Season of Passage, The (51 page)

Final y convinced she knew what she was doing, Lauren crossed to her medical cabinet. There she climbed out of

her pressure suit and stood scantily clad before the rows of drugs. There were so many ways to kil a man She needed something simple,

something she might be able to explain away as a hibernaculum failure. She picked up a bottle of potassium. A high dose of potassium would

overload the heart by backing up the kidneys and toxifying the blood. Simple. Neat. Perfect.

Lauren reached for a syringe and stabbed the needle through the cork at the top of the bottle. She drew off ten cc's, two hundred mil i-equivalents,

enough to kil a dozen men. She would tel NASA it had been a very nasty hibernaculum failure. She also grabbed a scalpel and put it in her pocket.

If Gary tried to get up, she would slit his throat wide open and to hel with what NASA thought.

Lauren crossed back to Gary's hibernaculum. There she leaned over the clear lid and deactivated the artificial kidney mechanism. She couldn't

have the potassium filtered out of his system as quickly as she put it in.

She was having a hard time. Her hands trembled. Her vision blurred. She took hold of the tubes that circulated his blood. She stared at his blood. It

looked so red, so human. She took her syringe and thrust the needle into the tube leading into his vein and began to pump the potassium into his

system: one cc, two cc's, three cc's.

[Lauren, are you awake?]

T know, Friend,' she said.

[Lauren, Gary's heart is under...]

'I know,' she repeated, hysteria entering her voice.

Eight cc's. Nine cc's. Ten cc's.

The syringe was empty.

An alert began to scream. A red light flashed off and on beside his hibernaculum. It pulsed in the cold dark of the room like a bleeding artery.

Lauren stared at the monitors above Gary's sleeping form. The green wave that recorded the rhythm of his heartbeat jumped. Gary's body jumped

with it.

[Lauren, there is an emergency situation...]

'Shut up!' Lauren cried. She bowed her head. 'There's nothing I can do,' she whispered.

Suddenly the noise of the alert stopped. Lauren looked up. The green wave had gone flat. The other lines fol owed quickly. Gary lay perfectly stil . He

was not breathing. He was dead. Nothing was going to use him anymore.

' Tel me that I'm the most handsome astronaut in the solar system.'

Jim, Bil , Jessie, Gary, and Jennifer - the blood of al of them was on her hands, one way or the other. She dropped the empty syringe on the floor

and limped into the adjacent room, to her hibernaculum. She crawled inside it and attached the tubes to her shunt. She closed the lid. She told

Friend to put her under immediately. Then she tried to relax and let the Antabolene take effect. But the sleep she had held off with such difficulty was

long in coming. Final y, however, in the end, she began to drift off.

Then a second red alert jerked her awake.

Lauren opened her eyes and looked at her monitors.

The emergency was in Mark's hibernaculum!

'Friend?' she said with great effort. 'What's happening?'

There was no answer.

'Friend?'

Nothing. Lauren tried to get up but she was too weak. She fel back down. Before she did, however, she thought she detected motion at the edge of

her vision. But that was impossible. Surely...

She studied Mark's monitor more closely. The flow of his blood into the cleansing filters was weakening. And something was interfering with his

breathing. Carbon dioxide was accumulating in his blood. He wasn't getting

enough air. Again Lauren tried to sit up. This time the top of her head banged the lid of the hibernaculum. She tried raising her arms and pushing

the glass open, but her muscles wouldn't respond. She fel back again. Helpless, she watched Mark's vital signs plummet. He was having severe

spasms in his diaphragm. It was as if he were being smothered. And he was losing blood somehow.

Blood! It's the only thing the dead live for.

'Friend!' Lauren cried. Her voice barely rose above a whisper. The computer didn't answer. Friend's ears had been boxed, and in an awful instant,

Lauren knew by who -by what. Stil Mark's monitor held her attention. The fatal pattern was the same as a few minutes before. The green waves

jumped and danced. Then they slowed down, and final y went flat. The red alert ceased. The ship was silent again.

Mark Kawati was dead.

