Mind the Gap (35 page)
Authors: Christopher Golden
“Just humor an old man,” Ray said. “Ain’t nothin’ in this bottle gonna hurt you. And you know I ain’t lyin’, just like you know the rest of it’s true.”
Max stood, and the whiskey hit him hard. His legs shook and his head seemed to sway atop his neck, and he wasn’t sure whether everyone was looking at him, or everyone was looking away. He grabbed the map from the table and folded it, then snatched up the small clay bottle. It seemed the right thing to do.
“This…” he said, waving the bottle before Ray’s face. But the old man was still chuckling, and he watched as Max edged his way across the bar.
Standing by the front door, conscious of the poor light inside and the harsh sun without, Max glanced back at the old man. There was a fresh bottle of whiskey on his table, his glass was full, and he was talking at the chair Max had just vacated. He gestured with his hands, nodded, and gave that annoying, dismissive shrug once again.
Talking to himself
, Max thought.
Now I just
know
he’s nuts.
Then Ray did a curious thing. He reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a small glass vial with a glass stopper. Carefully, he poured a few drops into the second glass—the one Max had just left behind—and followed it with a dash of whiskey. He slid the glass across the table, toward the empty seat, and smiled, talking, as though to some companion Max couldn’t see.
Nutjob.
Max tugged at the door and stumbled outside. The stark autumn sun blinded him for a moment, and he slid down the wall and sat on a sidewalk strewn with litter and grit, just another midday drunk washed up on the shores of New Orleans.
Also by Christopher Golden
The Lost Ones: Book Three of the Veil
The Borderkind: Book Two of the Veil
The Myth Hunters: Book One of the Veil
Wildwood Road
The Boys Are Back in Town
The Ferryman
Straight on ’til Morning
Strangewood
The Shadow Saga
Of Saints and Shadows
Angel Souls and Devil Hearts
Of Masques and Martyrs
The Gathering Dark
With Mike Mignola
Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
Also by Tim Lebbon
Novels
Fallen
30 Days of Night
Dawn
The Everlasting
Dusk
Hellboy: Unnatural Selection
Mesmer
The Nature of Balance
Hush
(with Gavin Williams)
Face
Until She Sleeps
Desolation
Berserk
Novellas
A Whisper of Southern Lights
White
Naming of Parts
Changing of Faces
Exorcising Angels
(with Simon Clark)
Dead Man’s Hand
Pieces of Hate
Collections
Last Exit for the Lost
Faith in the Flesh
As the Sun Goes Down
White and Other Tales of Ruin
Fears Unnamed
MIND THE GAP
A Bantam Book / June 2008
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2008 by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Golden, Christopher.
Mind the gap : a novel of the hidden cities / Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon.
p. cm.
I. Lebbon, Tim. II. Title.
PS3557.O35927M56 2008
813'.54—dc22
2007047391
eISBN: 978-0-553-90515-1
v3.0