"You do remember how much effect our guns had on the thing the last time..."
"Think of this as a supplement to the Plan. Even with one of us on board, once the thing shows up, it"s going to be a threat. We know it"s easier to hit when someone"s messing with its controls, so let"s exploit that. The more we can tag it, the more we can slow it down, improve our chances of using your secret weapon on it."
"Fair enough."
"Good. I"m glad you agree."
Davis was opening his mouth to suggest possible positions the four of them might take around the clearing when the lieutenant said, " Davis."
"Sir?"
"Would you say you"ve had a good life? Scratch that-would you say you"ve had a satisfactory life?"
"I...I don"t know. I guess so."
"I"ve been thinking about my father these past few days. It"s the anniversary of his death, twenty-one years ago this Monday. He came here from Mexico City when he was sixteen, worked as a fruit picker for a couple of years, then fell into a job at a diner. He started busing tables, talked his way into the kitchen, and became the principle cook for the night shift. That was how he met my mother: she was a waitress there. She was from Mexico, too, although the country-apparently, she thought my old man was some kind of city-slicker, not to be trusted by a virtuous girl. I guess she was right, because my older brother was born seven months after their wedding. But I came along two years after that, so I don"t think that was the only reason for them tying the knot.
"He died when I was five, my father. An embolism burst in his brain. He was at work, just getting into the swing of things. The coroner said he was dead before he reached the floor. He was twenty-seven. What I wonder is, when he looked at his life, at everything he"d done, was it what he wanted? Even if it was different, was it enough?
"How many people do you suppose exit this world satisfied with what they"ve managed to accomplish in it, Davis? How many of our fellows slipped their mortal coils content with what their eighteen or twenty-one or twenty-seven years had meant?"
"There was the Mission," Davis said. "Ask them in public, and they"d laugh, offer some smarta.s.s remark, but talk to them one-on-one, and they"d tell you they believed in what we were doing, even if things could get pretty f.u.c.ked-up. I"m not sure if that would"ve been enough for Lugo, or Manfred-for anyone-but it would"ve counted for something."
"True," the lieutenant said. "The question is, will something do?"
"I guess it has to."
Their second such conversation came two weeks before the weekend the four of them were scheduled to travel to Upstate New York. They were reviewing the final draft of the Plan, which Davis thought must be something like the Plan version 22.0-although little had changed in the way of the principles since they"d finalized them a month earlier. Ten minutes before dawn, they would take up their positions in the trees around the clearing. If north was twelve o"clock, then Lee and Han would be at twelve-necessary because Han would be injecting himself at t-minus one minute and would require protection-the lieutenant would take two, and Davis three. The woods were reasonably thick: if they positioned themselves about ten feet in, then the Shadow would be unable to come in on top of them. If it wanted them, it would have to land, shift to foot, and that would be the cue for the three of them aiming their AR-15"s to fire. In the meantime, Han would have snuck on board the Shadow and be preparing to jam it. As soon as he saw the opportunity, he would do his utmost to take the thing"s legs out from under it, a maneuver he had been rehearsing for several weeks and become reasonably proficient at. The average time Han guesstimated he"d been able to knock the Shadow"s legs out was fifteen seconds, though he had reached the vicinity of thirty once. This would be their window: the instant the thing"s legs crumpled, two of them had to be up and on it, probably Davis and Lee since the lieutenant wasn"t placing any bets on his sprinter"s start. One of them would draw the Shadow"s notice, the other hit it with the secret weapon. If for any reason the first attacker failed, the second could engage if he saw the opportunity; otherwise, he would have to return to the woods, because Han"s hold on the thing would be wearing off. Once the lieutenant observed this, he would inject himself and they would begin round two. Round two was the same as round one except for the presumed lack of one man, just as round three counted on two of them being gone. Round four, the lieutenant said, was him eating a bullet. By that point, there might not be anything he could do to stop the ugly son of a b.i.t.c.h drinking his blood, but that didn"t mean he had to stay around for the event.
Davis knew they would recite the Plan again on Sat.u.r.day, and then next Wednesday, and then the Sat.u.r.day after that, and then the Wednesday two weeks from now. At the Quality Inn in Kingston, they would recite the Plan, and again as they drove into the Catskills, and yet again as they hiked up Winger Mountain. "Preparation" the lieutenant had said in Iraq, "is what ensures you will f.u.c.k up only eighty percent of what you are trying to do." If the exact numbers sounded overly optimistic to Davis, he agreed with the general sentiment.
