Tick Tock

by Dean Koontz

  hot-wired the Ferrari in two seconds flat.

  The black Labrador got off the coffee table and padded to his mistress, putting his head on her lap.

  To Tommy’s mother, Del said, “We’d like you and Mr. Phan and Tommy’s brothers and their wives, all his nieces and nephews, to come to our party tonight in Las Vegas and celebrate our marriage. We can’t fit you all in the LearJet, but Mother has leased a 737, which is standing by at the airport right now, and if you hurry, you can all be there with us tonight. It’s time for me to quit my job as a waitress and get on with my real work. Tommy and I are going to lead eventful lives, Mrs. Phan, and we’d like all of you to be a part of that.”

  Tommy couldn’t read the wrenching series of emotions that passed across his mother’s face.

  Having said her piece, Del stroked Scootie, scratched behind his ears, and murmured appreciatively to him: “Oh, him a good fella, him is, my cutie Scootie-wootums.”

  After a while, Mother Phan got up from her chair. She went to the television and turned it off.

  She went to the Buddhist shrine in the corner, struck a match, and lit three sticks of incense.

  For perhaps two or three minutes, the survivor of Saigon and the South China Sea stood staring at the shrine, inhaling the thin and fragrant smoke.

  Del patted Tommy’s hand.

  At last his mother turned away from the shrine, came to the sofa, and stood over him, scowling. “Tuong, you won’t be doctor when want you be doctor, won’t be baker when want you be baker, write stories about silly whiskey-drunk detective, won’t keep old ways, don’t even remember how speak language from Land of Seagull and Fox, buy Corvette and like cheeseburgers better than com tay cam, forget your roots, want to be something never can be…all bad, all bad. But you make best marriage any boy ever make in history of world, so I guess that got to count for something.”

  By four-thirty that afternoon, Tommy, Del, and Scootie were back in their suite at the Mirage.

  Scootie settled in his bedroom to crunch dog biscuits and watch an old Bogart and Bacall movie on television.

  Tommy and Del consummated.

  Afterward, she didn’t bite his head off and devour him alive.

  That evening at the reception, Mr. Sinatra called Mother Phan “a great old broad,” Mai danced with her father, Ton got tipsy for the first time in his life, Sheila Ingrid Julia Rosalyn Winona Lilith answered to three other names, and Del whispered to Tommy as they did a fox trot, “This is reality, tofu man, because reality is what we carry in our hearts, and my heart is full of beauty just for you.”

  A NOTE TO THE READER

  Ticktock is a new novel, not a revision of a book originally released under a pen name, as have been some recent paperbacks in my publication schedule. Inevitably, many of you will write to me to inquire why this story appeared initially in paperback without first being published in hardcover. To forestall those letters, I will give you a peek into my—admittedly disordered—mind.

  Two and a half years ago, when I finished Dark Rivers of the Heart, one of the most intense and arguably most complex books I had ever done, I was exhausted; more to the point, I was shaken by the darkness of the story. I decided that I needed to tackle a project that was considerably lighter in tone.

  Over the years, I’ve become known for mixing different genres of fiction with reckless abandon—suspense and terror and mystery and love story and a little science fiction—changing the mix with every novel. In a number of books—Watchers, Lightning, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Mr. Murder, to name a few—I’ve even blended large measures of humor into the mix, though, according to the common wisdom of modern publishing, this is a sure sales squelcher. These became some of my most successful novels, however, and readers responded to them enthusiastically. Consequently, after Dark Rivers of the Heart, I decided to tackle a new and strange mix of genres: the supernatural thriller and the screwball comedy.

  Good screwball comedy—exemplified by splendid old movies like Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story—is different from all other comedy in that its form is nearly as strict as that of the sonnet. Some basic requirements include the following elements: the male lead must be smart, witty, sensible, but befuddled by the other eccentric characters with whom he becomes involved; the appealing female lead appears to be an airhead but turns out, by the end, to be the wisest of all the characters; she should also be an heiress; she should have an astonishingly eccentric but lovable family; all of the screwball characters should be largely unaware of the way in which they leave the male lead in a state of perpetual confusion; the dialogue should be of a rarefied type that has characters talking at cross purposes and that allows the most outrageous things to be said with convincingly deadpan seriousness; the story should be propelled by surprising character twists and revelations that delight us and that are logical within the given structure of the story; and if possible, there ought to be a dog.

  When I began Ticktock in early 1994, I had fun with it—but then I hit a wall. Something was wrong. I couldn’t identify the trouble, so I put the book aside. Instead, I wrote Intensity, which turned out to be the scariest and fastest-paced novel I had ever written. Even Dark Rivers of the Heart had made room for some humor, if less than usual, but Intensity was perhaps (if reviewers can be believed) as unrelenting as a thriller can be, and I finished it with a deep need to write something lighter.

  When I returned to Ticktock, I realized at once what the problem was. The lead character didn’t work. He needed to be a Vietnamese-American. You know why if you’ve read the book before reading this afterword. Suddenly the story flew. As is the tradition with pure screwball comedy, the humorous elements are quiet at first; comic chaos builds slowly through the first third of this supernatural thriller, but then escalates page by page.

