Walkers (24 page)

Salvador said nothing more for a
moment or two, but put his head on one side, questioningly, asking Henry to understand
why there could be no question of destroying the creature where it lay. ‘You
understand me?’ Salvador asked at last.

‘You see what I mean?’

Henry felt terrible. He was sweating
and shaking and chilled, all at the same time. He wiped his greasy forehead
with the back of his arm.

‘I don’t know what to say to you,
Salvador. The danger is extreme. If you don’t kill this creature now, then
believe me, you will regret it for the rest of your life.’

Salvador’s eyes began to darken.
‘That is not a threat, I hope.’

‘A threat?’ Henry expostulated, in
disbelief. ‘My dear Salvador, I don’t have the power or the means to make any
threats, not even to my ex-wife, and certainly not to you. I am talking about
that, that thing down there in that excavation. What do you think it is,
Salvador? What do you honestly think it is? You saw what it did to your
officer, when it was scarcely grown. What do you think it can do now? Look at
it! It’s the spawn of a Devil, that’s what it is! And you must kill it!’

John Belli came over and said, very
brusquely to Henry, ‘You – you and your two playmates. I want you out of here.
That creature down there is evidence, and it has to be pathologically examined.
I don’t want any of you anywhere near it, do you understand me? You’re a potential
threat to that creature, in my opinion, and I want you back beyond that
barrier, out of my way.’

Gil said, ‘Mister, we’re no threat
to that creature; but that creature is a threat to humankind.’

‘He’s right,’ Susan added. ‘That
creature is the spawn of a Devil.’

John Belli sighed, and rubbed his
chin. ‘Salvador,’ he appealed, with badly concealed impatience.

Salvador said, ‘He’s right, I’m
afraid, you three. You’re going to have to back off. It’s plain regulations, as
much as anything else. Just go back behind the barrier, you can see quite a lot
from there. But, you know, keep quiet, or else I’m going to have to move you
further, or even take you downtown for obstruction.’ Henry looked at Salvador
steadily. ‘One last appeal,’ he said, with a dry mouth.

Salvador said, ‘I’m sorry, but no.’

Henry and Gil and Susan reluctantly
backed away from the excavation, and Salvador escorted them to the police line.
‘These people are allowed to stay here,’ Salvador told the officers.’ But no
nearer, you understand me?’

The three of them waited behind the
line while the Scripps researchers carried on with their careful clearing away
of the damp black sand. John Belli walked off after a while, and then drove
back on to the beach in his station-wagon, backing up towards the excavation
until he was only fifteen feet away from it. He climbed out of the wagon and
let down the tailgate.

‘Let’s just pray that the creature
can’t survive, once they’ve taken it out of the sand,’ said Henry.

‘It’ll survive,’ said Gil, tersely.

Susan said, ‘We can still pray.’

‘Who to?’ Gil asked. ‘God? Or
Ashapola? Or the San Diego Police Department? To Serve and Protect?’

John Belli took blankets out of his
station-wagon and shook them out. He handed them down to the researchers; and
even though Henry couldn’t see what they were doing, he guessed that they were
wrapping the creature up now, so that they could lift it out of the hole. After
a lengthy pause and a long inaudible discussion, one of the officers went off
to Salvador’s car to fetch a coil of canvas webbing, and this was lowered down
to the researchers.

Eventually, just as the sun touched
the edge of the sea and began to flatten across the horizon, the
blanket-covered creature was lifted out of the hole by the combined efforts of
the three Scripps researchers, two police officers, John Belli, and Salvador
Ortega. From the way that they lowered the creature immediately on to the
stretcher, Henry could see that it was enormously heavy in proportion to its
size.

‘That looks like it really weighs
something,’ Gil remarked.

Henry nodded, biting at his lip.

There was another conference between
the police and there searchers, and then they gathered around the creature and
carried it over towards John Belli’s station-wagon, sliding it carefully into
the back. John Belli closed the door. Henry saw Salvador say something to him
before locking the door. Henry also noted how deeply the rear suspension of the
station-wagon had subsided.