The legends - only stories, she thought. But ignore them at your own risk. She should have found herself some wood.

' Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place the point over the heart, and the hammer in your right. Strike in God's name, so that al may be wel

with the dead that we love, and that the un-Dead pass away.'

Gary had read her the passage.

Gary.

The Vampire had risen.

Gathering the last of her failing strength Lauren threw herself at the lid of the hibernaculum. It was no good. She fel back helpless, straining her eyes

toward the dark doorway through which would walk the most terrifying of mankind's nightmares.

She heard a sickening thud.

A body had been dropped to the floor.

Then he was before her, standing in the shadows. He wore only baggy shorts. His skin was abnormal y white. He grinned with a mouth ful of

bloodstained teeth.

'Hel o, Doc,' Gary said.

Lauren screamed.

He walked toward her.

THIRTY-THREE

His manner was arrogant, the cockiness of the already damned, who had nothing to lose. He paused above her hibernaculum, admiring her body

with a ferocious grin, and then thrust back the lid. The smel that assailed her nose was like that of the pit. He reached down and touched her bare

thigh. Her abdomen cramped involuntarily, as if it were suddenly fil ed with dry ice. His hand was hard, very cold.

Don't touch me!

'But you're dead,' Lauren cried weakly. 'I kil ed you.'

His grin widened, the way Ivan's had when they said something that amused him. 'Exactly,' he said. He let go of her leg and opened the porthole

above her bed, the one through which she had first gazed upon Mars. Red light bathed his face, magnifying the faint lines of hatred and despair in

his expression. A drop of Mark's blood fel from his teeth and splashed her naked leg. The blood was warm.

'Sweet Lori,' he said. 'You've been a bad girl, very naughty.' He looked down at her with eyes that reminded her of a snake. The pupils were

hopelessly out of focus. It was as if he saw her through something other than a human body, through something from the outside. 'I'm afraid the time

has come to pay for your sins.'

He backed off and leaned against a coolant pipe on the opposite side of the room. Except for the light from the receding planet outside the window,

which shifted from the floor to the ceiling and back again as the Nova rotated, it was dark. Lauren twisted her head with effort, anxious to keep him

in her field of view. She caught sight of an open hand lying on the floor in the doorway. Mark. Gary noted her gaze.

'I know what you're thinking, Lori,' he said sympathetical y. 'You're worried that Mark isn't feeling wel . You shouldn't. He's dead, and he's going to

remain that way.' He chuckled. 'I had to kil him. It was necessary, and I enjoyed it. I should tel you of the method I used. I put my hand over his

mouth, and I dare say he began to have trouble breathing. He turned a pretty blue. Then he woke up and gave me the strangest look. He didn't

understand what was going on, even after al we had told him. But I made it clear to him. I removed one of his tubes and helped myself to a little

drink. Then he understood. He got al excited. It was a shame he was in no shape to do anything about it. He passed away before I got my fil .' Gary

paused and Lauren could see his teeth in the shadows. 'I guess you could say I'm stil thirsty, Doc'

Lauren pressed her hands on the sheet beneath her with the intention of giving herself a hard push so that she could sit up. It was then her wrist

brushed against the scalpel in the back pocket of her shorts, wedged between her butt and the sheet. She glanced at Gary, who was now

preoccupied with rummaging through his personal locker. Careful y, she began to ease the handle of the blade into her palm.

He found what he was looking for. He turned and faced her, Dmitri's bottle of wine, in his hand. 'You might wonder why Mark won't be joining the

club,' he said.

'Unfortunately, we don't have enough sacrificial wine for two baptisms. Right now - the shape this corpse is in - I can't spare a drop of my own blood.

The wine wil have to do, until we reach the Garden.' He grinned. 'Let me find a glass. We'l have a toast, to my manhood, and the pleasure you wil

give me.'

'I don't understand,' she whispered. She had the knife out of her pocket, but the blade was pointed the wrong way. She began to slowly rotate. Gary

stepped near. He held the lip of the bottle above her bare legs, tilting it at a slight angle. She didn't know what would happen if he poured it on her

and she didn't want to find out. 'Don't,' she pleaded. 'Please, don't.'

