Blood Wolf’s Path - стр. 15
“When’s the last time you ate?” he asked.
I thought about it. Since the werewolf attack, I hadn’t eaten or drunk a thing—except for that sip of whiskey today and a couple sips of beer at Brenda’s with her twins.
“Thing is, two or three days after transforming, a person can’t eat anything but human flesh and blood. Everything else gets rejected. You can sip some water, but it’s tough to keep down. Food, soda, alcohol—it’s all off-limits. You saw that yourself today,” he said, pulling into traffic.
“So you’re going to feed me human meat at night, right?” I snapped.
“Right. But we didn’t kill anyone last night. And you didn’t either. We just dropped fresh corpse meat through the ceiling hatch. Didn’t kill anyone just for that, but yeah—it was fresh.”
“Bet you tossed me some poor bastard and then burned the car…” I glared at the right side of his face—he still hadn’t turned his head.
“Oh, the accident? Yeah, that was us. But that was the guy you killed in the park on your third night. Look at the hatch in your cell—too small for a live person. But you need to eat to stay strong.”
Of course, I didn’t believe a word. I was starting to suspect he was playing me. His stories needed to be divided by ten or multiplied by a hundred. Still, since I hadn’t eaten since transforming, whoever they were feeding me didn’t matter—it was on the FBI’s conscience now.
“Alright, Cocksucker… what’s your real name?” I asked.
“Doesn’t matter. Call me Cook if you want.” He wasn’t smiling—but he did sound like he was enjoying the game.
“Okay, Cook… sucker… Fine, you’re right. Let’s keep working. Today was productive. But Crookeddick still hasn’t contacted me.”
“What about Cherry?” he asked, his tone steely.
“Her? She’s a shrimp… no way she’s a gangster. Just a little squirt,” I said, though I didn’t quite believe myself.
“Or maybe she wants you to think that. While you were running around with her, we searched her house. Found something.”
“She’s Crookeddick’s illegitimate daughter?” I laughed.
“No idea—we’re still digging. But it looks like she’s got a contract on you—after the money. We found $100,000 in her couch. And that’s not all, Jerry.” He fell silent.
We pulled up to my house.
“Open the glovebox,” he said.
Inside was a box of bullets.
“Silver rounds—probably meant for you. We found them at her place.”
“You arrest her? Question her?” I asked, not liking this conversation.
“No, we’ll keep watching. Don’t worry—we swapped them for regular rounds, and we’ll replace the ones in her gun tonight when she’s asleep.”
“What if she wakes up?” I asked, palming one bullet before putting the rest back.
“She won’t… she won’t.”
“Cook, you’re one clever bastard—always thinking ahead. But why haven’t you figured out this werewolf thing yet? I’m 99% sure it’s the Chinese getting back at us for COVID… Wait, no—if the killings started twelve years ago and COVID was two years ago, then not the Chinese… maybe the Russians? Revenge for the fall of the USSR?” I said with a smirk.
“If only it were that simple, Jerry. Like I told you—it’s some kind of virus. But not a virus. Some weird shit. And as for China—they’ve got a full-blown werewolf epidemic. According to our data, their entire leadership is turned.”
“And in our government?” I asked quietly.