Then he'd shoved them into his pocket--and gone off to fucking Armageddon, all alone. His head shoved six miles up his ass.
Only eighteen years later was he finally even physically capable of pondering the massive consequences of that decision. His stupidity, his arrogance, it took his breath away. But he'd paid for it. Paid in full.
Sean came out on the porch. He caught sight of Kev up on the bluff, and gestured him down. As soon as his voice would carry over the scream of the canyon wind, his twin shouted, "What's with Edie?"
Kev's guts locked up. "What do you mean?"
"You have no idea why she would suddenly decide to take an early morning stroll and walk out of the security perimeter?"
Dread slammed into him. He looked at the cabin. The door hung open, banging on its hinges. A piece of paper fluttered and danced on wind gusts. "Oh, shit," he whispered.
"Aaro saw her, but she was in front of the house, so he thought nothing of it. Then he poured himself a cup of coffee, went over to the door, and she was gone. Halfway across the meadow already. She's not even wearing a coat. It's fucking freezing out here."
"Which way?" he demanded.
Sean pointed. "Straight north, toward the highway."
Kev leaped off the rock and onto the path, across the clearing--
Bam. Bam. Guns blasted, woodchips flew. Kev hit the ground and started crawling for cover. The piece of paper swirled and spun in the wind, closer to him. He snagged it out of midair.
His own grim face stared out of the paper. A line drawing. Grim features, flat mouth, fulminating eyes. And above it, a scrawled word.
BOMB
Then he heard her scream.
Edie hugged herself in the frigid dawn. She clutched the phone to her ear under damp, half-frozen hair. Her ear burned with the toxic contact of that falsely gentle voice.
"Look down, Edie. There's a beam sunk into concrete, in the foundation of this building. Do you see something?"
She jerked back in revulsion. "Oh, God, it's a--"
"Shut up! No sudden movements! Look again, you idiot."
She looked again. She did not like snakes, but she forced herself to stare at the thing, until...Wait. This was not a real snake.
A mechanical snake. A robotic thing. Dark, metallic. Wound around a beam that supported the house. The narrow end of its tail was lifted, like a rattlesnake's. The robotic snake slowly, gracefully lifted its head, and looked at her, cocking its head rakishly.
She recoiled. Its face was a recessed camera lens. It looked like a wide-open, voracious silver mouth, like a gigantic tapeworm.
"Isn't it amazing?" Des asked, in a conversational tone. "Two meters long, and it can get anywhere. Past a thermal imager, a motion detector, infrared. It slithers through rocks, rubble. Sends back sounds and images. Even thermal images. That's how we saw you through the cabin wall, see? And best of all...it carries ordnance. It's less maneuverable with a load of explosives, but it manages fine."
The snake unwound from the four-by-four beam and slithered in a smooth, back-and-forth swishing S movement over to Edie's foot.
It lifted its head, wound itself around her ankle, and squeezed. The camera snake head looked up, wagging. Taunting her.
"Aw," Des murmured. "It likes you. Don't move, Edie."
Edie fought to stay still. "Stop it," she whispered.
"Listen carefully." The snake detached from her leg, and coiled itself up. "Turn your back to the house. Lean down, pick up the snake."
She hesitated. Des clicked his tongue.
"Edie," he chided. "You're being thick and slow. That snake is a bomb. If I push the button, you will all die. Is that what you want?"
"No," she whispered, in a tiny voice.
"Well, then. Pick up the snake."
Edie clenched her gut, and did so. The robot snake was extremely heavy. It writhed in her grip like a living thing.
"Stroll away from the house...slower. Straight ahead. Slow down, Edie. Yes, that's the pace. Slow and steady. Casual. Look up at the trees. Enjoy the beauty of nature, hmm? Keep going."
Her feet crunched over the frosted pine needles. One mudstained red high-top in front of the other, staring down so she wouldn't trip. Clutching that abominable thing in one hand.
Out of the trees. Into a meadow. Pushing through long, folded wads of frosted dead grass. She shuffled forward, her arm burning with the effort of holding that awful thing out.
She reached the end of the clearing. Men rose up silently at the edge of the trees, like pale shadows in white and gray winter camo, bristling with guns and hardware, thick with body armor, faces hidden by ski masks. Guns, pointing at her. A lot of guns.
