“That is right. Translate the one with two invocations,” the Djinn said.
“Hurry,” Robert said, “Travis has half a page. Gus, I’m going to ride up the hill in the bed of the truck when you go. I’ll jump out and grab the bag with the candlesticks. They’re still a good thirty yards from the road and I can move faster than you can.”
“I’m finished,” Howard said. He handed his notebook to Brine.
“Record it at normal speed,” Robert said. “Then play it back at high speed.”
Brine held the recorder up to his face, his finger on the record button. “Gian Hen Gian, is this going to work? I mean is a voice on a tape going to have the same effect as speaking the words?”
“It would be best to assume that it will.”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“How would I know?”
“Swell,” Brine said. He pushed the record button and read Howard’s translation into the recorder. When he finished, he rewound the tape and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
“Police! Don’t anyone move!”
They turned to see Rivera standing in the road behind them, his.38 in hand, panning back and forth to cover them. “Everybody down on the ground, facedown.”
They stood frozen in position.
“On the ground, now!” Rivera cocked his revolver.
“Officer, there must be a mistake,” Brine said, feeling stupid as he said it.
“Down!”
Reluctantly, Brine, Robert, and Howard lay facedown on the ground. Gian Hen Gian remained standing, cursing in Arabic. Rivera’s eyes widened as blue swirls appeared in the air over the Djinn’s head.
“Stop that,” Rivera said.
The Djinn ignored him and continued cursing.
“On your belly, you little fucker.”
Robert pushed himself up on his arms and looked around. “What’s this about, Rivera? We were just out here taking some pictures.”
“Yeah, and that’s why you have a high-powered rifle in your car.”
“That’s nothing,” Robert said.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s more than nothing. And none of you are going anywhere until I get some answers.”
“You’re making a mistake, Officer,” Brine said. “If we don’t continue with what we were doing, people are going to die.”
“First, it’s Sergeant. Second, I’m getting to be a master at making mistakes, so one more is no big deal. And third, the only person who is going to die is this little Arab if he doesn’t get his ass on the ground.”
What was taking them so long? Travis had dragged the translation out as long as he could, stalling on a word here and there, but he could tell that Catch was getting impatient and to delay any long would endanger Jenny.
He tore two sheets from the steno pad and handed them to Rachel. “It’s finished, now you can untie them.” He gestured to Jenny and the Elliotts.
“No,” Catch said. “First we see if it works.”
“Please, Rachel, you have what you want. There’s no reason to keep these people here.”
Rachel took the pages. “I’ll make it up to them once I have the power. It won’t hurt to keep them here a few more minutes.”
Travis fought the urge to look back toward the woods. Instead he cradled his head in his hands and sighed deeply as Rachel began to read the invocation aloud.
Augustus Brine finally convinced Gian Hen Gian to lie down on the ground. It was obvious that Rivera would not listen to anyone until the Djinn relented.
“Now, Masterson, where in the hell did you get that metal suitcase?”
“I told you, I stole it out of the Chevy.”
“Who owns the Chevy?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“You can tell me or you can go up on murder charges.”
“Murder? Who was murdered?”
“About a thousand people, it looks like. Where is the owner of that suitcase? Is it one of these guys?”
“Rivera, I will tell you everything I know about everything in about fifteen minutes, but now you’ve got to let us finish what we started.”
“And what was that?”
Brine spoke up, “Sergeant, my name is Augustus Brine. I’m a businessman here in town. I have done nothing wrong, so I have no reason to lie to you.”
“So?” Rivera said.
“So, you are right. There is a killer. We are here to stop him. If we don’t act right now, he will get away, so please, please, let us go.”
“I’m not buying it, Mr. Brine. Where is this killer and why didn’t you call the police about him? Take it nice and slow, and don’t leave anything out.”
“We don’t have time,” Brine insisted.
Just then they heard a loud thump and the sound of a body slumping to the ground. Brine turned around to see Mavis Sand standing over the collapsed detective, her baseball bat in hand.
“Hi, cutie,” she said to Brine.
They all jumped to their feet.
“Mavis, what are you doing here?”
“He threatened to close me down if I didn’t tell him where you went. After he left, I got to feeling like a shit about telling him, so here I am.”
“Thanks, Mavis,” Brine said. “Let’s go. Howard, you stay here. Robert, in the bed of the truck. Whenever you’re ready, King,” he said to the Djinn.
Brine jumped into the truck, fired it up, and engaged the four-wheel drive.
Rachel read the last line of the invocation with a grandiose flourish of her arm. “In the name of Solomon the King, I command thee to appear!”
Rachel said, “Nothing happened.”
Catch said, “Nothing happened, Travis.”
Travis said, “Give it a minute.” He had almost given up hope. Something had gone horribly wrong. Now he was faced with either telling them about the candlesticks or keeping his bond with the demon. Either way, the hostages were doomed.
“Fine, Travis,” Catch said. “The old man is the first to go.”
Catch wrapped one hand around Effrom’s neck. As Travis and Rachel watched, the demon grew into his eating form and lifted Effrom off the ground.
“Oh my God!” Rachel put her fist to her mouth and started backing away from the demon. “Oh no!”
Travis tried to focus his will on the demon. “Put him down, Catch,” he commanded.
From somewhere down the hill came the sound of a truck starting.
Gian Hen Gian stepped out of the woods. “Catch,” he shouted, “will you never give up your toys?” The Djinn started up the hill.
Catch threw Effrom to the side. He landed like a rag doll, ten yards away. Rachel was shaking her head violently, as if trying to shake away the demon’s image. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“So someone let the little fart out of his jar,” Catch said. He stalked down the hill toward the Djinn.
An engine roared and Augustus Brine’s pickup broke out of the tree line and bounced up the dirt road, throwing up a cloud of dust in its wake. Robert stood in the bed, holding onto the roll bar for support.
Travis darted past Catch to Amanda and Jenny.
“Still a coward, King of the Djinn?” Catch said, pausing a second to look at the speeding truck.
“I am still your superior,” the Djinn said.
“Is that why you surrendered your people to the netherworld without a fight?”
“This time you lose, Catch.”
Catch spun to watch the truck slide around the last turn and off the road to bound across the open grass toward the candlesticks.
“Later, Djinn,” Catch said. He began to run toward the truck. Taking five yards at a stride the demon was over the hill and past Travis and the women in seconds.
Augustus Brine saw the demon coming at them. “Hold on, Robert.” He wrenched the wheel to the side to throw the truck into a slide.