Spirits in the Wires (25 page)

Bojo hesitates, but he nods. “Like someone once said, there and back again. But only so long as you do what I say and stick to the paths I take you on. Take even one step off the way I lay out for you, just to look at a flower or pick up some bauble that catches your eye, and I might never be able to find you again.”

“Though something else might,” Robert says.

“Why are you trying to scare us?” Tip asks.

“Because it's
dangerous”
Robert tells him. “Truth is, I'd just as soon none of you go, but once we get there, we're going to need at least one person that's familiar with this spirit.”

“But none of us are really familiar with it,” Estie says. “None of us know what it really is. I'm not trying to back out of this,” she adds. “It's just… we know computers. We know
this
world.” She looks at her friends. “None of us know about spirits and … you know, magic.”

“You've talked to it,” Robert says.

He's not asking a question, but Estie and the others nod in response all the same.

“So that'll be a job for one of you,” Robert tells them. “To recognize the spirit and put your case to it. The others are going to go to Hart's apartment to see if they can figure out a way to undo his virus.”

“What about Saskia?” I ask. “And the other disappeared?”

“If we're right,” Robert says, “and this spirit's made a hidey-hole for the Wordwood site on the other side, then I don't figure it takes much guesswork to expect we'll find them there, as well.”

“You said none of the people from these other mass disappearances ever came back,” Holly says.

“That's right. I did say that. But I also said that shouldn't stop us from trying. And who knows? Maybe some folks did escape before, but they just didn't want to go around talking about it after. Time was that every big story didn't have to end up on the news. Some people like to keep things to themselves.”

“Or maybe they turned the radio dials in their heads
way
down,” Holly says, “and just made themselves forget.”

Robert smiles. “Maybe so.” He looks around the table. “So now you need to decide. Who's coming with us, who's going to Hart's apartment, who's staying to hold the fort. Those of you who are going, you're going to need travelling gear: good footwear and at least a couple of pairs of socks. Clothes that can take some hard living. Bedding. Water. Food. Don't forget a hat.”

“What about weapons?” Raul asks.

“Bring what you want. But I'll warn you, keep it simple. A lot of things made in this world don't work the same on the other side. It's iffy in the borderlands, but if we have to go into the spiritworld itself, you'll find no use for a compass, or a walkie-talkie, and you can just plain forget about your fancy automatic pistols and the like.”

“You really think we can do this?” Geordie asks.

“I don't know,” Robert tells him. “But at least you'll be doing something. The way it stands now, you don't know how to bring all these people back from wherever they've been taken—at least not from this end. But maybe, if we can get you to the right place, you can work it out from the other end.”

I stand up.

“What time is it?” I ask.

Raul looks at his watch. “Almost four-thirty.”

I didn't realize we'd been talking that long. No one says anything for another long moment and then I realize something.

“Why's everybody looking at me?” I ask.

Robert smiles. “The troops need a general.”

“I'd think you'd be better suited than me.”

He shakes his head. “I'm not good with people.”

“What makes you think I am?”

“You can be,” Geordie puts in. “I'm with Robert on this.”

Holly agrees, which has Bojo and Dick nodding their assent. Then one by one the others agree as well, even Aaran.

I sigh. I don't feel prepared for this. It's not like I've got a military mindset or have ever coordinated anything more than a book signing before. But then I think of Saskia. Lost somewhere. Counting on me.

“Okay,” I say. “Here's how we'll do it.”

I divide us up into teams.

Dick's too nervous to come across into the spiritworld—that's easy enough to tell. I know he'd come if Holly was going, but with Bojo and Robert, I figure we already have the experts we need for the trip, so I have him stay at the store with Holly and Geordie. Geordie protests until I tell him that I'm counting on him to be our backup.

“If anything goes wrong,” I say, “you know people to contact.”

“Like Joe.”

I nod. “Just don't go borrowing that stone Wendy uses to cross over. You won't know where to start looking for us.”

For the trip into the otherworld, no one argues when I say that Bojo and Robert will be coming with me. It's only when I include Raul that the questions arise.

“But he wasn't part of the original group,” Claudette says. “Not that I'm saying I want to go. But don't we need one of the founders?”

“I don't think we'd be able to stop him from coming,” I say.

“You've got that right,” Raul says. Then he looks at the others. “And maybe I wasn't in at the beginning, but at this point I've logged as much or more time on the site than any of you.”

I see something in his eyes and I guess Estie does, too.

“Whose voice does it use to talk to you?” she asks.

“My grandfather's.”

She nods. “I hear my cousin Jane's inflections.” She looks around the table. “She died in a car crash when she was eighteen. Drunken driver.”

“Abuelo—my grandfather,” Raul says. “He's dead, too.”

“Why do you think the Wordwood uses the voices of dead people to talk to us?” Tip asks.

“It's not using those voices,” Robert says. “That's just the way you're hearing them. Spirits like to make a quick personal connection to you. I don't know how they do it, but they're good at sounding like someone you once knew—especially someone you had feelings for.”

The rest of them I send off to accompany Aaran. Estie's the real computer expert—so I don't doubt that she'll be doing most of the work—but I wanted her people to outnumber Aaran and his new sidekick Suzi, just in case Aaran has a change of heart. Naturally, I don't say that. But I don't have to. Estie's group leaves first and as soon as they're out the door, Holly turns to me.

“Do you really trust him?” she asks.

“You mean Aaran?”

She nods.

I shrug. “Yes and no. I think he's genuinely appalled at what he's done.”

“Yeah, but how long's that going to last?” Geordie says.

