The Music of the Machine (The Book of Terwilliger 2)

by Michael Stiles

  To his credit, the big man did zip it. But he didn’t stop smiling. A stain of blood was spreading down his sleeve. “Well, Mildred,” he said, “it was a good thing you had that gun. Threw him off his stride, didn’t you?”

  “You’re bleeding,” said Perla. “A lot.”

  He glanced at the growing bloodstain on his shirt. “That’s not a lot. Seen much worse in my old job.”

  Seymour was looking up at the blue horse on the ceiling. “I don’t like that thing looking at us. Feels like Nathaniel’s watching.” He was still completely covered in dirt, although he had wiped the worst of it off of his face. Perla knew she must look just as filthy.

  “Back to business, Flem,” said John, snapping his fingers to get Seymour’s attention. “We need to Sarah and Mildred out of here.”

  Perla’s heart leaped. Very few good things had been happening lately. “You found Sarah?”

  “She’s right there.” John looked around, momentarily confused. “She was over there a minute ago.” There was a dark alcove at the far end of the room; he went over there to take a look, but came back shaking his head. “Great. Lost her. Ed’s gonna kill me.”

  Flem was massaging his back where the tunnel had collapsed on him. “Do you think she just wandered off on her own, or…” He was smart enough to leave the rest unsaid.

  John had the look of someone who had just come to a difficult decision. “Flem, look at you. You’ve had a hell of a day. I want you and Mildred to―”

  Flem was already shaking his head.

  “Stop calling me that,” said Perla.

  “Hush up,” John said. “You two get out of here. I’ll find Sarah and get her out, somehow. I’ve got a better chance against Nathaniel and his clowns than either of you.” He put his finger to his lips to forestall Seymour’s objections, then turned and jogged toward the spot where he’d last seen Sarah. Then he got down on his hands and knees and began searching the ground.

  Flem sighed. “Guess that’s decided. Come on, let’s go.”

  Perla hesitated. “We can’t just leave her.”

  “Big John will take care of business,” said Flem. “He always does.”

  “Can you find the way out now?”

  “Sure,” Flem said with a smile. “I’m not so confused anymore. But we’re not leaving yet. There’s something else we need to do.”

  * * *

  Joy was quite lost. She and Rayfield and Sarah were trying to find their way back up to the higher levels. They had passed the plumbing room twice now and had somehow come back in a big circle. She was coming dangerously close to panic when the gray-haired man with blue eyes appeared in her head.

  “It’s the guy with the sword,” she said.

  He began talking, and his voice filled all of their heads with its deep resonance. “Nathaniel,” His voice sounded distorted and strange. “Do you remember me? I told you I’d stop you. You laughed at me. Remember? Well, now I’m stopping you.”

  Rayfield and Joy shared a bewildered look.

  “I’m turning off your machine… right now!” Then he disappeared, and the hum faded out a moment later. The silence was so complete that they could hear the water running through the pipes, and the stream carrying the sewage away.

  Sarah was shaking with terror. She had a large, dark bump forming on her forehead where she’d knocked it against the floor. Her stride was unsteady and her eyes didn’t seem to be focusing properly. “It’s him,” she whispered. “He found me again.” It was the same thing she’d been whispering ever since they’d escaped the room with the machine.

  “You keep saying that,” said Joy. She was usually exceptionally patient with people, but today her patience was in low supply. “Can you please say something else?”

  “Holy cow,” Rayfield said. “It is him!”

  “Rayfield!” Joy snapped. “Stop being funny.”

  “It’s Rat!” said Rayfield.

  Joy loved animals, but she did not like rats. Not one bit. They made her skin crawl. “I didn’t see any rat.”

  Rayfield turned and took her by the shoulders. “The dude with the sword. His name is Rat. He used to live in the Guru’s house with us.” Glancing at Sarah, he said, “Right, Doris? I just never saw him in nice clothes, and he had his hair tied back.”

  “Yes,” Sarah said, looking relieved that someone had finally understood her. “Rat!”

  “I should’ve recognized that murderin’ sumbitch,” Rayfield muttered. Joy had never seen him so angry.

