The Aeschylus (45 page)

“Kate?” He turned to her, and she marveled at how normal the moment seemed. If she could, she thought she would hold onto it forever.

“Yes?”

“When you go back. I'm going with you.”

“You are?”

“No one should have to face them alone. Valley Oil, I mean. So I'm going whether you want me to or not. And I have a feeling that if I don't, no one will believe what happened here.”

And then she did move, rising up out of the bed and throwing her arms around him. She didn't know if this thing they had meant anything, or even if she would have been able to stand him in her normal life, but for now, it was real. She needed something real if she was going to go back to that other world. She thought they both did.

It was raining as the old man got out of the car, the estate grounds drenched in shades of gray. He was tired to the very core, his old bones creaking in the wet weather. His valet Andrew opened the door for him, and he stepped out, waiting for the younger man to unfurl his umbrella. When he didn't, Godfried asked where it was.

“I didn't bring it today, sir. I'm sorry. The forecast didn't call for it.”

“Damn the bloody forecast,” he said, hobbling to the walk. “I'm calling the company tomorrow. You'll be out of a job by morning, you bleeding sot.”

The man flushed, staring after him as he made his way to the house. Godfried almost regretted saying it, but then thought,
the hell with it
. He didn't like the kid, and the rain was making him feel rotten.

Ahead, he saw that the porch light was on, but the walk was deserted. Where was the door man? He opened the doors himself.

“Martha? MacNab?” He smelled a roast cooking and thought maybe they were in the kitchen. Still feeling too surly for company, he went to the stairs, thinking he'd go to his office first and have a drink. It wouldn't be long before he'd need an elevator to get to the second level, but he thought he'd drown himself before he allowed that to happen. For now, he was hale and healthy for a man going on eighty, and he intended to keep it that way.

“Martha?” he called again. She wasn't much good any more, but he did like looking at her ass, even if she was going on middle-aged.

Instead, it was Chester who came to say hello. The retriever paused to lick the old man's hand, then went on downstairs.
Just passing through, don't mind me
. “You're as bloody useless as the rest of them,” he said, but he didn't mean it. His dogs were the only loyal servants he had in this place.

When he got to his office, he flicked the light switch, but no light came on. A manila envelope dropped onto his desk, and he spun, seeing a shadowed figure standing behind it.

“Your reflexes are pretty good for an old man, Godfried.”

“Who's there?” he demanded.

She stepped forward then, allowing the light from the hall to graze her face. It was sharp, that face, a lot harder than the last time he had seen it.

“My father never gave you this, did he?”

Godfried felt himself smile. He had thought someone might have broken in, but it was just this girl, and hardened or not, she was still his goddaughter. “Did I ever tell you that he did? I mean explicitly tell you?”

She grunted. “A lawyer's answer. You let me believe it.”

“You drew your own conclusions.”

“You deceived me.”

“You let yourself be deceived.”

She rounded the desk, but he stood firm. Old or not, he would not be pushed around by this girl, and deep down, she knew he was right. Had he forged anything in Stan McCreedy's name? Faked his signature? No, of course not. He had given her a few photographs and made some vague references. Her mind had done the rest.

“You were there, weren't you?” she asked. “You had just gotten back from out of the country the last time I saw you. You were
there
.”

“That's company business, Katelyn.”

“That's my business!” she yelled.

“You always did have a temper,” he said, cocking his head into his patented gunslinger stare. It was enough to shut most people up, if they knew better

“You saw the fungus on The Aeschylus, and you had your own team of researchers analyze it. You kept the results hidden from the company.”

“How do you know that?”

“The guest log on the platform intimates as much.”

He paused. The documents were supposed to have burned in the fire after the accident, but he supposed anything was possible. He had signed them, after all.

“So what?”

“So what?” she bellowed. “Do you know what's happened? Do you have any idea?”

“I know we have a hell of an insurance claim to file, if the newest satellite images can be trusted. And unfortunately, we have ended our business relationship with Black Shadow. They wouldn't issue us a refund, being the hooligans they are. It's quite a mess out there, from what I'm told.”

Kicking the desk aside, she came to stand two inches from his face. She wouldn't touch him though, she couldn't possibly be that dumb.

“Two hundred and fifty people are dead, Godfried, including friends of mine, and you could have stopped the whole thing.”

“I did what was best for the company. Shutting down that operation would have caused a catastrophe. For what, a fungus? A growth on the beams? You've got to be joshing.”

“That story would almost make sense, if you hadn't had your own biologists analyze it.”

He paused, hearing the voracity in her words. Maybe he would have to do a little negotiating after all. “Look, dear.”

“Don't you dare call me that!”

“Katelyn, darling,” he said. “There are some risks you have to take. The oil reserves won't be around forever. The fact we're drilling at the ends of the earth should be enough to tell you that. When the wells do run dry, what do you think is going to happen? Other companies are investigating alternative energy sources, and so are we. Maybe it was a bit rash making a judgment call like that, but imagine if it worked! Imagine if we did find an organism that could literally replace crude as a form of energy. Think about it!”

“It wasn't up to you!”

“What the board doesn't know won't hurt them. As far as they know, the place fell victim to an oil fire. That's certainly what it looks like from the satellite photos, and now that the pre-fire investigation has been botched, they might never know. Isn't that right?”

“And me?” she asked. “And me, Godfried? What were you going to do with me?”

“I'm sorry. I protect the company, Katelyn, that's what I do.”

“And my four hundred thousand shares couldn't hurt, could they? Because in the event of my death, I'm sure my father would have willed them to you.”

Well, there it was: the ugly truth. Now, when it came to bending truth, Godfried was a world-class athlete. With just the two of them here, however, what was the point? “As you say.”

