Day 9 (8 page)

 

CHAPTER 16

 

As Hiss Willow smirked on the screen, Quincy lunged over the seat-backs and made a grab for Todd's keyboard.

"Don't deal with him!" said Quincy. "We can't trust him!"

Todd wrestled the keyboard out of Quincy's grasp and shot to his feet. "You moron! He's an
actor
. He only
played
a conflicted character on the
show
."

"He's a bad guy in real life, too!" Quincy pointed at the screen. "He's in bed with organized crime!"

"Just a rumor, jerk-off!" said Todd. "We did a
background check
before we hired him, and he came up
clean
."

"
Hired
him?" said Quincy. "You mean he
works
for you?"

"How do you think we got thousands of fans to join up?" said Todd. "Baine's a
resident
antagonist
. Players have the chance to go up against
Hiss Willow himself
and foil his schemes. Or
team up
with him, if he's on the side of justice that day."

Quincy blew out his breath and slumped back in his seat. "Don't trust him," he said to Dunne and Hannahlee. "
He
could be the Willows killer, for all we know."

Just then, Baine's avatar spoke up. "Hello? Todd? Lianna? Anyone home?"

Todd sat back down and resumed typing. His War avatar patted Baine on the shoulder. "Sorry about the interruption," Todd told him. "Thanks for taking time to help us out."

"My pleasure," said Baine. "I could use a break from all the double-crossing."

"
Fold
ya so," said Quincy.

Baine's avatar stepped up to Hannahlee's and bowed. "Wonderful to see you, dear sister. You don't look a day older."

Todd popped open the armrest beside him and pulled an earpiece out of the compartment within. Reaching over, he placed it on Hannahlee's ear. "Just talk to him," he said. "This'll catch and transmit your voice."

Hannahlee adjusted the earpiece. "Hello? Baine?"

"In the flesh, my love," said Baine's avatar.

Dunne frowned. Hearing Hiss, the sometime turncoat of the Willows, call Kitty his "love" did not seem right. They were just two actors who had played those roles thirty years ago, but it still felt wrong for the "bad guy" to say that to the "good girl."

"How do I know that's really you?" said Hannahlee. "Other than taking Mr. Myriada's word for it."

Baine laughed. "Remember Acapulco? I called you Joan of Ark." His avatar kissed her avatar's hand. Though the computerized voice didn't catch every nuance of human speech, it dropped and came close to sounding sensual. "Because you were so
on
fire
."

Dunne could not believe what he'd heard. If Hiss calling Kitty his "love" had seemed wrong, the revelation that they'd been intimately involved was downright blasphemous.

Hiss
and
Kitty
? In
Acapulco
?

Dunne could hardly imagine it happening. In the show, Kitty had always been upstanding, moral, loyal, and unquestioningly trustworthy. Hiss—short for "Hyssop," like the herb—had been an antihero of dubious intent. He'd been the most troubled of the Willows, prone to falling in with bad company and doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. He'd strayed from the path of justice and double-crossed his family more than once out of arrogance and stubbornness. Though things had always worked out in the end, his actions had pushed the Willows ever closer to disaster. His brothers and sisters had never been sure of his true loyalties or whether they could rely on him.

With his mingling of good and evil, highlighted by his black-and-white yin-yang motif, Hiss had been closer to reality than the other Willows on the show. Gowdy had designed him as a reflection of America, especially Richard Nixon—positive and negative qualities inextricably linked. As such, Hiss had been a risky character. He had a following and was touted as one of the ground-breaking elements of the show...but he was mostly seen as a villain. It didn't seem possible that he and Kitty—even the actors who'd played them—would have had an affair. Maybe Hiss, on an especially wicked day, might have made a pass...but Kitty? Fall for Hiss? It could never happen.

Except it had.

Hannahlee cleared her throat. "'Joan of Ark?'" she said. "It's really you, all right."

Suddenly, a small piece of gray plastic landed in Dunne's lap. Looking up, he saw Quincy's hand overhead, full of cell phone parts.

"Kitty and Hiss were lovers." Quincy sounded broken-hearted as he let the rest of the parts dribble down. "The ultimate
blog scoop
.
Why
didn't I
wait
to destroy my phone?"

At that point, Todd spoke up. "So what have you got for us, Baine? Anything on our friend?"

"The last time I saw him was weeks ago," said Baine. "His avatar looked like Gary Escuchar."

