Chaos. Part 18

She felt her body flip into the air and complete a full loop, flying farther than she'd antic.i.p.ated before slamming into the window.

Two bullets punched holes in the window.

"Do you really want a fight, lover girl?" Miranda crouched between Karas and Silvie. "Because, believe me, I can. I will."

She plucked the phone from the carpet and spoke into it. "Good-bye, Johnis." The device shattered in her hand.

Silvie stood.

"You may have brought a few tricks from this other world of yours, but I have it on excellent authority that you can't stop bullets. My aim is much better if I want it to be."

Silvie looked at Karas for direction.

"How did you get past my men?" Karas asked.

"I'll a.s.sume that was a rhetorical question." Miranda whipped out two sets of shackles and tossed one to each of them. "If you think Johnis is out of the woods yet, you don't know me well. We track every step he makes. Put the cuffs on, and I promise you'll see him again. Refuse and I'll be forced to kill you now. So sad."

Silvie blinked. She had no doubt that Miranda could and would do precisely what she said.

"We don't have all night. The helicopter is waiting."

ilvie? Silvie! Silvie, for the sake of Elyon, answer me!" Johnis screamed the last, unable to stem the fear that raged through his mind.

He could hear the miserable witch in the background. Do you really want to fight, lover girl?

"Fight her, Silvie! Kill her!"

Miranda answered. "Good-bye, Johnis."

Click.

He pulled the phone back and stared at it. Then yelled into it again. "Silvie? Silvie!"

The family of four stared at him. He slammed the phone on the counter and paced a quick circle, hands kneading his face, mumbling, "This can't be, this can't be, this can't be a"

"Easy, man," the former said. "You're not making sense."

The small one gained the courage to voice his curiosity. "Who's Alucard?"

Johnis spun to the father. "Do you have a jet?"

"A jet? No."

"I have to get to Romania, man. You have to help me get to Romania! There's a castle up in the mountains, with a dungeon. Worms larger than a grown man, a Shataiki. Alucard. He has Silvie a"

They just looked at him, dumbfounded. A candidate for the fruit farm. How could they understand a word he was saying with their limited knowledge?

"Then how about Denver? You've heard of the Spartan?"

"The hotel? Denver's a good two hundred milesa""

"And I need to get there. It is absolutely imperative that I get there before that witch leaves."

Miranda was probably already gone, but there was a chance that Silvie and Karas had evaded capture. Or managed to hide the three books before Miranda could get her paws on them.

"You're nuts."

"Do you have a Chevy?"

"I have a Ford truck, but if you thinka""

"I'll buy it." Johnis withdrew two coins and tossed them in one palm so they clinked loudly. "These are gold. I'm told gold is very rare here. You could buy two Chevys with this gold. I'll buy your Ford, and you drive me to Denver."

The man eyed the coins skeptically. "How do I know they're real? You don't drive?"

"I do. Most excellently. But that's my offer, I buy, you drive."

THE JOURNEY TO DENVER IN THE TRUCK WAS A HAIR-RAISING affair, because Ted Blitzer insisted on "learning you how to drive proper," as he put it. The road was rough, and the car bounced like a frantic mare, wearing a blister in Johnis's right palm. He found himself yearning for a Chevy. At the very least, a good stallion.

Ted jabbered like a monkey, but Johnis's mind was on Silvie. And the books. And Alucard. And the Roush ordering him into the Black Forest to meet Teeleh. Honestly, he had difficulty remembering exactly how he'd come to this place, bucking down the road in a Ford truck, listening to Farmer Ted talk about how the government was conspiring to steal all the land from rightful owners.

A war is brewing, Ted insisted. He couldn't know how little any war meant compared to what would happen if seven ancient, leather-bound books got in the wrong hands. It could all be over in just a few hours now. In a day or two the whole world would know just how critical the words they'd heard Silvie speak from the stage at Tony Montana's concert really were.

They'd all seen her hold up three books and cry out her challenge to Alucard. The earth hung in the balance of those three books, the three in Alucard's lair, and the one inside his belt.

The farmer took over when they neared the city, and Johnis stared ahead, pretending to listen. But his mind was gone, and his hands were sweaty, and his heart was breaking for Silvie.

Ted dropped him off in front of a towering gla.s.s building with huge red letters that spelled out SPARTAN HOTEL and left to find his brother.

The moment Johnis stepped past the double gla.s.s doors, his worst fears were confirmed. The main atrium was closed off with yellow tape, behind which a dozen police officers worked over several bodies on rolling beds.

"Silvie?" He leaped over the tape and sprinted to the first body. A white sheet covered the victim's head. "Silvie?"

He ripped off the sheet. A man.

"Hey!"

He bounded to the second body, discovered it was another male.

