Page 73 of The Perdition Score (Sandman Slim 8)

“A friend from out of town. Neither of us was supposed to have it and she never got the chance to tell me what it’s for.”

“May I see it?” Liliane says.

Vidocq gives her the vial and she holds it up to the light. Shakes it a little.

“It is dangerous,” he says.

“Is it all right to open?”

I politely take it back from her and set it on the table.

“You might want to hold off while you have a belly full of wine.”

She gives me a loose-necked shake of her head.

“I work with a lot of odd chemicals in my lab all the time. Some of them don’t smell like roses either, but I manage.”

“I wasn’t calling you a lightweight.”

“Good, because you should have seen some of the things that were in Eugène’s little dungeon in Paris. The most god-awful smells you can imagine.”

“What was it you used to call it?”

“Your perfumed abattoir.”

He chuckles lightly.

“That’s it. I once experimented with a Hand of Glory, subjecting it to an array of chemicals, potions, even electrical stimulation. All in hopes of reviving it.”

I look at him.

“You tried to bring a hand back to life? What the hell for?”

He shrugs.

“To see if I could. I was more reckless and ambitious in those days. We all were. They were exciting times.”

Liliane nudges him with her shoulder.

“They certainly were.”

He gives me a sheepish smile.

Liliane turns to me.

“Speaking of hands, James, what’s wrong with yours? If you don’t mind me asking?”

I give Vidocq a look. He nods.

“It’s all right. She’s seen much in two hundred years. She can handle it.”

I shrug off my coat and glove. Roll up my shirtsleeve, giving her a full-frontal look at my biomechanical flipper.

Her eyes widen. Liliane puts a hand to her mouth. She looks at me, then Vidocq.

She says, “Would it be all right if I touched it?”

“Sure. I suppose so.”