Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (5 page)

She brought out dish after dish from the kitchen: pork chops,
mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and – Steven was surprised to see – Jello.
They all sat at the table and Margie said a quick prayer over the food. Steven
felt incredibly uncomfortable during it.
When in Rome,
he thought as he
closed his eyes, but it didn’t stop the rising of uneasy memories of his
upbringing.

They chatted over dinner, never discussing why they were
there, or the gift. Margie’s reaction to the subject before Deem’s arrival
convinced Steven and Roy it’d be best to discuss the purpose of their visit
with Deem in private.

During the dinner conversation they learned Deem was the
youngest of six, all of whom had moved out of the family home except for her,
and that she just graduated from high school.

“With honors!” Margie added. “
And
a Sterling Scholar!”

High school?
Steven thought.
This is who Eliza’s friend thinks can
help us?

Steven looked at Deem, and he noticed that she gave him a
disapproving nod.
Can she pick up what I’m thinking, like Eliza?
Steven
wondered. She nodded at him again.
Was it coincidence?
Steven thought.
Was
she just nodding at what Margie had said?
Deem shook her head.
Shit, I
better be careful what I think,
Steven thought,
or she’s going to think
I’m a bozo.
Deem smiled.

After dinner, Deem excused herself and suggested they talk on
the back porch. Margie said it was too hot for her outside, and she wanted to
clean up dinner anyway.

Deem’s back yard was immaculately landscaped, and there were
padded chairs around a patio table under an awning where they sat. The sun was
just starting to go down, and it was still very hot.

“Oh,” Deem said, rising from her chair, “let me turn this on.
It helps.” She walked over to a switch on the exterior wall and pressed it. A
light mist began to fall over the patio, cooling things off.

“Half the time I forget to turn it on,” she said. “I’m so
used to this weather. But I imagine you two are melting.”

“Thanks for that,” Steven said. “It’s a lot hotter here than
in Seattle. But we’re used to mist, so you’ve made us feel right at home.”

Deem smiled. “So, what can I do for you?” she asked.

“Do you want the whole story?” Steven asked.

“Yes,” Deem said. “It’ll be quicker than me asking you a
dozen questions to fill in things.”

Steven related the entire tale, going back to their first
encounter with Lukas and Michael. Deem listened intently. She seemed focused on
every word, as though she was looking for inconsistencies. When Steven
finished, she thought for a moment before speaking.

“And your son is still in the motel room in Overton?” she
asked.

“Yes,” Steven said, “at least he was there when we left about
eight hours ago.”

“Alright,” she said, and seemed to be thinking of options.
She rose out of her chair and walked behind it. Steven observed her; he liked
how she seemed to think about what she was going to say before she said it.

“Well,” she said, “I can guess where your son is at. My
friend Winn could explain it better, he’s always working on St. Thomas stuff.
We’ll go see him in a bit.” More thinking.  “You say you rented rooms at the
same motel?”

“Yes,” Roy said. “Almost next door. So it does have something
to do with St. Thomas?”

“Probably,” she said, her head down, thinking. Then she
raised her head. “You should move him, physically, to your room,” she said
definitively. “A few hundred feet isn’t going to make any difference if what I
think is happening is what’s really happening.”

“And what do you think is happening?” Steven asked.

“I’ll let Winn explain it,” she said. “You’ll have questions
I won’t be able to answer, he’ll be able to.”

“Michael said moving him could kill him,” Roy said.

“I think that’s bullshit,” Deem said. “You should move him to
eliminate the risk of physical harm. Get that part under control. With him in
your room you can watch over him at least.”

“Alright, so we’ll meet with your friend,” Steven said. “You
seem to know a lot for your age.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I’ve been working this area for ten
years almost, ever since my dad showed me how. He died a couple years ago. Leukemia.
It’s an epidemic in this area.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Steven said. “Lots of people dying from
leukemia around here?”

“Downwinders,” she said. “From the nuclear testing in Nevada.
Above ground tests in the fifties and sixties, underground tests in the
seventies, but they vented all the radiation out, so they might as well have been
above ground. It all blew over us and southern Utah before it dissipated and
blew over the rest of the country. The most common result was the increase in
cancer, leukemia especially. I’ve lost count of how many leukemia funerals I’ve
been to. But it changed things here, in other ways. It completely fucked with
the River. That’s something you should know, while you’re here. The things that
are in the River aren’t normal, like other places. They’ve mutated because of
the fallout. It’s funny, as a kid I thought what was going on here was normal,
because I grew up with it. Then I visited California and I saw what normal
really meant. Much more predictable stuff away from here. Here, everything’s
abnormal.”

“Abnormal like what?” Roy asked.

“You’re probably used to normal ghosts, up in Seattle,” she
said. “Well, here in the area where the fallout was the most concentrated, some
of them have mutated. They can change when they get angry, or recognize someone
is in the River. Winn calls them zombie-ghosts, because they transform. They
become corporeal, and they attack you, literally try to rip you apart.”

“Christ,” Steven said.

“Yeah,” Deem said, “and you can’t just shoot them in the
head. They’re still ghosts.”

“How do you deal with them?” Steven asked.

“Winn came up with a kind of gun that disrupts the
electro-magnetic field around them,” she said. “They revert back to being a
ghost and then fade. Doesn’t kill them because you can’t kill them. But they’re
gone for a while, until they get their energy back.”

“Winn sounds resourceful,” Steven said.

“Oh, he is,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Definitely.”

“What’s his story?” Roy asked. “Is he an expert?”

“I think he’s the smartest gifted around here,” she said, “at
least of the ones I know. You either like him or you hate him.”

“You must like him,” Steven said.

