She shook her head. She doubted very much he’d been thinking about her. Then she noticed Rick had the rifle again and was pointing it at Laffite.
“Rick, no!” she cried.
The cringing Frenchman raised a hand as if to block the bullet and moved his other to expose his wound. “He stabbed me first.”
Laura noticed the color of the blood—very dark. From the location she guessed a liver wound. He could survive that but only if he got treatment soon.
The tableau held for a few heartbeats, during which she heard dapis scurrying around in the branches above. No chatter. Silent, restless, watching.
Suddenly Rick growled and hurled the rifle into the bushes. She watched him take a few deep breaths, then turn to her.
“Nothing’s simple here, is it?”
She shook her head. “I wish it were.”
He stepped back to the canisters. “VX … I can’t believe it.”
“Where does anyone get stuff like that?” she said.
“Syria had a store of it. Supposedly destroyed, if you believe in fairy tales. The question is, what do we do with it?”
Laura was at a loss. “We can’t dump it at sea. The salt water will corrode the aluminum. And do you really want to bring it back to civilization?”
He shook his head. “Best to leave it here, I guess. Unstressed, under these conditions, this sort of heavy-duty aluminum could take a long, long time to rot. By then the VX might be harmless.”
“Then there’s nothing to keep us here.”
Laffite groaned. “You cannot start the boat without me, monsieur.”
Rick reached into a pocket and produced a box of fuses. “Think again.”
“You cannot leave me!”
She looked at Rick. “No, we can’t.”
“Think he’ll survive the trip back to Maputo?”
“No. But we can call Antso and have him come back. If we can carry him up to the rim…” Something about Rick’s expression … “What?”
“You want to tell her, Pepé?”
But Laffite only looked away.
“Tell me what?”
He spoke to Laffite. “You didn’t send Antso back to Morondava. You shot him out of the sky, didn’t you.”
“What?”
“That was Bakari!”
“Yeah. Blame the dead guy. But even if that’s true, it was your idea and your rifle.”
Laffite said nothing but his expression spoke volumes.
Poor Antso.
“And I’m sure he had similar plans for us,” Rick added.
“Not true!”
“Shuddup. He wants this island all to himself.” He shook his head. “You deserve to be marooned here, Laffite, but I’ll make you a deal: If you can get yourself to the beach, we’ll take you back. Don’t expect any help from me. I’ve got my brother to carry—thanks to you.”
Laura didn’t know if she could leave him here, but didn’t know how to help him either. He’d never survive the voyage.
“While I get Keith situated,” Rick said, “why don’t you toss those batteries into the brush, just for safety sake. The C-4 will deteriorate quickly, but those batteries might last a while.”
She thought it was overkill, but didn’t argue. So as Rick began lifting Keith and positioning him across his shoulders, she started pulling the AAs from the nearest battery pack.
Behind her, Laffite started screaming. She turned to see him swarmed upon with spear-wielding dapis. They screeched as they stabbed him repeatedly in the eyes and mouth and throat, and then fled back up the tree trunk to perch in the branches.
Laffite made gagging sounds as his hands fluttered like wounded birds over his pierced eyes and mouth and throat. With a final violent choke he fell over sideways and lay still.
Rick stood with a stricken, fearful, helpless look, both hands occupied with steadying his brother across his shoulders.
“We’re next, I’m afraid. You run ahead. I’ll stay close behind.”
Laura stared up at the dapis who had resumed chattering as they stared back.
“I don’t know, Rick. I’m thinking back to when we were running from them. Did you get stuck by any of their spears?”
“A couple hit me when they bounced off Laffite but, come to think of it, no.”
“And when they jumped all over us, did any of them bite you?”
“No. And I had a definite feeling they were steering me somewhere.”
“I think we’re there. I’ve got a feeling the dapis knew something wasn’t kosher here—they were trying to guide us.”
“But I resisted.”
She smiled. “Imagine that. So did I, but I’m smaller than you, and they left me within fifty feet of this spot.”
“Well, I’d like to leave this spot, if you don’t mind.” He shifted Keith on his shoulders. “I can trace my steps back.”
“Can I help with him?”
His mouth twisted. “Don’t make me say it.”
She didn’t know what he meant at first, then …
“No-no. I won’t. In fact, please don’t say it.”
He nodded. “Follow me.”
11
They found the camp occupied—by dapis.
The little primates were everywhere—one even sitting atop the cage … a dapi with a splint on its leg.
She guessed the splint on that little fellow was one of the reasons they’d been left alone, along with the fact that they hadn’t partaken of Bakari’s barbecue.
The dapis kept their distance but didn’t flee to the trees as Rick, dripping with sweat, eased Keith’s body to the ground. He’d been strangely silent during the trek back. Laura had wondered what was on his mind but gave him space to work it out.
“It’s going to be a nightmare getting him back to the States,” he said.
So that’s what he’d been mulling.
“I can imagine.”
