The Massacre Mechanism (The Downwinders Book 5) (6 page)

“You’re
late!” the voice replied.

“Sorry about
that.”

“Come on
in,” the voice said, and the shadow stepped back, allowing the lights inside
the trailer to illuminate the person at the door. It was Delmar.

“I brought a
couple of friends,” Daniel said as he stepped into the trailer.

“Oh? Who’s
that?” Delmar said, slowly turning back to Daniel. When he managed to get all
the way around, both Awan and Winn had followed Daniel inside and were standing
behind him.

Winn saw
Delmar’s eyes go wide. Delmar reached out with his arms as he stumbled backward
and landed sideways on a kitchen chair, sending a stack of magazines on the
table next to him flying.

“Ernie!”
Delmar cried. “Ernie!”

Winn heard
footsteps behind him and turned to see a dark shape rushing down the small
trailer corridor toward him. As the figure emerged, the knife in his hand
caught the kitchen light.

Winn stepped
aside as Ernie lunged, and the man hit a kitchen counter with a thud that
rocked the entire trailer.

“Fuck!”
Ernie cried as he landed in a heap on the floor. “Fuck! I’m stabbed!” He rolled
over, exposing a knife sticking out of his side.

“Good god!”
Daniel exclaimed.

“Don’t pull
it out!” Awan warned. “Leave it in, or you’ll bleed to death before you get to
the hospital.”

“What do you
care, anyway?” Ernie said. “You fucked us both up. We’re both sick because of
you.”

“You stabbed
him!” Delmar said, rushing to Ernie’s side.

“He stabbed
himself,” Winn replied. “Fell on his knife.”

“He stabbed
me, Delmar!” Ernie whined.

“Look, we
all saw what happened,” Awan said. “Sell this man what he came for, and we’ll
let you call an ambulance.”

“Fuck off!”
Delmar said. “We ain’t selling you nothing!” Delmar stood up and walked toward
Winn, his chest thrust out like a rooster.

Winn punched
at Delmar’s throat and spun him into a headlock. “You told our friend you’d
sell him something. What was it?”

Delmar was
sputtering in the headlock, still dazed by the hit.

“What did
you say you’d sell him?” Winn repeated.

Delmar’s
face started to go red.

“Let him
go!” Ernie yelled, wincing at the pain in his side.

“Then you
tell me,” Winn said to Ernie. “What were you going to sell my friend here?”

Ernie stared
back at him, his face betraying his confusion.

“Think!”
Winn yelled, still holding Delmar in the headlock. “What were you going to sell
him?”

“Uh…” Ernie
stammered, trying to recall.

“You don’t
remember?” Awan asked.

“Of course I
remember,” Ernie replied. “I got a knife stickin’ in me, by the way!”

“What were
you going to sell him?” Winn repeated.

“Pot,” Ernie
replied.

“Caller
residue,” Delmar sputtered from within Winn’s headlock.

“Yeah,
Caller residue,” Ernie echoed. “That’s it. But we ain’t sellin’ it to you now.”

“You don’t
have any, do you?” Awan asked.

“We do!”
Ernie replied.

“What were
you going to do?” Awan asked. “Lure him out here, get him high, and rob him? That
was your plan, wasn’t it?”

“Oh!” Daniel
said, surprised. “Really?”

“These two
make a living finding ways to scam gifteds,” Awan said to Daniel. “Or by using
River things to scam normal people. Either way, there’s always some con.”

“That’s not
true,” Delmar squeaked. “We have the residue!”

“Delmar!”
Ernie shouted. “Don’t sell these assholes anything! They’re the reason we gotta
do the dialysis!”

“I ain’t
gonna sell it to them,” Delmar replied. “I just don’t like them calling us
liars.”

“If you have
some, show me,” Awan said.

Ernie
chuckled. “Fat chance,” he said.

“The longer
we wait to conclude our transaction,” Winn said, “the longer you’ll sit there
with a knife in your side.”

Winn saw
Ernie exchange glances with Delmar.

“Where is
it?” Winn asked, shaking Delmar’s head.

Ernie yelped
in pain. “Aw, shit,” he moaned. “Just tell ’em, Delmar. I gotta get to a
hospital!”

“Well?” Winn
asked, shaking Delmar’s head once again.

“In there,”
Delmar said, looking up at a dark wooden breadbox on the kitchen counter.

Awan walked
to it and lifted the rolling slats; they slid up and behind the breadbox,
revealing a trove of pill bottles.

“Which one
is it?” Awan asked.

“Green
bottle, about yea big,” Delmar said, raising his hand to hold his fingers two
inches apart.

