mainly of dead human skin cells. How had this been so simple? Easy.
Power begot power. Once she placed herself in Bidden’s position she
began directing the lifeblood of millions of consumers, thousands of
employees, and even Morris himself, swirling it all together to
rearrange the massive constellation in which she now stood at the
center.
The phone rang. It was Detective Spada. The same one that
busted Partment. The same one who crashed into the Biddenbrooks
store. The same one who left Leona for someone thin and pretty. The
same one whom Leona now had wrapped around her finger. He had
only recently returned to work from sick leave following the crash
into the Biddenbrooks store.
“We’ve got some news,” he said, “The coroner examined the
remains of the kid who planted the bomb. He had a big tattoo on his
skull that said Hell Dorado. We’ve incarcerated the Martians and
interrogated them. They said they know where these Hell Dorado
kids hide out. We’re about to send over a squad.”
“No,” Leona said. “Wait. It’s just a cover. Can’t you see?”
“There’s no harm checking it out,” he said. But there was. For
her.
“Can’t you stop them?” she said. He said something to another
officer in the room.
“No. They just left. I’m going to join them in a few minutes.
Why?”
Leona slammed the phone down and picked it back up again. Her
thick fingers poked the buttons of the phone.
“Paul,” she said. “It’s Leona. Leona. Yes. Listen to me. There isn’t
much time.”
By the time the police arrived at Hell Dorado, evil had left the
building. All that was left was the foul stench of humanity at its worst,
dirty piles of non-dairy creamer and puddles of stale beer soup. A
cursory search of the premises turned up enough incriminating
information to indict a small country: Drugs, weapons, non-dairy
creamer and poorly-penned manifestos. But they found no
assembled bombs.
“We’ve got them,” said Detective Spada, limping towards the bar
with his cane. He sat down on a stool and picked up the phone. It was
sticky. He put it back down. He was about to reach for his cell phone
when something caught his eye. “I’ll be damned,” he said. He held it
ABYSSINIA
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