  “What do you mean, Rayfield? He killed somebody?” That was a silly question, she realized in hindsight. She had just seen him kill somebody.

  “The Guru,” Sarah said. She took a long, shuddering breath. “He killed the Guru. I… I saw it happen.”

  Rayfield pounded his fist into his hand. “I need to go back. He’s probably still breaking the machine.”

  “No, Shnookie,” said Joy. She hadn’t known the Guru, but Rayfield and Sarah had clearly thought a lot of him. “Revenge is dumb. We need to get out of here. I can’t take these caves anymore.”

  Rayfield’s head sagged until his chin was against his chest. “You’re right. I know it. But which way is out?”

  A male voice called out from the darkness just ahead of them. “This way,” he said.

  They had failed to notice the man in blue clothes who had been hiding in the shadows up ahead. Joy spotted him now and let out a little scream. He smiled and brandished a gun. His face was chubby and the skin was peeling off in several places—a skin condition of some kind. He was joined by two others who had been hiding behind him.

  “Norge,” said Sarah.

  “Oh, d-d-d-darlin’, you can call me Croaker. Everybody else does.” He pointed his gun at Rayfield while the other two began tying Joy’s and Sarah’s hands behind their backs with rough twine, leaving a long piece that they could hold onto to keep them from running off. “You’re one big customer, ain’t you?” he said. “Gonna try anything with me, my m-m-man?”

  Rayfield shook his head.

  “Naw,” said Norge, scratching at a loose patch of skin on his face. “You’re ssssmart. Nath-Nath-Nath… The boss is gonna want to meet you.”

  Norge made Rayfield lead the way, with Joy and Sarah following. He and the other two Horsemen followed. Joy glanced back over her shoulder once, just to see if they still had their guns out. They did. But she also saw something else: Ed’s big friend was hiding behind a rock. She recognized his face, but couldn’t remember his name. He waited until the Horsemen had their backs to him, and began following at a distance. Then Norge poked Joy with his gun and she had to turn back around.

  Ed’s friend would help them, when the time was right. She was sure he would. She followed the others and waited for him to make his move.

  * * *

  The monsters were closing in.

  Danny ran from Elmer Nosgrove, yelling and making as much noise as possible. Drawn by the sound, every horrifying creature in Ed’s subconscious mind came around to investigate. There were spiders by the thousand, a big gorilla, the gnome with the red eye, the fat white man with the pointy nose. Danny thought there might be even worse things lurking in the distance, things so frightful that they didn’t even have a physical form.

  As fast as Danny was, Nosgrove was faster. He traveled in great leaps, covering a long distance with each stride. Danny could see the black demon leaping behind him, holding the marionette strings that made Nosgrove move and speak. Nosgrove was snarling, his teeth bared in a hideous grin.

  Integral to Danny’s plan was the idea that the creatures, once roused, would eventually turn on Nosgrove. This plan was not working out as expected; the monsters kept clear of the demon and focused all their attention on Danny. He did not get tired here the way he would if he were running in the real world, but the beasts were gaining on him just the same. Even the slow, lumbering creatures were somehow overtaking him.

  Soon it became clear that he was slowly being turned around
in a direction he didn’t want to go. The nightmarish things were coming from all directions except the black lake. He would be caught, or he would be cornered at the lake. It was one or the other. What would happen if the things caught him? He was afraid to contemplate that possibility.

  As he was looking over his shoulder at the lake, he failed to notice the huge man blocking his path until it was almost too late. The gigantic bald man stood at least eight feet tall, with eyes that were too small for his big, round head. Behind him stood a winged yellow demon, controlling his strings in the same way that the black beast controlled Nosgrove. This could only be Arthur—if not the real thing, then an analogous version of Arthur and Orc that existed in Ed’s deepest fears. Nosgrove had seen him, too; he paused in his pursuit and regarded the yellow beast with uncertainty.

