Trinity (22 page)

“I loved him,” she cried. “And I hate myself for it. But he was there when they left, and he took care of me and made sure I went to school.”

Now, Val thought, was not the time to point out the flip side of this coin. And although Rich’s face was a compressed ruin, Val did feel the need to check for a pulse this time. Who knew how much of the blows had been deflected by all of Rich’s padding?

“I shouldn’t even care. I should be glad. He was your friend too, though.”

She pulled back to look at Val, her eyes panicked and lost. She looked like a wild-child rescued from the desert.

“The Rich I knew and liked hasn’t been around for a long time,” Val said.

“You were best friends,” she said, her voice soft.

Val nodded. “I still remember the good stuff,” he told her, which wasn’t entirely true because a lot of “the good stuff” involved an awful lot of booze and drugs. “Let’s go inside. Get some cool water on your face.”

“Will he be okay out here?” she asked.

Val smiled, unable to help himself. “He’s with Maria now. They’re together again.”

And that seemed to help bring her out of it. Her eyes lost the far off look, and she wiped at them with her hand, leaving a dirt streak across her face. She took a deep unsteady breath, looked at Rich again, then back to Val. “What are we going to do?”

“Put him in the trunk, and we ditch the car. Then we head out of town.”

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do it.”

34

The bags were packed. They were on their way out. A quick stop at the mine to send the Daytona into oblivion, and they were on their way to Santa Fe. Kate’s heart plummeted when she saw the brown and white sheriff’s department car.
No no no!
It was all her fault because she’d gotten Spence involved.

The Daytona stank, a rotten, sweet smell. Rich and Maria, together again. The realization her brother was dead hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Her shoulders ached from wielding the bat, but a kind of disconnect snapped on in her brain. She wanted to leave Lott. When they were somewhere else, somewhere quiet and they were alone, then she could start to process. She’d drawn the line when it came to putting Rich in the trunk. She’d walked around to the other side of the burned-out shed and left Val to it. He’d offered to drive this car, give her the truck, but she said no. She was responsible for it, now.

Maybe Spence wouldn’t notice.

The thought was stupid. It was a quiet dirt road, her car was obnoxious yellow, and Val’s truck was pretty distinct. She couldn’t think of any reason they’d be out here, other than to look for Val. She started to wish they wouldn’t see her, but then her wish snowballed…how far back to wish? Wish she’d never called Spence, wish Val wasn’t babbling about superpowers? Wish they hadn’t had to kill Maria? Wish Rich had never been born? Wish she had never been born?

The car rolled past them and Kate kept her eyes straight ahead, focusing on the road ahead of her, not looking at the cop car. In her peripheral vision she could see Spence and his passenger turning to look at her.

Val followed her in the truck, their bags packed and resting in the bed. Val never intended to go back to the trailer, not ever. This was it, goodbye Lott. Val didn’t slow down either, she noticed, stealing a glance in the rearview mirror. Spence rolled his window down and waved a brown arm at them. When they didn’t stop, he did a three- point-turn and put his lights on.

The turn off to the mine was ahead…but what good would it do? They wouldn’t be hard to follow, and neither the Daytona nor the pickup could outrun the police cruiser. She pulled over. Maybe they wouldn’t smell the rotting stink from her trunk.

She was going to jail.

Val pulled over behind her, and Kate jumped out of the Daytona and went to him, getting to the truck at the same time as Spence and Anderson, the FBI guy.

“Val, where the hell have you been?” Spence asked.

Val rolled down his window. What was he going to say?

“Are you all right? Who was that guy? The real Vargas is out on sick leave.”

For a moment Val wore a desperate, hunted look on his face. He looked from Spence to Anderson and back again. Then he took a deep breath and smiled. “Vargas. From Immigration. That was actually my prison buddy Felix. Playing a joke. Funny guy, Felix.”

“That’s part of what we wanted to talk to you about,” said Anderson. “We ran a background check on Felix Nasiverra and I couldn’t come up with anyone with that name in the New Mexico Penn. Does match a man who’s been missing for six years.”

“Odd,” said Val.

Kate watched around his eyes. He kept them flat and expressionless.

“I’m going to ask you to come down to the station with us for questioning,” said Anderson. He sniffed the air, but seemed to ignore whatever he smelled. The sun beat down, heating the inside of the trunk. It was like her very own slow cooker.

“Ask or tell?” asked Val.

“Tell. Please get in the car, Mr. Slade.”

“I’m sorry Kate,” said Spence. “The deeper we dug, the fishier it got. I figured we could kill some time by looking up this Felix guy, and we couldn’t come up with anything.” Spence looked to Val. “You missed your parole meeting, buddy.”

Val glanced at Kate.

“Step out of the truck, man.”

What was he going to do?

Val opened the door, keeping his hands plainly visible. Kate tried to keep her body between the Daytona and the cops. Sweat poured off her forehead, more than the day’s temperatures warranted.

“What’s going to happen?” she asked.

Her question was never answered. From a distance they heard the sound of a revved up engine, then a flash of red bulleted towards them.

The car was aimed straight at them.

