Everville (60 page)

"Whatever we find around that corner," she told Howie as they dismounted, "keep control of yourself."

"I just want my wife and baby back."

"And we'll get them," Tesla said. "But Howie, brute force isn't going to do us any good. One word and we're both dead. Think about that. You're not going to be much use to Jo-Beth and Amy dead."

Point made, Tesla headed off round the corner. There were no streetlights along the road, but there was enough light from moon and stars for the scene to be plain enough. Grillo's car sat battered and overturned. Jo-Beth was standing clear of it, apparently unharmed. There was no sign of either Grillo or the baby.

As for Tommy-Ray, he was disciplining his troops, the ghosts gathered around his feet like a pack of beaten cuts.

"Fucking stupid!" he yelled at them. "Stupid!"

He reached down into their shifting substance and hauled two ragged handfuls of it up towards his face. It hung from his fingers in tatters.

"Why don't you learn?" he raged.

The murmurs of the ghosts grew more panicky. Some of them turned their wretched faces up towards him in supplication. Others hid their heads, apparently knowing what was coming.

Tommy-Ray opened his mouth, wider than any natural anatomy allowed, and put the muck-laced ether between his teeth. Then he literally inhaled it, sucking the dirty air into his body. Tesla saw two phantom faces, sobbing and gasping, disappear down the Death-Boy's gullet, while the next in line scrabbled to avoid joining them. But the lesson was apparently over, because now he grabbed the strands of matter that hung from the corners of his mouth and bit down on them, grinding them between his teeth. The ether dropped away from either side of his chin. He let the severed ends drop.

The survivors murmured their gratitude and shrank away.

The whole episode had taken perhaps fifteen seconds, during which time Tesla and Howie had halved the distance between the corner and the wreckage. they were now no more than twenty-five yards from the car, and in danger of being seen if Tommy-Ray chanced to look in their direction. Luckily, he had another distraction: Jo-Beth. He had gone to her and was speaking to her face to face. She didn't retreat from him. Even when his hands went up to her face-stroked her cheek, her hair, her lips-she stood unmoving before him.

"Christ... " Howie murmured.

Tesia glanced over her shoulder. "There's something alive in there," she said, nodding back at Grillo's car.

Howie looked. "I don't see anything," he said, his gaze returning to the dalliance between the twins.

"He can't do that," he growled, and pushing past Tesia, started towards them. He was gone so fast Tesla had no choice but to act out at the same time. She moved off towards the car, scanning the dark snarl of metal for further evidence of life. She found it too; a tiny motion. She was perhaps a dozen yards from the car now, the stinging smell of gasoline filling her head. Bending low and moving fast she moved round the far side of the vehicle, putting the wreckage between her and Tommy-Ray. Though she tried to tune out his voice, snatches of what he was telling Jo-Beth drifted her way.

"There'll be more... " he murmured. "Lots more...

She knelt in the pooled gasoline and peered into the wreckage, using Tommy-Ray's talk to cover her calling: "Grillo-?"

As she spoke her eyes began to make sense of the tangled forms in front of her. There was an upturned seat; a litter of maps. And there among them, oh God, there, was Grillo's arm. She reached out and touched it, whispering his name again. There was no response. Ducking her head through the broken window she started to pull at the debris blocking her way to him. A drizzle of oil fell in her hair and ran down her face. She wiped it away from her eyes with the back of her hand and attacked the wreckage afresh. A portion of the seat came away this time, which she shoved to the side, offering her a fuller view of him. His face was half-turned towards her, and seeing him she said his name again, knowing in the same moment that her breath was wasted. He was dead, pierced by a spike of metal. Despite the horror of this it seemed from his expression that he'd not died in anguish. His worn face-which she had reached up to touch-was almost serene.

As her fingers grazed his cheek, something moved in the darkness beyond him. Amy; it was Amy! Tesla inched into the creaking wreckage until her face was inches from Grillo's pierced chest and peered over him. There was the baby, her eyes wet and wide in the murk, her hand clutching the index finger of Grillo's left hand.

There was no hope of moving the dead man, Tesla was certain; he and the vehicle were inextricably connected. Her only hope-and Amy's-was to reach over the body, past the spike that had skewered Grillo, and ease the child between the ragged metal overhead and the corpse below' She crawled as far into the wreckage as space would allow, and stretched her arms across Grillo's body-her breasts pressed against his sticky torso-to take hold of the infant.

