by Jeffrey Ford
"Smooth," said Agarias's voice. I knew he'd be listening in.
"That wasn't thirty seconds," I said.
"You've got one hour to get here," he said. "Get ready to write down the directions."
I prayed the directions he gave would be to the place we'd staked out. If not, all would be lost. As he recited them, I was so nervous I missed the first part, but then the words Fort Solanga sounded, and after that the turns and street names fell into place.
When Agarias finished, I told him, "I want to be able to see Schell the entire time. An even exchange. I'll bring Morgan out of the car, you bring Schell to meet me."
"Of course," he said. "But you'd better hurry, because if you're a minute late, I'll start the transfusion, and I don't think Mr. Schell is in any shape to receive the pure blood of Merlin."
I hung up. Antony was standing in the doorway.
"We're on," I said.
"Did you talk to Schell?" he asked.
"He told me he's got a pin he can use as a key on whatever chains they have him in," I said.
I meant to get up then, but my determined cool broke like a dam, and I started to cry. My memory filled to bursting with thoughts of Schell, a swirl of scenes from my years with him. I owed him my life, and now his was in my hands. It took quite a few minutes for me to regain control of myself, and I was surprised that Antony didn't say a word. When I was done, I dried my eyes and stood up.
The big man put his hand on my shoulder. "Okay, you ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Let's go plug these fucks," he said.
Marge, who'd already risked life and limb for us and was going to stay behind and man the fort, grabbed me and gave me a spine-bending hug as we stepped out into the living room. "Break a leg, hon," she said.
I took Morgan's shoulders, Antony took her legs, and we lifted her bound, gagged, and squirming form off the floor. We followed Hal, who was dressed for battle in a baggy old suit and packing Peewee's derringer, as he led the way out to the car. Bringing up the rear was Captain Pierce, who was nearly knocked over as the rug covering the doorway fell back after we passed through.
"She's sure making a racket," said Hal as Antony and I laid her across his and the Captain's legs in the backseat.
"At least she's not singing," I said.
THAT SOFT ECLIPSE
It was so dark on the road past Fort Solanga that we nearly missed the turnoff for the dirt path that led to Agarias's compound. My heart started thumping as the Cord's headlamps illuminated the wall, the open gates, and, beyond them, the dim outline of the house.
"Everybody ready?" asked Antony.
My mouth was too dry to answer.
"Ready," said the Captain.
"Let me check my pants," said Hal.
I saw a guard with a machine gun just inside the walls as we passed through the entrance. Antony drove in about halfway to the house and stopped, cutting the engine but leaving the headlamps on. Directly in front of us, in the pool of light, was Agarias, standing on the porch next to Schell, who was in handcuffs. His head was down, and he looked unsteady on his feet. Agarias held a pistol, the end of the barrel resting against Schell's left cheek. Two black-clad men stood in front of the porch, one with a machine gun and one holding a pistol. Off to the right, the black Model A was parked where it had been the day before. Looking around, I saw two more of our friends in black suits, one off to the right side of the yard near the tree line and one off to the left.
Antony and I opened our doors and got out. He stood close to the car behind the open door, and I stepped clear of my door so that Agarias could see me.
"Where's Morgan?" asked Agarias.
"Right here," I said. I gave the sign to Hal and Pierce, and with no small degree of grunting effort, they carried Morgan's writhing form out of the car and laid her on the ground a few yards to the side of it. Her hair, her face, and arms were luminescent in the night. She twisted and turned, struggling against the ropes, crying against the gag. The two men who had been standing in front of the porch advanced as Agarias and Schell followed. Hal and the Captain each took two steps back.
When Agarias's men reached Morgan, the one with the pistol stuck his weapon in its shoulder holster and kneeled down to lift her. No sooner had he placed his hand under her shoulder than he said, "Wait a second…" That first indication of suspicion was the agreed-upon signal for Hal to yank on the length of fishing line that we'd attached to the chest of our Morgan. He did, and it ripped her wide open. The man with the machine gun lifted his weapon, and the other fellow stood, reeling backward, reaching for the handgun he'd just put away. A storm of pigeons, the squirming life and gagged voice of the effigy we'd made, rushed up out of the papier-mвchй shell into their faces. The two instinctively stepped back, each bringing a hand up to cover his eyes.
