"Oh G.o.d, this can"t be happening," Dr. Seter moans.
James shoves the guy aside. "Give me that gun!"
But I stop James. "Let me," I say quietly.
He glares at me. "What do you know about sniper rifles?"
"She knows a lot," Seymour says.
James continues to glare at me, but finally lets me take the gun.
"Just don"t miss," he says bitterly.
Kneeling behind the stationary rifle, I peer into the telescopic sight. Kalika is standing relatively motionless, but she still has the guy held neatly in front of her. Only her face is visible behind the guy"s right shoulder. The laser guide is helpful, even for someone like me who can hit a dime-size object at two miles if I have the right gun. For a moment I am able to plant the red dot precisely in the center of Kalika"s forehead. My finger sweats over the trigger. I merely have to pull it and put a bullet in her brain and the night can still be considered a success, at least as far as the world is concerned.
But then I catch sight of her eyes, and I hesitate. She seems to be looking directly at me. Who am I fooling? Of course she knows who tracks her. The fact seems to amuse her because she smiles ever so faintly. Her lips move to form a soundless word, yet I hear it, hear it inside.
"Mother."
I momentarily lose my concentration. In that time Kalika moves swiftly and with deadly purpose, vanishing from the field of view of my laser scope. Pulling back from the weapon, I watch her throw her human shield off the side of the roof. She tosses her victim straight at the pool-perhaps it amuses her to see the big red splash the screaming people make-and a moment later there is that much more blood to clean out of the filter.
In quick succession she grabs two of the three who are left. These she kills by smashing their skulls together. They are unrecognizable as she lets them fall onto the rooftop, their brains hanging over their collars. Then her attention turns to the final member of the Suzama Society, and I recognize her. Lisa, the accountant from North Dakota, whom I met last night. So great is Lisa"s fear that she backs away from my daughter, right off the side of the roof. Kalika does not let her fall, but grabs her at the last instant.
James yells at me.
"Why don"t you shoot!" he says.
I set the gun down. "No. I can"t kill Lisa."
"Lisa is as good as dead!" James cries. "Shoot!"
But Kalika has already disappeared with her prey, a spider crawling back into her web with a kicking insect in tow. The roof is now empty except for two virtually headless bodies.
I stand and look at all of them. "Stay here. I am going to speak to her."
Dr. Seter grabs my arm. "You can"t go over there, child. It"s a bloodbath."
I gently remove his hand. "I am responsible for this." I turn to Seymour. "I have to go."
Seymour is devastated by my decision. "There"s no point."
"That is probably the understatement of the year," I agree.
10.
The moment I am out the door I switch into hyper-mode. Using the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, I reach the condo in less than one minute. In the distance I hear the cry of a dozen sirens. Yet the police are not really late to respond. Since the beginning of the attack less than seven minutes have elapsed. Kalika was definitely not sleeping.
Standing outside the building is a tide of moaning souls in pajamas and robes. Somebody should at least turn off the pool lights, I think. The floating bodies create a particularly gruesome sight. A few of the people, all men in their forties, have guns in their hands. They are arguing with one another as I dash inside the building.
I take the stairs to the eighteenth floor. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth floors I find two brutally slain bodies, their heads literally torn from their bodies.
"Would you be upset if I ripped this bird"s head off?"
"Why do you ask these silly questions?"
"To hear your answers."
The sight of these poor people upsets me greatly, but it makes me pause to ask myself the question: what am I doing? Am I trying to save Lisa in order to bandage my shattered conscience for the other deaths I have caused? Not that Lisa is not worth my effort, but I know she is as James said, as good as dead. And if I die with her who will be left to stop Kalika?
But these questions, like most, are academic.
I hear cries above me. Lisa, in the claws of a jackal.
Picking up an automatic rifle, I continue up the stairs.
Kalika is waiting for me in the center of her living room. I have to walk over a glut of slashed bodies to get to her. The place is not as neat as it was that afternoon when Seymour and I investigated. There is hardly a square foot of wall or ceiling or floor that is not splattered red. Apparently my daughter let them come as far as they wanted into her home before she welcomed them as only she knows how.
Yet Lisa is still alive. In Kalika"s arms.
I level my gun at the two of them.
"It"s a coward who hides behind another," I say to my daughter.
Kalika smiles. Her face, her arms, even her hair are drenched in blood, and she has never looked happier. Tightening her hold on Lisa, she lifts the young woman a foot off the floor. For her part, Lisa is half in shock, with at least one foot in the grave. Yet she continues to struggle against my daughter, all the while making feeble whimpering sounds. The fight in her is instinctive. I believe Kalika has already shattered her mind.
"We did this once before," she says. "But you were not carrying a weapon that night."
"I am not going to put the gun down," I say.
Kalika chuckles. "Then I should kill her now?"
"No." I take a step forward. "Let her go. Show your mercy."
"Drop the gun. Show your courage."
"You will just kill us both."
"Perhaps," Kalika agrees.
"You set me up. You wanted me to bring them here. Why?"
"I would think the answer to that question is obvious."
"The police will be here in minutes," I say.
"The police do not concern me." She raises a sharp nail to Lisa"s throat. "I cannot let you shoot me, Mother. I have a mission yet to perform."
