The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (34 page)

But this was exactly the kind of neighborhood that would help him. "We're kidnapped! Call the police!" Tendai yelled. All that came out of his mouth was a hiss. His tongue would not respond! He tried again and again. A long string of drool came out and dripped into the dust. He pounded his fists on the man who was carrying him.

"Now you know what it feels like to be a dumb beast,” said the Blue Monkey, laughing nastily, "like my little brothers and sisters at the zoo."

"Awake, eh?" the She Elephant said. "That's a little side effect of the stuff I gave the taxi driver.
He
won't be singing for a while."

Tendai tried to break the grip of whoever was carrying him. The man merely shifted him to the other shoulder. Tendai saw a swollen eye and a bandage over one ear: it was the owner of the Blue Monkey.

"They think you're a half-wit like Trashman," said the Blue Monkey.

Rita reached out to yank a woman's sleeve.

"Stop that!" shouted the woman. "They're pickpockets," she explained to a man who carried a basket of dried fish. "The big ones are training the little ones right now."

The She Elephant patted Rita's head. "It's the longest this brat's been quiet in her whole life." Rita kicked at her, and the big woman laughed.

The She Elephant bought loaves of hot bread and mugs of sweet milky tea from street vendors. They all sat by the dusty road to eat, although Tendai found it difficult. He choked on the bread and dribbled tea onto his shirt. The Blue Monkey thought this was a great joke.

Now the sun had set: the air was a deep pure blue. Charcoal smoke drifted over them, sinking into their clothes and hair. Tendai felt his mouth begin to stir with sensation. "When did you tell them to come?" the She Elephant asked suddenly.

"They're already here." The Blue Monkey pointed a hairy finger at the darkening sky. A cluster of stretch limos lowered over a distant building. They were black — or perhaps it was only the fading sunset behind them. They stirred something in Tendai's memory. He tried to speak, and an audible sound came out of his mouth.

"Not a moment too soon. That one's getting his voice back." The She Elephant picked up Rita and patted Trashman on the shoulder. He obediently lifted Kuda. They walked off
 
briskly, leaving the crowds behind. Soon they came to deserted streets flanked by old factories and continued on until the She Elephant led them into a dark alley.

"Augh!" croaked Tendai.

"Yii!" shrilled Rita, but no words came out. The alley twisted in a confusing way, and presently they arrived at a dark doorway.

"Time to go," the Blue Monkey announced.

"Wait a minute. Aren't you going to help me?" said the She Elephant.

"I'm not going up
those
stairs."

"But I paid you —"

“You paid me to contact the buyers. No way am I getting near them. They'd love a blue monkey skin on their wall."

The She Elephant swore and threatened, but the animal ordered his owner to put Tendai down. She clamped Tendai in an iron grip before he could bolt. "Help! Help!" he shouted, his voice back at last. The deserted alley swallowed up the sound. He saw the Blue Monkey and his owner disappear into the shadows. The She Elephant dragged him through the door and kicked it shut. And then they were alone — Tendai, Rita, Kuda, the She Elephant and Trashman — at the foot of a long dark stair.

The steps went up and up and up, spiraling along the inside of the building. At intervals, a cold green light shone from a panel in the wall. It reminded Tendai of the glowworms that came out on rainy nights. The light was just enough to keep them from stumbling, but not enough to spread any cheer.

The air was dank and cool, the walls scored with alarming cracks. Every thirteen steps or so, they came to a landing and an iron door leading to the inner core of the building. The doors were rusted shut. Tendai noticed they didn't have handles on the outside.

At the landings, the She Elephant stopped to catch her breath. "Damn Blue Monkey," she muttered. She had Rita under one arm and dragged Tendai along by the hand. She was panting with exhaustion, and Rita's regular kicks didn't improve her mood. When she rested, Trashman perched on a higher step and waited.

"Go find Mama," Tendai whispered. Trashman looked up.

"Do that again, and I'll throw your precious sister down the stairs," said the She Elephant.

Once, after the fourth or fifth rest, they startled a flock of bats. The creatures erupted from a crevice and filled the air with their jittering bodies.

"More! More!" cried Kuda, clapping his hands.

Other, less innocent things scuttled out of their way as they climbed. A rat watched them from a crumbled hole by a light; a scorpion danced from under their feet; a huge baboon spider squatted in a crack with its fangs resting on the edge. It lifted its mouthparts as they approached.

"Come
on"
said the She Elephant, jerking Tendai past the spot. At last they came out into a dim antechamber near the roof. It was lit only by the cold green panels. Above was a stone ceiling. Before them was another of the iron doors, only this time it was topped by a camera that creaked as it swiveled to watch them.

"Who is that man?" demanded a deep voice from the camera.

"A simpleton," the She Elephant replied. "He's no problem. Doesn't remember what he had for breakfast." The camera looked at Trashman, who smiled and patted it. The She Elephant put Rita down. The camera observed them one by one, pausing when it got to Tendai.

"He looks like his father."

"Why ... so he does," said the She Elephant in surprise. "Funny, I didn't notice that before."

Tendai heard the sound of many locks being undone. Whoever was in there didn't like company. But of course he knew who it was. He patted Trashman on the shoulder and whispered, "Kuda wants Mama."

"Shut up!" snarled the She Elephant, whirling around. Tendai put himself in front of Rita as Trashman turned toward the stairs.

