Baker eased forward toward the slope, his movements
slow and measured. Pressing his body close against the hill,
he climbed on all fours, aiming toward a small stand of dogwood at the summit. He could hear words now. They were frightened, pleading words in a woman's voice. Its
sound was despairing, as if she knew the words were use
less.
He reached the crest and he could see them. There were
two men, bent or kneeling low within a copse that bordered
the bridle trail. Baker could not see the woman. She was
pinned beneath them, lost in the shadow of their bodies. One
man, a shadow much larger than the other, appeared to be
pinning her arms outstretched above her head while the
o
ther knelt astride her. The smaller man held a knife with a
blade that was long and thin. He raised it for a long moment
and held it aloft,
rolling it between his fingers so that she
could see the flash of faraway park lights along the blade.
Then his arm came down slowly and he pointed the knife at
where her eyes must have been.
“Come on, man,” Baker heard the other shape say. “We
don't have all night for this.”
“Shit, we don't,” the knife answered. “Look what we got
here. We ought to take her someplace for a week.”
“Oh, hey, please,” came the woman's voice again. “You
don't have to hurt me.” Her voice was stronger now. Baker
knew that she was talking about the weapon. About being cut. Her tone said that she'd accepted whatever else they might do to her. If they just wouldn't mark her. If they
wouldn't kill her.
The smaller man understood. With his free hand he tore
slowly at her upper clothing. She tensed but did not move as his fingers ran over her skin, not until he found some part of
her flesh and twisted at it. The woman's body bucked and
heaved. A desperate flash of rage pushed through her fear. “You little bastard!” She sucked in her breath and spat full in his face. Once more she drew the breath of a scream, but a hand slashed hard across her face. Again it struck, back
handed, and the scream became a cough. Her body sagged
and was still.
“See that?” he hissed. ”I just saved you from yourself. You were going to scream, and I told you if you did that I
was going to let your air out with this knife.” He pressed the blade against her throat, and once more her body arched be
neath him. But she made no further sound.
“That's better,” he said. “You have to learn to be nice. Me
and my friend here are your fans, you see. You have to be nice to your fans. But you, you cunt, you don't know about
being nice, do you? You didn't want to come party with us,
you called me bad names, you even scratched me here
on
my neck.”
“And she tried to knee me in the balls,” the big one com
plained.
“See? Even him. You don't know how to be nice at all.”
His left hand did something. He must have grabbed her hair and twisted it because her face jerked into what light
there was. “Miss Burke? You're not answering me, Miss
Burke.”
Baker had straightened to his full height. He'd begun to move forward, but the name seemed to stop him. A look of confusion crossed his face and he lowered his head to peer more closely through the hazy light. He tried to think. He
squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the fingers against his
temples in an effort to block the shove that was starting to build. Abel was back.
Baker tried to ignore him, turning his thoughts instead to
the whirl of his own emotions. There was hatred. And there was a stab of fear that caused his heart to break into a run
ner's pace. The men had knives. And Sonnenberg or no, he
was still human enough to fear them. And too, there was a
small shock of recognition. He knew that name and that
face. Twice that name had touched his life, and now it was here and it should not be here.
“Abel? What is this, Abel?”
Abel pushed again but he did not answer. Baker shook
him off and his own rage returned.
The rage came because he knew the men. He knew
them in a different way than he knew the woman, but he
knew them. He knew their kind. They were not what he
expected when he first heard the woman's cries. They
weren't park people. Their clothing looked like Bloomingdale's. Their hair, even in this light, had a blown and
sculptured shape, expensively barbered. Yet Baker was
barely surprised. It was as if he knew what he would find.
What Abel would find. And he'd found him. The one with the knife, the talkative one. The sadistic little shit who af
fected a kind of evil logic when he spoke. He was another
taker. A destroyer. This one, Baker thought, was very
much like that other. (You son of a bitch. You drunken son
of a bitch. You killed them ... Jesus, look at my bike. Stu
pid fucking broads made me bust up my bike . . . Your
bike? Your bike? I'll kill you, you— Hey, back off, ass-
hole. Why don't you keep them off the fucking streets where
they...)
