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The Specter&039;s Lands: Froed course of Jamaica&039;s Southern Shore to the spine of the Blue Mountains, the Specter&039;s domain casts its invisible shadow over this sunny land The Jarow nervous and sullen No great wonder, for they have been returned to the slavery of three centuries ago They work tiny plots of cultivated ground that forrowth of returned wild trees and grasslands Viewed froraphy reserapevines, dollops of tended lands connected by one or two h patches of forest, with the vine&039;s principal stalks growing out of what used to be Kingston A feaths cut in the red earth of the hills at the bauxite s of aluminum This export is shipped north and west in return for the few technological necessities the Specter needs to maintain his control
Slave labor, carried out at a dead slow pace, tends the fields in this, one of the overned of the anization is nil Construction is y, with the exception of the bauxite ns with the word JAMALCO souns in the hands of the Specter&039;s Chinese Quislings, has slipped back into a stage somewhere between the Neolithic ihteenth century It is not unusual to see the land worked
by stone tools, before the slaves go home to rude huts lit by charcoal fires The Jamaicans have resorted to an atavistic belief systeood-luck charms, incantations, and totemism to keep the Reapers frons in chicken blood can be seen on some doorsteps, below patterned threads of beads that sway in everySome families never eat after noon, in the not unreasonable belief that an empty belly makes the body less visible to the Reapers&039; senses The Reapers, in the ed, the sick, or the feho try to flee The Specter&039;s cloaked avatars often lurk on the beaches and borders, taking those who try to escape over the mountains or into the cockpit country of the Northwest
While the Reapers isolate and then kill individual troublemakers, any sort of mass disturbance is a matter for the Horsed Police and Public Police With their intiuns, and clubs, the Specter uses them in one of the oldest tricks in the tyrant&039;s playbook: that of keeping one race under control by using another The Horsed Police are of mixed ethnicity: Chinese Ja They control the more numerous but less disciplinedbands of thugs, but effective enough in controlling the workers on their plantations The great privilege of the Public Police is being allowed to use small boats to clai waters, though their better-fed families suffer nearly as much from the Reapers as the ordinary Jamaicans ork the crops and mines
The Specter rests at the apex of this pyraod swollen on the rich life aura of the island&039;s fecund people Cunning as a grave robber, for forty years he has jealously guarded his island paradise, turning down overtures of fellow Kurian Princes to join him on the island, and one attempt to wrest it fro a wide bay he
feeds off one of the first discoveries of the New World as ahe touches like a necroptic King Midas With only the irritation of pirates to the north and a few scattered gangs in the h to threaten him even in the unlikely event that they united, one could wonder if he would have given the news that there was a Cat on the island ht, so secure is he in his habits, behind his walls guarded by a thousand guns and the ferocious teeth of his Reapers
It took all of three days for David Valentine to cross a 1,200-yard field In fairness, the first day hardly counted: it had been spent surveying the estate&039;s lands Thedoard the bay turned into fields and orchards closer to the castle A road servicing the Kurian&039;s ho the coast and eastward toward a settlement centered in the ruins of a beautiful Colonial Spanish square The immediate lands beyond the castle&039;s pebble-colored faces were filled with tobacco fields, stretching out froreen carpet The distinctive odor tickled his sensitive nostrils as he allowed his nose a moment&039;s play in the air from his perch in a palm He had surveyed farms with staple crops, fruit trees, and livestock, but this was the first tobacco field he had seen since being dropped off by Utari&039;s fast-sailing sloop
The first order of business was to get a feel for the rhythe of local spies
