Myxos — Taipan's term for red-eyes. She'd been one once, had hated the derogatory term. Point made, then, Kevin reckoned. 'So where are we headed?'
'We're going to drive around for a bit, just to flush out any tails.' She checked her watch. 'We've got almost two hours to kill before the last barge.'
'Barge?' Yoshi stared at her, fist tight on his katana's scabbard. 'You didn't tell me we were going across water.'
'What's wrong, pal? Can't swim?' Her jibe lost some of its effect as she reached to hide a yawn.
He shook his head and sat back, jaw rigid.
'Don't worry,' she said. 'It'll be dark when we get where we're going. Meantime, stick your letter opener in this.' She nudged a long Cordura bag across the floor toward him, a logo with a rod and line painted on the side. 'And the rest of your blades, all of you. We're going fishing.'
FORTY-ONE
They drove off the ferry. Under the dual weights of sunshine and suspicion, they kept their heads down. From inside the vehicle it sounded as if they were part of an invasion: shouts, the whine and thump of the lowering ramp, the revving engines and growl as they convoyed off, the clouds of fresh diesel exhaust mixing with the heavy scent of brine. Seagulls squawked and a pelican grated out a protest.
The Rover ploughed through sand. Late afternoon sunlight striped the canvas with shadows. Kevin peeked through a curtain draped to separate the cabin from the tray; they were driving along a narrow trail almost arched by trees. The sand was the colour of bone and ash. Vehicles had dug deep ruts in the track. The Rover wallowed in places where the sand was soft. From the angle of the shadows, he figured they were heading more or less north.
'Welcome to K'gari,' Kala said. She wore sunglasses despite the canvas gloom.
Yoshi looked bewildered.
'It used to be called Fraser Island,' Kevin said. 'Biggest sand island in the world.' He shook his head. A bloody island.
'There are wild dogs here, right?' Yoshi said. 'They bite people.'
'Stupid people, who think dingoes are tame.' Kala looked at Kevin. 'Stupid people feed the dingoes and then other people get bitten.'
'Leave the mutts alone, huh?' Yoshi said.
Blake patted his brow with a kerchief; the cloth came away smeared with red sweat. 'How much farther?'
'We'll be there about dark.'
It couldn't come soon enough for Kevin. The sun weighed him down, burning his flesh and glazing his eyesight, filling his joints and bones with fever pain. Thirst provoked equal parts desire and fear.
'Aren't you worried about being trapped here?' Kevin asked Kala, desperate for distraction.
She turned to Yoshi. 'How old are you?'
'What do you mean?'
'How long have you been one of us?'
'Ten-year anniversary is coming up.'
'That's tin,' Blake said. 'You get tin for ten.'
'I'm not married,' Yoshi said.
'There are two ways onto K'gari: boat and plane. We were just on the last barge of the day, and what air strips there are aren't equipped for night landings.'
'But you've got to get off again,' Yoshi said.
'How many times you been on a boat since you got munched?'
'Never.'
'And why's that?'
'I've never been into boats, much.' She dared him with a look, and he conceded, 'I don't fancy drowning. Over and over again. Waiting for some shark to come put me out of my misery.'
'Same for VS. Even if they did have the balls to cross the water, as Kevin the walking tourist brochure pointed out: this is the largest sand island in the world. Good luck finding us, and even better luck stopping us leaving.'
They drove on, just the rattle and thump and sway of the vehicle, nervousness rising as the light faded.
The Rover pulled up at a Y junction. Li Li spoke to someone who emerged from the scrub. The man, face shaded by a broad-brimmed hat, slapped at his neck.
'Only bloodsuckers are the midges,' the man said.
'Eyes open,' Li Li told him. 'It's getting dark.'
The man brandished a walkie-talkie by way of farewell before slinking back into the bush. The Rover moved on.
'Only way in,' Kala said.
'Only way out?' Kevin asked.
'We've been on the run for decades, Kevvie. We're not stupid.'
The Rover eventually nosed out onto the beach. Sunset pierced clouds with golden beams that sparkled on the water. The sand glowed deep orange. Bathtub waves lapped the shore.
'Should be just up ahead. A gap, there; see it, Li Li?'
