"I took them off his body."
"Ghoul!" She began to laugh. "Liar... Lecher... Tiger... Ghoul. The walking cancer... Gully Foyle."
Nevertheless she followed him through the snowstorm to Montauk Light.
To three acrobats wearing powdered wigs, four flamboyant women carrying pythons, a child with golden curls and a cynical mouth, a professional duellist in medieval armor, and a man wearing a hollow gla.s.s leg in which goldfish swam, Saul Dagenham said: "All right, the operation"s finished. Call the rest off and tell them to report back to Courier headquarters."
The side show jaunted and disappeared. Regis Sheffield rubbed his eyes and asked: "What was that lunacy supposed to be, Dagenham?"
"Disturbs your legal mind, eh? That was part of the cast of our FFCC operation. Fun, fantasy, confusion, and catastrophe." Dagenham turned to Presteign and smiled his death"s-head smile. "I"ll return your fee if you like, Presteign."
"You"re not quitting?"
"No, I"m enjoying myself. I"ll work for nothing. I"ve never tangled with a man of Foyle"s caliber before.
He"s unique."
"How?" Sheffield demanded.
"I arranged for him to escape from Gouffre Martel. He escaped, all right, but not my way. I tried to keep him out of police hands with confusion and catastrophe. He ducked the police, but not my way... his own way. I tried to keep him out of Central Intelligence"s hands with fun and fantasy. He stayed clear...
again his own way. I tried to detour him into a ship so he could make his try for "Nomad." He wouldn"tdetour, but he got his ship. He"s on his way out now."
"You"re following?"
"Naturally." Dagenham hesitated. "But what was he doing in Baker"s factory?"
"Plastic surgery?" Sheffield suggested. "A new face?"
"Not possible. Baker"s good, but he can"t do a plastic that quick. It was minor surgery. Foyle was on his feet with his head bandaged."
"The tattoo," Presteign said.
Dagenham nodded and the smile left his lips. "That"s what"s worrying me. You realize, Presteign, that if Baker removed the tattooing we"ll never recognize Foyle?"
"My dear Dagenham, his face won"t be changed."
"We"ve never seen his face... only the mask."
"I haven"t met the man at all," Sheffield said. "What"s the mask like?"
"Like a tiger. I was with Foyle for two long sessions. I ought to know his face by heart, but I don"t. All I know is the tattooing."
"Ridiculous," Sheffield said bluntly.
"No. Foyle has to be seen to be believed. However, it doesn"t matter. He"ll lead us out to "Nomad."
He"ll lead us to your bullion and PyrE, Presteign. I"m almost sorry it"s all over. Or nearly. As I said, I"ve been enjoying myself. He really is unique."
CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE SATURN WEEKENDER was built like a pleasure yacht; it was ample for four, s.p.a.cious for two, but not s.p.a.cious enough for Foyle and j.i.z. McQueen. Foyle slept in the main cabin; j.i.z. kept to herself in the stateroom.
On the seventh day out, Jisbella spoke to Foyle for the second time: "Let"s get those bandages off, Ghoul."
Foyle left the galley where he was sullenly heating coffee, and kicked back to the bathroom. He floated in after Jisbella and wedged himself into the alcove before the washbasin mirror. Jisbella braced herself on the basin, opened an ether capsule and began soaking and stripping the bandage off with hard, hating hands. The strips of gauze peeled slowly. Foyle was in agony of suspense.
"D"you think Baker did the job?" he asked.
No answer.
"Could he have missed anywhere?"
The stripping continued.
"It stopped hurting two days ago."
No answer."For G.o.d"s sake, Jiz! Is it still war between us?"
Jisbella"s hands stopped. She looked at Foyle"s bandaged face with hatred. "What do you think?"
"I asked you."
"The answer is yes."
"Why?"
"You"ll never understand."
"Make me understand."
"Shut up."
"If it"s war, why"d you come with me?"
"To get what"s coming to Sam and me."
"Money?"
"Shut up."
"You didn"t have to. You could have trusted me."
"Trusted you? You?" Jisbella laughed without mirth and recommenced the peeling. Foyle struck her hands away.
"I"ll do it myself."
She lashed him across his bandaged face. "You"ll do what I tell you. Be still, Ghoul!"
