Thirst No. 3 (36 page)

“He was never going to kill you.”

“But he made a vow to Krishna. . . . He almost killed me.”

Matt shakes his head. “He loved you too much. He could never have hurt you.”

“I wish he had told me about you.”

“He had his reasons.”

“But I was with him when he died,” I say, feeling sad.

Matt appears to sense my mood. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Did you read Seymour’s books?”

“He just shared them with me in the last few days.”

“Then you know what happened.”

“It sounded like he was at peace at the end.”

“He was. He was radiant. He was convinced he was going back to Krishna.” I pause. “You know, I have a million questions for you.”

“I can imagine.”

“Why did you seek out Teri?”

“To find you. My father had told me you were fond of spying on your descendants, and that you occasionally made contact with them.”

“Why were you looking for me?”

“I was curious. Growing up, I had heard so much about you. At least when my mother was not around. You were not a favorite topic with her.”

“You had to have been driven by more than curiosity.”

“True. We’re not all that different, Sita.”

He’s saying he was lonely, like me.

But for some reason, the sentiment stirs a faint doubt inside me.

“Did you plan on falling in love with Teri?” I ask.

“It was the last thing I wanted.”

“How did you find her?”

“My father had records of your descendants. He shared them with me. But I can promise you the Telar never saw them. If they had, they would have found you much sooner.”

“How did they find me?”

“I assume they got a lead on you when Lisa, her boyfriend, and her ex hacked into IIC’s computers. Once Lisa and Jeff went looking for you, the Telar were not far behind.”

“The first Telar to attack me showed up the same day as Lisa.”

“That’s interesting.”

“It was the same night I met you.”

“The Telar were not spying on me. I would have known.”

“How?”

“I would have been dead.”

“But you have to admit it’s a curious coincidence.”

“Not at all. Lisa and Jeff were not professional investigators. The Telar have been following everyone who works at IIC’s Malibu office. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Telar bugged Lisa’s apartment. Once Lisa heard about you from her ex, it couldn’t have been long before the Telar also knew about you.”

“Why are the Telar so interested in IIC?”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Indulge me.”

“The Telar have run the world for the last ten thousand years. Now suddenly there’s a new player in town—that no
one knows about—who’s steadily taking control of every major company in the world.” He pauses. “You know this. What are you really asking?”

“IIC’s power is based on money.”

“Their money is secondary. IIC’s strength is based on the Array. And you know that.” He stops. “Wait a second! You’re testing me!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Here you sounded so grateful a minute ago. Jesus.”

“Matt . . . Do you mind if I call you Matt?”

He grumbles. “Matt is fine.”

“Did you see the movie
Marathon Man
?”

“I assume you’re referring to the part at the end when Dustin Hoffman’s character is being sadistically tortured by Lawrence Olivier’s character—a Nazi dentist. The guy keeps saying to Dustin, ‘Is it safe?’ But Dustin doesn’t crack under the torture, because he doesn’t know what the hell the question means.”

“The part I was referring to comes right after that.”

“I know. I was getting to it. Then Dustin appears to be rescued by a friend. He’s driven around the city and asked pretty much the same questions he was asked while being tortured. But it’s all a charade to win Dustin’s confidence. His friend is really working with the Nazi, and when he’s done with Dustin, he drives him right back to the German.”

“It was an interesting movie.”

“Do you honestly think I killed all those Telar, and rescued you, just so you would break down and tell me your secrets?”

“It’s an interesting theory.”

Matt is annoyed. “What a bitch. You don’t trust me.”

“Did Seymour tell you where Paula and John are?”

“No. I suppose he doesn’t trust me, either.”

“What did Krishna mean when he told Yaksha the story of the Hydra?”

“No idea. I never heard of the story until yesterday when Seymour shared parts of the book with me.”

“Your father never showed you the book?”

“I saw him working on it, but he never let me read it.”

“That’s convenient.”

“It’s the truth. Can’t you hear the truth when it’s spoken?”

