The Deep Zone

Cahner inhaled, let out a long breath. “No,” he said. “I’m not.”

Then, in one swift motion, he bent over, wrapped his arms around Hallie’s thighs, and picked her up in a fireman’s carry. With her draped over his shoulder like a sack of grain, he walked forward. Bent over his back, she could not see where they were going. She managed to sink her teeth into his flesh and bite hard enough to make him yell in pain. He swung an elbow around and hit her in the face.

She was about to bite him again when he stopped.

He pitched her over the edge of the bottomless pit.

“I loved you, Hallie” were the last words she heard, and she could not tell if he was laughing or crying.

THIRTY-SIX

KATHAN AND STIKES WERE SITTING IN THE DARK. KATHAN had just come back from the hide. It was Stikes’s turn, but he had a question first.

“Hey. I been thinking. If all of them come out, what do we do with five bodies?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, too. What if we weighed them down with rocks and put them right here in this lake?” Kathan scratched the side of his face. Something, Stikes saw, some vicious bug or plant, was giving him a bad rash.

“They’re going to bloat and float sooner or later, though,” Stikes said. “Unless we do a lot of cutting. You know how messy that gets.”

“Okay. But I think burning is out of the question, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah. Slow, messy, leaves identifiable residue. Plus which, we don’t want to be advertising our presence here with a big barbecue.”

“I don’t like dismemberment much, either,” Kathan said. “Animals will take care of the meat, but there’ll be bones and that’s too many loose ends.” He frowned, considering. The details were always messy. People like Gray never worried about the details.

“Agree again. We could blow them up with grenades.”

“We have six, with the two we took off Dempsey. But way too much noise.”

“Yeah. What about dropping them into a pit somewhere?” Stikes so far had escaped the facial rash, but his groin had become a playground for bugs that were no less vicious for being invisible.

“Probably the easiest,” Kathan said. “But not if we have to haul them far. That big one’s gonna be heavy. Another thing: you know how long it takes a body to decompose. Really decompose.”

“For the bones, you’re talking years.”

“Centuries. Especially when you don’t have the usual insects and bacteria and such. Hey, maybe we could make them eat each other.”

It was hard to tell from the tone of his voice whether Kathan was making a joke. But they were having a serious discussion, so Stikes gave a serious answer. “Do you know how long that would take?”

“I’m just tossing out options here.”

“You should eat something.” Stikes had been growing concerned.

“Not really hungry.” Kathan showed an eerie little smile.

“You go too long on that stuff without eating, it’ll drop you right in your tracks.”

Kathan snorted. “Not me, it won’t.”

“Suit yourself.” Stikes knew that Kathan had been taking micro-doses of the blue meth to keep his edge. Stikes stayed away from the stuff. He was eating his second chocolate and peanut butter bar, washing it down with the coca-laced water. They were sitting side by side with their backs against the rock face.

“I guess I’m leaning toward putting them in the lake here after all.” Kathan sounded resigned.

“It does seem like the best option, all things considered. Lot of cutting, though. Can’t have them floating back up.”

“Concur.”

“Suppose they find another way out of the cave?” Stikes asked.

“Then we’re screwed. But they won’t.”

“How can you say that for sure?”

“We were told there was only one way into this cave. That means there’s only one way out. Gray’s intel has never been bad before.”

“Yeah, but how would he really know? And what about those GPS coordinates?”

“There is that, you’re right. But it doesn’t change anything. What else can we do?”

“We could go in after them.”

“Knock yourself out, Stikes. You ever been in a cave? Like this, I mean.”

“No. You?”

“One time and one time only. Caves are very weird places, man. There’s no way I’m going in that thing.”

Stikes thought, If it was bad enough to make a man like Kathan afraid… It was hard for him to imagine anything that could frighten Kathan. But clearly a cave had. “Okay, I hear you,” he said.

Kathan, obviously wanting to change the subject, said, “Where do you think we should start first? With the blonde, I mean.” It was as though he had forgotten their earlier conversation about Hallie’s fate and Stikes’s plans to get out. Keyana’s image came to Stikes, as if conjured by Kathan’s words. She seemed to be frowning. Don’t you worry, girl, Stikes thought. Your man doesn’t do those things. “I hadn’t really thought about it,” he said indifferently.

“I been thinking about it. But I worry about teeth, man. There was a girl in Kabul, if I hadn’t shot her, she’d have bit it off.”

Stikes forced a grin. “That must have been something to see.”

“She was clamped on me like a snapping turtle. I hurt for a month.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t shoot your own self.”

“Wasn’t like it was a tough shot. The range was pretty close.” That seemed to strike Kathan as hilarious, and he began to laugh so hard tears ran down his cheeks.

The meth, Stikes thought.

Kathan clamped both skillet-sized hands over his mouth. He sat there rocking back and forth, holding the laughter in, until finally the fit subsided. Gasping for air and wiping his cheeks dry, Kathan said, “That one won’t be doing any more biting. But I don’t think I want to risk it again. What do you like?”

Keyana was still there, glaring at Stikes in his mind. He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I like, Kathan. I’m not into that. I told you.”

Kathan went on talking about Hallie as if he had not heard. It seemed to Stikes that the other man might be slowly detaching from their reality, the forest and campsite and hide, and slipping into another one that only he could see. “She’s no simple country puss, that’s for sure. One good looker.”

“Except for that nose.”

“Yeah, except for that. Someone must have laid one on her.”

“Probably a pissed-off boyfriend,” Stikes said. “Or maybe a girlfriend. Always a possibility these days.”

“I don’t know about you, but I think that’s sexy as hell,” Kathan said.

“What, girls on girls?”

“Oh, yeah. Gets me really hot.” Kathan made an ecstasy face, stuck out his tongue. “You know what I always wonder, though?”

“What?”

“Why do each other when you could be doing the real thing? You know what I’m saying? It just doesn’t make sense.” Kathan scowled.

“Lot of stuff in this world doesn’t make any sense.”

“You got that right. Like us hanging around in this bean-eater Pancho Villa sad excuse for a country waiting