by Wen Spencer
“Shit, I think he hit her!” Sam cried.
“Come on! Pull out of it!” Ukiah shouted helplessly to Socket.
At the last minute, she did, flicking to the right to narrowly miss the column, and then cranked hard to the left again. Kittanning’s dog crate fit snugly into the bow’s wedge-shaped seating area of Socket’s boat; the two babies, only resting in their infant carriers, went sliding across the wide stern of the speedboat and nearly upset.
Core started to follow in a wide arch, and suddenly he too veered hard to the left.
“Watch, watch, watch,” Ukiah cried. “Twelvemile is right on the other side of the bridge! They’re both coming back downriver!”
Sam swore and wretched at her wheel hard to the left, and dropped one of her motors to neutral, and a moment later into reverse. The Endeavor spun tight until they were pointing downriver.
Socket threaded through the bridge supports again, heading toward them. Core came flashing out from under the bridge moments later, Hash braced in his bow seating area.
“Hold on!” Sam slammed the throttle to full and leaned on the horn. Blaring out a warning, the Endeavor leapt in front of Core’s oncoming speedboat.
Core frantically worked the steering wheel of the smaller boat, aiming for the Endeavor’s stern. Ukiah leaned over the side of Endeavor’s tall bridge and fired down at the bottom of the speedboat as it flashed by.
Sam heeled the Endeavor hard to the left. “Come on, baby, come on. I know that you’re not built for this, but work with me.”
Core floundered through the deep trough of chaotic water left by the big boat as Sam continued to turn, trying to bring around the Endeavor’s bow to ram the speedboat. She wasn’t going to make it, the cruiser was moving too slowly to catch the more agile boat, and Core would quickly overtake the wounded Socket. Ukiah darted out of the Endeavor’s bridge, ran the length of the bow, and leapt to Core’s boat just as it cleared their wake.
“Ukiah!” Sam shouted after him, but to her credit, kept the big boat locked on to the speedboat’s midcenter.
Out of the turbulent water, the speedboat roared forward, surging out of the Endeavor’s path.
Hash emptied his gun at Ukiah as he leapt between the boats, the bullets cutting through the air around him, all missing. Ukiah stumbled as he landed, the speedboat rocking out from under him, and before he could recover, Hash was on him. The big man bowled the off-balanced Ukiah over, slamming him to the floor of the speedboat, and struck Ukiah in the temple with the butt of his empty pistol in an explosion of pain and momentary darkness. Ukiah caught Hash’s arm before the cultist could hit him again, and they grappled for control of the pistol. They tumbled through the narrow cut in the instrument panel into the bow before Ukiah got the leverage he needed to suddenly heave the unsuspecting Hash over the side.
Ukiah rolled to his feet and turned to Core, who had a gun leveled at him while trying to keep the boat steady. They had traveled back down the dark river to the bend at Blawnox.
“Now, you disgusting sack of shit,” Ukiah snarled, “where are Ice and the other two founts?”
“Don’t move or I’ll shoot!”
Ukiah checked for a moment and then realized there was no reason to play the meek boy anymore. He’d cleared the playing field of all innocents: Kittanning and the babies were safe with Socket, wounded Max was with Sam, and soon the river would be flooded with police.
Now, though, there was only him and Core—and Ukiah was nearly indestructible.
“You can barely see me,” Ukiah growled, crouching in the darkness. “But I can see you clearly. You’re an arrogant, power-hungry, lying perverted hypocrite. And you’re going to tell me where the fuck the rendezvous is even if I have to beat the information out of you—and frankly I’m hoping that I have to.”
“I can see you!” Core cried, but the gun wavered.
Ukiah laughed. “Can you? Do you have any clue what I am? Here’s a hint—you bastard—I’m not human.”
“You’re not a demon.” Core steered between the two islands; Sycamore still burned brightly. There were police cars on the cove’s shore. “The Blissfire wouldn’t have worked on you if you were a demon.”
Ukiah decided it was useless to insist on the truth; aliens or demons, what was the real difference to an insane man? He’d face Core in his reality. “How do you get a nephilim without an angel, you stupid idiot? Have you so little faith that you can’t believe Good walks the world as well as Evil? You’ve got it all screwed up. The founts don’t kill demons; they only kill humans. You know that—you said it yourself!”
