Chapter 33
"There something I still don't get…", Charlie said.
It was now 9:45 PM.
Back at the Hotel, almost all of the guests had returned. The few that were milling around the lobby were quiet, even contemplative. Most had simply gone up to their rooms, either to sleep off the hangovers, or in some cases, arm themselves in case things went south. Charlie and Vaggie had pushed the couches and chairs over near the bar, where they as well as Angel, Niffty, Shakie and the Imps had decided to sit and decompress.
Pentious was also there, sitting at the bar with Husk still behind it. Some of the eggbois were hanging around nearby. Most had been relocated back to Pentious's airship (both for their safety and everyone else's).
"What's that?", Vaggie asked.
"This Flynn guy…who exactly is he? Why is Chay trying to find him? What's his whole angle here?"
"Are you ssspeaking of Missster Flynn?", Pentious piped in. "Was he not the gentleman who ran that moonssshining operation some years ago?"
"Yep, that was him", Husk said gruffly. "He also had a shitty hole-in-the-wall bar that acted as a front. That gun that Chay has? The Apache? It was originally his. He gave it up to Al for collateral"
"I believe he left town though.", Pentious answered. "Sssome sort of issue with the landowner."
"He killed the landowner.", Husk said. "Permanently, with angelic bullets. Then he burned his shit down to collect the insurance and skipped town to duck his creditors. That was the last anyone here in PC had heard of him until…"
His eyes slowly glided over to the Imps.
"...Yeah.", Lucius said. "He set up shop in Imp City. We thought he was dead."
"But he wasn't.", Viola said. "Not only is he still alive, but he's somehow behind most of the shit that's happened over the last few months."
"Yes yes, I get all of that.", Charlie said, shaking her head. "That's not the part that's confusing me. What's confusing me is this: how does Chay know him personally? Has she told any of you?"
The rest of the group went somewhat silent. The lobby was filled with a pregnant and awkward quiet.
"She...isn't very forthcoming about her past to me.", Shakie said, trying to break the suffocating silence. "I've tried asking but she always tries to change the subject."
"Same with me.", said Angel. "All I know is that she did some really fucked up shit during a war or something, and that's mostly just me speculatin'. I mean, Crol bombed a bunch of fuckin' Korean villagers and he isn't nearly as cagey."
Vaggie turned to Charlie. "She hasn't told you anything? I'd have thought she'd say something considering how often you talk with her."
"She hasn't said much.", Charlie answered. "She's told me a little, but it's really hard to get it out of her. She has to be in the right mood, and she usually stops halfway before ending the conversation. I know she was from Cambodia and that she killed people..."
The group was interrupted by a deep, pained sigh from Viola.
The group turned to look at her.
"Ya got something to contribute, short stuff?", Angel said.
The Imp closed her eyes and, once again, sighed deeply.
"Fuck it.", she said. "This was supposed to be Chay's story to tell, but…"
"It's fine.", Lucius said. "Considering the circumstances, I'm giving you permission to tell it. If our comrade-"
The older Imp halted mid-sentence. Some tears began to gather in his eyes, though he tried to fight them back.
"-If my best friend is going to get the help she needs from this place, then this is something that needs to be told so...tell them. Tell them everything."
Viola nodded solemnly. "Understood. This was all going to come out anyway, so I guess it's best we talk about it now."
The Imp straightened her back and wiped her hair away from her eyes.
"So quick question: any of you guys familiar with Cambodia?"
"I am.", Husk piped in from behind the bar. "I also kinda sussed out a few things a while back when I found out she spoke Khmer, but go ahead. Tell your story."
Viola rolled her eyes. "Noted. Anyway, as I was saying: other than Husk, are any of you familiar with Cambodia?"
"It's in Asia, right?", Angel said. "Somewhere near the South China Sea?"
Vaggie raised an eyebrow. "Wow...I'm impressed, Angel."
The Spider-Sinner shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, Husky tells me stories about that place sometimes. Whole area's supposed to be super humid and nobody wears shoes."
"...Right.", Vaggie said. "Well, I remember hearing about some stuff that happened over there when I was a kid. There was this big civil war, then a revolution and the regime that came after was apparently really brutal."
"Okay, so some of you know a little.", Viola said. "That gives us a good jumping off point. Really though, all you need to know is that up until the 70s, Cambodia was ruled by a king. When Chay was alive, the king was a guy named Norodom Sihanouk. His family had been ruling over Cambodia since the 1800s, and the country had essentially gone through a cycle of foreign regimes involving French colonists, Japanese invaders, etc."
"But that was all before Chay was born.", Lucius said. "The country had regained its independence after WWII, but by the time Chay came into the picture the country had only been an Independent Kingdom for a few year. Then in 1970, the Americans installed a military dictatorship in order to help them fight the Viet Cong across the border in Vietnam, blaming the King for tolerating the presence of North Vietnamese soldiers within his borders. They still let Sihanouk remain chief of state, however."
"Through all of this, the average Cambodian wasn't doing very well.", continued Viola. "Hunger was rampant, as was poverty. It was especially bad in the countryside in the villages. The cities soaked up a lot of the food and resources since that's where the regime and the royals all lived. The Vietnamese had managed to take over huge parts of Eastern Cambodia, and there was conflict between them and the native Khmer people there. Lots of skirmishes, lots of death. That's the world Chay was born into."
