Thirst No. 3 (34 page)

I manage to open my eyes. “There must be a middle ground.”

“It’s those Telar who have urged compromise that have pushed us to the edge of this present catastrophe.”

“You mean you’re not all of the same mind?”

His hand lingers over the dial. “Are you trying to annoy me?”

My disgust helps to restore my strength. “Are you so utterly devoid of compassion that you can bury seven billion bodies?”

“The Nazis incinerated six million Jews and didn’t lose any sleep.”

I grasp his hidden meaning. “You helped them!”

“We have been behind every great war humanity has fought.”

“But why?”

“To keep human beings in their place. We were surprised the Cold War lasted so long. It was supposed to heat up with the exchange of a few nuclear warheads. Mankind surprised us there, by keeping the genie in the bottle.”

“There! You admit they’re capable of great acts. Come out of the shadows, Haru, and give them a chance. The worst that can happen is you’ll have to fall back on your original plan.”

“Now you’re behaving like a cheerleader for your precious humanity. You know as well as I do that when people learn we’re immortal, they will have only one goal—immortality for themselves.”

“I’m glad you brought that up. It’s key to what I’m proposing. Living short lives has made most people complacent. Why should I bother about the environment? I’m going to be dead in a few years. Yet that will all change if they see that they can live forever. Share your gift of long life with them and they’ll do everything in their power to preserve the earth.”

“So says the vampire who refused to share her blood with another soul for five thousand years.”

“You know why I fought to keep my blood to myself.”

“Because Krishna told you to.”

“Yes.”

“That’s pretty weak, Sita.”

“It’s the truth. You keep saying you want the truth.”

“What I really want is for you to join us. You’re right, you
could be a help in our battle against Brutran and the IIC, especially if you’ve discovered a weakness in the Array.”

“You can hear the truth. You know I have found a hole in it.”

“But you refuse to share it. How can I trust you enough to release you when you won’t answer a few basic questions?”

“You don’t trust me and I don’t trust you. I fear that whatever I tell you will just expose my friends to greater danger.”

Haru nods. “It is a paradox.”

“I didn’t intend to kill Numbria. I was going to let her go.”

“Because you knew she was insignificant.”

“I felt sorry for her. I had no desire to kill her.”

“Useless human emotions. After all these centuries, I’m surprised you haven’t outgrown them.”

“If I didn’t still have feelings, I wouldn’t be bothered to get out of my coffin every night.”

“You don’t sleep in a coffin.”

“I was trying to lighten the mood with a joke.”

“This is no time for jokes. Unless you can convince me of your value, I’m going to kill you. Here, in this room, tonight.”

“Go ahead.”

“It won’t be that easy, Sita. A moment ago I turned the dial to five. If I decide to kill you, I’ll turn it to ten and leave you here, and you’ll die in an agony so terrible, you’ll leave this world cursing Krishna. You understand?”

“Sure. You’re a sadist.”

“I told you, it gives me no pleasure to see you suffer. But I need you to understand the penalty of disobedience.”

“You’ve zapped me twice. I screamed my head off. I’m covered in vomit and piss. I think I have a pretty good idea what the penalty is like.”

“Then you’re ready to answer my next question.”

“Ask.”

“How does the Array work?”

“I don’t know.”

“Tell me what you do know.”

“They use children to make it work. And teenagers.”

“How do they use them?”

“They ask them questions over the phone.”

“What kind of questions?”

“Yes or no questions.”

“About stocks?”

“I think so.”

“Do you know any of these children?”

“One. The girl who came with me to Arosa.”

“What’s her name?”

“Shanti Garuda.”

“Why did you befriend her?”

“She’s very sweet, kind, and compassionate. She’s suffered in her life, but she doesn’t complain. I admire her.”

“Why did you bring her to Arosa? You must have known it could be dangerous.”

“I brought her with me for protection.”

“Who are you protecting her from? Us?”

“The IIC. And she protects me from them.”

“I don’t understand. Clarify.”

“She can block the Array from attacking me.”

“That’s ridiculous. How does she do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re going to have to do better than that.”