The Specter relied on his Reapers to guard the castle and the tobacco fields at night; Valentine had made sure of that after the second day&039;s observation Ordinary Jamaicans avoided the acres around the castle as if the air were toxic Women dressed in neat cotton smocks or heavy black dresses worked the Specter&039;s personal fields and orchards as their children played auessed by the quality of their clothing and shoes that they were fam-
ilies of his Horsed Police They worked in a curiously lackadaisical, though not disorganized, manner Valentine had seen many fields where the people under the Kurian thu that whoever turned in fewer bushels at the end of a season would go to the Reapers
The Reapers, with their innate ability to sense hun they projected, could spot anyone approaching the castle at night across the fields Thus had the brave Jaht they caht as well have approached the castle shooting off Roht a cluster of hu Reaper Even a lone ht were shining on him from one of the four corner towers
But Valentine was anotherof six years as a Hunter had taught hihdown parts of hisonly of the furtive scratching of the rat in the drainpipe ahead Once in the properhis body were perfors from hirowth and abundant anin,Reapers, and allowed hie of the fields in comparative safety
He had another ability, equally useful but less explicable, even to the see Lifeweavers who had selected and trained hi its own ability to detect lifesign, though his own senses were far less precise than those of the vam-piric Reapers He once described the sensation to Alessa Du-valier as akin to "feeling where the sun is with your eyes shut" Though to be more accurate, it felt more like a cold presence in his mind, the creepy alarm that most people experience sometime in their lives when they wake up sud-
denly with the fear that someone is in their bedroom The ability was unpredictable: so on a wooded slope ain a base of unease In the absence of any authoritative opinion, he formed a theory that his ability had to do with the mental connection between the Reaper and its Master Kurian, but like ht at best Anecdotal evidence suggested there were others like him Stories filtered in from elsewhere about other Hunters with the talent, but he had never met one and compared notes
From the uncoht concentrating on lowering his lifesign and sensing the Reapers&039; movements For what the sense orth-and thehis observation-he determined that the Specter loosed two Reapers to prowl his lands at night One watched from the castle tower nearest the road As would be expected, they retired with the dawn before the first women appeared on the road from the old colonial town
He spent the third day in a long, agonizing crawl into the tobacco fields Burdened by Ahn-Kha&039;s oversize gun and decorated with soh the fields at a speed a determined beetle could pace
The crawl, punctuated by drowsy half-naps in the shadow of the tobacco stalks, gave hi past the point where he could change theued orries that he barred frohttime meditations
What if the Thunderbolt was delayed in its journey? Her diesels were reliable but so ancient, a breakdown could not be discounted How long could he stretch his two canteens, one now containing only a mouthful of water or two, in Jaht be able to hide his lifesign fros chasing and playing with the children as their fa? His cuun would be alht with the Horsed Police
Could he get close enough to the castle so he could be sure of the leaf-sights on the rifle? Some unknown pirate of the coun&039;s telescopic lens, which would have allowed hie ("I&039;m sorry," Carrasca had said, "but any kind of optics are al the crew had yielded nothing but shrugs)
He had spent two nights awake and taken only brief naps in the day Suppose he fell asleep lying aht of all? One vivid drea Reapers, and that would be the end of hie ht
Alone, with only fear to keep him company, he slithered beneath the tobacco leaves He wished for the comfort of Ahn-Kha&039;s presence But Ahn-Kha was off to the east sos and so from the comment their appearance would excite
Post was resting in the old auxiliary hospital ship on the other side of the island, and the rest of his shipmates in the Thunderbolt were beyond the horizon The Jamaicans could be trusted to keep secrets from the Police and the Specter&039;s henchmen, but undoubtedly there were a few spies in the community Suppose one should learn of their presence, and a hunt ensue?
Right now the Specter thought himself secure, but at the first word of a plot, he would retreat to his deepest hole guarded by the fury of a dozen Reapers, with histo his aid from every station for miles around What then?
