Sally smirked at him. “Yeah.” She stepped forward and hugged him. “Being sentimental is a weakness, by the way,” she said softly into his ear. “I wasn’t kidding about that.”
“Depends on your point of view.” Oliver stepped back. “We brought you a bag. I’ll get it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Your guns, sickles, that dagger that cuts anything, your jacket and a change of clothes…”
Sally frowned. “Okay… Thanks, I guess?”
“Do you need to pack anything?” Oliver asked.
Sally raised her eyebrows. “Is this a jailbreak?” She looked at Tyler. “What exactly do you two think you’re doing here?”
“It’s kind of a long story,” Oliver said. “We have to go save Artemis, and we’ve only got…” he looked at Tyler questioningly.
“Two days now, more or less,” Tyler said. “I don’t know if there’s a specific time Armitage needs to start the ritual. I’d guess midnight, but that’s just a guess.”
Sally looked from Tyler to Oliver. “What’s going on?”
“Can we go inside?” Oliver asked. “It’s kind of a long story.”
Chapter 14
The inside of Sally’s house looked much more like a vacation home than a prison cell. The first room they entered was filled with overstuffed chairs and a long L-shaped couch. A widescreen television measuring at least 50 inches sat against one wall with a rack of DVDs next to it. “No Internet out here,” Sally told them when Tyler asked if she spent her days watching Netflix.
Through an open wall Oliver could see a spacious kitchen, and the front windows had a view of the ocean that rivaled anything he had seen in highbrow travel magazines. All in all, the house had the feel of a place people would spend a great deal of money to visit. The drawback, of course, was that nobody ever left.
Oliver looked around the kitchen as Sally put a pot of water on to boil. Copper pans hung from the ceiling and the gas stove looked top-of-the-line. Oliver wondered if someone brought the gas out here in tanks, or if it was generated from somewhere on the Island. Other than Internet access, the place seemed to lack nothing in the way of modern luxuries.
“It’s really nice,” Tyler said. He’d stopped to admire a set of framed prints on the wall. Each showed a different Chinese kanji that appeared to have been hand-painted in black ink. Oliver liked the look of the characters, but couldn’t read the language. “You’ve done some decorating.”
“Home sweet home,” Sally said. “I moved some stuff around. It’s not like there’s a furniture store down the road.” She took the kettle off the stove. “You guys like anything in your tea? I never stopped drinking the stuff. There’s soda in the refrigerator if you’d rather.”
“Tea is good,” Tyler said. “I’ll have some.”
“And you’d probably have half a dozen sandwiches, too. I’ll put together something for us later. There’s no lack of food here. What about you, Oliver?”
“Just tea is good,” Oliver said. “Where do you even get it, or any of this stuff?”
“Artemis has a guy run a cargo plane out here now and then,” Sally said. She poured three cups of tea and put them on a silver tray. “He brings food, movies, stuff to read. They’ll even bring a therapist out if you ask for it. Or someone to play games with you. Chess or whatever. I don’t know. I’ve never asked.”
“I take it loneliness has done a number on some of the past residents,” Tyler said.
“Who else has been here?” Oliver asked.
“Nobody else as long as I’ve been working for Artemis,” Tyler said. “I’ve heard a few stories. Some dictator she made a deal with once was here, I guess. Seven never told me the details, but he’s pretty sure Artemis stopped World War III.”
“Sounds like something our girl would do,” Sally said.
“I don’t know,” Oliver said. “It still seems dangerous if people are coming and going. Some guy shows up in a truck. You take his truck, then his plane. Even somebody who was armed wouldn’t be a match for…” he stopped and looked at Sally. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Sally said. She ran her finger in a circle around her head. “It’s the pacification field. I could escape, but I don’t want to. I don’t even want to make a fist. The thing’s effective as hell. I just sit here being content all day.”
“You never even think about running?” Tyler asked.
Sally brought the tea into the living room and sat the tray down on the coffee table. “I think about a lot of things. I just don’t have any desire to do any of them. Everything is peaceful here. I like it. I used to be at war with the world, and now I’m not.”
