The Book of Joby (116 page)

Midnight found Joby staring up into the darkness once again, sorting through the hopeless web of anxieties his life had become. He’d found GB’s plan appalling. How had the boy even
imagined
him capable of
killing
people—demon hosts or not? He wanted very badly to discuss all this with someone other than GB—Jake, the Council, especially his son—but GB was right about at least one thing. Joby had learned long ago that, in a tiny town like Taubolt, secrets known to more than two weren’t likely to stay secrets long—especially such explosive ones. With GB’s very life at stake, it wasn’t
Joby’s right to divulge any of what he’d been told. That right was GB’s alone.

Sleep had become such an infrequent visitor these past few weeks that Joby had trouble thinking even in broad daylight anymore. He closed his eyes again, trying to translate the fatigue that never left him now into the rest that never came, but the sudden crunch of running steps outside on his gravel drive had him halfway out of bed even before the pounding on his door began.

“Joby!” GB pleaded outside. “Joby, let me in!”
Pound, pound, pound.
“Wake up!”

Tying his robe, Joby hurried toward the door, flipping lights on as he went.

“What’s happened?” Joby asked as GB tumbled from the darkness.

“They’re gonna go after the Garden!” GB said, still breathing hard, as if he’d run here clear from town. “I don’t know when exactly, but it’s gonna be soon. Joby, you’ve got to decide! We gotta stop them now, or—”

“Wait a minute,” Joby cut in. “Just . . . Here. Sit down,” he said, closing the door and waving GB toward the couch. “How did you find out
this
now?” Joby asked wearily. “It’s after midnight, GB. Couldn’t you have waited until—”

“No!”
GB exclaimed. “There’s no time left, Joby. Don’t you get it? They’ve got us rounded up like cattle here! Everybody thinks we can run up and hide out in the Garden if things get bad, but the demons have found out about it! I don’t know how, but I saw! It’s in all their heads!”

“Wait a minute,” Joby said sharply, his sleep-deprived mind coming suddenly awake. “In whose heads? Don’t tell me you’ve been—”

“I had to!” GB said defiantly. “You may be fine with sitting here and doing nothing, but it’s a damn good thing I wasn’t.”

“Are you
crazy
?” Joby gasped. “What happened to all that fear of being killed? How many people’s minds have you been gallivanting through
now,
for godsake?”

“I did it while they were sleeping,” GB said sullenly. “I realized that most of them would never feel me there if they weren’t awake, and just mistake me for a dream if they did. I wasn’t caught, was I?” He frowned almost belligerently.

“I don’t know!” Joby said angrily. “
Were you?
Do
you
know?”

“It doesn’t matter!” GB protested. “If we don’t do somethin’ real soon, my dead ass’ll just be one more on the pile here. They’re gonna burn it, Joby! The Garden Coast!”

“What?”
Joby gaped. “How do you—”

“Would you quit askin’ that?” GB snapped. “How many times do I have to say it? I’ve been in their heads every night this week! I have the names of every demon host in town now. See?” He yanked a wad of paper from his back pocket, unfolding it as he held it out for Joby to look at.

Hamilton’s and Donaldson’s names were at the top, of course. Below these, at least thirty more were written in GB’s neat printing. Other than a couple particularly obnoxious shop owners and two members of the school board, which Joby found as gratifying as it was unsurprising, there was not another name he recognized.

“I’ve never heard of most of these people,” Joby said.

“Well, duh!” GB exclaimed. “Whadaya think, they’re gonna stand out in front of Franklin’s Hardware and wave at us? These are the people
no one
knows,” he growled, folding up the list again and shoving it back into his pocket. “They’re gonna set the woods on fire all around that Garden place, and burn it to the ground, along with anybody who’s up there ‘helping,’
like Hawk,
” he finished pointedly.

“Oh, God,”
Joby breathed, not having thought of that yet. “When?” he asked, trying to remember when Hawk had said he’d be returning.

“I couldn’t tell,” said GB. “It seemed soon, but for obvious reasons, I’ve been gettin’ in and out too quickly to look around for details. So are we gonna stop ’em, Joby, or just sit around and do nothin’ like everyone you were complainin’ about last week?”

All at once, Swami’s urgent plea returned to Joby’s mind.
Something bad . . . I don’t know what yet. But . . . will you help us save this?
He’d seen all this coming, Joby realized with a shiver down the length of his whole body. They had told him Swami was a seer, but Joby had never . . .

“There won’t be anywhere left for us to go,” GB pleaded. “We’ll be stranded here in Taubolt while they pick us off like hunters at a duck club.”

“I can’t kill people,” Joby murmured in a daze. “I’m sorry,” he said, as much to Swami as GB, “but I just can’t do this.”

“Bullshit!” GB shouted in frustration. “You’re doing it right now! You’re killing me and Hawk and every other person of the blood you know, Joby! You’re killing
us
instead of a tiny handful of vicious haters. They’re not even really people anymore. They’re just food for what’s inside them, hollow shells, burned out years ago by what their greedy, spiteful minds so eagerly invited once. I’ve been in their heads, remember? It’s like pit toilets in there, Joby. Deep down, whatever’s left of them is prob’ly beggin’ for release. You’d
be doin’ ’em a favor, but no! You’d rather murder all your friends instead. Is that it?”

“Why don’t
you
just do it then?” Joby snapped. “You’ve been doing magic all your life. If this decision is so simple, can’t you just—”

“Weren’t you listening when I told you last time?” GB cut in impatiently. “It’s a
very big spell
! It’s gonna take
both
of us and
five channels
!”

“Which will come from where?” Joby asked, hoping this necessity might buy him at least a bit more time to think.

