Smith managed a sickly grin. He was sitting up in bed after a long night of nausea. “You’re telling me,” he said.
“We do not even know where all of them are,” Khalil pointed out. “I do not believe that they have all remained in the apartments.”
“I know,” Smith agreed. “At the very least, there’s the one that wanted me, that got Elias’s father. I don’t know if it’s still in the same skin, or if it moved on into someone else.”
Khalil nodded.
Annie stuck her head in the bedroom door. “How are you feeling, Mr. Smith?” she asked.
“Much better, Ms. McGowan, thanks.”
“Oh, call me Annie,” she said. “After all, if you’re going to be staying here…” She didn’t finish the sentence.
“And you can call me Ed, if you like,” Smith said.
She shook her head. “I’ll try,” she said, “but you don’t look like an Ed.” She stepped into the room and looked around.
“All these computers!” she marvelled.
“It’s just two computers, really,” Smith explained. “It’s just that the Deskpro isn’t assembled yet.”
“Oh,” she said, staring at the clutter he and Khalil had strewn throughout her spotless guest room.
Khalil had done most of the work; Smith had been too sick. They had gotten everything from his car and motel room and brought it all to Annie McGowan’s guest room.
Smith had paid the bill at the Red Roof Inn, and had not been at all happy to see the total he put on his MasterCard.
They had made no attempt to collect anything from his old apartment. From Khalil’s apartment they had retrieved only two changes of clothing, some toiletries, and two switchblades. Khalil kept one; Smith borrowed the other.
“What about the couch?” Smith asked, hoping to distract Annie from her unwanted new housemates.
She frowned, and Smith realized he was only making it worse.
“That stuff doesn’t seem to come out,” she said, “And of course there are all the tears in the cushions…”
“Ruined, huh?” Smith asked sympathetically. “Don’t worry, Annie, we’ll buy you a new one. Really. I’m really sorry about it all.”
“Oh, it’s not your fault,” she said, waving the matter away.
“I know,” Smith said, “but we’ll buy you a new one, I promise. Hey, what time is it?”
Khalil glanced at his watch. “9:40,” he said.
“Annie,” Smith said, “May I use your phone? I’ve got to call my boss, tell him I won’t be in today.”
“Of course,” she said.
2.
Einar was not pleased.
“Look, Ed,” he said into the phone, “You’ve missed a week already, and you didn’t call yesterday, and when I called your motel you weren’t there, and you weren’t at your apartment, either. And when you were in on Monday I think you did more damage than good. Just what’s going on? Where are you now?”
“I’m staying with friends,” Smith said. “I was sick enough that I didn’t think I should be alone. The name is McGowan, and the number is 948-8332.”
“Uh-huh,” Einar said. “Have you seen a doctor?”
“No.”
For a moment neither of them spoke; then Einar said, “Look, Ed, I don’t want to pry, but are you sure there’s nothing else? Something you aren’t telling me?”
“I’m sure,” Smith said.
Again, neither spoke. Finally Einar sighed. “Listen, Ed,” he said, “You’re a good programmer, when you’re on the job, but this isn’t college or something, and you’re not a freelancer. You’re supposed to be here during working hours, working. If you’re not back on the job tomorrow, I want to hear that you’re sick from a doctor, not just from you, and I want you to be somewhere I can get hold of you.”
“Sure, Einar, I understand. Did you get the number here?”
“No. Give it to me again.”
Smith gave it to him again.
“All right, I’ve got it,” Einar said. “Do you think you might come in this afternoon? Will you be in tomorrow?”
“I don’t know, Einar. Really, I just don’t know. I’ve been throwing up all night, and I’m not sure I’m over it.”
“Uh-huh. All right, Ed, but remember, I warned you.”
He hung up.
Smith grimaced, and hung up as well.
“I think I’m about to lose my job,” he told Khalil.
“Seriously?” Khalil asked.
Smith shrugged. “I don’t know. Hey, don’t worry about it; it wasn’t that great a job to begin with. I’ve got some money, I’ll be okay for a couple of months if I’m careful. Besides, if we don’t kill those things off, I think I’m going to want to get the heck out of this part of the country.”
Khalil nodded agreement.
“If they double their numbers every month, however,” he pointed out, “Soon no place will be safe.”
Smith shrugged. “That’s if. And if that happens, my job isn’t going to matter a whole hell of a lot, is it?”
“No,” Khalil admitted. “I am sure they will try to kill us.”
Smith blinked. “Do you think that’s what the fake Sandy was supposed to do?”
“He said so, didn’t he? That he was to send us out alone, where the others could get us?”
Smith nodded.
They sat silently for a moment.
Annie was in the living room, fussing with the ruined couch again. They could hear her bustling about.
“Maybe we should have asked that thing more questions before we killed it,” Smith said. “Like where they’ll be going next, after Diamond Park.”
Khalil shrugged. “You did not think of it.”
Smith nodded agreement. “There’s a lot I didn’t think of,” he said.
3.
“If we can’t kill them all,” Smith said, “Is there some way we can stop them from breeding?”
Nobody answered. Khalil shrugged, and Annie just looked down at her knitting, her fingers working busily.
“What if we just cut their hearts out, but didn’t eat them?” Smith suggested.
Annie dropped a stitch and frowned. Khalil tapped his fingers quietly.
“And how exactly do they breed? That one we questioned said that the larva goes down someone’s throat – how does it get there?”
“Perhaps a bite, the way it happens when one takes a new skin, but it sends only the larva down, instead of eating its own way in,” Khalil suggested.
Smith nodded. “It’s probably something like that,” he agreed. “But if that’s how it works, I don’t see how they can do it. People aren’t going to just let it happen, let strangers walk up and stick their heads in their mouths.”
“Wouldn’t be strangers,” Annie said, looping yarn around the needle. “All those folks over there have friends and family, don’t they?”
“I guess so, but I still don’t see…” Smith began.
“And,” Annie said, “It’s not too much to ask for a little kiss now and then, is it?”
“A kiss?” Khalil’s fingers stopped tapping the table. Smith blinked and looked over at Annie.
“That would do it, wouldn’t it?” Smith said. “At least, it would let ’em get their mouths up against the mouths of their victims.”
Annie nodded, not looking up from her work.
“I expect the one that’s pretending to be Katie may turn up and try to convince me it’s all a misunderstanding, and we should kiss and make up,” she said. “Won’t do it, though, not unless it forces me.”
Khalil and Smith stared at each other.
“I wonder,” Smith said. “Once the larva’s in there, do you think there’s any way to stop it?”
“The doctors have things that pump out stomachs, yes?”
Smith nodded. “Yeah, a stomach pump might work,” he said, “I don’t know. These aren’t normal parasites, after all; they’re supernatural.”
“There are none anywhere yet,” Khalil pointed out. “Should we not try to stop any from getting anywhere?”
“Yes,” Smith agreed, “We should. And I know which one, too – the one that got Sandy said that the one that got Elias’s father was the one that had originally been after me. I think it’s time we finished off that whole fake family over there.”
Khalil nodded.
“Will the two of us be enough, do you think?” he asked.
“We’re all we’ve got,” Smith said. “We’d better be. We’ll be catching it off-guard, I hope, and during the daylight, and there will be two of us to the one of it – we managed okay with the fake Sandy.”