  The revelations in Ticktock left me wide-eyed with wonder as they unfolded, and I came to love the characters—Tommy, Del, their mothers, Scootie the dog—so much that I was dismayed when I reached the final page and couldn’t follow their adventures any further, couldn’t hear what they would say next. After the darkness and intensity of Intensity, writing Ticktock buoyed me.

  Nevertheless, I didn’t feel the book was long enough to justify a hardcover price. Every book sets its own length, and it can’t be stretched or condensed to meet either the author’s preferred word count or market requirements. From time to time, therefore, if a book comes in shorter, I think the reader should not be asked to pay hardcover prices. So here are the adventures of Tommy Phan, Del Payne, Scootie, and their families, with the hope that you have as much fun with them as I did.

  —DEAN KOONTZ

  May 1996

  To Gerda

  with the promise

  of

  sand, surf,

  and a Scootie

  of our own

  BY DEAN KOONTZ

  77 Shadow Street • What the Night Knows • Breathless

  Relentless • Your Heart Belongs to Me

  The Darkest Evening of the Year • The Good Guy

  The Husband • Velocity • Life Expectancy

  The Taking • The Face • By the Light of the Moon

  One Door Away From Heaven • From the Corner of His Eye

  False Memory • Seize the Night • Fear Nothing

  Mr. Murder • Dragon Tears • Hideaway • Cold Fire

  The Bad Place • Midnight • Lightning • Watchers

  Strangers • Twilight Eyes • Darkfall • Phantoms

  Whispers • The Mask • The Vision • The Face of Fear

  Night Chills • Shattered • The Voice of the Night

  The Servants of Twilight • The House of Thunder

  The Key to Midnight • The Eyes of Darkness

  Shadowfires • Winter Moon • The Door to December

  Dark Rivers of the Heart • Icebound • Strange Highways

  Intensity • Sole Survivor • Ticktock

  The Funhouse • Demon Seed

  ODD THOM
AS

  Odd Thomas • Forever Odd • Brother Odd • Odd Hours

  FRANKENSTEIN

  Prodigal Son • City of Night • Dead and Alive

  Lost Souls • The Dead Town

  A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog Named Trixie

  About the Author

  DEAN KOONTZ, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives with his wife, Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie, in southern California.

  Correspondence for the author should be addressed to:

  Dean Koontz

  P.O. Box 9529

  Newport Beach, CA 92658

  Don’t miss

  any of the adventures of

  Odd Thomas,

  America’s favorite hero.

  From #1 Bestselling Author

  ODD THOMAS IS BACK.

  His mysterious journey of suspense and discovery moves to a dangerous new level in his most riveting adventure to date… .

  by #1 New York Times bestselling author

  DEAN KOONTZ

  On sale in hardcover

  Summer 2012

  ONE

  Near sunset of my second full day as a guest in Roseland, crossing the immense lawn between the main house and the eucalyptus grove, I halted and pivoted, warned by instinct. Racing toward me, the great black stallion was as mighty a horse as I had ever seen. Earlier, in a book of breeds, I had identified it as a Friesian. The blonde who rode him wore a white nightgown.

  As silent as any spirit, the woman urged the horse forward, faster. On hooves that made no sound, the steed ran through me with no effect.

  I have certain talents. In addition to being a pretty good short-order cook, I have an occasional prophetic dream. And in the waking world, I sometimes see the spirits of the lingering dead who, for various reasons, are reluctant to move on to the Other Side.

  This long-dead horse and rider, now only spirits in our world, knew that no one but I could see them. After appearing to me twice the previous day and once this morning, but at a distance, the woman seemed to have decided to get my attention in an aggressive fashion.

  Mount and mistress raced around me in a wide arc. I turned to follow them, and they cantered toward me once more but then halted. The stallion reared over me, silently slashing the air with the hooves of its forelegs, nostrils flared, eyes rolling, a creature of such immense power that I stumbled backward even though I knew that it was as immaterial as a dream.

  Spirits are solid and warm to my touch, as real to me in that way as is anyone alive. But I am not solid to them, and they can neither ruffle my hair nor strike a death blow at me.

  Because my sixth sense complicates my existence, I try otherwise to keep my life simple. I have fewer possessions than a monk. I have no time or peace to build a career as a fry cook or as anything else. I never plan for the future, but wander into it with a smile on my face, hope in my heart, and the hair up on the nape of my neck.

  Bareback on the Friesian, the barefoot beauty wore white silk and white lace and wild red ribbons of blood both on her gown and in her long blond hair, though I could see no wound. Her nightgown was rucked up to her thighs, and her knees pressed against the stallion’s heaving flanks. In her left hand, she twined a fistful of the horse’s mane, as if even in death she must hold fast to her mount to keep their spirits joined.

  If spurning a gift weren’t ungrateful, I would at once return my supernatural sight. I would be content to spend my days whipping up omelets that make you groan with pleasure and pancakes so fluffy that the slightest breeze might float them off your plate.

