We don’t talk about Rex, and Doc stands at the far end of the cable car and looks out at the night and does not speak.

—

Leclerc is waiting down in the valley and he is very polite. Very professional and content he has everything he wanted from this hire. He gets revenge and he gets to polish his bastard medals and be associated with a loud, splashy situation where he was wronged and the wronger is gone and he looks cool. His oh-so-modern Fascist cred will go up and he will no doubt recruit many disenfranchised European youths to his righteous cause that is bullshit but bullshit is the soul of politics. I read where he has strong support as a political hero in some parts of Hungary and Poland. He is like a Fascist Carlos the Jackal I guess and do not tell me that Carlos was okay really because he was not. There are assholes across politics sometimes you do deals with them.

Very sensible François does not try to betray us. Profile like this, moment like this, no telling how people would read that. Maverick behavior, unreliable behavior. Kind of thing gets you enemies you never even know about.

I tell him we will go and get our transport and that I trust him to look after our share. He says my trust is well placed. I say I know our trust is well placed. We do googly trust eyes of death at one another for a moment and then I go. My Demons come with me. There are two little bulldozers next to the cable car station and some earth-moving gear but all the recyclable junk is gone.

We go and get our great big container truck for moving stolen goods. It is parked in a container truck park.

We get to the truck.

Doc punches me in the face.

I go down because it is a good hit and Doc keeps going in on me and I realize she may not stop. She maybe just doesn’t have limits like a normal person and she may just kill me. She’s using her boots now and not like to make me sad. She is hurting me.

WHUD.

And then she picks the next angle like a surgeon if surgeons used blunt objects.

WHUD.

I guess.

WHUD.

This is the thing.

WHUD WHUD WHUD.

Evil medical science.

Evil medic.

Doesn’t have human limits.

WHUD WHUD WHUDWHUDWHUDWHUD.

“Khhhfffshit Doc! DOC! KAhhffshit shit—”

WHUD

“GODDAMMIT JACK YOU ARE A FUCKING ASSHOLE—”

“I—”

WHUD WHUD WHUD

“REX IS DEAD AND YOU MADE A DEAL WITH LECLERC AND YOU DID NOT TELL ME”

WHUD WHUD

“YOU—”

WHUD

“DID NOT—”

WHUD

“TRUST ME TO DO MY JOB—”

WHUD

“Docc cc I cck—Doc?”

“YES BY ALL MEANS EXPLAIN IT TO ME”

“Yes ma’am can’t”

WHUD

And then I know I am really in trouble when she stops.

Doc says: