The Bone Triangle (21 page)

As they investigated the scene, the cops avoided my eyes. When I was certain the survivor I’d dragged out of the car was safely in the ambulance, I walked away and disappeared. No one called me back. No one demanded a statement. I suspected they didn’t really want to hear anything from an eyewitness. They wanted to pretend it was a freak car accident, nothing more. They all knew better, but perhaps it was easier on their sanity to maintain the fiction.

I left because I felt sure McKesson would show up eventually, and I wasn’t in the right mood to meet him. At least not with the cops watching.

After finally seeing what I was up against, I thought it was time to go talk to Rostok again. I had to convince him to help me get rid of this alien invader. I needed some major firepower or at least a powerful object that could harm something like this.

I realized as I walked to the Lucky Seven that I had no idea if there was only one Beast involved. What if there was an entire planet full of them? The idea was more than unsettling—it was terrifying. I’d faced invaders before, beings we called the Gray Men. They were technologically advanced, but not much better at crossing between worlds than we were. We’d defeated them by destroying the machine they used to travel to our world.

The Beast was an order of magnitude more serious. It had come out only a few blocks from the heart of Las Vegas and eaten a carload of people. Sure, there were millions more where that came from, but I didn’t want these aliens
looking at us as some kind of easy prey. I had the feeling that right now, Earth had been categorized as a smorgasbord.

At the Lucky Seven, they didn’t give me any crap about my shoes at the door this time. Maybe they’d gotten some kind of report from the front lines. I went straight to the back and took an elevator up. Instead of a showgirl dressed in feathers and sequins, two security guards accompanied me. They kept their arms crossed and their expressions grim. When we reached the penthouse lobby, they frisked me. They seemed surprised I was unarmed.

“Lost something, Draith?” the balder of the two asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “My sense of humor.”

I walked between them and didn’t bother tapping at the door. I put my sunglasses on and rattled it until it opened. I entered and reached for the light switch automatically. There wasn’t one, but if there had been, I would have flipped it on. I wasn’t in the mood tonight for sitting in the dark, listening to Rostok’s bullshit.

“What’s the emergency?” Rostok said from the darkest corner of the room.

“I’ve been taking a lot of abuse and witnessing a lot of bloodshed,” I said. “And I’ve seen the enemy up close and personal now.”

Rostok’s manner changed. He ushered me to a chair, fed me excellent alcohol, and listened to every detail I had for him. I left out any mention of Jacqueline and her power of invisibility, but was forthcoming with the rest. He asked detailed questions concerning the monster in the Triangle.

“More bones appear every night,” he rumbled thoughtfully when I’d finished. “They now have renamed the neighborhood. They call it the Bone Triangle. And what’s more alarming, the affected region appears to be growing. The reach of the monster is greater with each passing day.”

I thought of the tentacles worming their way up into every neighborhood in town, seeking a nightly meal. I grimaced.

“Several skeletons will be discovered at daybreak,” Rostok continued. “You were lucky to escape.”

“Luck had little to do with it. I would have escaped easily if I hadn’t tried to rescue the guy in the car.”

“Yes, an unusual example of altruism from a rogue.”

I paused to sip my drink, rather than answering his insult. In my opinion, the Community was full of far more selfish individuals. The rogues were, for the most part, more generous. I could think of only one major exception.

“What are you going to do about McKesson?” I asked.

“
Do?
Why, nothing. He sent you to the hot worlds, as you requested.”

“He stranded me there and almost killed me. And he disobeyed your wishes.”

“Yes, I suppose. But then, you have done the same on multiple occasions.”

I stewed. “Why do you keep it so dark in here, Rostok?”

In all the time I’d known him, I’d never asked that question. It was an obvious one, but it was equally obvious he didn’t want to tell me, as he’d never brought up the subject.

I heard him moving around the room, rustling as he crossed the carpet. He’d always sounded like a big man, but I’d never actually seen him distinctly.

“You took a long time to ask. Most do so immediately.”

“I didn’t want to be rude.”

He chuckled. “That may be a first for you. But I will explain, because you have been so very patient. And I will tell you the truth, because you have asked out of honest curiosity. I sit here atop this building in the darkness so that—so that I can
see
.”

I frowned. “Are you blind?”

“Far from it. I can see as no other man I’ve yet met.”

I thought about that, wondering if he was trying to be deliberately vague. I considered a gruff response, telling him I was tired of his riddles. But I held back. There was something in his tone that indicated he honestly believed he’d opened up to me. In his mind, he’d let me know something private about him.

I took another sip, letting the alcohol burn my tongue before swallowing. What was it Ezzie had said? That Rostok could see the future? Perhaps that was what he meant, that in order to predict events, he must sit in darkness.

I decided to take an indirect approach in an attempt to learn more. “I understand,” I lied. “I did not realize that your power to see possibilities was related to your actual eyesight.”

Rostok laughed. “Very good! You probe and fish like that thing reaching up from the drain. Well played, but you will get no more details on this subject tonight.”

I shrugged. “It was worth a try. If you want me to find Ezzie, you will have to help me. I now suspect she went to her own world.”

“How so?”

“There are two hot worlds that McKesson identified. The world with the blazing sun and dunes of white crystal, and the lava world. I think she’s made it home to the latter.”

“No. I have checked. I have…access to that world. That is how Ezzie came into my possession.”

“Where did she go, then?”

“I don’t know where she is, but I know where she is likely to go. I’ve seen it.”

