Apocalypse Baby Read Online Free

with her, he boasted about it willingly to the kids who hung around his bar as if he was giving them important lessons for life: ‘We made a good team, we were agreed on the basics, such as:take long breaks often, the job works better if you’re feeling relaxed; always accept a bribe if it’s substantial, and, above all, when in serious danger, running away is not harmful to your health. We talked a lot about girls too. It’s important to have interests in common. You can’t talk about the job all the time, too stressful.’ And then one rainy morning, in the 13th arrondissement, they were going after a Russian – Russians had started arriving in Paris, this was a long time ago – and Cro-Mag had complained about his stomach ulcer. The Hyena had asked him, ‘Are you fed up with this job?’ and it had been like a light bulb going on: yes, he was fed up of getting up every morning not knowing who he was going to threaten next, whether there would be many of them, whether he’d be frightened or, worst of all, whether he’d feel sorry for them and ashamed of what he was doing. He was fed up with clenching his buttocks every night when he put the key in his front door, with a hollow in his stomach at the thought of finding some men waiting for him in the sitting room, or his girlfriend’s body lying mutilated in the kitchen, or being pinned to the ground by a squad of cops. Yes, he was fed up with living in constant terror, without earning enough to move out of his thirty square metres in Belleville. The only reason he was hanging on was to work with her. She had said, ‘If you give it up, yes, I’ll miss you. But you’re capable of doing something else. I’m not. I can’t stand being crossed. Whereas you can adapt, it’s a shame for you to wear your health out doing a job you hate.’ Cro-Mag says that made him want to cry, because he realized at that moment he
was
going to give it up and that it was over, being a team with her. But also because he knew she was telling the truth:she was beyond saving, unfit for normal life. The difference between the truly tough and those who opt for redemption is that some people have the choice, others don’t. Every time he reached this part of their story, he got emotional, spontaneously, as if he’d abandoned an injured teammate on top of a mountain, knowing he couldn’t last long, and was now feeling guilty at being able to escape on his own two legs and get back to normal life. ‘The Hyena, she’s pure tragedy, when you get close to her, you really understand what it is to be lonely, sad, and unfit for the world.’ When he went on like this, it was obvious that he loved her. Not ‘loved’ as in I want to eat your pussy, but like when someone’s whole attitude is dear to you and every memory you share is covered with a fine golden sheen. Well. In the two years I’ve been doing my present job, I’ve had many occasions to hear things about her, and I’ve learnt that she has inspired the same feelings in many people, so don’t try to tell me she suffers from loneliness…
    They’d carried on meeting, in the usual Cro-Mag way, for a coffee from time to time. This guy must spend a crazy amount of energy keeping up with old friends. Over the years, the Hyena had become a star among private investigators: there aren’t many of those in the trade, outside crime novels. Her speciality was missing persons. Since then, the stories told about her have evolved into various, contradictory versions, some of them pure fiction. Everyone has their own tale to tell, lawyers, informers, special branch, the cops, other PIs, journalists, hairdressers, hotel staff and prostitutes… anyone who’s involved in our little world has their own story about what she’s up to, where, how, and who with. She provides drugs for government ministries, with coverfrom the secret