Mortal Fear (64 page)

Whats the number of the data line? Drewe asks, her finger pressed to the space bar.

Six-oh-one, four-two-seven, three-one-one-four.

She repeats the number into the headset, then says, Do you have that on your screen, Edward?

Berkmann says nothing.

Call me in thirty seconds. Im attaching the phone now.

I scrabble behind a bookshelf with my left hand, trying to disconnect the answering machines electrical plug while holding the .38 ready in my right in case Berkmann breaks down the door.

Hurry! Drewe pleads.

I have it. Dropping the base into Drewes lap, I shove the electrical plug into the back of the power supply that feeds clean electricity to the EROS computer. What the hell are you trying to do? I ask again.

Im going to get you a shot at him.

What? How? I ask, clicking the RJ-11 jack into the back of the modem.

Just be ready.

I dont think hes listening to you anymore.

The ringing phone makes a liar of me.

Drewe reaches for it, but I grab her wrist. Let the machine get it, then pick up.

After the machine answers, Drewe picks up and says, Just a second! over my outgoing message. When it finishes its run, I press MEMO, which will not only record Berkmanns words but also allow me to hear everything he says through the answering machine.

Are you there, Edward? Drewe asks.

Yes.

Even transmitted by the tinny speaker of the answering machine, that single wordspoken without the digital midwife of Miless voice-synthesis programcommunicates
more subtlety and danger than the whole of Berkmanns words so far.

I like that better, Drewe says.
Much
better.

The little speaker hisses and crackles in her lap.

Im coming to the window, Edward. She rises from the chair.

No. Come to the back door.

Drewe freezes, her eyes asking me what mine are asking her. Is Berkmann really at the back door? Theres no way to know.

Harper wont let me. But Im coming to the window.

Despite my fraying nerves, I force myself to let her cross the room to the right front window. She seals the transmitter of the phone with her palm and whispers, Youre mad as hell. Youre losing it. Youll kill me before you let me go out there.

What?

She gives me a frantic look like, Come on, stupid! When I slap the windowpane, that means hes exposed. Thats your shot. Not until then, okay?

Before I can argue, Drewe grips the blind cord in her right hand and takes three steps backward, pulling the blind to its highest position and exposing six vertical feet of glass.

Can you see me, Edward? she says into the phone.

Berkmann doesnt answer. Hes not about to reveal his position by admitting he can see her. What is he thinking at this moment? The only light in the office comes from the halogen desk lamp, but it falls across Drewe from the side, illuminating her white robe and still-damp hair with a diffuse yellow glow. Berkmann would probably like to smash the window and snatch her out through it, but our house is built off the ground, which would make that very tough to do. He also knows Im armed.

Edward? Drewe says again, her voice plaintive.

Still nothing.

The smell of gasoline is strong by the wall, but Berkmann hasnt lighted it yet. My first instinct is to move to the other window, ten feet down the wall from where Drewe stands. That would give me the best field of fire. But if Berkmann is out front, he knows that too.

Where is Harper?
he asks suddenly.

I whirl toward the EROS computer, my finger on the trigger. Id forgotten that the only way Ill hear his voice now is through the answering machine across the room.

Drewe has put a hand on the window frame to steady herself. Shes been acting with so much assurance that I assumed she was as confident as she looked. But shes far from it. In fact, now that Berkmann has answered, she seems too flustered to respond.

As I watch her floundering, the scenario she sketched out comes back to me. Pressing my chest flat against the wall between the windows, I extend my right arm, edge along the wall, and press the barrel of my .38 against her left temple.

You see him now? she asks, her voice full of genuine shock.

Youre going to die for that, Harper.

Berkmann is definitely in front of the house.

Thats not a good way to start this negotiation, Edward, Drewe says.

Im not negotiating.

This talk, then. That synthesized voice was so sterile. Not like this. Your real voice is much more intriguing.

Shut up, damn you! I yell, supplying what seems like my appropriate line.

Im going to burn you alive,
Berkmann says coldly.

FUCK YOU! I close my eyes and try to picture the scene outside. Drewes Acura is parked broadside to the house, about twenty yards from the window. The Explorer is ten yards closer to the house, but farther to the left than the Acura.

Harper wont hurt me, Edward, Drewe says. He doesnt have the guts. Just like he didnt have the guts to tell me about Erin.

Why dont you try walking out then! I scream.

I dont have to, she says in a strange voice. Edwards going to get me out. She turns into the barrel of the .38 and gives me a look that could freeze mercury. Would you really shoot me, Harper? Lets see if you will.

She looks back into the darkening yard and says, You know what would kill him, Edward?

What?

If I told him the truth about sex with him.

Tell him.

Shut up, goddamn it!

Ive never had an orgasm with Harper inside me. Not in three years of marriage and a year of sex before that. Of course he
thinks
I have. Sad, isnt it?

That will soon change.

Berkmanns voice sounds different somehow. More strained.

I honestly cant believe Erin enjoyed sex with him, Drewe goes on. Because she knew about sex, I can tell you. You wouldnt believe some things she did.

Berkmann says nothing.

My gun arm is tingling the way it did twenty years ago, when I reached into the fort to pull Miles out. I sense Berkmann aiming at my hand the way I sensed that rattlesnake. It would be a risky shot for him, firing through glass so near to Drewes head. But he might try it with a tranquilizer dart. I take a quick step backward, pulling the .38 behind the frame of the window.

