Alien Rites (25 page)

David shrugged. “Your people need to be protected, and they should know what they're up against. And the water is already as hot as I hope it gets.”

A shiver went through the sergeant, sudden and involuntary.

David had only looked at Angie Nassif's face for a moment or two, but the afterimage stayed in his mind.

“Crystal,” he said.

“Follow me.”

FIFTY

Crystal was upstairs in her room, Sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed. David was reminded of the way Kendra looked in the dentist's office. Crystal seemed miraculously composed, not necessarily a good sign. There was no color in her face.

David noticed a backpack peeking out from under the bed. Some of the dresser drawers were partly open. Crystal wore a jacket, sturdy shoes, hair braided back. Dressed for the road, David thought.

He knew better than to try and touch her. He took a small white chair from behind an imitation French Provincial desk, and pulled it halfway across the room, facing her. Close, but not too close.

“Hello, Crystal.”

When she smiled, she looked very young. She put her hands in the pockets of the jacket. It was hot in the room, but she was shocky, she'd be cold.

“I'm not going to the hospital.”

He knew the feeling. “They can't make you.”

“They'll try.”

David looked pointedly at the backpack. “But you'll be gone by then.”

She tilted her head. Spoke softly. “Are you going to tell on me?”

He shook his head. “I don't think you should just take off, Crystal, I don't think you should be alone, but it's up to you. Is there anyone you can go to?”

“No, sir.”

“Not
any
one?”

“
No
sir.”

“I could put you up for a while. I live on a farm, you could help me with the animals. I've got a pig, a dog and a cat, a cow that eats candy.”

She smiled, but it was a
no
. Her face went soft and sweet while she'd thought about the animals. She could have been a happy child, David thought, if she'd had the chance.

“I've been on the road before, Mr. Silver. I know how to handle myself. I know where all the right shelters are.”

“Crystal, there are people who will help you.”

She gave him a look that was wise, old, and knowing. “I've been part of that system all my life. It's a hard way to live and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.”

David reached into his pocket, pulled out a magnetic card he kept for emergencies. “Free credit. Unattached, payable to bearer. Don't lose it.”

She took it with a grateful look, made it disappear inside the jacket. “Thank you.”

They were quiet while she contemplated the floor.

“I have a lot of important stuff to tell you.”

“Can you talk now?”

“Now or never.” Her voice went softer, and very flat. “Angie worked late tonight, so I fixed supper. I set the table and was cooking micro-meals. I was busy, so she … she took the bearfox outside to do its business. I was afraid of it, so she always took care of it.”

“Bearfox?”

“I forget what it's really called. She got it from the Elaki.”

David could swear she was telling the truth. Could Angie Nassif really be so stupid? “Are you talking about a trillopy?”

“Yeah, that's it.”

“You kept it here?”

“Angie did. She got it one night, a few days ago. It was going to be evidence to clear Annie Trey.” Crystal looked David in the eye. “Annie didn't kill that baby, it got sick. Angie said the bearfox … the trillopy, would prove it, because the animal carried the sickness.” Her eyes widened. “They were going to take Jenny away from her mother. The motion thing was already in effect, so Angie said she had to cut corners and work real fast. The teddy bear thing didn't turn out, and Angie was real disappointed. But the bear was worth a lot of money. She was going to sell it and quit her job and we were going away to be safe.” Crystal bit her lip. “Sometimes I think there's nowhere safe in this world.”

“Crystal—”

She shook her head. “Angie was real worried about this thing with Annie, and didn't want to leave till it was settled. She quit sleeping, just worried worried worried. Then one night she goes out and comes back with this trillopy thing. She said it was trained to be a pet and wouldn't hurt us if we were careful. I was scared of it. But Angie would pet it, and it licked her hand.”

David had a sudden image of Angie's wrist, smeared with blood.

“I was in the kitchen when I heard her start screaming. She sounded mad and real scared. I ran to the living room. The sliding glass door was open, and there was another one in the yard.”