Baker dashed the picture from his mind. Just in time.
The memory was becoming too fresh and the pain was too
real, and it almost made him say Abel's name aloud. It is
you, isn't it, Abel? You found this one like you found all the
others.
The pain stabbed at him.
“Not yet, Abel. Maybe not at all this time”
The pain came harder.
“Abel, there's something different here
y
isn't there. Why
is Tanner Burke here? And these two. How did you know
they 'd be here
y
Abel ? ”
No answer.
But Baker could feel Abel pacing inside his brain while
the soft one with the blank face sat silently in his corner. If
there was any furniture in there, Abel would be kicking chairs and tables out of the way. Kicking. Smashing. His
eyes locked all the while upon the steel door that only Baker
could open. Baker could feel the door shaking, bulging.
Abel had his shoulder against it now.
“No, Abel. Not this time. These are mine.”
“Don't!” The woman choked. More cloth was tearing.
A bolt of pain seared Baker's eye and tears flooded over
it.
“No, Abel. All by myself, without you. I'm more than just
your legs. More than just a stable boy who's here to let you
out every time you snort and kick.”
The shape of the one with the knife changed. His but
tocks raised higher as he reached to his underside and
tugged at himself, pulling loose his clothing. Baker tossed
his head violently.
“That's it, dirt bag,” Baker heard his own voice explode
through the park as he stepped forward into a slant of light.
“Get your filthy hands off—”
A battering ram struck from inside his head
and both eyes
erupted in a wash of salt water.
“Oh, damn you. Damn you,
Abel. I can't see
.
The one with the knife made a spinning leap and then
scrambled to his feet. The big one rocked sideways on his
knees, fumbling at his pocket.
“Who the fuck are . . ” The voice of the smaller man
trailed off into silence. He saw at once the anguish on
Baker's face and the gleam of tears and now he caught a scent of fear. Confidence sprang back. He stretched to his
full height and breathed deeply. A smile came as he let it out.
With deliberate slowness, he reached for the zipper of his trousers and pulled it shut. Next he fingered his belt buckle as if deciding whether to clasp it, then he let it fall undone.
His message to Baker was clear. This would not take long.
“They have knives,” the woman shouted. She tried to rise
as the bigger man eased away from her, but he seized her
hair and slammed her head against the grass.
“And look what we have here,” the shorter one said al
most pleasantly. “We have a concerned citizen.” As he
spoke, he circled to a spot between Baker and the bridle
path. Baker's back was now to a thick wall of privet.
“Concerned citizen,” the young man said through his
teeth, ”I want to explain this problem you have.” But his
eyes had still not focused fully on Baker. They darted around
and past him, not yet ready to believe that one man alone
would have faced them. Not without a weapon already
aimed. But this one was alone. “Your problem is you have
only two ways to go.” He raised his knife for Baker to see.
“If you come at me, or run, or anything like that, I'm going
to cut out your fucking heart.” He raised the index finger of
his other hand. “However,” he said brightly, “it happens that
you have another choice.” The young man slowly tilted the raised finger and pointed it at the base of the nearest dog
wood. “If you'll just ease over to that little tree there and sit
down, what I'll do is strap you to it with your belt. Your
pants will get a little dirty, but the good part is you don't die.
The even better part is you get a front row seat while we play
with Hollywood over there.”
Baker's fingertips brushed across his eyes and returned to
his temples, keeping his face in shadow. He heard few of the
young man's words as he struggled painfully to will Abel
back and away from the door. It was no use.
“Hey Jace,” the big one called, “this guy's cryin'.”
Baker's head was pounding so badly he could hardly
think. He had only to lean forward an inch or two and the bat
tering ram would crash against the door. Abel could not get
out unless he let him out. He knew that. But now he knew
that Abel could stop him too. Abel would not let him fight.
