Hollow Dolls, The (17 page)

“Hi Mel.”

Across the top of the Challenger was Winnie’s not smiling face.
Mel leaned her head back and looked at the starless sky for a moment.

“What the fuck Winnie.”

Winnie walked around the car to her.

“I need you to come with me. Alejandra wants to talk to us
together.”

 “You going to cold cock me again?”

“That wasn’t me Mel, it was her,” Winnie said plainly.

“Come with.”

She led Mel by the hand back toward The Astoria and stopped at the
end of the alley.

“Down this way.”

“Win, wait.” She pulled it out. “I’m going to plant this GPS on
her.”

It was an overcast night, the alley was slick with rain and
decorated with discarded crap that street cleaners wouldn’t stick a poker into.

Winnie stopped. A figure stood in the middle of the alley.

Long dark hair.

Mel caught a glimpse of her.

“Hello,” said the woman. “Yes Mel, I am Alejandra. We finally
meet.”

The light caught her blue eyes, the long black braided pigtails
and her red tam beaded with rain. Mel couldn’t see that well. She kept the GPS
cylinder ready in her hand.

“What do you want?” said Mel.

“We’ve been watching each other haven’t we?”

“What have you done to Winnie?”

“The real question is what have you done to me Mel?”

Alejandra stepped into the light and Mel stepped close to her.

“You are a fighter, I know that,” said Alejandra. “And I admire it
in you.”

 “You,” she whispered to Alejandra. It was all Mel could say. She
was stunned by her because Alejandra looked so much like herself with the long
dark hair. Melanie flashed on all the times she stood at home looking in her
mirror. She could never be like Cara because of the skin color. But Alejandra
was pure white like her.

Alejandra touched a controller that beamed an image of Winnie from
a small box on the dumpster across to the side of The Astoria’s building. A
flurry of hushed comments came from a pod of people that had gathered by the
alley entrance.

Mel reached for Winnie.

Alejandra tasered Mel and she fell to the ground.

On the wall projected in HiDef was a scene with Winnie in a
derelict room servicing a trick on her knees. Winnie’s mouth moved up and down on
the man’s rigid cock, guided by his gnarly hands. Onlookers gasped as Winnie’s
gags and the man’s moans echoed loudly in the alley.

Alejandra bent down to Mel.

“You so loved Cara didn’t you. You even tried to
be
me with
Winnie,” she said. “I’m Cara’s blood sister—not you.”

Mel’s eyes watered as she felt around the ground for the cylinder
she’d dropped. The crowd booed, then began to chant.
Get up! Get up! Get up!

After she found it, Mel slowly rose, then rammed Alejandra
backward. Mel ran her hard up against the wall and planted the tracker inside
her jacket. The crowd cheered madly when Alejandra fell. She got up quickly and
crossed the alley again.  

“Look at The Ministry AIDS tattoo on her hip. Everyone will be
wearing them soon. Tell her Winnie.”

“It’s true Mel!” cried Winnie.

Mel grabbed Winnie. “Stop it!” she said.

A scream came from the onlookers as the trick clutched Winnie’s hair.
 

The shine of a blade came down across Winnie’s white neck. Choking--
a slushy gurgle of Winnie’s voice reverberated everywhere in the alley as the
knife plunged into her throat over and over until her head was completely severed.

Stop her! Save Winnie! Stop her! Save Winnie!
the
crowd chanted.

Alejandra stepped up to Mel.

“You’ll never escape Mel, not even with Jack’s help.”

Then Mel felt the gun in her side and Alejandra’s face up next to
her.

“If you don’t help me get Kim Li, I promise you I’ll cut Winnie to
pieces and FedEx them to you. And I
never
break a promise.”

Mel grabbed Alejandra’s wrist to turn her around. Alejandra pulled
back and swung the gun butt up against Mel’s temple. Mel landed on the alley
floor again and struggled to push herself up.

Alejandra casually folded up her black box, walked down the alley 
and was gone into the night.

When Mel came to, Winnie was tapping her cheek.

People patted Winnie and Mel on the backs as they left the alley
like it had been some kind of radical art event.

Mel touched her temple. It was wet with blood.

“What just happened? Who was that crazy bitch?” she said.

“Mel?” said Winnie.

“
Mel
?” said Mel.