"Ranch hand at the Weellow place, señor," said Quincy. "Wise old gaucho Latino weeth a heart of gold.
Corazon de
oro
."

"So how many Gary Escuchar avatars are there?" said Dunne.

"A hundred and fifty," said Todd.

"But he's approached me as different avatars, too," said Baine. "He could be anyone."

Dunne sighed. "So how do we find him?"

"I've got an idea about that," said Baine. "But you've got to trust me."

"Why?" said Hannahlee. "What are you going to do?"

As limited as the avatars were in conveying expressions, Baine's avatar managed to shade his grin with menace. "What
won't
I do?" It was one of his catch phrases from the show.

Baine's avatar snapped his fingers, and a huge bullhorn appeared in his hand. He turned the volume dial all the way up to
MAX
, then put the mouthpiece to his lips.

"Everybody
listen up
." Baine's amplified voice boomed over the crowd in Justice Commons. The assembled avatars all stopped what they were doing, fell silent, and looked in Baine's direction.

"I am going to
murder my sister
. The
original
Kitty Willow." A knife popped into Baine's hand, and he laid the blade against Hannahlee's avatar's throat. "Only
one man
can take her place. Only
one man
can stop the
Willows Killer
...if he's
man enough
.

"
Cyrus Gowdy
, step right up."

 

For a minute that felt like an hour, none of the avatars in Justice Commons made a move.

"So, Todd," said Dunne. "What'll Baine do if Gowdy doesn't step up to save Hannahlee?"

"Probably
kill
her," said Quincy. "This is
Hiss Fwillow
we're dealing with here, remember?"

"Don't worry." On the big screen, Baine turned and winked at them. "It won't come to that."

Dunne had his doubts...but it turned out that Baine was right.
Too
right.

Just when it seemed that the gambit had failed, a Leif Willow avatar stepped forward. "I'm Cyrus Gowdy," he said. "Let Kitty go."

"See?" said Baine. "I toldja so."

Before Baine's avatar could lower the knife, though, another avatar—Kenya Willow this time—stepped forward alongside the first.

"
I'm
Cyrus Gowdy," said the Kenya avatar. "Let her go."

And another avatar stepped up beside that one.

"Oh boy." Quincy squirmed and giggled. "I see where
this
is going."

"I'm Cyrus Gowdy," said the third avatar...and the fourth, and the fifth, and the twentieth.

Groups of avatars stepped forward together, five and ten at a time, all saying the same thing in unison. "I'm Cyrus Gowdy."

Quincy's giggles turned into belly laughs. "Oh God, this is
good
." He stomped his feet and smacked the back of Todd's seat. "Shades of
Spartacus
!"

Soon, every avatar in Justice Commons was on its feet, marching toward Hiss, repeating the mantra. "I'm Cyrus Gowdy."

Quincy leaned forward and whispered in Todd's ear. "I'm Cyrus Gowdy, too!"

Todd swatted him away and typed on the keyboard. "Any other ideas, Baine?"

"How 'bout you find the
one
guy
who
doesn't
say he's Cyrus Gowdy?" said Baine.

"Good idea," said Todd, "but not practical."

"
If
Gowdy's playing," said Dunne, "where else in the game would he be?"

"Better yet, where's the last place we'd look for him?" said Hannahlee.

"Scratchtown?" said Quincy. "Waystation Cemetery?"

"What place
wouldn't
he like?" said Hannahlee. "He
dreamed up
all of it."

"Not
all
of it," said Todd. "There are places based on alternate sources. Not part of the official
Willows
canon from the TV show, but still valid."

"'Sources?'" said Dunne. "What 'sources?'"

"So which one would Gowdy like the least?" said Hannahlee.

Todd thought, then typed. "I think I can take a guess."

The scene on the screen changed. The grassy, sunny park became a thick forest pelted by rain.

As Dunne watched, the view rotated from left to right, revealing more trunks and branches. Rainwater ran from the leaves of oak, sassafras, sycamore, and poplar. A sodden squirrel leaped between limbs, then spiraled down a stout trunk with tail rippling.

When the shot turned further, something new appeared—a log cabin, sliding in from the edge of the screen. Light flickered in the windows, smoke curled from the chimney. Red flowers bloomed in window boxes, and a plot along one side burst with the green tangle of a vegetable garden.

A wind chime hung from a corner of the front porch roof. The chime was made from lengths of metal tubing and star-shaped metal pieces, strung at varying heights from a motorcycle helmet.

