“So,” Tom said, “here we are.” For once, he did not smile.
“Tell your man to let her go.”
Kajdas made a sour face. “Where did those two get to?” he muttered to himself. “If you want something done right...” He shook his head, clearly annoyed, and said with precise enunciation, “Unconquerable peppercorn.”
Ed folded his arms and frowned at him.
“All right,” Tom said after a long pause, “let’s take a walk.” Without waiting for Ed, he replaced his weapon in his shoulder holster and started down the street toward the park where Ed had sheltered from the rain. Ed had no choice but to follow. Once he caught up, Tom went on in a more conversational tone. “So. You found a way around your programming, didn’t you?”
“Something like that.”
Kajdas walked a little faster. “That’s a lot of time wasted, you know, and tax dollars, too. We spent a great deal training your second personality to do the deed.”
Ed laughed. “Second? I only have one.”
“Undiagnosed multiple personalities, Ed. That was how we did it with Nathaniel, too. We found a latent personality inside your head—one you probably never even knew you had—trained it to kill, and locked it up so it would stay hidden until we unlocked it with a code phrase. Well,” he added with some embarrassment, “except something went wrong.”
“Something always seems to go wrong, doesn’t it?” said Ed, glancing back toward where he’d last seen Sarah.
“Mr. Driscoll won’t hurt that gal unless he has to. I just needed to get your attention. Oh, and I’m still not happy with you for stuffing me in that trunk. That was just not necessary.”
“If anything happens to her, I’ll kill you.”
Tom looked at him with an expression Ed couldn’t identify in the dim light. “Are you still carrying a torch for that girl? For God’s sake, Ed, she’s a teenager! Eighteen, but still just a little girl at heart.” He shook his head, probably thinking of his own daughters. “I don’t suppose you remember what Albert told you about her. But tell me this, Ed: do you think your poor wife would have approved of this relationship of yours?” The twist of his lips when he said the word “relationship” made it clear what he thought of the whole thing. “Really, Ed, she’s barely old enough to be out of high school.”
“Tom,” Ed replied, exasperated, “I don’t give a damn what you think, and Eleanor’s dead. What do you want me to say?”
Kajdas was quiet for a moment. “It’s not too late to help us, Ed. You know―”
Ed laughed in disbelief, shaking his head.
“You know how important this is. Our whole society is crumbling.”
“Tom, no. I’m through with you.”
“All right, let’s look at the facts, then. You’re between a rock and a hard place. I have your girl. Mr. Driscoll will not hesitate to kill her if I don’t meet him in person at our appointed place and time. You told her things that were supposed to stay in the Buick, which makes her a threat to the people I work for. As for you, I could lock you up for the rest of your life and no one’ll know you’re gone. My employer has secret places even the Director doesn’t know about. Hell, the President doesn’t know about them. You will do what I say.”
Ed stopped walking, and Kajdas stopped as well, turning to face him. “You once told me you wanted to protect innocent people from the monsters in this world, “ Ed said. “Is this what you’ve come to now? Killing a girl to get what you want? Locking up an innocent man for life?”
“You’re not innocent,” Kajdas said. “And I’m not the one who’s killing her.”
“And what about Eleanor? If it weren’t for you, she never would have died.”
“You know very well I never meant for that to happen. The animal who did it to her is dead. You’ve had your revenge. What more do you want me to do about it? Sometimes these things just can’t be helped.”
Ed looked at Tom for a long time, feeling his temper rising. These things just can’t be helped. Kajdas looked back at him, his expression completely earnest. So convinced of his own rightness. “Oh well,” Ed said, his voice shaking with emotion. “It was all for the best, right? At least she died for a good reason.”
“Exactly! She didn’t die uselessly. All I was trying―”
Without warning, Ed launched himself at Kajdas. Tom went down hard, grunting as his back hit the pavement with Ed on top of him. Ed landed a couple of good, hard punches on his face before Kajdas managed to get one arm up to defend himself. Ed shifted tactics, wrapping his hands around Tom’s neck. He cut off Kajdas’ breath with a hard application of thumbs to windpipe, and continued to squeeze until Tom’s struggles started to weaken.
