Those at the fountain had apparently settled the question of whether or not to call Lozini. They would not. They were discussing tactics now, and blaming each other for the delay so far.
Up at the rear of Treasure Island was the black-light ride called Buccaneer! Parker went up there, feeling his way along in the darkness, found the side entrance he’d forced before, and went in. Once inside he switched on his flashlight, and there was everything as he remembered it. The little pirate ships stacked up to his left, near the control panel. The water running through the metal trough winding back and forth inside the building past the displays. Parker went along the narrow catwalk to the display where he’d altered the wiring earlier today, and plugged it in, then went back to the front again and looked outside.
They were still down there, still talking things over. They seemed to think they had forever. They took hours to come in here after him, and once inside, all they did was stand around and talk.
It was time to get them moving again. Parker went to the control panel and threw the master switch.
Once again, lights and music. Sea-shanty music this time, and deep bass laughter, and recorded comments like “Heave ho, me hearties” and “Make ‘em walk the plank!” And the usual whirling lights outside, clamoring for attention.
They’d get it, too. Parker went out the side door, and saw the flashlights bobbing in this direction. Off to his right the high shape of the pirate ship in its own small lake loomed white and ghostly out of the darkness. Parker ran for that, crouched low, got to the gangplank, ran up it, and ducked behind the railing on deck.
He peered around the edge of the railing, and saw two of them rush inside. Only two? Where were the rest?
He ought to get farther away from here. There was another gangplank on the other side of the ship, and he headed for it, moving slowly and cautiously across the deck and around the main cabin.
He glanced back, over at Buccaneer! The two had gone inside now. How long would it take? Sooner or later one of them would touch the wrong thing. If he was also touching the water at the same time — There was a sudden yowl from inside the building, like a hound who’d just been shot. Parker looked, and the lights across the face of the building were flickering, the music was suddenly dragging, speeding up, dragging, speeding up. The yowl stretched out, and slowly died away.
He nodded, and turned for the gangplank again, and there was suddenly somebody standing there, half-visible in the flickering light from Buccaneer!
The cop.
There wasn’t time for anything. Parker reached to his jacket pocket for his gun, but the cop jumped forward, throwing his arms around him, trying to wrestle him to the ground. Parker got a foot around his ankle, shoved him off-balance, and the cop fell back, but came in again right away, swinging a long right at Parker’s forehead.
Parker went in under the punch, driving both hands at the cop’s belly, and the cop grabbed him again, trying for a bear hug, wrestling him around.
The cop was strong, and besides that, he’d panicked. Parker could hear the strangled breath in his ear, he could hear how frightened the cop was. So much that he’d forgotten his gun, he wasn’t even trying for it. So much that he wasn’t even shouting to his friends, wasn’t making any noise at all except for that panicky loud breathing.
The two of them were shoving and swaying back and forth across the deck, and as they did so, darkness suddenly fell again, as the light and sound of Buccaneer! abruptly cut off. In pitch-darkness Parker and the cop kept wrestling, struggling with one another, and then suddenly there was nothing beneath Parker’s feet any more, the whole world was turning upside-down, and the two of them crashed into the icy water beside the ship.
The shock of the cold water broke their grip. Parker almost lost consciousness for a second, but managed to keep awake, to keep in motion. He’d lost the cop somewhere, but that didn’t matter. He struggled to his feet in knee-deep water, put his hand out, felt the wooden side of the ship, waded heavily the other way and came out to snow-covered blacktop.
Behind him the cop was suddenly shouting. “He’s here! Over this way! He’s here!”
Parker ran heavily away, already starting to shake inside the wet clothes.
Three
HE WAS shivering so much he could hardly stand, the tremors shaking him back and forth like a drunk. His clothing was heavy with icy water, weighing him down. He felt dizzy, faint, he had a compelling urge to just drop, fall down where he was and forget everything. Close his eyes, quit fighting, let the shivering take him, just lie there like a wounded cat until they came to put him out of his misery.
But he wouldn’t do it, he wouldn’t stop. To keep his teeth from chattering he had his jaw clenched so tight the ache of it ran through his head as though he’d been beaten with nightsticks. But he kept moving, kept putting one foot in front of the other, though his shoes now felt like blocks of ice weighing down his feet.
He was in New York Island again, staggering along the fake cobblestones past the little shops. There was no one chasing him right now, but he didn’t know how long he had. He had to get to ground, he had to get dry, he had to get warm, he had to survive.
It was pitch-black here, there was no choice but to switch on the flashlight, whatever the danger. He did it in quick sweeps, I on and off, just enough to orient himself each time. He was looking for the women’s dress boutique again, and the offices up on the second floor.
But before he found that store, his light flickered over a sign: MEN’S AND BOYS’ WEAR. He turned that way, found the door, kicked it open, went inside.
He took a chance on keeping the flashlight on for longer periods of time now, and went quickly through the store. Very little stock was left, but there was some. Socks and underwear, short-sleeved shirts, summer-weight zipper jackets, thin slacks. No winter clothing, no shoes, no suits.
But it was better than nothing. He found an empty cardboard carton in the back of the store, filled it up with goods he thought he could use, and then left that store.
The women’s boutique was diagonally across the street. He looked around, saw nothing but the darkness, heard nothing anywhere, and ran across and into the shop. He went down the narrow aisle to the mirror, opened it, went upstairs.
The office had windows on two walls, with shades and curtains. He drew the shades, then switched on the flashlight, put it on the floor, partially covered it with a sheet of paper from the desk. It gave a very small light, but it was enough to see by.
There was a bathroom next door, with a long hand towel on a roller. Parker opened the roller and removed the long foot-wide ribbon of towel, then stripped off his wet clothing and dried himself. It was still cold in here, almost as cold as outside, but once he was dry the shivering began to ease a little, he could relax his jaw without his teeth chattering.
He dressed in the summer clothing he’d brought, putting on three pairs of socks, two pairs of slacks, two polo shirts and one of the lightweight zipper jackets. He hung his own clothing around on chair backs and doorknobs, and it was then he discovered his pistol was gone.
He stood there with his hand in the empty jacket pocket, holding the jacket up by the neck with his other hand, both hands cold and wet from contact with the jacket. The pistol was gone. Four shots. Gone.
It must have fallen out in the struggle with the cop, either on the ship or when they fell into the water. More likely then, falling into the water, the pistol getting jolted out of his pocket, lying now in the knee-deep water around the pirate ship in the darkness. Gone for good.
He put the jacket over a chair back. He still had the two knives, and these he set on the desk. He’d need them for sure now.
What was happening outside? He picked up the flashlight, switched it off, carried it over to the window. He pulled the shade aside and looked out, but there was nothing to see, no lights bobbing around. Were they calling off the hunt until morning? It would be smart, if they kept on moving around in the dark like this he could pick them off one at a time. If he had a gun.