As the image of the chime sank in, Dunne realized where his avatar had gone. He suddenly knew what part of the world of
Weeping Willows
he was looking at on the screen.

The metal tubing on the wind chime had been cut from gun barrels and nunchuks. The star-shaped pieces were deadly
shuriken
throwing stars. The motorcycle helmet was War Willow's.

Dunne knew all about the wind chime, because he'd made it up. He'd written about it in one of his
Willows
tie-in novels,
War No More
.

So he himself was one of the "alternate sources" of non-canon locations in Willowtopia.

"Does this look familiar to anyone?" Todd stared directly at Dunne. "Can anyone tell me the name of this place?"

"Willow Grove, Tennessee," said Dunne. "Where War Willow and his common law wife conceived Cyrus Gowdy."

 

CHAPTER 17

 

"War had a wife and conceived
Cyrus
?" said Hannahlee. "What on Earth are you
talking
about?"

Quincy clapped his hands and laughed. "It's from a novel! The only one of Dunne Sullivan's books I actually
liked
."

"
War No More
." Todd nodded. "In which War Willow loses his memory—and
courage
—and finds love with a girl in the back-country mountains of Tennessee."

"He beats his weapons into wind chimes," said Quincy. "When mountain-men drug lords attack, War doesn't fight back. He doesn't remember what courage is."

"And the drug lords fatally injure War's pregnant common law wife, Callie," said Todd. "They torture War, which restores his memory and courage, and he takes them down."

"Meanwhile, someone rescues Callie's baby. Years later, War must rescue
Cy
, the little paper boy back home in Justice." Quincy sniffled and wiped his eyes. "He will never know that the boy is his
son
."

"His son, who was adopted by a local family," said Todd. "The
Gowdys
."

Quincy reverted to his big, basso singing voice for the next pronouncement. "They named the child...
Cyrus
."

Dunne shrugged and cleared his throat. He felt like he was under a microscope.

Of all his novels, why did
War No More
have to come up? Why did they have to talk about the one that hit too close to home? The one he'd written to deal with what had happened?

The one that would tell Hannahlee everything she needed to know to figure out the secrets of his dark past.

At least she wasn't talking about it yet. "Why would Gowdy like this place the least?"

"He hated the book," said Baine. "He hated that kid having his name."

"It was a
tribute
," said Dunne.

"And he hated War letting that woman be killed," said Baine. "He said no Willow would
ever
do that."

"He had
amnesia
," said Dunne.

"I'm just saying," said Baine. "That's what he told me."

"Don't take it personally." Todd started typing again. "It's all subjective anyway."

Dunne slumped in his seat. On one hand, he was angry and worried that his secrets had been spilled. On the other hand, hearing that Cyrus Gowdy hated his book was like hearing that God hated it. Cyrus
was
the God of
Weeping Willows
.

"Well?" said Todd. "Shall we see who's here?"

As he typed, his avatar walked toward the cabin. Hannahlee's, Dunne's, and Baine's avatars followed.

"Stay clear of the door and windows," said Baine. "In case someone starts shooting."

Todd's avatar knocked on the door. "Hello? Anyone home?"

There was no answer from inside the cabin. No sound at all.

Todd knocked again, harder. "Hello? Are you in there, Cyrus?"

"Who wants to know?"

The voice came from behind them. Todd clattered on the keyboard, and the view rotated in that direction.

A War Willow avatar stared back at them. So did a Free avatar, and a Buzz and a Kitty and a Leif.

There were ten in all, one of each of the Willow brothers and sisters—even Buddhist monk Zen, the "lost Willow," who was often mentioned but never seen in the TV show. They stood in fighting stances, armed and grim and artful, like a carefully posed team shot from a promotional poster.

"Am I speaking to Mr. Gowdy?" said Todd.

"Not exactly," said the Kenya avatar.

Todd made his avatar look at Kenya. "What do you mean, 'not exactly?'"

"We have access to Mr. Gowdy," said the Free avatar.

"We represent his interests," said Leif.

Todd frowned. "What? Like agents?"

"More like deputies," said Buzz. "Think of us as deputies."

"Okay, wait a minute. We need to verify this." Todd turned to Hannahlee. "Ask a question only Gowdy can answer."

Hannahlee thought for a moment. "This is Lianna Caprice. I go by Hannahlee Saylor now. Can you tell me what I used to call Cyrus when we were alone?"

