Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (8 page)

“Topaz,” Deem said. “I pulverize it into powder.”

“It’s what I use to cover the tracks,” Winn said, “when I do
an extraction.”

“It’s not normal topaz,” Deem said. “It’s been fucked with by
the radiation, like everything else.”

“When you’re in the River,” Winn said, “it’ll cover up
anything. It’s amazing shit.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Roy asked.

“The mine that it’s in,” Deem said, shaking her head.

Winn laughed. “It’s haunted as hell! She hates going in it!”

“Haunted how?” Steven asked.

“The ghost of every critter for fifty miles seems to have
gone there,” Deem said. “Every snake, every scorpion. All unbound by gravity.”

“Is it dangerous?” Steven asked. “They’re ghosts, do they
leave you alone?”

“Not these,” Deem said, shuddering. “They’ve mutated. You
feel the bites and the stings. If you’re in the River you can see them, but if
not you just feel them. No one goes near the place.”

“How do you get the topaz then?” Roy asked.

“It’s a production,” she said. “The snakes hate a certain
frequency of light, so I go in with that. And Winn came up with a protection I
drink that’s tuned to the weirdness here. Between the two, it keeps the snakes
about a foot away. The scorpions get closer, but the protection stops them from
stinging. God help you if the light goes out, though, or you get lost in there
and your protection wears off.”

“How much topaz do we need?” Steven asked.

“It’ll take me fifteen minutes to chip off enough for one
extraction,” Deem said. “I’ll stay thirty minutes, get enough for two. But
that’s as long as I can stand in there.”

Winn held his hand across the table and close to Deem’s face,
then he pinched his thumb and fingers together, imitating a scorpion’s claws.
“Deem doesn’t like the bugs,” he said, teasing her.

“Who would?” Steven said, defending her.

“It’s not the bugs,” Deem said, “it’s Tonnaquin Smith. He’s
the real problem.”

“Who’s that?” Roy asked.

“He roams the mine,” Deem said. “Even the snakes and
scorpions avoid him. If he shows up while I’m chipping at the topaz, I’ll have
to leave, regardless of how much I’ve got.”

“A ghost?” Roy asked. “I might be able to help.”

“Roy is pretty good at handling ghosts,” Steven said.

“What’s his story?” Roy asked Deem.

“The legend is that he was part of a wagon train heading
west,” Deem said, “when one of the women in the party accused him of Satan
worship or something like that. Apparently he would rant and rave – probably
just a schizophrenic by today’s standards. But they decided to expel him from
the group, so they bound him up and abandoned him in the mine so no one could
claim they killed him. The story has it he died there, ripped apart by coyotes.
Now he drifts through the shafts and adits. If he finds you, he won’t leave you
alone until you leave the mine. He considers the place his. He swings a pickaxe
against the walls of the mine as he goes, you can hear him coming in the
distance. If you don’t leave when he finds you, he’ll take the pickaxe to you.
I ran into him once and he chased me all the way to the entrance.”

“Is he a normal ghost,” Steven asked, “or one of the fucked
up ones, like at St. Thomas?”

“Everything down here’s fucked up one way or another,” Deem
said. “Nothing’s normal. Everything you run into can be different, mutated in
its own way. With him, if you don’t leave after he asks, he’ll start swinging.
And you’ll feel it.”

 “I’ll go with you,” Roy said. “If he shows up, I’ll draw his
attention so you can keep working.”

Deem looked at Roy skeptically. “OK, but I’m warning you,
he’s nasty.”

“I’ve dealt with nasty before,” Roy said. “I’ll handle him.”

“Alright,” Deem said. “Let’s go do it now. I have to swing by
my place for the protection and the lanterns, then the mine is north from
there. You want to ride with me?”

“Sure,” Roy said. He looked at Steven. “You got things under
control if I go?”

“Yes,” Steven said. “I’m going to call Eliza and find out
what I need to know to get Jason an IV.”

