Page 32 of Sweetwater and the Witch

“Glad to hear that.” Ethan got out of the Slider and rounded the front of the car to open Zora’s door. “Thanks for everything tonight. I appreciate the help.”

“Anytime.” Zora slipped out of the passenger seat. “I just hope my hypnotic suggestion sticks. I’m sure it will for a while, but as I toldRavenna, memories are unpredictable, especially when they are rooted in an obsession. It would have been more sensible to send Willis on a long walk into the tunnels.”

“The Sweetwaters are not in the business of making the monsters disappear anymore, remember?”

“That doesn’t mean the monsters have gone out of business.”

“I know.” He escorted Zora to the stage door and opened it for her. “Thanks again.” He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I owe you.”

“Nonsense, I enjoyed myself,” Zora said. “Besides, you’re family. I’ll look forward to seeing Ravenna again under more agreeable circumstances.”

She swept through the doorway. Ethan went back to the Slider and got into the car. Two more stops and then he could go home, crawl into bed, and spend some time contemplating the possibilities of his next date with the fire witch.

He smiled and rezzed the engine.

•••

The Shadow Zone was always shrouded in fog, but the mist was usually heaviest at night. The lights of the sleazy casinos, bars, and adult entertainment venues glowed eerily in the psi-laced vapor. The experts were not sure how to explain the perpetual gloom of the zone, but many were convinced it was the result of the unknown monumental forces that had devastated the Dead City eons earlier.

Whatever the cause of the atmosphere, it provided the ideal setting for the shady business transactions that went down in the narrow lanes and alleys of the Shadow Zone.

Ethan cruised past a flashy wedding parlor offering Marriages of Convenience officiated over by Elvis, turned a corner at the end of a lane lined with motels that rented rooms by the hour, and chose an alley atrandom. Security cameras were not much of a problem in the Shadow Zone, but he checked his sensor just to make sure. The small bit of tuned amber embedded in the wristband of his watch was still dark, indicating there was no working surveillance tech in the vicinity.

He got out of the Slider and opened the trunk.

“I hope this is the last time I have to haul you around, Willis. You are not getting any lighter.”

He picked up the sleeping man and dumped him into a large, half-empty trash bin. He arranged a couple of flattened cardboard boxes on top of Willis to conceal him. If Willis got lucky, no one would notice him until he woke up. If he was unlucky, he would wake up without his designer watch and very expensive ring.

Ethan paused long enough to lock onto the frequency of Willis’s sig amber.

“Just in case I ever need to find you,” he said.

He went back to the Slider, drove sedately out of the Shadow Zone, and turned the corner at the end of one side of the Dead City Wall.

And just like that, the fog vanished in the rearview mirror. The bright lights of the glittering Amber Zone casinos and hotels illuminated the night. The Strip extended the entire length of one side of the high, octagonal Wall that enclosed the glowing ruins of the Dead City.

He made his second stop inside the garage of the big hotel where Spooner was staying.

When he was finished with that chore, he drove to the far end of the Strip and turned the corner into the Dark Zone. There were lights here, too, but they glowed in the windows of houses, apartments, and small shops, not in massive casino towers. There were several gaming venues in the DZ but they were boutique operations designed to attract the locals. The DZ was a neighborhood in the truest sense of the word—not a major business district that depended on tourism.

Not everyone was comfortable living in the DZ—there was a lot ofpsi in the atmosphere, enough to render most navigation equipment unreliable—and the energy that radiated from the Dead City was particularly strong. At night the maze of narrow streets and lanes and alleys was filled with acid-green shadows. It was unwise to take a stroll through the DZ in the dark unless you had an excellent sense of direction. His was world-class. It was an aspect of his talent.

He turned onto Ruin Gate Lane and drove all the way to the end, where it was blocked by the glowing Wall. He paused to rez the high gates that guarded his home and then pulled into the driveway.

When the mag-steel barrier closed behind him, he drove through the luminous gardens, checking to make sure the hidden security devices responded with the correct pings, and brought the Slider to a halt at his front door.

He sat quietly for a moment, wondering if Ravenna would like the house. It was one of the larger homes in the old neighborhood. The two-story structure was old. It dated back to the Colonial era and it needed work. Some of the windows had been boarded up.

It was a lot more house than a single man needed, but he had bought it because of the gardens that surrounded it on all sides. They had been sadly overgrown and choked with weeds—an urban jungle that suited the long-neglected house—but he had been entranced by the energy of the plants.

His newfound passion was something of a mystery. He had never considered himself a gardener. He appreciated an interesting or attractive display of foliage as much as the next person, but he had never felt compelled to invest in a lot of expensive garden equipment. Now, though, the shed at the back of the house was crammed with tools and he had a subscription to every gardening magazine he could find.

Early on he had realized he wanted to specialize in exotic, psi-luminous plants. He seemed to have an affinity for them, just as he did for rez-amber and quartz. At night his collection glowed, fluoresced, andsparkled in the green shadows. He was particularly pleased with the curtains of orchids.

He got out of the Slider, rezzed the front door, and walked into the mostly empty house. He had devoted himself to the gardens but he had not bothered with more than the bare essentials of furniture. He was dating seriously now. He had to pay attention to his interior decor.

Ravenna had a properly furnished home. The cottage on Midnight Court was filled with warm and inviting colors. He hadn’t had a lot of time to note details because of the Willis problem, but he remembered a comfy-looking sofa, a large reading chair, and carpets with an abstract design.

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