She continued unwinding the bandage. A strip came away revealing Foyle"s eyes. They stared at Jisbella, dark and brooding. The eyelids were clean; the bridge of the nose was clean. A strip came away from Foyle"s chin. It was blue-black. Foyle, watching intently in the mirror, gasped.
"He missed the chin!" he exclaimed. "Baker goofed-"
"Shut up," j.i.z. answered shortly. "That"s beard."
The innermost strips came away quickly, revealing cheeks, mouth, and brow. The brow was clean. The cheeks under the eyes were clean. The rest was covered with a blue-black seven day beard.
"Shave," j.i.z. commanded.
Foyle ran water, soaked his face, rubbed in shave ointment, and washed the beard off. Then he leaned close to the mirror and inspected himself, unaware that Jisbella"s head was close to his as she too stared into the mirror. Not a mark of tattooing remained. Both sighed.
"It"s clean," Foyle said. "Clean. He did the job." Suddenly he leaned further forward and inspected himself more closely. His face looked new to him, as new as it looked to Jisbella. "I"m changed. I don"t remember looking like this. Did he do surgery on me too?"
"No," Jisbella said. "What"s inside you changed it. That"s the ghoul you"re seeing, along with the liar and the cheat.""For G.o.d"s sake! Lay off. Let me alone!"
"Ghoul," Jisbella repeated, staring at Foyle"s face with glowing eyes. "Liar. Cheat."
He took her shoulders and shoved her out into the companionway. She went sailing down into the main lounge, caught a guide bar and spun herself around. "Ghoul!" she cried. "Liar! Cheat! Ghoul! Lecher!
Beast!"
Foyle pursued her, seized her again and shook her violently. Her red hair burst out of the clip that gathered it at the nape of her neck and floated out like a mermaid"s tresses. The burning expression on her face transformed Foyle"s anger into pa.s.sion. He enveloped her and buried his new face in her breast.
"Lecher," j.i.z. murmured. "Animal..."
"Oh, Jiz..."
"The light," Jisbella whispered. Foyle reached out blindly toward the wall switches and pressed b.u.t.tons, and the Saturn Weekender drove on toward the asteroids with darkened portholes.
They floated together in the cabin, drowsing, murmuring, touching tenderly for hours.
"Poor Gully," Jisbella whispered. "Poor darling Gully..."
"Not poor," he said. "Rich... soon."
"Yes, rich and empty. You"ve got nothing inside you, Gully dear... Nothing but hatred and revenge."
"It"s enough."
"Enough for now. But later?"
"Later? That depends."
"It depends on your inside, Gully; what you get hold of."
"No. My future depends on what I get rid of."
"Gully... why did you hold out on me in Gouffre Martel? Why didn"t you tell me you knew there was a fortune aboard "Nomad"?"
"I couldn"t."
"Didn"t you trust me?"
"It wasn"t that. I couldn"t help myself. That"s what"s inside me... what I have to get rid of."
"Control again, eh Gully? You"re driven."
"Yes, I"m driven. I can"t learn control, Jiz. I want to, but I can"t."
"Do you try?"
"I do. G.o.d knows, I do. But then something happens, and-"
"And then you pounce like a tiger.""If I could carry you in my pocket, Jiz... to warn me... stick a pin in me..."
"n.o.body can do it for you, Gully. You have to learn yourself."
He digested that for a long moment. Then he spoke hesitantly: "j.i.z. ... about the money... ?"
"To h.e.l.l with the money."
"Can I hold you to that?"
"Oh, Gully."
"Not that I... that I"m trying to hold out on you. If it wasn"t for "Vorga," I"d give you all you wanted. All!
I"ll give you every cent left over when I"m finished. But I"m scared, Jiz. "Vorga" is tough... what with Presteign and Dagenham and that lawyer, Sheffield. I"ve got to hold on to every cent, Jiz. I"m afraid if I let you take one credit, that could make the difference between "Vorga" and I."
"Me."
"Me." He waited. "Well?"
"You"re all possessed," she said wearily. "Not just a part of you, but all of you."
"No."
"Yes, Gully. All of you. It"s just your skin making love to me. The rest is feeding on "Vorga.""
At that moment the radar alarm in the forward control cabin burst upon them, unwelcome and warning.
"Destination zero," Foyle muttered, no longer relaxed, once more possessed. He shot forward into the control cabin.