  Every talent is unearned, however, and with it comes a solemn obligation to use it as fully and as wisely as possible. If I didn’t believe in the miraculous nature of talent and in the sacred duty of the recipient, by now I would have gone so insane that I’d qualify for numerous high government positions.

  As the stallion danced on its hind legs, the woman reached out with her right arm and pointed down at me, as if to say that she knew I saw her and that she had a message to convey to me. Her lovely face was grim with determination, and those cornflower-blue eyes that were not bright with life were nonetheless bright with anguish.

  When she dismounted, she didn’t drop to the ground but instead floated off the horse and almost seemed to glide across the grass to me. The blood faded from her hair and nightgown, and she manifested as she had looked in life before her fatal wounds, as if she might be concerned that the gore would repel me. I felt her touch when she put one hand to my face, as though she, a ghost, had more difficulty believing in me than I had believing in her.

  Behind the woman, the sun melted into the distant sea, and several distinctively shaped clouds glowed like a fleet of ancient warships with their masts and sails ablaze.

  As I saw her anguish relent to a tentative hope, I said, “Yes, I can see you. And if you’ll let me, I can help you cross over.”

  She shook her head violently and took a step backward, as if she feared that with some touch or spoken spell I might release her from this world. But I have no such power.

  I thought I understood the reason for her reaction. “You were murdered, and before you go from this world, you want to be sure that justice will be done.”

  She nodded but then shook her head, as if to say, Yes, but not only that.

  Being more familiar with the deceased than I might wish to be, I can tell you from considerable personal experience that the spirits of the lingering dead don’t talk. I don’t know why. Even when they have been brutally murdered and are desperate to see their assailants brought to justice, they are unable to convey essential information to me either by phone or face-to-face. Neither do they send text messages. Maybe that’s because, given the opportunity, they would reveal something about death and the world beyond that we the living are not meant to know.

  Anyway, the dead can be even more frustrating to deal with than are many of the living, which is astonishing when you consider that it’s the living who run the Department of Motor Vehicles.

  Shadowless in the last direct light of the drowning sun, the Friesian stood with head high, as proud as any patriot before the sight of a beloved flag. But his only flag was the golden hair of his mistress. He grazed no more in this place but reserved his appetite for Elysian fields.

  Approaching me again, the blonde stared at me so intensely that I could feel her desperation. She formed a cradle with her arms and rocked it back and forth.

  I said, “A baby?”

  Yes.

  “Your baby?”

  She nodded but then shook her head.

  Brow furrowed, biting her lower lip, the woman hesitated before holding out one hand, palm down, perhaps four and a half feet above the ground.

  Practiced as I am at spirit charades, I figured that she must be indicating the current height of the baby whom she’d once borne, not an infant now but perhaps nine or ten years old. “Not your baby any longer. Your child.“

  She nodded vigorously.

  “Your child still lives?”

  Yes.

  “Here in Roseland?”

  Yes, yes, yes.

  Ablaze in the western sky, those ancient warships built of clouds were burning down from fiery orange to bloody red as the heavens slowly darkened toward purple.

  When I asked if her child was a girl or a boy, she indicated the latter. Judging by the height she had indicated, I said that he must be nine or ten, and she confirmed my guess.

  Although I knew of no children on this estate, I considered the anguish that carved her face, and I asked the most obvious question: “And your son is … what? In trouble here?”

  Yes, yes, yes.

  Far to the east of the main house in Roseland, out of sight beyond a hurst of live oaks, was a riding ring bristling with weeds. A half-collapsed ranch fence encircled it.

  The stables, however, looked as if they had been built last week. Curiously, all the stalls were spotless; not one piece of s
traw or a single cobweb could be found, no dust, as though the place was thoroughly scrubbed on a regular basis. Judging by that tidiness, and by a smell as crisp and pure as that of a winter day after a snowfall, no horses had been kept there in decades; evidently, the woman in white had been dead a long time.

  How then could her child be only nine or ten?

  Some spirits are exhausted or at least taxed by lengthy contact, and they fade away for hours or days before they renew their power to manifest. This woman seemed to have a strong will that would maintain her apparition. But suddenly, as the air shimmered and a strange sour-yellow light flooded across the land, she and the stallion—which perhaps had been killed in the same event that claimed the life of his mistress—were gone. They didn’t fade or wither from the edges toward the center, as some other displaced souls occasionally did, but vanished in the instant that the light changed.

  Precisely when the red dusk became yellow, a wind sprang out of the west, lashing the eucalyptus grove far behind me, rustling through the California live oaks to the south, and blustering my hair into my eyes.

  I looked into a sky where the sun had not quite yet gone down, as if some celestial timekeeper had wound the cosmic clock backward a few minutes.

  That impossibility was exceeded by another. Yellow from horizon to horizon, without the grace of a single cloud, the heavens were ribboned with what appeared to be high-altitude rivers of smoke or soot. Gray currents streaked through with black. Moving at tremendous velocity. They widened, narrowed, serpentined, sometimes merged, but came apart again.