Season of Passage, The (44 page)

'Please me, Lori. Tel me who he gave it to.'

She coughed. 'I don't remember.' She wasn't lying. Her mind had gone blank, and she wanted it that way. She wanted to be one big organ,

throbbing with sensation.

'Did he give the ring to her?' Bil asked.

'To who?'

He took a step closer. 'To her?'

Her voice slurred. 'Who's her?'

He spoke with demanding force. 'Did he give it to your sister?'

'Jenny?' The name startled her, and it caused Bil to blink, to move his eyes, in such a way that she could see beyond them. His spel broke, and she

was suddenly furious with herself. She was staring into his eyes again!

Lauren realized her danger. But she let the realization show in her face. Bil pounced even as she reached for the crucifix. But she seized it before

he could get to her.

'Stop!' she commanded, holding up the cross in front of her. Bil halted ten feet away, and with her free hand she felt on the ground for the laser. It

was difficult to find in the fog. 'In the name of God you stay where you are!' she said.

Now I've got him.

Then Bil smiled.

'Come on, Lori,' he said. 'You're getting a bit melodramatic, aren't you? I suppose now you're going to try to

cast out the demon in me in the holy name of Jesus Christ.' His smile disappeared and his tone hardened. 'It doesn't work that way. You were

tricked, bitch, even as you thought you were tricking me. This has al been a ritual, not a test of reflexes.' He pointed at the wal where the bony hand

clasped the silver ring. 'You're like your shadow, like the one who came before you. You make bargains that you have no intention of keeping. In this

place, that's always a mistake. You always lose!'

With his last words, he pounced.

Lauren found the laser and grabbed hold of its barrel. Before she could pick it up and take aim, however, an inhuman blow struck her left side and

splintered her ribs. Yet this time the low Martian gravity favored her, in exactly the same way it had betrayed her when she had fought Ivan. Rather

than simply knocking her over, Bil 's blow sent her somersaulting through a complete ful rol . By blind chance, she came to rest upright on her

knees, with the laser stil in her hands.

Bil bore down on her once more. Lauren's head was spinning. Taking uncoordinated aim, she fired her weapon.

She missed. The bolt of energy exploded against the near wal , sending rocks hurtling through the red fog. One large rock hit her in the right side

and knocked her over. The laser bounced on the ground beside her and she rol ed over in a sheet of fog. She didn't have a chance to get off

another shot before Bil was on top of her once more. But he was not standing on steady ground. To avoid her first shot, he'd had to jump to the

side, and place himself precariously close to the pool of lava. But even as she watched, he regained his balance and stood gloating down at her.

'For a moment, Princess,' he said. 'But your moment has passed.'

He moved to fal on her.

Lauren reacted instinctively. She planted both her hands on the floor and thrust her lower body into the air. Both her feet landed in the center of Bil 's

chest just as he stooped to grab her. His momentum, however, was incredible and her legs buckled at the knees under the pressure. Yet this

served to bring the ful power of her hamstrings into use. With the last bit of her strength, she shoved him toward the boiling mud. For the second

time he balanced on the edge of the pit. But the fates were kind, or else slippery, and he toppled backward into the lava. The fires immediately

began their cruel work.

'No!' His scream rattled the chamber, and cursed her soul. Lauren watched in mute terror as he thrashed in a torture nothing could deserve. The

lava fizzled through his pressure suit and melted through his flesh. Then there was a loud explosion, as his oxygen tanks ruptured and tore a chunk

out of his back. A film of blood sprayed over the mud and quickly vaporized, and vanished in the red fog. Sinking deeper and deeper into the lava,

he cried for help.

'Lori!'

Die. Die!

Before the pit sealed its prey, Lauren was given a last clear glimpse of his face, a face racked with agony, disintegrating under a flood of liquid fire,

but a face that belonged once more to the real Bil . In the end, the possession had left her commander to suffer alone. It was a coward. Lauren

turned away in anguish.

I want the risks to be mine alone.'