“Only because I figured him out,” she said. “And I use him as
much as he tries to use me. He’s too smart to ignore, in my opinion.”

Steven thought there must be something about Winn Deem wasn’t
telling them. “Sounds like a lot of drama,” he said, hoping she’d say more.

“He’s very charismatic,” she said, “but he can be a little
too
charismatic, if you know what I mean,” she said, tapping the side of her head.

“Do we really want to involve him?” Roy asked. “Sounds like a
handful.”

“Oh yeah,” she said, “you want to involve him. He’s the best
at it. Just be prepared to be offended at some point.”

“Alright,” Steven said. “What about your mom? She doesn’t
approve, I take it?”

“Yeah,” Deem said. “Normally she’d come out and visit, but she’s
avoiding coming out here. She knows we’re talking about gifted stuff. She’s not
into it.”

“She knew your father was gifted?” Steven asked.

“She must have,” Deem said, “but she excels at ignoring
things she doesn’t want to believe are true.”

“She doesn’t try to stop you?” Steven said, thinking of how
his own mother had shielded him from Roy for years.

“Oh, she tries. But I’ve been developing my gift for ten
years now, and I’m not gonna stop. The church is a big deal to her. Funny, it
was to my dad, too, but he somehow found a way to do both. Don’t know how he
did that. I can’t stand church.”

“Me either,” Steven and Roy said in unison. They all smiled.

“Let me give Winn a call, make sure he’s home,” Deem said,
and stepped back into the house.

“Seems like a smart young girl,” Roy said.

“At first I wasn’t so sure,” Steven said. “I mean, high
school? So what is she, eighteen, nineteen? Most girls her age are off at
college or looking to get married.”

“She’s got more experience than you, remember that,” Roy
said. “And she seems to have a handle on what’s going on down here. This stuff
about downwinders comes as a surprise to me. I had no idea there were places in
the River where things were different than what we experience up in Seattle. I
guess it makes sense. Radiation fucks with humans, so why wouldn’t it fuck with
their ghosts, too?”

“I wonder what else is different down here,” Steven said. “I
got the feeling it wasn’t just ghosts.”

“We might have to find out as we go,” Roy said.

Deem walked back onto the patio and turned off the switch
that controlled the misting. “He’s not answering, but I left him a message.
Might be tomorrow before we can talk to him.”

“Could we just stop by his place?” Steven asked.

“Nope,” she said, “not unless you want to interrupt him, and
I’ve learned it’s best not to do that.”

“This is pretty important,” Steven said. “I don’t mind
interrupting him.”

“Uh, well,” she said, “he’ll mind, trust me. The only reason
he wouldn’t pick up my call is if he’s in the middle of fucking someone. The
only thing more important to him than St. Thomas is sex. Trust me.”

“Alright,” Steven said, wondering again if he really wanted
to involve this Winn character.

“Let’s go move your son,” Deem said. “I’d like to see how the
land lies.”

They all walked back into the house. Steven and Roy thanked
Margie for dinner. Deem slipped her boots back on, and told them she’d follow
them to Overton in her pickup truck.

They parked at the motel in Overton, and Steven led Deem to
Jason’s room. They knocked, but there was no answer. They tried Michael’s door,
but he didn’t answer either.

“Look, the window’s open,” Roy said, pointing to a sliding
window on Jason’s room.

“I’ll push it open and slide in,” Deem said, “and let you
both in.”

She pushed the window aside, and it stopped at about eight
inches. She was able to wiggle through the opening and slip inside.

“Good thing she was along,” Roy said after her legs disappeared
through the window. “Neither you nor I would have fit through that opening.”

After a moment Deem had the door open, and Steven and Roy
walked inside.

Deem moved to the bed and examined Jason, lifting his eyelids.
“Yeah,” she said, “I’ve seen this before. You can move him to your room, that’s
not far enough away to be a risk.”

“Far enough away from what?” Steven asked.

“From St. Thomas,” Deem said.

“So you think that’s where he’s at?” Steven asked. “A ghost
town? It’s just foundations sticking up out of the dry lakebed.”

“It’ll be easier to explain when we go out there,” she said,
“later, with Winn. He’ll also be able to tell you for sure if St. Thomas is
really where Jason is at. Come on, I’ll take his legs if one of you can grab
the other end.”

“It’s OK,” Steven said, reaching under Jason and lifting him
up himself. “I’ll carry him.” As he felt Jason’s weight, a wave of fatherly
protection washed over him, and he felt a little like crying. He loved his son,
and he hadn’t carried him like this in fifteen years.
Now he needs to be
carried because of what I’ve done,
he thought. Steven moved him out of the
motel room and the short distance down to their rooms. Roy opened the door to
his room and let Steven walk through. Steven carried Jason through the adjoining
doorway and laid him down on one of the twin beds in his room.

“There,” Deem said, following them. “Now at least you can
keep an eye on him.”

Roy sat on Steven’s bed, and pulled his blindfold from his
pocket.

“You want to see if you can figure out what’s happening with
him?” Steven asked.

“Exactly,” Roy said.

Steven stepped behind Roy and tied the blindfold around his
head. The blindfold was Roy’s preferred way to trance; it helped him
concentrate. Steven watched Roy while he was in the trance, to make sure he
stayed safe and didn’t get up and wander into something dangerous.

Roy was quiet for a few minutes, but then he removed the
blindfold and stood.

“I can’t detect anything,” Roy said. “It’s not a normal
trance, it’s some kind of altered state. Probably why moving him too far might
be dangerous.”

Deem’s phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket. “It’s
Winn,” she said, observing the phone before answering it. “Are you done with
him or her?” she said into the phone. “We have something important here. Two
friends from Seattle, their son might be at St. Thomas.”