“From your mouth? Gimme a break. You’re a Telar-vampire hybrid. You probably have powers I can’t imagine. There’s got to be a reason the Telar are so afraid of their . . . Abomination.”

“I never much cared for that name.”

“You’re not doing a very good job of defending yourself.”

“Defending myself from what?”

“That you’re a spy who’s working for the Telar. Everything that’s happening right now could be a charade.”

“Tell that to the dead I left behind. By the way, besides Dakor, some of those people used to be close friends.”

“You sacrificed them to save me.”

“No, they faked their deaths. They lasered open their guts and burned their organs and sliced off their limbs just to make it look real.” Matt snorts. “I don’t know what my dad saw in you.”

That makes me laugh. “Look, Matt, I’m ninety-nine percent certain you’re telling me the truth. Actually, I think the main reason I’m taunting you is because you faked me out for so long. I feel embarrassed. I’m not used to having someone put something so big over on me.”

Matt stews for a while. “I’m not going to try to get rid of your last one percent of doubt. Frankly, I don’t give a damn about it. It’s your problem.”

“A little doubt can be a good thing. It’s kept me alive a long time.”

We swing around another mountain peak, and a wide lake stretches out beneath us, shining white under the blazing moon. Matt warns me to hang on and dives toward the water. He races the helicopter less than five feet over the surface, our four-bladed propellers kicking up a cool mist and a dull roar.

I study the weapons’ control program.

We don’t speak for fifteen minutes.

“Do you still think we’re being followed?” I finally ask.

“Haru hates to be embarrassed. He’ll do whatever it takes to stop us. But we have one big advantage—we surprised them. Still, we have a narrow window in which to escape.”

“You sound so convincing.”

“Would you stop that!”

“As soon as you prove you’re not a spy.”

He reaches forward and tugs on my earlobe. “I’m stronger and faster than you. If I wanted, I could break your neck before you could blink.”

I remember the carnage back at the hotel.

“I believe you,” I say.

“Not that I don’t think you have a lovely neck.”

“Ha! You’ve been lusting after me since the night we met.”

“I’d say the reverse is closer to the truth. Remember, I knew what you were. You had no idea who I was.”

“How were you able to disguise yourself so well?”

“I have precise control over my bodily functions. It’s easy for me to breathe like a human being. The same with my heart. Whenever we were together, I caused it to beat like a normal person’s.”

“Yaksha must have told you about Krishna.”

“Sure. Krishna meant everything to him.”

“Then why didn’t he tell you what the Hydra story meant?”

“You really think that story explains the Telar’s weakness?”

“Yes,” I say.

“My dad’s book doesn’t say what it meant?”

“It drops hints. Krishna liked to operate that way. The Bhagavad Gita is like one long hint on how to find God. Krishna seldom came out and said anything clearly.”

“Perhaps my father meant to tell me the big secret. After he saw you.”

“I told you, his visit was no social call. He came to kill me, and then he planned to die.”

Matt shrugs. “Believe what you want. The fact you’re alive proves my point. He said good-bye to me, but it didn’t sound final. I think he planned to see me again. At least once more. I know that he wanted to say good-bye to Umara before he died.”

“Did he get to see her?”

“I don’t think so.”

“You must miss her a great deal.”

“I miss both of them.” He pauses. “Being with Teri has helped.”

“You got angry at me at the trials and the Olympics because you knew I gave her vampire blood.”

“Of course. My father warned me that you were reckless, but I had no idea. Your blood was too strong for her. It caused her to push herself too hard. It also thrust her into the limelight, when I was trying to maintain a low profile. Why did you do it?”

“She wanted to win. It meant so much to her.”

“You didn’t use her to flush the Telar out of hiding?”

“I would never have used Teri that way.”

Matt nods. He appears to believe me. He’s only a thousand years old. He’s a youngster compared to me. He hasn’t developed my cynicism.

I’m reluctant to ask my next question.

“How did Teri react to seeing what I’d done to Numbria?”

“I convinced her that you hadn’t done anything to her. That you must have been attacked with the other woman and beaten up. Only not as badly.”