“Another trillopy?”

Crystal nodded.

“And this one wasn't a pet,” David said.

Crystal stared at the floor. “It was real big, the other one. It wasn't acting like any animal I ever saw before. I think it came for the female. It … I think the female may have been in season. Like dogs?”

David nodded at her to continue. He had no idea.

“That's kind of how it was acting.” Her face was pinking up. At least it had color. “Angie had ours on a chain, and she … she wouldn't let it go. She tried to drag it back in. She was so …
stubborn.
”

Stupid, David would have said, but didn't. He waited for Crystal to tear up and break down. She didn't. Her face, if possible, went blander and her voice was a monotone, with no emotion in it.

“Then the big one went for her. I think she knew then, she'd done a dumb thing. She screamed for me to run. She got back inside, but the big one was mad, it came in with her, and I don't think she even knew that she still had the chain on the little one. I kept yelling at her, drop the leash, drop the leash. But then … then it got her. So I ran away.” Crystal wrapped her arms around her chest. “I thought it would come get me. I heard it. Her screaming and crying and making bubbles in her throat.”

“There was nothing you could do, Crystal. You handled yourself very well.”

She shrugged. “I threw the coffeepot at it and it didn't hardly notice. I had to run away. No use us both being dead.”

“It was Angie's mistake and it killed her.”

Crystal nudged the backpack with the back of her heel and looked up at David. “I know why, though. She was so scared about Annie Trey. She felt really guilty.”

David frowned. “Why guilty?”

“I never could really figure that out.”

“Do you know who made the complaint about Annie? Who got the investigation started?”

“Oh, yeah. Because that's why Angie was so worried. Because it was Luke Cochran.”

David didn't move or say a word. Luke Cochran? Something here he didn't want to know. Something he didn't want to face.

Crystal kept talking. “She said he used her, and he used Annie, and it was really bad what he did, and she was going to see about it.” Crystal leaned toward him, almost touching. “She didn't want Annie and her little girl getting chewed up in the system. And, Mr. Silver, I want to ask you please not to let that happen. I saw that little girl's picture in the paper. She's soft. Not like me. It would be really bad for her, really bad.”

Crystal's eyes were tearless. David knew that the minute his back was turned she would be lost to the streets of the city. And all he could think of was that she was soft, too.

It came to him that she might be infected, and he could not let her go.

FIFTY-ONE

David did not know what he was running on—adrenaline, anger, general contrariness. Sifter Chuck was home. There were lights shining from the second floor, and the pulse of loud music.

David beat on the door a second time, this go-round with his fists.

There were lights on all over Elaki-Town, a good sign. Very few Elaki out, but the ones he saw gave him long looks. He understood now what Miriam had meant when she said the crowd was quiet but pulsing with rage.

He stepped away from the shuttered doorway, looked in the gutter for loose gravel. He found a chunk of asphalt and chucked it into the well-lit window.

“
Sifter!
Open up.”

The asphalt connected, and glass shattered. He hadn't meant to throw it quite so hard.

Sifter Chuck appeared at the window.

“
Sifter
. It's Silver.”

The Elaki disappeared. Lights came on downstairs, and the door opened. Sifter slid partway out, belly rigid.

“Isss drunken, stupid, or naive beyond belief?”

“How about pissed as hell.”

Sifter pushed the door wide. “Get you in, and keep the voices down.”

David scooted in. The music was loud. Antique bears displayed on the wall wobbled along with the bass.

“There are questions that become urgent for a late-night fool risk?”

David leaned against the wall. “I'm tired, you understand me? I feel like hell, and I am out of patience with you. Listen up and no bullshit.”

The Elaki began to sway.

