“Oh. Right. Uh, how do you feel about Claw?”
He shrugged.
“You’re going to have nightmares tonight, aren’t you?” I said.
“Well, he may have been a sodding Spottie, but he was a—what do I mean?” Ari stared down at the ground and ran both hands through his hair. “An alien, but—”
“A sapient being,” I said. “A conscious entity, even though he was a murdering criminal.”
Ari nodded. “They wiped out the gang down at the safe houses. I doubt if anyone lived to stand trial.”
When I laid a hand on his arm, he took a deep breath. “None of my affair, I suppose. We’ll deal with all that later.”
I watched the cops begin wrapping the dead Maculate in a sheet of heavy cloth. All I could see was a safely indeterminate shape, though a red stain seeped through the shroud.
Non omnis moriar
, Nuala’s image had told me. As long as Claw lived, it had been true in a gruesome way. With him gone, she was truly gone as well. I allowed myself a small prayer to Whomever that she’d have some peace at last.
S
PARE14 DROVE HIS SMALL
squad, including my brother, down in the borrowed wagon. He dropped off the two patrolmen, had a few brief words with Hafner, then took the rest of our TWIXT contingent back to the apartment. When we arrived, he found a message on his landline phone that gave me some hope of seeing Order respected. The liaison captain, Anna Kerenskya, wanted full written reports from everyone involved with all the deaths, including Scorch the Torch and Claw, that were the direct responsibility of the TWIXT squad. I could tell from the snap in her voice—she spoke in heavily accented English—that she, at least, did not take a suspect’s death lightly.
“We’re in for it,” Jan said. “Wait till she finds out about the man I dropped over on the east side. We’ll all be raked over the coals at a full hearing.”
“Tonight?” Ari said.
“No, no,” Spare14 said. “It’ll be convened in a week or
so. It takes time to organize this sort of thing. First we’ll have to file our reports, all of us, even those of you affiliated with other agencies.”
Me, he meant.
“Then they’ll need to find four impartial officers with the time to sit with Kerenskya on the panel,” Spare14 continued. “Since Michael is a juvenile, I’ll need to interview him formally in my office back on Four before the hearing. I hope that he won’t have to appear. Oh, and remind me to check your status, Nathan, and see how many credit points this operation will give you on the examination.” He paused briefly. “I’m assuming you still want to apply for the TWIXT position.”
“More than ever,” Ari said. “The Axeman escaped. I count that as a failure, and I don’t like failing.”
Everyone looked at Michael. Dad was sitting in the middle of the couch, with Sean on one side of him and Mike on the other, a tableau of O’Grady men, all so much alike for more than one reason.
“I’m real sorry about that. Seriously,” Mike said. “But he would have killed Sean if I hadn’t opened the gate. He threatened it, and I knew he meant it. Epic gross!”
Sean nodded a confirmation.
“Then you doubtless did the best you could at the time,” Ari said. “Where is the bastard?”
“On Six. That’s where that gate leads. The Axeman talked a lot about his contacts on Six,” Michael said. “He’s been funneling money over there for years, whenever he could get a transport orb from a fence. He had this idea that he could start a commune or village or something, a place for people who got out of SanFran to live and work.”
“My God!” Spare14 said. “Talk about your grandiose plans! He must have had some real connections over there. I don’t suppose he mentioned their names?”
“No such luck. He never really trusted me.” Mike hesitated. “Six is where Ash came from.”
“She’s the blonde, huh?” I said. “The hot blonde?”
Michael blushed scarlet, all the answer I needed. Dad turned his head to give him a sharp look that foretold a
future lecture. He had never been a “boys will be boys” type of father. Michael cringed. I decided to let Dad learn about Sophie on his own.
“So they’ll have allies, too,” Jan said. “More’s the pity.”
“Work to be done,” Ari said.
Spare14 nodded. “Six is a very difficult situation, I’m afraid.”
“Do the people there know about talents?” I said. “And different world levels, too?”
“No, they don’t.” Spare14 tented his fingers and frowned at them. “There has to be a reason for this, but on the deviant levels that our scientists have labeled with odd numbers, at least some of the people know about the hidden side of things, the worlds, the talents. Those with even numbers, like your own world, O’Grady, do not. Two is the exception, of course. Two is always the exception.”
