The Book of All Things
Page 13
CHAPTER 42
for everything
“They must not want us to come back,” Daphna said, stepping carefully around the trickling lava flow as she and Dex picked their way down the slope toward the waiting helicopter. “Or else, why would they have destroyed the Aleph?”
“Maybe they took it because they knew they could handle that fire without us,” Dex said.
“But Dex, you saw how panicked—“
“Or maybe it was because we weren’t supposed to be there to begin with.”
Daphna had no reply to that. “Dex,” she said, “I didn’t get a chance to tell you. Up there—I saw a group of angels. It was where Evelyn found me. They were singing at a shelf with a missing book. I don’t know—the song sounded beautiful, but also really, really sad. And I saw other angels searching the shelves. I think they were looking for a book. There’s a book missing in Heaven. I guess it wasn’t the Aleph, now that I think about it.”
“Great,” said Dex. He sighed.
“So that’s another reason.”
“For what?”
“To find a way back there.” Daphna didn’t mention her own reason: seeing her book again. But she did say, “I opened one of the books.”
“You what?”
“Just a random book. It had a bunch of random letters flowing across the page. Hey, they were moving! Maybe you’d have been able to make something of it.”
Dex thought about the sense he’d had in the light that something was there for him in Heaven, a book he now assumed—a book he could surely read. But he made no reply to Daphna. He just sighed again and kept walking. They were about halfway there. He could see Dr. Fludd waiting inside the helicopter, and he had a hard time not resenting her for knocking him out with whatever chemical was on that cloth, even if it was the only way to prevent him from ruining the ingenious plan Daphna came up with when she saw Teal and her brother on the tables. He had no idea how his sister got her on board so quickly, but that was Daphna for you.
Daphna was also watching Dr. Fludd. Her expression seemed rather hard. She was surely upset they’d conned her into requisitioning a military jet to fly them all the way to Africa—and at top speed. They’d told her they could show her exactly where the disease originated.
Since Dr. Fludd’s team was testing the blood samples she and Dex had given, the flight was okayed. It was unbelievable how fast something could happen if people at the highest level of government wanted it to.
It was all rather easy to set in motion, as Dr. Fludd had been nearly out of her mind with both exhaustion and euphoria, and thus willing to do anything Daphna asked. She’d slept the entire flight, only to wake up in Africa to have the twins tell her they’d lied. Fortunately, the news from Portland was so good—an absolute cure. She’d simply sighed, drew the blood they’d asked for, and let them climb the mountain they seemed so eager to see.
They’d beaten Lilit to the lip by less than half an hour.
“I just wish I could look into the book one more time,” Daphna said.
“To see if they’re okay up there?” Dex asked.
Daphna stopped and turned to her brother. “Yes,” she said, “but also to see Teal and Aubrey. I’d like to see them as they were before they died, to make sure they weren’t alone and scared, and I guess I wish I could tell them they weren’t dying for nothing—that they were dying for, well, everything.
“I’d like to know they died at peace with their parents in the hospital. I can’t believe they said they’d donate their bodies if it helped find a cure. I never thought Teal would do something like that. I used to wish I was her. I guess I sort of got that wish.”
“How did you know Lilit wouldn’t look closer at the bodies? Or notice that the blood was dark and old?”
“I didn’t,” Daphna said. “I just hoped he’d be too happy about getting the ribs to really care. Azir gave me the idea, even though it didn’t work for him.”
Dex nodded and the pair continued their careful descent. They were on flat ground now, so they grabbed hands and hurried the rest of the way.
CHAPTER 43
deal
“How did you know the mountain was in Tanzania!” Daphna had to shout over the roar of the propellers.
“Easy!” Dr. Fludd shouted back. She didn’t really seem mad at all now. “You said it had glowing lava. Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only volcano in the world that erupts natrocarbonatite lava! It looks like oil during the day and glows orange at night! But why did you ask me about it? Why did you make us bring you here? What did you do with the syringes?”
The twins didn’t answer, but Dr. Fludd said, “You know what? I don’t want to know! What’s done is done! Let’s just get to the jet and then get you home to start on some serious blood donations!”
Dex and Daphna nodded. They were both quite sure there’d be no more talk about monsters from Eden. It was all part of a nightmare that Dr. Fludd was already putting behind her.
“Will you lose your job?” Dex asked.
“Not a chance!” she replied. “We have a cure. That’s all that matters in the end—results! Though it’s not going to be easy to explain what I was doing to those two poor kids’ bodies! But I plan to claim temporary insanity, which isn’t much of a lie! But it won’t matter anyway. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that nobody likes controversy! Like I said, they have a cure. I gave it to them. Should be end of story! By the way, you can call me Roberta!”
They were well up into the sky now, which seemed to diminish the noise a bit.
“Maybe there’s a way you can still prove your theory, about our ribs,” Daphna suggested, “I mean, without—”
Roberta laughed. “No, thank you,” she said, “Not interested.”
“You aren’t?”
“First of all,” Roberta said, “the Church can send men in black any time they want. And I don’t like the men they send. They’re not very nice.”
The twins glanced at each other. She assumed Lilit was another killer from the Church. It was just as well.
“Second,” Roberta continued, “I’ve done nothing but work just about every minute of every hour of my adult life, and though I may have helped people, that was never the point. It was always about me. You could say I’ve had the selfish disease. I’m going to cut back on my work, considerably. And most importantly,” she added, “I don’t want to put my family in jeopardy. The truth is, some things are more important than the truth.”
“But you don’t have family, do you?” Dexter asked. Maybe he’d been wrong about the lack of photos in her office.
“Well, no, not yet,” Dr. Fludd replied, “but I’m looking to make up for lost time. Know any families for sale? I’m in the market.”
Dex and Daphna exchanged another glance. There was no need for telepathy or ‘Identity Dissolution’ for them to know what each other was thinking.
“We might,” Daphna said, “be able to help you out with that.”
“Excellent!” Roberta said, but her smile faded a bit. “By the way,” she said, “I’ve seen your home, and frankly it could use some straightening up. I have a spare room if you need a place to stay when you get out of the hospital. But I warn you, you’ll have to be a bit neater.”
Both twins grinned.
“Deal,” they said.
AFTERWORD
There wasn’t much more to say, so the twins just sat and watched the landscape get smaller beneath them, thinking about what was happening in Heaven. They could see the wind moving steam around the cone of the tiny version of the mountain they’d left behind.
There will always be an ill wind in the world, Dex supposed. There will always be evil.
Daphna’s thoughts were a bit different. Was Lilit evil, in the end? she wondered. After all, it just wanted its babies, its family. Isn’t that what everyone wants? It was chilling to think Lilit didn’t represent pure Evil, to think there might possibly be something worse.
There couldn’t be. Could there?
“‘Ol Doinyo Lengai!’” Dex asked, turning to Dr. Fludd when the mountain was too small to see. “What does that mean?”
Dr. Fludd had to think a moment, but then she said, “‘Mountain of God,’ I believe.”
“I do, too,” said Daphna, looking at her brother.
“I do, too,” her brother said back.