"Hey! Hey, you can't do that!"

As was the third victim.

He whirled to the approaching office. "Where's Silvie? And Karas?"

"Out!" The officer jabbed his flashlight at the door. "This is a crime scene, buddy."

"Please, I need to know if Karas a Kara Longford is one of the victims."

"Out!"

Another policeman stepped in from his right, grabbed Johnis by his arm, and escorted him past the yellow tape.

"Please," he whispered, begging, "Just tell me if there were any women among the victims. I have to know."

"Are you a relative?"

"To whom? One of the victims? How would I know unless you told me who they are?"

"Speak to OIC." The officer shoved him past the door and pulled it firmly shut behind him.

Johnis turned around, saw that several officers were watching from beyond the gla.s.s, and faced the street. He stood on the sidewalk, immobilized by indecision.

He was one among a sea of onlookers in a huge city of blazing lights, and he was alone. Lost. A dozen alternatives screamed through his mind.

He could hijack a Chevy and try to find the Jet field. Foolish.

He could take an officer captive and force them to take him to Romania. Absurd.

He could stand atop the police car parked in front of him and begin to scream at the top of his lungs. Hold up the one book in his possession. Hope that the cameras would put him on the Net so that Alucard could come after him ., .

But he couldn't risk giving up the book now, not even for Silvie's sake. Could he? Alucard now had six of the books. The one in Johnis's belt was the only thing that stood between the Shataiki anda"

Johnis caught his breath. The riddle in the desert pool exploded in his mind.

The west was this world, he knew that nowa"paradise gone amuck. But how would the Dark One destroy this world? By doing what the legends said he'd done once before. Release the Shataiki from the desert reality into this one. What if the seven books could create a breach between the worlds, allowing the Shataiki to physically swarm into this world, destroying it as they had after breaching the barrier between the Black Forest and the Colored Forest?

What if evil showed itself in physical form in this world as it had in his world? The sea of humanity in front of him became Horde? This was something for which Alucard would patiently wait two thousand years.

He withdrew the black book tucked in his belt. Turned it in his hands. Fanned through its blank pages. According to Karas, the original seven blank Books of History didn't work like the rest of the blank books.

One of the original books could take you to a simulation called Paradise.

Four books could take you from one world to the other.

All seven books could undo the rules that governed these books and create a breach for the Shataiki. Maybe worse.

Tears of desperation filled his eyes. I'm sorry, Silvie. 1 don't know what to do.

"Johnis."

He spun to his right. A woman stood on the sidewalk, her arms by her sides, heels together. She wore jeans and black boots. A red blouse hung on her thin frame. Her hair was long and dark next to skin so pale that it seemed to glow in the night.

All of this Johnis saw in a blink. But it was the scar on her cheek that his eyes settled on. His heart jumped.

"Darsal?"

Her eyes scanned the street as she hurried to his side. "Come with me."

"What a how's this a I thoughta""

"You thought what they think. That I'm dead." She took his arm and guided him down the sidewalk, glancing around nervously. "Do I look dead to you?"

"What a what happened?"

She spoke in a rush, quickening her steps, "I just flew in from Turkey, where I've had my head buried in the caves for two weeks. And what do I see? A news story of Silvie, standing on a stage, holding up three Books of History. I got here as soon as I could."

Darsal looked at him. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"We all thought you were dead."

"Karas made herself known. I made myself dead. They have the three books?"

"How long a?"

"Ten years, just like Karas. Where are Silvie and the books?"

"But Alucard had your book!"

Darsal stopped. "You a you've seen him?"

"They took me."

"Miranda. To Romania." She walked again, practically dragging him now. "I had to let them have the book to complete the illusion that I was dead. I'd arranged for a doctor to confirm it, take my body, but the book left no doubt. One book by itself was no use to me anyway." She paused. "Where is Silvie?"

"They have her."

Again Darsal stopped. Fear spread through her eyes. "And the books?"

Johnis took a breath and looked at the book in his hands. It shook slightly. "Six of them."

Her eyes dropped to his hands. Then back up to his face.

She spun and began to run. "Hurry!"

Johnis gripped the book tight and ran after her. "Where?"

"They'll be coming! We can't let them have that book!"

He sprinted after her, around a corner into an alley. And then she began to run, really run, like the wind.

As did he, feeling a surge of confidence with each step.

They flew by an old drunk, who must have wondered what had been slipped into his drink. She came to a puddle and took to the air, leaping twenty feet, with Johnis in the air behind. They landed lightly and sprinted on without missing a step.

Darsal's car waited on a corner a mile from the Spartan. She vaulted over the roof, threw the door open wide, and spun in. Clearly she'd had plenty of experience.

Johnis slid in beside her and slammed his door. "Its a Chevy?"