Stinger

"I thought you and Danny were... uh... real close."

"We are. Friends, I mean. Danny"s a gentleman," she said with dignity. "He comes over to my place, and we talk. That"s all. It"s rare to find a man to talk to. Seems like men and women have a hard time just talkin", don"t it?"

"Yeah, I guess so." He felt a pang of shame for making fun of her, and it occurred to him that maybe Danny was more of a man than he"d thought.

She nodded. Her head turned toward the doorway. Vance saw her eyes; they seemed to be fixed on a great distance. "Maybe I could"ve gone," she said. "I was the best in my typin" cla.s.s. Reckon I could"ve been a secretary. But I didn"t want to leave. I mean... Inferno ain"t the best place in the world, but it"s my home. That makes it special, no matter how much it"s broke down. I"ve got real good memories of Inferno... like when I was head cheerleader at the high school, and one night we were playin" the Cedartown Cavaliers." Her eyes shone with the blaze of ten years past. "It was rainin" that night, just pourin" down, but me and my girls were out there. And right when Gary Pardee threw that forty-yard touchdown the girls lifted me up and I did a monkey flip and everybody on that field let out a holler like I hadn"t never heard before. Ain"t heard one like it since, either. Folks came up to me later and said it was amazin", how I could do a monkey flip in all that rain without breakin" my neck, and they said I came down light as an angel"s feather." She blinked; just like that, the spell broke. "Well," she said, "I"m somebody here, and out there..." She motioned toward the rest of the world. "I wouldn"t be n.o.body." Her eyes found his, and looked deep. "This is my home. Yours too. We"ve gotta fight to keep it."

The taste of ashes was in Vance"s mouth. "We will," he said, but the words had a hollow ring. Headlights shone through the sheeted window. A car pulled up beside Vance"s. The headlights were cut, and then a solitary figure approached the door. Not Rhodes or Gunniston, Vance knew. They"d gone off on foot. Celeste Preston sauntered in as if she owned every crack in the tiles, sat down at the far end of the counter, and said, "Gimme a beer and an egg."

"Yes ma"am." Sue got a lukewarm Lone Star out of the cooler and went to the refrigerator for the egg.

Celeste"s gaze wandered down the counter. She nodded at Vance. "Kinda past your bedtime, ain"t it?"

"Kinda." He was too tired to trade punches with her. "I wouldn"t sleep very good, anyways."

"Me neither." She took the egg Sue gave her, broke its sh.e.l.l against the counter"s edge, and swallowed the yolk whole, then chased it down with a chug-a-lug of beer. "I gave blood a couple of hours ago," she explained, and wiped a yellow strand off her mouth with the back of her hand. "Wint used to say a raw egg and beer was the quickest way to get your vitamins."

"Quickest way to puke too," Vance said.

She swigged down more beer, and Sue went to check on the old-timers at the back. "How come you"re not out protectin" the town, Vance? Maybe drag that sonofab.i.t.c.h outta his s.p.a.ceship and sit on him till he calls uncle?"

Vance took his pack of Camels from his breast pocket and lit a cigarette, mulling her questions over. He snorted smoke, looked at her, and said, "And why don"t you crawl up your a.s.s and pull the hole in after you?" She just stared at him, her eyes like bits of cold flint and the beer bottle short of her lips.

"You"re an almighty high b.i.t.c.h to be sittin" in here tellin" me what I oughta do. You don"t think I give a s.h.i.t about this town, do you? Well, maybe I screwed up some-screwed up a lot-but I"ve always done what I thought was best. Even when I was takin" money from Cade. s.h.i.t, what else was gonna keep Inferno alive but that little b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s business?" He felt blood ballooning his face, and his heart was pounding. "My wife hated every inch of this town and ran off with a truck driver, but I stayed. I"ve got two sons that went with her, and they only know enough about me to cuss me over the telephone, but I stayed. Every day I eat dust and get cursed in two languages, but I stayed. I"ve paid my dues, lady!" He jabbed the cigarette at her. "So don"t you sit there in your joggin" suit and your diamond rings on your fingers and say I don"t care about this town!" And then he said something he"d always known, but never dared to admit: "It"s all I"ve got!"