Awan
searched through the bottles until he located one that fit the description. He
held it out for Delmar to see. “This it?”

“Yeah,”
Delmar sputtered.

Awan handed
the bottle to Daniel, who quickly opened the bottle’s lid and sniffed.

“Well?” Winn
asked, still holding Delmar in the headlock.

Daniel
tipped the bottle so he could look inside. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s in
there,” Delmar said. “I put it in there myself.”

Daniel held
the glass bottle up to the light. “I can see right through this bottle!” Daniel
said. “It’s not lined with lead!”

“So?” Delmar
sputtered.

“So,” Daniel
replied, placing the cap back on the bottle, “whatever you put inside is gone.
Caller residue has to go into a lead-lined bottle.”

Daniel
handed the bottle back to Awan, who tossed it into the breadbox, knocking over
other plastic pill bottles. “No sale, gentlemen,” Awan said. “Nice seeing ya.”

Winn
released Delmar, who stood upright and took a deep breath. “No one told me you
had to use a lead jar!” Delmar replied.

“Come on,
Daniel,” Awan said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Daniel
walked to the door and opened it. Awan followed. Winn walked backward to the
door, keeping his eyes on Delmar. “Don’t let him take that knife out until you
get to the ER,” Winn said.

“Fuck off,”
Delmar replied, a string of obscene insults continuing as Winn backed through
the door and closed it.

“To think I
drove all the way out here for nothing!” Daniel said as they walked back. “And
worse, I’ve got to get some! I’m running out of time. I need another source. Do
either of you know anyone who might have some they’d be willing to sell?”

“I’ve never
heard of people collecting it,” Awan replied. “I don’t know of anyone.”

“Me either,”
Winn replied. “Although I do know of a Caller, if you’re able to harvest it
yourself.”

Daniel
stopped walking and opened the satchel strapped over his shoulder. He rummaged
through the contents. “Yes!” he said. “I have what I’d need to harvest it, I
think. And of course I have all of the other items to make the compound.”

“The Caller
I know is at least three hours away,” Winn said. “South of Mesquite.”

Daniel
consulted his watch. “Three hours to get there, a few minutes to harvest, and a
few more to make the compound…that puts us right around 5 AM.”

“Won’t be
light yet,” Awan replied. “But there’s only an hour to spare.”

“I suggest
we take my Jeep,” Winn replied. “Follow us to Awan’s place, Daniel. You can
leave your van there. It’ll be faster to do this in one vehicle. Plus, I know
where all the speed traps are.”

“Lead the
way!” Daniel replied.

They settled
into the three-hour trip to Mesquite; Winn driving, Awan in the passenger seat,
and Daniel in the back.

“Do you
think they would have robbed me?” Daniel asked.

“Anything’s
possible with those two,” Awan replied.

“If you
don’t mind my asking, how much were you going to pay them for the Caller
residual?” Winn asked Daniel.

“Fifteen
hundred,” Daniel answered.

“They would
have robbed you,” Awan confirmed.

“Well, not
to mention they didn’t have any,” Daniel replied.

“Don’t
assume they just stored it incorrectly,” Awan said. “These guys are total
opportunists. How did you connect with them, anyway?”

“I posted it
on a website,” Daniel replied. “I know, desperate.”

“They likely
read up on what you needed and claimed they had it,” Winn said.

“Cheating
gifteds is a dangerous pastime,” Daniel replied.

“They’ve
been dealt some consequences lately,” Awan said, “but they’re a pretty dumb
bunch, so I don’t know how well the consequences sway their thinking.”

“So you know
of a Caller?” Daniel asked Winn. “I’ve never harvested my own Caller residual
before, but it should be straightforward enough.”

“The
Caller’s name is Sagan,” Winn replied. “Lives in the basement of an old,
abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. He’s a kid, and not very smart. My
friend Deem and I traded favors with him. He tracked someone for us, and I let
him in on a stash of corpses. Don’t know how he made out with those.”

“The Devil’s
Throat corpses?” Awan asked.

“Exactly,”
Winn replied. “Told him where they were, at least.”

“If I
remember right, those were problematic corpses,” Awan replied.

“Problematic?”
Daniel asked.

“Animated,”
Winn replied. “Yeah, Sagan might have had some trouble with them. I guess we’ll
find out.”

As they
passed through the north end of Las Vegas, Winn stopped at a convenience store to
grab a cup of coffee and a supply of Red Bulls. It was now after 2 AM, and he
needed the jolt of caffeine. Both Awan and Daniel bought coffee as well, and
they were back in the car within minutes.