The driver followed Kala's pointing finger. A track led between dunes taller than the Rover, the sand matted down with grass and vines and scrubby she-oaks. They entered a sparsely treed bowl backed by another, taller dune. A camper van was parked with its nose pointing toward the gap. A table, chairs and gas barbecue sat under an awning. A middle-aged woman with a shotgun watched them arrive.
'You've made friends, too,' Kevin said.
'We needed bodies,' Kala said.
'Can you trust them?' Yoshi asked.
'More than I trust you.'
'Well, I guess that'll have to be good enough.'
They parked and piled out. Williams put the bags containing their weapons on the table. Grey twilight settled upon them with a chill. The mainland was a dark line on the horizon.
Seagulls called and the sea made the barest of lullaby lappings. The trees were still.
Kala dropped the tailgate to make it easier to haul Mel out. They sat her in a chair.
The shotgun-toting woman watched them, her fingers flexing on the weapon.
Kala kissed her and called her Edie. She smelled of suntan lotion and mosquito repellent and wood smoke. 'All clear?'
'No one's come by since you.'
'Let's do it.'
Edie pulled a whistle from her pocket and blew it.
Kevin winced.
From the underbrush up the slope behind the camp came a single yip, and then Byely and Cherny came pelting out of the bush, ears back and tails wagging. They sniffed around the new arrivals, then came to Kevin for an ear rub. Byely huffed at Blake, who stayed close to Mel, cane in hand.
Danica came at a more leisurely pace. She'd dreadlocked her hair since Kevin had last seen her, the strands just visible under her shawl. Bangles and pendants glinted in the twilight. She carried a pair of riding boots, her bare feet visible under the hem of her black, beaded abaya. 'No trouble?'
'Thanks for agreeing to this,' Kevin said. 'If you can help her—'
'Did Kala explain my proposition?' Yoshi interrupted.
'I am familiar with the head of your house, Kohito-san, and will consider the details. One thing at a time.'
Danica kneeled in front of Mel and held her face gently so she could look into her eyes. She handed Kevin his talisman. Their fingers touched.
A flash in his mind, transporting him: of her dripping his blood into a vial in that incense-thick room, and later, of Mira reefing the pendant from his naked chest, and Kala snatching it back, clasping it in her bloody fist. He had thought at the time it had been a sign that she'd wanted to live. Maybe he'd misinterpreted an accident for purpose.
'Max, you said?' Danica asked.
'What?'
'Max did this, you said.'
'I believe so.'
'Why?'
'Punishment for helping me.'
'And me,' Blake said. 'Her defilement cuts to my very quick.'
'Or because they knew you were the only person who had any chance of curing her,' Kala said, and looked to the sky. 'Do you hear that?'
'A plane,' Edie said. 'The come over all the time, heading into the Bay.'
'Let's take her into the caravan where we can have some privacy,' Danica said. 'The sooner we get started, the sooner we can all leave.'
'I'm coming too,' Blake said, and she shot him a look. 'I am her—'
'You can wait out here. Your presence upsets my dogs; it upsets me.'
'I really don't like this,' Kala said.
Kevin looked up, the sky filled with stars, but no sign of hazard lights. 'I can hear a plane, too.'
'Is that something flapping?' Kala asked.
'Seagulls?' Yoshi suggested. He crossed to the table, and Kala said, 'Hey, we're not done yet,' but he dug his sword and a submachine gun from the pile of equipment as Li Li and Williams covered him.
'Bloody big seagulls,' Kevin said.
Mel, standing with Danica at the stair into the camper van, looked over her shoulder and cried, 'The invisible worm has found out thy bed of crimson joy!'
Blake grabbed Danica's arm. 'Please, heal her — heal her now!'
Mel, off balance, stumbled, would have fallen to the ground had Edie not caught her.
Danica pulled herself free. 'It's not like throwing a switch. There's no simple antidote. It could days, weeks, months, to drain Max's poison, and do it without destroying her sanity.'
'Guys? I think there's something up there.' Kala hauled out her walkie-talkie.
Kevin ran to Yoshi's side and armed himself. Kala's red-eyes faced the beach, weapons poised. The dogs growled at the waves, barked, as though picking up on the nervous tension. Or something else.