Oliver took a cup. “That’s why we’re here. We need you back.”
Jeffrey had taken a spot on the couch to wash himself. Now he looked at Sally. “We need you to come with us and whip some ass,” he said. “We have to put the smack down on some fools, and these two dummies aren’t much good at putting the smack down.”
“We all have our strengths,” Tyler said.
“If there was a pie-eating contest you’d probably win that,” Jeffrey said. “Or maybe if there was a prize for whoever smelled like a mangy dog.”
Tyler frowned. “I don’t smell mangy.”
Sally sipped her tea and looked at Oliver. “So what’s going on?” she asked. “Why don’t you tell me, Oliver? These two will just banter all day.”
Oliver took a deep breath and started to explain everything that had happened with Armitage. It wasn’t a long story, but it was a very strange story, which made him glad he was speaking to someone who would take all of it in stride. Anybody else would have thought he was crazy, or interrupted every few seconds to ask a question. Sally just sat there and took it all in.
When Oliver was finished she nodded once. “I always wondered how many teams Artemis had before us. I guess she’s been doing this for a long time.”
“Yeah,” Tyler said.
“Maybe she should have locked Armitage up here,” Sally said. “He might be outside right now getting some sun.”
“It wasn’t an option,” Oliver said. “He’s too powerful, I think. I guess the pacification field wouldn’t have worked on him.”
“Figures,” Tyler said. “This was too nice a place for him, anyway. That guy needs to be in a hole somewhere. Stealing people’s souls is just…it’s just wrong.”
“So,” Oliver said. “There it is. Do you want to put some clothes together? We should head back for the plane soon. We’ve still got some time before we need to get to London, but maybe if we get there early we can find them before the full moon and get this over with.”
Sally shook her head. “No.”
“You don’t need to pack? Great.”
“No, Oliver,” she said. “I’m not going with you. You wasted your time coming here.”
There was silence for a moment. Then Tyler said, “Wait. What?”
“What do you mean you’re not coming?” Oliver asked.
“I mean I’m not coming,” Sally said. “Artemis sentenced me to this.” She looked around. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice here, but it’s a prison. I’m not busting out because she’s having a bad day. I don’t know how she’ll react. Maybe she’ll send me to the Nether Lands. I think I’d like that place a lot less than here.”
“I think maybe you didn’t understand before,” Jeffrey said. He climbed onto Sally’s lap and put a paw on her chest. “You see, Artemis might die because this guy is going to steal her soul and live forever, and also there is Jack the Ripper with him.”
Sally scratched the cat’s ears. “That does sound bad. But I’m not going with you.”
Oliver stared at her. “Do you mean to tell me you’re not going to help us because you’re afraid Artemis will come up with a new punishment for you? Really? Because you’ll be in trouble if you leave here? Because that’s just…pathetic.”
Sally smiled. “Maybe that’s not the only reason.”
“You ha
ve other reasons?” Tyler asked.
“I do,” Sally said. She looked around. “You know what’s great about this place? Not fighting. I’ve been at war since I was six years old.” She nodded at Tyler. “That’s not an exaggeration. You met my sister. That was when I started protecting her from our parents. I was six. And by the time I’d finished with that, I went to war with the cyborgs. I was…” She thought about it. “I was 14 years old then. The cyborgs were kicking our asses and the government decided they didn’t care about minimum ages for service anymore. I went to the military and Linnea went to the Academy.”
Jeffrey rubbed against her. “I’m sorry about your sister,” he said. “I never got to tell you that.”
Sally looked startled for a moment, then she rubbed his cheeks. “Thank you. But the point there was that I’ve never done anything but fight.” She looked at Oliver now. “I don’t want to fight anymore. Thanks for bringing my guns, but I don’t want to pick them up ever again. I want to stay here.”
“That’s the pacification field talking,” Oliver said. “Once we get you out of here…”
“And maybe it’s something else,” Sally cut him off. “Maybe it’s screw Artemis. Maybe I’m still mad at her because Linnea is dead and it’s her fault.”