“What do you mean?”
“Blissfire doesn’t affect demons. None of the founts affect demons.”
“But Blissfire is a gift from God.”
“It wasn’t a gift—you stole it, and got what you deserved. Death. You’ve signed your own death warrant, and all those you’ve used Blissfire on, except me; that’s one little trick of its that I’m immune to. Now, where is Ice with the other two founts?”
“You’re lying!” Core started the boat into the nearly straight run to Highland Park Bridge. Ukiah could sense Kittanning ahead of them as Socket continued fleeing Core’s speedboat, apparently unaware that Ukiah had intervened. “You’re a demon! You’re trying to stop me from doing God’s holy work!”
“God’s work?” Ukiah leapt, snarling at him. Core fired once, the bullet creasing Ukiah’s side, before Ukiah batted the gun out over the river and caught hold of Core. A quick hard twist, and he had Core trapped, head craned back to lay bare Core’s neck, and teeth inches from the flesh. Ukiah caught himself then, growling low. “God’s work! Killing babies?”
“It was an accident! We didn’t know that the Persuader was so deadly.”
“Like hell!” Ukiah tightened his hold, feeling satisfaction from the whimper of pain from Core. “The machine was only to inflict pain, not kill! It would have been useless to Hex if it killed! You’d have to torture the babies for hours until the very stress killed them, not the machine. That’s what you did, wasn’t it? You had to have known that they couldn’t have survived that much pain! You’re a fucking EMT. Why did you do it when you had to have known it would kill—?” The truth hit Ukiah and he barely controlled the impulse to bite down hard and tear out Core’s throat. He growled in anger, until he finally managed to force the words through clenched teeth. “You wanted them to die so you could look into their eyes and see God.”
“I baptized them first,” Core protested, as if this made things right.
“How much death do you need? Are not all the deaths of the demons enough for you?”
“I’m beginning to think that demons are all part of one great Evil, all its darkness spread out over many bodies. We cut them up, and they only get smaller and smaller. We’ll never utterly kill Evil, so we’ll never see God.”
Was that the whole reason behind Core’s war with the Ontongard, that the Gets were guiltless subjects to kill in his quest to see the face of God?
“You’re wrong,” Ukiah growled. “You’re wrong like you’re wrong about everything else.”
“No I am not. You have to hold the baby’s eyes open and look carefully as they breathe out that last sweet breath, but both times I saw Him—God’s face—as He welcomed them to heaven.”
Ukiah flung Core away with revulsion; Core had killed the second baby after “succeeding” with the first. He backed away from the monster in human form, growling.
From Kittanning came a sudden flare of panic. Later they would tell Ukiah that the tugboat was pushing four barges up the night river, two barges abreast and two deep, loaded deep with coal. Now it was just black, upon black, upon black. Socket’s speedboat was a crazed blur of running lights as it tumbled away from the tugboat, spilling out Socket, dog crate, and babies. Sam’s horn blared. The tugboat’s deep voice joined, and under the chorus, Ukiah heard the deep powerful throbbing of a tugboat engine and the shushing of massive amounts of water being shoved
aside.
And then Core’s speedboat hit the front barge.
For a moment Ukiah was airborne, and then he hit cold wet darkness. Instantly, he was yanked under the tugboat’s powerful undertow. He sensed something thrashing in the water near him. Instinctively, he reached out and caught one of the babies, and together they were tumbled head over heels in the tugboat’s massive wake. Moments later he fought his way to the surface, baby held tight against him.
“Sam!” he shouted, treading water as the current carried him downriver. “Sam!”
The Endeavor surged out of the darkness and came up beside him. He caught hold of the swimmer’s platform and scrambled up far enough into the boat to shove the baby toward Max. “Here! Take him! Sam, do you see anyone else?”
“There’s Kittanning!” She pointed out the dog crate quickly sinking. “Hold on, I’ll get you there quick.”
