Vespers (34 page)

“I do,” Joyce said. “The big bat’s dropped out of the ultrasonic range. She’ll be making vocal sounds while she gives birth, which means we’ve got to take her outnow. Otherwise we’ll have to deal with herand her wailing brood.”

“I hear you,” Weeks said. “I’m sending the SWAT teams right away.”

“They won’t get here in time,” Joyce told him. “If the bat’s like a normal vesper, we have about ten minutes to get to her.”

Gentry turned to Gilheany. “How do I get up there?”

“You don’t.” She came forward, her fingers wriggling for the shotgun. “This is my beat. I’m going up.”

Joyce fell in beside her. “I’m going with you.”

“I take it you’re a scientist?” Gilheany asked.

“Yes.”

“Good,” the sergeant said. “Then you can tell her ‘fuck you’ in bat talk before I blow her away.”

Gentry looked from Joyce to Gilheany. “All right,” he said as he handed the officer the shotgun. “But I’m going with you.”

“No you’re not. You’re limping.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll slow us down. And you don’t have a weapon,” Gilheany pointed out. “I can’t watch your back and hers.” She pulled her radio from a loop in her gunbelt. “Besides, I may need you down here. There are security cameras in the communications center. It’s located in the administration building about two hundred yards directly behind the fort. Code 6453359 will get you in. Go there. We’ll stay in touch.”

Gentry hesitated. He looked at Nancy.

“Robert, we haven’t got a lot of time,” the scientist said.

Nancy was right. What rubbed Gentry raw was not that she was going. It was that she was going with an officer who was on the warpath. And he was afraid that saying something about calming down or being careful would only piss Gilheany off more.

So Gentry just nodded. Then he and Gilheany set their radios on the same channel.

The women turned and jogged toward the short staircase that led to the pedestal as Gentry brought Weeks up to date. Then he switched the radio back to Gilheany’s frequency.

Kathy and T-Bone wished them good luck as they passed. T-Bone had picked up his camera and was videotaping their departure.

Before they disappeared through the gate at the top of the stairs, Gentry thoughtFuck it and called after them. “She’s going to smell you coming, Nancy. Don’t forget that!”

“I won’t!” she called back. “I’m counting on it.”

Joyce hadn’t been to the Statue of Liberty since her first-grade field trip. All she remembered from that visit was the very long, very winding, very hot climb to the top. It was still long, winding, and hot.

The women took the stairs toward the top of the pedestal. The staircase wound around a wide, open shaft for the elevator that went to the observation deck at the top of the pedestal. They made their way cautiously in case the bat had decided to come down instead of up. She hadn’t. As they neared the balcony level that led to the statue itself, Gentry radioed. They stopped while Gilheany took the call.

“We’re in the communications center,” Gentry said, “and the security cameras are all dark.”

“Impossible,” Gilheany said. “Each of them has an internal power system.”

“Then maybe it’s the statue that’s dark,” Gentry replied.

“I don’t see how,” Gilheany said. “The transformers are in the base of the monument. I’m looking at them now.”

“What about the cables that service the lights?”

“They run up the statue’s central column,” she said. “They’re encased in inch-thick steel pipe.”

Joyce said, “I haven’t met a metal yet that could stop that bat. Maybe she slashed it on her way up.”

“On purpose?” Gilheany asked.

“No,” Joyce said. “But the inside of the statue would be a very tight space for her to maneuver. She could have used the column as a hookhold or punctured it by accident.”

“ Nancy, this is not looking good,” Gentry said.

“And we’re wasting time,” Sergeant Gilheany said. She slipped a flashlight from her gunbelt. She switched the shotgun to her left hand. “I’m still going up. Are you coming?”

“I am,” Joyce said. “But I’ll take the light.”

Gilheany handed it to her along with the radio. Gentry said nothing.

They moved from the pedestal into the sculpture itself. The stairs had ascended along the sides of the pedestal. Now they fed into the ceiling and up the very steep spiral staircase that led to the crown. Gilheany was in the lead. As they proceeded, Joyce circled the flashlight slowly from the steps to the copper skin of the statue to the stairs overhead.

