The Great And Secret Show Part 54

"Like I said, give me five minutes. Are you at the same number?"

"Yeah. But you may not get through. The place is practically deserted."

"I'll get through," Abernethy said, and put down the phone.

Grillo looked across at Tesla.

"I did it," he said.

"I still don't think it's wise, telling people."

"Don't start again," Grillo said. "This is the story I was born to tell, Tesla."

"It's been a secret for so long."

"Yeah, for people like your friend Kissoon."

"He's not my friend."

"Isn't he?"

"For Christ's sake, Grillo, you heard what he did."

"So why do you talk about him with this sneaking envy in your voice, huh?"

She looked at him like he'd just slapped her.

"Call me a liar?" he said.

She shook her head.

"What's the appeal?"

"I don't know. You're the one who just kept watching the Jaff do his stuff. No attempt to stop him. What was the appeal of that?"

"I wouldn't have had a chance against him, you know that."

"You didn't try."

"Don't change the subject. I'm right, aren't I?"

Tesla had crossed to the window. Coney Eye was screened by trees. There was no telling from here whether the damage was spreading.

"Do you think they're alive?" she said. "Howie, and the others?"

"I don't know."

"You got to look into Quiddity, right?"

"I got a glimpse," Grillo said.

"And?"

"It was like one of our telephone calls. Cut off short. All I got to see was a cloud. There was no sign of Quiddity itself."

"And no Iad."

"No Iad. Maybe they don't exist."

"You wish."

"You're sure of your sources?"

"Couldn't be more sure."

"I love it," Grillo remarked somewhat bitterly. "I dig around for days and all I get is a f.u.c.king peek. But you-you plug straight in."

"Is this what this is about?" Tesla said. "You getting a story?"

"Yeah. Maybe it is. And telling it. Making people understand what's going on in Happy Valley. But seems to me you don't really want that. You'd be happier if we kept this among the chosen few. You, Kissoon, the f.u.c.king Jaff-"

"OK, you want to report the end of the world? You do it, Orson. Listeners across America are just waiting to panic. Meanwhile, I've got problems-"

"You smug b.i.t.c.h."

"I'm smug! I'm smug! Listen to Mister Hotshot Tell Them The Truth Or Die Trying Grillo! Has it occurred to you that if Abernethy publishes what's going on up here we're going to have a major tourist industry in twelve hours? Freeways blocked in both directions? And won't that be nice for whatever's coming out of the throat, huh? Feeding time!"

"s.h.i.+t."

"Didn't think of that, did you? And while we're talking turkey, you-"

The telephone silenced her in mid-accusation. Grillo picked it up.

"Nathan?"

"Abernethy."

Grillo looked across at Tesla, who was standing with her back to the window glaring at him.

"I'm going to need a lot more than two paragraphs."

"What convinced you?"

"You were right. A lot of people didn't come home from the party."

"Has it made the news this morning?"

"Nope. So you've got an edge. Of course your explanation about where they've gone's c.r.a.p. Biggest fiction I ever heard. But it's a great front page."

"I'll get back to you with the rest."

"An hour."

"An hour."

He put the phone down.

"All right," he said, looking at Tesla. "So suppose I hold off giving him the full story till noon? What can we do in that time?"

"I don't know," Tesla admitted. "Maybe find the Jaff."

"And what the h.e.l.l can he do?"

"Not do much. But undo plenty."

Grillo stood up and went through to the bathroom, turning on the faucet and splas.h.i.+ng cold water on his face.

"You think the hole can be closed?" he said, wandering back in, water dripping from his face.

"I told you, I don't know. Maybe. I don't have any other answers, Grillo."

"And what happens to the people inside? The McGuire twins. Katz. The rest."

"They're probably dead already," she sighed. "We can't help them."

"Easily said."

"Well you seemed ready enough to fling yourself in a few hours ago, so maybe you should go in after them. I'll get you a piece of string, to hold on to."

"All right," Grillo said, "I haven't forgotten you saved my life, and I'm grateful."

"Jeez, I've made some errors in my time..."

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm coming at this all wrong. I know I am. I should be planning some plan. Being a hero. But see...I'm not. The only response I've got to all this is the same old Grillo. I can't change. I see something, I want the world to know."

"It will," Tesla said quickly. "It will."

"But you...you've changed."

She nodded. "You got that right," she said. "I was thinking, when you were telling Abernethy he wouldn't have printed the Resurrection story: that's me. I'm resurrected. And you know what freaks me? I'm not freaked. I'm cool. I'm fine. I go walking around in a f.u.c.king time loop, and it's like..."

"What?"

"...it's like I was born for this, Grillo. Like I could be...oh s.h.i.+t, I don't know."

"Say it. Whatever's on your mind, say it."

"You know what a shaman is?"

"Sure," said Grillo. "Medicine-man. Witch-doctor."

"More than that," she said. "He's a mind-healer. Gets inside the collective psyche and explains it. Stirs it around. I think all the major performers in this-Kissoon, the Jaff, Fletcher-they're shamans. And Quiddity...is America's dream-s.p.a.ce. The world's maybe. I've seen these men f.u.c.king it up, Grillo: All on their own trips. Even Fletcher couldn't get his s.h.i.+t together."

"So maybe what's needed is a change of shaman," Grillo said.

"Yeah. Why not?" Tesla replied. "I can't do any worse than they have."

"That's why you want to keep it to yourself."

"That's one of the reasons, sure. I can do this, Grillo. I'm weird enough, and most of these shamans, you know, were a little off in some way. Cross-dressers; gender-f.u.c.kers. All things to all men. Animal, vegetable and mineral. I want to be that. I've always wanted...," she trailed off. "...you know what I've always wanted."

"Not till now."

"Well now you do."

"You don't look very happy about it."

"I've done the resurrection scene. That's one of those scenes shamans have to do. Die and rise again. But I keep, thinking...it's not finished. I've got more to prove."

"You think you have to die again?"

"I hope not. Once was enough."

"It usually is," Grillo said.

His remark brought a smile to her lips, unbidden.

"What's funny?" he said.

"That. You. Me. Things don't get any weirder than this, do they?"

"That's a fair bet."

"What time is it?"

"About six."

"The sun'll be up soon. I'm thinking I should go out to look for the Jaff, before the light drives him into hiding."

"That's if he's not left the Grove."

"I don't think he's capable," she said. "The circle's closing. Getting tighter and tighter. Coney Eye's suddenly the center of the known universe."

"And the unknown."

"I don't know whether it is so unknown," Tesla said. "I think Quiddity's maybe more like home than we think."

The day was on its way by the time they stepped out of the hotel, the darkness giving way to an uneasy no-man's land between moonset and sunrise. As they crossed the hotel lot a wretched, grimy individual stepped out of the murk, his face ashen.