Chameleon

Chapter 28

4:05 Saturday afternoon.

"Knuckles" Brass picked Mike Menagerie up by the throat and shook him until his teeth rattled,

'You miserable little arsehole!' Brass yelled.

'P-p-please!' Mike stammered. 'I can explain.'

Brass threw him half-way across the room. He landed in a heap.

'You got thirty seconds,' Brass told him.

'It's not the same band,' Mike gasped. 'We found a new lead singer. You've heard the tapes, you know how good he is. We just need a chance, How else was I going to get one?'

'I don't like being made a fool of.' Brass advanced towards him, fists balled menacingly at his sides. Mike scurried away on all fours.

'Okay,' he said, 'beat me up, kill me if you want, you've still got a club full of people turning up tonight expecting to see Darth Presley. And the radio and the papers.'

Brass stopped and considered.

'Let us play,' Mike pleaded. 'Then, if we're no good, it's not your fault. You've said all along you knew nothing about all this. But if we are good...' He let that thought sink in for a while.

'Okay,' Brass said. 'You can play. But for your sake you'd better be bleedin' brilliant!'

* * *

Outside in the van, Billy drummed impatiently on the dashboard.

'Come on, come on,' he muttered. 'What's taking so long?'

Molly sat in the back of the van and gave Charlie's hand an affectionate squeeze. He looked pale and tired. They all did. It had been an exhausting week, especially for Charlie. Rehearsing, doing demo tapes for Lenny Pepper, rewriting Billy's songs so they fitted the new image, sticking posters up all over the place, getting costumes and props together and a hundred and one other things. And what little sleep they had managed to grab had been disturbed by Charlie's nightmares.

We must be mad to be doing this, thought Molly. Saturation coverage. That's what Mike had called it. Never in a million years did Molly think it would work. But it had! Everyone was talking about it. It had taken every penny they all had to keep the rumour mill turning, but it would all pay off if Brass would play ball.

'Yes!' Billy shouted triumphantly. 'He's done it!'

Mike had reappeared at the back door to the Hellfire Club and was beckoning them forward. Billy started the engine. The butterflies in Molly's stomach took flight once more. It was too late to back out now.

* * *

Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?

That's what Cathy had said to him the night she had sold herself to those Godless fiends. She'd meant it as an insult, but what would she say now? Now that there really was a gun in his pocket!

The revolver had belonged to Colin's grandfather, who had brought it back from some war or other. Colin's father had kept it in very good condition and it was in full working order. Colin hoped he wouldn't get reprimanded for taking it without permission, but it was in a good cause.

***

Christina looked at Sonia in her lurid tee-shirt and skin-tight jeans and groaned. She felt terribly out of place in her slacks and check shirt, worn loose to hide the bulk of the automatic tucked in at her waist.