She stopped, shivering violently. Waited. Six, seven...eight men.
One of them jerked the snake away from her. She let her burning arm drop. Her other arm, too. She slid the phone into her pocket.
The one who had grabbed the snake tossed it over his beefy shoulder, and cuffed her arms in front of her with plastic bonds, ratcheting them brutally tight. He grabbed her by the arm, made a signal to the other seven men. They dropped to the ground, started slinking towards Aaro's house. She turned to watch, but the man wrenched her along beside him. "Not a sound," he hissed.
They stopped at a clearing. She could hear the highway not far away. Logging trucks roaring by. Several cars were parked there. One was the car that Kev's Zia Rosa had rented. The one Kev had driven to the Helix complex the day before. The yellow Nissan Xterra.
Des sat next to a stump with a laptop. He held his phone to his ear, but when he saw them, he made a show of closing the connection. His smile was so normal. As if they were meeting for coffee.
The big guy shoved her uncomfortably close, sandwiched between the two men. Des was dressed in a winter coat, black hat. He was pale, with circles under his eyes, and very bulky under the coat. Edie reached out with her cuffed hands, and poked at his chest. Rigid as steel.
"Nervous, Des?" she asked. "Are your painkillers working?"
Des slapped her, knocking her back against the other man. Then he frisked her, his hands lingering on her breasts, her ass. Crouching down to feel her ankles. She saw stars, tasted blood in her mouth.
The man who'd cuffed her crouched in front of the laptop, and manipulated the joystick. There was a video image on the screen.
"Look at this, Edie," Des taunted. "Your snake bomb wasn't the only one who went adventuring. Look where this one's gotten to."
The big guy lifted his ski mask, and showed her his fleshy face. His eyes lingered hungrily on her chest. "Remember me, beautiful?"
She shook her head mutely. He jerked down her shirt, until her breast was revealed, and fitted his fingers over the bruises around her nipple. He squeezed, hard. She jerked back, but Des blocked her.
The pain made her want to vomit. She gasped for air.
"Remember me now, bitch?" the man growled.
"Focus, Tom," Des snapped. "Show her the snake's-eye view."
Tom spun the laptop so she could see it better. Her breath caught. The screen was divided into four images. Each was a different perspective of the exterior of Aaro's house, except for one, which was an interior. A muddy, fish-eye view from a corner of the inside. She could see a cat's food dish in the foreground, a forest of chair legs. A muddy, booted foot. Noise, men's voices speaking. The sound was distorted, but she could distinguish voices. Tom manipulated the joystick, and the camera panned around. Up, down. Right, left.
"A swinging cat door. That's how I got it in." Tom sounded pleased with himself. "I could've planted the thing in the space under the house, but this way, I can physically see when they're all inside. The other snakes will tell me when the men should drive them all in, and then boom! All gone at once! Problem solved in one blow. I love that."
"Tom likes to streamline," Des explained.
"These babies are fun to play with." Tom sounded like a kid with a new toy. "And so discreet. I took my time this morning, finding the perfect plac
ement at my leisure. And look." He grabbed the one draped over his shoulders and pushed a button. A device detached itself from the snake's lens eye. "A retractable infrared periscope. We use them in the dark, too." He lifted a black plastic device, like an ergonomic remote control. "This is the detonator. Slick, huh? I love this shit."
He sounded like he expected her to be pleasantly impressed. She looked around at the vehicles. "That's Kev's car," she said inanely.
"Oh, yes. We've fixed it up for the police," Des assured her. "We've thought of everything. It's all about the spin, remember? Selling the story. There's C-4, and the AWM sniper rifle that killed your father. We covered them with your boyfriend's fingerprints when we took him yesterday. And now, the cherry to put on the top. This!"
Tom held up the mechanical snake she'd carried. "A snakebot bomb, covered with Edie Parrish's fingerprints," he said. "That'll be in Kev's car, too. What will they make of that, I wonder?"
Des clicked his tongue. "You bad girl. What did Charles do to you when you were little that made you so angry? Everyone will wonder."
"Why did you..." Edie's throat seized up. "Why not kill me along with them? Why draw me out? You just wanted to gloat?"