Celeste stayed motionless for a moment. She sipped from the Lone Star and set the bottle softly down on the counter. Lifted her fingers to display the rings. "They"re fake," she said. "Sold the real ones." A brittle smile played across her mouth. "I reckon I deserved that, Ed. Spit "n gristle"s what we"ve been needin" around this cemetery. How about sharin" your smokes?" She picked up her beer and slid over the seats, sitting down with two between them.

Ed, he thought. That was the first time she"d ever used his first name. He skidded his pack of Camels and his lighter toward her, and she scooped them up. She lit a cigarette and inhaled with pure pleasure.

"Figure if I"m gonna die, I might as well go happy," she said.

"We"re not gonna die. We"ll get out of this."

"Ed, I like you better when you tell the truth." She spun the pack and lighter back to him. "Our hides are worth about as much as Kotex in a men"s prison, and you know it."

They heard the growl of an engine outside. Cody Lockett came in through the smoke and lifted his goggles. "I"m lookin" for Colonel Rhodes," he said to the sheriff. "He"s supposed to be here."

"Yeah, I"m waitin" for him too. He"s about ten minutes late." He didn"t care for another glance at his watch. "What do you want him for?"

"The little girl"s up at the "Gade fort. You know who I mean: Daufin."

Vance almost came up off his seat. "Right now? She"s there right now?"

"Yeah, Mr. Hammond and his wife are with her. So where"s the colonel?"

"He and Captain Gunniston were goin" across the bridge into Bordertown. I guess they"re still over there."

"Okay. I"ll go hunt "em. If they show up here, you tell "em the news." He put the goggles back over his eyes and sprinted out to the Honda, got on, pumped the kickstarter, and headed east on Celeste Street. Two things. .h.i.t him: he"d just given an order to the sheriff-and been obeyed-and that was Celeste Preston herself sitting in there. He turned onto the bridge and throttled up, the engine making a choked roar in the dirty air.

He was halfway across when two headlights stabbed through the haze. A car was racing over from Bordertown, straddling the center line. Cody and the car"s driver hit their brakes at the same time, and both vehicles swerved with a scream of tires and stopped almost abreast of each other. The car"s engine rattled and died.

Cody saw it was Mack Cade"s silver Mercedes. There were two men in it, the driver a rugged-looking dude with close-cropped dark hair and a streak of dried blood on his face. "You Colonel Rhodes?" Cody asked, and the man nodded. "Mr. Hammond and his wife sent me. Their little girl"s up at the apartment building." He motioned to it, but its lights couldn"t be seen from this distance. "At the end of Travis Street."

"We already know." Rhodes started the engine again. "A boy at the church told us." He and Gunniston had gone into the Catholic church on First Street and asked Father LaPrado if they could address from the podium the people who"d come in for shelter. Along with the information, Rick Jurado had given them the keys to the Mercedes. "We haven"t got much time," Rhodes said, and he backed the car up, straightened it out, and sped away.

Cody knew who he"d found out from. Jurado was the only one who could"ve told him. He started to turn his bike around, but he realized he was only about thirty yards from Bordertown. The church was maybe another fifty or sixty yards along First Street. If Jurado was there, his sister would be too. He decided he might maybe even go in if he felt like it. What were the Rattlers going to do, jump him right in church? It would be worth seeing the shock on Jurado"s face-and, besides, he wouldn"t mind another look at Miranda.

Everything was going to h.e.l.l anyway, and this seemed like the right time to dare fate. He gunned the engine and headed south, and in another few seconds the tires bit Bordertown pavement.

46 Time Ticking

A figure walked through the haze, favoring a right leg that folded up at the knee joint. "Come on, Scooter!" he said, and paused for the dog to catch up. Then he walked on, up to the front door of the Hammond house on Celeste Street. He knocked on the door, waited, and knocked again. "n.o.body here!" he told Scooter. "Do we go home or set up camp?"

