Part 40 (1/2)

”You don't f.u.c.king live it!” Miller screamed it. Spittle flew from his mouth, dappling the front of Gregg's jacket. Everyone in the room stared now, and the bodyguards lurched from their seats. Only Gregg's hand held them back.

”Can't you see that we're your allies, not enemies?”

”No ally of mine would have a face like yours, Senator. You're too d.a.m.n normal. You want to feel like one of the jokers? Then let me help you learn what it's like to be pitied.”

Before any of them could react, Miller crouched. His thick, powerful legs hurled him toward the senator. His fingers curled like claws as he reached for Gregg's face. Gregg recoiled, his hands coming up. Sondra's mouth was open in the beginning of a useless protest.

And the dwarf suddenly collapsed onto the table as if a gigantic hand had struck him out of the air. The table bowed and splintered under him, gla.s.ses and china cascading to the floor. Miller gave a high, pitiful squeal like a wounded animal as Hiram, a molten fury on his red face, half-ran across the dining room toward them, as the secret service men vainly tugged at Miller's arms to get him off the floor. ”d.a.m.n, the little s.h.i.+t's heavy heavy,” one of them muttered.

”Out of my restaurant! ” Hiram thundered. He bulled his way between the bodyguards and bent over the dwarf. He plucked up the man as if he were a feather-Gimli seemed to bob in the air, buoyant, his mouth working soundlessly, his face bleeding from several small scratches. ”You are ” Hiram thundered. He bulled his way between the bodyguards and bent over the dwarf. He plucked up the man as if he were a feather-Gimli seemed to bob in the air, buoyant, his mouth working soundlessly, his face bleeding from several small scratches. ”You are never never to set foot in here again!” Hiram roared, a plump finger wagging before the dwarf's startled eyes. Hiram began to march toward the exit, towing the dwarf as if pulling a balloon and scolding him the entire time. ”You insult my people, you behave abominably, you even threaten the senator, who's only trying to help . . .” Hiram's voice trailed off as the foyer doors swung shut behind him, as Hartmann brushed china shards from his suit and shook his head to the bodyguards. ”Let him go. The man has a right to be upset -you'd be too if you had to live in Jokertown.” to set foot in here again!” Hiram roared, a plump finger wagging before the dwarf's startled eyes. Hiram began to march toward the exit, towing the dwarf as if pulling a balloon and scolding him the entire time. ”You insult my people, you behave abominably, you even threaten the senator, who's only trying to help . . .” Hiram's voice trailed off as the foyer doors swung shut behind him, as Hartmann brushed china shards from his suit and shook his head to the bodyguards. ”Let him go. The man has a right to be upset -you'd be too if you had to live in Jokertown.”

Gregg sighed and shook his head at Sondra, who gaped after the dwarf. ”Ms. Falin, I beg you-if you've any control over the JJS and Miller, please hold him back. I meant what I said. You only endanger your own cause. Truly.” He seemed more sad than angry. He looked at the destruction around his feet and sighed. ”Poor Hiram,” he said. ”And I promised him.”

The alcohol she'd consumed made Sondra dizzy and slow. She nodded to Gregg and realized that they were all looking at her, waiting for her to say something. She shook her gray, wizened head to them. ”I'll try,” was all she could mutter. Then: ”Excuse me, please.” Sondra turned and fled the room, her arthritic knees protesting.

She could feel Gregg's stare on her hunched back.

FLOOR VOTE ON JOKERS' RIGHTS TONIGHT.

The New York Times, July 15, 1976

JJS VOWS MARCH ON TOMB.

New York Daily News, July 15, 1976

The high-pressure cell had squatted over New York for the past two days like an enormous tired beast, turning the city unseasonably hot and muggy. The heat was thick and foul with fumes; it moved in the lungs like the Jack Daniel's Sondra poured down her throat-a burning, sour glow. She stood in front of a small electric fan perched on her dresser, staring into the mirror. Her face sagged in a cross-hatching of wrinkles; dry, gray hair was matted with sweat against a brown-spotted scalp; the b.r.e.a.s.t.s were empty sacks hanging flat against the bony rib cage. Her frayed housecoat gaped open, and perspiration trickled down the slopes of her ribs. She hated the sight. Despairing, she turned back into the room.

