"No," Reyna answered in a tone filled with quiet determination. "You don't know everything, Veil Kendry. Believe me, you need me to protect you from Toby. We're in this together, and I'm not leaving here without you."
"Reyna—"
Reyna suddenly released Veil, turned, cupped her hands to her mouth, and called out in the clicking language of the K'ung. Her lilting voice rose and fell, eerily beautiful as it echoed back and forth inside the steel shell.
"That you, Alexander?!" There was a burst of fire, fifteen yards wide of the mark. "Oh, kid, if you think what I did to you before was something, wait until I get my hands on you this time!"
"What did you say to Toby?" Veil whispered.
"I kind of introduced you, said that you were with me and trying to help him too. I asked him not to harm you and told him that the other man was his enemy and wanted to kill all of us. I asked him to trust us and to try to escape when he had the chance. I told him where we'd parked the car, then asked him to go there and wait for us."
"Do you think he'll do it?"
"No," Reyna answered after a pause. "But I didn't think it would hurt to try."
Suddenly a powerful beam of light cut through the darkness and swept across the fence in front of them. There was a clatter of loose scaffolding, and Veil peered around the edge of the girder to see the light descending a ramp.
Nagle's rumbling voice was stretched taut with madness. "You ain't carrying, Kendry. If you were, you'd have used your piece by now. I'm going to shoot you in half, you fucker, and then I'm going to fuck that girl's brains out— literally. I'm going to kill her with my cock."
Veil put his fingers to his lips to warn Reyna into silence. He motioned for her to lie flat on the ground, then reached down to his boot for his knife. Back against the steel, Veil again peered around the edge of the girder. Nagle was three quarters of the way down the ramp, flashing his light around the ground floor.
Suddenly there was a thud, then a clatter that sounded like wood against steel.
"What the fuck?!"
Veil watched as Nagle rubbed his forehead, then put his hand into the light. There was blood. He cursed again, then shined the light into the darkness above him. Something that looked like a line of night flashed down through the light, and Nagle cried out in pain as he shined the light on the inside of his right bicep, where a featherless arrow hung loosely from the flesh. He pulled out the arrow and flung it away, then fired a burst of gunfire up into the darkness.
"I'm gonna get you, you black bastard!" he shouted as he started back up the scaffolding.
"Now I'm going to take him," Veil said, starting to step out from behind the girder.
"Wait!" Reyna hissed as she grabbed hold of the back of his jacket.
Veil turned and was startled by the expression on Reyna's face. Her eyes gleamed, and her lips were set in a crooked grin that had no laughter in it. She was trembling all over, but Veil did not think it was from fear. "What's the matter?"
"Nagle isn't going to find Toby," Reyna answered through bloodless lips that barely moved. "I don't want you to go up there."
"I can take care of myself, Reyna. You know that. Nagle has to be killed."
"No," Reyna said, the word punctuated by gunfire from above. Bullets ricocheted off the steel girders, whining in the night and shooting off sparks. "If Nagle kills you, then he'll have me—and I can't describe the horrible things he'll do to me. You promised he'd never hurt me."
"He can't hurt you if he's dead, Reyna. The best way for me to protect you is to kill the bastard."
"No. I'm afraid. Toby will get out of here on his own.
He'll go into the next cemetery and go to ground to rest. I want you to take me out of here, Veil."
"Reyna—"
"You promised, Veil. I'm afraid."
He studied Reyna's face for a few moments, then abruptly took her by the hand and led her back the way they had come. He paused at the edge of the building, listening. Nagle had apparently forgotten all about them, for he was now up on the third floor, cursing and flashing his light around.
Veil pushed Reyna through the opening in the fence, then followed her as she walked quickly, body stiff and hands clenched into fists at her sides, to the car. She got into the car, slamming the door shut behind her.
Veil slid in behind the wheel, turned, and studied Reyna. Her face was still clenched into a grim mask that seemed ready to break at any moment, and Veil felt certain she was on the verge of hysterical laughter.
"Reyna?"
"Mmm. I'm all right."
"The safari's going to take a break for a few hours. You say Toby will rest; we need to rest, and I have to make a couple of phone calls. I'm going to check us into a hotel."
"Mmm."
"Reyna, what's the matter?" Veil asked as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb.
"Nothing," Reyna replied curtly.
Veil was approaching the intersection when Carl Nagle suddenly walked through the opening in the fence. Veil floored the accelerator and yanked the wheel hard to the left. The car shot forward, bumped up over the curb, and shot down the sidewalk only inches from the fence. Nagle glanced around. His mouth dropped open and he half fell, half stumbled back through the opening as Veil sped over the spot where he had been standing only a moment before.
"Win some, lose some," Veil said as he braked, bucked down off the curb, and turned left at the corner.
They drove in silence for a few minutes as Veil headed toward the business section of Sunnyside. Reyna sat as rigidly as if she had been skewered with a metal rod.
"God forgive me," the woman said in a voice just above a whisper.
Veil reached over and gently stroked the back of her neck. "What was that business back there all about, Reyna?"
Reyna reached over her shoulder, found Veil's hand, and squeezed it. "I knew you could kill Nagle. I'm beginning to think that Archangel—"
"Don't call me that, Reyna—not ever. Don't even repeat the name, except to your friend. You told me you understood."
Reyna released Veil's hand, slowly leaned forward, and rested her head against the dashboard. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "What I meant to say is that I'm beginning to believe that you can do just about anything."
"I certainly could have killed Nagle. Why did you stop me?
"You really would have killed him, wouldn't you? Even in the dark, with just your knife against that terrible gun."
Veil said nothing.
"Then we would have had Toby trapped inside the building," Reyna continued after a pause. "I could have talked to him and known for sure that he was listening. Then the sun would have risen and we'd have been able to find him. Maybe he would have finally come to us."
"Those thoughts occurred to me," Veil said dryly.
"God forgive me."
"For what, Reyna?"
"You would have killed him."
"Yes."
Now Reyna turned to face Veil. The mask finally broke as tears welled in her eyes and flowed down her cheeks. "May God forgive me, Veil. May you and Toby forgive me if anything happens to the two of you. I didn't want Carl Nagle to die so easily."
Chapter Fourteen
Veil dreams.
He assumed he would be Toby, but he unexpectedly finds himself in the mind, looking through the eyes, of a sixteen-year-old boy. He is wondering if his mother might not be right. What if Toby is the Black Messiah? And what if Toby does take a special interest in him? Usually this thought makes the boy uneasy, but at other times it makes him feel good.
Sometimes, when the boy feels depressed or confused, he tentatively tries speaking to Toby's spirit, asking for the African's help or advice. The boy has often thought about the weeks Toby spent in Central Park and the pain He must have suffered from the bullet wound in His arm.