“And I’ve got some things I’ve got to get done,” Winn said,
finishing his meal and putting down his fork. “Why don’t we meet at your motel
room at midnight tonight and see if we can get Jason to meet with you.”

“Alright,” Steven said. They all stood and walked out of the restaurant.
As Steven opened the door to the outside, he was assaulted by a wave of heat.

“Goddamn,” Roy said, “10 a.m. and it’s already hotter than a
billy goat’s ass in a pepper patch.”

“Is it normally this hot this early?” Steven asked.

“Ain’t nothin’,” Winn said, strolling into the parking lot.
“This here’s a normal day.” He gave Steven a wink and climbed into his Jeep.

◊

Roy rode with Deem to her house in Mesquite and helped her
load up some gear and water in her truck. Then Deem drove the two of them
north, eventually winding onto small dirt roads that kicked up a lot of dust.

Roy looked around at the landscape – everything here was
flat, the hills were all in the distance. They’d have a way to go if the mine
was in the mountains.

“How much farther?” Roy asked.

“Only a couple of minutes,” Deem said. “It’s up ahead.”

“Must go straight down?” Roy said. “We’re too far from the
hills.”

“There’s a depression up ahead, it starts there,” she said,
bouncing as the truck rolled over deep ruts in the dirt road. “There’s a short
downward shaft, then an adit that angles up. Not easy to get into if it’s been
raining. But this area gets so little rain, especially the last few years.”

“Anything else I should know?” Roy asked. “About the mine?”

“Not really,” she said. “I told you about the snakes. It’s a
little freaky to see them floating instead of on the ground. Don’t let your
light go out and you should be fine. The scorpions aren’t deterred by the light
but they don’t pinch or sting as long as your protection is strong. I’m
bringing a full canteen. You’ll need to take some every ten minutes; it wears
off fast. I’ll set my watch to remind us. Neither the light nor the protection
helps against Tonnaquin. If he shows up, the best option is to just leave,
unless you think you can reason with him.”

“I’ve been known to stall a ghost or two,” Roy said.

“If he raises the pickaxe to you,” Deem said, “it’s over.
It’s time to leave, OK? Stick tight with me, and hopefully it’ll be over
quick.”

“Whatever you say,” Roy said.

Deem stopped the truck and climbed out. Roy looked around –
he couldn’t see anything. “It’s here?” he asked, climbing out.

“Camouflaged pretty well, huh?” Deem said, grabbing her
backpack from the bed of the pickup truck and handing a lantern to Roy. “Follow
me!”

She led Roy about fifty feet in the distance, rising slightly
over a small mound that looked like any of the other mounds appearing in every
direction. As they approached it, Roy saw there was a dug-out area behind it
that covered about a hundred square feet. It dropped off to a sheer edge as
they approached, then tapered back up to the level of the ground around them. They
walked down the slope to the entrance, which was boarded over with a makeshift
plywood cover. Someone had spray-painted a skull and crossbones on the plywood.

Deem lifted the cover, casting it aside. Roy walked down and
joined her, looking into the shaft. It went straight down about ten feet, using
a wooden ladder. He could see a dirt floor at the bottom.

“You can’t see it from here,” Deem said, “but the mine runs
north from down there. This is the only part where we have to climb. Want to
hear something interesting?”

“Sure,” Roy said.

“Jump into the River,” Deem said.

Roy entered the flow and listened. It sounded like a
whirlwind of hissing and rattling.

That
, Deem thought,
is the sound of a thousand snakes.

Great
, Roy thought.
You said you’ve done this before, right?
He’d had
enough of the sound. He slipped out of the flow.

“This’ll be my fifth or sixth time down there,” Deem said,
positioning herself to step down on the ladder. “I suggest we do the ladder one
at a time. It’s old, so be careful.”

She slowly lowered herself until her foot hit the top rung of
the ladder, then she continued down. “The first time was when I was eleven, I think.
My father brought me here to show me the topaz.” She reached the bottom and
waved for Roy to follow. Roy turned and lowered his foot, searching for the top
rung. He found it, and took each step slowly, checking that each rung would
hold his weight before he used it to lower to the next step. Finally he stepped
off the lowest rung and joined Deem.