Scooter was undecided too. "She might show up," Sarge said. "This is where she lives." He tried the doork.n.o.b; it turned, and the door opened. "Anybody home?" he called, but there was no answer from within. Scooter sniffed around the doorframe and took the first step inside the house. "Don"t you go in there! We ain"t been invited!" Sarge protested. Scooter had his own mind, though, and the dog trotted on in as fancy as you please.

But the decision was made. They would wait here for either the little girl or the Hammonds. Sarge walked in, shut the door, and found his way into a room where a lot of books lay on the floor. He wasn"t much for reading, but he remembered a book his mother used to read to him: something about a little girl who went down a hole after a rabbit. His bad knee b.u.mped a chair, and he let himself spill into it. Scooter crawled up into his lap, and the both of them sat together in the dark.

About a quarter mile from the Hammond house, Curt Lockett entered his own front door. The raw left side of his face was covered with gauze, and adhesive strips held a pad of iodine-smeared cotton to the flayed skin over his ribs. He"d pa.s.sed out in the back of the pickup truck and awakened as he was being carried over the Mexican"s shoulder like a grain sack into the clinic. A nurse had given him a couple of painkilling shots and tended to his wounds, all the time while he was babbling like a crazy fool about the ma.s.sacre at the Bob Wire Club. The nurse had called Early McNeil in to listen, and Curt had told him about the trooper cars and the air-force men out on Highway 67. McNeil had promised to let the colonel know and wanted to put Curt in a room, but Curt couldn"t stand that. The reek of disinfectant and alcohol was too much like Kentucky Gent; it reminded him of Hal McCutchins"s brains gleaming in the lamplight and made him sick to his stomach.

He"d already seen that Cody"s motorcycle wasn"t here. The boy was probably up at the apartment building, like he figured. Darkness used to be no problem for him, but he had trouble going through the front room while visions of a charred black thing with a whipping tail dug into his brain. But he made the kitchen, fumbled in a drawer for candles and matches. He found a single stubby candle and a matchbook and lit the wick. The flame grew, and he saw that the matchbook advertised the Bob Wire Club. There was evidence that Cody had been here: a candle was stuck to a saucer on the countertop. Curt opened the refrigerator, got out a bottle of grape juice-just a few swigs left in it-and finished it. The coppery taste of blood was still in his mouth, and two empty sockets where teeth had been pounded with his heartbeat.

He relit the candle in the saucer and took it with him to the bedroom. His best shirt, the red cowboy number, was lying on the floor and he gingerly shrugged into it. He sat on the bed, sweat crawling down his face in the rank heat.

He noticed that the little picture of Treasure on the bedside table had fallen over. He picked it up, stared at her face in the low yellow light. Long time gone, he thought. Long time. The bed pulled at him. It wanted him to crawl into the damp sheets, hold Treasure"s picture to his chest, curl up, and sleep. Because sleep was next to death, and he realized that was what he"d been waiting for. Treasure was in a place beyond his reach, and she still had golden hair and a smile like sunshine and she would be forever young while he just wore out a little more every day. But by the candlelight he saw something in the picture that hadn"t been evident to him before: Treasure"s face had Cody in it. The thick, curly hair was the same as Cody"s, yes, but there were other things too-the sharp jawline, the full eyebrows, the angular shape of the face. And the eyes too: even smiling, there was steel in Treasure"s eyes, just like there was in Cody"s. Treasure had to be mighty strong to put up with me, Curt thought. Mighty strong.

Cody was in Treasure. Right there he was, right in the picture. He"d been there all along, but Curt had never seen it until this moment.

And Treasure was in Cody too. It was as clear as a shaft of sunlight breaking through storm clouds, and darkness began to unlock in Curt"s mind.

His hand pressed to his mouth. He felt as stunned as if he"d just taken a punch in the teeth. Treasure was in Cody. She had left him part of herself, and he"d tossed the gift aside like a snotty rag. "Oh Lord," he whispered. "Oh my Lord." He looked at the splintered tie rack that hung on the wall, and a moan ached for release.

