Sunday 27 March 2016

Chapter 7 - The Man with the Map in his Head

'Nobody knows the Sands.'

'Okay.  So nobody knows the Sands better than Gregor.'   Jayci slipped a key out of her pocket and into the lock first time.  Rather than opening the door all the way, she eased it just an inch or two and squinted through the gap.

I glanced around and behind us.  One or two rubberneckers in the mid distance looked away.  'What's up?  I thought this was your place?'

She shifted her angle, eased the door a little more.  'It is my place.'

'Then what's the hold up?'

'I can hear him in there.  He don't always react well to new people.'

'How am I gonna know a bad reaction?'

'That's when he doesn't ask questions after shooting.'

I said, 'You're shitting me, right?'

''Course I'm shitting you.  He wouldn't need to waste a bullet when he could wring your scrawny neck with one hand.'

Jayci opened the door all the way and motioned me inside.  I followed her lead through the backroom to a dingy front studio that looked out onto the main street.  A low-slung blind kept the whole place in semi-darkness.  In the midst of that darkness, a bulky shadow was moving back and forth, making a swishing noise as it did so.


'Gregor?  You in here?'

'You need to get some light in here,' I said.

'Jayci?  Is that you?'  The shadow moved quickly towards us and a narrow bar of light cut across the gloom.  The man before me was perfectly round, folds of fat over rows of muscle.  The top half of his face was all shiny dimpled forehead, the lower half a scruffy beard and moustache.  His mean eyes and hooked nose took up a space somewhere in the middle that was about the size of my thumbnail.


Gregor carefully leaned the brush that he'd been using to sweep the floor against the wall nearby.  Then he began to rub his hands together and stared straight at me, unblinking.  'Jayci, there's a stranger in my house.  I don't like strangers.  Also, this particular stranger has a gun and opinions on how we do things.'

Jayci moved between us, touched Gregor's arm and began to whisper to him.  I took the time to look around the room.  One corner was occupied by a rancid-looking sofa.  In front of that was a low table with a single magazine on it and two ancient office chairs that were facing into mirrors.  One had a white porcelain sink beneath it.

'Gregor does a bit of everything,' Jayci explained.  'Cuts hair, does tattoos.  He knows science and engineering.  He's a brilliant artist.  In fact, he's an all-round fucking genius.'

I had to duck low to see out of the blind.  'Whatever he is, y'all ain't getting many customers if people don't know that you're open.'  When I turned around, Gregor's expression didn't exactly look come hither.

'Believe it or not, Phoenix is sometimes okay.  And when he remembers his manners,' and here Jayci shot me a venomous look, 'he'll introduce himself.  Won't you, Phoenix?'

'Pleasure,' I said, waving half-heartedly.

Gregor shook his head and muttered as he sloped away.  His accent was strange, unplaceable, but I knew he wasn't local.  But then, what did that mean these days, really?  We were all just random mutts who fell into the sand when everything got turned upside down.

Jayci whispered to him again and he pulled a face like he was drinking piss.  When their short exchange was over, she turned back to face me

'Now, you might have noticed that Gregor here doesn't appreciate your ready wit, so it'd be real helpful if you'd sit yourself in one of those chairs and stop stamping around like you own the place,' Jayci said.

I followed Jayci's suggestion, sitting down, folding my hands across my lap and nodding amiably at Gregor.  For his part, he just stared straight back.  You wouldn't have needed a knife to cut the tension.  You could have done it with one of Preacher Man's wooden spoons.

'Well, this is nice.'  Jayci sighed.  'I'm going to sort us out some drinks.  In the meantime, why don't you boys get acquainted?'

She disappeared into the back room, but not before giving me a look that could have scorched metal.  That girl would have made a fine schoolteacher.

When she'd gone, I studied Gregor's expression.  It was the same as it had been throughout, just like a bulldog chewing on a lime.  I said, 'Y'know, with your face all screwed up like that, you could be scowling and I just wouldn't know it.'

'You're an idiot,' he said.