Blake sat with his back to the camper, Mel clutched in his embrace.
Kala said, 'There's definitely something out there. Get Danica to the Rover. Call in the boat in case we need a fast exit. Damn you, Kevin!'
A shadow moved across stars, faster than a cloud. There was the sound of cloth flapping, a flag in a strong breeze. A very big seagull indeed.
'Bats?' Yoshi said, sounding desperate.
'No way a bat could've kept up with us,' Kevin said.
He heard a thump, like a bale of hay hitting the ground. Rustling, like someone making a bed, flipping out the sheets.
The dogs barked and capered, muzzles raised as though biting at sand flies.
'Let's get the fuck out of here,' Kevin said.
FORTY-TWO
The toast of allegiance was a grand event that took place once a fortnight. The board oversaw the proceedings. Mira randomly sampled the blood of the assembled faithful; the Strigoi had the authority to taste anyone outside the board and their Familiares at any time, but this was done with pomp and ceremony. She often made a comment on what she'd seen, the more embarrassing the revelation the louder her voice. And then the troops lined up in order of rank: Heinrich's small cadre of elite Fallschirmjaeger, the Hunters, the GS and the handful of lowly VSS red-eyes waiting until last. There was a speech. Then the filling of the chalice, a spill from each member of the board, and each soldier in turn approached the dais and drank the cocktail that kept them in peak condition.
It was a sombre occasion. Tonight was damn near a wake, with only a fraction of the usual bodies in the room.
And no Mira.
No Hunters.
None of Heinrich's Fallschirmjaeger and very few Gespenstenstaffel.
Standing in for Mira, Vee did not taste anyone.
Maximilian von Schiller told the gathering to hold the line. That they were the chosen ones, bloodied, depleted, but they would rebuild, they would rise and conquer. Their brothers and sisters in the field were embarked on an important mission that might, by morning, yield a major triumph. Drink and be ready to build on their success, he said.
The board didn't look too convinced. Several conspicuously eyed their watches as two nurses wheeled out the urn — an antique bowl and ladle from which the brew would be dispensed.
Hospitaller Tran invited the troops to come forward.
Reece was one of the last to go up; even Nigel went ahead of him.
Reece had spent the day asking questions without getting answers, of being stonewalled and insulted. And that'd just been inside Thorn, as he tried to find out what was going on with the Hunters, to get a fix on Matheson or the Needle. He just needed a lucky break; none had come. There were no suspects to verbal, no witnesses or snitches to lean on. Being among the last to drink tonight was the perfectly crap end to a perfectly crap day.
Tran ladled blood into a pewter chalice and offered it to Reece. 'A bit different to straight from Mira's tit, I don't doubt.'
'You tell me, Doc.'
Tran frowned.
'I wouldn't let the Old Man catch you swapping bodily fluids with his daughter, if I were you.'
'How—' Tran's eyes narrowed. 'The day is coming, Reece, when you might regret not having been more friendly.'
He withdrew the chalice before Reece could taste it, and motioned the next man forward.
Fuck Tran. Reece surveyed the board, found Vee smirking from what should've been Mira's place next to Maximilian. Hunger made his guts growl. Usually, after the ceremony, Mira would summon him for a private tasting; her eyes bloodshot, her lips twisted in that deadly razor smile by all the secrets she'd imbibed. But tonight Vee was in Mira's place; and the only blood Reece got, would normally have got, if he hadn't insulted Tran, was goon — that vapid mix of watered-down vampire blood that kept the wolf from the door, but lacked the personal touch.
The rim of the cup was so cold; always cold. The blood barely warm, thick, gelatinous, with no heart to push it hot and foaming into his mouth. Hard to go back. Very hard. Harder still to know it was all coming to an end. Even if Mira had torn open her chest and said, here, straight from the heart, it wouldn't have mattered in the long run. The blood had lost its potency, his body worn out from it, running hot for far too long. How he missed her. And how he hated Tran for noticing.
As the last red-eye wiped her mouth on the cloth held out to her by Tran, the board began filing out; the gathering was dismissed almost as an afterthought.
