“If I had to guess, I would say a laser cut this in half,” he said after a few minutes. He came back to the table and put the magnifying glass down. Then he put his glasses down. Finally, he put the bone down in front of him and stared at it. His hands framed the bone on both sides without touching it, as if it was a particularly interesting subject. “This must have happened before everyone vanished,” he concluded. “One would need an energy source to accomplish this, and I think you know that we aren’t using electricity right now.”
I hadn’t considered that.
Lulu said, “I don’t think so. There were others. Lots of others. Not all cut in the same place. And sometimes there were missing parts.” I had to give it to Lulu. Sometimes she pretended to be dumb, but she really wasn’t.
“So what?” Ignatius asked.
“If it had happened before the change, people would have picked up the bodies, or the pieces of the bodies,” Lulu went on carefully as if she was explaining the obvious to a wandering idiot. “It was a small town but this was on a main drag.” She motioned to a point on her left, and her hand went in an imaginary line all the way to her far right, indicating the spread we had seen. “They wouldn’t have left them there.”
“What are the odds of them being killed right before the change by someone using a laser weapon out in the middle of nowhere like that?” I asked, more of myself than anyone else.
The doctor scratched his head, and his hand went back down to frame the bone again. “The cut is at an angle to the bone.” He held the bone up right. “If a person were simply standing in place then the angle would be about 45 degrees, coming from the bottom and going up toward the person.” His face wrinkled into honest confusion. “I can’t imagine what would cut at that angle unless the person was already dead.” He placed the bone horizontal to the table. “Likewise, if they were on the ground, then the angle is somewhat drastic. It’s not a bone saw. It’s not a chainsaw. It’s not a specialty blade that I’ve ever seen before.”
“You don’t know what did that,” I stated.
“The cut is that clean,” Ignatius said. “I believe there was a defense contractor who had recently come up with a laser weapon able to shoot down enemy planes. The navy constructed a directed-energy weapon to shoot kamikaze pilots and such. I suppose that theoretically such a weapon would work in this world, provided we could find a proper way to provide energy for it.” He tilted his head and then tilted the bone. “There were more bones, you say?”
“Littered across an area. There were clothes and jewelry.”
“Not like the others, correct?” the doctor mused. “Not empty clothing. Was the clothing cut, as well?”
“I didn’t look.”
“Pity.”
“Look at this,” Ignatius said. “This is the front of the tibia. This is the side you would see if you were looking at the front of the leg. So if I move it like this— ” he moved the bone so that it looked like it was moving in conjunction with someone walking “— then it’s a normal activity performed by most humans. This person would be walking or running.”
He moved the bone so that it was at a forty-five degree angle to the ground. “Here the leg is in the natural position for someone who has just taken a step and the tibia and its brethren are following suit. Now the cut line is perpendicular to the ground.” He studied the bone. “I wonder if this sorry individual ran into something that cut him off.” He sliced the air with his hand in a vertical motion, ninety degrees to the ground. “Just like that.”
Chapter 14
All Work and No Play
Makes Sophie Irritated…
McCurdy said, “Just like what?”
Ignatius looked up, and the moment of clarity was gone. “Just an interesting conundrum with a bone,” he answered. “These girls had to know what I did before I was a regular doctor again.”
I didn’t say anything. The lieutenant had come in through the door, and I hadn’t noticed because I was focused on what the doctor was saying. The firefly pixies hadn’t warned me. In fact, Spring was resting in the hair around my ear with one of her little clubbed hands stuck to the curve at the top of the ear.
Ignatius grinned. “Forensic pathology is my specialty,” he said. He waved his arms around liberally. “It doesn’t do any good if there aren’t any bodies left.”
I turned so I could see McCurdy. He was dressed in the same uniform, unless he had an entire rack of them in whatever closet of the place he called home. The coat was missing for the moment, but I could see the belt with the knife and the pistol attached to it. Even in a hotel busy with human beings he had to have met many of, he wasn’t very trusting. (The Japanese broadsword was strapped to my back once again, so I couldn’t very well be too condescending.) His eyes came to rest on the bone, and I briefly saw the emotions race through. Interest, fear, and anger? Then his face went carefully blank. “Where did you get that?” he asked neutrally.
“I found it out West,” I said. “It was a curious anomaly. I thought the doctor here might give me an idea what happened to it, but I expect the answer will be something that we should all get used to.”
McCurdy waited for a moment for me to finish and when I didn’t, he said, “What?”
“A mystery,” I finished. I liked my timing for the moment. I couldn’t have planned it better. The look on the lieutenant’s face was now irascible. With me. My mission for the day was accomplished.
“Do you mind if I keep this for a while?” Ignatius asked, fingering the bone.
“Knock yourself out,” I said. “Did you need me for something, lieutenant?” I had an urge to call him “left-ten-ant,” like the British pronounce the word, just to see if I could annoy him some more, but I restrained myself.
“There’s a set of new creatures on the National Mall that have been giving us problems,” McCurdy said, and his tone would have curdled milk.