“So what do
you think of Winn’s symbols?” Awan asked Daniel, once they were on the interstate.

“Definitely
shifted, as I said,” Daniel replied. “You’ll never decipher them without
jumping to the correct differential.”

“That’s what
Jackson told us,” Winn replied. “He used some pot to jump a fraction and show
us how it’s done. But he had no idea how to hit a specific differential.”

“So he
referred you to me?” Daniel asked. “I don’t know this Jackson.”

“Few do,”
Awan replied. “He’s on a loop in an old hotel in a small abandoned town south
of Tonopah called Goldmine. He’s good with symbols, but he couldn’t help us
with these. He said he has a friend who knew you were in town.”

“Wonder who
that could be,” Daniel said.

“Suppose it
could have been any of the people attending your convention,” Winn replied.

“Not really
a convention,” Daniel said. “A few of us get together every couple of years to trade
notes. More like an exchange.”

“Is there a
way to determine the differential?” Winn asked. “I think this is a message from
a friend of mine, someone who’s stuck in a horrible place. I’d like to
understand it.”

“There’s a
way,” Daniel replied. “But it’s impossible for all practical purposes.”

“What is
it?” Winn asked.

Daniel
sighed. “There’s a device. It’s a mechanism designed to calculate time. In the
real world it looks like a collection of gears, kind of like the inside of a
watch, but larger. In the River, it’s capable of calculating a differential and
then letting you shift there temporarily.”

“Where can I
get one?” Winn asked.

Daniel
chuckled. “That’s why it’s impossible. They’re extremely rare. Several were
made by a brilliant gifted more than two thousand years ago. No one has been
able to duplicate them since. Have you ever heard of the Antikythera Mechanism?”

“No,” Winn
replied. He looked at Awan, who shook his head negatively.

“Antikythera
is a small Greek island,” Daniel continued. “In 1901, a wooden box was
recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the island. Inside was the mechanism.
It was nearly destroyed by the salt water, but enough of it remained for the
scientists to determine that it was used to calculate time. The strange thing
was, the bronze gears used to make the clock were so complex, it was something
everyone thought originated after the fourteenth century. When they carbon
dated the gears, they found it came from 100 B.C. It completely blew their
minds to realize something that complex had been constructed fifteen hundred
years earlier than anyone had ever guessed.”

“It was one
of the differential mechanisms?” Awan asked.

“Indeed,”
Daniel replied. “You can imagine the surprise it caused. It now rests in a
museum in Greece.”

“And they
had no idea it was a River object?” Winn asked.

“Scientists,
Winn,” Daniel replied. “Of course not.”

“There are
others?” Awan asked.

“A few, but how
many and where are mostly speculation and rumors,” Daniel replied. “It’s one of
those Holy Grail artifacts in the time world, so it’s hard to know anything for
sure. But yes, people think there were others. Some say as many as a dozen.”

“A dozen?”
Winn replied, disappointed.

“Only three
or four have ever been talked about in gifted circles,” Daniel replied. “Here,
I’ll pull up a picture on my phone.”

“Where are
the ones we know about?” Winn asked.

“Well,
there’s the Antikythera mechanism in the museum, of course. Gifteds who’ve
tried to use it — clandestinely, of course — reportedly considered it too
deteriorated to work properly. There’s one supposedly in the collection of the
Achernar people back east. They’re a bunch of jerks; they’d only let you near
it if you paid them a ton of money. There’s a gifted scholar who lives in
Ithaca, New York who many people think has one. He’s always denied having it.”

“That’s it?”
Winn replied. “Just three?”

“That I know
of,” Daniel said. “Like I said, they’re incredibly rare. Of course, you could
fly to Ithaca and beg him. That might work.”

“Fuck,” Winn
said, hitting the steering wheel with his hand. “No good options.”

“I can’t
pull up a picture, it’s too slow,” Daniel said, staring down at his phone.
“When I can get a decent signal, I’ll show it to you.”

“There’s no
other way?” Awan asked. “If pot lets you jump, maybe there’s something else you
can take?”

“There is,”
Daniel said, “but it’s a potent cocktail of dangerous substances. If you
survive it, it leaves you permanently schizophrenic. And it’ll only get you to
a differential; you still have to know which one to go to. So it’s highly
problematic.”

“Highly,”
Awan echoed.

“Ah,” Daniel
said. “Finally got a decent signal. Here it is.” He passed his phone up to
Winn, who took it.

The image
showed partially disintegrated gears with hundreds of tiny teeth ringing the
edge. Gear upon gear seemed stacked up, all crammed within a box.

