She leaned across and seized the steering wheel. Startled, Lucian pulled into an empty market area near the factory gates. No one was in the broad, cinderblock area. The road west went on to the right. The road south to Sibiu and the citadel branched left just behind them. The sky rained black snow on everything.
“You know that Joshua can be saved from that,” she said. “With transfusions of the human blood substitute, his immunedeficiency disease can be alleviated but the shadow organ never has to be involved. He won't build a dependency on human blood . . . human life. The artificial hemoglobin will be like insulin: to him, nothing more. His body could give us the cure for cancer, for AIDS, and he never has to be strigoi. “
Lucian touched her cheek. “It's too late, Kate.”
She swooned then, allowing her eyes to slide up under her fluttering lids and sliding off the vinyl seat against the door.
“Kate!” Lucian leaned across and lifted her lolling head.
Kate slipped the target pistol out of his belt and set the muzzle against his chest. “Sit back, Lucian.”
“Kate, for Christ's sake . . .”
“Sit back,” she snapped.
He did so, setting his hands on the steering wheel. “You're not going to shoot me,.”
She waited until he looked at her so that he could see her eyes. “I won't kill you, Lucian. But I will shoot you. In the leg. Away from the femoral artery, but smashing a major bone. So you won't come after me.”
“Come after you? To where?”
“I'm going to get Joshua.”
Lucian laughed. It was a thin sound. “Kate, let me explain something to you, all right?”
She said nothing.
“It's not just the explosives or the usual strigoi security,” he said into the silence. “This is the important night. Strigoi from all over the world who were not at the first three nights will be there tonight. It's like Easter to ardent Christians. There will be at least five hundred people up there. All of them will have brought their own guards.”
Kate held the pistol steady.
Lucian ran his hand through his hair again. “Kate, we couldn't even get there. There is only one road to the citadel on the Arges . . . it's Highway SevenC and it makes this lousy road look like one of your American Interstates by comparison. Highway SevenC is closed in the Fagaras Mountains to the north of the castle because of early snows and rock slides. It's only open in late June to early August, and even then you risk your life on that road. Even the strigoi are flying or taking the highway through Brasov or Sibiu.”
Kate's finger was on the trigger.
Lucian held both hands in front of him, asking for time with his palms. “To the north of the citadel the road is closed and there are hundreds of troops stationed there because of the big hydroelectric project on the Arges River above the castle.”
“The strigoi have to get there,” said Kate.
Lucian nodded. “They'll drive up from Bucharest and Rimnicu Vilcea. Yes. But the highway will be closed miles below the citadel. There will be roadblocks and security checks from the town of Curtea de Arges on. No one who is not strigoi could get through.”
“How close could I get before the roadblocks?” asked Kate.
Lucian shrugged. “How the hell do I know? The village of Capalineni is only four or five kilometers below the castle.”
“If I get that far,” said Kate, “I could walk the last couple of miles.”
“Scuzalima, Domnul Politilt, puteti sami aratati cum sa ajung Poienara Citadel?” said Lucian in a falsetto. “Ma duc la plimbare.”
“What?” said Kate. “What about the citadel?”
“Nothing,” said Lucian. “I'm just imagining you asking directions and telling the strigoi guards that you're just going for a walk.” He shook his head slowly. “You couldn't get to the citadel, Kate. If you did, they'd just take you and make you part of their fucking Sacrament. There's no way you could get the baby away.”
Kate did not lower the pistol. “Perhaps it would be worth it just to make sure that they did not turn him into a full-fledged strigoi.”
He frowned at her. “You mean kill the child before they make him drink? But why, Kate? The Ceremony starts a little before midnight. The strigoi are a prompt race. The Investiture Ceremony is scheduled to take about an hour and a half. The explosives go off at twelve twenty-five. Chances are that they will not have gotten to the socalled Sacrament part of the Ceremony before . . . before it happens. “
Kate nodded her understanding. “Get out of the car, Lucian. I don't know who to trust or what to believe anymore, but I know that I'm grateful for what you did an hour ago. He . . . they . . . “ Her hand started to shake and she steadied it on her knee. The muzzle of the pistol was still pointed at Lucian's chest. “If you promise not to come after me, I'll just leave you here. You go on to Hungary.”
Lucian opened the door and stepped out. The road was empty except for a Gypsy wagon rumbling by. The swaybacked black horse pulling the black wagon may have been any color under the soot that coated him. The children's faces staring out from under the dark gray canvas were streaked with sooty rivulets where tears had muddied the grime on their cheeks. Their hands were black.
“Kate,” said Lucian, his voice sad, “why?”
“Don't worry. You said yourself that when they catch me they'll just make me part of their Ceremony. They won't take time to interrogate me. At any rate, I could stand anything until . . . when? Twelve twenty-five?”
Lucian gripped the top of the car door. “But why?”
Kate lowered the pistol. “I don't know. I just know that I'm not leaving Joshua or O'Rourke there. Goodbye, Lucian.” She slid over, closed the door, put the car in gear, and made a Uturn on the empty highway to head back to the intersection where Highway 14 ran south to Sibiu. The windshield was already so dusted with the rubber ash and soot in the air that she had to turn on the windshield wipers. They clawed back and forth with a sound of fingernails on glass.
Lucian had jogged across the street while she was making the turn. Now he put both hands out the way she had seen hitchhikers do in Media. He switched to an upraised thumb as she came up to the sooty stop sign.
“Thanks, babe,” he said as he slid into the passenger seat. “I thought I'd never get a ride”
Kate held the pistol in her lap. “Don't try to stop me, Lucian. “
He held up three fingers. “I won't. I swear. Scout's honor.”
“Then why“
He shrugged and settled back in the tattered seat, his knees high. “Hey, Kate, did you know that before we shot Ceausescu we tried to electrocute him?”
Kate started to speak and then realized that this was one of Lucian's dumb jokes. “No,” she said. “I didn't know that.”
“Yeah,” said Lucian, “but even though we pulled the switch a dozen times, the electricity never hurt him. Afterward, while the firing squad was hunting for bullets, we asked him why the electricity didn't work. You know what he said?”
“No.”
“Latjatok, mindig is rossz vezeto voltam. “
Kate waited.
“He said, `You see, I always was a bad leader/conductor.' Get it? Vezeto means leader, but also, like, semiconductor. Get it?”
Kate shook her head. “You don't have to go with me on this, Lucian. “
He spread his fingers and settled lower in the seat. “Hey, why not. It's easier to follow. I always was a lousy vezeto.”
Kate turned right onto Highway 14. Black letters were just visible on a graysooted sign: SIBIU 43 KM. RIMNICU VILCEA 150 KM.
Once out of the smoke and soot of Copsa Mica, Kate turned off the wipers but had to turn on the lights. Despite the early hour, it was getting dark.
Dreams of Blood and Iron