Without preamble, the lieutenant said, "You know, Davis, when my older brother was twenty-four, he left his girlfriend for a married Russian emigre six years his senior-whom he had met, ironically enough, through his ex, who had been tutoring Margarita, her husband, Sergei, and their four-year-old, Stasu, in English."
"No sir," Davis said, "I"m pretty sure you never told me this."
"You have to understand," the lieutenant went on, "until this point, my brother, Alberto, had led a reasonably sedate and unimpressive life. Prior to this, the most daring thing he"d done was go out with Alexandra, the tutor, who was Jewish, which made our very Catholic mother very nervous. Yet here he was, packing his clothes and his books, emptying his meager bank account, and driving out of town with Margarita in the pa.s.senger"s seat and Stasu in the back with all the stuff they couldn"t squeeze in the trunk. They headed west, first to St. Louis for a couple of months, next to New Mexico for three years, and finally to Portland-actually, it"s just outside Portland, but I can never remember the name of the town.
"She was a veterinarian, Margarita. With Alberto"s help, she succeeded in having her credentials transferred over here. Has her own practice, these days, treats horses, cows, farm animals. Alberto helps her; he"s her a.s.sistant and office manager. Sergei gave them custody of Stasu; they have two more kids, girls, Helena and Catherine. Beautiful kids, my nieces.
"You have any brothers or sisters, Davis?"
"A younger brother, sir. He wants to be a priest."
"Really?"
"Yes, sir."
"Isn"t that funny."
XII.
5:53am Lying on the ground he"d swept clear of rocks and branches, his rifle propped on a small log, the sky a red bowl overhead, Davis experienced a moment of complete and utter doubt. Not only did the course of action on which they had set out appear wildly implausible, but everything from the courtyard in Fallujah on acquired the sheen of the unreal, the delusional. An eight-foot-tall s.p.a.ce vampire? Visions of soaring through the sky, of savaging scores of men, women, and children around the globe? Injecting himself with adrenaline, for Christ"s sake? What was any of this but the world"s biggest symptom, a ma.s.sive phantasy his mind had conjured to escape a reality it couldn"t bear? What had happened-what scene was the Shadow subst.i.tuting for? Had they in fact found a trap in the courtyard, an IED that had shredded them in its fiery teeth? Was he lying in a hospital bed somewhere, his body ruined, his mind hopelessly crippled?
When the Shadow was standing in the clearing, swinging its narrow head from side to side, Davis felt something like relief. If this dark thing and its depravities were a hallucination, he could be true to it. The Shadow parted its fangs as if tasting the dawn. Davis tensed, prepared to find himself someplace else, subject to a clip from the thing"s history, but the worst he felt was a sudden buzzing in his skull that reminded him of nothing so much as the old fuse box in his parents" bas.e.m.e.nt. He adjusted his rifle and squeezed the trigger.
The air rang with gunfire. Davis thought his first burst caught the thing in the belly: he saw it step back, though that might have been due to either Lee or the lieutenant, who had fired along with him. Almost too fast to follow, the Shadow jumped, a black scribble against the sky, but someone antic.i.p.ated its leap and aimed ahead of it. At least one of the bullets connected; Davis saw the Shadow"s right eye pucker. Stick-arms jerking, it fell at the edge of the treeline, ten feet in front of him. He shot at its head, its shoulders. Geysers of dirt marked his misses. The Shadow threw itself backwards, but collapsed where it landed.
"NOW!" the lieutenant screamed.
Davis grabbed for his stake with his left hand as he dropped the rifle from his right. Almost before his fingers had closed on the weapon, he was on his feet and rushing into the clearing. To the right, Lee burst out of the trees, his stake held overhead in both hands, his mouth open in a bellow. In front of them, the Shadow was thrashing from side to side like the world"s largest insect pinned through the middle. Its claws scythed gra.s.s, bushes. Davis saw that its right eye had indeed been hit, and partially collapsed. Lee was not slowing his charge. Davis sprinted to reach the Shadow at the same time.
