He tightened his grip on the child’s arm as he raised his voice for the final invocation. It was almost over… almost over at last…
Suddenly the eyes of the rakoshi were no longer on him. They began to hiss and roar as their attention was drawn to his right. Kusum glanced over and watched in shock as a screaming horde of immature rakoshi poured into the hold from the nursery, followed by a fully grown rakosh, its body completely aflame. It tumbled in and collapsed on the floor near the elevator platform.
And behind it, striding down the dark passage like the avatar of a vengeful god, came Jack.
Kusum felt his world constrict around him, closing in on his throat, choking off his air.
Jack… here… alive! Impossible!
That could only mean that the Mother was dead! But how? How could a single puny human defeat the Mother? And how had Jack found him here? What sort of a man was this?
Or was he a man at all? He was more like an irresistible preternatural force. It was as if the gods had sent him to test Kusum.
The child began struggling in his grasp, screaming, “Jack! Jack!”
32
Jack froze in disbelief at the sound of that familiar little voice crying his name. And then he saw her.
“Vicky!”
She was alive! Still alive! Jack felt tears pushing at his eyes. For a second he could see only Vicky, then he saw that Kusum held her by the arm. As Jack moved forward, Kusum pulled the squirming child in front of him as a shield.
“Stay calm, Vicks!” he called to her. “I’ll get you home soon.”
And he would. He swore to the god he had long ago ceased to believe in that he would see Vicky to safety. If she had stayed alive this long, he would take her the rest of the way. If he couldn’t fix this, then all his years as Repairman Jack had been for nothing. There was no client here—this was for himself.
Jack glanced into the hold. The crowded rakoshi were oblivious to him; their only concern was the burning rakosh on the floor and their master on the platform. Jack returned his attention to Vicky. As he stepped out of the passage he failed to notice a rakosh pressed against the wall to his right until he brushed by him. The creature hissed and flailed out wildly with its talons. Jack ducked and fired the flamethrower in a wide arc, catching the outflung arm of the attacking rakosh and moving the stream out into the crowd.
Chaos was the result. The rakoshi panicked, clawing at each other to escape the fire and avoid those who were burning from it.
Jack heard Kusum’s voice shouting, “Stop it! Stop it or I’ll wring her neck!”
He looked up and saw Kusum with his hand around Vicky’s throat. Vicky’s face reddened and her eyes widened as he lifted her half a foot off the ground to demonstrate.
Jack released the trigger of the flamethrower. He now had a wide area of floor clear to him. Only one rakosh—one with a scarred and distorted lower lip—stayed near the platform. Black smoke rose from the prone forms of a dozen or so burning rakoshi. The air was getting thick.
“Treat her well,” Jack said in a tight voice as he backed against the wall. “She’s all that’s keeping you alive right now.”
“What is she to you?”
“I want her safe.”
“She is not of your flesh. She is just another member of a society that would exterminate you if it knew you existed, that rejects what you value most. And even this little one here will want you locked away once she is grown. We should not be at war, you and I. We are brothers, voluntary outcasts from the worlds in which we live. We are—”
“Cut the bullshit!” Jack said. “She’s mine. I want her!”
Kusum glowered at him. “How did you escape the Mother?”
“I didn’t escape her. She’s dead. As a matter of fact, I have a couple of her teeth in my pocket. Want them?”
Kusum’s face darkened. “Impossible! She—” His voice broke off as he stared at Jack. “That necklace!”
“Your sister’s.”
“You’ve killed her, then,” he said in a suddenly hushed voice.
“No. She’s fine.”
“She would never surrender it willingly!”
“She’s asleep—doesn’t know that I borrowed it for a while.”
Kusum barked out a laugh. “So! My whore of a sister will finally reap the rewards of her karma! And how fitting that you should be the instrument of her reckoning!”
Thinking Kusum was distracted, Jack took a step forward. The Indian immediately tightened his grip on Vicky’s throat. Through the tangle of her wet stringy hair, Jack saw her eyes wince shut in pain.
“No closer!”
The rakoshi stirred and edged nearer the platform at the sound of Kusum’s raised voice.
Jack stepped back. “Sooner or later you’re going to lose, Kusum. Give her up now.”
“Why should I lose? I have but to point out your location to the rakoshi and tell them that there stands the slayer of the Mother. The necklace would not protect you then. And though your flamethrower might kill dozens of them, in their frenzy for revenge they would tear you to pieces.”
Jack pointed to the bomb slung from his belt. “But what would you do about these?”
Kusum’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Incendiary devices. I’ve planted them all over the ship. AH timed to go off at three forty-five.” He looked at his watch. “It’s three o’clock now. Only forty-five minutes to go. How will you ever find them in time?”
“The child will die, too.”
Jack saw Vicky’s already terrified face blanch as she listened to them. She had to hear—there was no way of shielding her from the truth.
“Better that way than by what you’ve got planned for her.”
Kusum shrugged. “My rakoshi and I will merely swim ashore. Perhaps the child’s mother waits there. They ought to find her tasty.”
Jack masked his horror at the thought of Gia facing a horde of rakoshi emerging from the bay.
“That won’t save your ship. And it will leave your rakoshi without a home and out of your control.”
“So,” Kusum said after a pause. “A stalemate.”
“Right. But if you let the kid go, I’ll show you where the bombs are. Then I’ll take her home while you take off for India.” He didn’t want to let Kusum go—he had a score to settle with the Indian—but it was a price he was willing to pay to get Vicky back.
Kusum shook his head. “She’s a Westphalen… the last surviving Westphalen… and I cannot—”
“You’re wrong!” Jack cried, grasping at a thread of hope. “She’s not the last. Her father is in England! He’s…”
Kusum shook his head again. “I took care of him last year during my stay at the Consulate in London.”
Jack saw Vicky stiffen as her eyes widened.
“My daddy!”
“Hush, child,” Kusum said in an incongruously gentle tone. “He was not worthy of a single tear.” Then he raised his voice. “So it’s still a stalemate, Repairman Jack. But perhaps there is a way we can settle this honorably.”
“Honorably?” Jack felt his rage swell. “How much honor can I expect from a fallen… “—What was the word Kolabati had used?— “… a fallen Brahmachari?
“She told you of that?” Kusum said, his face darkening. “Did she also tell you who it was who seduced me into breaking my vow of chastity? Did she say who it was I bedded during those years when I polluted my karma to an almost irredeemable level? No—of course she wouldn’t. It was Kolabati herself—my own sister!”
Jack was stunned. “You’re lying!”
“Would that I were,” he said with a faraway look in his eyes. “It seemed so right at the time. After nearly a century of living, my sister seemed to be the only person on earth worth knowing… certainly the only one left with whom I had anything in common.”