It took another ten minutes for John
Belli to drive off the beach. His rear wheels sank so far down into the sand
that the police officers had to go looking for pieces of driftwood to wedge
under them, to give him some traction. At last, with a spray of sand, his
station-wagon whinnied off up the beach, and jounced on to the road.

Salvador walked over to the police
line with his hands in his pockets. ‘Well, my friends,’ he said, ‘that is all
there is to see, for today.’

‘Where is Belli taking it?’ Henry
asked him.

‘He’ll take it downtown, first of
all. But the Scripps people have a claim on it, too.

Once Belli has examined it in
relation to the death of the girl, he will transfer it to La Jolla. There, they
will be able to analyse it biologically, and tell us something about its
life-cycle.’

He smiled. ‘I am sorry you were
asked to come back here, but John Belli is very sensitive when it comes to
interference, of any kind.’

Gil said, ‘We weren’t interfering,
sir, believe me. If anybody’s been interfering, it’s those Scripps people and
your friend Belli. This creature isn’t a joke, sir. It’s a living epidemic.’

Salvador looked at him sternly.
‘Nobody suggested that it was a joke, my boy. There are no jokes when it comes
to the death of a human being, believe me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Gil. ‘But you
should have listened. We know what we’re talking about.’

‘You don’t know anything,’ said
Salvador. ‘And just remember that you are only permitted to stay as close as
this through my good offices.’

Henry put in, quietly, ‘Was the
creature still alive when you lifted it out of the hole?’

As far as I could tell,’ Salvador
told him. ‘Its heart was still beating.’

Susan said, ‘Its face – did you get
a look at its face?’

Salvador shook his head. ‘It was all
wrapped up in blankets. They soaked the blankets that covered its face with
water, and then bundled them tight around its head. I guess they supposed that
this would simulate the effect of having wet sand all around it.’

‘Well,’ said Henry, in resignation,
‘I suppose you have done what you consider to be your legal duty. But please
may I ask you to make sure that the creature is kept firmly locked up, and that
there is always somebody there to guard it.’

Salvador stared at him narrowly.
‘What
do
you know, Henry?’

‘I know nothing, except that this
creature is destructive and malevolent, and that it will very quickly grow into
something that neither you nor I nor anybody else is capable of handling.’

‘And who told you this, that you’re
so certain about it?’

‘I can’t tell you that. I promised
not to. But, believe me, it came direct from the highest possible authority.’

Salvador said, ‘I recognise only two
authorities, Henry. The San Diego Police Department, and God. If it wasn’t
either of those, then I’ m really not interested.’

Henry said, ‘It wasn’t the San Diego
Police Department.’

Salvador laughed .His driver had
started up his car, and the Scripps men were tidying up their equipment. ‘I
have to go now,’ he said, and waved. ‘But I am sure that I will bump into you
again. Thank you for all your frightening warnings! I am sure that you annoyed
John Belli no end.’

When he had gone, Henry and Gil and
Susan walked back up the beach to the promenade.

‘Would you like a drink?’ Henry
asked them.

Susan said, ‘No, thanks. And you
should stay off it, too. We’ re going to be Night Warriors tonight.’

‘That’s all very well for you to
say,’ Henry protested, ‘but I have the ancient ancestor of all the hangovers
that ever were.’

‘You won’t get rid of it by
drinking.’ I won’t get rid of it by not drinking, either. So I might just as
well drink.’

Susan took hold of his arm, and
walked along the promenade with him towards his cottage. It was growing dark
now. Up above their heads the glow of sunset was gradually fading away, and the
gulls were turning against the breeze in their last search for insects. Susan
said, ‘Just for me, as a personal favour, will you not have any more to drink
tonight?’

Henry made a face. ‘I’m not at all
sure that I could cope with being a Night Warrior without a drink.’

