* * *
Phil continued to drive, but the farther he got from Reisch the worse he felt. Amanda didn’t understand what he had become. It was true that he was new to this, and she had seven years of experience, but by her own admission, she wasn’t an expert. All she had to draw on were her own experiences, which were clearly different from his. His mind had been much more powerful than hers before their infections, and it was only reasonable that after their infections he would be stronger still. She treated him like a fool, and he resented it greatly. His foot slipped off the accelerator, and he began to seethe. He didn’t care if she was proud of him or not.
Anger began to pulse inside him, and the car slowed to a stop. Reisch had stopped as well, and for the first time he picked up Amanda’s presence. She was west of Reisch and waiting for him to turn around. She wanted to kill him. It was all right for Phil to flush Reisch out, but not all right for him to kill the German. That pleasure belonged to Amanda. Resentment began to mix with anger, and he turned the cruiser around.
“To hell with that,” he said and hit the accelerator. The car leapt forward as all four hundred and forty horses started streaking back towards Reisch. The blood lust returned, and he could feel its energy in every cell of his body. For the first time in his life, he began to giggle with enthusiasm. He was getting closer to Reisch, and he began to tingle all over, and even that felt wonderful. He was more alive than he had ever been. Sparks began to snap loudly in the dashboard and Phil laughed. The radio shorted out in a haze of blue smoke and before Phil could react the car lurched and died.
* * *
Now all three of them had come to a stop. Reisch looked at a puzzled Pushkin. “It’s a trap,” Klaus said. “They want me to turn towards Amanda and Rucker will sneak up behind me.”
“Kill Rucker and get the hell out of here.” Pushkin’s voice was decisive, but Reisch caught the undercurrent of fear.
“I think you’re right. This is getting out of hand.” Reisch was losing control of the situation; the behavior of Amanda and Phil was strange and unpredictable. He scanned the area as he hit the gas, but there were still only the three of them.
Amanda started to follow again, but maintained her distance, which only confused Reisch even more. They drove quietly for fifteen more minutes until Reisch reached the point where he could direct Phil. He reached for the pathologist, but all he grabbed was metaphysical air. Rucker had deflected him.
“Turnabout is fair play,” Reisch said as Phil reached for him, and was repulsed.
The two fenced back and forth; each effort becoming stronger as the distance between them dwindled. Amanda had chosen to be a spectator and maintained her distance.
Maybe she does want me to rid her of Rucker, Klaus thought as he crested a small hill and finally saw him with his human eyes. He was sitting alone in an unmarked police car. Klaus put on the brakes of the pickup one hundred feet from the cruiser and stared at Phil. They had stopped their futile sparring and silently regarded each other.
Reisch could feel the anger and conflicted emotions radiating from Phil. Maybe he did have time to turn him. Reisch got out of the truck and walked towards the police car. The air began to thicken and buzz. Rucker climbed out as well, confidence and fear enveloped him.
“So you thought you could kill me,” Reisch taunted.
“A speed bump?” Phil said with mock indignation. They both did their best at closing their minds to the other, but the proximity limited their success.
Reisch felt the skin on the back of his neck begin to tingle, a reminder that Amanda was closing in on him. Facing both Amanda and a speed bump like Phil could prove to be challenging. “I’m going to give you a single opportunity to join me, but I’m afraid I’m going to need an answer immediately.” It wasn’t often that Klaus felt or acted mercifully.
A laughably weak wave of mental energy was his answer.
“They sent you to kill me, and that’s the best you can do?” Klaus laughed. Phil backed away as the German began to advance. “Go ahead, run; it will make this so much sweeter.”
Phil walked backwards down the road trying to keep his distance from Reisch.
“Do you think you can entertain me until Amanda gets here? You see, Phil, you have to concentrate your power if you want to hurt someone. Let me show you.” Reisch blasted Phil off his feet. He landed in a clump of sage weeds twenty feet from where he was standing. His left arm had crumpled beneath him and snapped on impact.
Phil’s pain filled Klaus’s mind, and he began to wonder if he could wait for Amanda. “You know a couple of weeks ago, I would have been satisfied in just driving you insane, but I think your arrogance needs to be punished.” Reisch tried to surround Phil’s mind, but he resisted. “So you do have some talent,” a straining Reisch said.
Slowly Phil began to push the German out of his mind. “I’m stronger than you, Klaus,” Phil said, panting into the weeds as the two took a break from their mental wrestling match.
“I suppose I’ll just have to kill you then, “Reisch said, disappointed his fun had to end so soon. He compressed the air around him and sent a shock wave moving faster than the speed of sound at the prostrate Rucker.
Once again, Phil was lifted off his feet and thrown high into the air; he struck the barbed-wire border fence and slumped into the dirt, his broken left arm impaled on a post.
“Still with me, Phil?” Reisch walked to the top of the embankment and stared down at Phil. He was conscious, but all his mental resistance had crumbled. The tingling in Reisch’s skin began to take on a burning quality, so he stepped away from Phil, but not so far that he couldn’t watch the pathologist die.
“Still here,” Rucker whispered. “She’s coming for you, do you know that?”
“I’ll be long gone, and you’ll be long dead by the time she gets here.” Reisch turned to his left in response to something unseen. “That’s plenty of time,” he said to the air.
Phil looked at Reisch with confusion written across his bloodied face.
“Before you die, can I ask if you can see my friend here?” Reisch turned and pointed at empty space. His expression changed to surprise an instant before his head exploded.
Phil blinked several times; his brain not processing what had just happened. For more than a minute he stared at the German’s mutilated corpse, waiting for it to reassemble itself, and then heard approaching footsteps.
“You forgot your pouch,” Amanda Flynn said, dropping a small black bag at the feet of what was once Klaus Reisch.
Phil stared speechless at Amanda, a faint glow of light framing her.
“I told you not to try and be a hero. I should just let you hang there awhile.”
It was the second time he had ever been in a helicopter, and once again, he couldn’t speak properly. His arm, along with a piece of fence post, was wrapped in a large bandage. Several of his ribs were broken, and by the way he was breathing, he was fairly certain that his left lung had been punctured. There was no doubt that he had also sustained internal organ damage, but on the whole, felt reasonably good with morphine circulating in his veins. Amanda sat next to him as the rotors began to turn. “How?” he whispered, but it was lost in the whine of the turbines.
She looked down at him, earphones tucked inside a ski cap. “Don’t try to speak,” she yelled.
Phil looked back up at her and the helicopter lifted off. He thought that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. An hour ago I hated you, he thought.
You didn’t really hate me then, and you’re not really in love with me now, she thought in return. Can you sleep?