Read Online Fantasmagoria by Rick Wayne - Free Book Online Page B

feet in the hopes he’d take me. Nothing you say or do is going to shock me.” She looked at him with her one good eye.
    Gilbert scowled as the man entered the unicorn’s parlor with his mechanoid retinue. They were drinking and carrying on. “So why kill him if he’s a paying customer?”
    Marcelline turned to watch the show. “He’s rich. He’s very rich, actually. His company breeds and trains war dragons for the Empire, a good business to be in these days.”
    “Do you really think there’s going to be war with the Aminal Kingdom?”
    “It doesn’t matter what I believe. What matters is people think war is coming, and that’s enough to get them to open their purses. It takes years, decades, to grow and train a dragon. Rumor has it the Emperor’s personal three-headed gold cost forty-seven million.”
    “I think I remember reading about that.”
    “But being a dragon breeder also means that he’s very well-connected. He’s not someone you can burgle.”
    “Blackmail?”
    “No,” Marcelline scoffed. “If word ever got out we were blackmailing our clientele, we would be out of business. An unimpeachable reputation for discretion is our capital.”
    “Then what?”
    Marcelline pointed. Inside the room, the man was admiring and stroking the unicorn. “As a result of his exposure to you, he’s going to get very sick, but he won’t know why.”
    Gilbert looked down. The answer was right in front of him. “He’ll think he got it from unicorn sex.”
    “It’s the natural conclusion for anyone who indulges in a secret perversion. And he’ll pay good money to get his doctor’s hands on the animal.”
    Gilbert nodded. “You all will keep your reputation, and he’ll be dead before they figure anything out.”
    “We estimate he’ll fork over a quarter mil, not that it will do any good. His son is in his forties and eager to take over the company. Has been for years. We don’t expect much of an inquest after Mr. Radic here dies.”
    Gilbert shook his head.
    “Say it.”
    “It’s brilliant.”
    “And that’s the point.” Marcelline leaned in. “Do you know why people come to the island?”
    Gilbert turned away from the raucous scene in the room. “Because they can’t do stuff like this at home.”
    Chains clinked. The unicorn whinnied and stumbled forward in response to Radic’s feverish groping. “That’s right, take it easy, baby.” He stepped onto a padded stool and moved the animal’s tail out of the way.
    Gilbert looked at the floor.
    Marcelline watched through the mirror. “After the war, the island was something of an outpost. And since it floats around the Western Sea, it became a haven and a retreat, a place to get away or not be found. Being it’s so close to the kingdom, a great many aminals settled here. And all that made it valuable to a certain class of people.”
    “Like your boss.”
    Inside the room, Radic inhaled the unicorn’s perfume. The mechanoid women were laughing and praising their scar-faced benefactor.
    “Our boss. You need to understand your situation, Mr. Tubers.”
    Gilbert was indignant. “I didn’t argue when you told me to sit in the car with him.”
    “Money is what makes this town, from Parkus to Adamour, from City Hall to Midwitch. Money is what keeps the Empire away. Money is what we’re after. Somewhere in this town is a room full of it, more than you could count in a lifetime. The person who controls that does not control it by accident. Do you understand?”
    Gilbert nodded as the man entered the unicorn. It bellowed and shook its pinkish mane. The women cheered like it was someone’s birthday. “But do I have to watch this?”
    The man grabbed the unicorn’s rump and slapped it as he thrust feverishly again and again. Pearls of sweat trickled down his face. He screamed of conquest.
    “No. In fact, the house is yours. Madame Kosi has been instructed to fulfill your every desire. Food, clothes, girls, whatever you want.”
    “I see.”