"What is it?"
"To protect the righteous and to destroy the wicked."
I sneer. "Tonight is a fine example of that mission of yours."
"Thank you." Kalika presses her nail into Lisa"s neck. A drop of blood appears and traces a line down the young woman"s throat. Lisa, even though in shock, suddenly gasps and struggles harder. But Kalika"s hold is stronger than steel. She speaks casually. "You remember this part, don"t you, Mother?"
I begin to panic. I cannot let this girl die. She is almost a stranger to me, true, but she is all that Dr.
Seter has left. If I can save her, I think, I can save the doctor. I know his heart will give out soon after this night. You will see prophecies fulfilled. Yeah, right. The Satanic Prophecies. How could I make him such promises? Kalika is right about one thing. I lie to suit my needs. It is an old habit of mine.
"You promised me this morning that you would not kill unless it was necessary," I say.
Kalika digs her nail in a little deeper. The red line on Lisa"s throat thickens. Soon the blood will gush. Lisa"s eyes are as round as overripe strawberries. Her breathing sounds labored. Or is that her heart I hear, skipping inside her trembling chest? Lisa is almost gone but still her expression begs for me to save her.
"This is becoming necessary," Kalika says. "Put down the gun."
"I can"t."
"I will open her throat. She will go the way Eric did. You know how much that upset you."
Now I shake. "But this young woman is innocent."
"She came to kill me. Innocence is hardly the word I would apply to her."
"I brought her here. I am to blame. Please, Kalika, for the love of G.o.d, let her go."
Kalika pauses. "For the love of G.o.d? How can you say that to me after you have gazed into my eyes? Don"t you know I do everything for the love of G.o.d?"
With that Kalika scratches her sharp nail all the way across Lisa"s throat, opening two of the young woman"s major arteries. The blood shoots out as if fired from a hose under tremendous pressure. But I am hardly given a chance to react, to fire through Lisa"s body now that it has ceased to be a viable living shield. My daughter is swifter than Eddie Fender was. Lisa gags on pieces of throat as Kalika throws her at me. The blow is enough to knock me over and send my weapon flying. The back of my skull strikes a wall as Lisa slowly slips from me and everything is a blur to me for a moment. There is blood on the back of my own head. I reach up to feel the extent of my injury when I see a figure out of the corner of my eye.
It is my daughter holding my gun. She speaks in a kind voice.
"Are you in pain?" she asks.
The room continues to spin. Lisa"s body weighs heavily on my lower legs.
"Go to h.e.l.l," I mumble."I am beyond heaven and h.e.l.l." She reaches out and grabs my arm. "You have friends in the other building. Save me time and tell me what suite they"re in."
Finally my eyes begin to refocus. I stare at her.
"You"ve got to be kidding," I say.
She smiles. "Just thought I would ask. Do you know how to swim?"
"Yes."
"Do you know how to fly?"
Sounds like a trick question to me.
I don"t answer it but it doesn"t matter.
Tossing aside the gun, Kalika grabs me by the chest and with one hand drags me outside and onto the balcony where she dealt with the first three members of Alpha Top. Far below the bodies continue to float in the red-stained pool. The police have finally arrived. Numerous black and white units are jammed into the valet parking area, their search beams pointed at us. I would wave but I"m afraid they might shoot me. Kalika sighs in wonder as she sweeps the city night with her dark eyes.
"I told you the view was stunning," she says.
"I am pleased that my only daughter should be so successful that she is able to afford such a nice place," I say sweetly.
Kalika leans over and kisses me on the cheek. Her lips are soft and gentle. She speaks in my ear and there is a trace of concern in her voice.
"Can you survive such a fall? Tell me the truth."
"I honestly don"t know."
She pulls back slightly and strokes my hair. "Krishna loves you."
I am having trouble breathing. Her grip is cruel.
"It is good somebody does," I gasp.
"Did I ever tell you that I love you?"
"No. Not that I can remember."
"Oh." A deadly pause. "I must have forgotten."
"Kalika-"
I am not given a chance to finish the sentence.
My own daughter throws me over the side of the balcony.
The moon is out, it is true, and it is very bright. But there is no time to allow its gentle rays to pour into the crown of my head and fill my body to float me safely away as it did when the nuclear bomb threatened to kill me. At the moment I could be a mortal. Certainly I fall as fast as one. Kalika has thrown me toward the pool. As the b.l.o.o.d.y mess rushes toward me, I can only pray that I land in the deep end.
When I hit, my arms and legs are spread as far as they will go. I reason that this will give me more of a chance to break my fall. But I know even before I strike the water that something else will break when I strike the bottom of the pool.
The shock is crushing. There is a flash of red followed by an agony so searing I lose consciousness. But the oblivion is cruel; it does not last. When I awake my face is pressed into the floor of the pool. Indeed I have cracked the plaster, and half the bones in my body. My nose seems to have been obliterated, my face is a pancake of gross tissue. Inside my torn mouth I feel a lump of crumbled teeth. My chest feels as if ribs poke through my lungs and my shirt, pouring more blood into the pool.
Honestly, I don"t think I can live through this.
Especially under nine feet of water.