I watched the screen as he backed away, his face shrinking back into focus. Behind him the naked woman sat on the floor. During the man’s panicky rant she never moved a finger. The hand still remained there limply palm up, like someone waiting for the first drop of rain on a summer’s day.
Meanwhile Phoenix whispered over and over to him-self, “I gotta get out of here. I gotta. I can’t take it any more. Please, man, I can’t take any more… please, please…”
“Phoenix, just open the doors and walk out of there.”
“I can’t, I can’t, she won’t let me.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t you hear me right, Valdiva? She’s screwed’round with my head. I’ve tried… I get up to walk to the keypad. But then…” He clicked his fingers. “I’m sitting back here again. It’s like being trapped in a dream.”
Zak spoke in a cold voice. “Kill her.”
“You don’t think I haven’t tried? Jesus H. Christ, I must have tried a thousand times. But the moment I move toward her I black out and find myself back here in this fucking chair again. Listen to me, she’s inside my head. She works me like I work this damn computer.”
“Why do you think she’s allowing you to speak to us now?”
“I don’t know… I don’t think she- it! -is fully formed. It needs to stay here until it’s ready to leave.”
“So why did she allow you to save us from the hornets? Surely she knows we must be a threat.”
“Sure she knows all about you.” Phoenix gave a grim laugh. “I’d wager she’s hearing and seeing you right now. Either through my ears and eyes or in some way I know shit about… What do you say to that, guys?”
“So why save us from her bodyguard?”
“Valdiva, you still don’t get it, do you, man? Are you deliberately being stupid or what?” Phoenix lurched forward to fill the shot again. His eyes blazed out from the TV screen. “Valdiva, you and she are the same. You are both the product of the hive… Am I getting through? You… are… both… from… the… fucking… hive.”
“That again, Phoenix? You are insane.”
“List the facts, Valdiva. You’ve been in close contact with hornets, so that means you were probably infected months ago. You’re the only person we know of that instinctively knows when a person is infected… your two pals there can back me up on that one, hey, guys?” He steamed on, speaking faster. “When you were on the run from the things you say you fell sick. Only you didn’t remember what happened exactly because you were unconscious for weeks. Now, how can anyone survive in a coma for weeks without expert medical care?”
“My mother and sister took care of me.”
“You bet they did.” Phoenix glared through the TV screen, so close one eye filled it. Red veins crazed the glistening white. “You were hive, Valdiva. And Mom and sis procured men and women and children for you to feed on, just like I did with this one.” He jerked his head back at the girl.
“You’re out of your mind.”
“Am I? Look at the hair, the color of her skin. They’re just the same as yours.” He gave a triumphant snort. “Now that’s what I call a family likeness.”
I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the voice. “Phoenix, it’s not true. I was sick, that’s all.” I glanced at Tony and Zak; they returned my gaze, but there was something uneasy about it.
Phoenix ranted on. “You were just like this thing in here, Valdiva. And when your Mom and sister outlived their usefulness you just wished them dead… and they died… That’s what these monsters can do, Valdiva.” He stopped, but his breathing continued loudly over the speaker. “But I don’t care about that now. I don’t care if you two become the new Adam and Eve and repopulate the world with a master race… because all I want is out.” His voice broke. “I’ve had enough of this stinking, rotten nightmare… I can’t take it anymore. Really, I can’t.”
There was a pause. No one spoke as his breathing echoed in the lounge. I gestured to Zak to pass me the backpack. Pulling back the zipper, I saw two sticks of dynamite taped together with a length of fuse. For a moment I planned blasting through the doors into Phoenix’s communications center. But the doors were too thick. This little bundle of explosive wouldn’t do it.
Phoenix’s voice rasped dryly, “So how you going to help me, Valdiva? Or are we going to sit here and watch each other until doomsday?”
I closed the backpack so he wouldn’t see the dynamite through his spy cameras.
“Phoenix, how are we going to get in there to help you?”
“I told you, I can’t open the doors. She won’t let me.”
“There’s got to be a way in. Ventilation ducts?”
“Too small. Unless you can shrink yourself to the size of a mouse.”
“Any hatches? Emergency exits?”
“None. If this burns I’d fry.”
He sounded weary now. On screen I saw him shoot anxious looks at the naked girl. “You have to hurry, Valdiva. I think she’s waking up.”
“You’ve got to give me some help here, Phoenix. Think, old buddy; is there any other access to that room?”
“None at all. No… wait… there’s one of those little elevators… what d’ya call them? Dumbwaiters; that’s it. There’s a dumbwaiter over there in the wall.”
“What’s it for?”
“What do you think? People working down here’d still have to eat even during a nuclear war. If they were too busy to leave, someone would send them down food to eat while they watched the US of A flame out on the screens.”
“Where does the dumbwaiter come down from?”
“The kitchen. Right next to the room you’re in… but wait.. . you don’t think you’re somehow gonna sneak down in that and come out guns blazing. The thing’s that big.” He held out his hands about a foot wide. “Like I said, it’s big enough for a plate of hot dogs, not for a platoon of marines…” He laughed. An edge of hysteria cranked it higher. “But while we’re talking about it, maybe you could send me down a steak and fries. I haven’t eaten in days.” He laughed again. “Fucking days. Man, I can feel my ribs through my shirt.”
Calmly, I said, “OK, Phoenix. Listen carefully. I’m going to send something down to you. Something nice.”
He shot me a look. “What do you mean?”
“I’m going to help you.”
“Forget about sending a gun down in the elevator. She’ll know, guys. She’ll see it in my eyes. And you can bet your life she won’t let me use it on her.
“Phoenix, trust me. I’m sending something down that’s going to solve all your problems.”
I watched him on the screen. You could see the wheels turn inside his head as he thought about it. Suddenly he looked up at the camera, his face filling the screen. That was the moment when I realized he understood what I’d been driving at.
“OK, Valdiva. Send down that steak. I like them bloody, so make it a rare one. Plenty of fries. Potato salad. And don’t be niggardly with that mayonnaise- you hear?”
“I hear, Phoenix.”
“I’m waiting, Valdiva.”
“You just keep that mental image of a huge juicy steak. Think about golden fries. Onion rings. Do ya like apple pie?”
“Good God, yes. Send me a whole apple pie.”
“Keep that image in your mind, Phoenix.”
Picking up the backpack, I went quickly into the ad-joining kitchen. Phoenix hadn’t been house proud. Wrappers, cans, cartons covered the table, along with around a hundred spent syringes. Boy, the guy knew how to party.
Set in the wall was a small steel door. Beside it were two illuminated buttons. One was marked UP, the other DOWN. I pressed the UP button. Far away, I heard a click, then a faint humming.
I pulled a plastic tray from the crud on the table, then set a plate on it. A buzzer sounded behind me. I gripped the handle on the door and pulled it down. It slid open to reveal a small steel box little bigger than the interior of a microwave oven.
Phoenix’s voice came over the speaker. “How ya doing, Greg? Don’t burn that steak.”
“I won’t. I’m cooking the fries now.”
Zak came to the doorway and looked in. He gave an expressive gesture as if to ask what the hell I was doing. I put my fingers to my lips for him to stay quiet. Quickly I pulled the last two sticks of dynamite from the bag. Then he understood. He helped me unravel the fuse.