Vespers (36 page)

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.

“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.”

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 twentyfive 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?”

“Actually, no. I thought you were turningme down.”

“Uh-uh. It’s coffee I don’t like. Not the server.”

He smiled back and put his arm around her.

She hadn’t felt cold, but now she felt wonderfully warm.

Al Doyle spent the day supervising his pest control personnel as they removed the giant bats from the statue. He left the cleanup of the remaining vespers to the National Park Service police and the Hazardous Materials unit of the Coast Guard. He would return later in the day when officials from the United States Agriculture Department were scheduled to arrive from Washington.

The three giant bats were packed in crates lined with plastic and loaded with ice. The crates were sealed, placed on a barge, and floated up the Hudson River to the Seventy-ninth Street Boat Basin. There, they were met by ESU personnel who loaded them into vans and brought them to the Central Park Zoo’s veterinary department.

Zoo chief Berkowitz had suggested that the remains of the bats could be put on display to help raise money for the zoo and for future pest control efforts. Doyle was all for that. But several things Dr. Joyce had said about the creatures intrigued him. Not just about the bats themselves but about the circumstances that had caused them to mutate.

Whatever accident had created these monsters offered many opportunities to science-and to the scientists who were clever enough to decipher the chemical and biological processes involved. Decipher them, understand them, and one thing more. The most important thing of all.

Replicate them.

Jeff Rovin is an Author of many How to Play, video game books which were popular in the 1980s and 1990s. They detail strategies for dozens of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy. He is currently the editor in chief of Weekly World News.