Hal took the derringer out of his pocket, walked forward two steps, aimed, and shot the man with the machine gun in the face. He fell forward onto the dummy. His partner recovered, brought his pistol up to return Hal's fire, but stopped before pulling the trigger because he found his fingers no longer worked. There was a knife sticking through his wrist. He screamed, but that cry didn't last long, cut short by another knife that had just entered his throat and severed his spinal column.
Before the second man had hit the ground, Antony had already spun around, taken the Mauser from its holster, and squeezed off a volley of shots at the guard standing near the gate behind us. I peered through the shadows and saw his body jerk twice before going down. And that's when the Model A blew up, sending a roiling fireball into the sky, knocking Schell, Agarias, and me to the ground. Antony, Hal, and Pierce had already ducked for cover.
Shattered glass and chunks of hot metal rained down all around us. As soon as the shock wave of the explosion diminished, Agarias's men on either side of the yard started firing their pistols indiscriminately in the direction of the Cord. I could hear the slugs slamming through the car's chassis, and one or two kicked up dirt only inches from where I lay. Antony took down the gunman nearest him with the Mauser.
I could see the man on the right side of the yard in the light given off from the burning Ford as he backed in among the trees and continued firing. Hal gave a yelp, and a moment later called out in an anguished voice that he'd been hit in the leg. Two more shots rang out, one shattering a side window of the Cord and the other blowing out a back tire. Then the firing stopped. I waited what seemed an eternity for another shot, but none came. A few moments later a small shadow moved across the yard from the direction the man had been firing from. It was Jack Bunting, stumping along on his knuckles. When I could see him clearly, he said, "That cat's finished. I dropped out of the tree and slit his throat." Then I noticed a straight razor sticking out of his shirt pocket.
As we got to our feet, the first of the gasoline bombs crashed through the windows of the house, spreading their liquid fire. Flames and smoke leaped from the windows. Another crashed onto the porch and set it ablaze. As I scrabbled to my feet, I saw Antony stand up on the other side of the car. I called back to Hal, and the Captain, a veteran of battlefield surgery, said he had the situation under control. "God help me," said Hal.
That left only Agarias to worry about, and when I finally spotted him, he had Schell in front of him with the pistol to his back. In the midst of all the fireworks, I'd forgotten about Merlin, who was now standing next to his master. Agarias was looking the worse for wear. He'd lost his glasses in the explosion and his hair was wild.
"You still don't have Schell," he yelled. "Bring me the girl, and he lives. Anything else and I swear I'll shoot."
Merlin was obviously excited, his chest heaving, his nostrils flaring, his eyes wide with the desire to destroy something. It was a standoff. Antony whispered to me, "Do you want me to try to take down Agarias?"
I shook my head. The shot was too risky, and then what about Merlin? In a second he could be on Schell and snap his neck. As I stood there trying to decide, Isabel, Sal, Peewee,
Belinda, and the real Morgan, her hair now close-cropped since donating her locks to the mannequin, approached from out of the trees. The house was an inferno, lighting the scene with a hellish glare. Belinda stopped to assist Pierce with Hal's wound, and the others gathered behind me, save for Morgan, who broke away from us and walked forward toward Agarias and Schell.
"Don't hurt him," she said. "I'll go with you."
As she drew close to them, Merlin crouched down and made a kind of whimpering noise. Suddenly Schell twisted his forearms in and out, and shook his hands. The cuffs slipped right off and fell to the ground. I could tell by the inelegant way in which he sloughed the chains that he was drugged. Agarias cocked the trigger of his pistol, still aimed at Schell's back.
Morgan stepped up to Schell and they put their arms around each other. Slowly they turned so that the barrel of Agarias's gun was now pointed at the back of her head instead.
