The Tomb (Repairman Jack)

'It's true!'

'There's got to be more to it than that!'

Kolabati still wasn't looking at him. 'You've got to understand Kusum—'

'No, I don't! All I have to understand is that he's trying to kill a little girl I happen to love very much. Kusum's got a problem all right: me!'

'He's trying to cleanse his karma.'

'Don't tell me about karma. I heard enough about karma from your brother last night. He's a mad dog!'

Kolabati turned on him, her eyes flashing. 'Don't say that! '

'Can you honestly deny it?'

'No! But don't say that about him! Only I can say it!'

Jack could understand that. He nodded. 'Okay. I'll just think it.'

She started to turn to leave the bathroom but Jack gently pulled her back. He wanted very badly to get to the phone and check on Vicky, but he needed the answer to one more question.

'What happened to you in the hold? What did I say back there to shock you so?'

Kolabati's shoulders slumped, her head tilted to the side. Silent sobs caused small quakes at first but soon grew strong enough to wrack her whole body. She closed her eyes and began to cry.

Jack had never imagined the possibility of Kolabati reduced to tears. She’d always seemed so self-possessed, so worldly. Yet here she was standing before him and crying like a child. Her anguish touched him. He took her in his arms.

'Tell me about it.'

She cried for a while longer, then she began to talk, keeping her face buried against his shoulder as she spoke.

'Remember how I said these rakoshi were smaller and paler than they should be? And how shocked I was that they could speak?'

Jack nodded against her hair. 'Yes.'

'Now I understand why. Kusum lied to me again! And again I believed him. But this is so much worse than a lie. I never thought even Kusum would go that far!'

'What are you talking about?'

'Kusum lied about finding a male egg!' A hysterical edge was creeping onto her voice. Jack pushed her to arm's length. Her face was tortured. He wanted to shake her but didn't.

'Talk sense!'

'Kaka-ji is Bengali for 'father'!'

'So?'

Kolabati only stared at him.

'Oh, jeez!'

17

They sat in the front room. Jack’s mind still reeled from the idea of Kusum impregnating the Mother rakosh. Visions of the act half formed in his brain and then quickly faded to merciful black.

'How could your brother have fathered those rakoshi? Kaka-ji has to be a title of respect or something like that.'

Kolabati shook her head slowly, sadly. She appeared emotionally and physically drained. 'No. It's true. The changes in the younglings are evidence enough.'

'But how?'

'Probably when she was very young and docile. He needed only one brood from her. From there on the rakoshi would mate with each other and bring the nest to full size.'

'I can't believe it. Why would he even try?'

'Kusum. ..' her voice faltered, 'Kusum sometimes thinks Kali speaks to him in dreams. He may believe she told him to mate with the female. Hindu folklore is full of tales of raksasha—mythical creatures inspired by the very real rakoshi—dark tales of them mating with humans.'

'Tales! I'm not talking about tales! This is real life. I don't know much about biology but I know cross-species fertilization doesn’t work!'

'But the rakoshi aren't a different species, Jack. As I told you last night, legend has it that the ancient evil gods—the Old Ones—created the rakoshi as obscene parodies of humanity. They took a man and a woman and reshaped them in their image—into rakoshi. That means that somewhere far, far up the line there's a common ancestor between human and rakosh.' She gripped Jack's arms. 'You've got to stop him, Jack!'

'I could have stopped him last night,' he said, remembering how he’d sighted down the barrel of the Glock at the space between Kusum's eyes. 'Could have killed him.'

'It's not necessary to kill him to stop him.'

'I don't see any other way.'

'There is: his necklace. Take it from him and he will lose his hold on the rakoshi.”