“First off, the police are looking for him in Mozambique. Second, he entered the country under an assumed ID. And he sure as hell didn’t die of natural causes.”
Not to mention how he’d decompose on the trip back.
“You could bury him here.”
He shook his head. “Paulette’s gonna need closure.”
He was thinking about his mother—good for him.
“Okay.” She spotted Laffite’s nylon tent crumpled on the ground. “We can use that as a shroud and keep him as cool as possible belowdecks. We’ll do whatever’s necessary with the authorities to clear him through.”
“I’ll deal with it. You’ve got a daughter waiting.”
True, true. But they had that team thing going.
“How do we explain the absence of the boat’s captain?”
He puffed his lips as he blew out a breath. “Been working on that too. We may have to sneak Keith’s body ashore and send the Sorcière chugging back into the channel. A lot of details to cover, but we’ve got a couple of days at sea to work them out.”
“A couple of days?”
“Probably more. I don’t think that thing’ll run more than ten knots. But I noticed it’s got a radar pod so we can run all night if we take turns.”
A couple of days …
“Let’s get moving. And keep your fingers crossed that it starts.”
“Oh, no! Don’t say that! You have the fuses—”
“Let’s just hope he didn’t play any other tricks.”
Feeling sick, Laura led the way to the wall.
12
“Here we go,” Rick said as he pushed the gear lever forward. Relief flooded him as the Sorcière des Mers eased into motion. “Homeward bound.”
They’d wrapped Keith in the tent and hauled him over the rim and down to the beach. Rick had rowed the three of them in the inflatable out to the Sorcière where he immediately replaced the fuel pump fuse and tried the engine. To his unbounded relief, it started right up.
As the engine warmed up, they’d placed Keith belowdecks and raised the anchor.
r />
And now they stood side-by-side on the bridge.
Laura looked about to cry. “We survived. Somehow we survived.”
Yeah, he thought, thinking of Keith’s trussed-up body. But Keith didn’t.
Which meant he’d failed in what he’d set out to do. But at least Laura hadn’t been hurt.
He hugged her close. “We’re going home, Laura.”
“I can’t believe what we went through in the last forty-eight hours,” she said, her face against his chest. “The madness, the violence, the deaths, the … the revelations.”
Rick glanced back at the island. A cool front was moving through, creating a mist.
“Look!” she said, pointing up to the rim.
A host of dapis lined the edge, watching them.
She waved.
Rick smiled. “What are you doing?”
“Just saying good-bye … and maybe good riddance.”
One or two of them raised a tentative hand, so she waved again. A few more waved back. She waved a third time and a lot more copied her. The gesture seemed to catch on. Eventually all the dapis were waving good-bye.
“My God, they learn fast,” she said.
Rick nodded. “As we know all too well.”
The mist thickened as they pulled away. Soon the dapis and eventually their island were lost from sight.
“Do you think Keith was right?” she said. “I mean, the effect the truth about them would have on the world?”
Rick shrugged. “Who can say? I have a hard time buying it, but he was so sure. So it doesn’t matter if he was right or wrong, he was convinced the secret of the dapis would usher in a new Dark Ages and he was saving human civilization. No way we were gonna talk him out of it.”
“Idée fixe,” she said.
“Hmmm?”
“A medical term for a mind-set or opinion that’s set in stone, impervious to reason.”
“Well, with no Dark Age coming, I guess we’ve helped achieve Keith’s purpose. Which means, if the Intrusive Cosmic Entities who created the ikhar to screw with our heads also created the dapis for the same purpose, then we’ve been a part of wrecking both schemes. The world doesn’t know the panacea is real, and no one but us knows the dapis exist.”
He tilted his head back and thumbed his nose at the sky. This is for you out there … just for you.
“I just had an odd thought,” she said. “What if there’s disagreement among the intellects? One side tries to get a dapi into the hands of someone who can expose the secret, and the other side makes sure it’s a man who understands the consequences and won’t let the secret out?”
“You mean, it’s like a cosmic game?”
“Yes, and you and I are caught in the middle.” She pressed her face into his back. “Listen to me! I sound like you!”
He couldn’t help grinning. Was it contagious? Had she caught it?
“I like it, I like it!”
“That’s what worries me!”
He laughed. It felt good to laugh. Back there on the island he’d thought he might never laugh again.
The red, sinking sun peeked through a break in the clouds dead ahead.
She hugged him tighter. “I love this.”
“Did you just say the ‘L’ word?”
They’d agreed it couldn’t be love yet. Was she feeling otherwise?
“Wasn’t that a TV show about lesbians?”
“Not that I know of. No…”
She said, “I mean just you and me on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Isn’t it great?”
A sigh slipped out. “It’s super.”
She hugged him tighter. “Hey-hey-hey. You could show a little more enthusiasm.”
“No, it’s a wonderful thing. Wonderful for me, but…”
“But what?”
“Well, you can do better.”
“Stop that!”
“Really. A guy without a ton of blood on his hands.”