“As you say,” she mimicked, her eyes narrowing. But he thought he saw something in those eyes, something he didn't like. “They'll know.”

She stepped away from him then, taking out her phone and pressing a button on the interface. It took him a moment to realize she had been using it as a recording device. He would have expected a tape recorder, but maybe he was just old-fashioned.

“Katelyn, honey. You know that's not admissible. And you know I'm going to get it from you before you leave the room.”

“It may not be admissible on its own,” she said, “but eyewitness testimony is.”

“What?”

From out of nowhere, five other figures stepped out from behind the curtains, from behind the shelves, from inside the closet. Godfried looked around, confused.

“What?” he seethed. “In my house?”

As the figures came forward, they began to take shape. They looked like his security. Only they weren't
his
security per se. They were Valley Oil's security, and they did not look happy.

He stared at MacNab, who had stepped in front of the rest. The man had his service revolver by his side. “Take him,” he said.

“Collin! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?”

A guard walked towards him brandishing handcuffs.

At the same time, his goddaughter sidled up next to MacNab and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you, Nabby.”

“It's the right thing.”

“You're a good man.”

“I know,” he said, smiling.

Another man stepped in behind her, and she turned to throw her arms around him. This was a different sort of embrace, one far more intimate. Godfried saw that the man had flaming red hair.

“You!” he yelled. “I know you! We fired you! We fired you! You're supposed to be dead, do you know that?”

“Yeah,” the man said. “Funny, but I think the shoe is on the other foot, now.”

“Goddamn you!” Godfried screamed. “You're not getting away with this... any of you!”

He suddenly felt very dizzy. What a mess this was. What a mess this ungrateful girl had brought down upon his head.

Security dragged him through the hall, down the stairs, and out the back door. They had a car waiting, all gassed up and ready to go. As they passed under the awning, they entered the open air, and Godfried was covered in the freezing rain he hated so much.

Katelyn would have her way after all. She would blow this thing wide open.

Katelyn.

Her father's daughter.

Mason.

Mason, wake up.

His eyes opened, sticky with gunk he could not blink away. He tried to get a bead on where the voice was coming from and thought it must be inside his head. That was crazy, but no news there. Less than an hour ago, he'd killed with his bare hands, and he'd enjoyed it.

Look, Mason.

Look at what lies beneath you.

He wiped at his eyes, trying to get a sense of where he was and why he was still alive.
If he was still alive.

And then, he shuddered. The great black expanse of the chasm opened beneath him. Featureless. Bottomless. Opening to the very center of the earth, as far as he could tell.

He tried to twist and found something gripping his back. It felt like a large, metal claw. It encircled his waist, perfectly supporting him over the void. There was something else, as well: a metal arm was behind his head and...
and something was in his brain
. A metal rod with a pencil-thick needle had been jabbed into the back of his skull, holding his head straight.

He coughed something inarticulate. Saliva fell from his mouth, and he watched it trail down into the darkness and disappear.

Would you like to see?

The claw twisted, and he felt himself roll a hundred and eighty degrees. A moment later, he was looking straight up, a half moon shining a sinister light down upon him. He had fallen five hundred feet and something...
something had snatched him out of the air
. He remembered it, now. He remembered falling and then, very distinctly, he remembered something grabbing him. Something else occurred to him as well: he was thinking clearly. His memory of the fall itself was clouded with blood-lust and animal rage, but now... now, he could think.

Looking at his arms and hands, he saw they were still splotched, and that meant he had not imagined his time with The Carrion. His body shook with frustration.

You hate them.

They took your mind.

They took your body.

It is right to hate them.

They tried to take us.

Our people.

As they took you.

Above him, he could see a labyrinth of tentacles, massive and hive-like. They obscured the opening above, growing out the cavern walls and twisting into one another. Humanoid figures crawled along them, inserting themselves back inside at intervals. They would sleep now, for a time. They would sleep until The Carrion needed to defend itself again. If his old pal got away, he imagined that would be soon. The image brought back the idea of their resemblance to bugs, and he was reminded of how much that disgusted him. He was turning into one of them for fuck's sake.

We can stop that.

“Stop what?” he asked. Was he talking to himself, or was that voice real?

We can stop the turning.

Mason laughed, then. It was thunderous, that laugh, echoing inside the chasm and down into the abyss.

We can.

We can do the stopping.

Make you stronger.

“Why would you?” he asked. He was surely dead now. This was all a dream, a temporary distraction on his way to the afterlife, but he would play along.
There are times when you might as well go the whole hog
, as Reiner used to say.

Because of who you are.

“And who am I? Some kind of chosen?” he asked, still laughing.

No.

The claw tightened, spinning him again. This time it was painful, the metal crunching bone. Mason coughed and spat a wad of blood. It spun him around to face the cavern wall, to
face the entities he was addressing. They wanted his full attention, and crazy or not, they had it. Because now, he hurt. Now, they were pissing him off.

We could have let you drop.

We let the others drop.

But not you.

Do we have your attention?

We have your eyes.

We want your attention.

“Ye... yes,” he said.

The rock in front of him was broken. It looked as if there was a hole, and something had crashed into it. In the darkness, he couldn't see, but it was something metal, something old. It might have been a ship.

We will do the stopping.

Then you will destroy them.

For us.

The Carrion.

What you call them.

Mason squinted, but the darkness was still too thick. “That's what you want, huh?”

First, you will rest.

You will rest a long time.

Your friends will die.

Your loved ones will die.

The world as you know it will die.

He could only stare at this.

It will be painful.

The needle in the back of his head turned, and something in his skull popped. He ground his teeth, the muscles in his body tightening.