water fountains.”
“We have to face it,” Lydia said. “What we saw was real.”
“We can’t just sit around. We’ve got to do
“Sure, but what?”
Wade sneered. “You’re the one doing the thinking, remember?”
They both jumped when the phone rang.
Who could it be this late? “Uh, hello?” Wade answered.
“Wade! It’s me, Jervis! How’s it going?”
Wade instantly relaxed. “Fine, Jerv. Where’re you at?”
“I’m at the student car shop. Couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d get started on a little body work.”
“Sit tight. I’ll be right there.”
“Oh, and Jerv…” Wade’s voice thickened. “Tom’s dead.”
“Yeah, I know. I…” Jervis paused. “I mean I—”
But Wade was pausing too. The obvious conclusion beat into his head. There was only one way Jervis could know about Tom…
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” Wade grimly asked.
“Hang up!” Lydia yelled.
Jervis dispensed with the act. “The Supremate wants you, Wade. It’s for something miraculous. Let me bring you in.”
Tom had said the same thing. Whatever they’d done to Tom, they’d now done to Jervis.
“There’s someone here who wants to talk to you. He can explain better than me.” Jervis’ voice was replaced by another, darker voice. Besser’s. “Wade, my boy! How are you?”
“You diabolical fat psychopath!” Wade returned the greeting. “You’re the one who’s responsible for all this, aren’t you?”
“No, no, I’m just a consultant. And Jervis is a laborer, like Tom before his unfortunate mishap… You want answers, rightly so. But it’s not something easily rendered into words—you’ll have to open your mind. It’s a master plan, my boy, wiser than the sum of all human knowledge. Call it a new societal mechanic.” Besser’s voice softened. “Call it
“Shit on societal mechanics!” Wade yelled. “Bugger destiny! I want answers! Like who were those nutty looking girls in the black capes and sunglasses?”
“Sisters,” Besser answered. “They’re technicians, in a sense—engineers of the new
“This was nighttime!” Wade blurted. “The sun’s not out at
“No, but the moon is. Moonlight is merely sunlight reflected off the moon. Without protection, even trace amounts cause cellular dissolution. It’s their environment, my boy. The dark.”
Jervis was back on the line. “Is that better?”
“No,” Wade said.
“Just give it time, Wade, and give it up. One way or another, I’m gonna get’cha. So let’s make a little deal.”
“No deals,” Wade told him. “I’m hanging up.”
“Just listen a second,” Jervis insisted. “You give me a break and come in willingly, and I’ll guarantee that nothing happens to your new girlfriend. But if you try and give me the slip, I’ll hand her over to the sisters. You know what that means?”
“What?” Wade dared.
“They’ll
Wade hung up. His head was spinning.
“He knows where we are, and you can bet he’ll be coming for us,” Lydia said. “Where was he calling from?”
“The student shop.”
“That’s a good mile away. We’ve still got time to get off campus. Come on.”
They rushed out of Wade’s room, but footsteps greeted them not two strides out the door. They both stopped. Stood. Stared.
Jervis was marching lackadaisically down the hall. He was smiling. He was holding the hewer.
“How the
“I extromitted. Saves a lot of time.” Jervis stopped for a moment, cocked his head. He was looking at Lydia. “You know, Wade, that’s a mighty sweet looking girlfriend you got there. It’d be a shame to let the sisters have her. Before they eat her, they’ll let some holotypes fuck her for a couple of days, the ones with the biggest cocks. Then they’d core her ass like an apple. You ever see a human chick get gang-banged in the ass by holotypes?”
Wade’s mouth fell open to say something, but he could summon no words.
“It wouldn’t be pretty, I can tell you that. They’d Bukake the bitch, Wade. You want your girl to go through that? You want the love of your life to have to drink a gallon of holotype jizz while another gallon’s leaking out her asshole?”
A lot of Jervis’ terms weren’t jiving with Wade, but he got the picture.
“So do we have a deal?” Jervis asked.
“Here’s a deal for you,” Lydia said. Wade shouted “No!” too late. The gunshots cracked down the hall. Lydia pumped two .357 semi wads square into Jervis’ sternum. Jervis went down.
Wade yelled, “What did you—”
“Shut up and come on!” Lydia yelled back.
They fled down eight flights of stairs. It stood to reason that if Jervis could get here that quickly, those girls in black probably could too. But Wade was still shouting through his shock— “You killed him!” —as they stumbled from the outside exit.
“What did you think he was going to do to us?” Lydia hotly reasoned. “
“But he was my friend! You didn’t have to kill him!”
The high, echoic voice boomed like thunder through a mountain valley.
“
Halfway to the Vette, Wade and Lydia froze in their tracks. In dreadful slowness, their eyes roved up the front of the eight story dorm.
Leaning out Wade’s window was Jervis, his face agrin in moonlight.
“Judas J. Priest,” Lydia whispered. “I put two slugs in his chest…”
Jervis smiled down. “Like the old saying goes, Wade,” the dead man’s voice echoed. “You can run, but you can’t hide.”
—
CHAPTER 25
They checked into Gilman’s Motel. Lydia had made Wade park down the street in a used car lot, so as not to give their location away to anyone who might be hunting them. The motel stood quiet in darkness. Lydia turned out all the lights.
They said very little. What were words worth now? Lydia stripped and went to the shower, to wash away the stench of the grove. She must’ve smelled like death. But no sooner had she turned the spray to her face, Wade was