“All I can say is the instant she touched my head in that motel room in London, where Numbria died, the Array’s compulsion stopped.”

“Is she psychic?”

“I don’t think so. She’s kind.”

“You said that already.”

“Yes. But I just realized something. Maybe that’s the answer.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Is it possible the Array doesn’t work in the presence of kindness?”

Haru acts impatient. No, actually, he looks a little . . . spooked.

“That’s ridiculous,” he says.

“I’d say it’s a reasonable theory. At least until you come up with a better one.”

“She’s a kid. Do you know how many psychically trained Telar we sent against Brutran and the Array? Hundreds. You were right, most did not come back. But those we were able to recover had to be killed. Their minds had been ruined.”

“How so?”

“They were like zombies. They ran around trying to eat the brains of whoever they saw.”

“Gross.”

“I’m not satisfied with your answers when it comes to Shanti.”

“I’ve told you what I know.”

“Shanti took a copy of Yaksha’s book when she left here.”

“Yes.”

“Where did she take it to?”

“Seymour Dorsten.”

“Where is he? Give me his address.”

“I can’t. I only have his cell number. I arranged it that way so that I wouldn’t know where they were in case I got in a situation like this. But I suppose there’s no harm in telling you that Shanti has instructions to call Seymour as soon as she lands in New York. He’s supposed to pick her up and take her somewhere secret.”

“In the city?”

“Seymour’s too smart to stay in New York.”

“But you know his number. If you call now and ask where he is, he’ll tell you his location.”

“He has instructions not to tell me where he is.”

“Then how will you find him?”

“He’ll find me. A part of him always knows what I’m doing.”

“How?”

“We have a telepathic bond.”

“So that part of his books was true?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never met a human who was a true telepath.”

“You’ve never met Seymour.”

“But everything you say means you know where he is.”

“It’s not like that. He can block me when he wants. I can do likewise. He has orders to block me now.”

“We’ll come back to him later. Right now I want to talk about Paula Ramirez and her son, John. Are you ready to divulge their location?”

I feel pain and he hasn’t turned on the Pulse.

It’s like he has burned it into my brain. I’m scared.

I sigh. “I don’t know.”

“Do you need more pain?”

“No!”

“Do you believe John was born of a virgin?”

“No.”

“But Paula said she didn’t have sex before John was born.”

“Paula never said she was a virgin. And as far as when she last had sex, before John was conceived, I had trouble with that part of Seymour’s story.”

“Why?”

“Everyone lies about sex. It’s human nature.”

“Do you believe Paula’s the reincarnation of Suzama?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m not asking what you know. I’m asking what you believe.”

“It’s possible, I suppose.”

“Has Paula shown psychic abilities?”

“Yes.”

“Has she accurately predicted future events?”

“Yes.”

“When did you last see her?”

“A week ago.”

“Where?”

I hesitate. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t let you get to John.”

“Sita. You understand if you don’t tell me, I’ll have to use the Pulse. And this time I will turn the dial up to eight. Do you want that?”

“No.”

“Then answer my question. Where are Paula and John?”

I feel tears in my closed eyes. “I can’t tell you.”

He turns the dial, I hear him turn it, the click of the numbers, eight in a row, eight steps down the ladder that leads to hell. But an instant before the pain starts, I think of Krishna and his deep blue eyes. It is said, in the hidden scriptures in India, that to focus on the eyes of the Lord is the highest spiritual practice a human being can perform. It’s supposed to be equal to the greatest act of charity, which Jesus describes in the Bible as sacrificing one’s life to save the life of another.

The Vedas, the Bible, it’s true, they overlap a lot.

Maybe gazing into Krishna’s eyes . . .

Pain . . . Pain . . . Pain . . .

Is equal to Christ’s sacrifice.

I’m only suffering this pain to protect John. It doesn’t matter that he won’t see me. I still love him, I will always love him. And in this exquisitely agonizing moment, I realize he refused to see me because he wanted to force me to see him inside. Ah, that’s the key! This practice of visualizing that I’m staring into Krishna’s blue eyes, I’ve done it before.