"Kuda wants Mama!" Tendai shouted. The She Elephant, instead of attacking him as he expected, lunged at Trashman and plucked the little boy from his shoulders. Trashman babbled anxiously with his hands out.

"Mama! Mama!" screamed Kuda. The She Elephant backed away. Trashman grabbed the boy's legs. Tendai was terrified they would have a tug-of-war, but Kuda twisted his body around and pounded the She Elephant's face with his fists. She was so startled, she let go. Trashman did a victory dance in the dim antechamber.

"No! No! Kuda wants Mama!" yelled Tendai, seeing the man had already forgotten what to do.

"Hurry!" shrieked Rita, but the iron door had shrugged off its last chain.
 
It swung
open. The noise attracted Trashman's attention, and the moment was lost. He trotted inside before Tendai could stop him.

A stream of hooded shapes swarmed out and surrounded them all. "Hey! I'm on your side," cried the She Elephant.

"She's on our side! She is, she is," hissed the shapes, whisking them through the door. "Is that the
outside
or the
in,
O She Elephant? Are you riding
on
the hyena or
in
its gut?"

"Don't talk like that! I'm here to do business."

"Businessss," sighed the shapes, doing up the many locks, chains and bolts that secured the door. The room was almost black, and a rank smell sent flutters of panic along Tendai's nerves. It reminded him of dogs' teeth and rats' fur, of fresh bones and old scabs. The shapes moved around in the gloom, ceaselessly and hypnotically, in a kind of dance. The shuffle of feet told him the room was crowded. They were all around. He had to see what they were or scream.

They laid hands on him, and he struggled wildly. A murmur of laughter went around the walls. He could see humps of shadow, moving and dancing.
 
"Let me go!" Rita
 
shrieked, not far away.

Someone lit a match.

Tendai watched it move down a row of black candles. The light dipped and bobbed and sent confusing shadows across the floor, but he was able to see. Tacked to the walls were dried bats, owls and shriveled lizards. Bunches of gray herbs hung like diseased fruit from the ceiling. Over an altar crouched the body of a stuffed hyena.

"It's a witch's den!" screamed Rita.

The laughter was louder now. The humps of shadow suddenly threw off their hoods. Beneath were swollen faces with slitted eyes and bulging foreheads. Mouths dripped with the teeth of crocodiles. Heads sprouted ape fur and lion's mane. Cheeks were blotchy gray. Behind the slits, Tendai saw glittery eyes moving back and forth, back and forth. He lost all hope then. They could never escape. They would never be found. They had been carried, body and spirit, into the secret killing ground of the Masks in Mufakose.

Thirty-four

When Ear, Eye and Arm arrived at Twenty-five Horsepool Lane, it looked as if the garden had exploded. Teapots lay smashed, gnomes were trampled flat, chairs had disintegrated into splinters. A pitchfork was embedded in a jacaranda tree.

"Oh, dear oh, dear," whimpered an old woman by the fountain. "Your very best tea service."

"Piffle. I was tired of the old stuff," said Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham. Arm recognized her from the picture the General had provided. The Mellower's mother poured the old woman a drink of some amber-colored liquid. "Here. Down the hatch. It'll do you a world of good."

"Do you think I should?"

"Everyone else is."

The old woman glanced around. Every one of the women in the garden had been provided with something to fortify her nerves. "You're so strong, Beryl. To think of attacking that monster with a pitchfork."

"I wish I'd had the Nirvana gun." Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham suddenly noticed the detectives, who had been waiting patiently in the shade of the wisteria vine. "No tradesmen!" she called.

"We aren't selling anything," said Ear.

"No charities either! We've had a perfectly dreadful afternoon. Go on! Shoo! I am not donating to the Handicapped Fund."

"Sorry-sorry-sorry," said the robot, lurching toward them. Its head stuck out at a right angle, and its eyes blinked fitfully. It fell over a wisteria root and lay there with its wheels spinning.

Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham closed her eyes. "Please state your business and be done with it."

"We're looking for General Matsika's children. They were kidnapped." Arm watched the woman's face closely.

"Yes, yes. I heard about it from my son. Poor things. I do hope you find them. Now, if you don't mind —"

"Oh, Beryl, did he say 'children'?" said the old woman by the fountain.

"My dear, you must lie down. You look ever so shocked."

"But, Beryl, I saw —"

"Don't argue. Sherry goes straight to the brain." Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham steered her toward the house. "I wouldn't want you to have a heart spell. I'd never forgive myself." They disappeared inside.

"She's lying," Arm said.

"Even I could tell that. Let's look around while she's busy covering up." Eye nodded politely at the members of the Animal Fanciers' Society. The women pretended not to notice, but Arm saw several of them watching from the corners of their eyes.

"Boo!" he cried, whirling around. They shrieked and dropped their sherry glasses.

"Shame on you," said Ear.

"I make a great bogeyman." Arm bowed courteously, and the women turned their backs.

They continued prowling. A pair of Dobermans peered nervously from a gooseberry hedge. When they saw Arm, they retreated into the leaves with howls of despair.

"See?" said Arm.

"We'll rent you out on Halloween. Hello, what have we here?" Ear picked up a scrap of black cloth. It was a ripped-off pocket, and inside was a matchbook.

"Starlight Room. Well, well. Someone's living high. And look!" At the foot of a toppled garden gnome, Arm picked up a small cloth bag. "It's a copy of the one we found in the subway. The children are here!"

 
"Wonderful! Shall we hunt for them?" Ear waved his ears at a woman in tight riding pants. She winced.