Baker cleared his throat.
“I'm going to give you once chance,” he said hoarsely.
“Leave now, and no one will stop you.” Baker knew as he
said the words that they were useless. These two would not
leave. He said them to spite Abel, but he knew in his heart
that that was just as useless.
The face of the shorter man clouded in confusion. “What
is this 'leave'?
You got a gun?
You're a karate freak? What?”
“Something like that,” Baker answered wearily. “Please
get out of here.”
The young man threw up his hands in pretend frustration.
“See that?” he said toward the sky. ”I tried to be reasonable.
Hey, Sumo. Didn't I try to be reasonable? But he took ad
vantage. He got me remembering things. Things like him coming in here without saying excuse me. And he called me a bad name, just like Miss Hotshot did.”
Crouching again, the knife swaying lazily from side to
side like a cobra's head, the man advanced on Baker.
Baker only shrugged. He let his hands fall to his sides.
The young man hesitated, again confused. His eyes
danced on Baker's body as if looking for some sign that
would explain how this man could not be afraid. He was tall
but not that tall. Close to forty, the young man would have guessed. Beneath his brown suede sportcoat and sweater,
behind the pilot's glasses, there was no hint of particular
power. But the fear was gone. There wasn't anything. Not
excitement. Not worry. Not even confidence. The man was just looking at him in a tired way, as though he was some
thing the man had picked up on his shoe. To his mind, the
tall man's lack of fear could only mean that he had a
stronger weapon or that he was not alone. He knew this must be true when he saw Baker's lips part again to say the words:
“Abel. He's all yours, Abel.”
“Hey, look out, Jace,” the one called Sumo whispered.
“This guy's got somebody with him.”
Jace's eyes darted to the shadows behind Baker and then
back to the bridle path. He kept the knife pointed at arm's length toward Baker's chest as if to pin him in place while
he searched the darkness.
“You got a friend, citizen? Where's your friend?” His
eyes had still not returned to Baker. “Maybe your friend will
come out if I cut you up a little.”
“Come and get it, pig”
The voice had come from Baker, but it was not the same
man's voice. Jace backed away a full step when he saw the
face that now moved into the light. The sound coming from
it had started deep within the chest. It hissed and spat like
escaping steam. The face seemed broader and more deeply
lined and the lips were spread flat across the teeth. But it
was the eyes that frightened him most. They were an ani
mal's eyes. A stalking animal.
Jace, on impulse, took three quick steps to his left and
then backed away. In part, to be closer to Sumo. In part, to
give this man room. To let him leave. But the man also
moved, turning his back to the open bridle path.
“You're going to make me hurt you, man,” Jace blus
tered, backing still farther.
“You're not going to hurt me, Jace,”
came the words
through a terrible smile.
“I'm going to hurt you. And then
I'm going to hurt your friend.”
On Central Park South, the balding man in the blue Oldsmo
bile cursed as he rolled down his window and extended an antenna into the light drizzle. He slapped his transceiver
uselessly and cursed again at the atmospherics that scattered
the voice struggling to get through it.
A police cruiser drifted into his peripheral vision. Barely
moving, Connor Harriga
n
allowed the radio to slide onto his
lap and collapsed the antenna as it cleared the Oldsmobile's
rain gutter.
The two policemen took no notice of him. Their attention
was on a pair of hookers who tugged at the businessman be
tween them as he waved for a westbound taxi. The hookers
were gesturing toward the park. They preferred to transact
business there.
“Don't you do it, bucko,” Harrigan muttered. “Not if you
want to see Des Moines again.”
A taxi slowed and stopped, inviting the out-of-towner and
his companions. The streetwalkers exchanged looks,
shrugged, and climbed in behind the businessman. The po
lice cruiser made a U-turn and followed.
“Good lads.” Harrigan nodded. “At least the old rascal
will make it to his hotel lobby. And speaking of rascals .. ”
Harrigan tried again to raise Michael Biaggi and again he
failed.
