Part 40 (1/2)

”Jack . . .” Bagabond shook her head stubbornly. ”This talk we're supposed to have . . .”

”Tomorrow.” He glanced up at the railway clock. ”Later today. When there's time.”

Bagabond uncharacteristically persisted. ”Why, Jack?”

He bent down and looked levelly into her eyes. ”You might as well ask why the wild card virus, Suzanne. It happens. You deal with it.”

She was silent for a bit. ”It'll take getting used to.”

”It did for me too.”

”I . . . still . . .” Her words dwindled to silence.

”Me too, love.” Jack kissed her. ”Me too.”

Spector knew Fortunato had won. If it had been the other way around, the Astronomer would have cut Fortunato into fishbait before dropping him into the drink. Spector had watched the fight, same as everybody else. The difference was he knew what was going on. He couldn't believe that stupid simp Fortunato had let the old man go. Now the Astronomer could hide out, lick his wounds, and wait until he could build his power up again. Spector figured the old man would try to make sh.o.r.e on the Manhattan side of the river. If Spector could find him, he'd take care of the Astronomer once and for all.

”It's Judgment Day,” he said, rubbing his bad arm.

He walked down the deserted alleyway. It was cold enough to frost his breath. He was tired and numb. The alley dead-ended in a wall.

”f.u.c.k.” He turned to leave, then stopped. There were voices on the other side. Familiar voices. He walked to the base of the wall and jumped, his aching muscles slowly pulling him up.

The Astronomer paused, breath wheezing and rattling in his chest. A cracked litany of hate dribbled from his mouth, the words hanging like beads on the long threads of saliva that were expectorated with each gasping breath. Roulette too stopped, waiting for him to find the strength to continue. Wondering with irritation why Tachyon was so slow. He should have been here by now. All of them joined in a final deadly union.

The Astronomer vanished into the dark mouth of an alley, and Roulette waited again for Tachyon. Who didn't appear. She fled after the Astronomer. And almost blundered into the Takisian who stepped from a connecting alley. Shrank back among a jumble of packing crates. Watched as the alien covered his eyes, cast about like a fox on a trail, froze, followed unerringly the path taken only moments before by the Astronomer. Roulette fell in behind, Magnum clutched in both hands, barrel leading like a dousing wand.

A sharp right into another alleyway, which dead-ended a hundred feet further on in a brick wall. Tachyon, hands clenched at his sides, stared down at the Astronomer, fury etched in his delicate face.

”G.o.d d.a.m.n you, Fortunato!” He threw back his head, and howled into the overcast sky. ”You gutless wonder, you honorless piece of s.h.i.+t, you motherless procurer! I thought you were going to finish this. Instead you leave it to me! And I don't want it,” he ended in a soft, sad voice.

The Astronomer continued his dogged crawl, not seeming to realize that he had entered a trap. Tachyon inspected his hands, drew a fighting knife from his boot, dithered. And Roulette cursed.

The sc.r.a.pe of a shoe on brick as a figure hauled itself onto the top of the wall. Squatted there like a man-sized gargoyle. Dropped into the alley, a curse exploding from him as his mangled, half-grown foot struck the pavement. Demise Demise.

Roulette wept with vexation, licking away the salty tears as they streamed down the corners of her mouth. Lifted the gun. Demise would not be allowed to cheat her.

”James!”

He strolled forward, the half-formed foot throwing him into a lurching, rolling gait. ”So you remember me, Doc.”

”Yes,” Tachyon replied, edging cautiously away from the menace in Demise's acne-scarred face. ”We've been worried about you.” They revolved about the p.r.o.ne body of the Astronomer, until Demise's skinny back came up square in front of Roulette, blocking her aim.

”I'll just bet, you f.u.c.ker.” He turned his awful gaze from the Takisian to the pitiful figure at his feet. ”Well, well, look what you've found.” He nudged the Astronomer with his partly regenerated foot. ”Hey, Master Master, I'm still here. And you're dead.”

Tachyon started forward, and Roulette danced from side to side, trying to get a clear shot past Demise. ”What are you going to do?”

”Kill him. You gonna try to stop me, you little puke?”

”No.”

Demise stared hard at the alien's knife, threw back his head, and laughed, the sound echoing wildly off the walls. ”Gonna deal a little death yourself tonight, eh, Tachy? Gonna play G.o.d again? Give a little life today, take it away tomorrow.”

”Stop, please.” A broken whisper.

The words crashed through Roulette touching-something. Violent shudderings ripped through her body, the gun fell from nerveless fingers, hit, detonated, the chambered round ricocheting off the brick wall over Demise's head.

”s.h.i.+t!”

Tachyon and Demise whirled to face her, and the Astronomer, with a burst of h.o.a.rded strength, came to his feet.

The Astronomer's voice was a dry rasp. ”Help me, James. Kill them. I'll reward you. Help me. Anything you want. Just help me now. So weak. No power left.”

Spector grabbed the Astronomer, blackened bits of flesh coming off in his hands. ”I don't think so, old man.”

The Astronomer lunged for the wall. Spector spun him around, but the Astronomer became insubstantial in his hands, stepped back, began to melt into the brick wall. Well, one one power left. power left.

Pale, almost-blind mole eyes locked with Spector's. The perfect sharing of the perfect moment. This time there was nothing to block him. The death flowed quick and hard into the Astronomer. The old man gasped and began to solidify.

The bricks around him split and glowed red with heat. Blood poured hissing into the cracks and down the wall. Bricks closed lovingly on flesh.

Spector let out a sigh of relief. He'd done it. n.o.body in the world would have given him a chance in h.e.l.l of killing the old b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but he was dead. The Astronomer, Lord Amun, the Master, Setekh the destroyer.

And he was still around to talk about it.

The sound of pursuing footsteps echoing loudly in the empty street. Closing in! Hands seizing her. Roulette, sobbing, choking with fear, whirled, attacking her captor with teeth and nails. A steel-like grasp closed about her wrists, pulling her into a tight embrace. The fresh and now familiar scent that was Tachyon washed across her. She slumped in his arms, and a slim, small hand stroked her cheeks, wiping away the tears.

Tachyon's mind flowed through hers like a clean, icy-cold stream, soothing the wounds left by the collapse of the s.h.i.+elds. Was.h.i.+ng away the memories, drowning deep the Astronomer's touch. What remained was a vast, aching emptiness.

She could feel the Magnum forming a cold wedge between them. He stepped back, hands dropping limply to his sides, and the pistol dropped from her hand. They regarded each other across a s.p.a.ce of air that seemed impossibly wide. The gun lay on the ground between them.

”You're not healed. It's not my gift. But I have done what I can.”

”I wanted to kill you.”

”You should avoid undue emotional and mental stress.”

”I did kill Howler.”

”You should perhaps enter therapy.”

”And there've been others.”

He stooped, swept up the gun, and extended it to her b.u.t.t first. ”Then finish it. If that is what you must have in order to find peace.”