"No," Des said absently. "We've got other plans for you. Shut up."
Like hell. She dragged in a breath, and screamed. "Kev! Bomb!"
"Fuck." Tom lunged for her, clapping his hand over her mouth. "Should have gagged the bitch," he snarled, grabbing the walkie-talkie.
Edie struggled, and kept screaming. He whapped her on the side of the head, dazing her.
"Positions?" he rapped into it, and listened to a terse, staticky reply that she could not make out, because she started screaming again, even though it hurt her head. She couldn't make herself stop.
"Pin them down," Tom yelled, over her shrieks. "Nobody leaves the house! Drive them in! Des, shut that dumb bitch up before I shoot her!"
Des grabbed her from behind. Guns blasted across the meadow. She used Des's body for ballast, and jackknifed, kicking the laptop off the stump. It flipped, spun, cracked to the ground, screen side down.
Tom roared in outrage, launching himself at her--
Thhtp, the muted sound of a silenced gun firing, and Tom was knocked backward with a shout, thudding heavily to the ground.
He gasped for air. Thhtp, another shot. He squawked, writhing on the ground, cursing viciously.
Edie twisted to look. Tam stood among the trees, a stark silhouette, elegant and cat-slender in quilted black nylon, holding a huge, squared off pistol. Her face was pale and set.
"Let go of her," she said. Her smoky voice was menacing.
Des backed away, holding Edie in front of himself as a shield.
Edie writhed and flopped. "Tam!" she shrieked. "It's a bomb! A bomb in the house! A snakebot loaded with explosives! Tell them!"
Tam's eyes flashed. A com device appeared in her hand as gunfire crackled across the meadow.
"Aaro?" she shouted. "Come in, Aaro? Anybody? Anybody?"
A staticky hiss. Then a voice, tense, shouting, "Tam? Tam!"
"Con!" Tam yelled. "Bomb! A snakebot! Watch out!"
"In the corner!" Edie shrieked. Des tried to cover her mouth with his hand, but she tore her face loose, writhing. "By the cat dishes! And the detonator, it's here! That black thing! Quick! Tom had it, it fell down over--"
Des slammed the side of her head with his fist, tossed Edie aside and dove for the detonator. Tam's gun spat again. Thhtp.
Des yelped, jerking on the ground. Edie hurled herself at the detonator, grabbed it. Des's hand shot out, clamped her throat, hard enough to grind bones. Her heartbeat got louder, roaring in her head.
She could hardly hear Tam screaming into the com device. Tom was struggling up onto his elbow, face distorted with rage. Taking aim. get rid of it...going to blow...goddamnit, now, right now...
Bam, bam, bam, bam. Tom fired his gun. Tam's voice cut off.
Tam lay flat, gasping, clutching her shoulder, her thigh. Tom swung his gun, bashing Edie's elbow, jarring her grip on the detonater.
Des snatched it. She screamed, in horror, despair--
Boom.
The sound was huge. The woods shook, the trees quivered.
In the numb, dreadful silence that followed, Edie looked at Tam, sprawled on the ground. Their eyes met. Tam's were full of stark grief, and a knowledge that they shared, now. There was no bottom to that hole. A person could keep falling forever.
Des and Tom struggled to their feet, panting. Des jerked Edie up, cursing as she wobbled and sagged. "On your feet," he snarled, and turned to Tom. "Are you shot?"
"I'll live," Tom muttered. "The vest caught them. Just a flesh wound. Hurts. That dirty little cunt. I'll teach her."
"I'll take Edie, then," Des said. "You go do clean-up." He gestured toward Tam, aiming a vicious kick at her wounded thigh. Tam jerked, gasping, but made no other sound. "Kill her."
"Oh, yeah," Tom said, with relish. "It'll be my pleasure."
Edie held Tam's gaze for as long as she could while Des dragged her to his car, which was parked behind Kev's rented SUV. He lifted the remote, popped the trunk, and the world flipped and spun as he tossed her in. She landed with a jarring thump, a gasp of pain.
Des stared down, lips drawing back in a quivering parody of a grin. "This is where the fun starts. Bitch." He slammed the trunk shut.
The smothering darkness of the grave closed in around her.
