Monster Planet(34)

There were words in that sentence Sarah had never heard before.

Magna finally put her pistol down next to the pitcher of ice water and left Sarah alone with Jack. What was left of his borrowed body, anyway. Fish had been at it leaving little that looked human. He had a torso and most of two arms. A head like a boiled chicken with some matted hair on the top. No eyes, nose or lips at all.

'You look like hell,' she said.

'In Finland they call hell Tuonela, at least they used to. It wasn't supposed to be so bad. A city under the ground where you went to sleep forever. When you arrived you were still pretty active and there was a welcoming party, they gave you a big beer stein. It was full of frogs and worms but it made you groggy and when you were finished they found you a nice soft patch of ground to lie down on. Sounds better than how it actually worked out, hmm?'

'I suppose,' Sarah said. It was tough to look at him. She'd seen plenty of corpses in her day but this was bad. He stank of stale brine and sun-baked skin.

'I didn't have much choice in bodies,' he explained, 'and I needed to talk to you. It's urgent, Sarah. There are things you need to know.'

She bit her lip and nodded. 'I know that rescuing Ayaan isn't going to be easy. I'm committed, though, and I've got Osman to go along with me. Ptolemy wants revenge, I can work with that'' She stopped. Something fragile and small opened inside of her, a flower of emotion. If she examined it too closely she knew it would collapse. 'Ayaan is dead. That's what you're here to tell me,' she guessed, her breath very cold in her lungs. 'I mean, you would know, somehow.'

'Yes,' Jack replied. He looked a little like he was melting. 'They're all' down in here with me. All the dead people. If she was dead I would be able to find her, and I can't. She's still alive, for the moment at least.'

'Oh.' The feeling inside her liquefied and drained away. It was'it had been'a kind of relief, and now it was gone. She understood that when she had heard Jack wanted to talk her subconscious had assumed it was to tell her that she'd done all that she could, that she'd been very brave but now it was over. But it wasn't over, it couldn't be yet. She had actually, in some quiet, small way, hoped that Ayaan was dead.

The thought wasn't worth the energy it would take to rationalize it away. Sarah looked away from him and changed the subject. 'So it's true, all that religion stuff? There's an afterlife?'

'You could say that. Like you could say that a book still goes on even after you're done reading it and you've put it on the shelf. All the words are still there.'

'That's' interesting,' she said.

'Fucking fascinating. Now shut up and listen to me. I don't want to have to stay in this body any longer than I have to.'

He looked out over the waves, drew a deep breath. 'The one consolation for being dead'the only possible consolation'is that you hear things. Dead people love to gossip, just like the living. If you're selective with who you listen to you can actually learn something useful, sometimes. I happen to have met somebody who works for our enemy. The Tsarevich, I'm told, is planning something big. He's been working on it for years'maybe since the beginning. It's going to be the culmination of his unlife. He's been busy at it, collecting things he needs.'

'Things?' Sarah asked.

'People, mostly. People like Ayaan or all those mummies. There's at least one more person he needs, somebody very special and he'll stop at nothing to find her, or at least a reasonable facsimile. He's been making liches at a furious rate, killing most of them because they didn't have powers or they didn't have the right powers. He's been collecting old bits of machinery, too, and documents the Soviets left behind. He took five tons of documents out of a cave near Magnitogorsk last year, research materials, parascience stuff left by Stalin-era scientists looking to find a way to bring dead soldiers back to life on the battlefield. Whatever he found in those papers made him think he needed to kidnap a bunch of mummies. Now he's moving. He's moving west. Toward the Source. Do you understand where this is going?'

'I think so,' she tried, though she really didn't.

'It means that once he has this last person that he needs, he'll be ready to act. It means we have very little time left for dilly-dallying. You want to save Ayaan, fine, and if Ptolemy wants revenge well so be it. But you need to know the Russian bastard has his own agenda, and I can guarantee you it isn't good. Ayaan plays into his hand somehow so he won't give her up easily. You're going to have to fight, Sarah. You can't just run along after him for the rest of time, you're going to have to fight. I know that isn't your strong suit. You're going to need help. Find yourself a couple of atom bombs, raise an army if you need to.'