“This looks familiar,”
Winn replied, searching his brain for the source of his memory.

“You probably
saw it in a history book or a science magazine,” Daniel said, taking his phone
back.

“No,” Winn
said, thinking. “Familiar in a different way. I know I’ve seen it myself,
somewhere.”

Daniel
seemed doubtful but quickly masked his skepticism by changing the subject. “The
message is important to you?” he asked.

“Very,” Winn
replied. “I need to get it figured out.”

The car grew
silent as they sped through the quiet Nevada desert. Traffic was light on the interstate
at 3 AM, and it left Winn some time with his thoughts, trying to remember when and
how he’d seen the image from Daniel’s phone.

▪ ▪ ▪

The
abandoned house outside of Mesquite looked even more dilapidated than the last
time Winn had come to tell Sagan about the corpses at Devil’s Throat. The
corner of the house that faced the constant southern wind had completely
weathered away, allowing the dust and dirt to blow through, piling up inside.

“What a
dump,” Awan said as Winn brought his Jeep around to the back of the house. A
large boulder had been placed on a sheet of plywood to hold it down from the
wind; Winn lifted it off, revealing a set of stone steps that led to the cellar.
The three men descended.

Wind from
above made the house creak almost continuously as they walked through the dark
basement. They removed their phones and were using them as flashlights.

Daniel
jumped back suddenly, dropping his phone and emitting a short exclamation. As
he searched in the dirt for it, Winn came over.

“You OK?”
Winn asked.

“Yeah, just
startled,” Daniel replied. “Over there.” He pointed to a corner where he’d been
standing moments before.

Winn turned
his light to the corner. There was a stack of animal corpses, some covered in
blood.

“Surprised
we can’t smell it,” Daniel said, retrieving his phone and wiping it off.

Winn studied
the animal bodies. “They’re fresh,” he replied. “They’ll be stinking soon
enough.”

Winn turned
from the corner. “Sagan!” he called. “Show yourself!”

Daniel’s
phone fell once again from his hand, hitting the floor. “I didn’t drop that,”
Daniel said. “Something pushed it.”

“Quit
fucking around, Sagan,” Winn shouted, taking a step toward the middle of the
room. He felt pressure against his lower leg and he stopped walking, looking
down to see what he’d bumped up against. Nothing was there.

“Trying to
trip me?” Winn asked. “Juvenile. You’re a juvenile delinquent, Sagan.”

“Who exactly
is this guy?” Awan asked.

“A loser
skateboarder who stupidly got himself…” Winn paused, watching a board rise from
the floor a few feet away, twisting in the air.  It swung at him wildly and he
ducked, feeling a swoosh above him.

“We still
using carcasses?” Winn asked. “Couldn’t figure out how to use the bodies I told
you about?”

Winn saw the
figure materialize to his right, and he dropped into the River.

They’re
all running around like zombies, you asshole!
Sagan shouted.
How am I supposed to use any of
them? You lied to me!

I did no
such thing,
Winn
replied.
I told you right where they were. You’re not very resourceful, are
you?

They
move!
Sagan whined.
They
claw at you! How am I supposed to deal with that?

You are
monumentally stupid,
Winn replied.
I can think of a dozen ways. You’ve got no initiative.

How am I
supposed to do it?!
Sagan shouted back, stomping his foot on the ground like an upset child.
Tell
me! It’s like you gave me a treasure chest I can’t open! What good is it?

How do
you need to collect it?
Winn asked Daniel, ignoring Sagan for a moment.

Daniel
cleared his throat.
Well, I’ve never collected it before, but I believe I
just suck some up with a dropper.

Off his
body?
Winn asked
Daniel.

Well,
immediately after he moves,
Daniel replied.

Go ahead
and get down by his feet,
Winn told Daniel.
Collect what you need when he steps away.

Collect
what?
Sagan asked,
watching as Daniel moved hesitantly next to him, kneeling.
What’s he doing?
Sagan asked Winn.

Come
here,
Winn said,
I
want to show you something.

What?
Sagan asked.

Winn reached
into his pocket and turned slightly.
Come here.

Sagan took a
step, and Winn saw Daniel move quickly to the spot where Sagan’s foot had been.
He dabbed at it with a small dropper, and immediately transferred what he
collected into a dark glass vial.

Is that
enough?
Winn asked
Daniel.

Enough of
what?
Sagan said,
turning.

No,
that’s maybe 10% of what I need,
Daniel replied.

Sagan took
another step, and Daniel moved quickly with the dropper.