Part 34 (2/2)

Carlos was breathing hard as he walked around in a hot circle. ”Next thing I know, voices, thundering voices told me to get the book and take the Chairman's head. So I went down to h.e.l.l like they told me to do and walked into Chambers! All right? You clear? And it was all f.u.c.ked up down there. Everything was trashed. Thrones decimated. The pentagram table leaning. Torches pulled out of the walls. f.u.c.king bats scared to move. But no book!”

”You went to h.e.l.l?” Damali yelled.

”To get The Book of the d.a.m.ned,” Carlos shouted back. ”Heaven needs it before the big war kicks off to free lost souls! We all know that. What about this ain't clear?”

Marlene nearly collapsed against Shabazz's side. Marjorie sat down slowly on the bed. Rider's back hit the wall with a thud.

One by one, Guardians attempted to open their mouths to comment, but no sound came out.

”You went back down there, alone, and opened a seal on sacred Indian ground to retrieve something like that?” Damali closed her eyes. ”Oh, my G.o.d.”

”They told me to!” Carlos argued. ”You don't negotiate with angels, you do what the f.u.c.k they say when they say and don't ask questions. It wasn't there, anyway. The Chairman has it! You know that; you had the self-same book in your hand yourself when you went down there half-c.o.c.ked on a solo mission, right? And he was the last one that had it. s.n.a.t.c.hed it back from you on a trade.”

”How do you know it was them, real angels, the real McCoy?”

Rider said in a quiet voice. ”I'm serious, dude? Not like them to send you down there like that without a squad.”

For a moment, Carlos didn't answer. Terror seized his words and made him swallow them. ”No, man, no. It had to be them.

The blue lights. The sky thing they did. Burned out Tara's corneas-that's what you said she told you.”

”All right,” Damali hedged. ”a.s.suming that it was them that sent you, how do you know whether or not something tagged along when you came back up? Like Marlene said, you could have become an accidental carrier of something worse than the contagion, which makes your bouts of sickness make all the sense in the world to me right now.” She put her hands behind her and began pacing where Carlos once had. ”You'd just relapsed with Yonnie. Your spirit might have had a fissure.”

Marlene nodded and stood away from Shabazz. ”Sensitive question in mixed company,” she said, looking at Damali and ignoring the others. ”You know one way inhabitation can occur, right?”

”Not since we got to Arizona,” Damali said.Carlos sent his hot gaze out the window. The other team members found the floor and places on the wall to inspect. Marlene c.o.c.ked her head to the side.

”You know what,” Marlene said quietly, ”you felt this coming, D. That's why y'all haven't been able to... Uh, just scratch my other theories.”

Damali nodded. ”I thought it was me.”

”Can we have this conversation with a senior squad only?” Carlos said, his back to the group.

”These are delicate matters,” Monk Lin said, his gaze nervously darting around the room. ”The Naksong will know what to do.”

”Nothing else to discuss,” Marlene said gently. ”It may have come up through you, but if it's male, like the Chairman, your Neteru toxin will kill it-so it fled. If it's female, like Lilith, it had to go to a vessel that wouldn't struggle with you, wouldn't make you immediately attack it... but it can't stay away from you while you're in this near-apex condition. So, people, we have a window.”

She looked at Damali. ”You sleep with me tonight, and I'll salt you down real good, sis. If she tries to come back while you're with me, I've got something for her.” Marlene gave Juanita a sidelong glance. ”You'd better come with me, too, just in case she comes at him that way.”

”That ain't necessary,” Jose said when both Juanita and Damali bristled. ”Me and Rider got Carlos.” He folded his arms and looked at Carlos hard. ”Don't take me there on this one, hombre.”

Rider closed his eyes. ”Yeah. Just like old times.”

Dawn hadn't even crested the sky in full color yet, but the team was on the move. The silence in the minivan was unbearable as it lumbered along the isolated roads, steadily moving higher into the hills on a steep, laborious incline. The frigid early-morning air was so thin that puffs of steam exited everyone's mouth and frosted the windows. They sat hunched down in their seats, burrowed deep in their thick yak-hair-lined coats, thick woolen pants, and layers of handmade sheep wool sweaters, gloves, and hats as Monk Lin drove.

Every b.u.mp they hit, every rut in the road, made them cringe and say a silent prayer that the weapons and explosives loaded into the trunk and roped to the top of the vehicle didn't take a tumble. Theirs was a very fragile line between calm and calamity, and everyone had sense enough to honor that subtle truth.

Rider was the first person to attempt to break the permafrost in the van as he looked out at slowly grazing animals and horseback riders doing stunts in the early-morning sun. ”Kinda looks like those guys are trying out for the rodeo circuit, huh, Jose?”

Jose grunted. Monk Lin peered into the rearview window.

”In the summer, when the nomads push their droves of livestock up in the hills to escape rain and to graze, there are all sorts of games,” Monk Lin said in a peaceful tone. ”Mongolian hors.e.m.e.n, Tibetans, they come from all over to compete. But these people are generally isolated,” he added. ”I don't think the contagion has reached them yet, so please be careful not to infect them, if possible.”

