehead, drops of my blood falling from the knuckles of one of his black leather-wrapped fists. -I have no end of things to keep me busy, Pitt. No end of worries and concerns.

He bares his teeth.

— On the best of nights, I have an endless list of tasks that must be accomplished. And with each following sunset, it is replenished. And now.

He draws a finger across his forehead, pushing his bangs aside, leaving a smear of my blood on his skin.

— That list will be torn to bits. Rendered irrelevant. Those concerns and details relating to the security of the Coalition must now be cast aside for a matter more pressing. Wartime policy.

His head snaps back and he looks at the night sky above the alley. -Do you know what concerns me most, Pitt?

I put a hand out and brace myself against a Dumpster and get myself to my feet, trying to figure what hurts me most. -Got me. The health of your portfolio?

He points at the sky. -Satellites. Antennae. Wireless signals.

He looks at the ground, points at the concrete. -Fiber optics.

He looks at me.

— The wealth of data and information around us, that is what concerns me. The ease with which it is collected and transmitted. But most of all, Pitt, I am thinking about cellphones. And their little cameras.

He takes a step toward me, oblivious to a bottle underfoot and the glass that scatters about when it explodes.

— I am thinking of war between the Clans. Now. In an age when children scamper about with digital cameras in hand to snap pictures of their nannies sneaking drinks from the liquor cabinet. I am thinking about how long it will take before there is a visible confrontation between opposing Clan members. I am thinking of photographs and video of such an encounter, of men and women fatally shot, but still fighting, uploaded to the Internet. Aired on cable news. Analyzed by law enforcement and the military.

He takes another step, the shards of glass ground to powder. -I am thinking of the brink. The final precipice I have used my influence and

resources to steer us away from time and again for decades. I am thinking of the abyss we can all now clearly see between our feet as we stand at that brink with only our heels on the final edge of land.

He stops taking steps.

— Yes. I do have more to keep me busy. I have thousands of people, a way of life that goes back centuries, a culture threatened with extinction by self-immolation, I have all that to tend to and attempt to preserve. But none of it, I assure you, is so pressing that I cannot spare the moment it will take to kill the childish mercenary covered in years of blood who has pushed us all here because he caught sight of where his food comes from and he doesn't like the way the ranchers treat the cattle.

His fingers flex.

Keeper of secrets. Master of spies and murder.

Fed on infants blood.

If he gets his hands on me, my bones will shatter like rotted wood. My flesh will tear. And my blood will wash across the alley like dirty water.

He's old and strong and fast and I cannot beat him.

But I don't care to die easily at his hands.

My hand flicks beneath the tail of my jacket and the gun appears in it like a

magic trick. I raise my arm, inhaling, and in the space between inhaling and exhaling, everyone and everything in the alley frozen in that instant, I pull the trigger, the gun aimed at his face.