Divine_Scream (27 page)

Click.

Like he had a choice whether to hold or not.

He set the phone down on his knee for a moment and studied his blue shirt, sweatpants, and shoes. Going through the laundry at the Kangjun’s seemed from the distant past now. And the adventure on the building had caused him to sweat so profusely the soil from the Deeper Unseen had purged itself from his skin. He had a notion of these things now, having so much awareness into Banch’s mind and history. Since the soil had purged itself from his skin, the color of his clothing made little difference now—the Assembly would smell him coming, miles away.

His phone beeped. The call to the hospital was lost. He sighed and shut off his screen.

Two minutes later, a call from Doctor Revel came in.

“I’m so sorry for making you wait, Jared. What a mess it is here. I had to take a number. No strings to be pulled for this guy, I guess.”

“No, that’s fine. Did you hurt yourself bad? Are you doing okay?”

“My head feels fine,” he admitted. “But ending up next door with my face in some fresh cut grass got me thinking I might have juggled some brain cells.”

Jared gave a commiserating laugh and said, “Yeah.”

“So… all right. I, uh, I just want you to know that I really liked your dad and you. Your whole family really.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, of course. Of course. I just, I know this is a strange day and weird stuff is happening. It’s not the greatest time to be laying more heavy shit on you. But because I care, this just couldn’t wait. I still thought we should talk about what those test results showed. What did your primary care tell you?”

“The appointment was canceled, so please go on.”

“So you don’t know anything?” asked Peter.

“No, I don’t.”

He grunted and cleared his throat. “Well, all the deficiencies in your blood lead me to believe you have APS. Your own doctor, Saxon, probably would make the same conclusion. Some of his notes were already in the file they faxed me. You case is way worse than your father’s, unfortunately.”

“I’m sorry. AP…?”

“S.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Peter went silent for a beat. “Holy shit. I mean, your dad died from it. Nobody told you? He didn’t say anything? You never asked?”

“I didn’t… know what to ask. I guess.”

“Sorry?”

“Tell me please. What is APS?”

“Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome. I tentatively diagnosed him after his three heart attacks.”

“Dad had three heart attacks? I don’t even remember him having one!”

“They were minor, but significant. He really didn’t tell you? He had to come home from work twice and I think the other happened on the weekend.”

Jared scrubbed his face and wanted to strangle himself. Why hadn’t his father said anything? Why hadn’t he noticed? “I must have been too busy thinking of myself. He was probably too scared it would freak me out, especially after losing mom.”

“He told me he said something to you about it.”

“Well, Doctor, he
lied
.”

Jared’s tone got the cabbie’s attention, and he glanced through the rear view.

“Come on, Jared,” said Peter.

“What is APS then?”

“Abnormal blood clotting. You may not even have traditional APS, but it’s the closest diagnosis to make at this point. You’ll need further screening, possibly require a heart bypass and need to take an antireplase injection daily to keep your clotting under control.”

“I need an injection every day?”

“
Yes
.” Peter’s surprise sounded like this was common knowledge.

“So I need to go to the hospital every day?”

“No, no, you can give the injection to yourself.”

Jared was silent.

“Is that a problem for you?”

“Oh… oh, um, no.”

“Jared, this is serious, serious stuff. You need to get all this done. You need to take care of yourself or—”

“I’ll die,” he finished.

Peter cleared his throat again. “It’s serious. Like I said. A big fight waits ahead of you. But there’s no reason you can’t win.”

“Will I need to take pills?”

“An assortment, why?”

“Nothing. I can do that. Every day though?”

“Yes, Jared. Have you worked on applying for that county health insurance?”

Shit, totally forgot about that, for like the hundredth time.
“Not yet. I will though.”

“Well, don’t let those run-around fuckers kill you—I mean, sorry for the language.”

“It’s fine.”

“Nip this in the bud. Take care of yourself.”

“I know.”

“Keep me in the loop. I’ll send some articles your way from approved sources. Nothing too technical. Ask anything you want and if I don’t know the answer, I will find it for you. I want to help in whatever way I can. Bob was one of my favorite people. One of the best hearts on this big blue earth.”

