Hunters Run Page 0,96

when the loose vine reared up from the water like a pale serpent; wires sparking and hissing in the place where its head would have been.

The man jumped back. The killing stroke became an awkward parry as the sahael lunged at him. Ramon rolled until he was almost at the raft's edge, then looked up.

The sahael had wrapped itself twice around his twin's leg, once around his belly, and was pressing its maw toward the man's neck. Ramon's twin had both hands gripping the sahael, struggling to hold it away from himself. The muscles in the man's arms were bulging and quivering; Ramon half expected to hear the bones snap under the strain. It only took a moment to realize that if the man had both hands on his new attacker, he must have dropped the knife.

Yes, there. In the ruins of the lean-to, the blade caught the flash of lightning, and before the thunder could crackle and detonate, Ramon was scrambling forward, hand outstretched. The worn leather grip felt warm in his palm.

The man was shrieking something, the same syllables over and over. It took Ramon a moment to realize that he was saying kill it kill it kill it kill it. He didn't pause to think, he simply moved, his body knowing what it intended. He lunged forward, the knife in his right hand, and punched it hard into the man's belly. Then twice more, to be sure. They were pushed together like lovers before Ramon pulled himself away, the man's bearded cheek rasping against his own, the man's breath panting against his face, rich with the earthy smell of decay. For a second, he could feel the man's heart hammering against his own breast. Then he stepped back. The man's face had gone white, his eyes as round as coins. That same look of surprise on his face, the look he'd seen on the European's face; this can't be happening to me, not to me. The sahael, as if repelled by the blood, dropped from Ramon's twin to land in a coil at their feet.

"Pinche puto," the man said and dropped to his knees. The raft shuddered. Sheeting rain mixed with the blood pouring down the man's face, belly, and legs. Ramon stepped back and squatted. The sahael shifted, as if considering each of them in turn, but it made no move to attack. "You're not me," the man gasped. "You're never going to be me! You're a fucking monster ."

Ramon shrugged, not arguing. "You got anything else you want to say? Talk quick."

His twin blinked as if he was crying, but who could see tears in all the rain?

"I don't want to die!" the other whispered. "Please Jesus, I don't want to die!"

"No one does," Ramon said gently.

His twin's face shifted, hardened. He gathered himself, raised himself up a bit, and spat full in Ramon's face.

"Fuck you, asshole!" the other rasped. "Tell them I died like a man!"

"Better you than me, cabron," Ramon said, ignoring the spittle running down his face.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ramon's twin sank down, his eyes focused on the angels, or on whatever it was dying men saw; something Ramon couldn't see, anyway. His mouth went slack, and blood rushed through his lips and down over his chin.

Was there the faintest of tugs as the other died, as whatever bond was between them broke? Or was it just his imagination? It was impossible to say.

Ramon rolled the body to the edge of the raft and pushed it into the water. His twin's corpse bobbed once, twice, and then slid beneath the water. He wiped the dead man's spit from his face with the back of his palm.

The storm was pushing the little raft one way and then another, and Ramon couldn't say how much of his nausea was from the unpredictable spinning and shudders of the craft, how much from the death of his other self, and how much from the loss of his own blood. The sahael snaked across the raft, its pale flesh reminding Ramon of a worm now more than a snake. Its wires sparked, but did not turn to him.

"We got a problem, you and me?" he asked, but the alien thing didn't respond. He hadn't known that Maneck could send the sahael out to operate on its own; or perhaps Maneck was controlling it from a distance somehow. Either way, it was more versatile than he'd thought. Maneck must have launched it after them as soon as he'd freed