She looked up. The rakosh was still on the hood of the truck, but it was no longer reaching for Vicky. It had withdrawn its hand from the cab and was now trying to dislodge the apparition that clung to its back.
It was Jack. And it was from his wide open mouth that that sound originated. She caught a glimpse of his face above and behind the rakosh's head—so distorted by fury as to verge on the maniacal. She could see the cords standing out in his neck as he reached around the rakosh and clawed at its eyes. The creature twisted back and forth but could not dislodge Jack. Finally it reached back and tore him free, blindly slashing at his chest as it hurled him out of her field of vision.
"Jack!" Gia cried, feeling his pain, realizing that in a few heartbeats she would know it herself, first hand. There was no hope, no way of stopping this thing.
But maybe she could outrun it. She twisted the door handle and crawled out, pulling Vicky after her. The rakosh saw her and climbed up on the roof of the truck. With Vicky clinging to her, Gia began to run, her shoes slipping, dragging, filling with sand. She glanced over her shoulder as she kicked them off and saw the rakosh crouch to leap at her.
And then night turned to day.
The flash preceded the thunder of the explosion. The poised rakosh was silhouetted in the white light that blotted out the stars. Then came the blast. The rakosh turned around and Gia knew she had been given a chance. She ran on.
34
The pain was three glowing, red hot irons laid across his chest.
Jack had rolled onto his side and was just pushing himself up to a sitting position on the sand when the first explosion came. He saw the rakosh turn toward the flash from the ship, saw Gia start to run.
The stern of the freighter had dissolved into a ball of orange flame as the fuel tanks exploded, quickly followed by a white-hot flash from the forward section—the remaining incendiary bombs going off all at once. Smoke, fire, and debris hurtled skyward from the cracked and listing hull of what had once been the Ajit-Rupobati. Jack knew nothing could survive that inferno. Nothing!
The rakoshi were gone, extinct but for one. And that one threatened two of the beings Jack valued most in this world. He had gone berserk when he had seen it reaching through the windshield of the truck for Vicky. It must have been following a command given to it earlier tonight to bring in the one who had drunk the elixir. Vicky was that one—the rakoshi elixir that had been in the orange was still in her system and this rakosh was taking its mission very seriously. Despite the death of its Kaka-ji, despite the absence of the Mother, it intended to return Vicky to the freighter.
Splashing noises to his left… down by the bulkhead Jack saw Abe pulling himself out of the water and onto the sand. Abe's face was white as he stared up at the rakosh atop the truck. He was seeing something that had no right to exist and he looked dazed. He would be no help.
Gia could not outrun the rakosh, especially not with Vicky in her arms. Jack had to do something—but what? Never before had he felt so helpless, so impotent! He had always been able to make a difference, but not now. He was spent. He knew of no way to stop that thing standing atop Abe's truck. In a moment it would turn and run after Gia… and there was nothing he could do about it.
He rose to his knees and groaned with the pain of his latest wounds. Three deep lacerations ran diagonally across his chest and upper abdomen from where the rakosh had slashed him with its talons. The torn front of his shirt was soaked with blood. With a desperate surge of effort, he gained his feet, ready to place himself between Gia and the rakosh. He knew he couldn't stop it, but maybe he could slow it down.
The rakosh leaped off the truck… but not after Gia and Vicky, and not toward Abe. It ran to the bulkhead and stood there staring out at the flaming wreckage of its nest. Shards of metal and flaming wood began to pepper the surface of the bay as they returned from the sky, hissing and steaming as they splashed into the water.
As Jack watched, it threw back its head and let loose an unearthly howl, so lost and mournful that Jack almost felt sorry for it. Its family, its world had gone up with the freighter. All points of reference, all that was meaningful in its life—gone. It howled once more, then dove into the water. Powerful strokes propelled it out into the bay, directly toward the pool of flaming oil. Like a loyal Indian wife throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre, it headed toward Kusum's sunken iron tomb.
Gia had turned and was hurrying toward him with Vicky in her arms. Abe, too, wet and dripping, was walking his way.
"My grandmother used to try to scare me with stories of dybbuks," Abe said breathlessly. "Now I've seen one."
"Are the monsters gone?" Vicky kept saying, her head continually rotating back and forth as she stared into the long shadows thrown by the fire on the bay. "Are the monsters really gone?"
"Is it over?" Gia asked.
"I think so. I hope so." He had been facing away from her. He turned as he answered and she gasped when she saw his front.
"Jack! Your chest!"
He pulled the shreds of his shirt closed over his ripped flesh. The bleeding had stopped and the pain was receding… due to the necklace, he guessed.
"It's all right. Scratches. Look a lot worse than they are." He heard sirens begin to wail. "If we don't pack this stuff up and get out of here soon, we're going to have to answer a lot of questions."
Together, he and Abe dragged the slashed and deflated raft to the truck and threw it into the back, then they framed Gia and Vicky in the front seat, but this time Abe took the wheel. He knocked out the remains of the shattered windshield with the flat of his palm and started the engine. The sand was packed around the rear wheels but Abe skillfully rocked it out and drove through the gate Jack had rammed open earlier.
"A miracle if we make it uptown without getting pulled over for this windshield."
"Blame it on vandals," Jack told him. He turned to Vicky, who lay curled up agianst her mother, and ran his forefinger along her arm.
"You're safe now, Vicks."
"Yes, she is," Gia said with a small smile as she laid her cheek against the top of Vicky's head. "Thank you, Jack."
Jack saw that the child was sleeping. "It's what I do."
Gia said nothing. Instead, she slipped her free hand into his. Jack looked into her eyes and saw there was no longer any fear there. It was a look he had longed to see. The sight of Vicky sleeping peacefully made all the pain and horror worthwhile; the look in Gia's eyes was a bonus.
She leaned her head back and closed those eyes. "Is it really over?"
"For you, it is. For me… there's one loose end left."
"The woman," Gia said. It wasn't a question.
Jack nodded, thinking about Kolabati sitting in his apartment, and about what might be happening to her. He reached across Gia to get Abe's attention.
"Drop me off at my place first, will you, Abe? Then take Gia home."
"You can't take care of those wounds by yourself!" she said. "You need a doctor."
"Doctors ask too many questions."
"Then come home with me. Let me clean you up."
"It's a deal. I'll be over as soon as I finish at my place."
Gia's eyes narrowed. "What's so important that you have to see her so soon?"
"I've got some personal property of hers"—he tapped the necklace around his throat—"that has to be returned."
"Can't it wait?"
"Afraid not. I borrowed it without telling her, and I've been told she really needs it."
Gia said nothing.
"I'll be over as soon as I can."
By way of reply, Gia turned her face into the wind coming through the glassless front of the truck and stared stonily ahead.
Jack sighed. How could he explain to her that "the woman" might be aging years by the hour, might be a drooling senile wreck by now? How could he convince Gia when he couldn't quite convince himself?