There was a sharp popping noise like a firecracker, and something punched Ed’s right shoulder with an incredible impact. He fell over backwards, the wind knocked out of him. The pain arrived a few seconds later. Glancing down, he saw a dark stain soaking through his shirt. Tom had shot him! The son of a bitch had actually shot him! “You prick,” he hissed through clenched teeth.
Tom stood up, towering over him, and pointed his gun at Ed’s head. “Ed, why—darn it, why did you do that?” He looked around to see how many people had heard the gunshots. There were quite a few bystanders around, but no one seemed interested enough to investigate. Most of them seemed to be heading away from them in a hurry. Looking back down at Ed, he cocked his gun. “Now I have to kill both of you.”
“Shoot me, then,” Ed rasped. “It’ll be more decent than everything else you’ve done to me.”
Kajdas ran a hand through his gray hair, matted with sweat in the humid air. “You could have helped us fix this sick culture, Ed. You could have done your part. And look at you. Soon as you get the chance, you take the side of the hippies and the troublemakers. I thought you were better than that.”
Ed said nothing.
Tom shook his head in disgust. “Guess we’re through, then. I’m sorry it came to this.” Pursing his lips, he tightened his finger on the trigger.
* * *
Sarah and Driscoll walked briskly along the sidewalk. He led her by the arm while keeping his gun pointed at the back of her head. When they had gone about two blocks, she began to slow down.
“Keep moving,” Driscoll said into her ear.
“You know you can’t hold me,” Sarah replied. “You know what I can do to you.”
She stopped walking. He stopped behind her.
“Yes,” he said. “I know.”
“Put that gun away.” Driscoll hesitated only for a moment, probably glancing back toward where they’d left Kajdas, but they were already too far away to be seen in the darkness. He let go of her arm and took a step away from her. Sarah heard him holster the weapon.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Driscoll said softly. “Agent Kajdas asked me to hold you just until he has a few words with Terwilliger. It’ll be much easier for everyone if you just come along.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Sarah said, still not turning to face him.
“There’s something I need to ask you. About Terwilliger.”
Sarah almost turned around; the tone of his voice was different, somehow. But she forced herself not to look at him. She couldn’t do what she had to if she was looking at his face.
“I’ve seen him before,” Driscoll continued. “Before I ever met him, I dreamed about him. I have memories of being him.” He paused. “How is that possible? How did he get inside my head?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah said flatly.
“But you know him better than anyone. I followed you across the country because I knew you could explain―”
“I can’t explain any of it,” she insisted. “I just don’t know.”
She heard Driscoll heave a sigh behind her. “I see.”
“Now walk away.”
“Miss Greenbaum, please. There are plans at work here that you don’t know about. Ed has a job to do today. If Agent Kajdas―”
�
�Agent Kajdas can kiss my ass. I’ve had enough of Agent Kajdas. I said walk away. And not towards him.” She pointed her finger. “Cross the street and keep going that way.” There was a long silence. Then, just as she was beginning to wonder what to do if he still refused to go, she heard the click of his polished black shoes on the pavement as he crossed the road, striding purposefully in the direction she had indicated. Then she was alone.
* * *
Oddly, something the Guru had said was running through Ed’s mind as he stared down the barrel of Tom’s automatic. Never use your ability to take control of another. If the Guru had never said that, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to Ed to try such a thing. At this point in time, after everything Tom had put him through, Ed thought he could consider violating the Guru’s order. Just this once. He’d been watching what Big John had done in that bathroom, and he thought he could do it, too.
Ed let his eyes go out of focus, allowing his mind to perceive what his eyes could not. It came easily this time. Kajdas’ aura shone a deep crimson in the darkness. Imitating what he’d seen, Ed delved into Kajdas’ mind like diving into a pool. He felt the familiar sensation of sharing a mind with another, but this time he was the intruder. He had done this before, he realized: in Dan Berry’s office, when he’d been so desperate to escape Berry’s wrath, he had done something like this by instinct, not knowing what he was doing. It hadn’t been the gnome helping him at all; that had been Ed’s own work.