“And no one knows why,” Jan put in. “As we all know.” He grinned at his joke, if you can call it that. “I remember a detail from when I was studying for a salary-grade exam. The scientific theory runs that the fractal splits between levels have a right and a left side. Those on the right do know about the multiverse, and those on the left, don’t. But the cram book went on to say that the words right and left were only metaphorical.”
“That makes no sense at all,” Dad said.
“Quite right,” Spare14 glowered at nothing in particular. “It doesn’t. I do wish HQ would explain these things more clearly.”
“Speaking of explanations,” I said. “Sean, you’re the older brother, aren’t you? Not some teen boy? Like, you’re grown up? Why did you ever go along with Michael’s crazy idea?”
“Hey!” Mike began. “It wasn’t—”
“You shut up.” I turned all my attention and a scowl Sean’s way. “What in hell were you thinking?”
“That we’d be back by morning,” Sean said. “Hey, it wasn’t our idea to get kidnapped, y’know. We were going to check out a couple of gates and come right back. Besides, I didn’t want Mike going over here alone. It’s dangerous, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Brat! But you stayed over on Tuesday, too. That’s what gave Storm Blue time to kidnap you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Sean winced and looked away. “That was because of José. It was Mike’s last chance to see him.”
My turn to wince. “Well, yeah. Okay. Next question. When you and Michael went through the gate, I picked up nothing. Neither did Aunt Eileen. I suspect there’s a reason for that.”
Sean shrugged as if he knew nothing about it. Dad turned a baleful eye his way.
“Oh, okay,” Sean said. “What’s the opposite of finding?”
“Losing,” I said. “Are you telling me that you can hide yourself when you pull dumb stunts like this one?”
“I wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but yes, I can. Claw knew it, too. He’s the one who insisted they collar me.”
“So Claw knew a lot about talents?”
“You bet. He gave me the creeps. He wanted to kill and butcher me, but the Axeman wouldn’t let him.” Sean went pale at the memory. “He had a girl back home, he told us, Claw, I mean, not the Axeman. When he brought her enough dead apes, she’d let him get her pregnant. I don’t know how many apes he needed, but I sure as hell didn’t want to be one of them.”
“He talked about having kids a lot,” Mike put in. “I called them ‘cubs’ once, and he took a swing at me. The axeman had to break it up.”
Jan and Spare14 exchanged a significant glance.
“This is going to be an interesting set of reports,” Spare14 said. “HQ will doubtless want follow-up, and I suppose I’ll be postponing my holiday leave yet again. At least I’ll be vacating this wretched office soon. I’m sincerely pleased about getting away from Three.”
“I hope to God,” Jan said, “that they don’t tap me to take your place.”
“I’m nearly at the radiation limit,” Spare14 said. “You’ve got a long way to go, so you’re no doubt right to worry. Which reminds me. O’Grady and Nathan—or I should say, all you O’Gradys and Nathan, there’s no reason for you to stay here tonight, but I’ll collect any radiation badges before
you leave. The medical staff will need to check them and record the readings.”
Words could not express my feelings at the thought of getting out of SanFran. Sheer joy would be a good start. We wasted no time in collecting our luggage. Before we left, however, I did have one last thing to ask Spare14.
“Earlier this year, when I was hunting Belial,” I said. “You were scanning for me. Why? I know you wanted contact with the Agency, and that Nathan’s report gave you a lead. But you were spying on me, not the general situation.”
Spare14 briefly dithered, then said, “Well, to be honest, it was due to my guilty conscience. The Brittanic officer who was pursuing the case against your father never told us he had a family. So we never made any attempt to contact your mother.”
“Dad,” I said, “why didn’t you say something?”
“I was hoping the bastard didn’t know I did. I was afraid of reprisals. The Brittanics are known for that, taking rebellion out on a man’s family.”
I stared, gape-mouthed.
“They’re not like the British here,” Dad continued. “Never make that mistake.” He looked straight at me and emphasized each word. “They are not like the English you know.”
Ari glanced at Spare14 as if asking for confirmation. Spare14 nodded his agreement and sighed.
“So I found out about the family long after the trial.” Spare14 glanced my father’s way, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to look Dad in the face. “I’m sorry. We would have made some provision for the children had we known in time.”
Since he had talents enough to hide his SPP, I wasn’t sure if I believed him or not.
