Wild Cards 13 : Card Sharks Read Online Free PDF Page B

know . Please."
    "Quasiman," Father Squid said from the bed. "You're frightening the young woman."
    "Oh," the joker said, as if startled. "Sorry. It's just -" He lifted his hands up suddenly and gave Hannah an apologetic smile. He scuttled away from the chair and Hannah slowly relaxed.
    "Just what?" Hannah asked shakily.
    "I know that you need to start there. With the movie."
    "You keep saying that," Hannah answered. "You 'know.' I don't understand." She looked from Quasiman to Father Squid; it was Father Squid who answered.
    "Another by-product of Quasiman's affliction is limited precognition," he told her. "One of the places his awareness seems to go during his episodes is the future. The vision is very erratic, and he can't control it, but it's there. God has seen fit to grant my friend occasional glimpses of what is to be."
    "Yes," Quasiman agreed. "I've seen you, Hannah. I've seen us. I've seen other faces. I'm going to try very hard to remember."
    "Great. That all sounds very convenient. Now just tell me who started the fire and I'll have him arrested and we can all go home. In fact, with that kind of evidence, we can probably just do away with the trial, too." She wouldn't look at either of the jokers. She stared at the cracks Quasiman's fingers had left in the chair arms.
    Father Squid's reply was as gentle as ever, and made Hannah's sarcasm seem even more vitriolic in comparison. "Ms. Davis, I wonder how many comments were made in your office yesterday?" he asked. "I wonder how many people said that there s no way you can find this murderer?"
    "What's your point, Father?"
    "I just wonder if you're letting your preconceptions blind you right now. After all, how much is Quasiman asking of you? An extra interview? An hour of your time?"
    There'd been comments. Hannah had even half-heard some of them. "Even granting that there's something to what you're saying, this supposed plot is ancient history. Half the people involved must be dead." Hannah said. "I don't know who to contact or where to start."
    "I do," Father Squid answered. "If you're willing. If you can bring yourself to talk to another joker."
    The priest's barbed comment brought up Hannah's eyes. She looked from Father Squid to the hunchback. She knew he was pushing all her buttons, but she wasn't going to be called a bigot. She sighed. "All right," she said. "I can give you an hour."
    ***
    "Mr. Tanaka? Chuck Tanaka?"
    Hannah had already decided that the atmosphere of the Four Seas Seafood Delivery Service, placed precariously between Chinatown and Jokertown, would probably put her off fish for months. The tiny office in the small warehouse was dingy, looking as if it had last been redecorated somewhere around World War II. From the look of the desk, the file cabinets, and each available horizontal surface in the place, every last scrap of paper that the business had generated had found a home here. On the wall were dusty, cheap frames holding faded prints that were just as cheap; behind the desk, a larger frame held a collection of baseball cards. They looked old, too, and there was a spot in the middle of the frame where a space had obviously been reserved for a card.
    "You're the one called Chop-Chop?" Hannah asked.
    The joker behind the desk looked up, and from his appearance and the grimace on his face, Hannah realized that the question didn't need an answer. The joker was a walking cliche of every bad comic-book depiction of an Asian. He squinted at her from behind coke-bottle bottom, black-rimmed glasses. His myopic eyes were almost comically slanted, the epicanthic folds stretched and exaggerated. He was horrendously buck-toothed, his upper front two teeth extending entirely over his bottom lip, and his ears stuck out from under jet-black hair like twin handles on a jug. His skin was a bright, chrome yellow.
    I'd kill myself if I ever become a joker , she told herself. I wouldn't allow myself to be such a mockery of what I'd been.
    He sighed. "Yes, I'm