City Without End (61 page)

“Quiet, now,” he whispered to the woman.
Jianzi
she called herself. “Step quiet, Jianzi. No foot noise.”

Careful not to clank on the metal floor grating, they hurried past the dressing rooms and the stairwell. At the door, Lamar whispered to her, “Say nothing, you understand?”

“Yes. Sky is outside?”

What kind of question was that? “Yes. Just be quiet, and when I start to run, you keep up.” He opened the door.

A group of people were walking purposively toward him. God almighty.

It was Peter DeFanti and some of his cronies. He tried going off in the other direction, but Peter hurried up to him.

The Minerva board member confronted him. “What the hell is going on, Lamar? We can’t stop now. People are worried sick. Why wasn’t I notified?”

He slid a glance at Lamar’s companion.

Lamar snapped, “For one thing, turn the goddamn flashlights off.” He rounded on Peter’s friends. “I said off. Now!”

A few lights clicked off, but Peter kept his on. “Why?”

Lamar affected an exasperated sigh. “We never wanted people out here lighting things up. Everyone was supposed to wait at the dorms. I was just coming to get you. We’re having a meeting in Booth’s office. Booth is coming up. We can’t talk here,” he enunciated, glancing at the others who weren’t in the need-to-know loop.

“Who’s she?” DeFanti asked, snaking another look at Jianzi.

“Jesus, Peter, we’re in a hurry. She just got here, a late arrival. Can we meet at Booth’s, please?”

“Then why are you headed over there?” he glanced in the direction Lamar had been going.

Jianzi cupped her hand over her mouth and made a few gagging sounds, bending over as though she’d throw up.

Lamar took the welcome cue. “Shit, she’s already thrown up twice down there. Just trying to get a little fresh air.”

“Christ,” DeFanti said, looking at her with disgust. “I’d like to know how she got in line before me, Lamar. What, you guys are changing everything on a whim?”

“I said we’ll explain,” he said, sending another meaningful glance at DeFanti’s pals.
We’re not going to talk in front of them
.

DeFanti stared at him. Finally he said, “Okay, I’ll be at HQ. Just get your ass over there.”

Jianzi continued a show of retching as the group turned away.

Lamar led her away into the dark, blessing her quick thinking. He looked around him. There were still hundreds of people milling around, but the cluster was thinning. Taking Jianzi by the arm, he made his way through some of the outlying clusters of people, which he was relieved to see were breaking up and heading in the direction of the dorm huts. Continuing in a wide arc around the gatherings, he headed on a trajectory that he judged would eventually bring him to the parking lot in front of the mess hall. After a hundred yards or so, he flicked off his light.

He’d forgotten how dark the nights were on the Hanford reservation. The moon was rising over the hills to the east, but it was just a sickle. They stumbled along blindly to get distance from the vault.

“Good thinking back there,” he told Jianzi. DeFanti didn’t know all two thousand of their group, so he couldn’t expect to recognize her, but there was something about Jianzi that drew DeFanti’s attention. Remembering this, he quickened his pace.

Switching on the flashlight, Lamar took a quick reconnoiter. He was without landmarks—nothing but grizzled clumps of sage and bunchgrass.

Behind him, he saw pinpoints of lights near the vault building. That would be his reference point then; move away from those. Before he switched off his light, he noted Jianzi staring up at the sky.

“Stars. So small?”

“Yes.” Christ, to think that she’d never seen a night sky! She might be quite unused to the absolute dark. With the flashlight off again he asked, “You all right, Jianzi? We have just a little way to go.”

“I fine to hurry, please.”

Whatever that meant. He patted his pants pocket, assuring himself that he still had his car keys. Out of decades of habit, he’d brought them along. Car keys. He snorted. He was back in the world now, after so many months of projecting himself into the Entire.
Where they were killing people in a pile of blood.

As they trudged on through the cooling desert, he asked her, “Titus Quinn sent you?”

