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and down steep hills, down narrow alleys and past scores of T-shirt shops and stalls selling a variety of totally useless tourist crap. Four blocks from the Wharf's main shopping avenues, she stopped in front of a plate-glass window. In the middle of the window was a huge painted diamond done in shades of blue surrounded by an array of gold and red zodiac signs. The stores on either side were vacant, their windows plastered with yellowed handbills and posters for meetings and concerts that had taken place years before. The street in front of the store was paved with a permanent layer of gritty black dust and the sidewalk under their feet had buckled from decades of San Andreas hiccups. The block was so dead that even the cockroaches had moved on to greener pastures. |
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Cyrus opened the door for Kyna and followed her into the shop. |
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At last, he thought, an honest-to-God jewelry store. |
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But it turned out to be a lot different from any other jewelry store he had ever visited. The walls were painted black and had been adorned with a variety of African artifacts: bulbous knobkerries, crossed assegai short fighting spears, ebony statuettes and handcrafted wooden drums covered with dried hides. The floors were spotless white tile, and despite being inexpensive, the merchandise was arranged in neat rows inside clean glass display cases. The main aisle was the domain of off-brand watches and rings and pendants mounted with semiprecious stones. The place was old and musty, and either the owner was burning some type of exotic incense to cover the building's creeping BO, or someone had been smoking hashish. |
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Kyna kept going down the aisle, but Cyrus lingered next to a display of digital diving watches where he could inspect the wares and still keep an eye on everything. When Kyna reached the counter at the back of the shop, she offered her hand to a stunning black woman with a round, pixieish face framed by long dreadlocks. The woman was wearing a rainbow-hued dashiki that swept the floor when she moved, sandals and a single half-moon earring in her left ear. |
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