“Be still and turn down that music. No, stay, we don't have time. Look. I
know
there are trillopys in the city. You understand I'm not guessing, I know. My guess is they were smuggled in with your bears, because the bears are lousy with dead bacteria and the trillopys are diseased. Two of them are loose. We've had one victim already, torn to pieces. Now we've got the animals running around spreading this virus. Talk to me now, or I'll throw you to the Feds. God knows what they'll do to you, but your teddy bear days will be over, and you'll never find the elusive Pez.”

“What be the wants?”

“Where are the trillopys? How many are there?”

Sifter considered him, going still in the mode of serious Elaki agitation. “Have car?”

“Yes.”

“Please to transport.

“Okay. But my head hurts. Don't even think about turning on the radio.”

FIFTY-TWO

The Reilly hotel had the most beautiful pool David had ever seen, though the Elaki would most certainly refuse to use it. The pool was a leftover from the old days when the hotel catered to humans, and it was still maintained with the kind of reverential and meticulous care engendered by limitless funds.

David stared through the slatted wood fence. The water moved gently in the darkness, lit from the sides, ripples like a web of wrinkles skimming the restless turquoise surface. Fig trees lined the square white tiles up and down the sides of the pool. Even at night, the white umbrellas were open. They looked more like frilly feminine parasols than poolside umbrellas. In the afternoon they would shade the bamboo chairs and tables that were grouped attractively by the water.

On the left was a green-tiled Jacuzzi. It bubbled softly, heat rising. On the right, up three marble steps, was a shaded terrace and bar. The floor was cool grey slate, the ends bordered by achingly white columns. The entire hotel had a British colonial look that was graceful, elegant, inviting.

It surprised him, how badly he wanted to swim in that pool. The water made him feel thirsty. It shamed him, somehow, that no matter how much money he had, he would never be allowed to swim quietly up and down, never be allowed to sit under the pretty umbrellas, never be allowed to sit in one of the rattan chairs on the terrace and order something cold to drink.

David was relieved when Sifter returned. He had been warned that they were on shaky ground. He had been warned that they were dealing with a powerful diplomat who, however he might be in the wrong, wielded influence they could only guess at.

Sifter led him across a terrazzo floor, the Elaki gliding gracefully, bottom fringe swept sideways. They passed through the white arches, clean and white and impossible. David smelled chlorine from the pool, then they passed through swinging doors into a well-lighted corridor. David could see an Elaki approaching from the other side.

Sifter stopped, holding a fin out. David stopped too and waited, aware that there were courtesy issues involved.

The Elaki moved slowly, like a state procession, and though he was bent to one side, ever so slightly, his bearing was dignified without overreaching into the arrogant land of regal.

The Elaki slid to a stop. Looked David over for a long, silent moment, making David conscious that he had thrown on his jeans and shirt, that he'd be better off with a shower.

The Elaki raised a fin in a motion that was languid and somehow dismissive. “You are the law type official?”

David showed his ID. “I'm a detective with the Saigo City Police Department.”

“You will be good to walk with me slowly, and listen to what I am saying. This will meet with you approval, yes?”

David nodded and fell into pace with the Elaki. He was quite an elder, this one. His inner belly coloring had faded, his scales lacked luster, and he could not straighten up. He moved with the slow care of the aged or the impossibly lazy, but the pace suited David. He was not well.

“I am last of my chemaki. You understand significance, this?”

David was aware of Sifter Chuck, sliding along behind them. He nodded. In human terms, the man had no family.

“What I do have is long-lived companion you know as trillopy. I have the awareness that this bond is seen as indulgence. You would call her a pet.” The Elaki was quiet a minute. “She is domesticated and gives the affectionate companion time. My attachment, however you see the big picture, sir, is genuine and strong. When asked to serve in capacity of diplomatic service, I am tired. But needed. Quite simply, I could not bear to leave her behind. I am assure she is not the threat.”

“That makes three trillopys by my count, sir. Why so many?”

“One alone cannot survive without at least one other. Must have physical presence of others in species. Three is sum total, I do assure.”

“Are all of them infected?” David was prepared to be lied to.