But the most terrifying hole was in the last twenty-four hours, there was a tiny gap of what he had done between Animal dying and calling Max.
He had lost a mouse.
Or the cult had stolen it.
Neither was good.
He found excuses to roam the house: going to the bathroom, getting something to drink, raiding the refrigerator, stretching his legs by pacing the large living room. On these forays he couldn't sense any of his mice, but a small collection of cells had a limited range to their telepathy. Whereas he could spot Atticus anywhere on the island and the combined Dog Warriors from miles away, he would almost need to stand on a single mouse to sense it.
In desperation, he insisted that he knewthat Schrцdinger needed to be outside to go to the bathroom, claiming inside angel knowledge, and that he could use some fresh air. The cult reluctantly agreed, but tripled his guard, kept him within fifty feet of the house, and sent Mouse along as an escort. The night was cold and clear. To the west, the moon gleamed on the ocean like a massive field of silver flowers. He was thankful the kitten did its part to uphold his ruse and buried its waste in the loose sand. Ukiah circled the house, using up his hoarded gum, picking up occasional bright pebbles to examine. The cult had drawn heavy black curtains on the expansive windows, keeping in the light so no passing boats would realize people were living on the island.
"It's really not safe out here in the dark." Mouse shivered in the freezing wind. "We've got land mines everywhere."
Ukiah slipped his most recent find—a thumb-sized disk of matte black stone—into his jeans pocket, picked up Schrцdinger, and went back in, none the wiser on the location of his mouse.
As they walked into the house, the phone rang.
Mouse froze, a look of utter terror on his face as he stared at the phone. It rang again, the noise jarring in the sudden stillness of the house.
Ice came running down the stairs and paused at the bottom of the steps. "Was that the phone?"
The phone rang in answer.
"We're all here," Mouse whispered.
Ice approached the phone with caution and snatched it up as if it were a poisonous snake, barely holding it to his ear. "Hello?"
Ukiah's keen ears caught the voice on the other end.
"Ice? Is that you? It's Parity."
"Parity?" Ice gasped as if punched.
"Parity. Only Parity—no one else. None of them. But listen—they know where you are! They're coming to get you. They're pissed as hell and they plan to make you all one of them."
"H-h-how?"
"It was so hard to think straight at first. I had to tell them something so I gave them some old addresses—places I knew you wouldn't be. I told them about the boat slip. When we found the wolf boy there, I managed to slip away long enough to clear out my head."
"How do they know about the island?" Ice growled.
"Ping—Ping told them. They've got her at Totten Pond. I haven't been able to get to her. She said something about the wiretapping. They traced the tap back to the satellite provider and you're the only connection within miles of that GPS position."
Ice glanced upward as if to see the satellite overhead, pinpointing them.
"You've got to move before they get there. They'll be there in force—like a hundred of them. You've got to get out! I'll get hold of you later, somehow. I've got to go."
The phone clicked to silence but Ice stood there with the phone to his ear for another minute, pale and stunned. Finally he hung up, whispering hoarsely, "They know where we are. Start an evacuation."
The cultists remained still, reflecting his shock.
"Where are we going to go?" Ether finally asked.
"I'll think of something," Ice said. "Go on. Grab only the bare necessities and get them down to the boats."
"We just believe him?" Link said.
"We don't have a choice." Ice sighed heavily.
Link started to protest, "But he didn't sound like one of—"
"Move!" Ice shouted, and flung the phone at Link.
The cult scattered like a flock of frightened birds.
Ice focused on Ukiah. "Is it possible? Could he be one of them—and yet not be?"
Prime had been a mutation—a sole individual—but they didn't know why. What had caused Prime to be different? If Parity had been exposed to Kittanning, the Ontongard, and Invisible Red, maybe he had built up a resistance.
"Yes or no?" Ice hissed.
Ukiah replayed the conversation with Parity, listening to the words and the tone of voice. There had been a slight drag, but it wasn't Hex's emotionally dead intonation. There had been fear, sorrow, and true concern—things a Get seemed incapable of understanding despite its human form, its original personality drowned under Hex's alien mind. "Yes. He might be something new."
"Do you know what they're building yet?"
"No."
Ice gave a weary sigh. "We're running out of time, angel."
***
An hour later, Ice declared that ready or not, they needed to leave. "Meta, get the angel down to the boat."
The tall, burly cultist caught Uriah's elbow and guided him toward the door. Ukiah snatched up Schrцdinger, determined that the kitten wouldn't be left to the mercy of the Ontongard.
Outside, Ice pulled Mouse aside, saying, "Link, we're all out of the house. Set the defenses and come down to the boats."
"Keep to the path." Meta urged Ukiah down the hill to the boathouse. "It would be inconvenient if you got blown to pieces now."
Ukiah wasn't sure if Meta was teasing him or not, but kept to the graveled path. Ice and Mouse trailed behind, arms over each other's shoulders, heads close together, deep in whispered conversation.
There seemed to be some kind of preplanned system, as the twenty cultists split themselves in orderly fashion between the two boats. Ukiah found himself firmly escorted to a boat called the Ashpool.
Ice and Mouse stood on the dock, the younger man crying openly.
"We're going ahead with the Cleansing," Ice said. "Take the angel and go south."
"South?"
"As far south as your diesel will get you."
Link came dashing down the path. "Everything's set," he said, and scrambled on board the Nautilus.The engine revved up and the boat started to pull away from the dock.
Ice hugged Mouse fiercely, kissing him on the forehead. "Go on. Live for us."
Ice jumped onto the Nautilusand the boat leapt forward away in a spray of water.
Ukiah was on the wrong boat to stop Ice.
***
They went south as fast as the Ashpoolwould take them, the cultists silent as the big engines roared. The Nautiluswas nowhere in sight, and the island quickly vanished behind them. Ukiah huddled in the corner of the stern's sitting area, with Meta in the opposite corner, keeping close watch on him.
He'd screwed up. He should have done something, anything, although even now he wasn't sure what.
He considered his options. There was the radio, but he still didn't know where he was, where Ice was heading, nor where the Ae were, except they hadn't been loaded onto the boats. His chances of overpowering all ten cultists to steer the boat to land, which presumably lay off to the west, were laughable.