“I agree.”

“So you’ll schedule a follow-up with a specialist?”

“Of course,” said Jared. “Thank you so much for calling.”

“You’re welcome buddy, any time. We’ll talk soon. Take care of that heart.”

“Sure thing. Bye.”

Jared realized that this was the conversation he was supposed to have this morning with his doctor. In different words perhaps, but the substance should have been the same. And he hadn’t listened. Peter would have then called him later today probably, and he probably wouldn’t have listened to that either.
So afraid. So very afraid. So unsure of how to proceed, how to take that next step.
Without Kaitlin to coddle him and make calls and schedule appointments and go with him to the pharmacy to get his meds, it would cost him his life. How would that have made her feel? She finally gets a part in something she auditions for and leaves Jared when he needs her the most. Of course it wasn’t her fault but she’d undoubtedly feel guilty about it. It made him ashamed of the person he once was and at the same time made him dread becoming that person again if he managed to escape the Assembly and this day from Hell.

Images of the hotel drifted into his mind.

And a day from Heaven.

He sat back into the musty seat and rolled his head to his shoulder and watched the buildings whip past. Warehouses. Industrial complexes. A Stater Bros grocery store. A Chase bank. A Carl’s Jr—

Jared sat up. He recognized this area. Him and Kaitlin got cash out at that Chase bank and ate at that Carl’s Jr on their way to a Future of Mankind concert. He’d seen and remembered this place earlier while walking, before he got the cab.

The driver was driving him away from the beach.

Jared tensed, gripping the legs of his pants. His back straightened.

The door locks clicked in place, the driver checking them. He must have read Jared’s body language.

“Not quite time yet,” said the driver with a new rasp to his voice. “They haven’t recovered fully—we’ll drive a bit, and when the Assembly arrives to the outskirts of the Paled Ocean, this will be over. They will have their gift.”

Jared tried to pull the lock up but couldn’t grip the nub.

“You might want to just accept it and relax, Mr. Kare.”

“Who are you?” Jared asked.

The man’s jade eyes regarded him in the rearview. “I’m a cabbie.” He smiled tenderly.

“Why are you doing this?”

“One of my colleagues decided to speak,
to interfere
—some of us would rather the Assembly lose their gift this time around. However, that desire is not shared by all of us, especially those who don’t have the luxury of living outside the boundaries of the fortress.”

“You are another Silent King then?”

The green in his eyes went fierce. “Just stay quiet.”

“You can’t do this! You aren’t supposed to interfere with mortal affairs. That’s mandate!” Jared was surprised how loud his voice had suddenly become.

“This interference is justified to keep the Assembly performing their function. I’ll not spend the next century managing their depression and angst. I remember the days before gifts were appropriated to the Assembly, and despite what some of my other colleagues believe, it’s a necessary practice. The gifts give them hope and focus. I will
not
be made to bail out the Assembly when they are too tormented to endure. I will not suffer again under the stresses of the dimensions. That’s their job.
Theirs
.”

Jared struck the back of the seat with his foot. “Let me out! You’ve got no right to me. I don’t belong to you.”

“Calm it down, Kare.”

“You all can go to hell.”

“No such thing, but the Fortress is a hell of place.” A dark smirk. The eyes glinted in amusement, seeing Jared’s fear. “They’ll eventually invest their energy in other gifts. They might take a little longer with you though.”

The Silent King laughed.

Jared dipped into his pocket and pulled his phone free.

Another laugh. “Calling mama? Dada? Oh right, I forgot, they both croaked and left you alone.”

“Get screwed.”

“I like this new you, Kare. Troublesome, but fiery.”

Jared started the text message:
911. Anyone nearby, help me. This is Jared. Heading northbound on Bolsa Chica Rd. Yellow taxi. Driver locked me in.

“You’ve been a pain in the ass, sir,” said the King, scratching delicately behind his ear. “You and the Utumm Resona.”

“You’ve no idea yet,” Jared replied. He added recipients to the text and sent the message.

