Jungle Of Steel And Stone Part 20

"What?"

"Reyna," Walrus said, "tell him he'll get his answer after I land this thing."

And then they were beyond the airport. The lights on the radarscope dimmed as Walrus switched back to a mode with a tighter focus. There was no one following them.

Thirteen minutes later Walrus brought the helicopter down in a remote, dark corner of Flus.h.i.+ng Airport. A two-engine jet was tied down off to one side of the weed-covered field, and Walrus taxied to within a few yards of it. Veil was the first out, and he took Toby's unconscious body from Schneider. Schneider jumped down, took Toby from Veil, and carried the K'ung to the plane. He strapped Toby onto a cot, then started the plane's engines.

Walrus was already out and busy ripping tape from the helicopter's identification numbers. Reyna, the Tourist Guide to New York City clenched tightly in her fist, jumped down from the cargo bay and threw her arms around Veil.

"Yes!" Reyna shouted, kissing Veil hard on the mouth.

"Yes?"

"Yes, I do believe in happy endings!"

Then Walrus was standing beside them, his huge arms draped around their shoulders. "No time for chitchat, folks. You two want to come along? I'm betting the cops are really p.i.s.sed, if you'll pardon the understatement, and I'm betting they have a pretty good idea who they're p.i.s.sed at."

Veil and Reyna smiled at each other. "I don't think so,"

Veil said to Walrus. "What the police think and what they can prove are two different things. Don't forget to write."

"I'll call whenever I can and keep you posted on progress. Try to stay out of the can."

"Yeah."

Walrus took the Tourist Guide from Reyna, kissed her. "Raskolnikov is probably out cruising on the highway looking for you two," Walrus shouted over his shoulder as he ran toward the plane. "I'll be in touch!"

"Be safe, my friend," Veil said quietly.

Veil and Reyna stood with their arms around each other, staring into the empty sky, long after the plane's lights had disappeared. Then they turned and, hand in hand, walked toward the lights of the city.

Chapter Nineteen.

Veil dreams.

Vivid dreaming is his gift and affliction, the lash of memory and a guide to justice, a mystery and sometimes the key to mystery, prod to violence and maker of peace, an invitation to madness, and the fountainhead of his power as an artist.

Once again, for the last time, Veil is Toby.

He has never felt quite this way before. There is a lightness in his chest and inside his mind that is new, and he understands that these feelings are gifts from the Nal-toon. Only as a small child did he ever laugh or cry, yet now he feels like laughing and crying at the same time; he does and is not ashamed. He suspects that these new feelings will stay with him for the rest of his life.

He is different now than when he left, Veil thinks. He is filled with love. He thinks of Reyna and the man-in-night with love.

He even thinks of the two silly, old missionaries with love; they had kissed him when he had come down with the two Newyorkcities in their flying machine, and he had kissed the missionaries back.

He had stripped off his clothes and sat stiffly in the back of the Landrover, Nal-toon and Reyna's paper in his lap, as they had set off across the desert. However, despite his eagerness to reach his people, he had insisted during the night that they stop and rest. While the missionaries slept, Veil had stood watch over them.

It is the first time Veil has ever really cared about anyone who was not K'ung.

But the missionaries had also been anxious to reach the camp, and they had only slept a short while. Now, with a luminous dawn glowing in the sky behind them, Veil smells a campfire. He asks the missionaries to stop, which they do. Once again he kisses both of them, then gets out.

He walks up a dune and stands looking down on his people who have heard the approaching Landrover and are waiting expectantly. They see him, rise to their feet. With the sun burning behind him, Veil lifts the Nal-toon and Reyna's paper over his head, draws air deep into the light place in his heart, and screams with joy and triumph before rolling away to another dream that is more than a dream.

"Veil, come to me. Love me. Tango with me on the edge of time."

Electric-blue flight, Veil speeds toward love and promises to be kept.

By George C. Chesbro.

KING'S GAMBIT (1976).

SHADOW OF A BROKEN MAN (1977).

CITY OF WHISPERING STONE (1978).

AN AFFAIR OF SORCERERS (1979).

TURN LOOSE THE DRAGON (1982).

THE BEASTS OF VALHALLA (1985).

TWO SONGS THIS ARCHANGEL SINGS (1986).

VEIL (1986).

THE GOLDEN CHILD (1986)..