THE BLUE BOY
by Lynn K. Hollander
Chapter 16 - Willy's
SUNNYDALE
Magal stopped and inspected his locator. Something was wrong. The target was still north, although not east anymore. For a small boy, the target got around with considerable alacrity. Magal drove north.
***
Kailea crossed the freeway on an overpass. On the other side, she checked her arrow. West, not south-west. She walked on. For the first time, she began to see other pedestrians. Almost everyone she had noticed today had been in a car.
***
"Flesh-eating bacteria," Ann, still at the lab in Seattle, told Huixin, on the large crystal phone in the library. "I'm immune, you're immune, but Darcy would disappear into a puddle of goo, and we don't know for sure about humans. The Grayman is an active danger. If you can, stun him; if you need to, kill him. We could use the information in his head, but we can get along without it."
"Understood. Shall we still attempt a locating spell, using the air gun as a possession?"
"Yes, and that's become slightly more urgent. Also, travel in pairs or trios, please."
***
Wow, Dawn thought. This is awful. Why would anyone want to come in here? The mural behind the bar looked as if the painter had been drunk or stoned, the wall to the east had dingy red-flocked wall paper which clashed with the bright yellow naugahyde banquettes in the booths against the south wall. There were, she realized abruptly, a pair of vampires at the other end of the bar and the magenta gofer who had burgled the Magic Box last month in a booth near the door. Maybe visiting Willy's wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Wha'dyawant?"
"Ginger ale," Dawn managed.
"Ten bucks," the bartender said, drawing her a beer and a shot of gin.
Oh, Dawn thought and shut her mouth firmly. If he didn't want to card her, she wasn't going to demand to be carded. Fine with her. Considering this newest datum, she was surprised not to find most of the senior class here. She handed over a twenty and took her gin and ale and ten dollars change over to the darkest corner and sidled far into the booth.
Bleeh. If that was beer, it was awful. She tried the gin. Yeuch.
***
"No," Roujin said. "We expected to find him here. We did not, in fact, give permission for him to go on a field trip."
"Who wants to see a field?" Yanghao said.
"Probably a saying," Roujin said.
"Moly," the young teacher said, "didn't Darcy go with Beth, on the beach field trip?"
"He wasn't scheduled to, but he is very attached to Beth and might have slipped onto the bus. Search the grounds and the empty rooms, and ask the other children if they have seen him. Let me call the bus," Moly said, picking up her phone. "I just returned with the other group, the one to the petting farm, where we watched a demonstration of milking goats." She put down her phone. "The bus is still outside the calling area."
"Is he near?"
"Not near enough for me to find him," Yanghao replied.
"Or me. Moly, there is an assassin after the boy," Roujin said
"No one like that was here. My school is warded. If someone took the boy from here, it is someone with parental permission. And he may be with Beth, remember."
"Anyuanjun Jingwu did not give permission for anyone but us to remove Darcy."
"Ann is not his mother, is she? Which means he has a father and a mother out there somewhere. Um. We didn't think enough about that."
***
"So who is Willy?" Xiuling asked.
Spike tossed off his blanket and said. "Well, if you mean the original Willy, it's was. Willy was the owner. Maybe he's dead, but maybe he's just hiding." He nodded at the magenta gofer, who cringed deeper into the booth.
"Why?"
"His wife found him. Right, Jesse?" the vampire asked the bartender.
"We don't talk about Willy, either Willy."
"This is Jesse. The wife's--or maybe the widow's--name is Wilhelmina Wilson. She's called Willy, too, just for the sake of confusion. What's the worst thing you stock?"
"Stop complaining or go drink somewhere else. I can't recommend the Argentine vodka."
"We'll try that."
***
Oh, shit. Dawn cowered back in the corner booth. She could usually get around Spike and Giles with no problem, but she didn't think Willy's was in the get-aroundable category. At least it was the vampire and not Ann. She might have to shed tears, but Spike would probably relent. Eventually.
***
"Gries," Baudier said. "You're getting on my nerves. I'm going for a walk around the block, see what's happening outside."
"And get away from me."
"Unless you want to come next door and have a beer or a fizzy water."
"The beer isn't that bad. Thanks."
***
Magal, nearing Sunnydale from the south, pulled over and consulted his locator. The target was now inside the smudge. He intended to have a talk with his outfitter, once he returned to Hove. The orange dot had reappeared, slightly east of him, but he ignored it.
***
Kailea, having walked across Sunnydale from the east to the west, saw Willy's and recognized it as a tavern. Good. There were floating privacy spells surrounding the tavern and what appeared to be an inn across a small alley. She had finished her water some time past and decided to go in, get a beer, gather her forces, then slip outside and spin her arrow again.
***
Ann ported directly into the back room at Willy's. Jesse had a taldis demon waiting for her, this one a female.
***