The Language Of Cannibals

By attempting to kill him but only winging him and sending him to the floor, I had inadvertently saved Gregory Trex's life, protected him from the fate that had befallen his two comrades at the hands of our mysterious rescuer.

This did not please me. Suddenly the identity of the shadowy figure moving in the smoky light was nowhere near as important to me as the rage I felt toward Trex. I pushed Garth's supporting hand away, staggered over to where the wide-eyed Trex was thrashing on the floor, and sat down hard on his chest. There was a strong odor of feces; with the tables turned, with somebody shooting at him, the young killer had lost control of his sphincter.

'Who sent you?!” I screamed into his battered face.

Trex, saliva streaming from his mouth, moved his lips in an effort to speak, but he wasn't making enough progress to suit me. I punched his wounded shoulder, and he screamed; I raised my fist, threatening to punch him again, and he stopped.

'Who ordered you to do this, Trex? Was it Jay Acton?'

He shook his head back and forth, bubbled up some more saliva, and tried to reach across his body to grip his damaged shoulder. I stopped him.

'Who?! You'd better find your voice fast, kiddo, or I'm going to rip your fucking shoulder off! Who sent you?! Who gave you those weapons?!'

'. . hane,' he finally managed to croak. 'Mr. Culhane. We've been. . helping him clean the trash off the streets and fight the communists. He said it was the only way left, because the leftists had taken over the government and the courts. He said what we needed was a death squad like they have in other countries. When he found out you were gone, he called me. He said I should get the other two and go after you. He said that you were probably hiding out here and that we should kill everyone because it was time to get serious about what we wanted to do. He said that you two and these people were just like the communists and that the only way to deal with you was to kill you.'

'He gave you the guns?'

Trex nodded, then reached up with his left hand and wiped spittle off his chin. 'He gave them to us a few weeks ago. He said first we'd kill some of the scum on the streets, like drug dealers, and then we'd go after communists.'

'How did Culhane find out so fast that I was gone from the hospital?'

'I don't know. I suppose the police told him. Mosely's scared shitless of Mr. Culhane; he tells him everything.'

'Did you people kill Michael Burana and Harry Peal?'

'No.'

'Who did? Acton?'

'I don't know.'

'I don't believe you,' I said, and raised my fist again.

A voice close beside me said, 'I think he's telling the truth.'

In my seething rage at Gregory Trex, in my need for answers, I had virtually forgotten all about the man who had saved our lives. Now I raised my head, glanced to my left, and found myself looking into the dark eyes and deeply tanned face of Jay Acton. His razor-cut brown hair was covered now by a black seaman's cap; instead of one of his custom-tailored suits, he was dressed in black-boots, jeans, a turtleneck sweater. In his right hand he carried an Uzi automatic rifle. Under his left arm he carried the three automatic pistols originally wielded by the recently disbanded death squad. Garth's Colt was stuck in the waistband of his jeans.

'Damn,' I said.

'What the hell have you two been up to?' he asked curtly, glancing back and forth between Garth, who had come over to stand beside him, and me. 'Who have you been talking to, and what have you been saying?'

'What have we been up to?!' I swallowed hard, again used the sleeve of my shirt to wipe blood away from my eyes. 'Listen, you lying, spying, Russian son-of-a-bitch, I-!' I stopped in midsentence when I heard the distant wail of approaching police sirens. 'This should be interesting,' I said, grabbing Garth's outstretched hand and hauling myself to my feet.

Jay Acton glanced quickly toward the front of the house, then back at us. 'If you wait for the police, you'll be taken into custody,' he said tersely. 'If that happens, the chances are good that you'll both end up dead within seventy-two hours. We have to go.'

'Why?' Garth asked, studying Acton through narrowed lids. He pointed at the two dead gunmen, then at the writhing, whimpering man on the floor at my feet. 'You put the death squad out of business.'

Acton shook his head impatiently, again glanced anxiously toward the front of the house. The sirens were much closer. 'These were amateurs,' he said quickly, in the same curt tone. 'Clumsy boobs manipulated by Culhane to act out Culhane's fantasy of operating a death squad like the political death squads they have in his beloved Guatemala and El Salvador. I know because I put the idea in his head.'

I blinked, stared into the other man's glacial black eyes. 'You put-?!'

'There's no time to explain now,' Acton interrupted. 'I'm here because a few hours ago somebody tried to kill me-and that person was no amateur. I have reason to believe there's a KGB assassin after me, which means that the same assassin, or assassins, will also be after you now that this attempt has failed. You'll have no chance out in the open. You have to come with me.'

'Where?' Garth asked.

The dark-eyed KGB officer with the high cheekbones and strong chin abruptly shoved one of the automatic pistols into my brother's hands. 'We have to trust each other now; all our lives depend on it. I need you to tell me precisely what's been going on and to walk me in; you need me to stay alive.'

Garth and I glanced at each other, and I could see my own thoughts reflected in his eyes; considering the fact that everyone in the mansion would now be dead if it weren't for Jay Acton, it seemed the man had proved his bona fides. 'It's your show, Acton,' I said.

'Who else knows about me?'

'I do.' It was Mary. I hadn't heard her come up, but she was now standing directly behind me, and it was obvious that she'd overheard most of our conversation. 'I'm coming with you.'

'And we'll take him,' Acton said, pointing to Gregory Trex. 'He's been witness to a lot of things we'll need to prove-but he'll end up a dead witness if we leave him here.'

Garth grunted, stepped over to Trex, and reached down. He grabbed the front of Trex's shirt, rudely hauled him to his feet.

'Let's go,' Acton said as he grabbed one of Trex's arms. 'Follow me. Down to the river.'

Garth grabbed Trex's other arm, and together they half dragged, half carried the thoroughly terrified young man across the glass-strewn floor of the ballroom toward the gaping hole at the far end. Mary offered me her hand. I gratefully took it, and together we followed along through the clouds of sunlit dust and smoke. As I stepped up and over a jagged ridge of glass and dropped to the lawn outside, I thought I heard the police come crashing in at the other end.

Tightly holding on to Mary's hand for support, I stumbled along over the grass down toward the river and the Community's dock. Garth was already removing a canoe and paddles from the wooden rack nearby. Acton abruptly swung the stock of his Uzi around, catching Gregory Trex squarely on the jaw. Trex crumpled to the ground. Acton helped Garth put the canoe into the water, where Mary and I steadied it while they went back to the rack for a second canoe.

I glanced up toward the mansion, but saw no one in the space where the windows had been. Either I had been wrong about hearing the police coming in just as we were leaving, or everyone was too busy attending to the wounded to bother about us, or the Community members-sensing, if not understanding, our need to escape-were providing some kind of distraction.

Garth and Acton lifted the unconscious Trex off the ground and unceremoniously dumped him into the bottom of the canoe Mary and I were holding steady. Acton handed me a paddle and motioned for me to get into the bow, and I did. He got in behind me. Mary climbed into the second canoe, with Garth in the stern, and we shoved off, heading straight out into the river.

I had no idea where we were going, but since I didn't have to steer, it didn't make any difference; my job was simply to paddle, and that's what I did. Every time I dipped my paddle in the water and pulled, pain shot through my entire body, especially my head, but the hurt was bearable; despite me and my circumstances, my body