Ukiah tucked his feet onto the swimmer’s platform and Sam whipped the boat over to the cage as it vanished. Ukiah dove after it, following Kittanning’s scent through the cold water until his fingers laced through the wire gate. It was like hauling a rock to the surface. When he reached the surface, he hefted the crate over his head, letting the water drain out. Kittanning licked at his fingers, whimpering. The puppy, though, growled at Max when Ukiah handed it up to his partner.
“Hey, big boy, it’s Max! Don’t you remember me?” Max crooned and risked his fingers through the wire.
“You might want to keep him in there.” Ukiah clung to the side of the boat, panting, and scanned the water for Socket and the other baby.
“Ukiah!” Sam shouted from the bridge. “This thing has fishing radar!”
“So?”
“It’s picking up a damn big fish, over there.” She pointed out a featureless section of river. “About ten feet down and sinking.”
Ukiah dove back into the water. The big engines of the tugboat still throbbed near at hand, pulsing through the river water, masking all other input. Ukiah bumped something, caught it, and knew he had hold of the child. By the time he brought it to the surface, he knew it was alive.
“Sam!”
Immediately, Sam had the boat beside him. As he climbed up to hand over the baby, Ukiah noticed that they were drifting toward the dam, slowly, inevitably. They were already past the warning signs anchored in the river and nearly to the Highland Park Bridge, which was deep in the restricted area deemed too dangerous to trouble.
He saw Socket then, floating like the dead in the water as the current took her downriver. “Sam, over there!”
Sam deftly maneuvered the big boat up beside Socket and Ukiah pulled her out of the river. She had been shot in the back, high on her shoulder, and was unconscious from a blow to the head, but alive. Ukiah wrapped her in a blanket as Sam steered the boat away from the dam. Kittanning was still locked in the cage, whimpering for Ukiah.
“I have my hands full with the other two,” Max explained guiltily. “But we need Kittanning as a baby, now. Before the police show up. We’re not going to be able to produce him out of thin air later, without explanation.”
“I’ll work on it.” Ukiah carried the cage into the cabin, shut the cabin door, and let Kittanning out of the cage. Kittanning tumbled into his arms, a squirming bundle of wet fur. “Come on, Kitt! You’ve got to go back to being human.”
Kittanning resisted wordlessly, a flood of memories of being helpless, immobile, tied down even by the most loving of hands, dependent on those who didn’t have time for him, left him behind for days and days. With spite disproportional to his body, Kittanning projected the weeks of utter loneliness, forever to an infant, while Ukiah was gone.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Ukiah crooned. “But remember, we were together. We were happy.” And he pulled from his own memory standing in Kittanning’s bedroom while the aurora borealis danced in the window. “You can go back to this and only remember what you want to remember.”
Kittanning countered with the knowledge that they were together now, on his terms.
Ukiah brought up the memory of his mothers’ kitchen, all together as a family. But there was contention there. Mom Lara distracted by the return to work and a resentful Cally. Kittanning had picked up on the subtle tensions. Ukiah scrambled forward. “And there’s Max.”
Kittanning had inherited Ukiah’s love of Max, and then built on it as Max showered his new godson with affection. Max, though, had gone away and left him, just like Ukiah had.
“Please, Kittanning,” Ukiah whispered, searching forward and found the moment of pure contentment. “Give us a chance for this.”
In that moment, Kittanning lay in Indigo’s arms while Ukiah held them both close. It had felt so right, a family, father, mother, and son.
Mommy! Kittanning wailed, the chord striking deep resonance, deep to a once shared pining for the mother lost and unknown, for Kicking Deer. Ukiah now had memories of a true mother, but Kittanning didn’t. Indigo was the mother of his heart, despite all of Mom Lara’s care, and it cried now for her. Mommy!
Go back to being a baby, and we’ll be a family.
Mommy! And the canine whine slowly turned into a human baby cry.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Mercy Hospital was built overlooking downtown Pittsburgh in 1847 by seven Sisters of Mercy nuns from Scotland. Ironically, Rennie had been six at the time, and still a human, and Magic Boy, living Ukiah’s first childhood, was well into his fifties but stuck at the age of twelve. A hundred and fifty-three years later, Rennie looked like he was nearing his thirties, and Ukiah could finally call himself a man. The ancient nun sitting at the information desk, however, looked like she had been there since the hospital was built.