“Turn on your lantern,” Deem said, holding hers up and
demonstrating. The lantern was a normal Coleman camping lantern, but there was
a red plastic strip wrapped around the globe, taped into place. Roy turned the
switch on his lantern as Deem had done, and his lantern lit up, casting a red
glow.

“Good,” she said, turning to look into the adit. “This one’s
a little unusual,” she said. “It runs down for a ways, then back up. Usually
they all run up, so they can drain. It makes this one a little hard to get into
when it rains, but like I said, no rain around here for a while.”

She bent slightly and entered the adit, which was about five
feet tall. Roy waited until she was six feet ahead, then he followed. He
immediately began to listen for the sound of Tonnaquin’s pickaxe. He couldn’t
hear anything other than the sounds of their steps.

The passageway led downward for a while, then ended at a
small junction where Deem stopped and removed her canteen. She took a swallow,
then handed it to Roy. “Time for this,” she said, smiling. Roy took the canteen
from her hands and took two large swallows, then handed it back. “From here on there’ll
be creatures,” she said, “so stay frosty. There’s a couple of junctions. Stick
with me, don’t go down them. They all interconnect, but it’s easy to get turned
around and go in circles. I know the way out.”

“I’m right behind you,” Roy said.

Deem walked into the new adit, which seemed level and
slightly taller. Roy followed her, a little closer this time, and not as
hunched over, which felt better on his neck.

They had progressed about thirty feet when Deem said, “Here
they come.”

Roy watched as faint images of twisting movement passed him
on the right and left. He centered his lantern perfectly in front of him,
hoping to create as large of a field of light around him as possible. He took
two more steps forward, and then he saw them. Heads of snakes, coming at him
from every angle. His instinct was to back away from them, and he found himself
getting farther away from Deem.

“They’re behind you, too, Roy,” Deem said. “Does no good to
back up.”

Yikes,
Roy thought. He turned around, and Deem was right, there were floating
snakes there too. They pulled back as his lantern swung around with him. He saw
them open their mouths in an attempt to strike, but stop short, about a foot
from his body. He felt a paralyzing fear start to rise in him, suddenly afraid
that if he were to turn around and move forward again, he’d be moving into their
open fangs.

Several of the snakes slithered past him at shoulder and knee
level. He could see the rattle on the end of their tails as they passed.

“Roy, turn around and take slow steps toward me,” Deem said.

Roy slowly turned and he saw Deem’s lantern ahead of him. He
saw hundreds of snakes surrounding her, all attempting to get closer to her
than the one foot barrier created by her light.
Christ
, Roy thought.
That’s
what’s surrounding me too!

He slowly lifted his right foot, taking a step. He watched
closely to see if the snakes would back up as he did so. They did, maintaining
a consistent distance. He took another step, and watched the snakes retreat
again. Step after step he came closer to Deem. Once he was back in place behind
her again, she turned and began to walk forward down the adit. Roy saw that the
snakes moved in closer behind her – the lantern was in front of her, and her
body blocked some of the light. They were closer behind her than in front of
her.

That means they’re closer behind me,
he thought. He focused his thinking
on his backside, imagining that he felt the heads and tongues of the snakes
occasionally touching him. He tried to arrange the light to his right side, but
he became afraid he was exposing his left side, so he moved it back.

Keep walking,
he thought.
Don’t stop or we’ll never finish this.

They passed a junction where a new adit ran to the right.
Deem ignored it and continued straight ahead.

Roy looked down, watching as his shoes lifted from the ground
and went back down. There were creatures now on the floor, scuttling around.
Scorpions. They ran with their tails raised, ready to strike. In the brief
moment that one of his feet stayed on the ground while the other raised to take
a step, he could see the scorpions attempt to crawl up onto his shoe. It made
him speed up.