  With a wordless, earth-shaking bellow, the bald giant leaped toward Danny. Danny dropped to the ashy ground and covered his head with his hands, but the thing didn’t attack him. It passed him by, stepping right next to his head with a heavy foot, heading straight toward Nosgrove. Danny sat up and almost cheered out loud until he remembered that the rest of the monsters were still bearing down on him. The dead woman with long, black hair was only a few feet away, reaching out with overgrown fingernails to touch his face. The pointy-nosed man was right behind her. If this had been a nightmare, this would be the moment when he would have woken up. But it wasn’t a nightmare. He shrank back from the woman’s reaching hands and felt something else taking hold of his hair from behind.

  From somewhere high above came a ripping sound, like fabric being torn. Danny looked up at the black sky and watched as a wide, bright gash opened from horizon to horizon. The edges folded inward and trailed toward the ground. The opening spread and the light became so bright that he had to shield his eyes. The low sound that had been droning continuously became suddenly louder; it shook the ground and made him feel sick. The monsters shrank back. The false Orc roared and ran away toward the lake, leaving Nosgrove alone.

  Something blocked out the light: a human face, with an eye so impossibly large that it filled the hole in the sky. Its pupil dilated as it looked down on the dark world; the iris was gray. It looked this way and that, until it found Nosgrove.

  “You can’t have him!” Nosgrove and the black beast shrieked in unison. Nosgrove shook his fist at the sky. His face, which had initially struck Danny as good-natured and warm, was contorted in an expression of supreme hatred. “It’s almost done!” he howled.

  The eye blinked once, in slow motion. A voice spoke, deeper than the deepest sound Danny had ever heard: “Ahhhhhh,” it rumbled. “Theeeeere.” It sounded like a record being played at the slowest possible speed. The eye moved away and was replaced by an even larger mouth, which puckered its lips and blew. The wind from that mouth kicked up ashes and debris that stung Danny’s eyes. The monsters of Ed’s subconscious slipped away to hide in the distant shadows. The black lake swirled in great waves that soon turned to spray, and the wind carried the spray up through the hole in the sky.

  Elmer Nosgrove turned his dark gaze on Danny and said, “Forget.” An instant later, the wind grew so strong that Nosgrove rose up into the air, carried away as though he weighed nothing at all. When the wind finally died down, both Nosgrove and the lake were gone.

  The lake was gone, but the hole in the sky remained. Danny went to the place where the edges of the tattered sky hung down like long curtains. He grabbed one of the loose ends of the sky and began to climb.

  * * *

  “What are you doing?” said Ed, swatting Nathaniel away.

  Tom Kajdas had a look he’d given Ed on many occasions; Ed thought of it as his “you’re-an-idiot” look. Nathaniel gave him that look now. “We need to do something about Urizen’s poison in your brain. It has to be cleaned out.”

  Ed watched, cross-eyed, as a tendril of smoke came out of his own head and drifted in front of his face. “Can you get rid of it?”

  Nathaniel suddenly became very excited. “Let’s take a look!” He took Ed’s head firmly in his hands and began digging through his hair, inspecting his scalp as though looking for lice. “It’s in there somewhere,” Nathaniel said. “Ah! There.” He puckered his lips and began blowing on Ed’s head.

  “Stop! Your breath smells!” Ed twisted out of Nathaniel’s grip and pulled away.

  “It’s gone now.”

  “Gone? That’s it?”

  Nathaniel shrugged. “You have a small brain. It couldn’t spread very far.”

  Ed ran a hand through his hair, wondering whether the insult was intentional. He decided it probably wasn’t. The hum was rising again, making him feel like his skull was about to fly apart. It was attacking him, trying to break down his defenses. Ed was determined not to let Nathaniel know how close he was to being overcome with every surge. “It’s taking a long time,” Ed said. “Are you sure they’re bringing her here?”

  Nathaniel tilted his head and looked at Ed in complete confusion. His red eye glowed a little brighter. “What? Why are you saying these words to me?”

  “Sarah. You said they were going to bring her here.”

  “Oh.” His eyes darted back and forth nervously. “Oops.”

  “No,” said Ed, growing agitated. “There can’t be any ‘oops’ about that. You said―”

  Nathaniel smiled, trying to appear confident, but the smile was every bit as disingenuous as Kajdas’ smiles used to be. “They’ll find her. It’s just that…”

  Ed held out his hands in a frustrated gesture. “What?”