Jayci returned moments later with three of the muddiest coffees I'd ever seen.  'Don't get excited, it's pretty awful,' she said.  I sipped at it.  It was bitter and sweet and foul all at once. 

'So where did you fine folks meet?' I asked.

Gregor pulled a face at Jayci and she nodded.  He took a deep breath before answering the question.  'Some time ago, I did a stint in the Pen.'

'You were in prison?'

Gregor shrugged.  Jayci said, 'I bailed him out.'

'I never asked you to,' Gregor said.

'You never had to,' she said, turning back to me.  'Gregor kind of stood out.  It was pretty clear that he had some special skills that made him different to the typical mouthbreeders they get in there.'

I sipped at the coffee.  The second taste was no better than the first.  'So what did you do?'

'What everyone does,' Jayci said.  'He upset the wrong man.  Fortunately for him, the hunter who came after him was a professional and not some no-good, two bit gunslinger with more teeth than brains.  Gregor came quiet, we had a little chat and came to an arrangement.'

I looked at her.  Her braids were dragging along the floor between her legs.  'And what exactly do you get out of this?' I asked.

'Free board, for starters,' she said.  'But more than that.  Back before his trip to the Pen, Gregor used to make a living travelling through the desert and collecting old tech.  He repairs things, or builds 'em new from parts.  He constructed the hovertrike I came in on.  Best of all, he has a photographic memory.  Everywhere he's been, he remembers the way back.  It's like he's carrying a map in his head.'

My ears pricked up.

Jayci leaned in towards me.  'And Gregor's been everywhere.'

The man himself rubbed his hairy jowls.  'I was out in the Sands, scavenging every day for years.  It's actually a pretty empty place for the most part.  Far fewer people than the city.' 

'You ever run into bads?'

'Sometimes,' he said.  'But I'm not a hunter.  I don't carry a gun.  Most people will walk away if you let them.'

'Most people?'  He just stared back without saying a word.  I got a sense for just how Gregor might have ended up in the Pen.

I could sense Jayci waiting for me.  I wanted to ask the question, and they knew how much I needed the answer.  It was like playing poker when your opponents held all the cards.  Still, getting beat and losing my shirt had to be better than drinking any more of that coffee.

So I said, 'You ever hear of an oasis in the desert where a gang of women hole up?'

'Yes,' he said, never skipping a beat.  'I know it.  I've been there many times.' 

Jayci stepped in before I could ask any more.  'What my esteemed companion means is that he's sure he remembers a place like the one you're describing.  But before he can tell you how to get there, you're going to have to help us out with a little supply run.'

'Let me guess,' I said.  'In the Sands.'

Gregor pulled out a piece of paper and began to draw a map with a small chunk of pencil.  'There's an abandoned village I found some time ago, about sixty miles west-northwest.  The schoolhouse was pretty much intact and there looked like there might have been some interesting stuff there.'

I looked at the pair of them seated together, one grinning ghoulishly and the other rubbing his hands so intently it was like he was washing them in the air.  'Why didn't you check it out when you were there?'

'The place wasn't normal.  The energy there was...wrong.'  He looked away for the first time, like he knew he was selling me a horse that was lame.

'Energy?' I said to Jayci.

She smiled back.  'Not my words.  Don't look at me.'

'Bad juju.  Great,' I said.

'What's a bunch of downer vibes when you're badass enough to take down a giant by accident?'  Jayci had me over a barrel and she knew it.  'You want to know where that oasis is at, and we're gonna make it happen for you.  In the meantime, you can help us out a little.'

She leaned forward once again as Gregor sat back, and they looked for all the world like two misshapen levers on a chaos engine.  Jayci offered me a hand to shake, and I stared for a moment at her calloused yellow palm.

'You know,' I said to her, 'trusting this to you feels like a pretty damn stupid idea.'

Jayci's tombstone grin didn't falter.  'The great thing is, Phoe-Phoe, you don't have any choice.'

Go to Chapter 8 > > >

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