“I’m looking for Max Bennett.” Ukiah spelled out “Bennett” for her. “He was admitted to emergency last night with a gunshot wound.”
She eyed Rennie in his biking leathers carrying sleeping Kittanning in his car seat carrier. “I’m sorry, but . . .” She pointed a trembling, arthritic finger at Rennie. Ukiah flinched, knowing that they looked wrong together; he seemed too young to be a father, and Rennie too rough to own the well-cared-for child. Kittanning, though, had been refusing to let Ukiah out of his senses since last night, and Ukiah had complied, not wanting to give his son any reason to go back to being a puppy. Ukiah steeled himself for a series of difficult questions, perhaps even a demand to see some proof that Kittanning was his.
She finished, though, with, “Children under fourteen aren’t allowed beyond the lobby. He’ll have to stay here.”
Ukiah blinked, and behind him Rennie snorted at his surprise.
“He’s still sleeping. Go on up. I’ll let you know when he wakes.”
“That’s okay, my dad will stay with my son.”
She shook her head, and turned to the computer terminal murmuring, “God have patience with children of today.” She tapped at the keyboard with infinite slowness, and it was a full two minutes later that she found Max’s room number and told it to him.
Ukiah thanked her, nodded to Rennie, and went in search of Max.
The river rescue teams had chosen Max and Socket, as the most seriously wounded, to be flown via the Lifeflight helicopter to Mercy Hospital. Max groused about it since it meant that neither Ukiah nor Sam could come with him, nor follow directly behind in the Hummer. Between the lack of ambulances to go around, and Sam’s prodding, Max had finally given in.
Ukiah had missed the full discussion and Max’s departure because he’d been busy keeping custody of Kittanning. They had packed a complete supply of baby stuff in with the guns and rescue gear. While the other babies had been dried, diapered, and wrapped in blankets, they were still so traumatized that they were whisked off to Children’s Hospital. Luckily, after guzzling down two cans of formula, Kittanning was extremely healthy-looking by the time the paramedics arrived. He proved that his lungs were none the worse
for his dunking when the EMT tried to examine him, and quieted instantly for Indigo as she entered the fray.
In the end, they released Kittanning on Ukiah’s promise to take his son to Mercy Hospital for a thorough examination. By then, Sam had returned the Endeavor to its regular boat slip and made arrangements for the final paperwork to be delivered to the offices, making sure that they had a receipt of the hundred and fifty thousand paid out in cash. Indigo sent them on their way before someone of higher authority could arrive to outvote her.
Max’s room was on the fourth floor, with a view of the Monongahela River valley, the top of Mount Washington, and the hills rolling away for miles. Max had the bed levered up to a sitting position and was gazing out the window. An IV dripped fluid down a clear line into his arm.
Ukiah tapped on the door and walked in. “Hi.”
“Hey, kid.” Max lifted his hand in greeting, and Ukiah clasped it tight.
“You look horrible.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“What did they say about your leg?”
“The bullet didn’t hit an artery, which we knew, or the femur. They called me damn stupid for getting shot and rolling around in the mud so much afterward. Considering how much pain I was in at the time, they’re lucky you kept my Desert Eagle.”
“And?”
“I’ll be here a couple of days, and then they’ll let me out with a cane, and orders to stay off my feet for six weeks.”
“It should have been me that got shot.”
Max made a raspberry at that. “Oh, you would have hurt for a shorter period of time, but you wouldn’t have hurt less than me. Oh, stop with the puppy eyes, you’re too old for that.”
“How are Kittanning and the other two kids?”
“Children’s Hospital released the others this morning. Jonah’s mother is out on probation and has regained custody of him, and Shiralle’s foster parents have decided to adopt her.”
“Ah, good.”
“Kittanning’s downstairs with Rennie.” Ukiah explained why, adding, “The hospital wouldn’t let me bring him up, so I’ll have to go when he wakes up. We had brunch with Indigo’s family and they all fussed over him. We’re doing dinner with Mom Jo’s family at the farm tonight.”
