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We cannot get a flight to Lake Tahoe or even into Reno San Francisco is our next best choice The four of us, Seymour, James, Dr Seter, and I, fly to San Francisco and rent a car in the Bay Area Airport security has not allowed us to take weapons with us, so along the way, close to ten o&039;clock, I have the others hile I break into a gun shop and steal two shotguns and several rounds of aet back to the car He sits up front with me while Seymour talks to Dr Seter in the backseat The doctor is not looking good, and I wonder if he suffered a et into the store?" Jah speed

"I picked the lock," I say, doing the driving

"Did an alarlance over my shoulder "Do you need to use the restrooas station a couple of hastly white but he shakes his head "We don&039;t have tiet there before she does" He pauses "I&039;m still furious at myself that I didn&039;t allow you to see all of the scripture the first night Hoere you able to decipher the clues as to the child&039;s location so quickly?"

"I had a little help," I say

"From whom?" James asks

"You wouldn&039;t believe me if I told you"

"I think everyone in this car is ready to believe anything," Seymour mutters

"Ain&039;t that the truth," Dr Seter says

Yet I hesitate to talk about Mike "A little bird helped ently persists "Does this bird have a naive him a look "Not that I can re Lake Tahoe and I plow up the winding road that leads to the lake The others sit, clutching the ceiling grips; I have rented a Lexus sports coupe and I push the car to its limit Dr Seter looks as if he will vomit over the backseat but he doesn&039;t complain There&039;s too much at stake

As we come over the rim of the mountain and see the lake, I smell Kalika I am surprised at my own surprise because I should have expected her to be here, but in reality I didn&039;t Yet I still don&039;t think she has deciphered Suzama&039;s code beforeso I believe she still waits to see what moves we&039;ll make next And this is a paradox forto find it to protect it Certainly there hter has left so many of us alive She didn&039;t knohere I hen I was at the hospital with the child Yet she knehere I hen I was living in Pacific Palisades with Seymour I have to wonder if the child has a mystical shield around him that Kalika can&039;t pierce but maybe I can

It may not matter

If I can smell her, she can see us

But I cannot have come this far just to turn away from the child I cannot trust in my theories I only know that if I can find Paula and her baby I can take the I can envision without e downhill, I floor the accelerator and turn toward Emerald Bay

We reach it twentyin all of nature The bay is maybe two hundred yards across, sheltered on three sides bythe the bay excellent shelter froh in stormy weather There is a tiny island in the center of the water, a place for children to play and adults to relax Even at ical But tonight it is silver, not eer Ory stabbed in me

For soo

My abdomen cramps and I brush away a fly that has entered the car

The odor of Kalika overpowerstouched by Yaksha&039;s blood,down myall the way, I use my nose like a needle on a compass, and it doesn&039;t fail me It points in only one direction, toward a small wooden house set on redwood stilts above an abandoned stone church at the floor of the cliff, not far above the water The place is almost hidden in the trees, but I see it

I drive faster

I stop some distance from the house The road we&039;re on circles all of Lake Tahoe but at this place it is three hundred yards up the side of thethe others, I slip six shells into it The remainder of the a open the driver&039;s door, I aoing?" he des you can&039;t help me with," I say

"Alisa," Seymour says The others only know me by that name

"It has to be this way" I shake off James "Stay and take care of one another She ive the out of the car, I run around the bend, and the led trees and uneven boulders don&039;t even slow me I reach the house in thirty seconds

The front door has already been kicked in

Kalika atching which wayout athat overlooks Emerald Bay There is a small boat on the cold water, with an outboardaway fro Paula from behind, I turn her around

"Did she take the child?" I demand

Pretty dark-haired Paula is the color of dirty snow

"Yes," she says with a dry voice

"Stay here" I puet hi the edge of the bay In places this is difficult because the sides are sheer stone When I coe that will supportKalika&039;s outboardI reach the isth white coat, the baby wrapped in a white blanket on her knees, she looks up at un and take aim at her bow She is only fifty yards away Her eyes shilow of the moon and she doesn&039;t seem to be surprised

The baby talks softly to her, infant nonsense He is not afraid, but fear is al the barrel and squeeze the trigger

The blast of the shotgun echoes across the bay

I have blown a hole in the front of the boat

Water gushes in Kalika grabs the handle of the outboard and turns the boat around For a moment her back is to me, an easy shot Yet I don&039;t take it I tell ht hit the child At first Kalika seems to be headed back toward the beach below Paula&039;s house, but then it is clear the oal Perhaps the water is gushing in too fast Kalika picks up the child and hugs him to her chest even before the boat reaches the island Then she is tip and out of the sinking craft, sca up the dirt path that leads to a s the shotgun under my black leather coat, I dive off the low cliff and into the water

The lake te, even for h we can tolerate it far better than huun, but I reach the island in less than aon the beach in the rays of the un and puood chance it will still fire If it doesn&039;t then this will be the laston a bench in the stone house at the top of the island It is not properly a house, uide toldthe Second World War Kalika sits with the baby on her lap, playing with hiun I feel I have to say so Of course I am not fooled I keep est fool of all

"It is over," I say "Set the child down"

Kalika doesn&039;t even look up "The floor is cold He un "I am serious"

"That is your probleave the child?" she interrupts

"No I didn&039;t stop to ask her"

"I think she na him" Finally she looks at me "But you know Mike, don&039;t you?"

I am bewildered "Yes Have you spoken to him?"

"No But I know him He&039;s a bum" She lifts the child to her breast Kalika has a voluptuous figure; she could probably bear many healthy children God knohat they would be like She strokes the baby&039;s soft skull "I think we have co about?"

"Your friend is coh I don&039;t hear anyone approaching "More reason for you to surrender the child" I grow impatient "Put him down!"

"No"

"I will shoot"