Out of the Black - Lee Doty [129]
He was about to apologize for the interruption when he heard Dek's voice through the commlink. "Yeah, me too! You guys are definitely on the right..." His voice was cut off as Issak waived a hand, reinforcing his own damper.
Though their conversation had been grave only a few moments ago, they now regarded each other with airy consternation. Issak shook his head, a grin spreading across his face. Issak rubbed his temples, covering his eyes with his hand. "Replicants." He said. They both laughed.
"Connectivity drugs?" Issak brought the conversation back on track.
"Harmony," Ivo replied, "according to the amount in their blood, each of the things had used it no more than eight hours before the attack."
"Demon junkies?" Issak asked, traces of his smile lingering at the corners of his mouth.
"Not demons." Ivo said, "Humans. I think the Harmony's an enabler- a catalyst."
Issak didn't respond. He gave Ivo his full attention.
"There are cracks in the fabric of reality still running through their flesh, down through the Underworld, out to... to somewhere else. The flesh has been changed, but not by the Loom... by whatever outside power is forcing its way into our world. Issak, it's getting stronger."
Issak immediately suspected. Cracks through the Underworld, leading somewhere else. He'd been somewhere else recently, met something sinister there. He didn't believe in coincidence. His mind returned to the feeling of the Outsider pressing in on him, trying to get under his skin, trying to get behind his eyes. He imagined what might have happened to him if the doors to his mind had been wedged open with connectivity drugs.
"Maybe we do need to come to Chicago." Issak said.
***
Issak's voice dropped to a whisper. He leaned forward. "I broke it Dek. And now it's here. It's going to flood the earth and no one can touch it..."
Kaspari was looking at his hands resting on the table. "It might be weeks or months, but this is the end of the world we know."
As Issak spoke, Dek's limbs seemed to move away from him, as if he were stepping back away from his body along some fourth dimensional axis. Yep, this was fear. Not for his life, not of whatever was happening to him now- it was fear of a final loss. His parents, Ivo, Roy, and now Kaspari- it was fear of having nothing left.
"What have you done, Issak?" Despair was a black sea on which he floated. But curling through the depths of fear, like a dark serpent felt rather than seen, was a terrible rage. It didn't have to be this way. If they'd all stuck together, they could have solved this.
Issak raised his voice again, as if speaking to the lurkers shuffling about the house. "Do you feel it leaving?" He said like a drunkenvillain in a melodrama. "I'm extracting your alignment, your tether to the Loom. The gift Ivo gave you."
Dek was almost sure Issak's next act would be the patented Evil Sneer preferred by black-clad villains and those named 'Snively' the world over.
"It needs it to complete its transition to this world," he said with another theatrical wink.
"Your mamma." Dek's grin was the cold twist of a man with nothing to lose.
Issak laughed. Not an evil cackle, but not the generous reward for a joke well told, either.
Though Dek's hearing was diminished by whatever Issak was doing to him, he could still hear the shuffling that was coming slowly down the hallway behind Issak.
"There's someone you need to meet." Issak said: evil grin and sad eyes. The shuffling was all around them now. The darkness in the hall behind Issak seemed to open into a distant and much lower world; a world where bats and wolves competed for the affections of their dark masters. Sheesh.
Shapes coalesced from the darkness, first as outlines of men and women, then dark eyes, sharp and moving in unison, then faces and limbs disfigured by new and more lethal purpose.
"Metal band roadies? This is your new crew? Not impressed." Dek said. The fear was gone. The sorrow was covered. The rage was gonna come out and play.
He could move his hands somewhat, his feet