But this is the first time I see him staring back at me!

The agony comes, and it does not get transformed into bliss.

If anything it is worse than before. Except for one thing.

The pain does not obliterate my sense of “I.”

I’m still Sita, the last vampire.

I manage to open my eyes and look at Haru.

“You’re a cold bastard, you know that,” I whisper.

He stares back, shocked. He reaches for the dial, then stops. He calls to one of his assistants. “You placed the wires on the wrong lobes. No one can defy me under such duress.”

“She was breaking down a few minutes ago.”

“She’s not breaking now!”

“Her brain must be wired different from human beings’.”

Haru stands. “I don’t have time to argue. Fix the problem and call me when you’re ready.”

“It doesn’t matter what you do with your silly wires,” I call
after Haru. “I gave you the answer to all your questions, and you didn’t hear it. No, you heard it, but you rejected it because it scares you. You already know what’s stronger than the Array and your Pulse, and it frightens you, because you’ve lost the capacity to care for another person. Your coldness has turned you into a coward. It’s made you lose your control over me. It’s done all these things because it’s the truth. Yes, you’re finally getting the truth that you’ve been begging for. Love and kindness are the answers. Without them you’ll always be afraid of the Array. And you’ll always be running from your own shadow.”

Haru grabs a laser rifle from a guard and strides toward me. He pushes a button and a row of lights turns red on the side of the weapon. I assume that means it’s ready to fire. He puts the barrel to my head.

“I don’t need pain to make you beg,” he says.

I smile and prepare to say what I assume will be my last words.

Then I hear a noise in the hallway. No, it’s on a level above us. It seems to be coming from the stairway. I hear a high vibration followed by a sizzling sound, as if meat were being cooked at an extremely high temperature. I pick up an odor that I immediately recognize as burned human flesh. Ironically, the smell is sweet, far from unpleasant.

The vibration switches on and off, in quick succession, and I hear Telar screaming for help. I can hardly believe it. Someone is trying to rescue me.

Chaos reigns supreme. Haru shouts for his people to kill the intruder. A half dozen rush out the door, male and female, all armed with their strange rifles. Yet they’re no sooner past the threshold than a series of ruby beams slices the length of the hallway.

The Telar are tightly bunched. The rapid laser fire proves devastating. Chests are scorched, amputated arms fly through the red-soaked air. A head is severed at the neck and tumbles to the floor and rolls into our room. It belongs to the technician who was helping Haru torture me.

A female Telar with a ghastly abdominal wound staggers into Haru’s torture chamber. Blood gushes over her legs. A fried hip bone protrudes through her burned flesh. Haru catches her in his hands.

“Who?” he demands in ancient Egyptian.

“The Abomination,” she gasps in the same language.

“Impossible!”

“He’s alive. He’s coming.” The woman dies, and Haru drops her as if she were a sack of garbage. He turns to his three remaining guards. As a group, they continue to speak in the same lost tongue. “Can we seal this room and gas the entire hotel?” Haru asks.

One of the guards checks a weird watch on his wrist, the kind Numbria and Claudious wore. “No,” he says. “He’s already neutralized our defenses.”

“How is that possible, Dakor?” Haru asks.

“He must have schematics of this structure. Our only way out is through the tunnel.”

More screams erupt from the hallway as the laser fire increases and the floor outside begins to steam with boiled blood. Whoever is coming is faster and stronger than the Telar. Haru shakes his head at Dakor’s suggestion.

“Stay here with your men and slow him down. I must return to the Source and warn them.”

Dakor gestures to me with his laser rifle. “What about her?”

Haru turns in the direction of the vault, ready to leave. He calls over his shoulder. “Use her as a shield if you have to, but don’t let her escape. She’s as dangerous as the Abomination.”

“Bye,” I call to Haru.

He turns and glares at me. “You will die,” he says in English.

Then he is gone, and it is a relief.

The guards lock the door. They’re scared, but not terrified the way a group of humans would be. Working quickly, they barricade the entrance with furniture.