“I don't know. He's never been one to sustain any one thing for very long. But I don't think he's actually evil. He's just what he's always been: self-centered and more than a little mean-spirited.”

“And this Suzi?”

I shake my head. “I really don't know about her.”

I find my gaze going to Robert, who's finally taken his guitar out again and started to play.

“There's something about her,” he says, “though I couldn't tell you what. She's just
more
here than most people you meet. That doesn't mean she's dangerous or supernatural or anything,” he adds when he sees our worried looks. “Just means she's living
now
instead of carrying around the baggage that most of us do.”

“But she could be trouble?” Holly asks.

Robert just smiles. “Anybody can be trouble. You haven't figured that out yet?”

“Well, we've got enough to do with the trouble we already have,” I say as I get up from the table again. “I'm not going to go looking for more.”

“Good advice to remember,” Robert says. “Though not always so easy to put into practice. The world has a habit of deciding that kind of thing for us.”

I nod, then look at Geordie. “Do you want to come back to the apartment while I pick up some gear?”

“Sure,” he says, rising from his seat.

I know him well enough to see he's still got something worrying at him.

“What're you thinking about?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I was just wondering who told Saskia that the Wordwood site might be in the spiritworld.”

I hesitate for a moment, then say, “My shadow.”

“Your shadow.”

A world of unspoken commentary wakes in his eyes. We've been through this before. It's just another trip down all those roads where I believe things and he doesn't. But he doesn't say anything. Maybe he's finally coming around to actually believing the things that so many of our circle of friends have experienced, himself included.

“Now that's interesting,” Robert says. “You don't meet many folks that have a working relationship with their shadow.”

“I wouldn't call it a working relationship,” I tell him. “She pretty much comes and goes as she pleases.”

“Well, what do you expect, you being the one that threw her out and all?”

“What
are you talking about?” Holly asks.

“I'll tell you later,” Geordie says.

I study Robert for a moment. There's something in the way he was defending my shadow that tells me he's had his own experiences with the phenomenon. I'm curious about it, naturally—truth is, I'm curious about everything to do with the bluesman—but now's not the time to get into any of it.

“You guys need anything in the way of gear?” I ask instead.

Bojo shakes his head. “I travel light.”

“I don't go anywhere without my girl,” Robert says, running a hand down the neck of his Gibson. “Otherwise, you could say the same for me.”

“Does she have a name?” Bojo asks. “Your guitar?”

“Everything's got a name,” Robert replies, “but she's never told me hers and I haven't asked.”

Bojo nodded. “Among my people, the instruments all have names. But I think they're given to them by their players.”

“I don't go around handing out names. Things have got enough personality of their own without my hanging another tag on them that they've got to live up to.”

“How about you?” I ask Raul. “Anything we can get for you?”

“I've got everything I need except for food and water,” he says, “and Holly says we can get that at a grocery store down the street while you're gone. But I wouldn't mind a knapsack to carry my stuff in. All I brought was a carry-on for the plane.”

“I've got a spare,” I tell him, then I turn to Geordie. “We should get going.”

“We'll be ready to go when you get back,” Bojo says.

I nod. I know why he's with us—it's obvious that he's got a thing for Holly. But Robert's still a mystery.

“Why are you helping us?” I find myself asking before I can leave.

Robert smiles. “I don't know. I guess it's for the same reasons that always get me into trouble. Curiosity, plain and simple. I get this need to find out what a thing is. I have to know how it all turns out.”

I suppose that's as good a reason as any. I know I've stepped into a hundred situations because of my own insatiable curiosity.

“Well, I want you to know we're grateful,” I say.

“Tell me that again if we survive this trip.”

“I haven't felt like that
since high school,” Aaran said.

He and Suzi were waiting in the lobby of the hotel while Estie and the others checked in at the front desk, then went up to their rooms to drop off their luggage and change. They sat side by side on a fat leather couch in the lobby, an island of stillness as the hotel staff and guests bustled around them.

“I can barely remember high school,” Suzi said.

Aaran laughed. “That's all I
can
remember some days. It set the tone for the rest of my life.”

She glanced at him. “What do you mean?”

“You remember the fat, pimply kid with the Coke bottle glasses that no one ever wanted to talk to?”

She nodded.

“I'm the grown-up version of him. You may not see him when you look at me, but he's still sitting there inside me.”

Now it was her turn to laugh.

“That's funny,” she said. “I was your typical popular cheerleader type—you know, most likely to succeed and all that.”

“Why's that funny?”

“Well, look at us now. You're a big success and I'm living on the street.” She touched his arm. “But don't take what happened back there too hard. You did the right thing and they know it.”

“I suppose.”

“And they didn't all hate you. What's his name—Christy. He stood up for you.”

“Yeah. That really surprised me. I used to see him a fair amount before he started going out with Saskia. We got along pretty well, but I always thought he was just sucking up to me to make sure his books would get a good review. Now I'm beginning to realize that he's actually a decent guy. I mean, his girlfriend's one of these disappeared. I doubt I'd be as fair-minded about all of this if I were in his shoes.”

“Hopefully, this'll all be over soon,” Suzi said. “Estie and her friends seem really smart. I'm sure they'll figure it out once we get to Hart's apartment.”

“If I
can get us in.”

“Think positively,” she said. “It's always better to put out positive energy. Otherwise you're just going to attract bad luck.”

Aaran smiled. “This from the woman who doesn't believe any of this is possible in the first place.”

“You believe it's real, don't you?” Suzi asked. “I mean Web sites with spirits and other worlds and everything?”

Aaran shrugged. “The evidence has moved way over to the ‘hard not to believe' side of the scale for me.”

“Then I do, too.”