Although the thing"s legs were motionless, its claws were fast as ever. As Davis came abreast of it, jabbing at its head, its arm snapped in his direction. Pain razored up his left arm. Blood spattered the gra.s.s, the Shadow"s head jerked towards him, and the momentary distraction this offered was, perhaps, what allowed Lee to tumble into a forward roll that dropped him under the Shadow"s other claw and up again to drive his stake down into the base of its throat. Reaching for the cell phone in his shirt pocket, Davis backpedaled. The thing"s maw gaped as Lee held on to shove the weapon as far as it would go. The Shadow twisted and thrust its claws into Lee"s collarbone and ribs. His eyes bulged and he released the stake. Davis had the cell phone in his hand. The Shadow tore its claw from Lee"s chest and ripped him open. Davis pressed the three and hit SEND.
In the woods, there was a white flash and the CRUMP of explosives detonating. A cloud of debris rushed between the trunks. The Shadow jolted as if a bolt of lightning had speared it.
"s.h.i.t!" the lieutenant was screaming. "s.h.i.t!"
The Shadow was on its feet, Lee dangling from its left claw like a child"s bedraggled plaything. Davis backpedaled. With its right claw, the Shadow reached for the stake jutting from its throat. Davis pressed the two and SEND.
He was knocked from his feet by the force of the blast, which shoved the air from his lungs and pushed sight and sound away from him. He was aware of the ground pressing against his back, a fine rain of particles pattering his skin, but his body was contracted around his chest, which could not bring in any air. Suffocating, he was suffocating. He tried to move his hands, his feet, but his extremities did not appear to be receiving his brain"s instructions. Perhaps his hand-crafted bomb had accomplished what the Shadow could not.
What he could feel of the world was bleeding away.
XIII.
2006.
Although Lee wanted to wait for sunset, if not total darkness, a preference Davis shared, the lieutenant insisted they shoulder their packs and start the trail up Winger Mountain while the sun would be broadcasting its light for another couple of hours. At the expressions on Lee and Davis "s faces, he said, "Relax. The thing sweeps the Grove first thing in the morning. It"s long gone, off feeding someplace."
The trail was not unpleasant. Had they been so inclined, its lower reaches were wide enough that they could have walked them two abreast. (They opted for single file, Lee taking point, Han next, the lieutenant third, and Davis bringing up the rear. It spread the targets out.) The ground was matted with the leaves of the trees that flanked the trail and stationed the gradual slopes to either side. (While he had never been any good at keeping the names of such things straight, Davis had an idea the trees were a mix of maple and oak, the occasional white one a birch.) With their crowns full of leaves, the trees almost obscured the sky"s blue emptiness. (All the same, Davis didn"t look up any more than he could help.) They reached the path to Thompson"s Grove sooner than Davis had antic.i.p.ated. A piece of wood weathered gray and nailed to a tree chest-high pointed right, to a narrower route that appeared overgrown a hundred yards or so in the distance. Lee withdrew the machete he had sheathed on his belt and struck the sign once, twice, until it flew off the tree into the forest.
"Hey," Davis said, "that"s vandalism."
"Sue me," Lee said.
Once they were well into the greenery, the mosquitoes, which had ventured only the occasional scout so long as they kept to the trail, descended in clouds. "d.a.m.nit!" the lieutenant said, slapping his cheek. "I used bug spray."
"Probably tastes like dessert topping to them, sir," Lee called. "Although, d.a.m.n! at this rate, there won"t be any blood left in us for Count Dracula."
Thompson"s Grove was an irregular circle, forty feet across. Gra.s.s stood thigh-high. A few bushes punctuated the terrain. Davis could feel the sky hungry above them. Lee and Han walked the perimeter while he and the lieutenant stayed near the trees. All of their rifles were out. Lee and Han declared the area secure, but the four of them waited until the sun was finally down to clear the center of the Grove and build their fire.
Lee had been, Davis supposed the word was off, since they"d met in Kingston that morning. His eyes shone in his face, whose flesh seemed drawn around the bones. When Davis embraced him in the lobby of the Quality Inn, it had been like putting his arms around one of the support cables on a suspension bridge, something bracing an enormous weight. It might be the prospect of their upcoming encounter, although Davis suspected there was more to it. The lieutenant"s most recent report had been that Lee was continuing to struggle: Shari had won custody of Douglas, with whom Lee was permitted supervised visits every other Sat.u.r.day. He"d enrolled at his local community college, but stopped attending cla.s.ses after the first week. The lieutenant wasn"t sure he"d go so far as to call Lee an alcoholic, but there was no doubt the man liked his beer a good deal more than was healthy. After the wood was gathered and stacked, the fire kindled, the sandwiches Davis had prepared distributed, Lee cleared his throat and said, "I know the lieutenant has an order he wants us to follow, but there"s something I need to know about."