He had to find Cody. Had to make the boy understand that his eyes had been blind and his heart sick. That wouldn"t make up for things, and there was a lot of dirty water under the bridge-but it had to start somewhere, didn"t it? He carefully removed the picture of Treasure, because he wanted Cody to see himself in her, and he gently folded it and put it in his back pocket. His boots clumped across the crooked boards with the noise of someone who has found a destination. The screen door slammed at his back, and he walked to Sombra Street and turned north where it met Travis.

At the Inferno Clinic, Ray Hammond finished putting on his clothes, blood-splattered shirt and all, and left his room. His gla.s.ses were gone and everything was blurry around the edges, but he could see well enough to walk without b.u.mping into walls. He had almost made it to the nurses" station when a nurse-Mrs. Bonner, he thought it was-suddenly came out of a door on his right and said, "Where do you think you"re going, young man?"

"Home." His tongue was still swollen and the hinges of his jaw ached when he talked.

"Not until Dr. McNeil gives you the okay."

She had that rough authority in her voice, like Cross Eyes Geppardo. "I"m giving myself the okay. I can"t sleep, and I"m not going to lie in there and stare at the ceiling."

"Come on." She took his arm. "You"re going back to bed."

Somebody else trying to get me out of the way, he thought, and a flash of anger lit him up inside. "I said I"m going home." Ray jerked his arm free. "And I didn"t say you could touch me, either." Even without his gla.s.ses he could see her mouth purse with indignation. "Maybe I"m a kid, but I"ve got rights. Like going to my own house if I want to. Thanks for patching me up, and adios." He walked past her, limping a little bit. He expected her hand to grasp his shoulder, but he was three strides away before he heard her start calling for Dr. McNeil. He went past the front desk, said good night to Mrs. Santos, and kept on going out the door. Dr. McNeil didn"t come after him. He figured the doc had more important things to do than chase him down. He could barely see ten feet ahead for all the haze and his own bad eyes, and the air smelled like a chem lab stinkbomb, but he kept on trudging along Celeste Street, his sneakers crunching on bits of gla.s.s from the shattered windows.

As Ray was starting home, Cody Lockett pulled his motorcycle to the steps of Bordertown"s Catholic church. He lifted his goggles and sat for a moment with the engine popping under him. Candlelight shone through the church"s stained-gla.s.s windows, and he could see people moving around in there. On any other night, his a.s.s would be gra.s.s for being over here, but tonight the rules had changed. He cut the engine and headlight and got off, and that was when he saw the figure standing in a yard just across First Street, less than fifteen feet away. His hand settled on the nail-studded bat taped to the handlebar.

Cody couldn"t make out the face, but he could see that the black hair hung over the figure"s shoulders in oily ringlets. "Crowfield?" he said. Louder: "That you, Crowfield?"

Sonny Crowfield didn"t move. Maybe there was a smile on his face, or maybe it was more of a leer. His eyes gleamed wetly in the church"s candlelight.

"Better get off the street, man!" Cody told him. Still Crowfield didn"t respond. "You gone deaf or somethi-"

A hand closed on his arm. He hollered, "s.h.i.t!" and whirled around. Zarra Alhambra stood on the steps. "What"re you doin" over here, Lockett? You gone crazy?" Rick had put him on guard at the door, and he"d heard Lockett"s motorcycle and then the boy talking to somebody.

Cody pulled his arm free. "I came over to see Jurado." He didn"t say which one. "I was tryin" to tell Crowfield he"d better find some cover." He motioned across the street. Zarra looked in that direction. "Crowfield? Where?"

"Right there, man!" He pointed-and realized his finger was aimed at empty s.p.a.ce. The figure was gone. "He was standin" over there, in that yard," Cody said. He looked up and down the street, but the smoke had taken Sonny Crowfield. "I swear it was him! I mean... it looked like him."

The same thought hit both of them. Zarra retreated a couple of steps, his eyes wide and darting.

