The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp (Alfred Kropp #1)(60)

“You gave him Natalia.”

He didn’t say anything. He was smiling, but his eyes were cold.

I said, “Tell me where she is.”

“Even if I did know, what’re you gonna do, Al? Give him the Sword? He’ll kill her anyway. And if you try to take him, he’ll kill her before you can kill him. Don’t you see you can’t win? Time to cut your losses. You gotta step back and take a look at the big picture. We’re talkin’ the fate of the whole ding-dong world here, Al! You’re going to sacrifice humanity for the sake of one person? I mean, let’s be reasonable here!”

“Okay, Mike, I’ll be reasonable. I’ll make a deal with you. You bring me to Mogart and when it’s over I’ll give you the Sword.”

He stared at me and slowed some on the gum.

I said, “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Give me Mogart and it’s yours.”

Mike thought about it. “How do I know you won’t double-cross me?”

“I guess you don’t. But like Mr. Mogart told me, you don’t have a choice.”

I stepped back, but kept the Sword pointed toward his neck. “Give me your gun.”

He reached into the pocket of his Windbreaker and held out the gun, his finger hooked around the trigger guard. I took it from him and slipped it into my pocket.

“Anything else?” he asked. He acted like he was trying hard not to laugh.

“No,” I said. Then I thought of something. “Yes. What does OIPEP stand for?”

“ ‘Only Idiots Pursue Extraordinary Persons.’ ” He laughed in spite of himself and smacked his gum. “Okay? Are we done now?”

“One more thing,” I said. I held out my hand. “The gum.”

He started to laugh again but saw I was dead serious. He took out the gum and dropped it into my hand. When he did that, about half his personality evaporated. I tossed it into the shadows.

He turned to his left and I followed him along the back wall of the cave. The walls were smooth and slightly concave. He stopped at a fissure in the wall near the south corner. It was barely the width of one person, running from the floor to the ceiling.

“You first,” I said.

As we slipped into the opening, the sea sound became softer, and the drip of water and the wailing of Merlin a little louder. The floor here was rough, littered with stones and angled downward slightly. The path twisted right, then back left, then dropped steeply, and I had to press my free hand against the jagged wall to keep my balance. We eased our way down very slowly. Loose rocks and jutting outcrops as sharp as knives slowed our way down.

Gradually the walls drew back and the floor leveled and became smooth. A circle of light glowed in the distance. When we were about a hundred yards from the opening, Mike turned and whispered urgently, “Al, you gotta give my gun back.”

“Why?”

“He’s gonna think I’ve stiffed him. You’ve seen what he does to people who stiff him.”

I thought about it. “Okay,” I said. I took the gun from my pocket and hit him in the head as hard as I could with the grip.

He fell straight down. I slipped the gun back into my pocket, stepped over him, and walked the final hundred yards to the portal, alone.

48

I stood at the entrance to a huge cavern whose walls and ceiling were lost in vast, arching shadows. The floor was as smooth and as dark as a frozen pond. My footfalls echoed against the unseen walls as I walked slowly across the floor. There was no other sound and nobody in sight. I walked holding the Sword in front of me, thinking maybe there was another passage somewhere and I’d knocked out Mike too soon. Then I heard Mogart’s voice. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

“Mr. Kropp. You never cease to surprise me.”

I stopped. I slowly pulled the gun out of my pocket and held it loosely in my left hand, more to comfort myself than anything else.

“To have come this far, with so little experience and even less intelligence . . . I salute you, sir.”

“Where’s Natalia?” My voice sounded small and tinny, almost like a little kid’s.

“Here.”

His voice sounded right by my ear. I whirled around and saw them coming toward me, Natalia in front of him. He held the back of her neck with his left hand. In his right he held a tapered dagger.

They stopped about twenty feet away and Mogart smiled.

“I’m glad to see you have taken care of Mr. Arnold,” he said, nodding toward the gun. “I never cared for that man.”

Natalia’s eyes were dry, but very red; she must have been crying. Her dark hair was tangled around her face and there was a large bruise near the hairline.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, cutting her eyes at Mogart. I said, “I brought the Sword, Mr. Mogart. Let her go.”

“First the gun, yes? It’s hardly necessary, Mr. Kropp, and you might make a terrible mistake. You might strike the wrong person.”

I thought about it. If I refused, he might stab Natalia before I had a chance to get off a shot, a shot that would probably miss. But I’d still have the Sword and he knew if he killed her there’d be no reason for me to let him live. But that didn’t really matter to me, since Natalia would be dead.

I threw the gun and it slid across the smooth floor into the shadows.