- I - - @. - - @ @ A. JL As she did so she heard Tommy-Ray's voice,

"Dead - -. " he was saying.

This time there was an audible response. Not from JoBeth, but from Howie. Tesla caught only a few of the words; enough to know he was addressing Jo-Beth, not her brother.

"Keep talking," Tesia murmured. The longer Howie kept Tommy-Ray distracted, the more hope she had of getting the child out.

With some gentle persuasion she succeeded in loosing Amy's hand from Grillo's finger, and now began to lift her over Grillo's body, shimmying backwards as she did so, belly to the roof of the car. The baby was eerily quiet throughout. Shock, Tesla presumed.

"It's okay," she cooed, attempting a Smile of reassurance. Amy looked back at her blankly.

they were almost free of the wreckage now. Certain that she would not lay eyes on Grillo again, she took a moment to study his face, "Soon," she promised him. "Very soon."

Then she knelt up, gathering the baby to her body, and started to et to her feet.

On the other side of the wreckage, Tommy-Ray was yelling. There was a complexity in his voice Tesla had Dever heard before, as though he had assembled a chorus of the dead he'd devoured, and they were weaving their voices with his.

"Tell him-" the voices were saying to Jo-Beth, "tell him the truth-"

Clear of the wreckage now, Tesla dared to stand, assuming (correctly)

the Death-Boy would be too preoccupied to look in her direction. He was standing a little way behind his sister, his hands on her shoulders.

"Tell him how it is between us," the voices out of him said.

Jo-Beth's features were no longer a blank. Face to face with her husband, whose distress was all too apparent, she could not help but be moved. Tommy-Ray shook her a little. "Why don't you just spit it out!" he said.

Finally, she spoke. "I don't know any more," she said.

At the sound of her voice, the baby in Tesla's arms began crying. Tesla froze, as three pairs of eyes were turned towards her.

"Amy!" Jo-Beth sobbed, and breaking from her place between the two men, she started towards Tesla, arms outstretched.

"Give her to me!"

She was a yard or two from the wreckage when Tommy-Ray yelled, "Wait!"

There was such vehemence in his voice she obeyed on the instinct.

"Before you touch that kid," Tommy-Ray demanded, "I want you to tell him who it belongs to."

Tesla could see Jo-Beth's face; the men could not. She could see the conflict written on it. "W-w-what are you t-t-ttalking about?" Howie said.

"I don't think she wants to tell you," Tommy-Ray said. "But I do. I want you to know once and for all. I came calling quite a while back, just to see how my little sister was doing, and we-got together, like you wouldn't believe. The kid's mine, Katz."

Howie's eyes were on Jo-Beth. "Tell him he's a liar," he said. The girl didn't move. "Jo-Beth? Tell him h-h-he's a liar!"

He had taken the gun out of his jacket-Tesla had seen him drop it in the parking lot; he'd obviously snatched it up again before climbing on the back of the bike-and he waved it in Jo-Beth's general direction.

"I w-w-want you t-t-to tell him!" he yelled at her. "H-hhe's a liar!" Tesla's gaze went from his face to the gun to Jo-Beth to the wet ground, and images of the Mail in Palomo Grove filled her head. Fletcher, soaked in gasoline and eager for death by fire. The gun, clutched in her own hand, ready to strike a spark Not again, she prayed. Please God, not again.

Tommy-Ray was still ranting.

"You never had her, Katz. Not really. You thought you did, but she goes deeper than you could ever get." He jiggled his lips as he spoke.

"Real deep."

Howie looked down at the gasoline around his enemy's feet, and without hesitation, fired. The whole sequence of events-the looking and the firing@ould only have occupied three or four seconds, but it was long enough for Tesla to wonder what place synchronicity had upon the story tree.

Then the spark came, and the flame followed, and the air around Tommy-Ray turned gold.

Howie let out a whoop of triumph. Then he turned his gaze on Jo-Beth.

"You still want him?" he yelled.

Jo-Beth let out a sob. "He loves me," she said.