"Come on," he said, and Cody quickly followed him into the church. The sanctuary was packed full of people, sitting on the pews and in the aisles. Father LaPrado and six or seven volunteers were trying to keep everyone calm, but the babble of frightened voices and the wail of babies was like the din of a madhouse. Cody figured there were at least two hundred Bordertown residents inside the sanctuary, probably more in other parts of the church. At the altar a table had been set up with paper cups and bottled water, sandwiches, doughnuts, and other food from the church"s kitchen. Dozens of candles cast a tawny glow, and a few people had brought kerosene lamps and flashlights.

Cody was about four strides through the doorway when someone planted a palm against his bruised breastbone and shoved him backward. Len Redfeather, an Apache kid almost as big as Tank, snarled, "Get your a.s.s out, man! Now! "

Somebody else was beside Cody, shoving him too, and at the sign of a ruckus three more Rattlesnakes pushed their way to the back of the church like a human wedge. Redfeather"s next thrust slammed Cody up against the wall. "Fight! Fight!" Pequin started yelling, jumping up and down with excitement. "Hey, I don"t want any trouble!" Cody protested, but Redfeather kept shoving him, banging his back up against the cracked plaster.

"Stop that! There"ll be no fighting in here!" Father LaPrado was coming up the aisle as fast as he could, and Xavier Mendoza stood up from his seat beside his wife and uncle and tried to get to Cody"s defense.

Now there were Rattlesnake faces all around Cody, taunting and shouting. Redfeather"s hand gripped the front of Cody"s T-shirt, started to rip it off him, and Cody whacked his arm into the Apache"s elbow and knocked the hand away. "No fighting in my church!" the priest was hollering, but the knot of Rattlesnakes had closed around Cody, and neither LaPrado nor Mendoza could break through. Redfeather grabbed Cody"s shirt again, and Cody saw the boy"s battle-scarred fist rise up and he knew the punch was going to pop his lights out. He tensed, just about to block the blow and drive a knee into Redfeather"s groin.

"Stop."

It was not a shout, but the command was spoken with absolute authority. Redfeather"s fist paused at its apex, and his rage-dark eyes flickered to his left. Rick Jurado pushed past Pequin and Diego Montana, stared intensely at Cody for a few seconds. "Let him go," Rick said. Redfeather gave Cody one more hard shove for good measure, then released his handful of T-shirt and unc.o.c.ked his fist.

Rick stood right in front of Cody, not allowing him any room to move. "Man, you"ve gone around the bend for sure. What"re you doin" over here?"

Cody tried to look around the sanctuary, but he couldn"t see Miranda amid all the people and Rick shifted to block his view. "I thought I"d come say thanks for savin" my skin. No law against that, is there?"

"Okay. Thanks accepted. Now get out."

"Rick, he says he saw Sonny Crowfield outside, standin" across the street." Zarra pushed his way next to Rick. "I didn"t see him, but I thought... you know... that it might not be Sonny anymore."

"Right," Cody said. "It might be one of those things, like the Cat Lady. He was across from the church; maybe he was watchin" the place."

Rick didn"t like that possibility. "Anybody seen Sonny Crowfield?" he asked the others.

"Yeah!" Pequin spoke up. "I saw him about an hour ago, man. He said he was headin" home."

Rick thought for a moment. Crowfield lived in a shack down at the end of Third Street; he wasn"t among Rick"s favorite people, but he was a Rattler and that made him a brother too. All the other Rattlers were accounted for, except the five who were laid up at the clinic. Rick"s Camaro was still parked in front of his house on Second Street. "Your motor outside?" he asked Cody.

"Yeah. Why?"

"You and me are gonna take a ride over to Crowfield"s house and check it out."

"No way! I was just leavin"." Party time was over, and Cody edged toward the door, but a crush of Rattler bodies hemmed him in.