The Willow avatars froze for a moment. Then, they all said the same thing at the same time. "'Trigger.'"

Dunne, Quincy, and Todd all shot quizzical looks at Hannahlee, but her eyes remained fixed on the screen. "Yes," she said. "That sounds about right."

 

"This is Todd Myriada, President and CEO of Sensophile." Todd typed, and his avatar gestured at Baine's and Hannahlee's in turn. "I have Baine Sherwood and Lianna Caprice with me. Also Dunne Sullivan."

The ten deputies stared at them silently.

"Please ask Cyrus when I can meet with him personally," said Hannahlee. "It's a matter of great importance."

"
What
matter?" said Deputy Kenya.

"If Cyrus signs a release, he'll clear the way for a new big-screen
Weeping Willows
movie," said Hannahlee. "He has the power to bring back
Willows
with the stroke of a pen."

The same brief pause preceded every response by the deputies...a lag time, apparently, as they "accessed" Cyrus. "Bring it back? It never
left
."

"Well, I'd still like to meet with him," said Hannahlee. "It would be a personal favor to me."

Pause. "Some other time," said Deputy Holly. "Cyrus is busy right now with an important project."

"What project?" said Hannahlee. "He's been off the radar for years. What's he been doing all this time?"

Pause. "Cyrus wants to know what
you've
been doing," said Deputy War.

"He says you've been off the radar for
twenty years
," said Deputy Kenya.

This time, it was Hannahlee's turn to pause. "I'll tell him if he'll meet with me."

Pause. "For you, anything," said Deputy Bella. "But not right now."

"He'll be in touch," said Deputy Zen. "Maybe next year. He promises."

"Great hearing from you, Lianna," said Deputy Buzz. "See you later."

With that, the ten avatar deputies started to fade. The woods behind them appeared through their transparent silhouettes.

"No, wait!" Hannahlee got up from her seat and took a step toward the screen. "This project he's working on. Is it 'Godseye?'"

Pause. The deputies stopped fading. The process reversed, and their bodies resolidified.

"Godseye is a rumor," said Deputy War.

Suddenly, Quincy interrupted—lunging over Todd's shoulder so his voice would reach the keyboard's onboard mic. "It's the lost twenty-first episode of
Willows
, isn't it? He's reconstructing it, isn't he? He wants to wrap up the series according to his personal vision!"

"Who's talking?" said Deputy Bella.

"Enrique Bocagrande," said Quincy. "Cyrus asked for my advice on digital post-production! Why else would he need it, if he wasn't working on a film?"

Pause. "Cyrus is
not
working on the lost episode of
Willows
," said Deputy Free.

Pause. "Todd didn't mention Enrique was with you. Who else is in the room, Hannahlee?" Deputy Hiss looked out from the screen, as if his digitized eyes could see into the theater.

Hannahlee cast her fiery green gaze upon Quincy and shook her head. "That wasn't Enrique."

Pause. "We're done here," said Deputy Buzz. "Goodbye, Lianna."

The deputies started to fade out again. Hannahlee took another step toward the screen. "Wait! Tell him his life's in danger!"

For a moment, it seemed that she'd lost them. The deputies completely disappeared from Mirror Grove.

Then, one of them flickered back into view. It was Zen, the Buddhist monk. "Danger?"

"Someone has threatened to kill all the Willows and their 'father,'" said Hannahlee. "Father Law—Stewart Bank—is already dead, so that leaves
Cyrus
as the father of all Willows."

"Yes," said Zen. "It's a good thing he's off the radar, isn't it?"

Hannahlee sighed. "Scott Savage and Luanne Diego have already been murdered."

"And you don't know who the killer is?" said Deputy Zen.

"No," said Hannahlee. "We don't."

"Lianna," said Deputy Zen. "Is the killer with you right now?"

"No," said Hannahlee.

"He's using you to try to find Cyrus, isn't he?" said Zen.

"Absolutely not," said Hannahlee.

"You're absolutely wrong." The Zen avatar walked over and put his arm around the shoulders of Baine's Hiss Avatar. "Isn't she, chum?"

Baine made a muffled noise. His avatar remained perfectly motionless onscreen.

"I can say for a
fact
that the killer is with you right now," said Zen. "More specifically, his
avatar
is with you in the game. His
real
self, the one that does all the killing, is elsewhere."

Dunne's wide eyes were glued to the screen. The temperature in the theater seemed to drop forty degrees as he realized what was happening.

"Can you guess where he is?" said Zen.

