Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [154]
“Do you have pictures of the interior?” she asked.
He was slow to look back toward her. “Yes.”
“May I see them?”
“Of course.” But he made no move to get them. His attention had returned to the lake.
She saw again the luminous patch. Far out, but brighter this time.
Uh-oh.
His right arm went slowly up in a gesture of triumph.
It might have been a cloud of fireflies, out on the water, but it moved with unnerving precision, a spiral mounting up as she watched, a cloud, a fog, a mist.
Sheyel raised both hands to welcome it.
“Back off,” said Kim. “Get into the flyer.”
The cloud was alive with tiny stars, floating, moving, swirling.
It was growing noticeably larger. And brighter.
“Coming this way,” said Kim.
“Hello,” he called. His voice echoed in the night. “I know you can’t understand me. But we need to talk.”
The cloud was lovely, but its purposeful advance filled Kim with alarm.
“We brought your ship.” Sheyel half-turned to indicate the Valiant.
The wind picked up and the trees shuddered. Kim was suddenly aware that another flyer was setting down back in the trees somewhere. It was the Cloudrider. Its lights blinked off and the engine died. Sheyel was too preoccupied to notice.
Moments later, three figures, two men and a woman, appeared out of the woods. They surveyed the situation and fanned out. Kim thought she could see weapons. And then a fourth person came out of the trees.
Tripley.
“We want to talk to you.” Sheyel continued to address the manifestation. “We are your friends.”
The cloud kept coming.
Kim measured the distance between the Valiant and her flyer and the angle the intruders had if she decided to grab the starship and run.
Tripley stood watching, his gaze shifting between Sheyel and the cloud. Apparently he wasn’t as dumb as she’d thought.
The cloud was now just a few meters off the beach. It floated on the water, almost, she thought, taking sustenance from it. Several patches of internal luminescence formed, distributed randomly through its upper levels, and as she watched they became eyes, the same eyes she’d seen in Kane’s sunken villa.
Everyone on the beach froze.
The eyes were deranged. This was not the cool malevolence she’d seen on the Hammersmith. This was pure madness.
Kim edged closer to her flyer.
Where the entity touched the lake surface the water misted and swirled, and Kim recalled the missing footprints on her first visit to the area.
Tripley moved up beside her. “My God, Kim,” he whispered, “what is that thing?” The people who were with him brought weapons to bear. They wore gray uniforms, and they looked efficient. The woman was only a few meters away. Her name patch identified her as BRICKER.
“I think it was the crew of the Valiant,” Kim said, recognizing that Tripley’s presence demonstrated that he now knew the truth about his model. She was pleased that her voice sounded almost normal. “I’m glad you brought help.”
“Security. I thought the thief might be dangerous.”
“You followed me.”
“Of course. You have a number of talents, Kim. But acting is not among them.”
Sheyel stumbled forward into the water, advancing on it. He was continuing to talk to it, raising his hands in greeting. The emerald glow alternately intensified and faded, as if a great heart were beating somewhere within.
“Get away from it, Sheyel,” she cried.
It resembled a shroud, diaphanous and pale and insubstantial. As she watched, he splashed toward it and it opened to embrace him. A sudden gust of wind threw the entire structure out of coherence, almost, one might say, out of focus. But it drew quickly together again.
Tripley’s guards whispered to one another and leveled their weapons.
Sheyel suddenly seemed to realize his danger. He screamed and fell backward. In a single smooth motion, the entity rose around him and engulfed him.
The security people waited for the command to fire. But Tripley hesitated.
She could see Sheyel’s silhouette through the folds of the shroud. His body convulsed. Bursts of green light rippled through the thing.
Then he went limp and it dropped him