CHAPTER 38
Kev writhed on his belly toward the house. The woods offered cover, but he had only one clip. If they cut him off outside with no ammo, they'd slaughter him, and the house was an arsenal.
Bullets whizzed, digging into the packets of cedar shakes Aaro had planned to side his house with. Another gouged into the future deck, a raw framework of four-by-fours. He scrambled around to the back, then leaped up on top of the half-constructed porch. A bullet scored a red line of fire across his thigh as he slithered in the door.
The front windows on the basement level had been shattered. Everyone was flat on the floor. Aaro was tossing guns and clips around from a big metal locker that lay on its side.
Another barrage hit, punching through walls. Glass and wood, drywall, chalky chunks of sheetrock showered down. A walkie-talkie lay on the floor. It was squawking. A female voice, shrill and urgent.
Con crawled over, shouted into it. His head jerked up, eyes wide with alarm. "Bomb!" he yelled. "Snakebot! In the house!"
The writhing caught Kev's eye. A one-eyed, mechanical boa constrictor, heavy and thick, clothed in a sack of winter camo canvas. Flipping and flailing like a crazed whip. He flung himself at it.
"Drop it! It's going to blow!" Con screamed. "Everybody out!"
Kev looked around. Exits blocked. Guns blasted outside. They'd get torn apart if they ran out of here. Even if he tried to jump out with the bomb into a hail of bullets, the blast would knock him back inside.
The other direction, then. The picture windows on the second story of Aaro's house, the ones that looked out over the sheer cliff. He leaped for the scaffolding that led up to the unfinished loft.
Time dilated. Bruno and Tony leaped at him, mouths working in grotesque slow motion. Screaming at him to stop. But he couldn't.
He'd be silhouetted against the sky for the marksmen outside. So be it. Neither of his families would get blown up today, for having tried to save his sorry ass. Not if he could help it. And Edie. Oh, Edie.
Something grabbed his foot, wrenched. He was hanging with the injured shoulder, reaching with the other. He yelled at the brutal yank, lost his grip. Howled, in rage and despair as he fell, hit the ground.
Tony yanked the snakebot away, and started climbing up before Kev could move to stop him. He looked down as he stepped onto the loft, his eyes meeting Kev's. His face hard, with grim acceptance.
Bullets shattered the windows, punched into Tony. Lifted him and the flipping snakebot up, back, out, and into the void outside. Arms and legs wid
e, sprawled backward, suspended, falling...
Boom.
The huge explosion stunned them all. Kev lay open mouthed. Struck stupid. Time stopped. That hadn't just happened. Not possible.
Not Tony.
Bruno's face jolted him into the time-space continuum again. His mouth open, yelling something that Kev couldn't hear. Tears streamed down Bruno's face. He leaped up, hung out the shattered window, screaming incoherently as he sprayed bullets from an M-16.
Miles seized him by the waist and yanked him back down again. A volley of bullets thundered through the space where Bruno's torso had been, leaving a pattern of holes in the opposite wall. The light shone through them, the wind blew through. The smoke swirled, stank. The place was a fucking sieve. Ah, God. Tony.
You're worth saving, kid.
He was sobbing. Someone tugged on his arm, finger to his lips. Aaro. He tried to stop his chest from shaking, tried to close his mouth.
Aaro shoved an Uzi and a spare magazine into his hands, and beckoned, gesturing to stay down. Wrenching up boards with a hammer, they slithered through the ragged square torn into the floor, down into a crawl space. It was part solid granite bedrock, part poured concrete. From there, they writhed out into a narrow trench which had been dug through a thicket of sapling pines. They could crawl through the forest without making the branches shake, and giving away their position. Aaro had built his house on a cliff, and dug himself an escape hatch. The kind of paranoia that would make Crazy Eamon proud.
Ahead of them, there was a rustling of branches, a cracking of twigs, a choked cry. Then Sean appeared, his hands red. Kev was too numb to be startled by the face of the dead man when he crawled past the corpse. The guy's white and gray camo was bloodsoaked, his eyes wide with surprise. Mouth wide. Throat slit.
Sean had done that. Kev tried to get his head around it, then stopped trying. They wiggled in single file. Circling wide through the forest, to get behind the guys who were still shooting at the house.
Fade to Midnight Page 53