  “We lost her. She’s lost.”

  Rage rose up in Ed’s gut. It felt just like stomach acid. He jumped up out of his chair and brandished a fist at Nathaniel. “You lost her?” This presented a major obstacle to Ed’s plan, which was to see Sarah safely out and then to find a way to kill Nathaniel. Since he had already killed Nathaniel once, the second part of this plan was not going to be easy to figure out. But the first part, getting Sarah out, was a critical first step. If she was lost, then… It was only then that the meaning of Nathaniel’s words became clear. “Or she got away. Is that it?” Nathaniel was glaring at him and grinding his teeth. Ed laughed out loud. “She escaped! She got away, and you don’t know where she went!” It was hard to smile with the hum battering at his mind, but he made himself smile anyway.

  “Stop laughing at me,” Nathaniel grumbled. “You live here now, either way. And when I find her, she’ll live here too. As her punishment for running away.”

  Ed felt the smile drain from his face. “That wasn’t our deal.”

  “It’s the deal now.”

  Ed considered bolting for the door, but the prospect of escaping from Nathaniel’s house alone was a daunting one. The desire to fight left him and he slumped back into his chair. He had no strength left to resist.

  But Nathaniel had stopped paying attention. He was staring at the floor in a state of shock, his red eye glowing like a hot coal. Ed was about to ask him what he was looking at, but at that moment a face appeared in his mind and began speaking. It was a man’s face, lined with the wrinkles of middle-age. He had long, gray hair tied back, and his eyes were bright blue.

  “Nathaniel,” said the man with blue eyes. “Do you remember me? I told you I’d stop you. You laughed at me. Remember? Well, now I’m stopping you. I’m turning off your machine… right now!”

  The face disappeared and the hum faded until there was only silence. Nathaniel fixed his gaze on Ed again. “He found me,” Nathaniel whispered. Ed had never seen him look frightened before.

  “That was Rat,” said Ed. “What was he talking about?”

  Nathaniel sat perfectly still for a moment, breathing heavily. Then, seizing Ed’s arm, he got up and hurried to the door, flinging it open on squeaky hinges. “Go!” He pushed Ed ahead of him through the door. “He killed my machine. Killed it. Move!” Ed bumped into the rough rock walls as Nathaniel kept shoving him from behind, urging him to go faster.

 
* * *

  Danny opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He was in a dark bedroom, and he could hear the nighttime sounds of a city outside. A city… He flung the sheets away and stood up. The whole room was spinning, so fast that it made him feel sick. There were spots swirling in his vision, like thousands of tiny black sparks. There was a stench of burning oil in his nostrils. He staggered to the kitchen and stood over the sink, waiting to see if anything would come up. Nothing did.

  The last thing he remembered was running through the jungle, in the rain, and being shot at. A round had made contact with his helmet. He touched his head and found no blood. There wasn’t even a bump. Yet he was sure he had been bleeding when he lay down to sleep.

  He found a mirror and examined himself. He was clean, and his hair had grown out from the short military cut he had worn in the field. Strange—hair took a long time to grow. How long had he been asleep? Even that was not the most alarming thing, though; he gasped out loud when he saw the tattoo on his arm.

  “A monkey,” he whispered. He scratched at it with his fingernails to see if it was real ink. The tattoo was hot to the touch. “A green monkey. What the―”

  A phone rang on the kitchen wall, making him scream in terror until he realized what it was. He took several deep breaths before he answered it. “Yeah?”

  “Mulberry,” said a deep, accented voice. “Things are happening quickly. Have you heard from Bismuth?”

  “Bismuth,” he mumbled.

  “You are in danger. For God’s sake, wake up, Mulberry!”

  Danny pulled the receiver away from his ear and stared at it dumbly. Then he put it back up to his ear. “I think you have the wrong number.”

  “We have no time for games. My suspicions were correct. The enemy has infiltrated the President’s inner circle. I’m calling in the Monkeys. I want you to come to my office immediately.”

  “Your…”

  “My office. In the White House. What’s the matter with you, Mulberry?”