Outside, on Pitt Street, Jokertown was coming fully awake in the darkness. From her window, Sondra could see them, the ones that Gimli always ranted about. There was Lambent, far too visible with the eternal glow of his skin; Marigold, a cl.u.s.ter of bright pustules bursting on her skin like slow blossoms; Flicker, sliding from sight in the darkness as if illuminated by a slow strobe light. All of them seeking their small comforts. The sight made Sondra melancholy. As she leaned against the wall, her shoulder b.u.mped a photograph in a cheap frame. The picture was that of a young girl perhaps twelve years old, dressed only in a lacy camisole that slipped over one shoulder to reveal the upper swell of p.u.b.escent b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The shot was overtly s.e.xual-there was a haunting wistfulness in the child's expression and a certain affinity to the eroded features of the old woman. Sondra reached over to straighten the frame, sighing. The paint covered by the photograph was darker than that on the walls, testifying to how long it had been in place.

Sondra took another pull on the Jack Daniel's.

Twenty years. In that time, Sonya's body had aged two-and-a-half times as much. The child in the photo was Sondra, the picture taken by her father in 1956. He'd raped her a year before, her body already showing the signs of p.u.b.erty though she'd been born five years earlier in '51.

Careful footsteps sounded on the stairway outside her apartment and halted. Sondra frowned. Time to wh.o.r.e again. d.a.m.n you, Sondra, for ever letting Miller talk you into this. d.a.m.n you for ever coming to care for the man you're supposed to be using Time to wh.o.r.e again. d.a.m.n you, Sondra, for ever letting Miller talk you into this. d.a.m.n you for ever coming to care for the man you're supposed to be using. Even through the door she could feel the faint p.r.i.c.kling of the man's pheromonal antic.i.p.ation, amplified by her own feelings for him. She felt her body yearning to respond sympathetically and she relaxed her control. She closed her eyes.

At least enjoy the feel of it. At least be glad that for a little while you'll be young again. She could feel the quick changes moving in her body, straining at the muscles and tendons, pulling her into a new shape. The spine straightened, oils lathed the skin so that it lost its dry brittleness. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rose as a s.e.xual heat began to throb in her loins. She stroked her neck and found the sagging folds gone. Sondra let the housecoat fall from her shoulders.

Already. So fast tonight. They'd been lovers for six months now; she knew what she'd find when she opened her eyes. Yes-her body was sleek and young with a fleecing of blond hair at the joining of her legs, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s small as they had been in her photo. This apparition, this mind-image of her lover: it was childlike, but not innocent. Always the same. Always young, always fair; some vision of his past, perhaps. A waif, a virgin-wh.o.r.e Always the same. Always young, always fair; some vision of his past, perhaps. A waif, a virgin-wh.o.r.e. Her fingertip brushed a nipple. It lengthened, thickening as she gasped at the touch, aroused. There was a wetness between her thighs already.

He knocked. She could hear his breath, a little too fast after the climb up the three flights, and found that his rhythm matched her own. Already she was lost in him. She unlocked the door, slid the deadbolt over. When she saw that there was no one in the hallway with him, she opened the door fully and let him stare at her nakedness. He wore a mask-blue satin over the eyes and nose, the thin mouth below it lifted in a smile. She knew him-she needed only the response of her body. ”Gregg,” she said, and the voice was that of the child she had become. ”I was afraid that you weren't going to be able to be here tonight.”

He slid into the room, shutting the door behind him. Without saying anything, he kissed her long and deep, his tongue finding hers, his hands stroking the flank of her body. When he finally sighed and pulled away, she laid her head against his chest.

”I had a difficult time getting away,” Gregg whispered. ”Sneaking down the back stairs of my hotel like some thief . . . wearing this mask . . .” He laughed, a sad sound. ”The voting took forever. G.o.d, woman, did you think I'd desert you?”

She smiled at that and took a mincing step away from him. Taking his hand in her own, she guided him between her legs, sighing as his finger entered her warmth. ”I've been waiting for you, love.”

”Succubus,” he breathed. She chuckled softly, a child's giggle.

”Come to bed,” she whispered.

Standing beside the rumpled mattress, she loosened his tie and unb.u.t.toned his s.h.i.+rt, biting gently at his nipples. Then she knelt before him, unlacing his shoes, taking off his socks before unfastening his belt and slipping his pants down. She smiled up at him as she stroked the rising curve of his p.e.n.i.s. Gregg's eyes were closed. She licked him once, and he groaned. He started to remove the mask and she stopped him. ”No, leave it on,” she told him, knowing that it was what he wanted her to say. ”Be mysterious.” Her tongue ran along his length again and she took him in her mouth until he gasped. Pus.h.i.+ng him back on the mattress and cupping him gently, she teased him into heat, following the path of his needs, his l.u.s.t amplifying her own until she was lost in the spiraling, bright feedback. He growled deep in his throat and pulled her away, rolling her over and spreading her legs roughly. He thrust into her; pounding, moving, his eyes bright behind the mask; his fingers digging into her b.u.t.tocks until she cried out. He was not gentle; his excitement was a maelstrom in her mind, a swirling storm of color, a gasping heat that flailed both of them. She could feel his climax building; instinctively, she went with that welling of scarlet, her teeth clenched as his nails cratered her flesh and he slammed himself into her again and again and again . . .

