Quink

Quink
By H. Courreges LeBlanc
13 May 2002

Alexia would be here for the Todd any minute. I was about to squirt the
boog in when I heard a cop clump up the back stairs, dragging Pink
Jenny behind him. They were two flights down, but Pink Jenny was
screaming her throat raw. I wondered which cop it was this time, come
to squeeze another trick. Probably Gastineau.
I squirted the boog in. The Todd twitched all over, damn near grand
mal. Pissed itself too. But I was in a hurry.
The Todd draped its legs over the edge of the table and hung its head
between its knees. It wasn't breathing yet. "Go upstairs and put some
clothes on," I said, kicking its shin. It didn't move. "Go on. I'll buzz you
when I'm ready for you."
"Do you have any idea who my daddy is?" Pink Jenny shrieked. "I'll
have your badge -- I'll have your fucking balls on a skewer. Ow!"
The Todd, finally breathing, lurched to its feet and shambled toward
the stairs. A boog this complex took a while for a retread like the Todd
to soak up, and until it did it would be pretty shaky. Retreads were a
royal pain -- much higher maintenance, more bribes, more hassles from
the cops. But I could field a dozen retreads for the cost of one catalog
slug -- Dixie DNA's catalog items were for the hobbyist, not for the
trade. Not any trade I could afford, anyway.
Before the Todd was halfway to the door, Pink Jenny stumbled in,

followed by the cop. It was that thug Gastineau, of course, smirking as
he shoved Pink Jenny down onto the floor. He would definitely try to
squeeze a trick. No point in being nice.
"Hey maggie," I said coolly.
"Don't you maggie me, quink," Gastineau said. "How many times I told
you to keep your yigs off Decatur?"
"Who are you calling a yig?" Pink Jenny said. "I'm Lourdes Villard --
I'm the Count's daughter."
"Jenny, shut up," I told her, and she shut. I put that trope in all my
boogs. Her eyes were still spitting fire but her lips could only squirm
like eels.
The Todd was trying to maneuver around Gastineau and Pink Jenny; it
kept bumping into the wall. "Let it past," I said.
"Aw, fuck him," Gastineau said, shoving the Todd onto the floor next
to Pink Jenny. It lay on its side, facing the wall, sawing its legs in
confusion. "I ain't joking about keeping these yigs off Decatur."
I brushed past Gastineau and helped the Todd to its feet.
"I'm talking to you, quink," Gastineau said.
But I ignored him and shepherded the Todd to the stairwell. I couldn't
let Alexia see it this way. Anyway, why shouldn't I make Gastineau
wait? Finally, when the Todd was climbing the stairs in its docile
torpor, I turned back to Gastineau. "Look, maggie. The trick loaded
Jenny into a boat just after lunch. Said she wanted her till dawn
tomorrow."
"Well, this yig was rampaging around the Cotillion ten minutes ago,"
Gastineau said. "Trying to find the Count."
I shrugged.

"You got a bad attitude," Gastineau said. "If the Count finds out you
booged his daughter, he'll have your ass."
"Don't you know better than to try to scare a quink, maggie?" I said.
"Besides, who you think booged her in the first place?"
That shut him up. These cops held the Count in almost superstitious
awe, but I knew better. Gastineau just glared at the wall, trying not to
think about why the Count had booged his own daughter.
"Charming as all this is, maggie," I said, "I'm busy. So kindly get thee
the fuck thither."
"Stop calling me maggie, goddammit," he growled.
I shrugged.
"One day, quink," he said, "the Count's gonna stop protecting you. I'll
be waiting for that day."
"On that day," I said, "a two-bit crooked cop like you will be the least
of my troubles."
Pink Jenny clambered to her feet and made a dash for the stairwell.
"Damn," Gastineau said, and dove after her.
She had one arm through the door when he slammed into her. She
raked her nails across his cheek. He grabbed a fistful of that lush
cashew-colored hair that made Pink Jenny so popular, twisted her arm
behind her in a vicious half nelson, and dragged her up to my face.
"Dump the boog," he said, twisting the fistful of hair. "Bring up the
base personality. I'm gonna make that bitch pay."
"For what a boog did? Even you aren't that stupid."
He shoved Pink Jenny toward me, twisting her hair in his fist. "Dump
the boog, quink, before I decide to take it out on you."

Pink Jenny jerked her head