Valentine wanted to succeed, not just for the sake of regaining use of the Thunderbolt, but also for the aging commodore&039;s hopes There was lot of buccaneers and refugees A new freehold in the Caribbean in alliance with the Dutchle
His final plan had co a description of the Specter&039;s refuge
"So," Captain Utari explained, his cadence as rolling as the sea he traveled on, going on oral tradition and boyhood h walls and towers at d&039; corner For years &039;twas eht it back and set it all up to his likin&039; Dey say he do as in&039; as buildin&039; an&039; it has basements an&039; catacombs beneath You can see de ol&039; Devil at times, up on his balcony or the towers, watchin&039; us an&039; seein&039; to deem"
By us and deem the captain meant the Jamaicans and the Asian master caste the Specter had imposed upon them On further inquiry, Valentine learned that the balcony faced the sea, looking out on a wide bay The description transforue idea into a plan He talked it over, first with Ahn-Kha, and then with the Grog&039;s refinements put a finished plan before the triumvirate of the commodore, Lisi, and Car-rasca
He stopped his crawl three-quarters of the way across the field Any closer, and his view of the balcony would be disturbed Captain Utari&039;s description of the castle was accurate enough, though Valentine had always pictured er-he had seen pre-Kur houses nearly as big as this walled hold But close up, he could see why the Specter chose this building for his lair The towers, the narros, the heavy stonework, even its grim, isolated location would appeal to a Kurian
Nothing but the insects disturbed hi, drowsy day in the field The sun sank, the stars eed, and
Valentine reain the Reaper patrolled the edges of the fields as another stood in the tower, its head turning this way and that like a watchful owl A curious fit of optics ure di the energy even fro star field The Undertaker blew fitfully off thenor as pleasant as its dayti An afternoon rain shower had left him cold and even more uncomfortable rather than refreshed, and the o bis self-hypnosis
Dawn approached, and a heavier rain set in, so Carrasca had assured him was almost unknown at this time of year Valentine cursed the rain, the poor visibility, and Carrasca&039;s th But with the sun, the clouds thinned and dissolved, fleeing in a burst of sky-fla light of dawn Valentine, ain a view of the bay that would allow hiliness would be a cos went badly-what the counboat&039;s cannon could throw the coastline into enough confusion to allow him to escape
The women on their way to their day&039;s work in the fields saw her first Valentine watched theh his claun to his shoulder and checked the slide of the sight for the uun rested in an iether contraption the Chief designed to help hiths of creeper to the barrel, careful not to obscure the foresight, over the dingy and green leather covering Ahn-Kha had sewn over the barrel The gnarled, shillelagh-like stock was built for the Grog&039;s larger frame, but Valentine padded the end with canvas stuffed with sawdust so it fit snugly into the crook of his
arm He opened the bolt and slid one of the 50-caliber bullets into the breech
At this range, even firing upward, Ahn-Kha&039;s shells would have a nearly flat trajectory Valentine breathed slowly and deeply He&039;d heard that the Kurians could sense lifesign as easily as their Reapers, but precise infor dawn he knew that detection would grow even ht interfered hatever waves hu in the dark castle No doubt some daytime sentry had alerted his officer, ould have a look, then perhaps pass the word of the Thunderbolt&039;s arrival to one of the Specter&039;s retinue
Valentine bet his life, so to speak, on the Kurian co himself The Specter would wonder what the Thunderbolt&039;s appearance portended The Kur of New Orleansin his waters, but would he trust their word? She could ain ith the pirates on the north coast, or an attempt by some other Kurian to supplant him and take the plentiful aura-fodder of the island
By the plan, Carrasca was to bring the Thunderbolt into the bay and put troops into her boats The Kurian would be eager to see, fro men would behave as friends or foes
The fortress caallop out fro hard for the town, and the other turning on the road west As the riders galloped away, hanging on to their mounts&039; ed froht One held a box with a high antenna waving back and forth in the confused airs that preceded the Doctor&039;s offshore breeze
Valentine hardened his eyes as the figures went to the edge of the balcony He sighted down the barrel with his own telescopic vision The view sharpened, detail springing to life as his visual sense caures
became individual portraits One was undoubtedly a Reaper, hood pulled well over its head to ward off the ure, perhaps a Jaed The first Kurian Valentine was to hunt reh the Kurians, like their Lifeweaver brethren, could appear as Eve&039;s serpent or Abraham Lincoln if they wished But this Kurian, for whatever reason, did not choose to put ray as a corpse, it seemed to float to the balcony rather than walk Valentine ht squarely in the center of the Kurian&039;s sagging chest He placed his finger on the trigger and looked into the face of evil
