“ Really?”
“ Not a cent, in fact we got stuck with the funeral bills. If it wasn’t for Manny, I’d’ve gone belly up.”
“ You’ve been on the take all this time?”
“ That’s not a nice way of saying it,” Peeps said.
“ Is there a nice way?”
“ I like you, Bobby,” Peeps said. “We make a good team. You’re smart. You’d’ve figured out what was going on sooner, rather than later, so I had to get you on board. Manny was against it at first, said no way, said he’d checked you out, so he wanted me to take you out, like the others.”
And all of a sudden Mouledoux realized that maybe Peeps wasn’t in that toaster, after all. That it was his partner, not Mansfield’s private soldier types, who’d killed those two doctors and the hospital attorney who knew about Eisenhower. He’d come to save a partner who was beyond redemption.
“ I’ll take a little of that.” He held out his cup, studied his partner’s eyes as he poured the whiskey into his coffee and he saw only the affable, friendly guy that was Peeps Friday. How could anyone look so trusting, so honest and earnest and be what he was, do what he’d done?
All of a sudden the warmth inside of Izzy faded away and she felt cold to the bone as the path they were on narrowed and started upward. It was pitch black, then the path made a turn to the right and the city below lit up the night and even without the stars, she could see for what seemed like forever, but her line of sight was all downward and the path now seemed to end at a sheer drop on the left and sheer climb on the right. Did Lila think they could climb that? Izzy didn’t see how.
Lila stopped, turned back to face her.
“ What do you think of the view?” she said.
“ Stunning,” Izzy said. “Absolutely beautiful.”
“ The next part is straight out of an Indiana Jones movie,” Lila said, “and I haven’t done it in a very long time, so it might be more dangerous than I remember.” She took Izzy’s hand, gave it a squeeze. “Are you still up for this?”
“ Yeah, all the way.”
“ Then look there.” Lila pointed toward the wall that went straight up, moved her arm to the left and Izzy saw it.
“ You’re kidding?”
“ It gets wider,” Lila said. “Right there the ledge is only a foot, maybe a bit more. Animals do it, I’ve done it. It’s pretty scary, but doable.”
“ How far?”
“ Not far till the ledge widens,” Lila said. “Maybe fifty sixty feet, then it’s pretty easy going for a hundred yards or so, then it narrows a bit as it goes up to the top, by the southeastern side of Manny’s property. When we get there, we crawl about five or six yards to the fence, crawl along it till we get to the cliff, without touching the fence, that’s important.”
“ I remember,” Izzy said.
“ Then we see how it goes.”
“ Easy peasy, like you said.”
“ Easy peasy,” Lila said. “They say you’re not supposed to look down, but I find it’s better if you do, if you watch where you’re putting your feet, because a misstep would be a bad thing.”
“ Yeah,” Izzy said. “So let’s do it.”
“ One more thing, we can’t use our hands, nothing to hold on to.”
“ I got that.”
“ Luck.” Lila stepped out on the ledge, back to the mountain.
“ Luck to you, too.” Izzy followed and right away regretted the riot gun slung on her back, because she wanted to get as close to the cliff face as possible. But she was afraid to push herself too hard against it, afraid the gun would snag on a rock or shrub or who knew what. She was also afraid if she pushed too hard into the cliff she’d lose her footing, slip and fall. And she was afraid to look down, afraid to move.
“ Come on, Izzy, you can do this.”
“ I can’t.”
“ Yes you can,” Lila said. “It’s not far.”
“ It’s too far.”
“ No it’s not. Just slide your right foot a few inches to the right, follow with your left.”
“ Can’t.” Izzy really thought she had conquered her fear of heights, but it was clear now that she hadn’t. She was terrified, wanted to be anywhere else but here. She could very well die tonight, be blown all to hell by Manny Wayne’s private army and that she could face, but this, this had her paralyzed.
She had to go back.
“ There has to be another way.” She was about to slide her foot to the left, to give it up when she felt Lila take her hand.
“ Close your eyes and trust me.” Lila gave a gentle tug to the right and against what every fiber in her body was telling her, she did as Lila said, she closed her eyes and held onto her hand, not wanting to squeeze too tightly, but she couldn’t help herself.
The first side step required a tremendous leap of faith. She saw herself falling off the mountain, plunging like granite, too terrified to scream as the ground came rushing up to meet her, but she’d made the leap, moved her feet and to her surprise the next step was every bit as hard for her as was the first.
“ I don’t think I can,” she said, then she felt something wet on her face and she opened her eyes. “Oh my God, it’s snowing.”
“ Izzy, you’re panicking.” Lila squeezed her hand. “You’ve come through so much, now’s not the time for this.”
“ I know. I just need a second.”
“ Think about something else.”
“ We’re out on a ledge in the middle of the night and it’s snowing. How can I think of anything else?”
“ Try.”
“ I can’t.”
“ Listen to me, Izzy, I’ve done this dozens of times. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not the hardest either. It’s not impossible.”
Izzy heard the words, but she was frozen in place. She’d conquered her fear of heights, but here it was, back with a vengeance and that made no sense, because she knew there was a better than even chance that she would wind up riddled with bullet holes once she reached the top and they began their assault, if she didn’t get electrocuted before that, so she shouldn’t be afraid of a little thing like falling off a mountain. Her fear was completely irrational, but it was there and it was locking her up.
“ So what do you think caused this thing that happened to you?” Lila said.
“ What?”
“ You know, what do you think brought you back from the dead? And you were dead, I know, I shot you and I don’t miss.” She squeezed Izzy’s hand again. “Then there’s that waking up young again business.” Another squeeze. “What do you think caused it?”
“ Now? You’re asking me now?” Izzy clenched her teeth against the cold. She was starting to go numb.
“ Just making conversation, till you overcome your fear,” Lila said. Still another squeeze. Her hand in Lila’s was warm. It was as if a heat was radiating from Lila, the warmth moving up Izzy’s arm, killing the cold. “So what was it? Surely you have some kind of idea.”
“ Aliens, I think.” There it was, hanging out there with the snow in the cold, dark air. She’d said what had been hanging around in the back of her mind. “I think it was aliens.” She said it again. Then she told Lila about Kissan and Marlan and their strange accents and how she’d delivered their baby, how she’d skinned her hand and about the blood to blood transfer and, as she’d been doing the telling, she’d felt her fear fading away and by the time she’d finished, it was gone.
“ I thought it had to be something like that. That there was a bigger picture.”
“ You can let go of my hand,” Izzy said. “I’m okay now.” Lila’s heat, wherever it had come from, had warmed and calmed her.
“ I think I’ll hold on for a bit, at least till we get off the ledge.” Lila started moving to the right and Izzy went along with her, eyes open, taking in the city lights below, winking now through the snow.
Then the fog started to roll in.
“ Crap,” Lila said, but she kept moving.
“ It’s a sign,” Izzy said.