Viola sighed. "Can I bum a smoke off of any of you guys? I'm gonna need it if I'm going to get through this fucking history lesson."
"I got ya, short stuff.", Angel said as he pulled a long and slim cigarette out of his chest floof. "You're uh...you're real handy with this history shit. Especially for a hellborn."
"She's our official historian for a reason.", Lucius remarked.
"In practice, I'm more like your fucking secretary…" she remarked as she took the cigarette from Angel. "Thanks. This is about to get kind of intense. Now I need a mat-"
Pffft
A reddish flame popped up underneath the cigarette, connected to a black and ringed hand.
"I got you.", said Lucifer. He was sitting on the chair's armrest, his knees pulled up to his chest and big doofy grin on his face.
Viola barely contained her blushing.
"Y-yeah...thanks, sir."
She carefully leaned in and lit the cigarette. She took a few careful puffs.
"Okay….so Chay was one of the villagers who lived in that general area. She was orphaned at, I think, around 13 years old. So as you can imagine, you've got a young kid who grew up knowing nothing but violence, deprivation, poverty and hunger. So she went looking for food...and she went looking for answers."
She took another puff.
"Then in 1974, the Vietnam War ended and the Americans pulled out. For all intents and purposes, the region was on it's own. On top of that, Sihanouk had been wasting a bunch of the country's treasure and resources making movies."
"Movies?", Angel said. "The fuck?"
"Yep, movies. Movies starring him as the hero. He made about fifty of them, and they were all terrible. But that all ended in 1975 when the dictatorship was overthrown."
Another puff.
"You see, while all of this was going on, there were a bunch of different rebel groups fighting both against the government and against each other. One of them was called the Communist Party of Kampuchea, AKA the Khmer Rouge. They'd been around in one form or another since the 50s, and their primary power base was out in the country side in the villages where the peasants were starving. They not only gained a lot of supporters, but they also fed them a story about how all of the people in the cities were decadent reactionaries who were wasting the resources the peasants farmed while the peasants themselves starved. So you have all of this, combined with a decaying military dictatorship that had just lost its main foreign benefactor, and shit finally hit the fan."
Yet another puff.
"The dictatorship was overthrown in 1975. The CPK entered the capitol to a cheering crowd. That's when they pulled out the guns…"
"Understood, over."
The WUL agent, long thin and scaley, turned off his radio and turned to his colleague.
"Boss just asked for another sweep."
His fellow WUL agent, who was short round and furry, rolled his eyes and groaned.
"For fuck's sake.", he complained. "What exactly is he afraid of? We're in the goddamn Vee Tower guarding a fucking elevator. Who'd be stupid enough to try and break into this place when WUL is guarding it?"
"Overlords, obviously.", the tall one said. "Stupidity doesn't keep a person from power. I've worked enough of these jobs to know how many of them are complete fucking idiots."
"Not withstanding our current clients, I suppose.", the small one said. "Why'd they let that random orange fucker just come in like he owns the place?"
"That was the Boss's call.", the taller one answered. "And you would be wise to not question his judgment."
The smaller one groaned. "Whatever. So do you want me to check the bathrooms first or the janitor's clo-HURK!"
The short, rotund guard grabbed at his throat, seemingly choking on something.
"Uh...you OK there, chief? Need a heimlich?"
"HORK! HORRRRKKK!"
"...Yeah, I don't know what that means. Just nod or-"
The rotund guard's hands slowly fell away from their neck, revealing a freshly incised cut that ran from temple to temple. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he toppled to the ground, his throat gushing blood.
The taller guard slowly backed away from his now dead colleague.
"What the fuc-"
He was cut off by the sight of what appeared to be a floating plastic nipple in the air.
PUNT
The nipple exploded outward as a round penetrated his skull, blowing out the back of his head and throwing him backwards.
The room, now quiet and without any semblance of life, was only filled by the occasional buzzing of their radios.
The elevator behind them gently opened, seemingly waiting for an invisible passenger.
It then quietly closed, making a mechanical ding as it ascended.
Inside, Chay and Lester cleaned off their freshly used weapons.
"Okay Lester…", Chay said as she reloaded her pistol. "They're almost certainly going to know something's up really soon, so get ready to make a break for that crawlspace I found when we leave this elevator."
"Understood.", he said as he wiped the blood from his sickle. "What shall we do when we get to Vox's office?"
"Well, considering we haven't seen hide or hair of the Vees since we got here, my best guess is that they might be holed up there…."
"If they are here at all."
"Yes, if they're here at all. If that is the case, we may need to negotiate."
"Or fight."
Chay sighed. "Yes, or fight. I would prefer not to have to fight Overlords if I don't have to. I already know how strong Valentino is. I'd rather not risk fighting the other two…"
"But."
"But?"
"There is a 'but' coming. I can sense it."
She rolled her eyes. "...But, if it comes to that, then we'll go with Plan B."
"Understood. What is Plan B?"
"You grab whatever is left of Ella, and I hold them off while you make a run for it."
Lester went silent for a moment.
"You expect much blood shed."
Chay spun the cylinder on her pistol and snapped it back in place.
"Only if we have to…", she said as she slowly faded back into invisibility. "...And only if they see us."
At the top left corner of the elevator car, a tiny microscopic camera eye slowly opened.
The lens contained a single, spinning and angry red eye…
CHAPTER 33 END