TWENTY-EIGHT

They were lost somewhere between the island and the canal. A thick haze, of mysterious origin, had arisen over the black waters. A half-dozen

flares had served only to turn the night into a bril iant cloud. For al they knew, they were paddling their boat in circles.

Gary had gotten up shortly after Bil died. He had never lost consciousness, but it had taken him several minutes until his head cleared enough for

him to function intel igently. Together they had loosened the ring and fled the pit. Unfortunately, her tangle with Bil had left her seriously injured. They

managed to reach the boat and set off from the island, but she couldn't paddle. She tried and almost fainted from the pain. She figured that at least

three ribs were broken. She worried that one had punctured her lung. Her mouth was ful of blood. Plus her dehydration had caused her tongue to

swel . Talking was difficult. Stil , she counted herself lucky. She was alive, and in the pocket of her pressure suit was the ring. She already had

visions of giving it to Jennifer when she returned home.

Jessica was stil a question mark. While fleeing the pit, they had final y recognized a major clue as to her possible whereabouts. Hummingbird was

not parked on top of the hil 's plateau, which should have been Bil 's logical landing spot. That meant Jessica had probably split in the craft

before they had arrived. She had probably gone back to the Hawk. But had she fled the pit in fear? Or had she been sent by Bil on an errand of

death?

'How much time have we spent?' Lauren asked as they continued to flounder, lost between the island and the canal.

'Too much,' he said.

'How much time do we have?'

Gary consulted his watch. 'One hour and forty-three minutes.'

'Do we have enough time?'

'If we can find the canal in the next few minutes, I would say, yes. Barely. It wil stil be a mile to the cave.'

'We're not safe here?' Of course, she had no idea where here was.

'No way.'

"The bomb didn't look that big,' she said.

'Size is no indication of power. I didn't recognize the warhead, but it resembled the bombs the Stealth fighter carried. Those mothers were smal ,

but they packed ten megatons. If we're caught here, we're as good as dead.'

'What exactly wil happen when it goes off?'

'The entire island might rupture,' Gary said with pleasure. 'The firebal wil expand and probably fil the cavern. But the energy wil probably have

trouble dissipating, unless this place is bigger than I think it is, or there are other canals beside the one we know of. A wave of fire wil rush up that

canal in either case, and we sure as hel better not be in its way.'

'How wil the bomb affect the volcanic fissures?'

'Who can say? It might end up being a fuse for a bigger firecracker.'

'Sounds like quite a show,' she said, stil wishing he had left the warhead sealed in the Hawk's basement. 'It's not

fair that you have to do al the paddling. You must be tired.'

'You more than paid your dues, Doc, when you shoved that monster in the cooker.'

She sighed. 'I know Bil was lost before we went down there, but it was hard to see him die that way.'

'He was dead already.'

'I suppose.'

'Do you believe in vampires now?' Gary asked.

She smiled weakly. 'I believe in magic rings.'

A few minutes later the front of the boat hit a smooth stone wal . 'Now where's the tunnel?' Gary asked the rock wal . 'Give me another flare, Lori.'

They shot it off and created another short-lived white cloud that didn't let them see more than ten feet in either direction.

'Wel ,' Lauren said. 'We can either go right or left. Maybe we should flip a coin.'

Gary glanced back the way they had come. 'When I've paddled on the right side, I've had my right hand lower down, in the stronger position. I've

done the opposite on the left side. My left arm's a lot stronger than my right. I've probably pul ed us to the left. I say we go to the right, and wish on

that magic ring that right is right.'

'Sounds logical,' she said.

Luck was with them. Less than five minutes later they came to the canal. They had to assume it was the same canal as before. Seemingly tireless,

Gary plowed the boat forward. Lauren encouraged him as best she could, what with the pain she was having. Her fantasies altered between a tal

glass of lemonade and a fat shot of morphine.

An hour and ten minutes after starting up the canal, they floated at the end of the two-hundred-foot-long rope ladder. Far above, the searchlight they

had set in place shone like a midnight star - a star light-years away. Who

was she fooling? First she would have to make the long climb to the cave. Then she would have to walk the miles back to the Hawk. She could

hardly breathe, sitting perfectly stil . She was never going to make it. Detonation was in twenty minutes.