Valentine felt a shudder creep up his spine as their eyes met over the distance The Kurian read hiht Valentine&039;sbefore an abyss A kaleidoscope of color coalesced, filling his vision, aof chaos froger as he felt his will fleeing The recoil of the shot jarred his fra the psychic link As through a haze he saound blossom at the Buddha statue&039;s throat The Specter&039;s jaw dropped open in a silent, gaping screa it backwards,the back of the balcony with purplish fluid But the disguise stayed For aenough to drop an elephant, would not kill it, but then the head lolled It sagged forward again, as if it werethat looked like an umbrella with a bulbous octopus head at the top Valentine heard a faint splat as it fell
The Cat lay still, fighting the instinct to get up and flee He knew his single shot would be hard to locate from any kind of distance So he waited for the collapse he expected to begin
The Kurian no longer aniure stalked the balcony to slay in ani off the Jaainst the neck Blood fountained, sprinkling the Reaper, the rail, and the castle wall as the beast dragged its victiht lasted, Valentine had little to fear fro the halls of the castle With the link to the Kurian gone, the Reapers inside would mindlessly slay whoever remained behind the walls, and trouble no one until darkness ca the lands of the Specter would probably do the sarab a victim and retreat into a dark hole Valentine felt a feral, id-tickling thrill at the thought of the fate of any of the Specter&039;s Horsed Police sharing shelter with the vaanization, the masterless Reapers could be hunted and burned out of their holes But that would have to co the tobacco plants With chaos sitting in the Specter&039;s throne, the Kurian&039;s real It was time for him and Ahn-Kha to hasten its fall As he crawled between the stalks, the freshly fed Reaper at the door to the balcony shielded its face fro sun and retreated into shadow
"So this is the Crying Man"
If Obay was over six feet, it was by the width of an eyelash Nor did she have four breasts There was enough flesh beneath her woven robes-like Joseph&039;s coh she had an extra set She had liver-spotted skin the color of ray-black hair drawn back in tight braids Obay walked with the help of two men-sons, Valentine soon learned-and a pair of canes
The Specter had been dead for twenty-two hours, and his regi away like ice in the Caribbean sun Cap-
tain Utari had brought Valentine and Ahn-Kha to a trailside village with round, unfire echoed froston Armed Jamaicans of every description, frolossy African, filled every piece of shade in the village Most carriedpigs, horsemeat, and corn came from clay or brick ovens and oil dru d&039; men to Obay&039;s call," Utari explained
"Not enough Not enough for the town I saw," Ahn-Kha said He, the Thunderbolt&039;s Grogs, and Utari&039;s ston
"More coet our people, an&039; de city folks We&039;ve waiteed for de day of liberation When Obay make her promeese-"
"Her prediction, you mean?" Valentine cut in
"A &039;prediction&039; from Obay is a promeese, Cryin&039; Mon You d&039; proof"
They went into a ashed brick house at the center of the village&039;s only street, sixty or seventy feet of asphalt flanked by gravel roads By the shaded light Valentines The owner of the house welcos before she and her fa before Obay There was an oddly dressed retinue to either side of the oracle One hat looked to be the final reold tassels and yellow braiding sewn to the shoulder of a sleeveless green dress army coat
"Thank you, boys," Obay said, after recognizing Valentine She extended a hand Valentine shook it, touching a heavy ring on her forefinger with a jewel the size of a pea
He took another look, trying to read the script, as Ahn-Kha engulfed her hand in his long fingers
"Yale I would have been class of &039;23," Obay explained, sticking out her hand The knuckles were enlarged with arthritis
It was a pretty thing, but it looked like a man&039;s Valentine wasn&039;t sure what to say, so he fell back on what his father used to ask the educated of the Old Order "What did you study?"
"Pre-law I buried the needle on my SATs"
"Essay T&039;s?"
"S A Ts Scholastic aptitude tests"
Valentine was flummoxed "You had to do well on those to be allowed to learn? Sounds self-defeating"
"There&039;s a long answer, but it&039;s not important Of course, it didn&039;t hurt that my father was a vice president with General Mills I started as a freshot a taste of acadee politics I wised up by the end of my sophomore year I switched to pre-law With a history minor-I&039;d always enjoyed it, and you should take your share of fun those years"
"Never had the opportunity Unless you count soive out souvenirs"
Her sons helped her sit down on a bench The asse the main room of the tiny house Except for Ahn-Kha The bench he tried let out such a groan that he shifted his buttocks forward to a comfortable squat with the bench as a backrest
Obay looked down at her ring "I was doing an internship in Boston when the Ravies hit I ended up on a cleanup crew behind a guard unit Loading bodies Evendown-it didn&039;t look like there&039;d be bar exa on a body-he had a suit worth a good three thousand dollars-and thought, what the hell"
"Boston&039;s a long way fro with every man he&039;d ever known"
"Did he make it out with you?"