Inside the park, Michael Biaggi angrily folded his own
transceiver and jammed it onto his belt. He cupped an ear,
searching for the sounds he'd heard before. It had to be
Baker. There was no time for him to be anywhere else but in
the park. Except that the sound was like a woman's voice. He followed it anyway, gambling that this new voice and
Baker would come together and that Baker would not sim
ply pass it by. That he would not lose Baker.
A new sound, a squeal, cut through from his right. It
came from over a knoll past what smelled like a horse trail.
Staying low beneath the dogwood branches, he ran silently toward the dim outline of a boulder that topped the hill.
Reaching it, he ducked quickly as the weak glow of a distant streetlamp washed across his face. But he'd seen them. Four of them. Even in the bad light, he could see the terror on the
woman's face as her head was twisted toward him by the heavyset man holding her. There was something familiar
about the woman, but he put that thought aside. Baker was
there. Not twenty feet away, he calmly faced another man,
who held a knife at the end of an outstretched arm. The man
with the knife was looking beyond Baker, into the black un
derbrush. From his position behind the rock, Biaggi
couid not see what attracted him there, so his attention remained
on Baker. What he saw caused his mouth to fall open. Baker
was changing. He was changing in ways that were inde
srib
able because they were so subtle. His body seemed to
expand in all directions, and yet it filled no greater space. It was more of a coiling and bracing and a slow sucking in of
air. His shoulders curled forward and his arms drifted out
from his body in almost a wrestler's stance. It reminded him
of...he
wasn't sure what. The more remarkable change
was transforming Baker's face. The mouth broadened,
stretching across his lower teeth, and his eyes took on a
shine that hadn't been there before. They locked upon those
of the man with the knife as he turned back to Baker. He sees
it too, Biaggi realized. He sees the change and he's stunned by it. Biaggi saw the rush of fear that clouded the younger man's face. He knew the fear was there before he felt it too.
In that instant Biaggi understood, at least in part, the inter
est of Duncan Peck and Connor Harrigan. The man was a
monster.
“You're going to make me hurt you, man,” he heard the
one with the knife say. The words were spoken without con
fidence.
“You're not going to hurt me, Jace. I'm going to hurt you.
And then I'm going to hurt your friend.”
The voice shocked Biaggi. It was not the voice he'd
heard on Baker's wiretaps. And the words themselves car
ried no glimmer of bluff or doubt. Biaggi believed them. He
believed them as he knew that the sun would rise in the
morning.
Baker raised his right hand with an almost mocking slow
ness to the level of his shoulder, then reached inside his
jacket at his chest. Jace flicked the knife toward the hand
nervously but did not move forward. Baker ignored his feint.
The hand came free again, holding a plastic, felt-tipped pen.
This Baker held up for Jace to see. Confusion clouded Jace's
face and he lowered himself into a wary crouch. Baker
smiled. Still slowly, he twisted off the cap and snapped it in
place on the pen's butt, then displayed the result for the man
with the knife. The smile widened.
“Cut him, Jace,” came the big one's voice. “He's gonna
stick you with that.” Jace's shoulders trembled once and he
lunged,
bringing the blade in low toward Baker's abdomen.
In the same instant he snapped back violently, like a teth
erball at the end of its string. He gave a short cry of surprise, and his free hand pressed hard against his cheek. What had
happened was almost too fast for Biaggi to follow. Jace
dropped his hand and stared at his palm. There must have
been blood there because the agent could see two black
punctures, one just beneath each of Jace's eyes.
Rage and pain blunted Jace's fear, and with a scream he
leaped forward, slashing backhanded at Baker's chest.
Baker barely moved. It was more that he sucked in his body as the blade flew past. Easily, he snatched the passing wrist
with his left hand and jabbed twice more with the right.
Baker's left hand gave a twist, and the smaller man slammed
heavily to the ground.