He groaned.

She could feel him voiding inside her, and she continued to move under him, finding her own climax a moment later. The whirling began to subside, the colors faded. Sondra clung to the memory of it, h.o.a.rding the energy so that she could keep this shape for a time.

He was staring down at her behind the mask. His gaze traveled her body-the marks on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the red, inflamed gouges of his nails. ”I'm sorry,” he said. ”Succubus, I'm very sorry.”

She pulled him down beside her on the bed, smiling as she knew he wanted her to smile, forgiving him as she knew he needed to be forgiven. She kept the thread of arousal in him so that she could remain Succubus. ”It's all right,” she soothed him. She bent to kiss his shoulder, his neck, his ear. ”You didn't mean to hurt me.”

She glanced at his face, reached behind his head, and loosed the strings of his mask. His mouth sagged in a frown, his eyes were bright with his apology. Touch him, feel the fire in him. Comfort him Touch him, feel the fire in him. Comfort him.

Wh.o.r.e.

This was the part of it that Sondra despised, the part that reminded her of the years when her parents had sold her body to the rich of New York. She'd been Succubus, the best-known and most expensive prost.i.tute in the city from '56 to '64. n.o.body had known that she was only five when it started, that a joker had been attached to the ace she'd drawn from the wild card deck. No, they'd only cared that as Succubus she would become the object of their fantasies-male or female, young or old, submissive or dominant. Any body or any shape: a Pygmalion of masturbatory dreams. A vessel. No one knew or cared that Succubus would inevitably collapse into Sondra, that her body aged far too rapidly, that Sondra hated Succubus.

She'd sworn when she fled her parental captivity twelve years before that she'd never let Succubus be used again-Succubus would only give pleasure to those who had little chance for pleasure otherwise.

d.a.m.n Miller. d.a.m.n the dwarf for talking me into this. d.a.m.n him for sending me to this man. d.a.m.n me for finding that I like Gregg too much. And most of all d.a.m.n the virus for forcing me to remain hidden from him. G.o.d, that dinner at the Aces High yesterday . . .

Sondra knew that the affection Hartmann claimed to have for her was genuine, and she hated the realization. Yet her concern for the jokers was genuine as well, and her involvement with the JJS was a deep commitment. Knowing the government and, especially, SCARE was crucial. Hartmann influenced the aces that were beginning to side with the authorities after long, hidden years: Black Shadow, the Shaker, Oddity, the Howler. Through Hartmann, the JJS had been able to channel government monies to the jokers-Sondra had discovered the lowest bids on several government contracts; they'd been able to leak the information to joker-owned companies. Most importantly, it was because she controlled Hartmann that she was able to keep Miller from finally turning the JJS into the violent radical group that the dwarf wanted. While she could dangle the senator from Succubus's hands, she could limit Gimli's ambition. At least, that was her hope-after the Aces High fiasco, she was no longer certain. Gimli had been grim and sullen at their meeting this evening.

”You're tired, love,” she said to Gregg, tracing the line where his light hair dipped into a widow's peak.

”You wear me out,” he replied. The smile returned, tentative, and she brushed his lips with her own.

”You seem distracted, that's all. The convention?” Her hand slid down his body, over the stomach that age was beginning to soften. She caressed his inner thighs, using Succubus's energies to relax him, to put him at ease. Gregg was always tense, and there was also that wall in his mind that he would never open, a weak mindblock that would be useless against most of the aces she knew. She doubted that Gregg even realized that the block was there, that he too had been touched, however mildly, by the virus.

She felt the first resurgence of his pa.s.sion.

”It wasn't very good there,” he admitted, cuddling her to him. ”The vote didn't have a chance, not with all the moderates against it-they're all afraid of a conservative groundswell. If Reagan can knock Ford out of the nomination, then the whole show's up in the air. Carter and Kennedy were both dead set against the plank-neither one of them wanted to be stuck supporting causes they weren't sure about. As the front-runners, their nonsupport was too much.” Gregg sighed. ”It wasn't even close, Succubus.”

The words seemed to coat her mind with ice and she had to fight to hold her form as Succubus. By now the word would be spreading through Jokertown. By now Gimli would know; he'd be organizing the march for tomorrow. ”You can't reintroduce the plank?”