Val shoved Spence out of the way and Anderson jumped free as a new red Monte Carlo slammed into the Otero County Sheriff’s Office sedan.

The driver stepped out. Tall and thin, with a neat shock of dark hair, his features were almost feminine. Felix.

Val’s eyes went wide and he looked around. He landed his gaze on the Daytona and bolted. He pushed past Kate, not even giving her a chance to head for the passenger seat. He slammed the driver’s seat back, started the car, and with a loud backfire that sounded like a gunshot, he took off towards the mine, screeching around the corner and down the turn-off.

Felix looked from Anderson, to Spence, to Kate, and jumped back in the Monte Carlo. He spun dirt as he backed up, and took off after Val.

“That was Vargas,” Spence said.

“We need to take the truck.”

“I’ll drive,” said Kate.

They piled into the cab of Val’s old pickup.
The
Misfits
blasted from the radio, and Spence turned it off. “Same old Val,” he said.

Kate slammed the truck into gear and followed after Val and Felix. The gate was pushed aside, zinc-yellow paint smeared across it. The truck was better suited for the rutted dirt road than either of the other two cars, and she pushed it towards them.

35

His head feeling like it was about to explode, Val pulled the emergency brake out in front of the mine. The Daytona slammed to a halt, carrying with it the sickening odor of death.

Now what? Why had he come here?

They said he could control his environment, surely that meant he could deal with this fucking hum, this pressure. He spent the moment before Felix was on him with his eyes closed, he could make a wall, construct a barrier, to keep it at bay.

It worked. The pressure on his sinuses relaxed, his ears, his brain, his eyes, all of them seemed to deflate. Just in time for Felix to pull the door open.

“You left without saying goodbye.”

Val punched him in the nose, his knuckles howling in pain, and used Felix’s distraction to get himself out of the car.

Now what?

Kate was fucked if the cops found the bodies in the car; he was fucked since Felix pretty much had him. They could have a nice long car chase with the shitty Daytona and the smashed up Monte Carlo, but what was the point? Felix would win. Val was one man; Felix had an army behind him.

Something tan, moving among the rocks caught Val’s eye. He wasn’t just one man. But even if the monster killed Felix, they’d send someone else, on and on until Val threw up his hands and sacrificed himself.

Felix, a hand at his nose, followed Val’s gaze.

“I wondered when that thing would show up.” He fired his funny little pistol at it, striking a rock, which glowed red for a moment after the blast. The creature tucked itself behind a rock, waiting.

“Your girlie and the cops will be here any minute. Come with me. We’ll take your shitty car, take the bodies, she’ll be in the clear, and you’ll be gone. No one will look for corpses up there.” Felix cast an eye to the sky.

Bodies in space. What the fuck.

But how did he know? Val rubbed at his temple…not the hum now, but the enormity of it all.

“You can save my entire race.”

Val shook his head. “I—” he started. What was there to say?

The animal moved behind Felix, and this time Val didn’t look. If it bought him some time…then what? He still had the cops and the FBI to deal with.

“Yeah, I’ll go with you.” He could get Felix’s guard down; give the monster an easy in. He moved towards the Daytona. “Let’s go.”

Felix narrowed his eyes, turned around, but there was no sign of the creature.

It came from behind a rock, Felix squeezed off a laser blast but it went wide, off into the sky. It landed on him, all claws. It pinned Felix to the ground, but instead of julienning him, it looked to Val, as if for approval.

Val looked down at Felix, took a step in closer.

“You win. Just do it,” Felix said, coughing under the weight of the animal.

“Aren’t you stoic.” Val thought back to the good times, all the fun they’d had. Could he order this man’s death?

“If I let you go, will you leave me alone?” Val asked.

“Never.”

Val looked up to see his own truck bouncing along the rutted road. The cavalry was here. Except if they saved him, they were then going to arrest him. The ground started to shake, and he almost lost his balance. Felix used the opportunity to shove off the animal. He leveled his pistol at the truck but the creature was on him again, slicing this time. It managed a cut down Felix’s torso, but not deep enough. Felix fired point blank into its side and it dropped; a smoldering hole in its fur.

Val cried out, and stumbled across the shaking ground to it. The truck stopped, its inhabitants stepped out onto the quaking desert, but Kate, Anderson and Spence weren’t looking at Felix, they were looking behind him, into the gaping mouth of the mine. Felix pulled out a strange phone and dialed a code into it, then tossed it back into his pocket.

The dark mine lit up, all at once, an explosion of white light. From that light, a ship emerged, a flat silver, shaped like a disc.
I wonder if we can communicate with music?
Normally Val would’ve had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

Not now.

“Come with me, now.” Felix’s voice was a command.

“Are you crazy?”

Felix turned, leveled the gun.

How many shots does that thing have?
Val wondered.

Felix aimed at Kate.

And he fired.

No. No. No. Impossible. Val’s knees couldn’t support his weight, but he couldn’t drop, he had to go to her. He crossed the rocky barrens to where Spence laid her down on the ground. His eyes said it all.