“At any rate,” Spare14 continued. “When I was assigned to Four, just a few months ago now, I remembered your family and thought I’d see what had happened to the children. When I realized that you worked for the Agency, you became the logical place to start my inquiries.” He turned
to Dad again. “I’m also the one who told the releasing magistrate about your son Patrick’s death.”
“And I’ll thank you for that,” Dad said. “I had a chance to digest it that way. It would have been a bitter shock if I’d gotten all the way home before I found out.”
“So I thought.”
“There’s another thing I’ll thank you for, not lying when Major Newcombe demanded it of you.”
“There was no evidence you’d shot anyone, none.” Spare14 turned to me. “I felt at the time that the Brittanics wanted your father hanged and were willing to bend justice till it broke in order to do so. I refused to go along with it. They did have evidence of his being an accessory to the killers’ escape, and they made the most of it.”
“Thank you.” My voice choked on tears. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Spare14 smiled at me, then held out his hand to my father. Dad hesitated, then shook it in farewell.
With Dad and his set of orbs along, returning home to Terra Four that evening presented no problems. The first thing I did when we reached our own world’s version of South Park was get out my cell phone and call Aunt Eileen.
“You’re back,” she said. “News?”
“Michael and Sean are safe and right here.”
She caught a liquid breath that told me she was fighting back tears. “I’ll call Al right away.” She sniffed heavily. “Ah, here’s Sophie. Hang on.”
I heard her speaking, then Sophie’s high-pitched shriek. Aunt Eileen returned to the phone.
“She’s dancing around the kitchen, and honestly, I feel like dancing myself.”
“Call Al before you do, okay?” I had to smile. “Oh, and there’s another call you need to make—to Mom.”
“Yes, I certainly do! She’ll be so relieved. I know she blusters and natters, but she does love all of you children.”
“Well, most of us, anyway. We’re coming straight over, and we’ve got a surprise.”
“Don’t tell me it’s true, then! I dreamed last night that you’d brought Flann home.”
I should have known. “Yeah,” I said. “He’s here, too.”
Aunt Eileen began to cry, big sobs of relief and joy.
“I’ll let you go,” I said. “Ari’s flagged down a cab. We’ll pick up our car and get over there as soon as we can.”
By the time we parked in front of the Houlihan house, the sun hovered low in an orange blaze of incoming fog. Uncle Jim came out on the front porch and stood with his hands on his hips to watch us unload the cramped Saturn. Dad got out first. Michael and Sean pried themselves out of the back seat and stood stretching on the sidewalk.
Jim yelled down the steep flight of brick steps. “Jesus H, Flann! Where the hell have you been?”
“Hell,” Dad called back. “Tell you about it over a drink.”
With a shriek Sophie came bounding down the steps to throw herself into Michael’s arms. Sean stood smiling at them off to one side. I had just gotten out of the car when I saw Mom barge through the front door onto the porch. She was wearing a black jacket over a demure gray dress and swinging her handbag, obviously leaving in one of her usual huffs. On the top step she turned back to snarl at Uncle Jim.
“I am not going to stand here and listen to nonsense,” Mom said. “I can’t believe you thought I’d—”
“Deirdre!” Dad called up. “Open your eyes, will you?”
She stiffened. Her back arched as if she’d felt an electric shock. Slowly, very slowly, she turned and looked at him, merely looked, stared, said nothing, never moved.
“It’s really me,” Dad said. “Here, I’ll just come up.”
He sprang up the stairs two at a time while she continued to stare, never moving, never speaking. When he reached the porch, she raised one hand and laid it alongside his face. At the touch of solid flesh and blood she began to weep. He threw an arm around her shoulders and swept her into the house. For a moment I saw a vision of them as they looked in old photographs, young and beautiful, both of them, besotted with each other, and so much alike that I wondered how I’d ever missed seeing their secret.
Hand in hand, Michael and Sophie walked up the stairs
to disappear inside as well. Ari opened the trunk and tossed Dad’s duffel bag to Sean. Sean carried it up the steps and hurried into the house after Uncle Jim.
“Shall we go home?” Ari said.
“Please. I want a real shower.”
“I’ll take one with you.”
We shared a grin and drove off. I don’t think anyone noticed. As we turned onto Silver Avenue, we passed Al’s car. He honked, I waved, and Ari nearly drove into the oncoming number 44 bus. It took me a minute before I could breathe well enough to talk.