Burrowing into Tom’s consciousness, he could hear through Kajdas’ ears and see through his eyes. He could see his own body, lying on the ground and staring vacantly up at Tom’s face. And he could sense other things, too—sensations and signals coming from other parts of Kajdas’ brain. Somewhere in there was the place that controlled voluntary movement, and Ed thought that, given time, he might be able to figure out how it all worked. But right now there was no time. He had to act quickly. He reached into Kajdas’ mind, grabbed onto something, and twisted.
Time seemed to have slowed almost to a stop. Tom was still aiming the gun, squeezing the trigger. Then, as if something inside him had suddenly broken, he went limp and dropped on top of Ed like a rag doll, weapon skittering away across the pavement. The part of Ed’s mind that had been reaching outward suddenly snapped back like a rubber band.
He grunted under Kajdas’ weight, struggling to get out from under the man. The pain in his shoulder was awful. He pushed with his left hand, trying to get out from underneath, but he simply didn’t have the strength. Then there was another pair of hands, small hands, pulling at Tom’s limp form, rolling him over so he lay on his back next to Ed. Still lying flat on his back, Ed turned his head and found himself looking into Tom’s open eyes. Open, but vacant. He was so close that he felt Kajdas’ breath coming faintly from between his lips in a slow rhythm, but there was no life in his staring eyes.
“You’re hurt!” It was Sarah’s voice. She seemed to be worried about something.
“H-how―” Ed’s mind was racing at impossible speed, but his body was not cooperating. “How did you get away?” He struggled to sit up. He was lying in a dark puddle on the ground. He managed to lean awkwardly on his left elbow, but couldn’t figure out how to sit up the rest of the way without sagging back down.
Sarah was kneeling on the pavement next to him. “Oh, Ed, you’re bleeding! Stop trying to move.”
“We have to go back in,” he said. “There might be more of them.”
“More what? Ed, stop moving, I said. I’m going to call an ambulance.”
Ed got his left hand under him and pushed himself up onto his knees. “Tom always uses a backup shooter.” He got to his feet and nearly toppled over again. His head was spinning. He pressed his hand against his shoulder to try to stop the bleeding, but he wasn’t able to press very hard.
Sarah helped him put pressure on his wound and tried to hold him down. “I’m not letting you near that place again. Whatever Kajdas was up to, well, to hell with it. I’m getting you out of here.”
“Rayfield and the others are still in there.”
Sarah gasped. “Oh, and Danny! He was chasing a guy with red hair. We split up when I went after that ugly girl.”
Ed pushed her hand away weakly. “Danny? I don’t know any Danny.” His head was swimming. “Red hair.” It was coming back to him in bits and pieces, and something else he’d seen suddenly fell into place. “Tom’s man, you mean. Ralph. I think I know where your friend is.” He took a few unsteady steps.
“No. I’ll go back. I’ll get help. You stay here.” She started walking back toward the stadium. Ed staggered alongside her, answering her angry glare with a glare of his own. “Fine,” she growled. “Don’t blame me if you bleed to death.”
They got a strange look from the kid who was manning the main entrance when they went back in to the show. Ed’s bleeding had slowed a little, but the pain had intensified. He was starting to feel nauseous. The music pounded in rhythm with the throbbing in his head and shoulder.
Lennon had apparently finished his part of the act; now it was Yoko’s turn to perform. Guitar feedback screamed in the background while Lennon’s wife wailed at the top of her lungs like a dying pig. The crowd seemed to have lost interest, other than a few angry or drunk ones who booed and threw their trash at the stage. Yet Yoko shrieked on.
They found Perla just inside the entrance, apparently looking for them. “Jesus, Ed,” she exclaimed.
Ed mumbled a reply and nearly fell down. Only Sarah’s quick reaction kept him upright.