The steps ascended in a tight, dizzying spiral up the central steel core. Almost at once they saw that the central column had been breached. There was a gouge in the side, and it appeared as if the rent metal had sliced the cables. Sparks sizzled from the frayed ends and Joyce wondered if the statue had ever seen a lonelier fireworks display.

Gilheany was stepping quietly and Joyce was wearing running shoes. The scientist listened carefully for sounds from above; the mother wailing, the pups mewling, the noise of nursing or movement-anything. But there was nothing save the distant howl of the wind as it slipped around the statue. At least there was no scratching from outside. Whatever bats were left were inactive.

All around them were the monument’s zigzagging stainless-steel support struts. Joyce knew that the bat could be hanging from any one of them. Or from the steps. Or from the central column itself.

Or the dark folds of the statue’s skin.

The light from the flashlight threw ever-changing shadows on the copper plates that comprised the statue’s robe. The shifting light and dark made the skin appear to crawl, made it seem more liquid than solid. And though her mind told her the bat was nestled somewhere above them, Joyce couldn’t rid herself of the feelings she’d had as a child, that the night, the darkness, held more than she could ever know. That any of those fluid changes to the side or above them could have been the bat moving its wings, preparing to jump-

Joyce started when Gilheany spoke. As if her heart weren’t thumping fast enough from the climb.

“How soon before she knows we’re here?” the sergeant asked quietly.

“She already knows,” Joyce assured her. “The bat heard us as soon as we entered the pedestal.”

“So there’s no reason to whisper.”

“None. And she’ll smell us soon, if she hasn’t already.”

“You said downstairs that you were hoping she would. Why?”

“Because if the bat gives birth quickly, and if she feels strong enough, she may try and intercept us. We’ll hear her.”

“If she’s already given birth, how dangerous will the babies be?”

“I don’t know,” Joyce admitted. “Vesper pups tend to be about twentyfive percent as large as the parent. Their wings aren’t developed enough for flight, and many of them are born with their eyes shut. But the way this bat was mutated it’s impossible to say.”

They passed the statue’s midriff. The tablet in the figure’s left arm loomed above. Joyce turned her light there and made sure the bat wasn’t inside. In the dull light that bounced back she could see Sergeant Gilheany’s expression. A great deal of her gung-ho had been sucked into the shadows. If time hadn’t been so short, Joyce might have insisted that Gilheany stay behind with Gentry and let her have the shotgun. She probably had more wildlife experience than either of them.

But Joyce was glad it hadn’t worked out that way because she might not have been able to get off a steady shot. Her thigh muscles were aflame and trembling from the running she’d done and now from the climbing. She’d had to put the radio in her back pocket, hold on to the handrail, and pull herself along. The higher they went the hotter it also became. Her jumpsuit was thick with perspiration, and the fresh bites she’d suffered stung continuously as sweat dripped into them. Her hand was clammy around the flashlight’s rubber handle.

The climb did provide one unexpected compensation for Joyce. She liked knowing that Gentry was on the other end of the radio, listening silently, worrying about her. Not being alone was a new and different kind of feeling for her.

Just above them were the statue’s massive shoulders; straight above them was the neck and the ascent to the crown. Between the shoulders, to the right, was a small rest area with a relatively wide landing beyond it. Past that, Joyce saw dark, narrow steps that rose into the statue’s raised arm to the torch. The ladder that rose through the statue’s raised arm to the torch was there. Joyce heard the wind rushing around the arm, swift and ghostly. And while she heard only that, she knew that wherever the bat was it could hear everything. She wished there were something she could do to neutralize that advantage. Feedback from the radio wouldn’t distract the bat because there was no signal to disrupt. The flashlight might blind her momentarily, but she’d still be able to hear. They could fire a shotgun blast and deafen her, but they’d also deafen themselves. And there was still the bat’s olfactory sense.

Joyce shined the flashlight toward the upraised arm. She ducked under a low strut and walked slowly toward it. She looked up inside.

The wind blew hard in the crown above, almost as though the statue were drawing a breath.

“I don’t think she can fit in the arm,” Gilheany said, without looking over. She was peering up. “The neck would give her a little more room.”