What kinds of things?
Berkmann asks suddenly.

Drewe glances at me. I saw her get out of a DUI ticket by making a highway patrolman... you know, in his pants. I mean it. She didnt even take off her clothes. His either. It was sort of like a slow dance on the side of the road. Erin didnt care. To her sex was like breathing.

And to you?

I know how I
want
it to be. I want it to be... transcendent. Am I wrong to want that?

No.

The few times Ive ever managed to get... aroused enough, Harpers already finished. Do you know how to touch, Edward? Where to touch?

I know places you dont know you have.

You slut! I scream. Hang up!

Tell him what youll do if I hang up, Edward.

Ill light that gasoline, Harper. And when you come running out, Ill shoot you in the pelvis. I have the deputys gun, and Im an excellent shot. I have Officer Mayeuxs gun too, in case youre wondering.

I grit my teeth and close my eyes. I cant see Mayeux giving up his gun while alive. This isnt working. Drewe thinks shes stalling, but Berkmann isnt sitting still. Darting to my desk, I scrawl a message on a legal pad with black magic marker. Then I return to the wall and hold it up where Drewe can see it by looking slightly to the left.

In the crackling silence, Drewe stares at me like a little girl who has walked out onto a high-diving board and lost the nerve even to walk back to the ladder. As I watch, she seems to waver on her feet. Yet the moment I move toward her, she snaps erect and holds up a hand to stop me.

Ive thought a lot about your transplant work, she says. Im the one who first figured out what you were doing. I never thought it was really possible, though. She waits in vain for an answer. Its not possible, is it? Thats why you gave up?

Silence. Then,
Its not only possible, its simple. The problem is the illegality, the inconvenience of obtaining donors and recipients for testing.

I nod encouragement to Drewe. Shes found the right button to push.

You can really keep someone youthful past the normal aging curve?

Of course.

You could keep me young?

Im going to, Drewe. When the women you went to school with are fighting menopause and osteoporosis, youll be skiing in Saint Moritz, making love as long and as often as a thirty-year-old.

But why me?

Ive seen my mistake, Drewe. Whats the point of immortality without someone to share it with? The only real immortality is genetic anyway, at least for now. You shall bear my children. I could say Ive chosen you, but this was all written
long ago, by fate. When I realized how Harper had tricked me with Erin, and that you were the one I wanted, I thought of harvesting Erins pineal for you. There was a twenty percent chance that she would be a perfect tissue match, and at least it would have given her death some meaning. But I didnt. I knew you probably hadnt reached the stage where you could see the rightness of it.

Youre right. Thank you for not doing that.

There are always other sources. But first the children. Then more research. In forty years, who knows what might be possible? All that I have is yours, Drewe. My wealth and my talents.
Berkmann pauses briefly, but when he speaks again there is new urgency in his voice.
I want you to walk outside now, Drewe. Harper will not shoot. You must believe me.

I dont know what hell do. He hates you for telling his secret. He said you wouldnt light the gasoline, and he was right. What am I supposed to do?

You must come now, Drewe, or Ill be forced to... to take risks.

Wait! Dont do anything! Harpers already scared to death!

Berkmann says nothing.

Edward?

Silence.

She glances at me, her face pale. Shes lost him again, and she knows it. I glance down at my wrist, then remember I gave my watch to Drewe. It seems as though shes been at the window forever, but help is still five to ten minutes away. I am about to yank Drewe out of the window when she reaches down and tugs at the belt of her robe, loosening it. With her left hand, she pulls aside the terry cloth, exposing her left breast.

Can you see me, Edward? she asks, her voice like taut wire.

Berkmann doesnt respond. But hes looking. I know it. Drewe knows it too. She cups the breast in her free hand, leans forward, and presses the nipple to the glass. Edward?

Nothing.

No child has ever suckled at this breast.

Silence.

Do you want to do that, Edward?

Yes.

She starts at the sudden reply. Its almost as if Berkmann vanished before our eyes, then reappeared. Would you brush my hair if I asked you to? she asks, recovering quickly.

Yes.

It needs brushing. I work so hard, I never have time to take care of it. Would you take care of it?

Yes.

Berkmanns voice sounds strangely constricted. Drewe waits, then says, You lost your mother too young, didnt you?

Yes.

And you never had a sister?

No.

Look at me, Edward. Drewe lets the robe fall open, then flattens her hand like a starfish on the windowpane.

Time,
he says in a strangled voice.
No time. Youve got to come out now. Please. HE WONT SHOOT.

Ill come, Edward. But I dont want Harper to die. However he may have betrayed me, hes the father of my sisters child. I would spare him for that alone.

I wouldnt.

But you will do WHAT I SAY! she proclaims in a voice so alien it sends a shiver through me. BECAUSE I SAY SO. DO YOU HEAR ME, EDWARD?

A stunned silence. Then:
If you want to come out, why do you care about... him?

Im trying to resolve this, Edward. Dont make it harder than it has to be.

Prove you dont care about him.

I will.

Drewe pulls away from the window, her chest coming up with a sticky sound, her nipples hard from the coolness of the glass. Do you see me, Edward? Im not pretending, like that brown-skinned Indian girl. I AM THE ONE.

The shock of Drewes nudity combined with her brazen voice trips something in my brain. This is it. If shes ever
going to bring Berkmann out, its now. I only hope she remembers to slap the glass.

Are you big now, Edward?