“Well, from what you told me, the world’s a better place because of that blood.”
“Some of it was innocent.”
“That’s not the point,” she said.
“What is the point?”
“That I’ll decide who’s good for me.” She snaked her arms around him again. “Rick, Rick, Rick. Is there any hope for us?”
He cupped a hand over hers. “There’s always hope. I need you to keep me a little sane and you need me to keep you a little crazy. And I need…”
“Need what? Anything.”
He was going to have to come clean with her. Now or never. She deserved to know everything.
“It’s about Düsseldorf.”
“Not that again. That’s over and done.”
“I need to tell you the rest of the story.”
“There’s more?”
He nodded as his stomach knotted. He took a deep breath. “I knew the barn with the kids was rigged to explode. I knew that if I set off the sickos’ explosives that the kids would go too.”
Her arms around his chest loosened. “You knew the kids would die?”
“I wasn’t right in the head, Laura. I’d seen the kids … no eyes … no tongues … deaf … paralyzed. They weren’t coming back from what the sickos had done to them. They had these looks of unrelenting horror on their faces as they tried to scream and scream but they had no voices and I … I decided they were better off dead.”
Her grip slackened further. “You decided…”
“Yeah.” He wanted to turn and face her but couldn’t. “I know I had no right. But all they had ahead of them was endless, unremitting horror.”
She released him and now he turned to face her. She was staring at him, arms at her side, expression unreadable.
“And no one knows?”
“You’re the first, the only. I expected to take it to my grave. Then you came along.”
“And you’ve lived with that all these years?”
“I keep telling myself I didn’t do it to them, I did it for them.”
“Does it work?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“How many children?”
“Fifteen.”
She gasped. “Then … at least one or two of them had to have been Marissa’s age.”
He said nothing. He couldn’t.
“Why did you tell me this?” Her voice sounded on the verge of tears.
“I felt you should know … if we’re headed toward something … toward being together, you have a right to know.”
“You and your damn duty!” she said, voice rising, tears filling her eyes. She pounded both fists against his chest. Not terribly hard. Strength seemed to have deserted her. “Did you ever think I might not want to know something like that?” She began pounding him with every word. “Did—you—ever—think?”
He pulled her against him. She didn’t struggle, but she didn’t embrace him either. Simply leaned against him.
“Believe me, Laura, I didn’t want to tell you at all, but I couldn’t live with … not.”
They stood statue-still for a while, then she pushed back.
“I have to think,” she said turning away.
“Laura…”
“I have to think.”
She left the bridge. He watched her make her way down to the aft deck where she sat on the transom and stared out at the water.
Now you’ve done it, he thought.
His chest felt heavy—everything felt heavy. Chances were excellent he’d just ruined the best thing that had ever happened to him. Should have kept his goddamn mouth shut. But that would be living a lie. He’d proved an expert at that during his years with the Company, but he refused to with the woman he loved. Sooner or later it would have come out, and the longer he waited, the worse it would be.
I have to think …
Would she ever forgive him? Could she? He’d yet to forgive himself, so how could she?
13
The sun had set and darkness stalked the Sorcière from the east. Laura w
atched Rick’s silhouette on the bridge. Every once in a while he’d turn to look at her.
She’d recovered from the shock. She’d said she had to think, and that was what she’d been doing … thinking about Rick deliberately causing the deaths of fifteen children. Unthinkable, unspeakable on the surface, but …
She’d known he could kill. She’d seen him kill. But she’d never thought he could do something like that.
Neither had he, most likely.
And yet …
He was a good man. She knew that. His revulsion had been all too clear as he’d described what those sick people had done to the kids. And the kids were not coming back from those mutilations. Even the ikhar would be useless against that level of injury. It couldn’t grow new eyes, a new tongue …
I keep telling myself I didn’t do it to them, I did it for them.
And she was sure that was true. He’d done it for them. He’d known no one else would have the will, the plain guts to take the situation in hand and save those children from the endless horror their lives had become and would continue to be.
So it had been left to him.
The easy way would have been to call the German authorities. Let them arrest the adults and stick them in mental institutions until they were either “cured” or escaped to start the same thing all over again.
And the children … house them where they’d live out their lives tumbling through a silent, formless black void, never again to hear a kind word or feel a gentle touch. And if science ever did reach a point where they could be helped, each would be irretrievably insane by then. If they weren’t already.
Rick had spared them that.
And rid the world of the scum who had hurt them.
But still …
The contradictions buffeted her.
She couldn’t help feeling betrayed. Not by Rick—he’d leveled with her. Betrayed by fate or life or whatever. She’d been closed off for years. Now, after finally opening up to someone, she learns …
But then again, back by the explosives and the VX, when she’d sensed Keith trying to distract her with all his chatter, she’d been doing the same to him, but hers had been a delaying tactic. For as sure as she knew the sun would rise and set, she’d known Rick was on his way. She knew he had her back. Wherever she might be, he’d have her back. And that was precious beyond compare.