The light shimmered, coalesced, and then did in fact become something.
She heard Nat walk up beside her, and she reached inside her jacket, feeling the contours of the pistol she’d put there before getting out of the car. ‘What do you see?’ she asked, nodding at the light.
He made a dismissive sound. ‘I don’t know. Coloured lights or something.’
She turned to stare at him. ‘You must see something?’
He gave her a strange look. ‘Now you’re talking like Elektron. Maybe the d-field is frying your brain.’
He didn’t ask what she saw, but if he had, she’d have told him she saw a road, long and straight and reaching towards a distant horizon, superimposed over the valley like a double exposure. The more she looked, the more solid the road became, and the less real the valley.
Somehow, Dutch knew in the centre of her soul that the road had an objective existence, and that somewhere beyond that long stretch of virgin tarmac a whole new world lay waiting for her, the same way it had been waiting for the scientists who disappeared—and the same way it would have been waiting for Elektron, if he’d managed to get this far.
If Elektron knew about this, then surely others would before long. What would happen once word got out about the Rift’s true nature? Maybe it had always been waiting for people like her, the misfits and freaks who came to Teijouan for the Devil’s Run because there were so few places left in the world where they could fit in. Most of them had been reduced to picked-clean piles of bones along Teijouan’s deserted highways, but more would come—many more.
She noticed a set of stone steps cut into the hillside below the road, leading down to the hospital complex. She moved towards them.
Nat grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’
She laughed. ‘Are you serious? Is a bunch of weird fireworks really all you see?’
‘It’s the d-field,’ he said. ‘It’s making you see things that aren’t there. You still need to get me back to the finishing line.’
‘I wasn’t going anywhere.’
‘Like hell you weren’t. I’ve seen you drive enough to know I’ve got a far better chance of making it back home with you behind the wheel.’
He was only partly wrong, she realised: she had been ready to go down there and find out where the road she’d seen in her vision led to. But there were still things she had to do first.
She turned to face him. ‘So are we really just going to sit around and wait long enough for the others to drive over the finishing line before we cross it?’
‘Yes.’
She laughed. ‘Like fuck we are.’
His hands formed into fists. ‘Dutch, I’m warning you. Do what I tell you, or I’ll…’
‘You’ll what?’ She locked her gaze with his. ‘Kill me?’
She saw the tiniest glint of surprise as if she’d caught him red-handed. It wasn’t much, but for Dutch, it was enough. She took out the pistol she’d secreted within her jacket before getting out of the car and shot him at point-blank range.
Nat stumbled backwards, then fell onto his back, one hand clutching at his shoulder. Blood seeped out across his shirt under the jacket.
‘What the fuck?’ he shouted, staring up at her. ‘You shot me?’
She kept the gun trained on him. ‘I’m pretty sure it’s not a fatal wound. Not yet, anyway. Now tell me how long you’ve been working for Muto.’
His expression became incredulous. ‘What?’
‘I want to hear you say it.’ She fought to keep her aim steady. ‘I didn’t forget how you insisted we check the car a second time right after we landed on Teijouan. I figure you put a nick in that hose in case I got suspicious of you. You wanted me to think someone else was gunning for me.’
Nat licked his lips. ‘Listen, Dutch. This is the d-field, not you. We’ll get to the end of the race, and we’ll talk all this out over some beers. Okay? There’s no need to point that thing at me.’
‘I’ll make a deal,’ she said. ‘If you tell me right now you’re carrying one of Muto’s death notices, I’ll let you live as long as you show it to me. I’ll even let you ride back with me, although you’ll be bound and gagged the whole damn way. But lie to me…’
He didn’t answer, and she stepped towards him, pushing the pistol’s barrel against his temple.
‘Okay, okay!’ He shouted. ‘In one of my boots. The left one.’
Of course. She waited while he unlaced his boot and kicked it off, his face twisted up with pain from his shoulder wound. Dutch picked it up and found a crumpled red envelope inside.
‘I want to know how you wound up working for Muto,’ she asked him, holding the envelope up where he could see it.
He sighed. ‘It’s not that simple. Once he knew Wu had stolen the maps from him, Strugatsky blackmailed me into bringing the rods to him instead of Wu.’
‘Blackmail? What did he have over you?’
Nat made a sound that might have been a laugh or a grunt of pain—or maybe both. ‘I might have embezzled some of Wu’s money over the years.’
‘And killing me on Muto’s behalf was, what? A sideline?’
‘Not exactly.’ Nat’s skin had grown paler, his eyes unfocused. Shock from the bullet-wound, she figured. ‘I didn’t even know there was any kind of animosity between you and Muto until that asshole tried to kill you in Tokyo.’
‘I could see you recognised Muto’s name back then,’ said Dutch. ‘Very few people know about her. So how did you?’
‘Strugatsky hired Muto to find out who stole his maps.’
She nodded. ‘So Elektron was telling the truth.’
‘Sure. But I’d never met her before. After you killed the ninja and you mentioned Muto, I decided to go see her—’
‘When?’ Dutch demanded.
‘Right after you stole the car and drove us back to the hotel. I needed her