“Good god, Sally,” Oliver said. “It’s not her fault.”
“The hell it isn’t!” she shouted at him. Jeffrey squealed and jumped off of her lap, retreating to the relative safety of the kitchen. “I would have thought of something! Or she could have, with that big brain of hers! She could have helped me but she didn’t give a shit!”
Tyler seemed to have shrunk in his chair. Oliver was shocked. That rage wasn’t something he’d expected to see. Sally just took a deep breath and shrugged. “Hey, sorry about that. I guess the pacification field has its limits.”
Oliver struggled to think of something to say that wouldn’t trigger another outburst. He wanted Sally angry, but not here, and not at him. That wasn’t going to be useful at all. “I’m not going to pretend I know much about time travel,” he said. “You didn’t see what happened here when you changed the timeline, though. We were overrun when the cyborgs invaded. Seven was killed. I spent a year as a lab rat.”
“Yeah,” Sally said. “You know something? I know I was wrong.” She laughed ruefully. “I know it. I know in my heart that everything I did was wrong, but I still haven’t stopped being angry that Artemis wouldn’t help me. And on top of that, after all we’d been through, that she sent me into exile here. Even though I know it was the right decision, I’m still angry. I don’t know how to explain this to you, Oliver, but sometimes you can know you’re wrong but it still doesn’t make what other people did to you hurt any less.”
Oliver looked to Tyler for help, but the other man had focused on his cup of tea as if it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the world. Jeffrey returned from the kitchen and found a spot on Oliver’s lap. “Sometimes I get mad, but I still help people when they’re in trouble,” the cat said.
Sally raised her eyebrows. “Really? When did you do that?”
“Well,” Jeffrey said, “maybe it hasn’t happened yet, but it sounds better than saying I pee on their bed when I’m angry.”
Oliver sighed. He’d expected Sally to jump at the idea of getting back into action. “We’re not going to get far without you,” he said. “Even with all the things I can do now, they’re like parlor tricks compared to Armitage. I’m not much of a fighter.”
“Nah,” Sally said. “You’ll do fine, Oliver. And if you don’t, maybe it was just Artemis’s time to go. It had to happen sooner or later. Maybe it’s fate.” She smiled. “That pacification field is kicking in again. Pretty impressive, huh? I feel so much better.”
Oliver didn’t feel better at all. He wondered what feeling better was like.
“Anyway,” Sally said, looking at a grandfather clock against the far wall, “it’s almost five o’clock.”
“What happens at five o’clock?” Tyler asked.
“Sometimes I have a dinner guest,” Sally said. “He can’t tell time, but he usually shows up around this time of day.”
“I didn’t think anybody else was here,” Oliver said.
“Lots of things are here,” Sally said. “I’m the only human, but that doesn’t mean…”
Jeffrey raised his head and sniffed the air. “What the heck is that?” he asked. “I smell a lizard.”
“That means he’s coming,” Sally said. She stood up and went into the kitchen. Oliver saw her take something from a large candy dish.
“Are those chocolate bars?” he asked when she came out.
She’d unwrapped half a dozen of what looked like plain Hershey bars. “Yeah. Come on. You should meet my friend.” She headed for the front door.
Oliver didn’t know what friends she could possibly have here, but Jeffrey smelling a lizard made him wonder if one of the Kalatari had wound up on the Island. That might be awkward, given that he’d exterminated the rest of that race. But what he saw outside was, while maybe technically a reptile, certainly not an angry lizard man.
On the front lawn lay a dead lamb, blood trickling from half a dozen punctures in its body. The punctures had come from teeth, long and sharp. The teeth belonged to a beast that, until just recently, Oliver had thought only existed in children’s books. A large dragon sat on its haunches next to the lamb, examining the claws on its left front foot.
“Holy crap!” Jeffrey cried from behind Oliver. He darted back into the house like a shot.