"You came in here to show how brave you are, didn"t you?" Rick asked. "Maybe another reason, too." He"d seen Cody rubbernecking around, and he knew who the boy was searching for. Miranda sat with Paloma in a pew about halfway along the center aisle. "You owe me. I"m collecting, right now." He pulled the reloaded.38 out of his waistband and spun the cylinder a few inches in front of Cody"s face.

"You up to it, macho man?"

Cody saw the haughty defiance in Rick"s eyes, and he smiled grimly. "Have I got a choice?"

"Stand back," Rick told the others. "Let him go if he wants to." They moved away, and a path was open to the door.

Cody didn"t give a kick about Sonny Crowfield. He didn"t care for another meeting with Stinger, either. He started to head for the door-but suddenly there she was, standing just behind her brother. Sweat sparkled on her face, her hair lay in damp curls, and dark hollows had gathered under her eyes, but she was still a smash fox. He nodded at her, but she didn"t respond. Rick saw the nod and turned. Miranda said, "Paloma"s afraid. She wants to know what"s going on."

"We"re about to throw some garbage out on the street," he answered. "It"s okay."

Her gaze returned to Cody. He was about the most bedraggled and beat-up thing she"d ever seen.

"Hi," he said. "Remember me?" And then Rick pressed the pistol"s barrel up against Cody"s cheek and leaned forward. "You don"t talk to my sister," Rick warned, his eyes boring into Cody"s. "Not one word. You hear me?"

Cody ignored him. "Your brother and I are gonna go for a little spin on my motor." The gun barrel pressed harder, but Cody just grinned. What was Jurado going to do, shoot him right here in front of the priest, his sister, G.o.d, and everybody? "We won"t be too long."

"Leave him alone, Rick," Miranda said. "Put the gun down."

Never in Rick"s wildest nightmares had he ever envisioned anything like this: Cody Lockett not only on Rattler turf, but in the church! And talking to Miranda like he actually knew her! His guts writhed with fire and fury, and it was all he could do not to smash his fist into Lockett"s grinning face.

"Rick!" Now it was the snap of Mendoza"s voice as he pushed people out of his way and came forward. "Cody"s all right! Leave him alone!"

"It"s okay," Cody said. "We"re on our way out." He reached up, grasped Jurado"s gunhand, and eased it aside. Then, with a last lingering glance and a smile at Miranda, he walked through the Rattlesnakes and paused at the door. "You comin", or not?" he asked.

"I am," Rick said. Cody slid the goggles over his eyes and went down the steps to the motorcycle. In another few seconds Rick followed, the.38 in his waistband again. Cody got on the Honda and started the engine, and Rick straddled the pa.s.senger seat behind him. Over the motor"s snarl, Rick said, "When we get out of this, I"m gonna beat you so bad you"ll wish I"d left you down in that ho-"

Cody throttled up, the engine screamed, and the front tire reared up off the pavement, and Rick held on for dear life as the machine shot forward.

47 Firepower

"We"ve got seven minutes," Tom said in answer to the colonel"s question about how much time remained before Stinger"s deadline.

Rhodes returned his attention to Daufin. "You know Stinger can destroy this town. You know he"ll do it if we don"t give you over."

"If we do give her up," Jessie said, "it"s not just our child"s body we"re talking about. If Stinger gets back to his masters and tells them about us, they"ll come here with an invasion fleet."

"I can"t think about that right now!" Rhodes ran his forearm across his face. The apartment was thick with heat, and smoke was creeping in through the cracked-open window. "All I know is, Stinger wants Daufin. If we don"t hand her over in less than seven minutes, a lot of people are going to die!"

"And more people are going to die if we do!" She caught the faintest breeze, and offered her throat to it.

Daufin was staring out the window into the haze. There: she felt it again. A cold current of power. She knew what it was: a seeker beam from Stinger"s ship, probing for the lifepod. It had pa.s.sed on now, continuing its slow rotation across Inferno. Daufin"s host skin p.r.i.c.kled in its wake. The pod had its own natural defense system that would deflect the beam for a short time, but Daufin had learned enough about Stinger"s technology to know that sooner or later the seeker would pinpoint its target.