"What are you doing?" said the doctor. His hand was shaking wildly, and his voice cracked when he spoke.
Morgan started singing, softly at first and then more clearly, the song "That Soft Eclipse." Schell hung on to her, and they moved slowly away from Agarias as if they were dancing, her back always to the gun.
"Stop," cried Agarias, spittle flying from his mouth. It was obvious he was straightening his arm, intending to shoot.
"Antony," I said.
The gun suddenly went off, its sharp crack startling me. A wave of panic surged through my chest. Isabel screamed, and Antony closed his eyes. Agarias looked surprised himself that he'd fired it. A second later, it was clear the shot had gone high. Schell and Morgan continued moving away from the doctor, who again lifted the pistol and aimed. Schell picked his head up, as if rousing from a long sleep, and seeing Agarias, bent his knees and pulled Morgan to the ground with him. As they fell, Merlin suddenly pounced at the doctor, and in the exact same instant, Antony lifted the Mauser and fired.
Agarias's shots slammed into Merlin's chest, and Antony's shots ripped into the broad, white back, forming dark, smoking holes in the smooth skin. The creature grabbed his father's head and twisted, and the dull sound of cracking bone was audible. Then the blood came from Merlin, and he staggered forward, still holding Agarias's lifeless figure. He dropped the body, tried to steady himself, and then toppled onto it.
I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath, but as Merlin hit the ground, I heaved a sigh of relief and ran toward Schell. Antony was already there, lifting him with one hand and Morgan with the other. It took Schell a moment to get his bearings, and he shook his head, as if to clear it.
"Diego," he said in a weary voice, "I think you could have done without blowing up the car, but otherwise, nice work." Then he lurched forward, and for the first time in my life, he hugged me.
"Sorry to break in, Boss," Antony said to me, "but we got to move. I know we're out in the sticks, but somebody has to have seen this fire. The cops, the fire department, and the fucking French Foreign Legion'll be here in no time. Help me fix this tire and tell the others to scram."
"What do you mean, 'Boss'?" Schell asked Antony.
"Sorry, Boss," Antony said to Schell, "but the kid's the boss now, at least until this job is over."
"And he's welcome to it," said Schell.
I instructed Isabel, Sal, Jack, Peewee, and Belinda to get going back through the woods to their cars. Belinda gave the whistled signal that told her pigeons to fly back to their coop in the city. Isabel kissed me quickly and then they were off, fleeing around the burning house and through the trees, Jack riding on Sal's shoulders.
Although I wanted to stay with Schell, Antony and I jumped to and worked furiously to change the tire as quickly as possible. Captain Pierce had removed the bullet from Hal's leg, which had not gone in too deeply, and, using his own white shirt, made a bandage. By the time we were ready to go, Hal was able to hobble on one foot back to the car. We settled him up front, so he could stretch his leg out. Schell took a window seat in the back, the Captain crawled in, and I turned to look for Morgan.
She was kneeling on the ground next to her fallen brother. They were like a pair of ghosts in the night, and embers from the burning house fell around them. I ran over and pulled at her arm.
"We've got to go," I said. I dragged her back to the car and told her to get in on the Captain's lap, and then I squeezed into a space that was half of what I needed.
"Pray they didn't put one through the engine," said Antony. He turned the key, and the Cord, our reliable silent partner, came through one more time. Antony turned the car around and then floored it. We shot down the dirt path and out the end of the hidden entrance, onto the road, turning toward Fort Solanga. On our way, we passed the fire trucks and police cars.
We rode in a general silence, although Morgan still quietly wept until it was broken by Captain Pierce.
"I've seen that monster before," he said.
"Merlin?" asked Schell.
"No," he said. "That was a man. I mean the Monster. It never seems to die. We killed a lot of men tonight, but we didn't even wound the Monster."
"Well, we saved Tommy," said Hal. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world, bullet in the leg or not."
"I'll never forget it," said Antony, lighting a cigarette, "that's for sure." He rolled down his window, and smoke streamed out into the cold night air.
