Krakow Melt (22 page)

But the officer wasn’t going to tell me if St Mary’s was now an ash heap. The second cop started speaking into his radio, walking in a wide circle across the mouth of my lair to the west side of the bridge, as if to block me from running.

“Where is the body of this Radek?” the smiling one asked.

But I wasn’t listening. I lifted my weapon to the embrasures under the car. I could tell by the horror on their faces that they hadn’t known about this construction detail on the bridge until I showed them. My interrogator screamed at his partner to move the car, but they were too late.

A dragon’s blowtorch can get her into a lot of trouble.

Now, if Radek were here, he would explain how this little show had nothing to do with the gas tank and everything to do with the tires.

Burning tires, he would say, are the most difficult items on earth to extinguish. A single tire contains 7.5 litres of oil, and would smoulder for days.

You could extinguish the outside, but the inside would keep on burning.

You could put the fire out completely, but its own sustained heat would reignite the flame.

Tires are the most beautiful objects on earth, he would say.

D
ANIEL
A
LLEN
C
OX
is the author of
Shuck
, shortlisted
for a Lambda Literary Award for debut fiction and
the ReLit Award (Canada) for best novel. He is also
a columnist for
Capital Xtra!
in Ottawa, Canada. He
lives in Montreal; his home burned down in 2007.