“He needs a doctor,” Sarah said. “Go get help.” Perla nodded and turned to leave.
“Wait,” said Ed. He forced himself to stay upright, although the effort made him feel sick to his stomach. “I saw someone in there.” He waved with his good arm toward the doorway where he’d encountered Ralph beneath the stands. “Have to―” That was all he could get out before his knees buckled and he flopped to the ground.
“Get help!” he heard Sarah shout. There was a great deal of confusion after that, as a number of people ran over to help or gawk. Ed watched their scurrying feet with some interest as the stadium lights grew blurry. “Ed,” Sarah called to him. Her voice was so distant he could barely make it out. Then it was dark.
* * *
Danny opened his eyes. The light was painfully bright; it seared into his brain until he closed his eyes again and then opened them just a crack.
Something stood between him and the light, blocking part of it from his view. Blinking some of the goo out of his eyes, he was able to make out the silhouette of a person looking down at him from above. It had to be an angel, standing before the brilliance of heaven. He was dead.
“Danny,” the angel said in a man’s voice. It was a voice he’d heard before. “Can you hear me?”
Danny moved his mouth, tried to swallow, but gagged on the cottony dryness in his throat.
“Don’t try to talk. Just relax, okay?”
Another voice spoke up—a female one. “Don’t keep asking him questions if you don’t want him to talk.”
Danny worked a little moisture into his mouth. “Am I dead?”
The figure above him shook his head. “Not yet, pal. You were shot, but you’re going to pull through.”
A guardian angel, then. It wasn’t his time. “Thank you,” Danny whispered.
“Don’t thank me. The others helped you. I was too busy getting shot myself.”
Danny blinked a few more times, until the face before him resolved into something recognizable. It was the face from his dreams. The face of Blake. “It’s you,” he whispered, voice choking with emotion.
“I’m going to get the nurse. You sit tight.” Then he was gone.
* * *
“So that Kajdas man trained you to kill people?” Joy said incredulously.
It was late in the evening, the day after the concert, and Ed was sitting on an uncomfortable chair in the hospital waiting room with Joy and Perla. Sarah was in Danny’s
room, and Rayfield had wandered off to find something more to eat. Ed’s wound, freshly treated and wrapped, was painful but not unbearable. The bullet had gone in and out without hitting anything vital. The kid, Danny, had been less lucky. He would survive, but the doctors said it had been touch and go.
“That’s what they thought they were doing. They had no way to know Nathaniel was hanging around in my head.” The killer hadn’t returned since John had chased him away, although Ed was sure he was still lurking out there somewhere. He still hadn’t puzzled out how Nathaniel could be out there at all, after what Ed had done to him. “I don’t know why he didn’t go after Morrison like he was supposed to. He’d already been through the brainwashing once before. Maybe it only works once.” He shrugged, immediately regretting the motion.
“Who cares why?” said Perla, rubbing her eyes. “Maybe he would have, if that gorilla hadn’t come along and done whatever he did.”
Ed took a sip of tepid Canadian tap water and sat back in his chair. His stomach was still not quite settled since last night’s adventure. But the doctors were letting him move around, which was good. “There were more people than just Morrison on Tom’s list,” he said. “For all we know, he might have trained a dozen other people to kill them all. We don’t know how many more are out there.” He fell silent, contemplating the thought.
“So what’s your plan now?” Perla asked. “You want to stay in Toronto for a while?”
Ed fidgeted with the strap of his sling while he thought about his latest dream. He didn’t want to bother Danny with it so soon, but it couldn’t wait. They’d already spent too much time in one place. Ed worried that the FBI would come looking for them. Were they allowed to come looking for him in another country? He wasn’t sure, but the normal rules didn’t seem to apply to Kajdas and his crew. “No,” he said, “I’m going back to the U.S. Someplace I can disappear. New York, maybe.” He took another swallow of water. “You two should go back to Colorado.”
Forest of the Mind (The Book of Terwilliger 1) Page 47