“Titus. Yes, but no time to tell me how to do. No time, he fighting Tarig murderer.”

God. Poor Titus.
“He’s a brave man.”

“What your name?” she asked him as he flipped on the flashlight again.

There were no buildings within range of the light stream. They had overshot his target. “Shit.” He realigned himself to the distant lights of the gathering by the vault, lights barely visible now. He led her on a new tangent toward the parking lot.

“Your name Shit?”

He snorted. Yes, from now on. “Just call me Lamar.”

“You Titus uncle?” After a moment she said, “He trusting you.”

Well, good. Now where was the damn car?

“You hurry for killing engine, though.”

Using his flashlight recklessly, he washed its light over the parked cars, quite forgetting where he’d left his own. Jianzi was pulling away. “You hurry for killing engine.”

“I don’t know how to kill it! We have to drive for help.” Collecting his wits, he remembered that he was parked at the very back of the lot, having arrived later than most. He rushed on. At last, with exaggerated relief, he found his own vehicle.

He yanked open the passenger car door. “Get inside. It’s a car. You understand car?” When she didn’t answer he said, “Can you trust me?”

“Yes. I trusting you, for Titus’s uncle.”

“The car will be noisy, and it’ll go fast.”

“We needing fast.”

Rushing around to the driver’s side, he slid in and fumbled for his keys.

Turning on the engine, he backed up and tried to keep the direction of the road firmly in mind. He looked back in the direction of the vault. Were there more lights than before?

Finding the road, he drove slowly enough to drive by the parking lights.

Now was no time to end up in the ditch, stuck on some ancient sage root.

“Jianzi, look behind. Tell me if you see people following us.”

She turned in her seat, watching.

Before them, the road dove into the night. He traveled at a good clip, watchful for tumbleweeds and elk. “Is Helice Maki really dead?”

“Yes, I told so. She dying of bad wound from to and fro.”

When he judged they had gone about a mile, he turned the lights on full and gunned it.

Helice was dead. The enterprise was over, indeed. Except for the engine.

Booth might not believe that people were being killed as they went through to the other side. He still might just go last and pull the plug. Maybe when he discovered the girl and Lamar gone he’d figure out that Lamar had gone for help. He’d double people up—triple them up in the pool, if that was even possible, and keep the stream going, trying to get as many across as possible before intervention. He drove on.

“Stars so small,” Jianzi said again. “I thought they bigger.”

“Far away.”

“Yes. Far away small.”

Lamar wished she’d keep quiet. He listened for cars in pursuit, maybe following them at this moment, lights off. But at the same time, he was fascinated to be sitting next to her. Who was she, really? And the sheer marvels of what she’d known and seen . . .

His thoughts turned to the man he had most betrayed. Though he had killed Caitlin, his harms against Titus harried him closely now as he thought of whether he could make amends, could even get away from Hanford at all, and when he did, if he could hope to bring in law enforcement help. The woman with her strange yellow eyes and white hair would be a big help.

“How has Titus fared in the Entire? He didn’t destroy the Ahnenhoon machine, did he? Did Helice stop him?”

She turned around from her perch on the car seat to look at him. “Ahnen-hoon still there. Titus gave chain to river where lie down quiet.”

“Good man. We never meant to blow up the Entire. The chain was a mistake. Is the chain why they hate us? Why they’re killing us?”

“No. They hate Hel Ese. Hate door open. Bringing you. Door shut to be best. So thinking they.”

“Helice thought they’d let us come.”

“I confused why. I gone some time. Come back, and Titus fighting, Hel Ese dying.” She paused. “I fearing Titus dead.”

The way she said it, he thought she was close to Titus. Maybe his lover.

“Too many people dying, Jianzi. You were good to help stop it. Thank you.”

He thought he saw lights in the distance. Lights coming toward him from up ahead. His gut tightened.

“If anything happens, I want you to know—that I’m sorry.”

