I must have looked at him as if he had just taken a live Thrimworm out of his pocket. He sat there with a proud smile all down the front of his ugly face.
“Cold T’Jinj is dead.” I said. “Dead. Period. They got him after the flats arrested Quiet Con and locked him in Raven. Big chase in the Nebula, lots of ray exchange, boom, Cold T’Jinj dead. Period, Liam.”
“Yeah, I heard the story. Quiet Con arrested and all that. Poor sod, he was an easy rap.” He said holding a smile on his face.
“Your story is fine, minor one small detail, dear Jon. Pal Jon. Boom never happened.” His smile got wider. Liam enjoyed knowing something I didn’t.
“Chase happened, ray exchange happened, boom didn’t. What happened was flats inside Cold T’Jinj seriously damaged boat and then a dark cell in Raven. For eight and a half earth years. And then he got out. Free. And he decided to take it easy for a while. Dark cells in Raven are not a jolly holiday experience. Only flats couldn’t let him enjoy it for long. Flats thought he could be their man inside while some boys he had met in Raven had other dreams for good old Cold T’Jinj. And then one day while feeling the pressure from both sides Cold T’Jinj reads in the net about Big Zzryd, the king of the smugglers got caught in Galeran. Fire girls’ house, they said. I know what you are thinking…”
I nodded.
“I thought the same, at the time,” Liam continued without waiting for me to say anything. “The net took it really big. They made you think that Cold T’Jinj was some kind of beauty celebrity, a senator or something. Anyway, I thought it was all part of a game and why shouldn’t be after all there were weird stories about Big Zzryd and his cosmic business. But then it died. On the way to Raven the big bad Big Zzryd had died; natural causes. And then for all things, he was buried for Bri’ns sake, in Cosmos.” He paused and took a quick sip from his glass.
“Oh man, and the story doesn’t end here,” he said with mouth still half full of the liquid. “somehow they buried the wrong Zzryd, or a non-Zzryd. They changed the bodies and the new Zzryd was big enough and burned enough to look like a Big Zzryd, especially if you never met the man. And that was it.”
“What about eye iris?” I had to ask.
“You know that Big Zzryd was strong with the flats, don’t you? They never checked. They let it go and kept going partying with a buried body.”
“There is another chance, maybe the let him go intentionally so they can track him and get his with all the loot.”
“Oh Jon, the always romantic.” Liam laughed loud. “Big Zzryd body was the body buried in Cosmos.” I looked at him in shock and surprise.
“What?”
Big Zzryd is dead and buried for good. End of game for the big guy. But the name lives and the stories help. You see the same period big Zzryd went all that and death, Cold T’Jinj decided to take a trip to New Bayou and then he vanished in the desert air. A body everybody knew it wasn’t Big Zzryd buried in Cosmos, Cold T’Jinj disappears in New Bayou and Big Zzryd appears in the Nebula Cold T’Jinj knows so well.”
“Cold T’Jinj took Big Zzyrd’s place?”
“You getting there old pal.” Liam smiled.
“And then what,” I had to ask.
“Then my kPhone vibrated.” He said and took a deep sip from his drink emptying his glass.
Read all Blood Bayou chapters in order, HERE!
Thanos' Pulp Fiction 