Mel brushed herself off as they walked toward the car.

I know you,” she said, looking at Winnie. “We’re sort of...together.
Aren’t we?”

“I’m your dark princess,” said Winnie.

“What?”

Winnie groaned.

“Sodfuck,” she said.

“Ow!” cried Mel.

Winnie had touched her temple where she’d been whacked by
Alejandra.

“Here, I’m driving. Give me your keys.”

Winnie fished the keys out of her back pocket and helped Mel in
the passenger’s side, then ran around and got in.

“Shit! Let me look at your head.”

She had a cut above the temple where Alejandra had hit her.

“You probably need stitches Mel.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“That’s your name.”

“Well I don’t like it.”

“How about Melanie, is that better?”

“Maybe a little.”

Winnie leaned back on the headrest and looked out on the night
lights of Commercial Drive.

 “Let’s do a jamais vu,” she said.

“What’s that?” said Melanie.

“A
jamais vu
  is like when people meet and know that they
really like each other, but some glitch in the matrix causes it to all go
sideways. Instead of giving up on each other they decide to give it another
chance. They just start over like nothing happened.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Okay, well, I’m doing it,” said Winnie.

“Whatever.”

 “I just got here from London,” said Winnie.

“Sure. When did you get here?”

 “A few hours ago. I came to surprise you,” said Winnie.

“How did you find me?”

“You left me a message saying that you were staying at ‘The
Sandman Suites’ on Davie Street. When I got there, the bartender said you were
going to see a band called
The True Lips
at The Astoria so I cabbed
right over.”

Melanie looked at Winnie with a mixed reaction of weirdness and
love. She had no clue what her thoughts or feelings meant.

“Aren’t you glad to see me?” said Winnie.

 “Sure I am! You’re the only thing I can remember. You and that
woman in the alley. Who was she?”

The next day, Winnie explained to Melanie about the GPS planted on
Alejandra in the alley and they checked Melanie’s computer software to locate
her. She had a house in the British Properties.

“We’ll be able to track her any time she has that jacket on,” said
Winnie.

“I want to find out who she is,” said Melanie. “I think I’m in
love with her.”

“Melanie, you’ve just been hit in the head. Chill out,” said
Winnie.

“In love with her,” she muttered. “Let’s go to see Alex Holmes.
He’s a private detective in Chinatown. Guess what? He has an office in Shanghai
Alley and the ‘world’s thinnest building.’ It’s the Sam Kee Building, built in
1913.”

“How do you know all that?”

Winnie tapped her head. “Internet.”

Winnie wanted to call him Sherlock in the worst way. Alex Holmes. He
was a very serious guy. An ex-Marine whose last tour was in Afghanistan. He gladly
took a five grand advance after Winnie urged Melanie to part with it. Holmes
located Alejandra’s GPS tracker on his system while they waited.

 “Look
at this, ladies.”

Holmes
had managed to locate Alejandra’s IP and had already hacked into her computer.
He turned his laptop to them. Melanie and Winnie watched the screen. It had a
video feed of an oriental guy sitting at a desk in an office somewhere.

“Let
me get this straight,” said Melanie. “This is a video feed that Alejandra is
getting on her computer from somewhere and you’re intercepting it?”

“Affirmative,”
said Alex.

“And
does she know we’re watching?”

“Not
a chance.”

The
girls looked at each other. Melanie said, “Sexy.”

 “The camera’s not in her hand, it’s attached to her somehow,”
said Melanie.

“It’s a bracelet,” said Winnie.

“How do you know?”

“I threw mine away after the alley. Alejandra made that video of
me and that disgusting guy. Oh, and he was an actor. We did the video in a
studio up in West Van. Alejandra has this surveillance freak that’s on a level
of spook neuromancer slash witch. And she’s also plain fucking crazy. You’ll
love her Melanie!”

“That’s Kim Li. The dancer from the ‘No. 5 Orange,’” said Melanie,
her memory returning in fragments.

“Why is Alejandra watching Kim Li?” said Winnie.

“I don’t even know Kim Li,” said Melanie. “Who is she?”

They both looked at Holmes.

“She’s after something big,” he said. “Kim Li is an heiress. Li
Enterprises. A mega-mega corporation.”

