Michael Dibdin - Dark Specter

“I’ve seen David,” I told him. “I’m going to call 911 and get the police out here.”

Sam turned back to his book. I switched on the phone and dialed. Nothing happened. I tried again.

“OK, what’s the deal?” I asked Sam.

He set down the volume of poetry.

“There’s a code number you have to enter to enable it. Prevents unauthorized use.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I don’t actually give it out, Phil. The rates they charge for airtime, it would cost me an arm and a leg if-”

I threw the phone at him.

“Don’t fuck with me, Sam!”

In one movement he rolled up off the bed and leveled the rifle at me. The muzzle looked enormous, like a tunnel. Neither of us spoke for what seemed like a very long time. Then Sam slowly lowered the rifle and heaved a sigh. I realized that he’d been holding his breath all along.

“Sit down, Phil,” he said. “I think it’s time we had a little talk.”

I edged backward to a leather armchair. Sam perched on the end of the bed. The bedroom was at the back of the hall, and had a large picture window overlooking the strait. The setting sun had tinted the clouds with a delicate pink wash.

“I’m not going to give him up,” I said. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

“I thought he was dead,” Sam replied.

“You know about that?”

“I saw it in the papers. We get them once in a while. I figured you probably didn’t want to talk about it.”

“He’s not dead. I saw him just now, down by that pool you took me to yesterday. That’s why you set up that meeting with Andrea, isn’t it? That’s how she knew I could find it.”

Sam looked at me expressionlessly.

“Did Andrea see anything?” he asked.

“She claimed she didn’t, but she has to be lying.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

He sighed.

“But I have to say, Phil, a lot of people, listening to you, would think you were just plain crazy. I imagine that’s what the police would think.”

“I’m willing to take that chance,” I retorted.

He shook his head slowly.

“It’s too risky, Phil. We aren’t too popular with the locals. They’d love to have an excuse to give us a hard time. Plus I’ve got problems of my own right now.”

“I’m not leaving without David,” I snapped.

Sam put down the rifle and walked over to the window.

“You’re not leaving anyway,” he said.

He took a pair of binoculars from a hook and scanned the view outside.

“What do you mean by that?” I demanded.

“No one can leave. Mark and Rick have taken the boat over to Friday. They’re worried about Pat and Russ, the guys who’re gone. They haven’t been in touch, and Mark thinks that something might have happened to them.”

“I don’t care about that!” I shouted, standing up.

Sam whirled around.

“Well, you’d better start fucking caring!”

He glared at me.

“I had high hopes for you, Phil. I’ve been running this whole thing single-handed for years now. Do you have any idea of the strain I’ve been under? The only person I’ve been able to confide in is Mark, and he’s got shit for brains. They all have. You’re the only person who ever really understood me, the only one I could talk to as an equal.”

He gripped my shoulders.

“Just say you’re with me, Phil! That’s all I ask, that leap of faith. Only you can make it, but once you do, everything else will come right!”

His eyes bored into mine. He was crazy, of course, but that didn’t matter. As long as there was the slightest chance that David was still alive, I had to play along.

“All right,” I said. “I’m with you.”

He stared at me, blinking. His eyes had filled with tears.

“Really?” he said in an almost inaudible voice. “You really are?”

I nodded. He let go of me abruptly and moved away, rubbing his head.

“I can’t believe this, Phil! It changes everything.”

He fell to his knees suddenly, hands clasped together, trembling with tension, head bowed in silent prayer. I felt a surge of nauseated terror. Whatever Sam was up to, this was no scam. He believed .

“OK, here’s the deal,” he said, getting up. “You saw the hall, right? No one there. It’s the first time that’s ever happened. Mark’s turned them all against me.”

He measured me with his eyes for a moment. I tried to look sincere.

“What happened,” he went on, “the last time some of our guys left the island, one of them didn’t come back. That created problems, and now they’ve gotten worse. Andy, the guy who went along that time, told Mark what really happened. Mark told the others, and now they’re all freezing me out.”

“What did happen?”

He shook his head impatiently.

“I can’t explain all that right now. Just trust me, all right?”

He clapped his hands together and began striding up and down the room.

“What we need to do here, we need to buy ourselves some wriggle space. Unload Mark and get the others back in the zone, so if the news is bad and he tries anything, it won’t gain traction. Get me?”

Thirty seconds before, Sam had been on his knees, now he was wheeling and dealing. I liked him better this way, but both seemed equally real to him.

“So the question is how we do that,” he continued, still pacing. “Here’s the deal. We get everyone together in the hall. I announce that Mark has rebelled and fallen from grace and that you’ve replaced him as Ore, my spiritual son. Then to clinch it, we have a big ceremony where you’re reunited with your son.”

I felt my hands contract into fists, the nails digging painfully into my palms.

“So he’s here?” I breathed.

Sam looked confused.

“Who?”

“David!”

He laughed.

“You think you were seeing things? Of course he’s here!”

He shook his head.

“Man, the trouble we went to! First we had to follow you guys around for a month, work out what the deal was. Then Melissa and two of the guys had to move out there, get one of the kids here into that school, touch base with all the parents, buy a car, rent a place … It cost us a fucking fortune! But that time I talked to you in the bar, I knew that was the only way. You needed to be broken before you could heal. I still remembered the way it used to be back at that house, the two of us studying Blake together and rapping about everything under the sun. Those rimes were precious to me, Phil, but you’d retreated into this prison of work and family That sickened me! And I swore then and there that I’d free you, whatever the cost.”

I fought to control my anger. That wouldn’t save David.

“So where is he?” I asked.

Sam waved vaguely.

“You’ll see him soon enough. It’ll look better if you don’t meet until we do it in front of the others. It’ll come across as more genuine, know what I mean?”

This was too much to take. The rifle was still lying on the bed where he’d left it. I grabbed it and pointed it at Sam.

“Where is he?”

His eyes seemed to glaze over.

“I thought you were with me,” he murmured.

“I want my son! Now!”

Sam stood staring down at the floor. His expression had become infinitely weary.

“Then go find him,” he said.

I stabbed the rifle at him.

“Tell me where he is, you asshole!”

Sam sighed deeply.

“Guy was killed, I was in Vietnam?” he said. “Best buddy of mine. Had a Purple Heart he got leading a patrol to rescue a downed aircrew deep in Cong territory. Know how he went out? Another guy went out on the toot one night, came back to barracks and started fooling around with his MK-16, making like it was a guitar, dig? And it went off and this guy gets one through the spine. Since then I never keep loaded weapons around.”