Gateways. Part 51

Jack held him accountable for Kate's death-at least indirectly-and for a lot of other things that had gone wrong in his life since they'd met at that conspiracy convention last spring. He'd called himself Sal Roma then. Who knew what he was calling himself now. He'd tried to kill Jack then and almost succeeded. Either he or the Otherness or the two in league had tried to kill Gia and their baby just last month. Now it was payback time. No hesitation-he wasn't sighting down on a waifish woman, this was the "Adversary" Anya had mentioned, the One whose True Name she refused to speak.

"goodbye, whoever you are," he whispered, and pulled the trigger.

Or tried to. It wouldn't budge. Jammed!

And then Roma glanced at him and Jack felt himself lifted through the air and slammed back against a palm trunk. The pain of the impact on his spine blew all the air out of him and blurred his vision for a few heartbeats. His knees turned to jelly and he slid earthward to end up sitting in the mud, propped against the palm.

"Jack!" he heard his father cry from what seemed like the end of a long hallway. "Jack, are you all-?"

Jack's vision cleared in time to see his father tumble back into the brush and disappear from view.

He wanted to shout to him but his voice wouldn't work.

Fear spiked his chest. Was Dad hurt? Was he even alive?

Jack tried to get to his feet but couldn't move. For a panicky instant he thought he was paralyzed from a broken spine, then realized that something was holding him in place, something he couldn't see or feel but powerful enough to press on him so effectively that all he could do was breathe. He tried to shout to Roma but couldn't do even that. He was at Roma's mercy.

But Roma didn't seem interested in him, didn't even glance toward Jack as he casually stepped onto the bank to stand not two feet away, facing Semelee.

Semelee cringed back as he stared at her.

"So," Roma said. Jack heard him clearly. The rain and wind seemed to be easing up, although lightning still flashed all around them. "You're the one who's trying to usurp my name."

"Name? What name?"

"You know...the one that doesn't belong to you."

"You mean Rasalom? It does belong to me. I'm I'm Rasalom." Rasalom."

He slapped her face. The move was so quick Jack would have wondered what had happened if not for the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and the sight of Semelee staggering back a step as her face jerked to the right. Jack could almost feel the sting.

And then it hit him-Rasalom. That was the f.u.c.k's True Name.

"Never," Rasalom said softly, with no show of emotion, "ever "ever refer to yourself by my name." refer to yourself by my name."

"Who says it's your your name?" Semelee cried, baring her teeth. name?" Semelee cried, baring her teeth.

Jack had to hand it to her-she wasn't cowed. And the way she took the blow...clearly she'd been slapped around before.

"I do," Roma said softly. "And the only reason I haven't pulled your limbs and head from your torso is that you somehow-through pure dumb luck, I'm sure-managed to find a way to kill the Lady. For that I am in your debt. But don't press your luck, little girl."

"Ain't luck," she said. "And I ain't no little girl! I was down in that hole, in the lights, and I heard the voices. They told me I was the One and that my name was Rasalom."

He slapped her again, harder, and this time she went down. She lay in the mud, rubbing her reddened cheek. A few minutes ago the rain might have soothed it, but it was clearly easing up.

"This is your last warning," he said. "You are not the One. What you heard was talk about me me, not you."

"No!" she screamed, struggling to her feet and backing away. "I'm the One, and my name is Rasalom! Rasalom-Rasalom-Rasalom!" She raised the sh.e.l.ls and pressed them over her eyes. "And now you're gonna pay. n.o.body pushes me around anymore! n.o.body!" n.o.body!"

Jack knew what was coming and found himself rooting for her.

Enemy of my enemy...

He looked over toward the cenote and saw half a dozen chew wasps rising from the opening. He guessed they hadn't been too far down.

Oh, yes...Rasalom was in for one messy, b.l.o.o.d.y, and-Jack hoped-painful death. He was glad for a front row seat.

The wasps arranged themselves in V formation and charged, homing in on Rasalom.

Jack braced himself. This was going to be ugly, but he wanted to watch every second of it.

Rasalom remained facing Semelee, his back to the cenote. When the wasps were almost upon him, Rasalom gestured with his left hand-little more than a wrist-flick, like a diner signaling a waiter that the amount in the winegla.s.s was quite sufficient, thank you-and they stopped, hovering around him like bees guarding a hive.

Jack heard a low-pitched screech from Semelee. Her teeth were clenched and bared as she struggled for control of the chew wasps. Jack could tell by the vaguely amused twist of Rasalom's lips that he was enjoying the struggle and that she didn't have a chance.

Finally he seemed to tire of the game. Another flick of his hand and the wasps were on her like ants on a sugar cube. She dropped her sh.e.l.ls and tried to bat them away but they attacked from all sides and she went down in sprays of red, kicking, thras.h.i.+ng, writhing. Her screams as they tore her flesh were awful to hear. Jack couldn't help wonder if Anya had wailed like that.

Jack looked away, toward Rasalom, and almost worse than the screams was the avid look on his face as he stood over her and watched her death agonies.

If he could move an arm, just one arm, he could pull out one of the grenades still clipped to his belt and frag this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. But his body wouldn't respond.

As soon as Semelee's screaming died away in a gurgling moan, Rasalom seemed to lose interest. He sauntered to where Jack sat propped against the tree trunk and stood over him.

Now it's my turn, he thought as his bladder clenched.

He hoped he didn't go out screaming like Semelee, but the pain of being eaten alive had to be...his imagination failed him.

The rain died to a drizzle and the sky lightened fractionally as Rasalom stared down at him. Again Jack tried to speak but his voice was locked.

Then he gave Jack's foot a dismissive kick.