“That’s pretty weak. She believed it?”

“I made her believe it. You know what I mean.”

“I do.” He used psychic powers on her. “I’m sorry I put you in that situation.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Seymour told me how you were attacked by the Array.”

“How long have you known about it?”

“My father became aware of the IIC not long before he went to see you. His knowledge of them was sketchy, but I know he saw them as dangerous. One of the last things he said to me, when we were talking about the IIC was, ‘The Hydra returns.’”

“But Krishna said the Hydra was connected to the Telar.”

“I’m quoting Yaksha word for word.”

“That’s the most interesting thing you’ve said all night.”

“I’m glad I’m not a boring spy.”

“I’m not convinced you’re a spy.”

“You’re not convinced I’m a hero, either.”

“Trust takes time. You turned my world upside down when you walked into that torture room tonight.”

“Who were you expecting?”

“Godzilla. Kalika. I don’t know.”

“You really thought it might be your daughter?”

My throat feels tight. “I was just running through a mental list of who could be so powerful.”

“You miss Kalika. Her loss caused you to seek out Teri.”

“Now you sound like Paula.”

“The seer? I would like to meet that woman, and her son.”

“They’re well hidden. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Paula has moved since my last visit. She wasn’t overjoyed to see me.”

“Did she give you guidance?”

“Nothing I wanted to hear.”

“What’s the kid like?”

“I don’t know. He refused to see me.”

Matt is surprised. “Why?”

“I guess I’m unworthy. But he saw Seymour.”

“I figured it was John who told you to go to Arosa.”

“I was chasing down a lead. But I thought there was a chance I’d end up confronting the Telar.”

“That really worked out well.”

“The hell with you! If you had just told me who you were, you could have saved me a lot of misery.”

“You would never have gotten the book if you hadn’t gone to Arosa.”

“Yeah. But now the Telar have a copy. I can’t imagine that’s what your father wanted.”

“It’s possible they already had a copy. That they were
playing you. Hoping you would give them some insight into what my father meant with certain passages.”

I shake my head, trying to clear my mind. My skull continues to ache from the Pulse. Yet I feel close to a major breakthrough. It’s not like I can fit all the pieces of the puzzle together, but at least I know which ones belong on the board. I try bouncing a few ideas off Matt.

“Do you think the Hydra and the Array are related?” I ask.

“I don’t know. The Telar sure as hell don’t have their own Array. And they seem helpless against what the IIC is able to throw at them.”

“You heard what Brutran did to Haru’s special ops?”

“Yeah. There are a few Telar who still speak to me. I heard most of them died. And the ones who lived went insane.”

“Haru told me they turned into zombies.”

Matt shook his head. “That’s horrible.”

“Let me suggest an idea you might not have considered. Krishna told Yaksha the Telar had forgotten much of what they once knew. Is it possible they had an Array in the past, but in the present they’ve lost the knowledge of how to construct one?”

“How could you forget something that important?”

“That’s what I thought at first. But you know better than I do how old the Telar are. Like any group, they must have had their ups and downs. Do we even know for sure that any of the original Telar are still alive? What did your mother tell you?”

“She said the original Telar were all dead.”

“Did they die of old age?”

“From upheavals, internal fighting, external wars. My mother is the oldest Telar alive.”

“Haru is absolutely convinced she’s dead?”

“He was. He’ll change his mind now that he’s seen me.”

It takes me a moment to absorb what he’s saying.

“I’m sorry, you really did risk everything to rescue me,” I say.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“You said it yourself, I was reckless. Rescuing me put your mother in danger again.”

“You did what you had to do. I did the same.”

There’s pain in his voice that can’t be faked.

I drop my last doubt. He’s not a spy for the Telar.

“Can you find her? Talk to her?” I ask.

“There’s a way. But I’m not ready to go down that road yet.”

We fly another fifteen minutes in silence. Clouds pour off a nearby mountain range and the moon is blocked from the sky. The dark deepens, and it seems to comfort Matt. He continues to race from one valley to the next, seldom riding high in the sky.