“You’re probably right, but I want to check anyway,” Joyce said. “How thick are the copper plates?”

“Three-thirty-seconds of an inch. About the thickness of a dime.”

“The bat could bend them out, make herself fit. Squeezing into places is something bats are very good at. They also like to hang upside down and there’s a ladder in the arm.”

Gilheany was walking close behind Joyce. She was breathing heavily. “When we do see the bat, where should I aim?”

“For her head,” Joyce said. “She’s got sheets of muscles around her torso. It may be difficult to inflict a fatal wound below the neck.”

The wind stopped blowing for a moment, and Joyce stopped. They heard a scraping sound behind them. She and Gilheany both spun around. The officer raised the shotgun to her shoulder.

There was nothing there. But the scraping came again, definitely from above the neck.

“She’s in the crown,” Gilheany said softly.

Joyce slipped the radio from her pocket. Then she walked around the sergeant toward the statue’s neck.

The staircase here was like a large loop with the right side higher than the left. The upward steps curved up along the back of the statue’s neck and followed the contour of the statue’s right cheek, past her right eye into the crown. The downward steps were different. They didn’t follow the curve on the left side. At the end of the observation area they turned sharply toward the right, dropping and passing under the ascending stairs.

Joyce stood on the bottom step and shined the light up. The beam glinted off the curving rails of the staircase. They were bent away from the deck, as though something had pushed them outward. She saw the rolling copper curves of the statue’s hair and heard more scratching. Slowly, she went up another step. The flashlight roamed higher to the upright support beams that ran up the crown and along the top of the head. Joyce saw that they bulged outward, slightly distorting the shape of the head.

She put the radio to her mouth. “Robert?”

“I’m here.”

“The bat was definitely in the crown. She may still be up there.”

“I know. I heard Sergeant Gilheany. Nancy, the SWAT team will be here soon. Why don’t you leave this-”

“Shit!”Gilheany screamed.

Joyce had heard it too. The loud creak of metal. She ran down the stairs to the landing. Gilheany was facing the statue’s arm. She raised the shotgun as Joyce shined the flashlight in that direction.

“I don’t get up here a lot. I didn’t even notice that before.”

“What?” Joyce asked. Gilheany pointed the light to an area left of the arm, at the very edge of the ledge. A gate that had been erected to keep tourists out lay wadded and crushed off to the side. The light climbed higher.

Officer Berk’s body fell to the landing an instant before the giant bat dropped from the arm.The copper sides rattled as she landed. There was blood on the creature’s mouth and nose; she was no longer pregnant and looked thin and bedraggled. The birth had obviously been an ordeal for her.

Gentry shouted something, but his voice was swallowed by Gilheany’s oath as she fired. The blast was deafening, and Joyce screamed from the pain. The shot punched a bloody wound in the side of the bat’s neck, but it didn’t stop her. The giant screamed audibly as she jumped forward, her wings folded against her sides so that she could move through the confines of the statue. Gilheany raised her sights and fired a second shot. But the bat lowered her head and charged like a bull, and the bullet flew past her, blowing a hole in the copper.

Joyce ran to the left and Gilheany dove to the right. The sergeant landed hard on her shoulder. She rolled to the edge of the landing, losing the shotgun. The bat cannonballed past, toward the spiral staircase. A moment later the severity of the wound finally seemed to hit the creature as she staggered forward and struck the side of the spiral staircase with her shoulder.

Gilheany scrambled toward the shotgun. Joyce had had the same idea, but the sergeant got in her way. Joyce kept running toward the arm, hugging the radio and flashlight to her chest to keep from losing them.

The bat turned quickly and looked back. Blood trickled down her front and back. Her expression fierce, she leaned forward and snapped her wings ahead of her. The thick muscles of her shoulders bunched and rolled as she pulled her wings back and sailed across the landing.

Sergeant Gilheany reached the gun and dropped onto her back. She swung it around as the bat bore down, but the creature landed on Gilheany before she could fire. The impact caused the gun to spin free and drop from the landing. Joyce heard it clatter down through the struts. The claws of the bat’s feet dug deeply into the officer’s hips, and the sergeant cried out. She screamed again as the bat drove her hooks into Gilheany’s chest.