Hannahlee looked back. Her emerald gaze met Dunne's, then flashed back to the screen.

"With Baine Sherwood," she said.

Zen laughed. "Hold on a minute," he said. "What's that, Baine?" He leaned closer to Baine's avatar, as if trying to hear something he couldn't make out. "Right, right. I'll tell her."

The Zen avatar straightened and turned to Hannahlee's Kitty avatar. "Baine said to tell you he's going to die unless you tell me where to find Cyrus."

Dunne froze in his seat. He wanted to leave the room.

Hannahlee was talking to the killer. His voice was electronically synthesized, but the words were all his.

And what he said he was going to do was horrifying.

"Did I mention?" said Zen. "You have less than five minutes?"

 

Hannahlee looked at Todd, but he was too busy typing like a maniac to look up from his keyboard. She looked at Dunne, and he met her gaze...but his expression was blank. He had nothing to offer.

So she turned to face the big screen. Took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

Took a step forward.

"We don't know where Cyrus is," she said. "He wouldn't even talk to us directly."

Zen gave Hiss a squeeze and tousled his hair. "Don't be fooled," he said. "I might have my arm around Baine in Willowtopia, but in the real world, I have a knife at his throat."

"Which is why you know I'm telling the truth," said Hannahlee. "If I knew where Cyrus was, I'd tell you. Then, I'd tell Cyrus to get away before you got to him."

"Mmm," said Zen. "Maybe." He brushed the lapels of Hiss's black leather jacket and adjusted the bill of his yin-yang ball cap. "Or maybe you'd
never
endanger Cyrus under any circumstances. Even if you thought he could probably get away in time."

"I swear to God I'm not lying to you," said Hannahlee. "I don't know where Cyrus is. In fact, I'm back to square one. Willowtopia was my last good lead."

Zen stepped away from Hiss. "Aren't you wondering?"

"About what?" said Hannahlee.

"When it'll be
your
turn." Zen folded his hands behind his back. "Will you be
next
, or will you be
last
?"

"I don't much care," said Hannahlee. "You can have me
now
, if you'll let Baine go."

"Self-sacrifice." Zen's voice sounded almost admiring. "Do you care that much about Baine?"

"I care that
little
about
me
," said Hannahlee. "My life is unending
misery
. You'd be doing me a
favor
if you
ended
it."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you, Poison Oak?" said Zen. "Spare you out of pity? Well, that won't happen. Not even if you freed the
real
Willows right now."

"Poison Oak?" said Hannahlee.

"You and your family won't keep us down!" said Zen. "And you won't destroy
America
, either. My
warpath
ends in your
death
.
Zastee
!"

As the killer's words rang through the theater, Dunne frowned. A realization hit him; he had to talk to Hannahlee.

Dunne hesitated to leave his seat, as if the killer could somehow see him. Then, pushing back that irrational fear, he got up and hurried over to Hannahlee.

He touched her on the shoulder, then whispered in her ear. "He's talking like
War
. He's on a
warpath
. 'Zastee' was War's battle-cry. It's Apache for 'Kill.'"

Hannahlee nodded. "What's your name?" she said to the screen.

"'Angel of Death' to you," said Zen.

"Is this my brother, Warren?" said Hannahlee. "Is this War Willow?"

For a long moment, the killer was silent. His avatar was motionless onscreen.

Then, the Zen avatar shook a fist at Kitty. "You already know," he said. "I'm the one Willow you couldn't capture."

"Listen, War," said Hannahlee. "I'm not a Poison Oak. This is the real Kitty speaking."

"You're too late," said War.

"I'm worried about you," said Hannahlee. "I wish you wouldn't do this."

"I've already done it," said War. "Baine's dead."

It was Hannahlee's turn to fall silent. Looking back, Dunne saw that Todd had stopped typing, and Quincy had jammed the heels of his hands over his eyes.

"His blood is everywhere," said War. "It's terrible."

Looking at the screen, Dunne saw that Baine's avatar was standing stiffly in place. He realized he hadn't seen that avatar move in several minutes.

"I'll do the same to you," said War. "You and all your Poison Oak family."

"Please stop this," said Hannahlee.

"I'm coming for you, bitch," said War. "And no one can stop me."

"Wait," said Hannahlee. "How can you be sure I'm not the real Kitty? Totally sure?"

"
Zastee
!" said War. His avatar leaped straight upward, shooting into the sky like a rocket, and was gone.