"The triumph of the shiftless," said Hal.
THE CON
When we came through the rug back at the house, Marge lifted Schell off the floor and spun him around. Antony made coffee for the drivers, and everyone congratulated one another on a job well done. To my surprise, Schell hugged us all. I was in a daze and just sat next to Isabel on the couch with my arm around her. I still couldn't believe we had pulled off the rescue. What had seemed doable the previous day now seemed foolhardy at best.
I was still staring, lost in thought, as the city gang was preparing to leave. Isabel nudged my arm and told me to get up and thank them. She followed me to the doorway and stood beside me. As each of them passed, they wished us well and told me I'd done a good job, and I felt as if we were standing in the reception line at our wedding.
Antony decided to sleep in the living room with the gun next to him just to be on the safe side. Schell told me that we'd talk in the morning, but that he had to lie down. Before he and Morgan went to his room, I tried to express to her how sorry I was about her brother.
She said nothing but leaned over and kissed me, and the strange thought struck me that she could someday very soon be my mother. My entire perspective on her changed in that instant.
For both Isabel and me, sleep came swiftly, but I woke in the middle of the night with Captain Pierce's words in my head, concerning the Monster and the men we'd killed. It struck me all at once that seven people had died as a result of my scheme, and the thought of it turned my stomach, making me ill. Finally I rolled out of bed and ran to the bathroom down the hall to vomit. When I was done, I was sweating like mad, but I felt much better.
Leaving the bathroom, I noticed that the door to the Bugatorium was open and the light was on. I peered in and saw Schell, sitting at the coffee table, working a deck of cards. When I entered, he looked up and smiled. All traces of the drug-induced exhaustion were gone from his face. "Come in and see if you can find a seat without pigeon shit on it," he said.
I sat down across from him, shivering slightly in the draft that seeped in the front doorway.
"I was just thinking," he said. "That con you came up with really showed a lot of promise."
"Thanks," I said.
"The only thing is, you've got to learn a little subtlety. A little subtlety goes a long way. Like I said, blowing up their car was a tad outlandish. I'm afraid you could have killed us all."
I nodded.
"And having poor Jack strapped to the underside of it all afternoon…" He made a face and shook his head. "Anybody other than Jack would have told you to jump in a lake if you'd asked him to do that. It just so hap
pens I saved the little cocker's life one night when he got in over his head in a poker game."
"To tell you the truth, I think he would have done it anyway," I said.
"Maybe," said Schell. "Maybe. But as I was saying, not bad. The fake Morgan with the pigeons inside was a beautiful thing. I think you have potential."
"You guys going to make me a full partner?" I said.
"No, of course not."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you're leaving," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You're going to Mexico with Isabel."
I paused and then smiled. "You're right," I said. "I am."
"I knew it," said Schell. "It's the only way to go. Besides, we have to fly the coop here, no pun intended. Whoever Agarias worked for, they're never going to settle for us blowing up their lab and killing off their main mad scientist. Maybe not this week or next, but make no mistake about it, they'll be coming after us."
"What are you going to do?" I said.
"I'm sending Antony to California for a vacation. Morgan and I are going somewhere quiet and out of the way. We all need to lie low for a while."
"For how long?" I asked.
"Don't worry. I'll let you know when the heat's off. Tomorrow Antony can show you how to drive the car. You and Isabel will take the Cord to Mexico. I'll give you your cut of the money."
I thought about turning him down, but I had no good reason to. I needed his help now, he was offering it, and it all seemed perfectly natural in a father-and-son sort of way.
"You know," I said, "we didn't really accomplish much with this whole thing, did we?"
"We set out to find who killed Charlotte Barnes and we did. I have to contact Barnes and lay it out for him. Maybe with his connections he can really sound the alarm on this eugenics mess. My only hope is that he can get Kern off the hook. There's nothing I can do for him now."
"Do you really think it was the girl's ghost you saw in the glass?" I asked.
"I don't know. And at this point, it doesn't matter."