“You want me to see if I can talk with them?” I would have smiled, but I abruptly realized that I was being set up to be the administration’s personal animal-talking bee-yotch. That wasn’t going to last long if I had my way about it.
“I’ve heard them called argopelters,” McCurdy said.
“Hah,” Ignatius said. “That’s a lumberjack story. But it isn’t exactly inappropriate.”
McCurdy frowned at the doctor. Then he said to Lulu, “You can help with gathering and scrounging while we go to—”
“She comes with me,” I said.
Lulu had already been turning toward the door, calmly accepting McCurdy’s direction. She turned back and looked at me with her eyebrows arched.
“I need someone I can count on to watch my back,” I said to McCurdy. “I can count on Lulu.”
“But she can’t even—” McCurdy started to say, and the words were cut off in his throat.
“Can’t what?” I asked. What had Landers been telling McCurdy about Lulu and about me? Had the people here already discounted Lulu as insignificant? As a pretty face who was only good for collecting cans and dried goods? All I could see in my mind’s eye, was the blood-covered Lulu whose eyes were already cloudy with death.
I didn’t wait for McCurdy to answer. “She stays with me,” I said firmly. I wasn’t lying. I wanted Lulu at my back, no matter what she’d done in the past. Furthermore, I wanted to know where she was so I could change her future.
McCurdy shrugged. I guess he knew when to pick his battles.
With a brief run upstairs for coats, we followed him downstairs and outside into a chilly day. The winds were blowing from the north and bringing in a cold front. I could smell the snow in the air. We passed people preparing to go out into the District and do collections. Others were soldiers and practicing what they were learning.
We didn’t get to use the Stanley Steamer today. I suppose that was to be expected. Instead, we set off across the park beside the hotel. McCurdy wasn’t so chatty, so we had to read the name on the statues for ourselves. There was one of Andrew Jackson, and
I actually knew who he was without the military historian explanation. We headed around the White House toward the National Mall, passing a few more statues and some bronze cannons. We did a pretty good clip, and I think McCurdy was getting his own back on me.
Lulu was in pretty good shape, but she had to stretch her legs to keep up. Spring and the girls who’d come with us kept in my hair and in Lulu’s with occasional swipes at McCurdy’s soft cap. He stopped swatting at them after about five minutes. I was impressed that he controlled himself so quickly.
The huge Ellipse on the South Lawn of the White House was on our left as we approached Constitution Avenue. I had ceased trying to needle McCurdy and worked to stay at his side. He finally stopped on the other side of Constitution Avenue. In one lane was a stretch limo sitting there with its doors open. Two piles of clothing sat on the rear bench seat. An expensive looking watch twinkled at us from one pile.
“What did you say? An argopelter?” I asked when we stopped.
McCurdy looked southwest into a stand of trees. “That is the Constitutional Gardens. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is past the pond.” He pointed south. “The U.S. National World War II Memorial is right down there. The Reflecting Pool is there.” He pointed again. “On the end of the Reflecting Pool is the Lincoln Memorial. There’s also the District of Columbia World War I Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial.”
I did want to go sightseeing while I was in D.C. It was true. We definitely could have had a better tour guide than Lieutenant McCurdy. He didn’t point out the Washington Monument, but it was probably because it towered over everything and stuck out like a great big sore thumb. (McCurdy was certainly knowledgeable but not exactly friendly.)
“Should I guess that the argopelter lives in the gardens here?” I asked. “Likes to visit the statues, right?”
Lulu laughed.
McCurdy didn’t answer.
“Okay, tell me what an argopelter is,” I said mollifyingly. I shouldn’t have been trying to tick off the lieutenant. For all I knew, he would be my best buddy. I didn’t really think so, but I had been warned about playing nice with all the other children. Once, my father had tried to tell me that lesson. It had to do with waiting to have all the information before deciding whose side I was on.
“Perhaps if you’d like to see for yourself,” McCurdy said as he directed us to the first path to the right. We walked past a small stone house, and Lulu asked what it was.
“It was a lockkeeper’s house,” he replied after a moment. “In the early part of the 19th century, canals were the way revenue and goods travelled. The man who lived in this house helped keep records of what passed and took tolls.”
“It doesn’t look like much of a house,” I said.
“The park officials use it for storage,” McCurdy said. “Or at least, they did. I don’t know what’s going to happen to the parks.”
I could hear the wistfulness in his tone. What would it be like to come to this place after twenty years and discover that the Washington Monument had fallen over or that the Reflecting Pool was thick with lily pads and about to vanish into the thick overgrowth of what had once been one of the world’s most popular tourist locales?
“We’re going to have to prioritize,” I said softly. “We won’t be able to save everything.”
“Exactly,” the lieutenant replied.
We went further into Constitutional Gardens, and the wind died away. Spring poked my ear and flew away, buzzing upward with a speed that was disconcerting. She had seen something that caught her attention.
There was an island on one side of the pond. A gaggle of Canadian geese were swimming around and mildly interested in our presence. I supposed they recalled that humans used to feed them and hadn’t quite given up hope. Or perhaps, some of the humans were still feeding them. Wait until the humans realized that foie gras could be on the menu.
