Coven

Tom’s eyes flicked to the fridge. “Pop me open a Spaten, will you? It’s not like I can get it myself.”

“I don’t pour beer for heads,” Wade told him.

Sudden anger tinted Tom’s expression. “I’m trying real hard to keep my cool. I lost my job because of you, ya know.”

Wade sulked. “Yeah, I guess you’re pretty pissed.”

“If your best friend wrecked your car and got your head cut off, wouldn’t you be pissed?”

“It was an accident, Tom. I’m sorry.”

“If you’re sorry, make it up to me. Join the Supremate.”

“Join this,” Wade replied, indicating his crotch.

Tom’s chuckle came off as a blend of amusement and sullenness. “I already told you, Jervis left me here to pass on a message—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Wade said. “I don’t give a fuck.”

“The message is this: We have Lydia.”

Silent turmoil landed on Wade like a dropped net.

“Jerv snatched her at the student shop. We’ve got her locked up at the labyrinth. Look, Wade, we don’t give a shit about her; she’s useless to us, and we’re not going to be around long enough for her to hurt us if we let her go. So that’s the deal. Join the Supremate, and we let her go. No bullshit.”

Wade’s thoughts echoed like drips in a cavern—

—and Tom’s head went on, “But if you refuse, the girl is shit out of luck. They’ll turn her into ground round, nice and slow, and they’ll let the holotypes have her first. You gonna sit back and let a bunch of aliens fuck your girlfriend? Don’t you love her, Wade? What are you gonna do?”

“What I’m going to do,” Wade answered, “is put you into the trash compactor. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“Super, Wade. Avoid the issue. Chicken out.”

“Shut up,” Wade said. “I’m no chicken.”

“Buk, buk, buk. You’re gonna let the girl you love die slow because you don’t have the balls to accept change.”

“Piss off.”

“I’m leveling with you, Wade. Not as a vassal, as a friend.”

“Hey,” Wade said. “Tom McGuire was my friend. But you’re not him anymore. You’re just an evil…head.”

“Thanks a lot, pal.”

But Tom—or Tom’s head—was right about one thing. Wade was putting off the inevitable choice. He could take the coward’s way out, or the man’s way. Do I really love her that much?

“It’s decision time,” Tom announced. “In a second that phone’s going to ring. It’ll be Besser, and he’ll want an answer.”

“Besser doesn’t even know I’m here,” Wade scoffed.

“Sure he does” —Tom’s dead lips drew up in pride— “I just told him through my transceptionrod.”

Wade didn’t even bother frowning when the phone rang. He simply picked it up and held it to his ear.

“Wade, my boy. I’m glad you got our little message.”

“Clever,” Wade said. “Next time leave a note on my refrigerator with a fruit magnet.”

“Time is short. Do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” Wade said.

“A wise decision. Your lovely paramour goes free, and you get to live forever…with us.”

“How are we going to do this?”

“Meet me at my office,” Besser instructed. “In twenty minutes. We’ll be waiting. And, Wade, no tricks, please. Or else—”

Wade hung up. I’m neck deep in it now, he thought. “Why me?” he asked of Tom’s head. “Why does the Supremate want me?”

“Because you’re the healthiest able bodied male on campus. We couldn’t take just anyone, not for something this important. That’s why Besser had me swipe the medical records from the clinic. He wanted to check the medical histories of as many students as possible within the time frame, and that’s what he and Winnie did. They selected the healthiest candidates of the bunch. The Supremate needs five girls and one guy. You’re the lucky guy.”

Wade got another beer. He sat glumly on the bed and drank.

“Don’t look so bummed,” Tom offered. “You get to live forever, man. We’re talking eternal fucking life.”

“Thanks for the input.” Wade checked his watch. Twenty minutes to eternity. Shit.

“Destiny is calling, Wade. It’s time for you to go.”

“It’s time for you to go too,” Wade said. “Into the trash compactor.”

Tom sighed a commendable resignation. “I understand.”

Wade honestly found it difficult to hold Tom’s head over the open Kenmore compactor. If only in part, this gray smiling severed head was still his friend.

“Good luck, dude,” Tom’s head bid.

“‘Bye, Tom.”

“Wait, wait! Before I go, here’s an old one.”

Wade rolled his eyes. “I’m about to drop you into a trash compactor and you want to tell jokes?”

“Just one more, for old times’ sake.”

“All right.”

“What did Lincoln say after his five day drunk?”

“What?” Wade groaned.

“‘I freed WHO?’”

Wade dropped the head in the compactor and hit the power button. Tom’s laughter could be heard over the machine’s descending hum. The motor whined. Tom’s skull folded up, crunching. Then the motor cut off.

What did you do today, son? he could almost hear his father asking. Well, Dad, I got chased by a dead man, I found Dean Saltenstall’s body in a closet, I watched three police officers get killed, I drove a Buick LeSabre over several dozen women, and last but not least, I put Tom McGuire’s head into a trash compactor. Pretty interesting day, don’t you think?

But not nearly interesting enough, not yet. He stuck Lydia’s .357 in his pants and rechecked his watch.

Indeed, destiny was calling. It was time to go.

—

CHAPTER 32

Tom’s black pendant, which Lydia had found on the Route, lay in the console. Wade didn’t know what it was, so he left it, and he left the thing that looked like a portable tensor lamp, not knowing what that was either. There was very little he did know just then, except that his life was either about to end or take a dramatic change. He drove the Vette in stoic grace.

His mind seemed to float, vacant as space, as he entered the sciences center and went up the steps. We’ll be waiting, Besser had told him, yet no one waited in the dim, lamplit office. Preparations had been made, though: Blackout curtains hung over the windows. The only sunlight came in through the open door behind him.

Then: “Close the door, please, Wade.”

Wade closed the door. When he turned, Professor Besser stood by the wall, fat as ever and all smiles.

“Our central extromitter is here, a marvelous invention. You wouldn’t believe the time they save.”

Wade saw the black dot on the wall, like the one at the shop. Not a dot, he reminded himself. A hole.