“I’ve already found ’em,” GB said. “There are some very brave and generous kids in this town, as you already know. And some of them are just as eager to get rid of Donaldson as we are.”

“Those people on your list,” Joby pleaded. “I don’t even know them. How can I kill people I don’t even know?”

“It’s prob’ly better that way,” GB said quietly. “You won’t suffer as much later. Joby,” he said, sounding almost tender suddenly. “I know this is a terrible decision. I hate them even more for forcing you to make it. I shouldn’t have yelled that way, but you do know Hawk, don’t you. Will it hurt less to let him die? You knew Rose. Imagine her death times hundreds. You have the power to stop that. All of it. How’re you gonna feel, later, knowing that you didn’t?” He stood up to come stand face-to-face with Joby and look sadly into his eyes. “A lot of people are about to die here, Joby,” he said softly. “The demons haven’t left you any choice about that. You only get to choose who.” When Joby failed to find his voice, GB said, “Who’s gonna die, Joby?”

“I need time to think about this,” Joby said palely as the choice tore through him.

“How much time?” GB said, still quietly, but with clear frustration.

“I don’t know,” Joby murmured. “A day?”

“You told me once about your friend Ben,” GB said sympathetically. “That fire was their doing too, you know. If you’d had the power to save him then, would you have sat around asking yourself all these moral questions first?”

The question hit Joby like a rockfall.
If he’d had the power then . . .
It had never even crossed his mind, until now. He’d healed Sky years before, just by wanting him healed, if Tom Connolly had been right. Joby felt dismay spread across his face as he stared into GB’s questioning eyes. Why hadn’t he healed Ben? Surely Joby had wanted that as badly as he’d ever wanted Sky’s recovery . . . Or hadn’t he? . . . Deep down . . . had he hesitated . . . not sure, perhaps, whether to want a rival gone?

“Oh God,”
Joby whispered, tears welling in his eyes.
“Oh God.”
Was he a murderer already? Somewhere deeper in his heart than wherever all these self-ennobling moral qualms were coming from?
Why hadn’t his desire been enough to heal Ben?

“Take your day, then,” GB said, breaking their gaze and heading for the door. “I just hope Hawk hasn’t burned to death up there by the time you make up your mind.”

Joby hardly heard him go. He was still seeing Ben’s fire-ravaged face, the moment he had died . . .
She’s yours.

“Not anymore, Ben,” Joby whispered, tears streaming down his face. “I failed her too. I’ve failed everyone I ever loved.”

Hawk got back from his shift up on the Garden Coast just after eight, and stopped at Franklin’s grocery to get some breakfast fixings. He’d felt pretty guilty about leaving his father at such a time, but he’d seen nothing he could do to help diminish what had happened, and two weeks of Joby’s alternation between bleakness and rage had left Hawk desperate for enough distance to get some perspective and regroup. Cooking something really special for their breakfast now seemed like a good way to apologize.

As he left his car to cross the still-deserted street, Hawk was surprised to see one-of Taubolt’s skater types up this early, loitering ahead of him outside the still-unopened bakery. He was even more surprised when the boy beckoned him furtively into an alcove between the two buildings.

“You’re Joby’s kid, aren’t you?” said the boy as Hawk drew near.

“Yes,” Hawk answered. “Do I know you?”

“Uh-uh,” said the boy. “But we all know who you are.” He looked around anxiously, then half-whispered, “The fairy lady told us what happened to you.”

“What?” Hawk said.

“The demon who was in you,” the boy whispered even more quietly.

“Who are you?” Hawk demanded.

“I’m Abe,” the boy said, glancing nervously around again, then, even more quietly, “We’re gonna make ’em pay—for you, and everybody they been hurtin’.”

“Pay?” Hawk said. “Make who pay? What are you talking about?”

Abe suddenly looked frightened. “I just thought . . . We’re on your side. We’re helping Joby! Please, don’t tell ’em I said anything.” He began to back away. “I could get in trouble. I just thought you’d like to know.” As Hawk gaped, Abe turned and ran away.

“Hey! Wait!” Hawk called after him. “What’s this about my father?” But the boy had already disappeared around a corner without ever slowing down.

For a moment, Hawk considered chasing him, but turned and headed back to his car instead.
We’re helping Joby?
What was up with that?

Ten minutes later, Hawk came through the door to find his father already up, looking pale, with eyes as red-rimmed as a B-movie vampire.

“Hawk!” Joby gasped, leaping up to embrace him as if he’d come back from the dead. “Thank God! I was so worried.”

“Why?” Hawk said, alarmed and confused. “What’s happened now?”

“Nothing,” Joby said, leaning away, and seeming suddenly unable to look Hawk in the eye. “You’re not going back there, are you?”

“To the Garden? No,” Hawk said, wondering fearfully if Joby might have had a breakdown of some kind. “Why?”

“I just . . . need you here,” said Joby, while avoiding Hawk’s gaze.

“You look terrible,” Hawk said. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” said his father. “I’ve just . . . I’ve been having trouble sleeping.”

Yeah, right,
Hawk thought. And Atlantis had a leaky basement. Hawk’s own still too-clear memories of demon possession left him fearful something more than insomnia might be at work here. There were a lot of things about the morning Jake had saved him that Hawk still didn’t get. Jake had explained enough to help Hawk understand what had happened to himself, but the ancient had been unapologetic about refusing to discuss the rest. When he’d asked Hawk just to trust him and to keep the little that he had learned to himself, Hawk had seen no reason to deny him anything, in light of all he’d done. But despite the ancient’s discretion, Hawk had left that awful morning well aware that something more than he’d been told was going on in Taubolt, and that somehow, for God knew what reasons, he, himself, had gotten tangled up in it. If the demons plaguing Taubolt had come after him, why not his father?