Vespers Page 28

  Why not? Right now that seemed like a lot. She might also black out as she fell and die painlessly. That was a comforting thought, given the alternative.

  So was this, a non sequitur which came to her in a flow of thoughts. She hadn’t had time to contemplate death up at the museum. She’d been too busy surviving. Now that she did she was surprised to find herself not bitter but grateful. She was happy to have had the time she had, the life she did, the experiences.

  The entire arm shuddered, and she squeezed the handrails. For some reason the thought of death wasn’t as scary as the thought of being vulnerable like this. She wished this part would pass.

  It was dark below, the entrance to the forearm stuffed with the giant bat. The creature was no longer trying to get up here. Rather, it would enter, hack, back down to the second landing, then twist around and enter again. Each time it did, it tore at the support structure, trying to rip the steel beams, steps, and ladder out of its way. Every now and then the hint of sunlight entering through the crown gave her a glimpse of the giant’s face. Motherhood had not softened the creature’s disposition. If there could be such a thing as hate in an animal’s expression, it was there. Joyce could also hear the giant even after it stopped wailing aloud and began panting in long, chilling, hisses. She knew that each suspiration was comprised of hundreds of high blats, the barely audible aspect of her echolocation.

  Steel support struts buckled. Rivets strained and the copper plates that comprised the skin of the statue popped on one or two sides. After a short time the smaller vespers began returning to the statue; Joyce could see them outside through the broken seams in the arm.

  That was it,she thought. Gentry was on his way from the communications center, and the giant bat must have heard him coming. That was why it was echolocating. The scientist in Joyce found it an amazing synergy. So simple, yet so effective that nothing-no living thing other than a bat-could get near the creature. Not even an insect.

  She prayed that Gentry would have the good sense to turn around. If the bats came back in force he’d never make it.

  The young woman felt the arm sag and rotate slightly. The platform she was on angled backward so that she was leaning more than slightly against the door. She heard it squeak.

  Then she heard something else.

  Her name.

  And all the calm, all the pensive resignation, was gone in a finger-snap instant as she gripped the handrails and screamed,“Robert-go back!”

  Forty-Five

  About midway up the twelve-story statue,vespers had begun swirling around Gentry, scratching and biting. The detective ducked his head into his arms and continued running up. He didn’t have to see where he was going in order to get there. All he needed to do was keep his right side pressed to the railing and follow it up. The pain in his ankle had become a constant ache, which was preferable to the sharp jabs he’d been suffering before.

  Every once in a while he shouted Nancy ’s name, hoping that she might hear him and respond. Hoping that she might find a way to buy herself another second or two until he could get to her.

  It wasn’t until he was near the statue’s shoulders that he heard a response. He also heard something else: the continuous grind of metal against metal. He felt gusts of fresh air. Still holding the crowbar, he crouched when he was just below the landing. With his arm slung across his face to protect it from the vespers, he raised his eyes above the crook of his elbow. He peered through the crisscrossing support beams.

  He saw the bat on the staircase of the upraised arm. She was tucked up in the folds of the bunched sleeve. All around her, copper plates had been torn away while others were swinging on single rivets. Though none of the support beams were broken, several were bent, and the arm was tilting slightly toward the front of the monument. He could tell because the stairs had torn away from the landing and were leaning seaward.

  The belligerent vespers forced him to move before he’d had more than a moment to reconnoiter. He clambered up to the landing, leaning as much as possible on his right leg. God help him if the bats hobbled that one too. His immediate goal was to try and get the big bat away from the statue’s arm so Joyce could get out.

  As the detective began to move forward, the creature dropped from the stairs, landed heavily, then turned slowly. The animal was bowed very low, its chin nearly on the platform. It was bleeding from its neck. Swatting vespers away from his face, Gentry watched as the wounded giant crept slowly across the broken body of Officer Berk. The bat inadvertently dragged the corpse several feet as it crawled toward him. Berk’s shredded belt came off. Blood-soaked shreds of his uniform stuck to the landing.