‘Don’t tell me you’re that much of
an alcoholic.’

‘Did I ever say that I was an
alcoholic? Of course I’m not an alcoholic. I didn’t drink at all last Tuesday,
not one drink all day. I’m a heavy drinker, sure, but I drink because I like
it. It makes me feel good. I’m not furtive about it. I don’t hide bottles of
vodka down the back of the sofa. And I don’t drink anything that I don’t like.
I had a bottle of Malmsey in the house for months, and never even touched it.
Now, your genuine alcoholic, he’ll drink anything.’

Susan squeezed him closer. ‘The
trouble is, Henry, we’re really going to have to depend on you tonight. You’re
the centre of the whole thing, the charge-keeper.

Supposing something goes wrong
because you’ve had one too many drinks?’

Henry said, ‘I promise you, I can
handle it. There are some people who can, and there are some people who can’t.
But I happen to be one of the people who can handle it.’

Susan said, ‘You know that I lost my
parents?’

They had reached the corner by
Henry’s cottage now. Gil had been walking a little way behind them, and he kept
his distance, pretending to be looking out to sea, where a dark curling cloud
hung in the shape of a question-mark.

Henry said nothing, but looked back
at Susan, serious faced.

‘They were in a car-crash,’ said
Susan. ‘They were coming back from a dinner-party at Escondido, and they went
off the road by Lake Hodges.’

‘I’m truly sorry,’ Henry told her.
Susan lifted her head and looked Henry straight in the eye. ‘The medical
examiner said that my father had twice as much alcohol in his blood as the
legal limit.’

Henry laid a hand on her shoulder.
He attempted a smile, but it didn’t come out very convincingly. ‘Well,’ he
said. ‘I guess there isn’t any answer to that.’

Gil came forward, and held up his
left arm, showing his wristwatch. ‘We have to arrange a time,’ he said. ‘How
about ten o’clock?’

‘That’s a little early for me,’ said
Henry. ‘Let’s make it eleven, shall we? Otherwise there won’t be a hope of my
being asleep, and you two will be left on your own.’

‘Eleven’s okay with me,’ said Susan.
‘My grandparents go to bed at ten-thirty, and that’s when the television gets
switched off. There isn’t a hope in hell of getting to sleep before then.’

Henry said, ‘Eleven it is, then,’
and quoted from
Macbeth:
‘When shall
we three meet again – in thunder, lightning, or in rain?’

Susan quoted back at him, ‘When the
hurly-burly’s done – when the battle’s lost and won.’

Henry took his hand away from her
shoulder. ‘I’m afraid that you might be right.’

He watched Gil and Susan walk back
along the promenade toward Solana Beach. It was still light enough for them to
be able to make their way along the shoreline, and the tide was well out.
Romantic, he thought, on a warm night like this, a night full of expectations
and promises.

But also a night of fear, he
thought, as he unlocked his front door, and stepped into his silent
living-room. All that was gleaming was the curve of the television screen, and
the half-empty vodka bottle on the table.
They
shine,
he thought, as he closed the front door behind him;
the two placebos for every sickness known to
man,
physical or mental.
A fifth
of vodka and half an hour of
The Pyramid
Game,
and insensibility will supervene, guaranteed.

He switched on the lamps beside the
sofa. His wristwatch was lying where he had left it last night, next to a
dog-eared copy of Spinoza’s
Ethics.
He
picked up the book first. For some reason that he couldn’t remember, he had
underlined the words ‘We feel and know that we are eternal”. Then he picked up
his watch. Seven-eighteen.

Nearly four hours to go. How was he
going to occupy himself for four hours?

He could finish his thesis. He could
read more of Spinoza. He could take a shower and wash his hair. He sat down,
and slowly unlaced his sneakers. He looked up, and there was the vodka bottle
shining at him.

S
he was pushing her shopping-cart
through Ralph’s when the young man came around the corner pushing his
shopping-cart and collided with her.