'I almost got shot in the head by a forty-five-caliber drill-bit,' Gardener said. 'On second thought, make that a .357 Magnum.'
'What are you talking about?'
Gardener handed her the fragment he had worked out of the wall. Bobbi looked at it and whistled. 'Jesus!'
'I think He and I just missed connections. That's the second time I've almost gotten killed down in this shithole. The first time was when your friend Enders almost forgot to send down the sling after I'd set one of those radio explosives.'
'He's no friend of mine,' Bobbi said absently. 'I think he's a dork ... Gard, what did you hit? What made it happen?'
'What do you mean? A rock! What else is there down here to hit?'
'Were you near the ship?' All of a sudden Bobbi looked excited. No; more than that. Nearly feverish.
'Yes, but I've grazed the ship with the drill before. It just bounces b
But Bobbi wasn't listening anymore. She was at the ship, down on her knees, digging into the rubble with her fingers.
It looked like it was steaming, Gardener thought. It
It's here, Gard! Finally here!
He had joined her before he realized that she hadn't spoken the conclusion of her thoughts aloud; Gardener had heard her in his head.
2
Something, all right, Gardener thought.
Pulling aside the rock Gardener's drill had chunked up just before it exploded, Bobbi had revealed, finally, a line in the ship's surface - one single line in all of that huge, featureless expanse. Looking at it, Gardener understood Bobbi's excitement. He stretched out his hand to touch it.
'Better not,' she said sharply. 'Remember what happened before.'
'Leave me alone,' Gardener said. He pushed Bobbi's hand aside and touched that groove. There was music in his head, but it was muffled and quickly faded. He thought he could feel his teeth vibrating rapidly in their sockets and suspected he would lose more of them tonight. Didn't matter. He wanted to touch it; he would touch it. This was the way in; this was the closest they had been to the Tommyknockers and their secrets, their first real sign that this ridiculous thing wasn't just solid through and through (the thought had occurred to him; what a cosmic joke that would have been). Touching it was like touching starlight made solid.
'It's the hatch,' Bobbi said. 'I knew it was here!'
Gardener grinned at her. 'We did it, Bobbi.'
'Yeah, we did it. Thank God you came back, Gard!'
Bobbi hugged him ... and when Gardener felt the jellylike movement of her breasts and torso, he felt sick revulsion rise in him. Starlight? Maybe the stars were touching him, right now.
It was a thought he was quick to conceal, and he thought that he did conceal it, that Bobbi got none of it.
That's one for me, he thought. 'How big do you think it is?'
'I'm not sure. I think we might be able to clear it today. It's best if we do. Time's gotten short, Gard.'
'How do you mean?'
'The air over Haven has changed. This did it.' Bobbi rapped her knuckles on the hull of the ship. There was a dim, bell-like note.
'I know.'
'It makes people sick to come in. You saw the way Anne was.'
'Yes.'
'She was protected to some degree by her dental work. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. Still, she left in a hell of a hurry.'
Oh? Did she?
'If that was all - the air poisoning people who came into town - that would be bad enough. But we can't leave anymore, Gard.'
'Can't - ?'
'No. I think you could. You might feel sickish for a few days, but you could leave. It would kill me, and very quickly. And something else: we've had a long siege of hot, still weather. If the weather changes - if the wind blows hard enough - it's going to blow our biosphere right out over the Atlantic Ocean. We'll be like a bunch of tropical fish just after someone pulled the plug on the tank and killed the rebreather. We'll die.'
Gard shook his head. 'The weather changed the day you went to that woman's funeral, Bobbi. I remember. It was clear and breezy. That was what was so weird about you catching a sunstroke after all that hot and muggy.'
'Things have changed. The "becoming" has speeded up.'
Would they all die? Gardener wondered. ALL of them? Or just you and your special pals, Bobbi? The ones that have to wear makeup now?
'I hear doubt in your head, Gard,' Bobbi said. She sounded halfexasperated, half-amused.