Melanie and Winnie continued watching the screen. Kim Li went down
some stairs into a warehouse. She and the young man walked along a warehouse aisle
between palettes of stored goods. They opened a wooden crate containing
ornamental porcelain figurines.

“Shh!” said the young man on the video feed.

“Huáng, you’re paranoid,” said Kim Li

“I heard something.”

“If you weren’t my cousin, I’d smack you.”

Kim Li hurried, removing the plastic packets from the ceramic
pagodas and dropped them into her bag.

Melanie put her hand up to Winnie’s ear and whispered, “Heroin. It
has to be!. Smuggling.”

 “Pretty interesting viewing?” said Holmes.

“Can you get into Alejandra’s emails?” said Melanie.

“Let’s see.”

Holmes tapped away at crack speed, paused here and there, humming.

“Here you go,” he said. “The ones below are Skype transmissions.” He
swung the laptop back to the girls. Melanie clicked on a folder titled ‘Lilly’
and a string of conversations fanned out underneath it.

“Lilly’s your boss. At
Club Lick
in London,” said
Winnie. “Remember dancing...on stage?”

Melanie opened the most recent file. Lilly and Alejandra were
talking business in a split screen Skype recorded video. Most of it Melanie
didn’t understand. She whispered in Winnie’s ear. “Sex slaves?”

“You should have found her by now,” said Lilly.

“She’s smarter than you think.”

“What about this Winnie girl! Use her!”

“I’m working on it,” said Alejandra.

“Just get Melanie back here. She’s my girl, no one else’s.”

The image disappeared. Melanie could still see the ghost of
Alejandra on the screen. She was so sexy. Winnie elbowed her and Melanie turned
the screen back around to Alex.

“Thanks. We’ll be in touch.”

They walked down Shanghai Alley toward Blackie.  Winnie filled
Melanie in on who Lilly was.

“I used to dance? Like a stripper?”

Winnie nodded. “You’re a third Dan black belt in Seido karate
too.”

“Handy,” said Melanie.

“Alejandra is taking me to a government facility in Russia,” said
Winnie. My mother too. She’s in a crazy farm in England, but when I get her
out. I mean, you know, after Alejandra gets her out and we fulfill our
experimental obligations thing. You know what I’m going to do Melanie? Do you
remember the picture I used to have in my living room? Where I was at the
dining room table?”

“Winnie, I don’t remember any of it. Sorry.”

“Well...damn I wish I could tell you.”

“Tell me.”

“I can’t.”

“How long have we been hanging out together?”

“You need to go see the manager at The No.5,” said Winnie. She
started Blackie. “I’m here for good, I’m not going back to London ever. Don’t
worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“What about my family?”

“Oh, that’s why you’re here. You’re looking for your dad. Walter.”

Melanie leaned her head back. Winnie plugged her iPhone into the
dash. The intro track was a sound of horses hooves. It slowly began to fade in
and fill the space. Winnie turned it up. The American band, ‘A Pale Horse Named
Death’ was her current auditory obsession. She’d listened to their first album
in its entirety hundreds of times while playing Call Of Duty. The Challenger
rumbled and settled into a black cat six litre hemi purr that bounced off the
walls of the world’s thinnest building. She pulled out into the traffic in
Chinatown, idling along at ten clicks.

Winnie took a smoke from Melanie’s pack on the dash and lit one
up.

“That shit’s bad for you.”

Winnie shrugged and lit one for Melanie too.

Melanie puffed, inhaled. “I guess I smoke too.”

Winnie hung her arm out the window like candy for the sharks. Melanie
looked at her light chocolate shade wavy hair that reached her shoulders.

“I ironed it straight with the little complimentary iron at the
Sandman,” said Winnie.

She watched Winnie bring the filter to her mouth. She was a slow
sexy smoker. No quick rapid fire puffing. The brown Marlboro filter was coated
with Mac Pink Friday lipstick.

“What have you been using?” said Melanie.

“Rock mostly, some H...accidental acid.” Her eyes darted trying to
think as she idled slowly through Chinatown, then an opening came and Winnie torqued
into the alley. The rubber pulled hard against the road, just ‘speaking’
against the asphalt only not actually making a squawk or squeal.

The music was just between songs.

Winnie and Melanie both noticed the sound the tires had made.

They looked at each other.

“Rubber sex,” said Winnie.