"All right," the lieutenant said through a mouthful of turkey on rye, "ask away."
"It"s the connection we have to the thing," Lee said. "Okay, so: we"ve got a direct line into its central nervous system. The right amount of adrenaline, and we can hijack it. Problem is, the link works both ways. At least, we know that, when the thing"s angry, it can look out of our eyes. What if it can do more? What if it can do to us what we"ve done to it, take us over?"
"There"s been no evidence of that," Davis said. "Don"t you think, if it could do that, it would have by now?"
"Not necessarily," Lee said.
"Oh? Why not?"
"Why would it need to? We"re trying to get its attention; it doesn"t need to do anything to get ours."
"It"s an unknown," the lieutenant said. "It"s conceivable the thing could a.s.sume control of whoever"s hooked up to it and try to use him for support. I have to say, though, that even if it could possess one of us, I have a hard time imagining it doing so while the rest of us are trying to shorten its lifespan. To tell you the truth, should we succeed in killing it, I"d be more worried about it using the connection as a means of escape."
"Escape?" Davis said.
Lee said, "The lieutenant means it leaves its body behind for one of ours."
"Could it do that?"
"I don"t know," the lieutenant said, "I only mention it as a worst-case scenario. Our ability to share its perceptions, to affect its actions, seems to suggest some degree of congruity between the thing and us. On the other hand, it is a considerable leap from there to its being able to inhabit us."
"Maybe that"s how it makes more of itself," Lee said. "One dies, one"s born."
" Phoenix," Han said.
"This is all pretty speculative," Davis said.
"Yes it is," the lieutenant said. "Should the thing seize any of us, however, it will have been speculation well-spent."
"What do you propose, then, sir?" Davis said.
"a.s.suming any of us survives the morning," the lieutenant said, "we will have to proceed with great caution." He held up his pistol.
XIV.
6:42am Davis opened his eyes to a hole in the sky. Round, black-for a moment, he had the impression the Earth had gained a strange new satellite, or that some unimaginable catastrophe had blown an opening in the atmosphere, and then his vision adjusted and he realized that he was looking up into the barrel of the lieutenant"s Glock. The man himself half-crouched beside Davis, his eyes narrowed. His lips moved, and Davis struggled to pick his words out of the white noise ringing in his ears.
" Davis," he said. "You there?"
"Yeah," Davis said. Something was burning; a charcoal reek stung his nostrils. His mouth tasted like ashes. He pushed himself up on his elbows. "Is it-"
"Whoa," the lieutenant said, holding his free hand up like a traffic cop. "Take it easy, soldier. That was some blast."
"Did we-"
"We did."
"Yeah?"
"We blew it to Kingdom Come," the lieutenant said. "No doubt, there are pieces of it scattered here and there, but the majority of it is so much dust."
"Lee-"
"You saw what the thing did to him-although, stupid motherf.u.c.ker, it serves him right, grabbing the wrong G.o.dd.a.m.ned stake. Of all the stupid f.u.c.king..."
Davis swallowed. "Han?"
The lieutenant shook his head.
Davis lay back. "f.u.c.k."
"Never mind," the lieutenant said. His pistol had not moved. "s.h.i.t happens. The question before us now is, did it work? Are we well and truly rid of that thing, that f.u.c.king blood-drinking monster, or are we fooling ourselves? What do you say, Davis?"
"I..." His throat was dry. "Lee grabbed the wrong one?"
"He did."
"How is that possible?"
"I don"t know," the lieutenant said. "I do not f.u.c.king know."
"I specifically gave each of us-"
"I know; I watched you. In the excitement of the moment, Lee and Han must have mixed them up."
"Mixed..." Davis raised his hands to his forehead. Behind the lieutenant, the sky was a blue chasm.
"Or could be, the confusion was deliberate."
"What?"
"Maybe they switched stakes on purpose."
"No."
"I don"t think so, either, but we all know it wasn"t much of a life for Han."
"That doesn"t mean-"
"It doesn"t."
"Jesus." Davis sat up.
The lieutenant steadied his gun. "So?"
"I take it you"re fine."
"As far as I"ve been able to determine, yes."
"Could the thing have had something to do with it?"
"The mix-up?"
"Made Han switch the stakes or something?"