"Hmmm!" The Ancient One muttered. "It's a slow night. Let's go follow that old weasel, see what he's up to!" For several hours they followed their quarry from strip joint to strip joint. They seemed to be the only places of entertainment that he frequented.
After they left the fifth place Durga muttered "These men must be desperate! Those were some of the ugliest women I ever saw!"
The Ancient One and his male companion grinned at each other. Their quarry headed down an alleyway. There was a limo parked in it. He got in the back behind the driver. There was a heavy set man in a form fitting seat beside him. A scantily dressed young woman sat in the side facing seat in front of him. The heavy set man was holding a hypodermic. The young woman was eyeing it and licking her lips.
"Hurry up and tell me what you've got!" the heavy set man barked. "Sweetie wants her candy, but she has to earn it."
"Nobody's saying anything," the reporter answered. "I've never seen people so tight lipped! You're right! Somebody powerful is pushing the prosecutors for a heavy sentence, and they don't want your friend ever on a sports team again! Whoever they are, they've got clout! I think it might be somebody military. That's about all I can get!"
The reporter held out his hand. The heavy set man looked at him for a moment then nodded. "You did your best!" he remarked. "That's worth something." He opened a compartment, took out a bundle of money, handed it to the reporter and closed the compartment. As he was doing so the girl looked out the window straight at The Ancient One and smiled. "Joe!" the man remarked.
The Ancient One motioned his friends away. "Aren't we going to help the girl?" his male companion asked.
"Nothing we can do for her," The Ancient One answered. "She's already dead, has been for a week or more! I can never understand why they never notice the smell. I guess they're just so interested in their own perverted pleasure they never realize they're the ones being used!"
"Eeew!" his companion gasped,
The Ancient One materialized, found a pay phone and punched in a credit card number. A woman down the street saw him and came closer. The Ancient One ignored her.
"Hello, Penelope!" he remarked. "Can I speak to your mother, dear?" A few moments later he continued to speak. "Hello, Mrs. White! Sorry to bother you at home. But the New York boys are upset because we broke up their little dogfighting ring. They're getting far too nosy! Send them a little warning, will you? Tell them to bug off or we'll start bringing some of their skeletons out of the closet, literally! Oh, yes, I'm aware of that. Let it go. Did the agents shut down the investigation of the death in the major's house? He is, huh? Well tell that district attorney he's got 48 hours to discontinue the investigation, or any plans he has of becoming mayor and running for governor or any higher office will be done! Gotta go! Let me know about any more suicides in the music industry. We're devastating their feeding chains. They're in total chaos, but the more the better! Good night! Thank you!" The Ancient One walked over to the woman who smiled at him. He took his true form and the woman barely seemed startled!
"You're dying," The Ancient One snapped. "You've got a little over six months to live. You've got plenty of money stored up, you can go someplace and enjoy those six months, but if you want to have any soul left stop giving young men what's killing you! Everyone you infect is another piece of your soul that's gone!"
The woman looked at him and muttered "It's only the flu or something!"
The Ancient One took her hand. "You know better!" he told her. "Fortunately most of those you infected won't have much to complain about. It was their own fault. But the innocent kids are the ones that will destroy you." The Ancient One opened her purse. "Here's the address of a nice little hospice in New Jersey," he remarked. "Everybody there is in the same condition you are. So it really doesn't matter how much you do it with each other. Anything left over from your funds will go to charity, to help others."
He put the notebook back in her purse with the pen and shut it. The woman nodded. "What if Peter shows up?" she asked.
The Ancient One shook his head. "He won't realize you're gone for several days," he assured. "And a month from now he'll be too sick to look. Don't worry about him!" The Ancient One hurried off, his companions quickly followed. "I know how you knew," his male companion remarked.
"What?" The Ancient One asked.
"There's only two layers left in her aura, really close to her body. All the rest is gone! About three months to a layer!"
"You're getting better!" The Ancient One praised. "You're getting better!"