Veil

Veil extended his hand and let Perry pull him to his feet. He paused for a few moments to stand over Pilgrim's body, shook his head in sorrow, then walked over to the gurney where Sharon lay. The woman was absolutely still, an expression on her face of rapture, expectation—and longing. She did not seem to be in pain.

'Veil . . . ?'

'It's a long story,' Veil said as he reached over Sharon's gurney and picked up the electroencephalograph electrodes that had been attached to Pilgrim's scalp. 'You say the phone lines have been cut?'

'Yes.'

'Where are the residents?'

'I rousted them out of bed and sent them into the woods. I didn't know what else to do with them.'

Veil carefully placed the electrodes on Sharon's forehead and temples, the way she had placed them on him. 'They're still there?'

'As far as I know, although by now some of them may have gone back to their chalets. I just told them it was an emergency. I was trying to move one Lazarus Person along when I got this terrible feeling that something was wrong at the hospital . . . and that you were in trouble and needed me. It's hard to describe just how strong that feeling was. I pushed the guy toward the woods, then came running up here. I'm not even sure how I knew to come to this room, but I did. Dr. Ibber was standing over the three of you. Well, Ibber has no business here at the hospice, and I knew that was what was wrong. A switch on one of the monitoring machines had a piece of red tape over it. Again without understanding why, I had this overpowering feeling that I had to get to that switch and throw it—after I took care of Ibber.'

Veil flicked the control switch on the EEG unit. Instantly, the Lazarus Gate pattern, pronounced and steady, appeared on the cathode tube monitor. Veil sighed, reached out, and gently caressed Sharon's hair. 'Ibber was a KGB agent, Perry,' he said quietly, staring down at Sharon's still figure. 'He was not only spying on the Army, but on Dr. Solow's projects as well. He shot Jonathan, and he would have killed all three of us if it hadn't been for you. I'm surprised he didn't manage to kill you.'

Veil felt Tompkins come up beside him; a massive arm was laid across his shoulders. 'He would have if it hadn't been for you. You came out of whatever state you were in like a drunk looking for a bar at closing time.'

'Like a drunk, all right,' Veil replied with a thin smile. 'When you walked into the room, Ibber wasn't exactly eager for company.'

'But Ibber wasn't you, my friend. Sick or not, I can still take care of myself pretty well. He started to pull a gun on me, but by then I was already across the room and putting my fist in his face. I—'

'Excuse me,' a man in a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck said curtly as he pushed Veil aside and reached for the controls on the machines monitoring Sharon's life systems. 'You mustn't touch anything.'

Veil's hand flicked out, and his fingers gripped the doctor's wrist a fraction of a second before the man's fingers would have touched the controls. The viselike grip held firm as the man wheeled on Veil, dark brown eyes flashing. 'Get your hand off me! Who are you?!'

'You know anything about the Lazarus Project?' Veil nodded toward the flickering white lines on the green- tinted screen above Sharon's gurney. 'Do you know what that means?'

'Well, I . . .' The man's eyes said that he didn't.

'You don't,' Veil said evenly. 'In that case, I'm the man who's going to kill you if you, or any of your colleagues touch these machines or this woman before I say you can. You and I have a lot of research to do before anything's done with Dr. Solow. If she starts to fade, then treat her as you see fit—but as long as she's breathing steady and that EEG pattern remains like it is, you do nothing. Understand?'

'Dr. Dries, meet Mr. Veil Kendry,' Perry announced wryly. 'Doctor, Mr. Kendry is not a man to make idle threats. Unless you want your neck snapped, I'd keep your hands off Dr. Solow and the machines.'

Dries shifted his gaze toward the dials, then again glared at Veil. 'She seems stable now. You and I will talk later, Mr. Kendry.'

'Fine,' Veil replied easily as he released his grip on the man's wrist. Dries walked stiffly across the room to supervise two orderlies who had appeared with clean sheets and plastic to cover the bodies on the floor.

'What is that on the screen?' Perry asked. 'I know it's an EEG pattern, but what else is it?'

'It's a kind of signature associated with a particular—and very special—state of consciousness.'

'It has something to do with the paintings, doesn't it?'

'Yes.'

'You've been there, haven't you? The three of you?'

'Yes.'

'My God,' Perry whispered.

'It's a place of wonder and horror,' Veil said distantly. 'I'll tell you about it when we have more time.'

'How long do you want the Lazarus People and patients to stay hidden?'

'At least until I can take the cable car across to the other mountain and make some calls—assuming those phone lines haven't been cut.'

'The police?'

'Police, hell. I want the Army up here.'

'Why, Veil? Ibber's dead.'

'I still have a bad feeling, Perry. In a short while it will be dawn. Ibber was on the loose, whereabouts unknown, for hours before he showed up here. I'm worried about what calls he may have made before he cut the phone lines.'

'All right,' Perry replied tersely. 'You're the boss. I'm going back down and play sheepdog. Lazarus People don't take orders well, you know.'

'Just a minute,' Veil said, touching Perry's arm as he continued to stare down at Sharon's face. 'Tell me exactly what happened when you threw that switch.'

'I don't know exactly, Veil. I was slightly busy with Ibber.'

'Tell me what you can remember.'

'It was easy to see what was happening with you, even with Ibber all over me. You went crazy the moment I flipped the switch. You started flopping around like a fish. In fact, you flopped so hard that you went off the cart and fell on the goddam floor. On your head, I might add.' Perry paused and smiled. 'I was afraid you'd cracked your skull—which would have pissed me off mightily, considering the aggravation I was going through to save your ass from whatever trouble your ass was in.'

Veil gently squeezed Perry's forearm. 'What about Jonathan and Sharon?'

'As far as I could tell, Colonel Pilgrim hardly moved at all. Oh, he stiffened a little when the current went through him, but that was all. Dr. Solow first started flopping around like you were, as if she were struggling. Then she stopped. I think I saw her reach out her arm, as if she were groping for something. Then the arm fell back, and she was still—just like you see her now.' Perry swallowed hard. When he spoke again, there was a slight tremor in his voice. 'She's trapped there, isn't she?'

'I'm afraid so,' Veil replied softly. The muscles in his jaw felt painfully stiff.

'But you woke up right away. Colonel Pilgrim—'

'I came back because it was what I desperately wanted to do. Jonathan came back when he wanted to, because he sensed—like you—that I needed help. I don't think Dr. Solow can get back.'

'Is there anything the doctors can do?'

'That's what we're going to find—'

The explosion came from somewhere down the side of the mountain, but its force was enough to shatter a window and knock plaster from the walls and ceiling of the hospital room. Veil spun around and was at the window looking down over the mountainside in four quick strides. Through the aperture he watched as a cloud of black smoke rose from the site where one of the chalets had been, smudging dawn. The acrid smell of gelignite wafted through the window. Satchel charges.

'Sappers!' Veil shouted as he wheeled around and ran back to Pilgrim's bed. He got down on his hands and knees and began searching under the bed for Ibber's gun. 'The son of a bitch did it! He called in sappers! They must have climbed up the mountain from the seaward side. He figured he'd gotten all the information he needed, so he called in a team of sappers to destroy everything—and everyone.'

Veil found the gun just as another explosion sent more plaster raining down on their heads. The weapon was