'Why the rush?' Reece wondered, only then realising he'd said it out loud.
'They're going to the war room,' a nearby GS told him. Always keen to show their superior knowledge, the Black Shirts, especially to a recent reject. 'It's been all hands on deck all day. The balloon's going up — tonight by the sound of that speech.'
'Any idea where?'
'North, is the whisper.' He lowered his voice, 'It might be Dee. Picking up where you left off, eh, Private.'
His reputation had preceded him.
'I wish them luck.'
'How long has your lot been hunting her?'
He smiled. 'All my non-life.'
'Looks like you might need a new hobby. Bullet catching, maybe. Look, here's your target practice buddy.'
The man laughed and moved off as Nigel approached. He slipped a note into Reece's palm. 'One of Marshall's Familiares gave me this for you.'
'You read it?'
'Course not!'
'Not even a text message? How paranoid was Marshall getting? Reece flicked the paper open. Closing in on D. Need N to name names NOW.'
'There goes my night,' Reece muttered, crushing the note.
'Bad news, boss?'
'Just some hatches to batten down.'
'Thought you were still on medical leave.'
'More fool me, eh?'
'Yeah, boss; never figured you for a bunny, but I guess this place—'
He clapped Nigel on the shoulder. 'Brilliant, Nigel. I'd better go hop to it.'
FORTY-THREE
Kala's walkie-talkie kicked into life. A male voice:
Something on the beach. Moving toward you. Maybe four—
And then a woman's:
On the beach. Can you see anything? Bruno, can you—
'Bruno?' Kala said. Then louder: 'Bruno? Are you there? Skip? What is it? What did you see?'
'Move out,' Kevin yelled, gun drawn. 'Get Dee away from here.'
Williams ushered Danica toward the Rover. They'd covered half the distance when he grunted, threw up his hands and fell to the ground. Danica slid down next to him.
Yoshi fell down. Edie stepped toward Danica and collapsed, leaving a bloody splash on the side of the camper.
Kevin crouched, gun poised. The dogs, barking furiously, stood guard over Danica.
Li Li crouched near the camper, confused as to where the danger was coming from. Blake clutched Mel like a shield.
The shots sounded like blasts of compressed air; Kevin heard the metallic snick of the bolt and ejector after each one.
Yoshi hauled himself to his knees only to be knocked down a second time. Kala crouched behind the overturned table, gun out. Holes appeared in the table, crunching through like bites in an apple. Kala sprawled backward, her chest bloody.
Kevin looked to the beach and saw a muzzle flash on the crest of the dune. He went down without firing a shot.
But he heard gunfire, like being in a barrel with firecrackers. He heard men shouting. One, Blake maybe: 'Don't touch her!' And someone else: 'Take him down! Get the bloodhag!' And: 'Take out that motherfuckin' snipe—'
Volleys of automatic fire, fading, and the crack of a large-calibre rifle.
Blake: 'What about us? You can't leave us—'
And then came a distinct thump, like a cricket ball thudding into the ground.
A blast of heat and sound rolled Kevin in the sand. He came up on all fours, only to be rolled by a second blast, one that came with slicing pain in his legs and back.
The Rover was on fire.
A gunshot sounded from the dune at his back, and a figure in black that had been kneeling near the gap in the dune went down like a sack of shit. Blake lay at the edge of the camp, cane sword glinting by his hand. Mel had been rolled under the camper.
Yoshi was dragging himself to his feet, Kala too. The three red-eyes lay still; Williams' body was on fire, giving off a gut-churning stench. And there, just reaching the beach, two men in black were dragging a limp Danica.
Kevin found an assault rifle, pulled himself up onto his elbows and fired long bursts at the retreating figures. A line of winking lights returned fire.
The beach behind the attackers came alight with red flares. A two-engine airplane touched down on the hard sand and came to a whining standstill, props whirring. Soldiers retreated toward it.
The side door opened. A man in a suit stood in the gap, waving, shouting, 'Bring her, bring her, raus schnell you bastards.'
Yoshi crawled over to Kevin as bullets flew around them. The camper rattled with hits. The dogs whimpered, rubbing their heads in the sand, pawing at wounds.
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