She turned around in her seat to face the front, peering through the windshield.

“Stars getting bigger,” she said.

Had Booth called in backup, backup that no one knew he commanded?

Or had they circled around through the scrub and come at him this way? He turned out his headlights and slowed to a crawl. He considered getting out of the car and hiding in the desert, but what good would that do? Without a car, he had no way of getting help. The nearest city was still forty miles away.

Pulling off the road, he cut the engine.

“Wait in the car.”

The September evening was still pleasant here on the hot side of the state. It was a land that nurtured grape vines and apples trees as well as engines of ruin. He took a deep draught of sage-filled air, savoring a last look at the stars. He’d done the right thing in the end. That wouldn’t save him, but it made him like himself a little better.

He thought of the Entire, and how Titus’s friend had just said he’d thrown the nan-filled chain away so it would
lie down quiet
. Titus, he thought, you were always a good man. He wondered what that felt like.

The lights got bigger. It looked like a convoy, but when it got closer, Lamar saw that it was only five cars. They stopped a ways down the road, lights still on, blinding him.

Car doors slammed. People got out.

Lamar stood with his hands at his side.

A burly-looking man came into the light. “Throw your gun on the ground. Easy and slow.”

Lamar did as he was told. Shadows milled next to the cars. He squinted at them, wondering who this was. Not renaissance, unless Booth had hired some thugs. The big fellow was patting him down.

One of the others was striding forward.

Lamar knew him. Christ. His heart began beating again. It was Stefan Polich.

“Enough,” Stefan said to his man, who backed up a couple paces.

Stefan had, of all things, a gun in his hand. Lamar shook his head.

“Stefan, put that away before you shoot your foot off.”

Stefan didn’t budge. From behind Stefan and his bodyguard, he heard, “We’re going to need a few guns, Lamar.”

Caitlin moved into view. The shock almost took him to his knees. Wonderingly, he stared at her. Caitlin.

Kay Kenyon 415 She sized him up. “Where were you going, Lamar?”

“To hell,” he said, realizing the joke was bad, but feeling suddenly giddy.

But who was it that he’d blown up in that car, then?

“Besides that,” she growled.

“I was coming for help. To stop them.”

“And I’m the sweetheart of Titus Quinn.” She strode forward and slapped him hard across the face.

He took it. It was just the beginning. He didn’t dare ask her who was driving her car. Was it Rob, then? Thank God, no matter who it was.

Lamar tried to focus on their immediate danger. “I ran from them, but they’ll be coming after me. So get out your big guns, Stefan. You did bring some?”

They were quiet on that score.

“The engine,” he said, looking between Stefan and Caitlin. “You found out about the engine, and you’ve come to stop it. Yes?”

Caitlin sneered. “Not exactly. He doesn’t exactly believe me. Or didn’t until maybe now.” She glanced at Stefan. “But he’s willing to go in for a look.”

Lamar’s stomach dropped. “For a look? A look?” Incredulous, he turned to Stefan. “They’ll shoot you down, Stefan. They’re leaving, crossing over. And shutting us down here with the engine. Where are the fucking marines?”

Stefan gestured behind him. “It’s all I brought with me. I can call in some favors. I can make some calls. First you tell me what the holy hell is going on.” He told his security to turn off the car lights. That done, they stood in the dark.

“Who’s in the car with you, Lamar?” Caitlin asked.

He wanted to say,
Titus’s sweetheart
. And knew not to. “Her name is Jianzi. She’s from the Entire.”

He looked behind him into the distance, to the spot where the crossover vault crouched in the darkness. And there, yes, headlights coming this way.

Stefan was too late. All he had was five cars full of security. To stop the transform, he’d needed the US Army, and he’d brought his goddamn bodyguards.

“Make your phone calls, Stefan,” Lamar said. “Whoever needs to get woken up, wake them. These folks are going to blow up the world.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Where the enemy creates noise, look in the opposite direction; there
your doom comes softly.