The Devil's Assassin (14 page)

As he looks with
disbelief at the image of himself as a Maero, an image of June fades into the
mirror and she is standing before him as she looked standing outside his hotel
room in Argentina. Very quickly, without knowing why, his lance is out and he
tries to stab the image in the mirror. Just as quickly as he does so, her image
is gone from the mirror and he closes his eyes. When he opens them again it is
the hairless Linus Hather who stands in front of the mirror in his boxer
shorts. He looks again at himself in confusion and touches the mirror.

Linus goes to the
chair on which his pants and shirt are draped and puts them on without an idea
of why he is doing so. He picks up his car keys, walks through the house toward
the front door and leaves.

›

Linus Hather’s
Jeep pulls up in front of a moderately new looking, two-story, suburban house.
He gets out of the vehicle and closes the door. For a moment he just looks at
the house from where he stands. Then, as if breaking free of some indecision or
worry, he moves around the Jeep and walks up the driveway toward the house’s
front door. Before he reaches the porch, he steps off the sidewalk and goes
around the right side of the house. He stops at a window and reaches a fur
covered hand toward it. It is covered with a sturdy, locked insect screen. The
next window is the same. Another window he passes by as it is too high.

Just beyond this
is a brick chimney where he can pull himself up for access to a low roof over
the back of the house. He pulls himself up to this ledge and then climbs nimbly
onto the roof. He walks up the slope of the roof toward the front of the house
and down the slope in the front. The roof extends over the porch in the front
of the house and affords access to two windows in the front. These are the last
chances to enter the house via windows. The first one he sees is open a little.
He smiles in anticipation, pulls the screen off quietly, and opens the window
slowly and quietly. He climbs into the dark room and looks around. No one is
here. It is a guest room perhaps.

He walks out
through the open door of the room and into the hallway. There are two more
doors at the far end of the hallway. It is darker in the hallway and he stops
when he sees a red light blinking on the ceiling. He doesn’t know what it is
but decides that it doesn’t concern him and he moves on to the door on the right
of the hallway. He grasps the doorknob and turns it with extreme care. The door
creeps open. This room has no bed but instead a desk, chair, and bookshelves.
He turns around and with the same care just as slowly opens the door on the
other side of the hall.

At last! He finds
what he was looking for: June Dituro asleep on her bed. She lies on the bed
half covered by a light sheet. It is a hot night. A fan blows back and forth
across the large master bedroom. He moves across the large room as quietly as a
shadow and is almost as difficult to see. Finally he is near her. He could
touch her and some part of him appreciates the sleeping woman’s beauty. But
then his lance comes out. He looks for the right spot on her chest.

Suddenly her eyes
open, she sees the creature in front of her and screams in terror.

Usually a scream
like this would not deter the Maero from his work, but her scream brings an
immediate bark from an old hound dog. The dog jumps from his dog bed, situated
in the cooler bathroom and runs the short distance to the bed on a direct
heading to attack the intruder.

The creature,
having missed his chance, and with an angry dog headed straight for him,
decides to leave as fast as he can. He heads for the bedroom door and the dog
follows close behind. The creature makes a left at the first room at the end of
the hallway and scuttles quickly out the window. The dog stops at the window
and barks a few times before heading back to the bedroom.

June has a
T-shirt on and is pulling on some jeans. She pats the dog quickly as she heads
out of the room. “Good boy!”

She heads down
the hall with the dog at her heels and looks out the window of the room through
which the Maero has escaped. Instead of seeing the creature, she sees a man
getting into his car.

“Hey you,” she
shouts. “Did you just see something run by?”

He continues to
get into his car, apparently not hearing her.

“Something
familiar about him,” she says to herself and the dog. She slams the window
closed, locking it, runs down the stairs and flies out the front door. The man
has already started away down the street. She runs to the end of the driveway
but decides she cannot follow in her bare feet. She cups her hands around her
mouth and calls out after the car.

“
Liiinnuuuuusssss
!”
She stands there bewildered for a moment. But
soon, fear of the creature returning prods her to seek the safety of the house
and the companionship of her dog.

›

Linus is stirring
restlessly in his bed. He finally sits up, picks up the phone near his bed and
dials.

“Hello, June. Are
you all right?”

“I’m fine, Linus.
Why? You okay? You don’t sound so good.”

Linus runs his
hand through his hair in relief.
“Oh, sorry.
I just
had a hell of a nightmare and wanted to check and see if you were okay.”

“Good as gold,”
says June brightly.

“That’s a
relief.”

“I need you,
Linus,” implores June, suddenly.

Linus raises an
eyebrow. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Why what, Linus?”

“Didn’t you just
say ‘I need you’?”

“No, I said I’m
as good as gold.”

Linus shakes his
head in confusion. “I’m going to go now.”

“Call me later?”

“Yeah, I will,”
says Linus.

“Bye.”

Linus places the
phone back in the cradle. “I’m hearing things, and having bad dreams. What
next?”

He collapses back
onto the bed, not intending to sleep, but as tired as he from his travels he
quickly ends up fast asleep.

›

Later Linus stirs
in his bed. He sits up, stretches, and rubs his eyes. After he works his way
out of bed, he walks out of his bedroom to the kitchen. He finds an apple in
the
refrigerator,
rinses it off and takes a bite.
Walking into the dining room he sees that Sava is awake. The lemur has an
unusual, fearful reaction when he sees Linus, though, as if he doesn’t know him
at all.