'You first,' Gary said.

She shook her head. 'I don't think so. My ribs are a mess. You go ahead.'

He shoved the ladder in her face. 'Let's have some spirit, Doc'

'We don't have much time.'

'We only have to get around the bend in the cave. Then we'l be safe from the blast. Here - take the ladder and move your ass.'

Lauren gripped the second rung on the ladder and tried to pul herself upright. Immediately her vision blurred as burning knives stabbed through her

side. It was not fair. She was so close!

'I can't do it!' she cried. 'The pain is too much.'

Gary squeezed her hand on the rung. He looked at her intently. 'Is that what I'm going to have to tel your sister and Terry? That you quit in the home

stretch? Jesus, Doc, you just beat a Martian one on one. What the hel do you want? Nothing should be able to stop you.'

His last command struck her as so ludicrous that she began to laugh, before her broken ribs complained again. He helped her to her feet.

She grimaced. 'Just don't go shaking the rope.'

Gary nodded. 'I'l wait until you reach the top before getting on the ladder.'

'Do we have time?'

'We have time.' He took the laser and attached it to a hook on one of the pul eys they had original y used to lower the boat. He hoisted the weapon

upward. 'The laser wil be

there when you reach the cave, but not before. If she's near, and she smiles at you with her teeth, blow her head off.'

Lauren didn't argue with him. Gary swatted her lightly on the butt and she began to climb.

Pain. Al she knew was pain. Mars not only had vampires; it had devils with red-hot pitchforks. They poked her left side every time she raised an

arm, either arm. She existed in a universe where death would have been a pleasure. She tried not to breathe. She tried to think of green trees, blue

skies, and blue lakes. She mastered each rung individual y, playing every mind game she knew to block out her body. Final y she pul ed herself over

the edge of the cliff and into the cave. There she lay panting on the ground, swal owing another mouthful of blood.

'No sweat,' she told Gary.

He started up the ladder. Lauren rol ed over and unhooked the laser from the pul ey. She slipped the strap over her head. Gary was a distant

flickering white dot. 'No sign of Jessica,' she said in her radio. 'How much time to Armageddon?'

'Fifteen minutes, twenty seconds. Al the time in the world.'

'You're sure?'

'Yeah. We've nothing to worry about. This bastard planet...'

Gary didn't finish. Perhaps Mars had final y taken offense to his repeated swearing. Perhaps it was al just rotten coincidence. Olympus Mons shook

its fist again.

The quake threw Lauren against the wal . She heard a surprised cry in her helmet, and then a dangerous silence. She sat up quickly, even before

the shaking stopped, and crept to the edge.

'Gary?' She couldn't see his helmet light. 'Gary?'

Nothing to worry about.

'Gary!'

She heard a faint moan.

'Are you there, Gary? Please answer me if you can.'

'Stil making house cal s, Doc?'

'Gary! Where are you? I can't see your light.'

'I'm lying flat on my back on the boat. I fel . Was there another quake?'

'Yes.'

'Oh, no,' he muttered.

Tidal wave!

She raised the reception on her vocals. There it was - the far-off roar of a mountain of water crashing from the bowels of the world.

'You've got to get up!' she cried. 'A wave's coming. Get on the ladder.'

'My arm's broken. I think the bone's gone through the skin. I know what you mean about pain, Doc'

'I'l come down and get you. Hold on.'

'No! That would be foolish. Shine the searchlight on me. I'l find the ladder.'

Lauren caught him in the beam. He rol ed from his back onto his bel y and crawled like a horse with polio. The thunder of the tsunami grew. 'Do

hurry,' she whispered.

As Gary straightened and took hold of the ladder, she saw the gross disfigurement of his left arm. Below the elbow, it twisted away from his body at

a thirty-degree angle, and hung useless. Yet he begun to climb nevertheless, in the way a smal bug tries to climb a tal wal moments after being