  Gentry backed away as more and more vespers picked at his arms, his shoulders, his legs. He held the crowbar in one hand and clawed desperately at vespers with the other. Between close-up glimpses of tiny white teeth and velvety wings he thought he saw movement behind the giant-

  The giant bat heard it and turned, still low to the ground. As she did, her head snapped to the side as Joyce smashed it with Officer Berk’s nightstick.

  The creature reared up, shrieking, its huge body centered on the tripod of its powerful legs and thick tail. Its head and shoulders pushed against the top of the statue’s sleeve. The copper bulged and broke as the creature rose into the dawn sky.

  “ Nancy!”Gentry cried. He motioned her toward him.

  “No, go back!”

  “Not without you! Comeon! ”

  The young woman hesitated a moment longer. Then she tossed the stick aside, scrambled around the bat, and ran toward Gentry. An instant later the creature came down hard, causing the metal landing to bend in the center. The floor tilted and seemed to suck Joyce back; she grabbed the handrail of the spiral staircase to keep from sliding toward the creature. The monster swept at her with its hook, but Gentry had dropped the crowbar and pulled Joyce up and over the railing just as the claw sliced by. Roaring with rage, the wounded creature hunched its head deep in its huge shoulders and charged forward.

  Holding Joyce close to him, Gentry started running down the stairs. He was glad he’d tied the ankle bandage tight. It was all that kept his foot from crumbling beneath his weight. The giant bat crushed the railing and crawled after them, face-down, vespers spiraling ahead of it.

  “What are youdoing?” Joyce screamed.

  Gentry couldn’t answer. He was out of breath and concentrating on staying ahead of the main body of vespers. He was also watching his feet, paying attention to what was below them.

  Waiting.

  The steps shook as the creature descended. It was difficult to tell how far behind she was, but it wasn’t far enough: Gentry could not only hear but feel eachchung as the bat’s hooks came down ahead of her.

  It was a dizzying descent, and when they were nearly at the bottom Joyce stumbled and fell. Gentry stopped, turned to help her up, and saw the bat just yards above. The lowest of the vespers attacked them as Gentry grabbed Joyce under the arms, held her against his chest, and pulled her down. Just a few more steps.

  “Get ready, T-Bone!” he shouted.

  Gentry reached the rubber-topped landing in the pedestal. He threw himself on top of Nancy.

  “Now, T-Bone!”

  “Almost there!” T-Bone shouted back.

  Gentry looked anxiously around the base of the column in the center of the room. There was a cable attached to it; at the other end, T-Bone was lying on his back, working beneath the transformer box.

  Gentry looked up. The bat was winding its way down the last turn of the spiral staircase. Gentry saw its bloody mouth and flaming eyes and more of the small bats swirling down.

  “We’re out of time, man!” Gentry cried.

  “No shit!” T-Bone said. He slid out and quickly knee-walked to a smaller box beside the transformer.

  The bat crawled down the last few steps. The detective and Nancy moved to the other side of the column. The creature looked at them over the railing and spread its wings.

&nbs
p; “Say cheese,” T-Bone said as he punched the circuit breaker on.

  There was a click, then a hum as electricity shot through the cable to the steel core. The giant bat stiffened. Its wings trembled at its side and its mouth spread silently in every direction. There was a sizzle from the column as wisps of smoke curled from the torso and right wing where the bat was still touching it. The white bone around its hourglass nose quickly grew black, and the bat’s head rolled down. Its eyes and claws went wide and stayed that way.The huge muscles of its chest and shoulders grew taut and the fur seemed to dissolve, then the skin darkened and smoked. From behind came a flood of death as bat after bat brushed the column and exploded into small, living torches. Some of the vespers dropped quickly, others circled widely for a moment before falling, a few tried to fly away. Many of them squealed, but most of them died silently.