"No!" Howie yelled, striding towards her now. "No! No! No! I'm the one who loves you-" He stabbed at his chest with his finger. "Always did. Before I met you I loved you-,, As he approached her the fire that had bloomed around the Death-Boy moved across the ground in her direction-. She didn't see it. She was too busy yelling at Howie to Stop, please stop "Howie!" Tesla yelled. He looked her way. "The fire, Howie-"

He saw it now. Dropped his gun and raced towards Jo-Beth, shouting to her as he went. Before he'd halved the distance between them the flames that had obscured the Death-Boy parted like a curtain, and Tommy-Ray strode into view. He was blazing from head to foot; fire spurting from his mouth and eye-sockets, from his belly, from his groin. His immolation seemed not to concern him overmuch, however. He advanced upon his sister with an almost casual lope.

She had seen his approach, and would surely have run from him, but the ground at her feet was alight, and as she retreated the flames ignited her dress. She began to shriek, and beat at the fire with her hands, but it quickly consumed the light fabric, leaving her nearly naked for its play.

Howie was a couple of yards from the flames now, and without hesitation he plunged into them, arms outstretched to claim his wife. But the Death-Boy was a yard from him, and caught hold of his jacket collar in his fiery fist. Howie halfturned to beat him back, grabbing at the shrieking Jo-Beth with his free hand. The fire had reached her long hair, and it suddenly ignited, a column of fire rising off her scalp. Howie reached for her, plainly intending to carry her out of the fire. Her arms were open, and as he took hold of her, they closed around him.

Tesla had witnessed horrors apienty along the road that had brought her to this moment, but nothing-not in the Loop, not at Point Zero-as terrible as this. Jo-Beth was no longer shrieking now. Her body was jerking around as though she was in the throes of a fit, her spasms so violent Howie could not carry her out of the fire. Nor could he detach himself. Her blackened arms were molded around him, keeping him a prisoner in the midst of the pyre.

Tommy-Ray had started to shout now: a shrill, lunatic din. He started to tear Howie away from Jo-Beth, or at least tried to, but the fire had spilled from wife to husband, and their bodies had become a single column of flame and flesh. Jo-Beth's spasms had ceased. She was surely dead. But there was life left in Howie still. Enough to raise his hand behind his wife's head, and let it loll on his shoulder, as though the heat were nothing and they were slow-dancing in the flames.

This tender gesture was his last. His withered legs gave out, and he went down onto his knees, carrying Jo-Beth down with him. He made no sound, even to the last. The couple seemed to kneel face to face in the flames, Howie's hand still cradling Jo-Beth's head, Jo-Beth's head still laid upon Howie's shoulder.

As for Tommy-Ray, he now retreated from the bodies towards the far side of the road, where his ghost-legion lingered after their punishment. Whether at his instruction or no, they came to him, and rose around him, blanketing him. The flames were smothered, and he sank down into the midst of his entourage. Sobs escaped him. So did his sister's name, repeated over and over.

Tesla looked back at the fire around Howie and Jo-Beth. With its fuel almost devoured, it had quickly died down. The bodies were shriveled, but it was still possible to make out their arms, wrapped tightly around one another.

Behind her, Testa heard somebody sob. She didn't bother to turn. She knew who it was.

"Satisfied now?" she said to the little girl. "Going to go home?"

"Soon-" came the reply.

This time it was not the floating voice of the child who replied. Puzzled, Tesia looked round. There was a grassy slope behind her, with perhaps half a dozen large bushes planted upon it, all dead. The three witnesses were perched upon the uppermost branches, but so lightly it seemed unlikely they had any weight whatsoever. they had put off their previous appearances in favor of what Tesla assumed were their real faces. they reminded her of porcelain puppets, their heads small, their features simple, their skin nearly white. they were cocooned, however, in garments of papal excess, layer upon gilded layer. There was very little variation among their appearance, but she assumed the individual closest to her had been little Miss Perfection, by the' way she now addressed Tesla.

"I knew we chose well," she, he, or it said. "You are all we hoped you'd be."

Tesla glanced back at Tommy-Ray. He was still blanketed in mist, still grieving. But he'd come for the child sooner or later. This was no time to be quizzing her unwanted patrons in depth. Just a few questions, and she'd have to go.

"Who the hell are you?"

"We are Jai-Wai," the creature replied. "And I am Rare Utu. Yie and Haheh you already know."