Part 36 (1/2)

”We'll be there. I'm looking forward to it.”

I clicked off, then put the phone down on the coffee table. I could hear the hose running as Ari worked outside, a trickle of water that sounded like human voices, talking softly in another room. I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. I remembered Belial's attack and s.h.i.+vered. Water to burn, water to chill, water to drown a victim-like Bill Evers, I thought to myself. Now that I'd felt Belial's malice, I was convinced that he'd murdered Evers with Caleb's help. What to do about it still eluded me.

I heard the front door open and someone's footsteps on the stairs. Even though I knew it was Ari, for a brief moment I thought I was going to see a stranger arrive. Ari walked in, unb.u.t.toning his wet s.h.i.+rt.

”What's wrong?” he said. ”You look worried.”

”I see Belial everywhere,” I said. ”Why are you so wet?”

”The sodding hose leaked.” He took off the s.h.i.+rt. ”I'll hang this over the shower rail.”

Even though he'd stopped running the water, the voices continued their murmured conversation. I heard Ari go into the bedroom and begin rustling around in the closet. I felt like yelling at him to be quiet, but even if he had, the voices still would have been incomprehensible. I knew that from prior experience. Ari returned wearing his jeans and a dark green s.h.i.+rt.

”Did the graffiti wash off?” I said.

”Easily, except for the leak in the hose.” Ari sat down next to me on the couch. ”I wonder if Caleb painted that symbol, the Chaotic magic thing. It still looks like a roundabout to me.”

”I can see why, but-” I stopped in mid-sentence. ”Interchange.”

”That's what a roundabout amounts to, yes,” Ari went on. ”Though on the big motorways-”

”Yeah, I know.” I held up a hand and interrupted. ”Something just hit me. The deviant world level that Mike discovered. What if it's an interchange between a lot of worlds?” I remembered the cartoon image of Swiss cheese. ”Full of holes that lead to somewhere else.”

Ari was staring at me. Words continued to rise into my consciousness. ”Twelve gates to the city, but there are only seven arrows on that circle, so the symbol's incomplete. So is that deviant level, incomplete, I mean.”

”The way your mind works,” Ari said, ”never fails to amaze me.”

”I find it kind of surprising, myself.”

”Your theory might explain the radiation. None of this makes sense, precisely, but I do see a logical thread of some sort here.”

”So do I. Jumping around between worlds might let loose a lot of weird radiation. I don't understand the science involved.”

”Obviously.”

”But doesn't it seem plausible? About the interchange.”

”Plausible enough to get on with. I suppose then that those Chaos lights could be bursts of energy from the interchange itself.”

”It could be, yeah. Huh, I don't know who's doing the stenciling, but I bet he's not doing it to give us useful clues.”

”Clues? About what?”

”The interchange concept.”

Ari sighed and said nothing.

”He probably never realized that I'd put it together,” I said, ”unless it's a kind of bait. He wants me to join him, whatever he is. I think. You know, this doesn't exactly make sense.”

”How unusual.”

”You don't need to be sarcastic. Hold on a sec.”

I pried myself off the couch and went to my desk. I accessed TranceWeb and brought up my file of e-mails from NumbersGrrl. A quick search found the lines I was looking for. I read them aloud to Ari.

”Human minds hate cognitive dissonance. Our species will struggle to complete every broken pattern we find no matter how absurd the completing elements are. If the folks on that deviant level know about nuclear bombs from some source of information, nukes would give them the rationale they need to explain their predicament.”

”It certainly is a predicament,” Ari said, ”with those rad levels.”

I turned in the chair to look at him. ”Yeah, there they are, trapped on the fragments of a world level, soaked in radiation from some lousy catastrophe.” I turned back to the screen. ”Let me just run this by NumbersGrrl.”

When I logged on, I found e-mail, flagged Urgent, from Y. He reiterated that he'd come to San Francisco himself if I wanted. He could also send another agent if I needed specific talents that he himself lacked. I thanked him but told him that I'd have to wait and see if the police could catch Caleb Sumner. If we took that slimeball out of the equation, it would be much easier to solve.

As methodically as I could, I wrote a brief summary of my ideas about the interchange and sent that off to NumbersGrrl. I added a few bits of other information about the case, then logged off. When I stood up, I tottered in a sudden dizzy spell. Ari jumped up and hurried over. He caught me by the shoulders and steadied me.

”You should take a nap,” Ari said. ”Is there anything I can do for you? Get you some aspirin? Orange juice? A jumper?”

I needed Qi. His concern, his need to do something, anything, made him give it off in a steady drift. Feeling the energy came close to making me salivate. I had a moment of sympathy for vampires. Rather than draining him, though, the way a vampire would have, I knew how to balance Qi and restore both of us.

”There's one thing you could do,” I said. ”Come take the nap with me.”

”You should rest, not tire yourself further.”

”You're never tiresome.”

I reached up and put my hands on either side of his face. When he kissed me, Qi poured over me and made me sweat. I channeled half of it back to him. He picked me up and carried me into our bedroom.

CHAPTER 16.

I DIDN'T GET AROUND TO CHECKING TranceWeb again until early Monday morning. Although I found nothing new, I reread some of NumbersGrrl's e-mails. She'd answered one question that had been nagging at me.

”I'm pretty sure that Belial escaped from Nathan's monitor,” she wrote, ”because the file hadn't been saved yet. Recorded, yeah, but the recording wasn't saved with a file name and location. My old prof at MIT is super intrigued with all of this, BTW. We gotta play things close to the vest from now on. He'd lie, cheat, and steal for the sake of Science though not for anything else.”

I might have read more, but Ari stood next to my desk and scowled at me. I finally logged off and swiveled the chair around to scowl right back.

”What-” I began.

”You should rest today,” Ari said. ”And have a proper breakfast. Remember what the doctor told you.”

I suppressed the urge to say ”yes, sir” and salute. ”Don't forget,” I said instead, ”that we're going to Aunt Eileen's later.”

”I haven't forgotten. I'll be checking in with the Pacifica police and our FBI contact all day, though. I might be called away if they have a solid lead on Sumner.”

”I'll go with you. I want to be there when they catch the little slimeball.”

”Are you sure you're well enough?”