The dragon was easily the size of a school bus. It was dark green in color with a metallic tint to its scales. Oliver could see the scales move like waves every time the dragon’s muscles flexed underneath them. The dragon turned his head toward Oliver and regarded him for a moment. Oliver found himself transfixed by its yellow eyes and vertical black pupils.
“I know you,” the dragon said. Its voice was the same pitch as a rumbling volcano and carried so well Oliver wondered if Daniel Vega could hear it back at the jet.
“Hey, Thrax,” Sally said. She knelt down and examined the lamb. “Fresh?”
“Of course,” the dragon said.
Sally tossed him a chocolate bar. The dragon caught it and worked his huge jaws delicately, narrowing his eyes in contentment as he savored the taste. “Ah,” he said. “Good.” He looked at Sally and opened his mouth again. She tossed another bar in.
“She’s feeding a dragon candy bars,” Tyler said from behind Oliver. “I’ve seen everything now.”
The dragon turned back to Oliver. “I have met you before,” he said. “I remember now.” He looked at Tyler. “And you, tall dog man.”
Oliver was surprised to realize that he recognized the dragon. Not that he had met a lot of dragons, or in fact any other dragons, but he’d definitely seen this one before. “It was my first day on the team,” he said. “My first job. We found you in a sewer. Artemis said she’d deal with you.”
“That’s right,” Sally said. “Oliver, Tyler, meet Thraxtyr. Thrax, these are my friends.” She looked at Oliver. “His full name is a lot longer, and I can’t say half of it. I just call him Thrax.”
“I greet you, servants of the immortal child Artemis,” Thrax said.
“I don’t think I’d call her that,” Tyler said.
“I don’t think I’d call us servants,” Oliver said.
“I would.” Thrax spread his wings and stretched. “Have you come to return me to my home?”
Oliver glanced at Tyler, who shrugged in return. “I don’t know what that means,” Oliver said.
“Thrax is from another world,” Sally said. She tossed him another chocolate bar and the dragon quickly gobbled it down. “He’s been trapped here since the 1960’s or something. In return for not burning San Francisco to the ground, Artemis promised to help him find a way home. He’s been here waiting for her to make good ever since.”
Oliver was still having trouble comprehending the drago
n’s sheer size. “How did you get to this world?”
“That is a tale,” Thrax said. “The tale is lengthy and requires some explanation. To begin with, I should tell you of my home, which is in the mountains of Alora, far north of…”
“They don’t need to hear the story, Thrax,” Sally said.
Thrax bowed his massive head in her direction. “Very well. Suffice it to say, I was brought here by a wizard’s magic, and I cannot return home without magical assistance.”
Tyler rubbed his chin. “I guess you could find the wizard that brought you here,” he said.
“If I find the wizard, he will know only my anger,” Thrax said. “I will bite him three times. First I will bite him about his legs. His screams will fill my ears, and I will rejoice. Then I will bite him…”
“They don’t need all that, either, Thrax.” Sally tossed him another chocolate bar.
“The wizard will not survive our encounter,” Thrax said once he’d finished the treat.
“I need to get this lamb cleaned before it starts going bad,” Sally said. She looked up. “Thrax, you staying for dinner? I think I’ll turn this into a curry.”
“I will leave you to your guests,” Thrax said. “For now, I wish to reflect on the ways in which I will bite that wizard. Great will be his agony. Loud will be his screams.” He bowed his head again. “Farewell, Salera Rain.” Thrax spread his wings and flapped them hard, causing a blast of air that nearly knocked Oliver over backward. When Oliver looked again, Thrax was high overhead.
“That’s amazing,” Tyler said.
“I guess,” Sally said. “You get used to it. He’s the only person I’ve got to talk to around here. He brings me fresh meat and I give him chocolate. It’s a pretty good deal all around.”
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it,” Oliver said. Then something occurred to him and he frowned. “Wait. How is he able to go around killing things here?”
“He’s not of this world,” Sally said. “The pacification field doesn’t work on him.” She gave Oliver and Tyler an appraising look. “I don’t suppose either of you know anything about butchery?”
Interesting People (Interesting Times #3) Page 13