  As he looked back at the fiery cascade, Gentry covered Nancy with his arms and chest to protect her from the burning bats. He didn’t want to move from the rubber ledge and risk touching the handrail. Not while the power was still on.Her head was tucked against his armpit, her breath coming fast and hot, and she hugged him tightly. Her fingers were in constant motion, running over any part of him she could find. Gentry didn’t take it personally. He suspected that Nancy was happy to be feeling anything at all.

  After several long, long seconds, the giant bat finally moved. It looked down, though Gentry wondered it if was even aware of them. Slowly, it rose on violently trembling legs and opened its wings as though it wanted to fly. It lifted its head and looked up-at its nest? Gentry wondered.

  Its wings opened wider, to their fullest extent. The left wing rose and touched the copper skin of the statue’s foot. Sparks and a sound like crumbling paper rolled up the side, in and out of the folds of her robe, lighting the statue as it rose. The electrical wave ran into the statue’s arm and up the torch and ignited the cluster of thousand-watt bulbs behind the yellow and red glass of the flame. It burned, bright and brief, as the rising sun lit the millions of windows in the countless buildings across the breadth of Manhattan.

  And then the electrical fire died. The bat relaxed. Its burned wings descended like shrouds, and its eyes shut and its legs crumpled. Smoke rising from its flesh, the bat did a slow pirouette as it dropped into the narrow space between the staircase and the pedestal wall. It fell for just a moment, landing hard on a cross-section of metal struts, and then everything was quiet. The light of the sun quickly diluted the strong orange glow of the bats that burned on the steps around them. The surviving vespers flew off quickly to the top of the statue.

  Only now did Gentry become aware of the fact that Nancy was crying. He continued to crouch where he was and hold the young woman.

  “Gentry! Hey, Detective, you guys okay?”

  “We’re fine, T-Bone,” he said. “Good work. Thanks.”

  “You’re very welcome,” the big man said as he walked around the column. He was smiling broadly.

  Kathy Leung came running up the stairs. She was carrying the camera on her shoulder, videotaping her ascent. When she arrived, she shut the camera off and handed it to T-Bone. Then she knelt on the step below Gentry. She smiled at the detective and winked. “Thanks for the exclusive, Robert.”

  “I did it all for you, Kath.”

  “Were you able to get some of those fireworks?” T-Bone asked.

  “Oh yeah.” Kathy looked up at Joyce.

  “Cool,” T-Bone said. “There’s your transfer and my raise.”

  Kathy regarded Joyce. “Doctor, is there anything I can get you?”

  Gentry lifted his arm. Joyce slipped from under it. “No thanks.”

  “You sure?”

  She looked at Gentry and smiled faintly. “I’m sure.”

  T-Bone looked over the side. “Kath, you may want to shoot this too, before the SWAT guys get here and seal it all off.”

  “We will,” she told him.

  “Hey, and thanks for listening to me, Detective,” T-Bone went on.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Didn’t Itell you not to bring that motherfucking bat down here? Man, that is some nasty smelling fried animal.”

  “Sorry,” Gentry said. He looked at Joyce. “The airis a little foul in here. You up to walking outside for some of the fresh stuff? Assuming I can get my legs to work.”

  “Not just yet,” Joyce said. She rose unsteadily. “There’s something we have to do.”

  Forty-Six

  The walk back to the statue’s crown was slow and painful. It also hurt because Joyce knew what she and Gentry were going to find when they got there.

  Joyce wasn’t sure she would have been able to kill the spawn of the giant bats. But when Gentry told her about the charge that had flowed up the statue, she knew that that probably wouldn’t be necessary.

  They were breathing heavily, their nostrils stinging from the tart electric smell that hung inside the statue, as they dragged themselves up the final leg of the climb-the stairs that led along the right side of the crown. As they ascended toward the landing, they saw a sky turning blue through the twenty-five small windows and sunlight skimming across the bay. The sun warmed the crown, though Joyce felt cold as they stepped onto the studded steel floor. It was singed black in spots where the electricity had shot through it.

  When they finally entered the small chamber, neither Gentry nor Joyce was looking at the floor or even at the new day. They were looking at what was on the opposite side.

