The Curious Case of the Two Dirk Gentlys

37: Calls in the Abyss

Sleeping in uncomfortable conditions was nothing new to Todd. The bed in his old apartment had been hard and lumpy and the walls had offered nothing but cold. His new home above the office, while considerably warmer, currently possessed little more than a mattress. Expenses and all that. Still both his old bed and his new mattress was more comfortable than the pile of splinters which he was stuck upon in the universe's little void. Brass handles dug into his neck and wooden planks broke his back. Why couldn't have Albert sent him a cushion or a beanbag?

"Urr, Todd, you awake?" Friedkin towered over him as he sat curled in a ball. Friedkin never seemed to sit down. He moved in circles all hours, all days. The dead don't need to sleep after all.

"Everyone's a bloody awake." Grumbled Robert.

"I'm awake. What do you need?" Sighed Todd. He sat up, moving the metal pressure down his spine. He winced. The kid would need to send some painkillers and bruise lotion down very quickly at the rate things were going.

"Phone call for you." He said, reaching at the mobile phone Todd had dropped on the way down. The screen was shattered leaving a web of cracks all over its surface but it continued to function just fine.

"We get signal down here?"

"Four bars apparently." Friedkin told him. Todd nodded gratefully as he took the phone and pressed it against his ear. The voice on the other end came through loud and clear. It was a voice he had been dying to hear since the choas began.

"Todd? Todd are you there?" Asked Farah.

"Farah? Yes I'm here. Oh my God I'm here." Replied Todd.

"Is Dirk with you?"

"Um...no, Dirk isn't here right now." He automatically scanned around the empty space as if he was expecting Dirk to magically appear. No such luck. It was still just him, his ex-enemy, and a useless father.

"Your voice is echoing. Where are you?" She asked.

"Well, it's complicated. I'm kind of outside of the universe right now." He explained.

"Outside of what?" She exclaimed.

"Well either outside of it or in the middle of it. Like I said it's...complicated." He said. "A-are you okay? I mean you wouldn't just call for nothing." Dirk and Mona were the only 'call just to say hi' types in the agency. Todd and Farah preferred not to waste their precious minutes.

"No, we're not. We're on the run." She told him frantically.

"You're what?" Asked a man in the background whose voice Todd didn't recognise.

"You and Mona?" Asked Todd.

"And Bart." Farah added. "Todd I don't know why but Blackwing's back in full swing and it wants what it thinks is theirs."

"Blackwing. Yes Blackwing is what I need to talk to you about. Farah, you have to stop them."

"We know that, Todd." Farah grumbled.

"No, I don't mean stop them like before. I mean-"

"All right, times up. I don't know what Louis has got to do with all this Blackwing nonsense but he can put it on his own phone bill." Said the unknown man.

"Todd, I have to go. Find Dirk. Tell him to stay put."

"No, Farah, wait." Said Todd.

"Bye, Todd." And click went the phone. Todd sighed and shoved the mobile into his pocket. He slumped back into the uncomfortable heap and looked up at black sky. Still the tumour spread.

"Not very to the point are you?" Said Robert.

"Not very good at saving yourself are you?" Todd retorted. "I can't do anything from down here. There has to be away out."

"You know that the universe wouldn't normally let me help anyone." Friedkin told him.

"I know." Todd grumbled.

"But..."

"But?" Asked Todd hopefully.

"Perhaps to help its favourite tools." He smiled and with a click of his fingers Todd and Robert were no longer in a world of darkness. Instead they found themselves bathed in natural light on the sticky floor of a 0 star cafe.