The manager, meanwhile, was stumbling back the way he'd come, his throat loosing a series of panicked animal noises. Instantly, the cloud of phantoms rose up, excited by his terror, and moved to intercept him. He was swept off his feet and pitched ten yards or more, coming to rest a little way from his office door.
"Tommy-Ray?" Tesia yelled back into the thicket. "Stop them!" Getting no response, she strode towards the bushes, haranguing the Death-Boy.
"Call them off, damn you! Hear me?"
Behind her, the manager had started to shriek. She looked back in time to glimpse the man in the midst of the swarming cloud, sinking to the ground. He went on shrieking for a little longer, while they tore at his head. It was twisted left-, then right, then left again with such violence his neck ripped. The shriek stopped. The head came off.
"Don't look," the man in the thicket said.
She turned back and stared into the mesh of twigs, trying to see him better. The last time she'd laid eyes on Tommy-Ray McGuire, back in Kissoon's Loop, he'd been a shadow of his former glory, wasted and crazed. But it seemed the years had been kinder to him than anybody else in this drama. Whatever duties he'd performed for Kissoon, and whatever he'd witnessed (or perpetrated) along the way, his blond beauty had been preserved. He smiled at her out of his grove of lanterns, and it was a dazzling smile.
"Where is she, Tesla?" he said.
"Before you get to Jo-Beth-"
"Yes?"
"I just wanted to talk a moment. Compare notes."
"About what?"
"About being Nunciates."
"Is that what we are?" "It's as good or bad as any."
"Nunciates He turned the word on his tongue. "That's cool."
"Being one seems to suit you."
"Oh yeah, I feel fine. You don't look so good yourself You need to get some slaves, like me, 'stead of wandering around on your own." His tone was completely conversational. "You know a couple of times, I almost came to find YOU."
"Why would you do that?"
He shrugged. "I guess I felt close to you. Both of us having the Nuncio. Both of us knowing Kissoon-"
"What's he doing here, Tommy-Ray? What does he want with Everville?" Tommy-Ray took a step towards her. She had to fight the instinct to retreat before him. Any sign of weakness, she knew, and her status as fellow Nunciate would be forfeited. As he approached, he answered the question. "He lived there once," Tommy-Ray said.
"In Everville?" He was almost free of the thicket now. There were' blood stains on his jeans and T-shirt, and on his face and arms a gloss of sweat. "Where is she?" he said.
"We were talking about Kissoon."
"Not any more we're not. Where is she?"
"Just give her a little time," Tesla replied, glaring back towards the room as though she expected Jo-Beth to emerge at any moment. "She wanted to look her best." "She was excited?" "Oh yes."
"Why don't you go fetch her?" "She won't be-"
"Fetch her!" There was a mun-nur from the ghosts, who were still attending upon the headless body. "Sure," Tesla said. "No problem."
She turned back towards the motel and started across the lot, taking her time. She was about five yards from the door when Jo-Beth stepped into view, with Amy cradled in her arms.
"I'm sorry," she said to Tesla under her breath. "We belong to him. It's as simple as that."
From the lot behind her, Tesia heard the Death-Boy sigh at the sight of his sister.
"Oh baby," he said. "You look so fine. Come here."
Jo-Beth stepped over the threshold. Tesia made no attempt to stop her. She'd only lose her head for her troubles. Besides, by the look on Jo-Beth's face it was plain she was happy to be going into her brother's embrace. The wind, whether natural or no, had died away completely. Night birds had started to sing, and crickets to chirp in the grass, as though conspiring to celebrate this reunion.
As she watched Tominy-Ray open his arms to welcome his sister, Tesla caught sight of a pale form out of the corner of her eye, and looked round to see Buddenbaum's little girlfriend, the avatar, still dressed in white from bow to shoes, staring down at the manager's corpse. She didn't peruse it for long, but wandered in Tesia's direction, leaving her two companions@e clown and the idiot-to study it in her stead. The latter had found the dead man's head, and had it tucked up under his arm, The girl in white, meanwhile, was now close enough to Tesla to munnur,
"Thank you for this."
Tesia looked down at her with a mixture of confusion and disgust. "This isn't a game," she said.
"We know."
"People have died."
The girl grinned. "And there'll be more, won't there?" she said lightly. "Lots more."
As though her words had pressed the drama into a higher gear, the sound of a badly tuned engine reached Tesla's ears and Grillo's Mustang appeared on the dirt road leading into the lot.
Before it had even come to a halt the passenger door was flung open and Howie was out, gun in hand, screaming at Tommy-Ray, "Get awayfrom her!" The Death-Boy unglued his eyes from his sister and lazily stared in Howie's direction. "No!" he,,,aid.
Without further warning, Howie fired. His aim was pitifully poor. The bullet struck the ground closer to Jo-Beth than Tommy-Ray. Amy, who had been hushed so far, started to bawl.
A flicker of concern crossed the Death-Boy's sweaty face. "Don't shoot," he yelled to Howie, "you'll hurt the kid!"
At Tesla's side the girl in white murmured a long oh, as though she had new comprehension of what was happening here, and like two members of an audience, one prompted by the other into recognition of some wit or iron
, Tesla saw a connection here she had not vaguely suspected. A breath of something like to pleasure caressed her nape, seeing this bud on the story tree, ready to burst.
"What next?" the little girl said.
A little part of Tesla simply wanted to stand back and see. But she couldn't. Never had; never would.
"Howie... " she said, "come away@'
"N-n-no-not without m-m-my wife," Howie said.
"You did good," Tommy-Ray said, "watching over 'em for me, but you're out of the picture now. They're coming with me."
Howie dropped his gun in the dirt, and raised his hands. "Look at m-m-me, Jo-Beth," he said. "I'm n-n-not going to m-m-make you do anything you d-d-don't want to-but baby, it's me-it's H-H-Howie-"
Jo-Beth said nothing. She simply looked down at the baby, as if deaf to Howie's appeals. He tried again, or began to, but he'd got no further than her name when Grillo put his foot down and drove directly towards Jo-Beth. Howie flung himself aside, going down hard, as the car skewed around, kicking up a fan of dirt. The Death-Boy let out a yell to his legion, but before they could come to order Grillo had brought the car to a halt and hauled Jo-Beth and Amy into the vehicle. Tommy-Ray made a move towards it, arms outstretched, and might have somehow checked Gfillo's escape had Howie not risen from the dirt and flung himself at the Death-Boy. His fingers went to Tommy-Ray's perfect face, and gouged at his eyes.
Grillo, meanwhile, was backing the vehicle up, yelling to Tesla, "Get in! Get in!"
She waved him on. "Go!" she hollered. "Quickly!"
She caught a glimpse of his face through the insect-spattered windshield: There was exhilaration in his eyes. He offered her a tight, grim smile, then he swung the car round and drove off. Howie, meanwhile, had done some superficial damage to Tommy-Ray, gouging several furrows down the side of his face and neck. There was no blood. There was instead a brightness beneath the flesh, like the phosphorescence with which he'd lit his lanterns. And it was to the thicket where those lanterns hung that Tommy-Ray now headed, casually pushing Howie to the ground as he did so.