He took back the bottle and chuckled. A blast of fetid breath hit her in the face. 'But this is an honor, Lori. It's an honor you've earned. This is the

fulfil ment of your destiny.'

Lauren shook her head. She tried to concentrate on the scalpel. She did not believe he could see it on the other side of her leg. 'I didn't make any

decision,' she said. 'You can't do this tome.'

'That is where you are wrong. You did decide, Lori, when you began to kil . First there was Ivan-what a mess-and then Bil .' His grin vanished and

was replaced by a look of contempt. 'Commander Bil - that coward. He was afraid of his wife. He let her flee. He ignored his duty. We are better off

without him.' His grin returned. 'But then there was the hamburger you made of your friend Jessie. To tel you the truth, she hadn't even joined the

club yet. You were a bit trigger-happy when it came to poor Jessie.'

'You lie.' Could it be true?

He nodded, reading her thoughts. 'I never lie to those who please me, as you certainly wil .' He paused to uncork the bottle with his teeth. He found a

glass on a shelf behind him and placed it on the edge of her hibernaculum. He poured out two ounces of sparkling red wine. He continued, 'Your

exploits were many, but none marked you for our club as clearly as your treatment of me. I was a sorry sight when I reached the top of the ladder

after the wave, what with my broken arm. But there you were waiting for me in the dark, your laser pointed right at my heart. We can only thank God

the laser wasn't loaded. And then there was this wine. You had already cut off my arm for your own amusement. One would have thought that would

have satisfied your desire for gore. But no, you had to go for the wine, the damn wine.' He hesitated, and when he spoke next a faint sadness

entered his voice. 'I trusted you, Lori, that was my decision. I noticed you never drank any of the wine.'

Lauren felt guilt atop her terror. She relaxed her grip on the scalpel. He spoke of himself as different than Ivan and Bil . The only thing that could have

made the difference was the continuing reality of the host's body. In some way, she thought, Gary must stil be alive inside the. monster.

'I was trying to help you,' she said. 'I loved you.' 'Love!' he spoke the word like a curse. Yet he smiled again as he stared at the top of her thighs.

'Yes, love. Tel me how much you love me. I wil show you how much I love you.' He placed the bottle on the floor and took hold of the glass. He

raised the wine above her face, toying with her fear. 'Don't misunderstand me, Lori. I respect the success you've had in dealing with your foe. Only

the strong should survive. I was particularly impressed by the way you handled that insolent computer. It was a feat to be admired. Plus there was

the shrewd manner in which you deduced the special nature of this fine beverage. However,

you are wrong to think this bottle contains Martian water. Nothing so simple. You should have read the book. It was ful of clues. How, for instance,

does someone like me make a bride? I see I have your interest. We don't drink blood, but offer some of our own. Ivan was very gracious on this

point. You'l be amazed to know that he knew you were coming. You see, we've been waiting for you. We've been waiting for the warrior. Of course,

you're not Janier, a woman you never had the pleasure of meeting. Yet you are alike in many ways, and every ritual needs a sacrifice to complete

the ceremony.'

He slowly tilted the glass. A solitary drop of wine landed in her hair. It felt horrible beyond belief. A nest of maggots could have begun to crawl over

the top of her skul . She shook her head back and forth but the sensation refused to go away.

He sighed. 'So fine. A splash here and there and a single vigorous copulation and the sacrament wil be complete.' He set the glass down and

tugged at her shorts, exposing the curve of her hip. 'Love me, Lori.'

'Stop it!' she screamed. Her tears came, and she began to beg. 'Please, Gary. Don't let them make you do this. Remember who you are. You're my

friend.'

He started to slap her. But he stopped just as his fingers contacted her face. He took back his hand and stared at it, at the tears that had moistened

his skin. He blinked twice and for a moment he seemed lost. 'Lori,' he whispered. 'I wanted to tel you not to...'

He turned away. But not before Lauren saw the glimmer of her old friend in his face. 'Gary, you must remember who you are,' she said.