There was no response in the van from a soul. Rider leaned forward to talk to the monk and to try to restore team unity.

”Uhmmm... looks real similar to the tribes in Arizona,” Rider said, blatantly trying to bring harmony within the team. He nodded toward a small circle forming and tapped Big Mike on the arm. ”Can you make out the drum chords, dude? Music might be b.u.mpin', might be something for us to blend into our sounds, if we live to see another day. Check out the dudes with the long horns.”

”Yeah,” Mike said and fell silent again.”Rain dancers,” Monk Lin said, trying to help salvage Rider's desperate attempt for peace. ”The Bonpo shaman still arranges ceremonies to the elements-much like the old ways on your lands.”

”Now, see,” Rider said, snapping his fingers. ”Common ground. Half a world away and people are the same.” He glanced around the van but no one responded. ”All right, folks,” he said, becoming peevish, ”we cannot go see some old master or fight those two very bad elementals we're looking for if everyone has a bad att.i.tude.”

Marlene sighed. ”I know, Rider, but save it. Maybe the Naksong got something for this?”

After six straight hours of travel, Monk Lin pulled into a small enclave of yak-hair tents. He stretched and yawned and opened the vehicle door.

”I have to add fuel to the van, but it is of no use. To continue up into the mountains, we must go with herder guides and take small wagons... you may have to ride horses or yak if I can come to agreement with the nomads.”

Damali closed her eyes and leaned back against her seat. She wasn't sure if it was the Juanita issue, the way Jose had reacted, getting slapped-no matter what the reason, or knowing that Lilith may have possibly entered her body; or the bigger problem that Carlos, once again, presented, that was eating away at her nerves. But she wasn't feeling any of this at the moment. She was sick of the entire mission, and they hadn't even begun it.

Carlos allowed his head to hang forward as he stretched his back. Humiliation still tore at him. Why would angels set him up like that? It didn't make sense, and those guys were supposed to play fair. Not to mention, his business was all out in the street, once again, because Damali just had to put it out there like that. He wasn't sure what bothered him more-knowing that Lilith could have possessed her, or that he'd potentially dragged something up like a virus within him. Or was it that the whole team suspected something was going on again with him and 'Nita? Or the fact that Jose had a right this time to want to smoke him?

This was too crazy. Everybody was p.i.s.sy. They couldn't go into battle with distrust and bull between them.

”All right, everybody,” Carlos said in a weary tone. He waited until all eyes were on him... well, practically all eyes. Damali's gaze was fixed out the window.

”I'm sorry if I messed up. I thought I got a direct order and followed it. I told the Light that I couldn't find the book. Been thinking about this thing all night. Obviously, I don't have fangs and do daylight. I don't have the blood hunger, I'm not sick during the day like I had been, and I'm not going that way anymore. If I flushed both Lilith and the Chairman out of hiding, that's what I'm supposed to do. Last I heard, I'm a hunter. A Neteru. So we all need to squash this bulls.h.i.+t and be a team.” He glanced at Damali and then at Jose. ”We all know what time it is. I haven't cast no stones, so neither of y'all should. That's all I've got to say on the matter.”

Juanita glared at Jose when he leaned forward to speak. She held up her hand in his face, and he fell silent. ”Do not even go there,” she warned. ”We've all got skeletons-but I was cool with yours. So turnabout ain't fair play?”

Carlos slapped her five. ”I used to say fair exchange ain't no robbery, but I'm reformed.”

”Yeah, whatever,” Damali muttered.

”You do not want me to out your s.h.i.+t on this bus, girl,” Carlos said, jumping out of the van. ”I let it go, you let it go. Hear?” He walked away to find Monk Lin.

”Oops,” Marlene said, chuckling. ”Well. Now that the air is clear, I suggest we all stretch our legs and take a pee break.” She got out of the van with Shabazz, who was now smiling.

Soon everyone had exited the van and Damali was forced to as well. Carlos had gotten on her nerves so badly she wanted to scream loud enough to create an avalanche. Instead of that ill-fated option, she trudged behind the team in a foul mood. She tried her best to remain surly, but the curious children that ran close and skittered away behind parents made her smile. They pointed at her with stubby little fingers and shy smiles, and their big luminous eyes were wide with wonder. Monk Lin had a small gathering of herders around him, offering food and tea, and bowing repeatedly. But they didn't touch him because of his monk status, and kept a respectful distance from the people he'd brought with him, unsure.

”They don't see many foreigners here,” Monk Lin told the group as a pretty woman who seemed to be in her forties smiled and giggled behind her hand. ”The people here are generous, and believe a monk pa.s.sing by is a good omen. But it will take much to get her to disclose where the oracle is.” He bowed politely and the woman followed suit, peering around him to curiously gaze at the team.

Her smile widened as Monk Lin made the rounds and gave each team member's name, and her expression seemed puzzled as she stared at Rider. She spoke in a soft melodic tone in a language only Monk Lin understood. He chuckled softly and went to each team member one by one, holding their arms, stating their name, and trying to make the woman understand the familial relations.h.i.+ps.

Again, she shook her head no, and asked her questions in an excited, amused flurry.

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