Their new, secret product is cocaine for toddlers! It comes in different flavors, and each flavor has its own mascot with a matching doll! My favorite is Sally Speedball. She’s the blueberry one, and she comes with a twelve-pack of press-on bump nails and two free hits. She, Toot-Toot, and Belushi are part of an all-girl band called the Nose Candy Star Dusters.
Oh, by the way, the knockers are pretty harmless. But they’re very protective of their new product. The workers in the outer rooms can’t fight back. Their magically built help, however...
Yeah. Watch your ass.
[ 64 ]
The truck bumpedas we accidentally rolled over a group of passed-out knockers. They all had little symbols over their heads I didn’t have time to examine, but I assumed they had something to do with the giant cloud of cocaine. The white cloud was getting thicker by the moment. I could barely see the red light of the five different exits up ahead.
This next room was doll packing. After this one, we’d be back in the steel-mill part.
A panicked message from Prepotente came in.
Prepotente: Bianca has fallen ill! She appears to have been rendered “strung out” by these unlawful toddler drugs! I am pulling off the track to administer aid before she perishes! She hasn’t yet grabbed your target!
Carl: Shit! Okay, let us know if you need help.
We bumped as we left the cloud of toddler cocaine and entered a brightly lit room filled to the ceiling with wooden crates, leaving only a narrow path.
The room was a littletoobright, especially compared to the previous rooms, and I had to squint to see where we weregoing. I immediately sensed a trap, and I eased slightly off the accelerator as I?—
“Oh shit!” I cried upon seeing the massive hole in the floor ahead of us. Thankfully, we rolled right over it because of the Bubble Buddy.
“Carl, stop!” Donut shouted. “They fell in! I saw them!”
I slammed on the brakes, and we screeched to a stop.
“We gotta reverse!” Donut said. “They’re in the hole!”
I thumped the truck into reverse, worried about getting hit from behind. I slowly backed up until we were right against the hole in the ground, pushing the truck tight against the crates so any other vehicles could pass us. I put the truck into park and pulled myself out of the seat.
“Grigori, get in the driver’s seat in case we need to go!” I yelled.
“I cannot,” he said as he continued to dry-heave into the deep fryer.
“I have you,” Dong said, his voice weak as he pulled himself up. “Everybody, up! Up! Do as Carl says.”
Donut and I pushed open the back of the truck and looked down into the large, jagged hole. The hole, I realized, had been a trap. Either a small explosive or just rotten floorboards had given way under the Dominator car.
We were parked flush against a massive wooden crate that was scorched around the edges. The entire box smoked like it would catch on fire at any moment. On the side of the large box was a spray-painted label that read, “My First Sicarios boy action figures, case of 500. Assorted.”
“Damnit,” I muttered, examining the hole.
The GTO, shield down and hit with Prepotente’s hobble missile, had fallen right through and landed on its side. It was a ten-meter drop. The bright light from this room shone down below like a spotlight. The whole front of the car was smashed,and one of the golden wheels had broken off. I could see the axle was broken in half.
No matter what had happened, that vehicle was done.
Our truck shook as a massive ferret-like mount squeezed by, not stopping. A containment warning came and went.
Both Rapture and Genesis were still inside the vehicle, both alive and groaning. Both had aStrung Outwarning over them, meaning they’d been hit by the cloud of cocaine. I knew their protection shield was gone, but I couldn’t tell if their containment shield was active or not. If it wasn’t active, they’d all be boiling hot and wouldn’t last long.
Corky remained in the back of the car, attached via seat belt. He was both unconscious and strung out.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
“What is that?” I asked.
A group of dolls had surrounded the GTO and was in the process of ripping it apart. These were small Barbie- or Bratz-like dolls with giant heads. Half were girl toys, but there were several large G.I. Joe–like action figures as well, all about the same size as the Uzi Jesus toy Eris was walking around with.