The Most Dangerous Dame

I thought about my conversation with Fats the Jazz Man. How he was looking for a partner with managing the Gaiden. How maybe I needed to take some time off and keep my name off the wire. There were worse places to end up, especially in the state of mind I was in.

“Head for the Gaiden.”

“As you wish, Mr. Trubble.”

Steam billowed from manholes in the streets, whipping by the ride like shapeless specters. I let the auto-drive system do its thing while I laid back and visited with ghosts of my own. Sophia ‘Scarlett’ Flacco. I saw her face again on a woman walking the crosswalk. She gazed at me with a blend of pain and scorn in her eyes before becoming a stranger I’d never seen before. And Desiree. I never even knew her last name. But I remembered her face. I’ll always remember her luminous face and her heartbroken gaze. Her image slid across the window, haunting me with silent accusation.

Another face sprang unsummoned from the depths. A young face, full of promise and charm. Her dark hair was cut short, adorned by a silver sequin and feathered headband. Her eyes shone with hesitant attraction when she gazed at me across the valley of time and space. I knew her once. Her name will always stay with me.

Maxine…

I remembered her. I remembered the pigeon-toed way she walked, the mischievous dash of freckles across her nose. I remembered the way she’d laugh when I said something that inadvertently amused her. I remembered sunlit days lounging in the park and rainy days indoors lying with my head in her lap and her fingers in my hair. I remembered her voice, the hesitancy when she gazed into my eyes and asked a simple question.

Do you think it will always be like this?

The windows glistened, erasing the lingering faces and leaving me alone with my misery. Everything blurred as beads of rain washed away the visages of bygone times until nothing was left except the sudden realization it wasn’t raining after all.

Just tears that slid down my face.

End

Enjoy the Troubleshooter?

Thanks for checking out this installment of the Troubleshooter series. I truly hope you enjoyed your time in New Haven. I’d love to keep writing these novels, but I need just a little help from you. Reviews help a great deal in spreading the word, which in turn helps sell more books. Which in turn allows me to keep writing. It doesn’t have to a long process: a simple 3–4 sentence review works wonders. Thanks again for reading, hope you stick around for the next installment.

All the best,

— BC

About the Author

Bard Constantine firmly believes he’s living in the wrong age, so he creates timelines he feels more comfortable in. With this series he introduces Havenworld, a retro-futuristic dystopian age where humanity survived a terrifying Cataclysm by means of city-sized constructs called Havens. More info on this world and upcoming novels can be found on his website: bardwritesbooks.com as well as his Facebook page. You can also keep up with him on Twitter @BardConstantine.

Glossary

So you’re new in town. Yeah, I can tell. Well you’ve come by the right mug for the wire on this place. Don’t wanna stick out like a nun at a cathouse, do ya? Thought not. So you might wanna get down on the lingo around here. You probably guessed folks in New Haven speak a little differently than the other Havens. While this isn’t required reading, here’s a quick rundown you can reference in case you get a bit mixed up. That way if a mug tells you to rotate your heels or else he’ll fit you for a New Haven trench coat, then you’ll know what he’s gabbing about, pipe that? Here goes:

Ace/chump/Killer /Mack: nicknames for a man

Bag or tag: Nimrod terms for live or dead capture

Barber: talk

Bâtard: bastard

Bent: angry, upset, out of sorts

Berries/lettuce/cabbage/bread: money

Bing ward: segregation cells, solitary

Biogun: an expensive firearm powered by the user’s body via cables inserted in the forearm or into a holoband.

Bioroid: term for humans enhanced by bio-genetic implants that expand the use of their brain beyond normal capacity.

Bogart: a fedora

Boozehound: drunk person

Borgata: Mob, Mafia, organized crime family

Bracelets: handcuffs

Brass/feds/fuzz/button boys/boys in black: cops

Broad: a woman, usually an unattractive one

Bruno: bodyguard

Bum: Useless

Bunk: nonsense, foolishness

Butter and egg, fat cat: rich, loaded

Buy the farm/bite the big one: die

Canary/songbird: female singer

Capeesh: understand, comprehend

Capo: Mafia boss, family head

Cataclysm: a period of time when most life on Earth was destroyed by environmental and nuclear forces

Cathouse: brothel