  “Aw, jeez.” Gentry stopped walking and turned away.

  Two enormous baby bats were lying spoonlike on their sides. They were nearly three feet long and facing the back of the crown. Their eyes were shut and their heads were resting near the newcomers. Their fur was off-white and their wings-relatively small for their size-were translucent and folded around them. Neither of them was moving. Their faces were turned out slightly as though they were watching for someone…waiting.

  Joyce continued toward the bats.

  “Are you sure they’re dead?” Gentry asked.

  “Pretty sure,” she said.

  “ Nancy -”

  “It’s okay. If they were breathing rapidly, normally, the windows would be steamed up.” She reached the bats and knelt by the one in back. She reached around it, put her hand gently on its chest, and felt for a heartbeat. After a moment she leaned over it and felt the chest of the bat in front. “They’re dead,” she said quietly.

  Joyce let her fingers linger on the pup’s fine fur before rising. It was like touching the surface of a bubble bath, the fur was that soft. And it was that innocent. These creatures had done nothing wrong except to be born where and when and how they were.

  She felt miserable.

  “So history won’t quite be repeating itself,” Gentry said.

  “No,” Joyce said sadly. “It won’t.”

  Gentry limped up behind Joyce and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine everything you’re feeling right now.”

  She reached across her chest and rubbed the back of his hand. “You’d be surprised what I’m feeling right now. Come on,” she said. “We’re finished here.”

  They went back downstairs where they were met by the incoming SWAT team. The heavily armored police officers ushered them outside quickly, as though they were in danger. Joyce and Gentry were taken to the administration building first aid center. Kathy and T-Bone were already there, sitting in plastic chairs as a pair of paramedics examined them. T-Bone had his camera on the floor and Kathy had the tape in her hand. She refused to put it down.

  After receiving emergency medical treatment for cuts and burns, the four were bundled onto a harbor boat. Kathy and T-Bone stood in the front of the boat; Joyce and Gentry sat on an equipment locker in the stern. They watched as the last remaining vespers scattered through the bright daylight, headed for shelter.

  As soon as they were underway, senior police officer John Esty brought a radio to Gentry. It was Weeks.
Gentry held the radio between them where Nancy could hear.

  “That was a very nice fireworks display,”Weeks said.

  “You should have seen it from the inside,” Gentry replied.

  “I’m sure. You both okay?”

  “We’re a little banged up, and we’ll have to do the rabies shot thing, but we’re alive,” Gentry said. “A lot of good people aren’t.”

  “I hear you,”Weeks said. “There are going to be a lot of questions when you get back, about the museum attack, the tunnel operation, and what happened at the statue. But I’ve spoken with the mayor and the police commissioner and we’re going to put you two in the hospital for observation. While you’re there we’ll minimize the bullshit as much as we can. You did a helluva job, both of you, and we’re all very grateful.”

  “Thanks,” Gentry said.

  Joyce asked what was going to be done with the remains of the bats.Weeks informed her that their disposition would be decided in a day or two and that Al Doyle was on his way over to collect them. She said that she wanted to be part of any team that was put together to examine the remains.

  “Of course,”Weeks said. “Absolutely.”

  Weeks said he’d see them in a few minutes. He and the mayor had a few matters to attend to, like making sure traffic could start coming into the city again, that any remaining vespers were cleared from the subway, and that Albany and Washington sent people and money to help clean up guano, fix the tunnel, and make sure that Lady Liberty didn’t lose her arm.

  Gentry turned the radio off.

  Joyce looked at him. “How’s your ankle?”

  “A little surgery, a little rest, no more bats, and it should be as good as new.”

  “I think we’ve pretty much guaranteed the no-bats part,” she smiled.

  “I hope so,” Gentry said. “So. Can I buy you coffee when we get back?”

  “No thanks.”

  He seemed wounded.

  Her smile broadened. “Hasn’t it occurred to you, Robert, that I just don’t like the stuff?”