One of the blues came across the radio: "We see it. We're moving in now."
Vin said: "You ever think that if it's evolution, if freaks are the next step up, that… maybe they're not freaks, you know? Maybe they're just… different than us."
Soledad's eyes went to Vin and harsh words went with them: "You going soft on freaks?"
Over the radio: "Close… close… We've got conta— Shit, man, you see that? You see it go? Heading west."
"I'm considering the reality of things. Nature. I'm thinking about Kilauea."
Different voice, another blue: "We've got him. He's… he's gone, he's gone! Southeast now. Jesus, I've never seen anything like it."
A shake of Soledad's head. Blues. When it came to dealing with freaks, they were strictly rank.
Answering Vin: "Little as thirty, forty thousand years ago there was another hominid species coexisting with us Homo sapiens. The Neanderthals. Nothing but Homo sapiens now. No more Neanderthals. Why? We evolved, they didn't, we pushed them out."
"That's debatable: that they were overrun by the early moderns."
Yar felt like he was watching a wrestling match between PBS and the History Channel, and here he was with no way to switch to Fox.
Soledad: "Well, I'm with the 'out of Africa' theory. And one thing's for sure, however it happened: Neanderthals aren't around to give their side of the story. They're dead, they're gone, they're extinct and I'm not looking for some of the same. So if it comes down to us or the freaks for who gets to inherit the earth, I vote for us."
More radio chatter: "Got it coming across… Forget it, it's gone."
"I think… picked it up, north grid heading… Damn it!""Think it's slowing down. Not much, but…""We see it. Slower, but goddamn, it can still haul ass…""Command to all elements. Get ready to move out.""I'm with Soledad. I'm not trying to end up part of a history exhibit." Yar hefted his HK."Let's go do something about the competition."
Griffith Park had been cleared out by the uniformed LAPD cops. Amazing how quiet a big-city park can be top of the morning once gutted. Amazing the park could be gutted at all. Only things there were four MTac elements and a slowing but still very fast-moving freak named Herbert Lewis.
Central MTac, making up one square of a collapsing box, moved through the bushes and foliage like they were trying to flush Charlie from the rice paddies.
On Soledad's left hip hung a Colt. 45. Part of the compromise. She had to wear a reg piece. But on her left hip where she couldn't get to it and couldn't much use it, the gun was vestigial. Technically, as SLO, Yar should've had the Colt anyway. Yar preferred the rapid fire of an HK. He bent the rules, let Soledad have the Colt. Who was carrying what were just details to Yar. They had guns; what they needed was a mutie to stick in their crosshairs.
In all their earpieces, a frantic" Valley to elements. Officer down. We've got wounded!"
"Say again!"
"We have an officer down! The freak shot—"
"This is Harbor. We got it! It's—it's gone, heading south!"
Yar: "Is it armed? Valley, is the freak armed?"
"Negative. Shot my man with his own weapon, but he didn't take it."
"Pacific to Central. It's bouncing your way, Yar."
Into his throat mike: "Tighten up, Central. It's coming."
Soledad took up a two-handed grip on her O'Dwyer, set it to single fire. The other MTacs did likewise with their weapons. They waited…
Waited…
There it was. Not there one second, the next it was standing before them looking rabbit scared.
Yar shouted at it: "You are in vio—"
"Nopleasedontshoot!" Gone. That fast. There and gone.
Yarborough, again into his throat mike: "This is Central; we had it. It bounced off." To the element: "Central, let's go. Close it up!"
Flanking him, Vin and Soledad moved into view. From across the way came Eddi. Yarborough signaled them to hold steady. They formed a wide semicircle.
"Harbor to Central. Coming back your way."
"Copy," Yarborough said."Get frosty. Fire on my command only."
Slides got worked, rounds chambered. Safeties unlatched. An audible confirmation from Soledad's piece: single fire. The element tensed. The element got itself ready.
Yar: "Hold steady."
Vin pressed the butt of the Benelli squarely into his shoulder.
"Hold…"
Eddi's finger brushed the trigger of her HK.
It, the freak, was there. Quick as it had disappeared, it was there again.
"Whyareyoudoingthistome?"
Eddi: "I got it!"
Yar: "No!"
Eddi tapped back the trigger of her HK twice, squeezed out two rounds. In less than the nanosecond it took the thought to travel from her brain to her hand, in less than the millisecond it took the bullets to travel the muzzle of the rifle, Herbert Lewis was gone again. In his place was empty air… and Vin, who now stood directly in Eddi's line of fire.
The two slugs zoomed for him, hit him square in the chest, hit him hard and at full velocity, undiminished by the short distance traveled. They also hit him in the body armor he'd, in hindsight, made the good choice to wear. The double impact picked Vin up, kicked him back like a discarded rag doll, slammed him against the ground as rough as gravity would allow.
Yarborough: "Vin!"
Eddi: "Shit!"
Soledad: "You stupid little…"
Vin's back arched, violent. Eyes bugged and teared, his body spasmed, fought to get control of his breathing, fought to suck in oxygen that'd been punched from him.
In an instant Soledad was next to him, kneeling, lips pressed to Vin's and forcing air into his lungs."Calm down!" she coached."Calm down and breathe!"
"I'm sorry," Eddi cried."He… he was there, I had the shot—"
"Shut up!" Again, Soledad's mouth to Vin's. Again: "Come on and breathe!"
More spasms. Vin's body went tense like steel. Muscles flexed so tight his joints popped. Shook. Shook hard… shook…
And then his nervous system kicked back in. His involuntary muscles went back on-line. Vin sucked a breath deep and loud. It sounded like a vortex collapsing. Let it out, sucked again. Each breath after, by degrees, got a little more regular, a little more normal.
"Gonna make it, chief?" Yarborough asked.
Vin clutched his chest by way of his thoroughly used body armor. When he could, he said: "Juh—Jesus, Soledad. Finally get you to put yuh… your lips to mine, I can't even enjoy it."
"Asshole," as she got herself up. Still, Soledad had to admit to herself: a guy who could take a couple of slugs to the chest and crack wise about it? Impressive.
"Soledad, can you drop this thing?"
"Orders were to take him alive," Soledad reminded Yar.
"Orders were to try. That was before he started getting cops shot up. Now we'll take him any way he comes."
Okay.
Soledad said: "Get down."
Eddi and Yarborough didn't move.
Soledad said again, respectful to Yar but stressing: "Get down."
Eddi, Yarborough, they crouched near where Vin lay.
Alone, in the clear, it'd be just her and the freak. Soledad was good with that. If anything, she eased up some. The ease that came with the feeling of control. Her right hand down at her side gripping her weapon, she came off like a gunfighter waiting for the last toll of the noon bell.
She waited…
She waited…
Just the trees, the openness of the park. A morning breeze.
A breath held, released.
A little radio chatter. Background cop Muzak.
Her hand opened a little, closed again around the gun.
"Pleasedontshootmeldidntmeantohurtanyone."
The freak.
Soledad swung up her arm.
Soledad fired.
The bullet from her gun streaked forward but struck nothing. The freak was gone again.
The freak reappeared directly behind Soledad.