“You didn’t know what it was?” Jack said as the crowd dispersed.
Oz continued to stare at the rakosh. “Not until this moment. I thought they were a myth.”
“How did you find it?” Jack said. The answer was important-until this afternoon he’d been sure he’d killed Scar-lip.
“The result of a telephone call. Someone phoned me last summer-woke me in the middle of the night-and told me that if I searched the waters off Governors Island I might find ‘a fascinating new attraction.’“
Last summer...the last time he’d seen Scar-lip and the rest of his species. “Who called you? Was it a woman?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering.”
Besides Gia, Vicky, Abe, and himself, the only other living person who knew about the rakoshi had been Kolabati.
“Something in the caller’s voice, his utter conviction, compelled me to do as he said. Came the dawn I was on the water with some of my people. We found ourselves vying with groups of souvenir-hunters looking for wreckage from a ship that had exploded and burned the night before. We discovered our friend here floating in a clump of debris. I assumed the creature was dead, but when I found it was alive, I had it brought ashore. It looked rather vicious so I put it into an old tiger cage.”
“Lucky for you.”
The boss smiled, showing yellow teeth. “I should say so. It almost tore the cage apart. But since then its health has followed a steady downhill course. We’ve offered it fish, fowl, beef, horse meat, even vegetables-although one look at those teeth and there’s no question that it’s a carnivore-but no matter what we’ve tried, its health continues to fail.”
Jack now had an idea why Scar-lip was dying. Rakoshi required a very specific species of flesh to thrive. And this one wasn’t getting it.
“I brought in a veterinary expert,” Oz went on, “one I have learned to rely on for his discretion, but he could not alter the creature’s downhill course.”
“Well...” Jack said, trying to sound tentative. “I saw a picture of one in a book once. I.. .1 think it looked like this. But I’m not sure. I could be wrong.”
“But you’re not wrong,” the boss said, turning and staring into his eyes. He lowered his gaze to Jack’s chest, fixing on the area where the rakosh had scarred him. “And I believe you have far more intimate knowledge of this creature than you are willing to admit.”
Jack shrugged, uncomfortable with the scrutiny, especially since it wasn’t the first time someone had stared at his chest this way.
“But it doesn’t matter!” Oz laughed and spread his arms. “A rakosh! How wonderful! And it’s all mine!”
Jack glanced at Scar-lip’s slouched, wasted form. Yeah, but not for long.
He heard a noise like a growl and turned. The sight of one of the burly roustabouts standing in the exit flap startled him. He looked like he was waving good bye to his boss.
“Excuse me,” Oz said and hurried toward the exit, his silk robe fluttering around him.
Jack turned to find Scar-lip staring at him with its cold yellow eyes. Still want to finish me off, don’t you. It’s mutual, pal.
But it looks like I’m going to outlast you by a few years. A few decades.
The longer he remained with the wasted creature, the more convinced he was that Scar-lip was on its last legs. He didn’t have to light him up. The creature was a goner,
Jack kept tabs on Oz out of the corner of his eye. After half a minute of hushed, one-sided conversation-all the employee did was nod every so often-the boss man returned.
“Sorry. I had to revise instructions on an important errand. But I do want to thank you. You have provided a bright moment in a very disappointing stop.” His gaze drifted. “Usually we do extremely well in Monroe, but this trip...it seems a house disappeared last month-vanished, foundation and all, amid strange flashing lights one night. The locals are still spooked.”
“How about that,” Jack said, turning away. “I think I’ll be going.”
“But you must allow me to reward you for succoring the poor creature, and for identifying it. Free passes, perhaps.”
“Not necessary,” Jack said and headed for the exit.
“By the way,” Oz said. “How can I get in touch with you if I wish?”
Jack called back over his shoulder. “You can’t.”
A final glance at Scar-lip showed the rakosh still staring at him, then he parted the canvas flaps and emerged into the fresh air again.
A strange mix of emotions swirled around him as he returned to the car. Glad to know Scar-lip would be taking a dirt nap soon, but the very fact that it still lived, even if it was too weak to be a threat to Vicky, bothered him. He’d prefer it dead. He’d keep a close watch on this show, check back every night or two until he knew without a doubt that Scar-lip had breathed its last.
Something else bothered him. Couldn’t put his finger on it, but he had this vaguely uncomfortable feeling that he never should have come back here.
3
The following night Jack drove out to Monroe for another look at Scar-lip.
The rain started as soon as he stepped out of the car. It came in tropical style. One minute simply threatening, the next Jack was treading through a waterfall. He arrived at the gate soaked and mud splattered and in a foul mood. At least the main tent was still up, although the front flap was down and no one was selling tickets. Place looked pretty much deserted.
Jack slipped through the flap. The stale air trapped under the leaking canvas was redolent of wet hay and strange sweat. His feet squished within his wet deck shoes as he made his way toward Scar-lip’s cage, but stopped short, stopped stone cold dead when he saw what was behind the bars.
Scar-lip, all right, but the creature he’d seen last night had been only the palest reflection of this monster. The rakosh rearing up in the cage and rattling the bars now was full of vitality and ferocity, had unmarred, glistening blue-black skin, and bright yellow eyes that glowed with a fierce inner light.
Jack stood mute and numb on the fringe, thinking, This is a nightmare, one that keeps repeating itself.
The once moribund rakosh was now fiercely alive, and it wanted out.
Suddenly it froze and Jack saw that it was looking his way. Its cold yellow basilisk glare fixed on him. He felt like a deer in the headlights of an eighteen wheeler.
He turned and hurried from the tent. Outside in the rain he looked around and saw a trailer with an OFFICE sign on the door. Its canvas awning was bellied with rain. Jack knocked.
He stepped back as the door swung out. Prather stood staring down at Jack.
“Who are you?”
“And hello to you too. I was here the other night. I’m the ‘Hey, Rube’ guy.”
“Ah, yes. The defender of rakoshi. Jack, isn’t it?”
“I want to talk to you about that rakosh.”
Oz backed away. “Come in, come in.”
Jack stepped up and inside, just far enough to get out from under the dripping awning. The rain paradiddled on the metal roof, and Jack knew he had about five minutes before the sound made him crazy.
“Have you seen it?” Oz’s voice seemed to come from everywhere in the room. “Isn’t it magnificent?”
“What did you do to it?”
Oz stared at him, as if genuinely puzzled. “Why, my good man, now that I know what it is, I know how to treat it. I looked up the proper care and feeding of rakoshi in one of my books on Bengali mythology, and acted appropriately.”
Jack felt a chill. And it was not from his soaked clothing.