I thought about that. I figured he was foretelling the future again. “Tell me where she will be, then.”

“She is likely to go to a
third
world of warmth. It isn’t like the other two. They are hot and dry. This one is not a desert—it is a swamp.”

“And how can I get to this world?”

“You’ve already seen the route. You’ve glimpsed this new place. It lies beyond the rips that appear in the Triangle. The only other hot place I know of is the one in which the Beast lurks.”

“If she goes there, how can she live?”

“She is not made of the same materials as you are. In many ways, the Beast is closer in nature to your kind than Ezzie. The Beast would find her indigestible.”

I exhaled slowly, as I felt I knew where this discussion was going next. “I guess you want me to go into some hellish world full of gargantuan monsters and bring Ezzie back for you. Right?”

“You would attempt such a thing? For mere money? I’m surprised at your avarice. I had not thought you valued your existence so little that you would price it in terms of coins.”

It was my turn to laugh. “It’s going to take quite a few coins, and more. It’s going to take firepower, too. I need objects that can kill.”

Rostok paced quietly for a time. I’d always wondered at his thoughtfulness, and I believed I now understood it. He’d always paused and considered at length during our conversations. Could it be he was riffling through my possible futures even now? Was he considering whether or not to help me after calculating the odds I would succeed? It was an unsettling thought. I could understand how a man with such a power had come to own a casino he’d once worked for. Games of chance would never be fair if he was allowed to play.

“I must ask you something,” he said at length. “What is your motivation? I know you like Ezzie, but you cannot love
her as I do. Why would you take such a risk? It cannot be to save your house from the tax men. If you took up wandering the streets again, you would lead almost the same life as you do now.”

I had to think about that one. It was a worthwhile question.

“It’s the Beast,” I said. “It doesn’t belong here. I’ve seen it kill several times. Often enough to know it won’t stop. It would gladly kill us all. Las Vegas is a pond full of slow-moving, fat fish to this being. It feels it can dip in and snatch us up, feeding upon our bodies at will. This makes me angry. I guess—I guess I want to kill it. To drive it back. To defend my hometown.”

It wasn’t just bullshit. Rostok’s question had made me think about my motivations directly, and I’d realized it was personal now.

“Ah! Of course! The protective instincts of the male. I had almost forgotten about such motivations. All is clear now, thank you.”

He went to a wall on the far side of the room. There, he rummaged. I heard a click, then another one. I thought that he was opening unseen cabinets and withdrawing objects. At length, he returned to me and handed me something. It was round, soft, and cold to the touch.

“What’s this?” I said, faintly disgusted by the feel of it. Whatever it was, it felt slimy. It filled my palm with a dead, fleshy weight.

“That is the liver,” he said, as if this explained everything.

“What?” I demanded, almost dropping the mess in my palm onto his carpet.

“Have you not heard of it? I had believed Gilling or McKesson would have whispered about its properties by now. The liver is a weapon. It can poison anything it touches.”

“Um,” I said with my lips curling, “then why am I holding it?”

“When I gave it to you, I did not wish your death, so the artifact remained harmless.”

“Okay, this is what you have for me? I’d rather work with the little yellow alarm clock. I’d rather summon a new lava monster to do battle on my behalf.”

“The creature you face is too great for that, too powerful. It can’t be bested by a something as small as a lava-slug. To burn one part of the body at a time—the task would be futile.”

I sat there holding a piece of liver in the dark. There were so many things about this situation that made me unhappy, I almost didn’t know what to say.

“How do I use it?” I asked finally.

“You must press it against the victim. Venom will be injected through any flesh. That is the only way, I think.”

“Why not a flamethrower?”

“You could not kill a creature so massive with such a device. With normal weaponry—I don’t know. It would require something like those atomic bombs the locals were enamored with.”

“Poison is better than flame?”

“Is poison so strange a choice? You are a tiny being in relation to the Beast. Think about the smallest of deadly creatures. What do they always use as their weapon? Venom, of course. Poisons are great equalizers. A spider can bring down an enemy a thousand times its weight.”

I remained unconvinced, and the object itself was disgusting. It wasn’t warming up in my hand, either. It stayed cool. I suspected it maintained the temperature it had been when it was transformed into an object. If I held it long enough, it might numb my hand by leeching away all the warmth of my blood.

“Will it go through a thick hide? Or clothing?”

“Yes, but not metal or wood.”

“What kind of creature is this organ from?”

“None know for certain. It is like your alien finger. It remains immutable all these long years later. We can’t take a sample and test the DNA, because a needle would not penetrate the flesh. I would never allow a scientist to touch it in any case.”

I was startled to hear he knew of the alien finger that formed a talisman around my neck. I thought for a few seconds about asking exactly how Rostok knew about my talisman. I opened my mouth but reconsidered. I decided not to say anything about the finger. After all, he might not know what my talisman
did
. I had a hint from him that suggested this: he’d indicated the poison hadn’t affected me because he hadn’t willed it to do so. If he knew my object protected me against attacks by other objects, then he would not have suggested I could be poisoned by it. I surmised that he knew of my talisman—but not necessarily what its function was. I decided to keep it that way.

“So…it could be a
human
liver?” I said, disgusted.

“Unlikely. There is too little mass. I expect it came from a hare, or a perhaps a coyote. Really, it does not matter.”

How in the hell had a hare’s liver become an object?
I thought, but I decided not to ask about that.

“Just one more thing,” I said. “Could you give me something to carry this in?”