Winnie
knew
exactly what Melanie had been thinking about
the sound. Like she’d gotten inside her and felt what she felt. Melanie sensed
then how close the two of them really were. ‘
In real life’
she was about
to tag that thought on. It made no sense. Or did it?

“We talked about that before,” said Winnie. She saw the puzzled
look on Melanie’s face. “Lots of sounds actually.” She told Melanie she could
move her jaw around like a mandible equalizer and tune into different tones
that were around.

“I love how the wet coating makes things twinkly,” said Winnie. “If
you squint.”

Melanie said, “Fairy dust,” and didn’t know why.

Guitar chords filled the interior.

At the parkade in Chinatown they wound their way up to the second
level.

Winnie walked toward the stairway and Melanie followed.

By a concrete support pillar they stopped.

“Look Melanie, we are here and now in Vancouver looking down on
Main Street. There’s the police station over there.”

She pointed.

“Yeah?” said Melanie.

“Let’s do a déjà vu,” said Winnie.

“This again?”

“No, the other one was jamais vu. Never mind, just say whatever
comes into your head after I say something. Then we go back and forth as fast
as we can until it ends. Okay?”

“All right.”

Winnie grinned a little. Then more.

They began.

Winnie:
“The inner city was coated like the sheen on dark liquid settled
on a surface. Say a counter top. Say a puddle of blood.”

Melanie:
“It was alive, fully engorged. There was pressure inside that
bulbous dark burgundy red puddle because the molecules were attracted to each
other once leaving the body.”

Winnie:
“They formed a gang of togetherness outside of their former host
and made a message from the cellular code.”

Melanie:
“That was the dark nature of blood. Inside or out. It wasn’t
yours to play with. It was borrowed from the universe.”

Winnie:
“Words floated around inside the cells and came together to form
sentences of truth.”

Melanie:
“These were the truths of the ages like tails on a kite
fluttering in the wind for whoever would hear the message.”

 They clasped arms and slowly began turning in a circle.

Melanie:
“I saw the messages that flew out from Marlene. They’d been
trapped, waiting a lifetime for that one moment.”

Winnie:
“In any animal the truth of their existence waits to be freed. It
is spoken in a universal language of the deities encrypted beyond rational
construction without algorithm. Soulless.”

They began to speed up, turning faster and shouting louder and
louder.

Melanie:
“That’s the wisdom flowing through you and me! A free ride to the
stars courtesy of the Man-Rabbit!”

Winnie:
“We possess the Love of the ancients! It’s in us now awaiting!”

Melanie:
“It will soon break free like its beautiful evil Sister Hatred!”

Winnie:
“Sister Hatred flew like a panicked horde of feasting buzzards on
a drone missile attack!”

Melanie:
“Marlene never knew what hit her!”

They stopped and spoke softly, breathing hard.

Winnie:
“What will Sister Love do?”

Melanie:
“Could she love someone to death?”

Melanie kissed Winnie on the mouth. They both wanted to go mad sexually,
but had to stop. They both leaned on the railing dizzy and out of breath.

“I remember,” said Melanie. “The Man-Rabbit. I killed her. Marlene.”

Winnie nodded at her, wicked-eyed.

“Do you remember this?” Melanie held the white rabbit out.

“The rabbit that took you to the island the first time.”

Winnie pulled two bottled waters out of Melanie’s pack.

“Here, have one. They get you high.”

“What?”

“It keeps you grounded Melanie, trust me.”

Melanie took a long drink.

“Winnie, I just remembered. You were here already. Like three,
four days ago. Close your eyes and think about it.”

They stood together, eyes closed.

“I can see you running,” said Melanie. “It’s downtown somewhere past
a sign. The No.5 Orange?”

 “I see you. I was following you,” said Winnie. “Alejandra told me
to.”

She opened her eyes.

“We were on the island together!” Melanie cried it out so loud, her
voice echoed across the parkade.

Then all was silent.

Winnie looked up and saw the light hitting the concrete ceiling
above them.

“Morphic field,” she said.

Melanie looked up and nodded.

“Your diary,” said Melanie. “I was reading about you in Dodson Rooms
smoking crack. How did this all happen?”

“I’m better now though,” said Winnie.

“Who’s Timmy? Did you fuck him?” Melanie sounded jealous.