Val looked around. They told him he could manipulate his environment. He sucked in a deep breath. Val turned; saw the stinking yellow cur of a car. It reeked of death in the literal sense, but also years of bad memories. Now that he was a superhero, he could melt that fucking thing into a cadmium-yellow puddle. He sent his energy to it. The air smelled of barbecued flesh and gas, hot metal and burning foam. Flames engulfed the car. It looked the best it had since it rolled off the Detroit assembly line. He could feel the heat from where he stood, yards away. The center of the car burned hot—white-hot—and he gave it a push that sent the flames blue. How hot does a crematorium get? How hot does a sun get?

Then everything froze…the tendrils of flame, Spence doing CPR on Kate even though it was useless and she would never breathe again, Felix holding his shitty little pistol.

One of them stood behind him in the deafening quiet, eyes big and black, skin pale and ash colored. The earth no longer rumbled, and Spence, Anderson and Felix looked like statues in a wax museum.

Val turned to face them.

Come with us.

His mind was a tornado, swirling and exploding. He got Kate killed. His one, his only, his love was dead, and he’d done it.

Only we can keep you safe from them.

“Keep me safe? Like you did here? With that?” He pointed at the animal’s corpse. If he’d told it to kill Felix when it had the chance, it would still be alive. And so would Kate. Each thought jabbed into him like an icy needle. He wasn’t worth loving. Like Rich always said: loving him was the single worst decision Kate ever made. And now it killed her.

A weak little pathetic sound squeaked out of his lips. His mother, his girl…even the monster from space who was supposed to protect him. All dead.

We can help her. In exchange for you.

“Help her? How?”

Your biological systems are not so advanced.

Val’s mind thundered. If they could do it, could he? He wasn’t going to leave her. He wouldn’t. How? He looked to Kate. Pictured her healthy, breathing. Pictured the blood off her shirt, the hole in her chest sealed.

You grow strong.
The being sounded like he approved.
But they are stronger. Kill this one
, it gestured with a three-fingered hand to Felix,
and many more will come. They will hunt you always.

“So what do I do?” Val asked. Kate lay under Spence’s fists, looking like a woman taking a nap. The color was back in her cheeks. Val knew that when time resumed, her chest would rise and fall again.

Come with us. They will leave Kate alone. It is critically important that they do.

Why? Val thought; it seemed like an odd thing to say, but now wasn’t the time.

“No,” he said. “I stay with her.”

You must come with us.
The being was more insistent now.

Panic burned in Val’s chest. I can control the environment. Each time it got a little easier. He looked at the beings, imagined its head. Exploding.

We helped you!

“I just want to be left alone!”

They started to scream in his mind as he increased the pressure. The black eyes went wide, just a little bit, the first semblance of emotion Val had seen from one of their kind. The shiny dome-like head exploded then, splattering the ground and Val with gray matter the same color as their skin. Time resumed. Sound whooshed in like air into a vacuum. Kate crawled away from Spence, wondering what he was doing.

“You were shot!”

Val sent the Sangauman ship pitching into the earth. It went up in a rumbling explosion, the shock wave dropping all of them. Anderson started to move towards him, and Val shoved him back with a blast of air.

Felix.

It all came so much easier now, like a gate in his head had popped open. Val felt strong like a god as he broke the bones in Felix’s forearm. Felix gaped at him, and Val snapped the bones of his other arm.

“You fucked with me one too many times. Buddy.”

Felix dropped as Val shattered his knee.

Val pictured Felix’s heart, red throbbing muscle, and with a furrow of his brow, he crushed it. Felix dropped. This time Val looked for a pulse and found nothing. A kick to the ribs and he was satisfied.

The sight of Felix made him stop, and suddenly shame washed over him. He didn’t want to be a killer. He wanted to turn over a new leaf. Be an upstanding citizen. There was a monster in him, though. He was no better than the Space Puma, worse even because it looked like a monster. He’d left Kate behind with Felix and he’d run. He rubbed at his temples. If only he could cry now…but that part of him felt numb and dead. He didn’t want to turn around. He didn’t want to see Kate dead, didn’t want to face her.

“Val, stop!” It was her. Asking him to stop. All around him was destruction and burning. The Daytona, the ship. Fallen beings. None of them human, at least.

He turned to her, standing near Spence. Where was Anderson?

“Please!” Her face was wet with tears. Her hair a mess. What had he done? What was he doing?

“I can’t stop.” He’d run. He’d implode Spence’s heart, Anderson’s heart, take Kate and run. They could come at him forever, let them. He was infinite. He could destroy them. Look at how easy it was with Felix.

“Come on,” Spence took a step towards him.

“Don’t move.”

“We can help you, man.”

Val raised his hand.

“Don’t move. Kate, get away from him.”

She looked at Val. She looked scared. Scared of him. Why the fuck would she be scared of him?

Spence moved again, and Val pictured his heart. He started to squeeze, when from behind him, Anderson stepped up and handcuffed him in one slick, fluid motion. Val let Spence be, wheezing and clutching his chest.

The cuffs were a piece of cake to melt. His hands were free in no time, a jangly bracelet on each wrist, and he went after Anderson this time. Then Spence was on him—he couldn’t do both at once. Spence pulled his nightstick, and for Val, everything went black.