He looked up at Baker, disbelieving, helpless, waiting for
the attack that would follow now that he had fallen. An at
tack with feet and knees. That's what he would have done,
he knew. No one ever got up once he put them down. But his
hand made no move. Jace backed away slowly, crablike.
Then, out of reach, he scrambled to his feet. With both
hands, he brushed over the holes on his face. There were
four of them now, and they
neatly bracketed his eyes.
“Do you begin to get the picture?”
asked the man who
was Baker.
“Hey ... Hey, shit, man” was all Jace could manage. The truth struck him like a blow from an ax. This man meant to put out his eyes. This man could have put out his eyes already. But he was toying with him. Jace felt his bowels go flaccid. He wanted to break and run but he couldn't. Not with Sumo watching.
Abruptly the man tensed and straightened. The animal eyes fluttered shut and his lips quivered at the edge of form
ing words.
“Stay there”
is what Jace thought he heard
among the whispered sounds that came.
“Stay there
f
Baker”
came now more clearly. Baker. The young man's eyes
widened. Baker! He knew that name. But this couldn't
be...
“Baker?” he whispered.
The tall man seemed startled. Jace saw the man's body
sag, bewilderment on his face. The face and the body had
softened. For the briefest moment, the man had the look
of prey again, and Jace attacked even as another word
was forming on his lips. The knife lanced up between
arms that hung still. He had him. The tall man had blown
it, and now he was going to be the one who took Jared
Baker and he was going to do it by himself. Jace had time
for a cruel grin of triumph to curl at his mouth before a
bear trap crushed down on his wrist. He did not see the
pen that slid up through his nostril and tore it away from
his face. The scream rising in his throat became a frac
tured squawk as the pen rammed through the tissue of his
cheek and pinioned his tongue against his upper jaw. Jace
heard a dim snap somewhere below. He knew it was the
wrist of his knife hand even before the message of pain
reached his brain. He knew that hands had seized the thick
hair at his temples, forcing his head down without effort,
and he knew that something was rising toward his face. He remembered nothing more.
Biaggi watched as the man turned toward the one called
Sumo. Sumo seemed stricken. He was standing now, above
the woman. One foot lay heavily across her neck and
pressed her face into the wet grass. The man, once more in
his wrestler's crouch, advanced on Sumo. One hand
snatched Jace's knife from the grass as he swayed past it. He
stopped then and seemed to make a show of examining the knife thoughtfully.
“It's a pig-sticker, Sumo”
came the voice that hissed.
“And you
f
re a pig. does that suggest anything to you, Sumo ? ”
“Stay away, man.” Sumo's voice was hoarse. He turned
his own knife in his hand and held it by the blade in a throw
ing position.
Biaggi reached beneath his gray raincoat and groped for his pistol. Drawing it free, he raked its barrel across the plas
tic of his radio case, making a soft zipping sound. No more.
Baker seemed to hesitate and half-turn. Biaggi lowered him
self farther. He was sure the sound could not have been
heard. It was barely a whisper, which would have been lost
amid the rustle of wet leaves. With both hands he sighted the
pistol on Sumo's chest, sweating, trying to blot out all other fears except his fear of Duncan Peck if he allowed Baker to die this way.
He waited too long. Sumo threw himself to his knees and
with one hand dragged the woman's body against his own. She gasped and looked pleadingly at the shadow that was
Baker, then went rigid as Sumo's knife pressed a spot be
neath her breast.
The man stopped. He seemed first to be studying her face and then for a long moment he studied Sumo. Sumo is about
to panic, a voice told him. One stupid impulse and the
woman could be dead. But the man with the animal eyes
didn't care. The woman was the woman and Sumo was
Sumo. He wanted Sumo. But he could not shake the voice
away this time. All right, Baker. We'll give him some room.
We'll try it your way, but do not stay long, Baker.
“Try it. Baker,”
he said. The woman heard the words and
she too glanced around her, looking for the man who had
been called.