“What’s the
matter with you,” says Linus. The animal continues its noise, much to Linus’s
aggravation, until he throws a blanket from the sofa over the cage. Slowly the
noise decreases.

Linus turns
toward the computer and takes another bite from his apple, enjoying its taste.
The answering machine is on the desk and he notices the blinking message light.
He depresses the playback button.

“Linus, are you there? Something was in my house a few minutes ago. The dog
chased him away. I’m scared.”
A beep and then another
message.
“ Linus
.
Linus.
Call me as soon as you get back.” Then a third message plays. “Hello. Hello.
Linus, still not in?
Where are you? I need you, Linus.
I
neeeed
yoouuu
.”

›

Linus is in the
dining room with a sleeping Sava nearby. He takes a bite from the apple he is
holding, enjoying its oddly salty taste. He looks at the apple and it is
specked with what looks like blood. He uses a finger to wipe his lip and sees
more blood. The light on the answering machine is blinking. Linus depresses the
playback button.

“
as
soon as you get in. I’m afraid it was the
creature . . . Bye.”

›

Linus’s bedroom
is dark and hot. He sits up in his bed and looks wearily around the room. He is
covered with sweat. He jumps off the bed as if it is scalding hot and bounds
toward the nearest light switch. On his way to the kitchen he turns on each
light switch as he passes. In the refrigerator he sees an apple sitting next to
a couple of bottles of beer. He scowls at the apple and takes a beer. His “Ha!”
is more a nervous exclamation than one of triumph. He takes a deep drink and
moves to the dining room. Sava is sound asleep. The light on the answering
machine is flashing a red numeral one.

Linus stares at
the machine. He doesn’t want to listen to the message but in the end he
reluctantly presses the play button.

“Something was in my house, Linus. Are you there? . . . Call me as soon as
you get in. I’m afraid it was the creature. Bye.”
Beeeep
.

Linus is stunned.
It is just too hard for him to believe that the creature was at June’s house
and that he dreamt it. He picks up the phone and dials. He hears a busy signal.
“Maybe she’s talking to the police.” He hangs up.

“Let’s see.
Should I wait till she gets off the phone or go straight to her house? . . . It
would help if I knew where her house was.”

He tries her
number again with no success. He holds the flash button and tries Jay’s number.
There is no answer there either. “Well, where the hell are you?!”

He dials 0 and
asks for the number for the Cherry Hill police department.

“Cherry Hill police.”

“Hello, officer.
My name is Linus Hather. A friend of mine, her name is June Dituro, called me a
little while ago and said she’d seen something at her house – possibly a
Maero.”

“Oh, a Homo assassinatus, aye?”

“Right.
Did she
call you?”

“No. We haven’t
had any calls for Homo assassinatus tonight.”

“I wonder why she
didn’t call. Listen officer, I am requesting that you send a car out to her
house to investigate.”

The policeman
sighs, “Sure. Where’s she live?”

“All I know is
that she lives in Cherry Hill.”

“Oh, well, that
should narrow it down. I thought you were her friend.”

“We just met last
week.”

“All right then,
I’ll have dispatch look her up and send a car.”

“I don’t suppose
you could tell me that address while you’re at it officer.”

“Ha! You suppose
right. I don’t know you from Adam buddy.”

“Oh all right.
Whatever.
Just get a car over there as quick as you can.
Please.”

“We will. Is that
all?”

“Yes. Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Linus hangs up
the phone and thinks about how to get June’s address. An idea comes to him and he
turns on the computer and signs onto the Internet. He types June’s name and
city into Yahoo People Search and within a couple of minutes he has her
address.

“Yes! Thank God
for the Internet.”

He writes the
address down on a small piece of paper and goes back to his room where he
quickly dresses. He pauses for a moment when he finds himself in front of the
mirror and looks at himself, half expecting to see the creature there as he did
in his dream. But he doesn’t. He grabs his car keys and leaves the house for
his car.

Linus’s car pulls
up in front of a two-story suburban house in a tree-lined neighborhood in
Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The house seems strikingly similar to the one he’d
seen in his dream. He gets out of the car and closes the door. He runs up the
driveway toward the house’s front door. There is a dim light inside. He rings
the doorbell. No answer. He peers into the nearby living room window. There is
no activity that he can see.

He goes back to
the door and rings the doorbell again. Looking down on the dark porch, he sees
something he didn’t notice before. An envelope is sticking halfway out from
under the door. It has his name on it. He opens it and reads.

“Linus, sorry for dragging you way
out here.
I was a little spooked, so after I called the search team I went to the lab. If
you’ve come all this way, come on over there and keep me company. June”

Linus folds the
note which contains the address of the lab and places it in his back pocket. He
runs out to his car and drives away.

›

Linus and June
are sitting in her office. Her faithful old hound is there as well receiving a
good rubdown from Linus.

“Thank goodness
you were there, Falstaff,” says Linus to the dog. To June he says, “Dreams
aside, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a Maero ended up in
your
house. They must be even smarter than we feared.”

“You think they
have higher reasoning function?”

“Yes,” says
Linus. “And who knows what else to help them in their single-minded mission.
Has anyone opened up the Argentine animal’s skull yet?”

“No! There are
noninvasive ways to study him for now. You and I could go and give him an MRI
if you like. We’d get a good look at what’s inside his head.”