Monster Nation(96)

She looked at him, not the picture. Eventually he sighed.

'That's where it comes from. The Epidemic. In a couple of days I'm going to lead a raiding party up there and we're going to storm it. Maybe blow it up. I'd like to think that will be enough to end this. I'd like to have some confirmation, and I'm hoping that you can provide it. Do you recognize the place in that photo?'

Alright, she thought. Give him an inch, see how much he takes. She looked down. She'd never seen the place in the picture before. It meant nothing to her. It looked like a cluster of one-story buildings'too big for houses, maybe hunting lodges or something'on top of a mountain. There were strange shapes, animal-like, maybe reptilian, scattered around the building. Sculptures. Sculptures of dinosaurs, in between snow-covered peaks.

Snow-covered mountains' the fire.

She looked again.

A perfectly semi-circular expanse of ground around the buildings stood out, because it was empty. Beyond a certain limit the picture was full of bodies. Thousands of them, dead bodies, standing, facing inward. It was as if the undead had gathered to storm the buildings only some magical force was keeping them at a distance.

A place up in the mountains. A guilty man. A fire that would burn the world.

Jason Singletary had seen this photograph. Or he'd seen what it depicted. He'd tried to force his vision on her.

'You say it started here? How?' she demanded.

'We don't know. I'm gathering intelligence from every source I can find'including you. I saw a look of recognition on your face just now. Talk to me.'

There was definite steel in his voice but Nilla didn't know what to tell him. 'I've never been there. I don't know what you'll find. But''

It was his turn to wait without speaking.

'I think I'm supposed to go there. Maybe you're supposed to take me there. I'm the only one who can do it.' Singletary had been very clear on that last point.

'I see.'

'No, listen, I was chosen for this. Maybe I was created for this, I don't know'' she considered telling him about Singletary, and about Mael Mag Och. She knew it would sound crazy, though. She grew agitated as she thought through her options. She picked up her chain and stood up abruptly. 'You have to take me there, or, or you can just let me go, and I'll go there myself.'

He nodded at her and then quickly, methodically, closed his briefcase with a double click.

She felt as if she'd been sleepwalking. No, she felt as if she'd been in a bad dream, a dream where she'd forgotten something horribly, terribly important, something she had to do and that she had forgotten and now it was coming due. When Singletary had been trying to tell her about this she'd been distracted, she'd wanted to find her name so badly. Now she realized she should have paid more attention.

'You have to let me go,' she said.

'Not a chance.' He stood up and headed for the door. 'I saw what you did to those men at Jukebox Cave. You'll never be free again, not if I can help it.'

He didn't slam the door shut behind him but he might as well have. Nilla stared at it, at the door, for a very long time. Then she yanked at her chain, trying to get loose.

Not a chance.

They brought her another meal'pork chops'a little later. She ate them, of course, but they didn't really taste of anything. She was still sucking little bits of the grayish-pinkish meat out from between her teeth when the lights went out.

Oh God, she thought. They didn't know that she didn't sleep. Or maybe they did know and they just wanted to torment her, to force her to abide by a normal human day/night schedule. But then the room's emergency lights came on, a pair of wan halogen bulbs tucked away in a corner of the ceiling.

Nilla stood up and tried to reach the door, intending to signal to her captors that something was wrong. The chain wouldn't let her reach, though.

Hello, lass,Mael said, startling her. She looked to her left. He was reclining on top of one of the cafeteria tables. Naked, hairy, tattooed. He looked out of place in the Olde English Pub, to put it mildly.

'You'what did you,' Nilla sputtered. She looked up at the emergency lights and then back at her benefactor.

He winked in reply.





Monster Nation





Chapter Nine


It's growing' the mass is growing, on its own' so like a cancer but' coherent, self-organizing' so beautiful' Happy Valentine's Day, love. Maybe' maybe this won't be the last. [Lab Notes, 2/14/04]