Jungle Of Steel And Stone

in the sound of that one word was a universe of guilt, shame—and relief.

Veil edged over into the inside lane where traffic had slowly begun to move past a cordon of blinking lights from a patrol car and tow truck. 'Jesus, Reyna, I hope they're not fresh.'

Reyna shook her head. 'They're not. It's been years.'

'How did it happen?'

'Veil, I really don't want to talk about it.'

'Yes, you do. Tell me about it.'

There was a prolonged silence. Veil waited, certain that the words would eventually come—and they did.

'I told you I was twelve when my parents died,' Reyna said in a low voice. 'It was in the Kalahari, with the K'ung. A warrior party of Bantu attacked. It was . . . horrible. My parents went down in each other's arms while they were being . . . poked to death by Bantu spears. Poked to death. All over.'

Veil reached out for Reyna's hand and squeezed it tightly.

'I escaped by running into the desert,' Reyna continued. 'By that age, I was at home almost everywhere in the desert. I had enough lore to find my way back—except that I didn't want to find my way back. I was out of my mind with terror and horror, and all I wanted to do was die. I almost did. I had no water, and after a while I just lay down in the trough of a dune. Toby came after me and found me. He'd brought a water-egg for me. They carry water in ostrich eggs, you know.'

'I know,' Veil replied softly. 'It was in the newspaper articles.'

'Toby half dragged, half carried me back to the camp. By then the battle was over. The Bantu had been driven off, and the K'ung—out of respect for my feelings—had already buried my parents. They'd even . . . even . . .'

'Reyna?'

Reyna sobbed once, then brought herself back under control. 'They'd even made a cross out of firewood and put it up over my parents' grave. In all the time—the years—that my parents had spent with them, with all the subtle and not-so-subtle proselytizing they'd done about Jesus Christ, this was the first time the tribe had shown even the slightest interest in the meanings or symbols of Christianity. They'd loved my parents, Veil, even as my parents had loved them.'

'Yes. It doesn't surprise me.'

'The wireless in the Land-Rover was broken, so there was nothing to do but wait. After two call-ins were missed, the Missionary Society had the South Africans send out a helicopter to check on things. They found me and took me back to Johannesburg.' Reyna paused, sniffed. 'Toby saved my life, Veil. It's so terribly important to me that I save his.'

'I understand. What happened to you after they took you out of the desert?'

'It's pretty much as I told you. I became a ward of the Missionary Society. I was given the best schooling, then brought back here to attend college. But I couldn't get those . . . images out of my mind. Always, night and day, I would have these flashes of memory, see my parents holding on to each other while they went down under the spear thrusts . . .'

'It's okay, Reyna. It's over now.'

'Yes. Except . . . like you, I guess, I was an extremely troubled adolescent. I'm ashamed to say it, but God wasn't enough solace for me in those days. Nothing seemed to be able to block the memories—except drugs. Eventually I became hooked on heroin.'

'And you were eventually arrested by Carl Nagle.'

Reyna uttered a sharp cry, then doubled over in her seat and clutched at her stomach, as if a knife had been plunged into her. 'It was horrible, Veil. Horrible. He did things . . . I don't think I'll ever feel clean again.'

'You're clean, Reyna,' Veil said gently as he stroked her back. 'The sin and the filth are his, not yours. Know that and accept it.'

Veil continued to stroke Reyna's back, and finally she began to relax. She sighed, straightened up. Then she took Veil's hand, kissed it, held it up to breast. 'I guess you could say that my experience with Nagle was almost therapeutic,' she said with a quick, nervous giggle. 'That . . . man was so terrible, fear of him became even stronger than my craving for drugs. The Society stood by me, of course. They put me in a rehabilitation program, supported me all through withdrawal. But I swear it was fear of him as much as any treatment program that kept me off drugs after that.' Reyna let herself fall over onto Veil, who wrapped his arm around her. 'I'm still so afraid,' she added quietly.

The security guard at the gate recognized Reyna and waved Veil through. 'Don't be,' he said as he drove slowly through the narrow streets of the campus. 'I have a strong feeling that Mr. Nagle's clock is about to be cleaned good for him. I wouldn't be surprised to see him put out of everybody else's misery permanently.'

Reyna shuddered, the muscles in her body rippling like a physical prayer. 'Why do you say that?'

'It's just a strong notion. Nagle's not going to bother you again, Reyna.'

'Oh, Veil,' Reyna breathed into his side. 'Can you promise me that?'

'I promise you that.'

Veil parked the car at the curb in front of Reyna's dormitory, got out, and walked around the car to open Reyna's door. Reyna stepped out, clasped both of his hands in hers. Suddenly she seemed older—no longer a frightened child but a beautiful woman who was still very anxious but far more in control of her fears. Even her face looked fuller, as if her body had gained weight with the unburdening of her soul. She was, Veil thought, quite lovely.

'Veil, thank you so much.'

'For what?'

'For somehow understanding that I needed to talk about that—even now, in the midst of all this other terrible business.'

'It's precisely because of all the other things going on that I knew you needed to talk. There were a lot of things pressing on you besides Toby's situation. It was time to ease some of that pressure and show you that you don't have to carry it alone.'

Reyna grinned coquettishly. 'Are you interested in sin?'

'Not nearly as much as I am in salvation.'

'Would you stay with me tonight?'

'If that's what you want, it would be my distinct pleasure.'

'We're between summer sessions, so there aren't too many people in there. Still, we'll have to be very quiet. Do you think that two skilled trackers like you and me can manage to make love in near silence?'

Veil smiled as he put a finger to his lips. Then he put his arm around Reyna's shoulders and led her up the walk toward her dormitory.

Chapter Ten

Veil dreams.

Veil is Toby.

He turns his head at the sound of barking and sees two large dogs bounding toward him from his left. Dazed, Veil clutches his sling and stumbles toward the opening in the wooden object. As he reaches it he drops his spear, braces his forearms on the raised wooden floor of the object, and makes a desperate attempt to heave himself up to safety. Suddenly he hears a man shouting somewhere above his head, and Veil cringes; but the unseen Newyorkcity seems to be shouting at the dogs, hurling things at them in an effort to scare them away.

Veil glances up at the Newyorkcity who has saved him, and he sees a short, heavy man dressed in ragged clothes. Without warning the man's foot shoots out and catches Veil on the jaw and the side of the head.

'Get out of here, you son of a bitch! You'll have every railroad cop in the yard down on us!'