...and part four (with apologies to Charles Dickens, and anyone from the U.K.)...
The vid displays a picture of a kind of cave. The walls are made of discarded stoves, vids, bathtubs, cars, dumpsters, trashcans, and the like. An architectural mural of man's detritus forms the walls of the lair of the Raggedy Man. In the clear space formed by four walls of society's cast-off stuff, the RAGGEDY MAN has set up an oyster computer. The dim glow from its display paints his face in a mute shade of violet. The edges of the light catch the sleeves and shoes of one or another of his Children as they move in and out of the space. Beyond the view of the vid the rain drums an incessant and insistent beat against a pavilion of laminated cellulose over polycrete struts; a kind of roof for the Raggedy Man's house of last resort. He looks up as he hears, over the drumming of the rain, a noise outside his inner sanctum. Three figures enter into the dim light.
The first is JACKSTRAW. Jackstraw is thin. His hair stands straight on end, all of it, and adds another foot to his height. His height, his hair, and his loose gait make him look like the Scarecrow in the childrens' picture books. The ones that tell of Dangerous Dorothy, who stalks from planet to planet, killing the first person she meets, forming a cognate, striding the Road of Gold in her blood red boots, and leaving only after she has killed again. Jackstraw steps aside to reveal his companions.
The second figure is a girl, an Ebon. No older than 12, she is LITHIA. A patchwork coat several sizes too large for her small frame envelops her. Her fine, dark hair is tangled, but as she steps forward she reveals her angelic features to the dim light. Her eyes are the color of smoked glass, and she has been crying.
Behind her, another Ebon steps into the small space. The color of his hair gives him his name, COPPER. Copper's eyes are dimly reflective points in the backglow from the oyster.
Before they have stopped moving, Jackstraw is speaking, his momentum seeming to transfer into his words:
"Raggedy Man, you'll never believe it, we are so lucky to be standing here. We were so totally set up, man. Jesus Christ on Cross with nails, and Angel sucking his dick! We . . . "
"Jackstraw!!" The Raggedy Man's voice hits the metal walls like a cab hitting a pedestrian. "I've told you not to swear! Not even by some defunct tree-god! While within my `ouse you will comport yourself in a civil-like fashion. Am I understood? Right. Now, calmly tell me what `appened. My gravest concern is answered, as you all appear to be in relatively good `ealth. Proceed."
Jackstraw, stopped in his tracks by the rebuke, is mollified in his outrage by the obvious concern in the Raggedy Man's voice. He begins, and speech begets motion: his exposition carries him around the room, orbiting the lean figure of the Raggedy Man.
"Okay, we're dropped onto the roof of the place Zander found out about." Jackstraw's hands attempt to keep pace with his voice in the telling of the story. They talk to each other, to his pockets, and to his hair, but his hair resumes its stance at attention. "The place was quiet and dark. Absolutely dead. That probably should have tipped us off. Dammit! Sorry. It really should've. The place was sealed, but Copper and Lithia used the card and the roof opened up a skylight. We strung a line and went down, landed on one of those modular offices sitting smack in the middle of the floor, know what I mean? Drop offa that and onto the floor and at the back sure enough is the red door, just like Copper said." He looks at Copper, who nods agreement. "So we try the opening thing again, but it doesn't work, and I figure, you know, no big deal, can't work all the time, right, so I go to work, and before too quick I'm through. I pull open the door. Yeah, I was careful, and look in. It's real dark inside. We light a lamp and we can see a ramp going down, takes us to a floor about ten feet down from the door, then all of a sudden-like, the lights come on! I mean, big starin' full-on concert-type lights, you know? And there's this circle `a' gangers, had to be Soul Hounds, I saw four of `em with the face and teeth, and one big one standin' in front of this other guy, who's on his knees bein' held down by two more big guys, and the big standin' guy has this knife, you know what I mean, and he's like standin' over the kneeling guy, and in his one hand's the knife, and in his other's this green thing on a chain. You know. The thing.
"The scarab," says Copper.
"Right, right. `Cept it don't matter, really, `cause I only got to scope it for half a sec, then everything went to hell. The far wall caves in, and there's these badass shivers totin' guns you usually see on Gore Zone. Man, and they started laying into the Hounds right away. We look around us, but there's shivers comin' in the way we came, too. Suddenly Lithia shouts and points and Copper's already headed to our right. There's this hole in the wall there, about ten feet off the ground, don't ask me what it was there for. Copper jumps up first, swings and yanks Lithia up (nice move, man), and I'm not far behind. Well, short of it's this: it's outta sight, but it's not outta there, you know what I mean? It's just a crawlspace big enough for two people, maybe. But there's three of us. And a whole lot of killin' goin' on other side of the wall, so we just get real small.
"Soon as we're behind the wall we hear this scream, you just don't wanna know, man. We're all crunched up in there and Copper and Lithia are weepin' and cryin', and we're both holdin' Lithia, and we're thinkin' we're gonna die, and there's this scream. I mean, I guess it was one of the Shivers, `cause I think that's what the uniform was on the body closest to the door, but there's no way you're gonna know. Then the gunfire, it's just short bursts `til now, but it becomes these streams of lead from the SHIVERs' guns. And there's another scream and another. It just kept goin' on. I think we sat there and shook for an hour, and the worst part is we could hear it moving around, but we didn't dare look! About an hour ago we finally came out for a look. God, the smell. No, really, I smelled people dyin' before, but this! And everything was bathed in blood, the floor the ceilings, the walls. The bodies, though, man, the bodies." Jackstraw shakes his head. "They were just, like, ripped up, man."
The Raggedy Man opens his arms, motioning for the three to approach him. He embraces them roughly, but his voice is soothing. "My children, my children, I `ad no idea. You know I would never `ave sent you into such a situation `ad I known?"
"We know, Raggedy Man," say Copper and Lithia in unison. Jackstraw nods.
"And are you all right, then?" asks the Raggedy Man. "No bones broken? You've `ad quite a fright, I should say. Let's `ave some tea. A nice cup o' tea to settle your nerves. You'll be right as rain before long."
He has tea brought by one of the children who attends him. The tea service is chipped in places and the designs are faded, but barring the few imperfections, the service could grace an Uptown dining table. The pot is placed upon a ceramic grill that once formed part of the front end of an Augustus limousine, and underneath that a FEN microheater swiftly brings the water to a boil. The three settle down on cushions spread on the floor of the metal maze and wait for their tea.
"Ah, such a sadness, children. That you had to witness such a `orror, and suffer the disappointment of not fulfilling your dreams." He looks across the grill to Copper, who sits with his arms around Lithia. Copper looks across to the Raggedy Man, his eyes are pools of molten metal. His voice sounds like a hymn.
"We got it, though." He releases Lithia slightly, enough for her to reach into her coat and reach across the heating teapot to place in Raggedy Man's hand an emeraldine ovoid almost the size of her small palm. It trails a golden chain.
Raggedy Man holds it up to the light, and a look of wonder crosses his face. He holds a lacquerwork beetle with eyes that might be gemstones. Its belly is painted with tiny glyphs all in gold. "But, . . . this is marvelous! `ow did you get it, after all that?"
Copper's voice sings an eerie counterpoint to the rising whistle of the teapot. "It was just lying there on one of the bodies. It was the only thing that didn't have blood on it. As though it had been put there for us to find."
"Aaahhh." The Raggedy Man's smiling sigh adds another thread to the whistling melody that fills the room. His eyes are full of the scarab he dangles above the steam, and he either ignores or is oblivious to the implications of what Copper's just said.
"The Baron of Salt will owe us a favor indeed." .
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