“What’s the memorial on the little island?” Lulu asked.
“It’s dedicated to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence,” McCurdy said. “Didn’t you guys take any history in high school?”
“I didn’t get a chance to graduate,” I said primly.
“Do you know what the curse of not knowing your history is?” McCurdy asked.
“We’re doomed to repeat it,” I said before a moment was up. “Maybe we should make our own history. None of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was a new animal. It’s a clue.”
McCurdy’s jaw clamped down so quickly that I heard a pop and then he rubbed the side of his face.
Of course, then a piece of wood nailed me in the side of the head.
* * *
I came to as Lulu asked, “What the hell is your problem?”
“I didn’t know it would knock her out,” McCurdy snapped back.
“Little monkey beast tossing branches, pieces of wood, and whatnot at anyone who comes close enough, and you didn’t think it was worth warning us?”
I grasped that I was lying horizontally on the ground. I was cold, and I thought I might have been lying there for a while. My back felt sore, and my coat was bunched up around my waist. I could hear geese honking as if they were laughing, and there was another set of raucous noises in the background. Something else was hooting it up.
“Oww, dammit,” Lulu said. “That’s gonna leave a bruise.”
I opened my eyes. We were on the little island. McCurdy crouched beside me, and Lulu stared off into the grove of trees on the shore.
“You did that on purpose, McCurdy,” I said.
McCurdy glanced at me. “Well, yeah,” he agreed. “Their aim is getting better, though, and I didn’t count on that.”
I brought my head up, and Spring buzzed past my head.
“Can you tell your bugs not to stab me anymore?” McCurdy asked. “I’m going to have to get a tetanus shot from that.” I could see he had bleeding pin pricks all over his hands.
Lulu ducked as some more missiles came shooting past us. Most of them went into the water behind us.
I rolled over and caught my breath, climbing to my hands and knees. My head was one big ache. All the aspirin in the world wasn’t going to make a dent in it. “Those are the argopelters? That’s hilarious. They’re pelting us with wood.”
“They’re like little freaking primates,” Lulu said. She ducked again. “They’re up in the trees, and they’re using bits of the trees as cannon fodder.”
I looked toward the trees. It took me a moment to get a good look at the new creatures. There weren’t a lot to them. They weren’t very big, and they were the color of the bark. It was true that they looked like little maniacal simians with long arms. “What does the name mean?”
“Nothing,” McCurdy said. “Someone named them after an old story. The loggers in Maine said that when a piece of wood hit them on the head, the argopelters were doing it. As far as I know— ” he ducked when a piece of branch flew past his head “ –argo is old thieves cant for a special group of people. At least that’s the definition I would put on this usage. It certainly doesn’t mean the ship Jason used to search for the Golden Fleece or a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere.”
“It could be worse,” I said.
Lulu cursed as a piece of wood hit her shoulder. “How? Okay, they could be King Kong sized and think we’re Fay Wray, I’ll give you that.”
“They could be throwing feces at us,” I finished with an abject grin.
McCurdy groaned.
* * *
An hour later and I was playing tic-tac-toe with the leader of the argopelters. We were using sticks in the dirt but it worked out. He cheated like a little kid, but I was happy to let him win. We’d worked out the majority of the problems they were having with humans. They liked the game I taught them and wanted to see a few more human games. Lulu suggested Hungry, Hungry Hippo and Candyland.
“Jenga,” McCurdy said. “Kerplunk.”
The other argopelters were watching us. Most of them were in the tr
ees, but some of them crowded behind the leader, throwing out strategic advice. Every once in a while I got a glimpse of something larger, hiding in the tall branches of a pine.
“Okay,” I said to McCurdy, “they don’t want to see the steam cars driving around Constitutional Gardens. They say it scares the babies.”
McCurdy nodded. “We can cordon off the area for motorized traffic. That’s not an issue.”
“Someone chopped down a tree,” I continued, “and that’s a big no-no.”
“Shouldn’t be anyone chopping down trees in the gardens,” McCurdy agreed. “We’ll make sure that everyone knows that using the trees in this area is off-limits.”
I sighed. “That’s about it. I said we’d bring some more games for them and teach them how to play them.”
“They don’t mind if people are walking through the park?”
I looked at the head argopelter. He was drawing three X’s in a row without waiting for me to take a turn. “As long as they don’t get too close to them, they’re fine. They won’t throw things unless they’re threatened.”
I finished off a round of games with the leader, and we made our way to the edge of the park. But it wasn’t before I told the leader that if his people felt like throwing a few extra pieces of wood at McCurdy, the lieutenant wouldn’t mind. We could hear the argopelters hooting with glee as we walked away.
“If you don’t follow through with those agreements, I won’t come back and try to repair the damage,” I said as we came to Constitution Avenue.
McCurdy glared at me. I shrugged. “It’s been known to have happened before, you know, with treaties.”
“Did you see the little boy in the trees?” Lulu asked.
I had seen him. I asked the argopelters about him, but they simply said he was one of them now. “The child will be taken care of,” I said. “That won’t be a problem for you, will it, lieutenant?”
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