"My instincts tell me to kill you now, that you'll be a stone upon my path. But I can't see you ever being too much of a stone for me to kick aside any time I wish. Besides, killing you now might be something of a favor. It would spare you so much pain in the months to come. And why should I do you a favor? Why should I spare you that pain? I don't want you to miss one iota of what is coming your way."

The words drove a cold spike through Jack.

...so much pain in the months to come...

What did that mean? What was going to cause it? And how did he know? Jack wanted to shout the questions but couldn't even whisper.

He struggled to move. He wanted at this smug son of a b.i.t.c.h, wanted to smash his jaw and rip out his tongue.

Rasalom glanced back to where Semelee had been. A partially flayed skull and a twisted ma.s.s of blood-matted white hair were all that remained of her. The chew wasps milling above her seemed confused; two of them b.u.mped in midair and started to fight. Was it the increasing light? Was that what was bothering them?

Rasalom made another of his little gestures and the wasps darted for the cenote. He pointed toward what was left of Semelee.

"Physical pain is mere sustenance. But a strong man slowly battered into despair and hopelessness...that is a delicacy. In your case, it might even approach ecstasy. I don't want to deprive myself of that." He frowned. "Of course there's always the risk that what's coming will only make you stronger. But it's a gamble I'm willing to take. So for now, you live on. But as soon as you stop amusing me..."

He let the words hang as he turned and stepped off the bank onto the water.

As Rasalom strode away, Jack felt the pressure against him ease, but slowly. He wasn't able to regain his feet until Rasalom was out of sight. His first urge was to go after him, but that dissolved in a blast of anxiety about his father. He rushed over to where he'd last seen him and found him sprawled in a clump of ferns, his legs and arms splayed in all directions.

Jack rushed toward him. "Dad!"

Was this the sort of pain Rasalom was talking about? He'd lost Kate, now he was going to lose his father?

But as Jack reached him, he moved.

13.

Tom sat up and ran his hands over his arms and legs.

I can move! I can feel!

Dear G.o.d, I thought- He looked up and saw Jack skid to a stop before him.

"Dad-you okay?"

"I thought I'd had a stroke! One moment I was standing by that tree. I saw you fly backwards, then the next thing I knew I was on my back and couldn't speak or move a finger."

Jack reached a hand down to him. "Can you get up?"

Tom let his son help him to his feet. He brushed himself off and looked around. He felt shaky and a little weak. Well, why not? He was seventy-one and had just experienced the firefight of his life. He'd been in battle before, but against other men, other soldiers. This time...

"Jack! What happened here? Who was that? Was he really walking on water?"

"That's what it looked like."

Jack's eyes were flat. Not hard and cold like before when he looked like murder personified, but Tom sensed that he'd put up a wall.

"What's going on, Jack? A girl who can control snakes and birds and even flying things from h.e.l.l-and I'm sure that sinkhole goes straight to h.e.l.l-and a guy who walks on water...what's happening to the world?"

"Nothing that hasn't been going on for a long, long time. Nothing's changed except you got a peek behind the curtain."

"What curtain?"

What was he talking about? Had Jack snapped under the stress of what he'd been through...or had he been through something like this before...something even worse?

"It's over, Dad."

"What's over?"

"Semelee, the chew wasps, the guy on the water-"

"But you knew him. You called him by name-Roma, wasn't it?"

"Just let it go, Dad. Tuck it away and forget about it. It's over." He looked up. "Even Hurricane Elvis is over."

Tom realized then that it had stopped raining. He could still hear the rumble of thunder, but the wind had died, leaving the air deathly still. He followed Jack's gaze, and through the partially denuded tree branches he saw clear sky, light blue, tinged with orange from the sinking sun.

Over...for a while there he'd thought the storm would never end.

He looked around...at the fallen palms and cypresses, at the slowly sinking houseboats canted in the leaf-and debris-strewn water, at their red decks and the mutilated bodies littering them like jack straws.

Tom's mouth went dry. "Did we do that?"

"Some of it." He didn't seem the least bit fazed. "We can take credit for the holes in the hulls and some of the blood, but Semelee bears the freight for the rest. She's the one who called those chew wasps out of the cenote and lost control of them. Good thing too. Otherwise they'd be standing here looking at what was left of us."

Jack picked up one of the shotguns and hurled it far out into the lagoon.

"What-?"

"Evidence."

The second shotgun followed the first. He saw Jack pull the pistol from his belt, look at it, then tuck it back in.

Tom glanced once more at the carnage on the boat decks, then looked again. Had one of the bodies moved?

"I think someone's still alive out there."

"Probably not for long."

"Do you think we should-?"

Jack turned on him. "You've got to be kidding. A few moments ago they were trying to kill us."

"In the Corps we always treated enemy wounded."

"This isn't the Corps, and this isn't war. This is a street fight that just happened to take place where there aren't any streets." His face twisted, almost into a snarl. "What do you think we're going to do? Paddle a couple of them back and lug them to a hospital? How do you explain their wounds? How do you explain the double-ought buckshot in their hides? In this system, you'll wind up behind bars while they lounge around a hospital. And when they're all fixed up, some ambulance chaser will hook up with them and file civil suits to clean you out of everything you own, every penny you've saved up your whole life."

Tom was seeing another side of Jack and wasn't sure he liked this one.

"But-"

"But nothing!"

He turned and stomped off to one of the old huts and returned a moment later with something dangling from his hand. He stopped before Tom and held it up.

"See this?"

It was rectangular and looked a little like parchment, but it was too supple for that. It was patterned with crisscrossing scars and round, punctate depressions the size of a pencil eraser. When Tom realized what it was he took an involuntary step back.