It was almost five minutes later and the Silent King’s head canted to the side. He nodded for a while. Flickers of a smile touched his mouth, as though he received fragments of a radio signal directly into his brain. He must have received the entire message because his smile grew fuller suddenly.

“Oh, this just in—okay. We’ve got it. The Assembly have collected themselves from the disaster you caused.” The King stopped at a red light and slapped the turn signal, making a gleeful
bam
sound. “Looks like we can head to the beach now. I’m sure they’ll be relieved to know they don’t need to find you—that beach makes them a bit skittish, poor souls.”

The light changed and they u-turned.

Jared sent another text.
Southbound. Headed for Seal Beach.

He hadn’t received any reply texts to his call for help. Everything was probably still crazy in the aftermath of the Disturbance Paradigm. He was going to be driven right to the Assembly. Hand-delivered.

“You’re thinking this is unfair, aren’t you?” The jade eyes regarded him in the mirror.

Jared folded his hands in his lap and stared at them.
Bye Banch. Bye Kaitlin and the Kangjuns. Bye world.

The King clucked his tongue. “You know, in one dimension I’m actually helping you escape right now. In another, I was destroyed long ago by the Assembly. And in yet another, I told a doctor your story and he helped to save your life. You see Jared, I’m not always the monster, nor am I always the hero—
I am many
—and when you are many, you cannot control or feel regret for one instance. Multiple ripples in the pond. Some cross. Some don’t. But it all fades. You should try to understand that. Despite your inadequate appreciation of the multiverses, it’s the only concept that should make peace in a person.”

“I’m a toy. What difference does peace make?”

He snorted. “I’m overjoyed you realize that actually. I’m sort of speechless—that’s a joke.”

“Funny.”

“Maybe that death-fairy taught you much more than I realized.”

“She did.”

“Seems so.”

“She taught me,” said Jared, “to go after what you want.”

A group of cars turned at the intersection ahead and paired up side by side.

“And I don’t want to be a gift,” Jared added.

The Silent King’s eyes widened in the mirror as the cars accelerated toward them. “What the hell is that?” He glared back at his passenger. “What is this, Kare?”

Tires screeched as a Jeep and Ford Explorer turned in opposing directions, almost impacting. They effectively blocked the street ahead. Jared could see the surprised faces behind the windshields. He recognized the look because he recognized the feeling they were experiencing—doing something you never dreamed yourself capable of.

With a wild growl the Silent King punched the brakes. More engines roared around them. Brakes whirred from behind. Jared searched out the back windshield. Screaming up the street were three other vehicles: a Toyota pick-up truck, Cadillac, and the Mustang Shelby from earlier. They formed up around the taxi cab.

Doors opened, almost in sync, and the Gilded piled out, hunting rifles wedged under their arms.

“Shit yeah,” Jared said with a grin.

A younger man with shoulder-length brown hair trained his rifle on the car. “Out, out, out!”

Jared couldn’t contain a little jab here. “Looks like things have chang—”

But the Silent King was gone. The driver seat, empty.

A knock on the window startled Jared.

“Are you okay?” asked a woman in a waitress uniform from the Bayou Cat restaurant. She held a rifle across her chest.

“Yeah,” he replied unconsciously. It was really insane how fast they’d mobilized. It had only been twenty minutes since he sent the text.

The woman went around to the driver’s side, opened the door, and unlocked the car. Jared got out and a group of the Gilded surrounded him. The air hung with the scent of burning fuel. All these vehicles had been pushed to their limits. A chorus of different questions rose at once, but when Jared held his hand up, the Gilded silenced.

“I need to get to the beach, as fast as possible,” he told them.

No further questions asked, they guided him to the Mustang.

“I need a great driver,” he admitted. “Every second counts.”

“I took stock car racing lessons for six summers,” said the waitress. “Did ride-alongs with several NASCAR drivers for my last two birthdays.”

“What’s your name?”

“Carol Drayers.”

“You’ll do, Carol.” Jared rounded the car to the passenger side. He got inside, noting the familiar interior.

“Buckle up.” She stashed her rifle in the back seat.

“Right, of course. We’re going fast.”