"I keep getting glimpses," Jaffe said, "of where Tommy-Ray is."
"What's it like?"
"Darker and darker," Jaffe replied. "He was moving for a long while, but now he's stopped. Maybe the tide's changed. There's something coming, I think, out of the darkness. Or maybe it is the darkness, I don't know. But it's getting closer."
"The moment he sees anything," Tesla said, "let me know. I want details."
"I don't want to look, with his eyes or mine."
"You may not have any choice. He's your son."
"He's failed me over and over. I don't owe him anything. He's got his phantoms."
"Perfect family unit," Tesla said. "Father, Son and—"
"—Holy Ghost," Jaffe said.
"That's right," she replied, another echo coming back to her from the past. "Trinity. "
"What about it?"
"That was what Kissoon was so afraid of."
"The Trinity?"
"Yeah. When he brought me into the Loop the first time, he dropped the name. It was an error, I think. When I challenged him on it he was so damn flustered he let me go."
"I never took Kissoon for a Christian," Jaffe remarked.
"Me neither. Maybe he meant some other god. Or gods. Some force the Shoal could invoke. Where's the medallion?"
"In my pocket. You'll have to get it for yourself. My hands are very weak."
He took them from his pockets. In the guttering light of the cave their mutilation had been sickening, but here in bright sunlight they were more disgusting still, the flesh blackened and dewy, the bone beneath crumbling.
"I'm coming apart," he said. "Fletcher used fire. I used my teeth. Both of us suicides. It's just that his was faster."
She reached into his pocket and took the medallion out.
"You don't seem to mind," she said.
"What about?"
"Falling apart."
"No, I don't," he admitted. "I'd like to die, the way I would have done if I'd stayed in Omaha and just got old. I don't want to live forever. What's the use of going on and on if you can't make sense of anything?"
The rush of pleasure she'd experienced solving the medallion's enigmas came back to her as she studied it. But there was nothing in the design, even when examined in daylight, which could be interpreted as a Trinity. There were quartets, certainly. Four arms, four circles. But no trios.
"This is no use," she said. "We could waste days trying to work it out."
"Work what out?" said Grillo, emerging into the sunlight.
"The Trinity," she said. "Have you any idea what that means?"
"Father, Son and—"
"Besides the obvious."
"Then no, I don't. Why?"
"Just a little hope I had."
"How many Trinities can there be?" he said. "It shouldn't be that hard to find out."
"Where from? Abernethy?"
"I could start with him," Grillo said. "He's a Godfearing man. Or at least he claims to be. Is it that important?"
"At this stage everything's important," she said.
"I'll get on to it," he replied, "if the phone lines are still working. You just want to know—"
"Anything about the Trinity. Anything. "
"Hard facts, that's what I like," he said. "Hard facts."
He headed off down the stairs. As he did so Tesla heard Jaffe mutter:
"Look away, Tommy. Just look away—"
He'd closed his eyes. Now he began to shake.
"Can you see them?" she said to him.
"It's so dark."
"Can you see them?"
"I can see something moving. Something huge. So huge. Why don't you move, boy? Get away before they see you. Move!"
His eyes suddenly sprang open.
"Enough!" he said.
"Have you lost him?" Tesla said.
"I told you: enough!"
"He's not dead?"
"No, he's...he's riding the waves."
"Surfing on Quiddity?" she said.
"Doing his damnedest."
"And the Iad?"
"Are behind him. I was right, the tide has changed. They're coming."
"Describe what you saw," she said.
"I told you. They're vast."
"That's all?"
"Like mountains, moving. Mountains covered in locusts, or fleas. Big and small. I don't know. None of it makes much sense."
"Well we just have to close the schism as quickly as we can. Mountains I can take. But let's keep the fleas out, huh?"
Hotchkiss was at the front door when they got down there. Grillo had already spoken to him about the Trinity, and he had a better idea than asking Abernethy.
"There's a book store in the Mall," he said. "Do you want me to go look up Trinities there?"
"It can't hurt," Tesla said. "If the Trinity scared Kissoon, maybe it'll scare his paymasters. Where's Grillo?"
"Out looking for a car. He'll take you up the Hill. That's where you're both going?" He glanced in Jaffe's direction, repugnance on his face.
"That's where we're going," Tesla said. "And that's where we'll stay. So you know where to find us."
"Right to the end?" Hotchkiss said, not taking his eyes off Jaffe.
"Right to the end."
Grillo had found and hot-wired a car that had been left in the motel lot.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" she asked him as they drove up towards the Hill. The Jaff sat slumped on the back seat, his eyes closed.
"I did a piece, way back in my investigative phase—"
"On car thieves?"
"That's right. I picked up a few tricks of the trade, and I've never forgotten them. I'm a mine of useless information. Always something new out of Grillo."
"But nothing about Trinity?"
"You keep coming back to that."
"Desperation," she said. "We haven't got much else to hold on to."
"Maybe it's something to do with what D'Amour said, about the Savior."
"A last-minute intervention from on high?" Tesla said. "I'm not going to hold my breath waiting."
"Shit."
"Problem?"
"Up ahead."
A crevasse had opened up at the intersection they were approaching. It was across both street and sidewalk. There was no way past it up the Hill.
"We'll have to try another way," Grillo said. He put the car into reverse, backed up, and took a cross-street for three blocks. There was evidence of the Grove's growing instability on every side. Lampposts and trees felled, sidewalks buckled, water running from fractured pipes.
"It's all going to blow," Tesla said.
"Ain't that the truth."
The next street he tried gave them clear access to the Hill, and they headed up. As they began the ascent Tesla caught sight of a second car, coming off the feed road from the freeway. It wasn't a police car, unless the local cops had taken up driving Volkswagens and painting them fluorescent yellow.
"Foolhardy," she said.
"What is?"
"Somebody coming back into town."
"Probably a salvage operation," Grillo said. "People taking what they can, while they can."
"Yep."
The color of the car, so garishly inappropriate, lingered with her for a little while. She wasn't sure why; perhaps because it was so very West Hollywood, and she doubted she'd ever see her apartment in North Huntley Drive again.
"Looks like we've got a welcome committee," Grillo said.
"Perfect movie moment," Tesla said. "Step on it, driver."
"Lousy dialogue."
"Just drive."
Grillo swerved to avoid collision with the patrol car, put his foot on the accelerator, and was past the vehicle before its driver had a chance to block him.
"There'll be more at the top," he said.
Tesla looked back at the car they'd left behind. There was no attempt to give chase. Its driver would simply be alerting the rest of the unit.
"Do whatever you've got to do," Tesla told Grillo.