Gene Wolfe - The Land Across

He looked skeptical, so I added, “That’s not just you, that’s you and Rosalee. I’ve sprung her already, by the way.”

Magos X said, “Well, well, well!”

“She’s a dish,” I told him. “Wait til you see her.”

“You are going to have to do a lot more explaining,” Russ said, “before I buy into any of this.”

“Then I’ll do it. This is your big chance to get home safe, and I wouldn’t want to see you blow it.”

Magos X was pouring coffee for Russ and everything got quiet for a minute. Then Russ said, “Yours, too, Grafton.”

“No way! I quit worrying about me yesterday.” That was stretching it a little, but it is what I said. “Just look at it. I’m a JAKA man with a badge and a gun. They send me out alone to snoop, because I’m good at it and I’ve turned up some major stuff for them. Ever tried to get in touch with the American embassy?”

It took Russ a while, but in the end he nodded.

“I thought so. I know where it is, and I know I told you my dad was in the State Department. Okay, his old pals are still around.”

Russ did not look completely convinced but he was coming over; so I said, “Listen up. This is no bullshit. I could go out on the street right now, stop a police car, and tell the cop to take me to the embassy. And he’d do it. If you were in my shoes, would you worry?”

“Probably not, if that’s all true.”

I pulled my gun. “Gun, okay? I’d shoot it for you but it would make holes in the ceiling.” I showed him my badge. “Silver, okay? Naala’s is gold. Maybe she’ll let you touch it.”

“Do you really know where the embassy is?”

I pointed. “Over that way, in a little park. Nice and private, and if you drive past, or walk, you don’t think there’s anything in there. Magos X here would know, too. Did you ask him?”

Slowly Russ nodded.

“Only you didn’t go.”

“I went, but after dark. I can’t afford to be seen.”

“And it was closed.”

Russ nodded again.

“You must know the Unholy Way’s trying to kill you. We found the big doll in your tent.”

“You know about that.” Russ looked tired.

“Sure we do. What do you know about the head? The one they threw into Naala’s place?”

Russ’s eyes went wide and Magos X said, “I must hear of this. Tell me, please.”

“Sure. Naala’s door was locked and she’s supposed to have the only key, so they picked the lock. Or else they got another key somewhere. Whoever it was tossed the head in and beat it. The thing is, it was Butch Bobokis’s. I doubt that you ever met him, but Russ knows who he was.”

Russ said, “He was a JAKA man. He used to question us, question Grafton here and me, while we were in prison. What’s this got to do with the doll, Grafton?”

“You left that doll in our cell, figuring it would fool anybody who saw it, which it did. Also figuring the JAKA wouldn’t know how to use it, which was right, too. The last time I saw it was when Butch and Aegis pulled me out and questioned me about it. They had it then. I told them how you got the face on, but that was all I told them. I had already seen a note Rosalee wrote that said you were sick. When I saw Butch’s head I knew why. They had made a cut in the face and let some of the pellets out, but Butch must have put them back in and sewed up the cut. Then the Unholy Way had gotten their hands on the doll, and they knew how to use it against you.”

Russ muttered, “Right.”

“We took it out of there and left it in the woods. I didn’t know what to do with it. If we’d burned it…” I shrugged. “I don’t think you would have liked that.”

“Could the sunlight hit it?”

I didn’t know what Russ was getting at, but I said it could, at least in the morning.

“Good. That’s how you wipe the face.”

“Super. But they could put yours back on, right? If they had a picture of you and the doll. Butch and Aegis had wiped it, so they must have one.”

Russ shrugged. “Maybe.”

“They probably know the spells. They’re in the little book.”

“Right. But they may not want to use them.”

I thought about that and decided I might be getting out of my league. So I said, “You want to go back to the States. You and Rosalee.”

He nodded.

“The JAKA, me included, wants to put a stop to the Unholy Way. If you’ll agree to help us, I think we can get the brass at JAKA headquarters to put you on a plane to Germany when we’ve wrapped things up. You speak good German, so—”

“Wait up. How did you find out I spoke German?”

“There’s a shop where they sell magic tricks. They bought some dolls from you. I talked to the old man who runs the place and he said no Americans had been in. I showed him your picture—”

“You’ve got my picture? Let me have it, please.”

I got it out and handed it over, and watched Russ tear it up.

Magos X said, “He fears you will be captured.”

“Sure, but I could get another copy where I got that one. Only I don’t think I will. I’ve found him now.”

“You’ve found me,” Russ said. He had gone over to the stove. “Only it’s not going to do you a hell of a lot of good.” He dropped the torn pieces in the stove.

“You’re saying you won’t help us?”

“Be the worm on the JAKA’s hook? No, I won’t.” Russ turned to face me. “I’ve fished a lot, Grafton, and I know what happens to the worm.”

I drank some coffee. It was pretty good, and I knew I wouldn’t be around there much longer.

Magos X said, “There must be another way you can find and arrest them. Yes?”

I nodded. “Sure. But there isn’t any other way I can see to get Russ back home. Can he have free room and board here with you for another month?”

“He can.”

“What about three years?”

“Yes, but he must be useful to me.”

“Got it.” I stood up. “When you gave me the coffee, I said I might work all night. Now I don’t think I will. I feel like crashing.”

“You must yawn when you say it,” Magos X instructed me. “The yawn lends verisimilitude.”

“Okay.” I stretched and yawned. “Would you like to see the Unholy Way wiped out?”

“I would be most happy.”

“Then maybe you can talk him into it.”

Magos X showed me to the door and we chatted a little. With Russ still at the back of the house, both of us were a little more relaxed. “I wish you peace and good fortune,” Magos X said before I left. “I do not know how effective my blessing may be. It goes and it returns. But you shall have it.” Then he whispered in a language I thought was probably Latin.

I did not feel blessed while I walked back to Naala’s apartment. It seemed to me that the only thing to do was to empty the bag for her and see if she had anything to suggest. The JAKA could pick Russ up, sure. And Baldy and Naala could use him for bait after that for as long as they wanted, casting him here and there and grabbing everybody who bit. Only there was no guarantee they would let him go home when they were through, and in fact they most likely would not. So I tried to figure a way around that and came up empty.

Naala was wide awake and dressed, something I had more or less expected, sitting at her desk drumming her fingers. She said, “You have found out a thing important?”

“Maybe,” I told her, “but I kind of doubt it. I’ll open the bag for you if you’ve got the time.”

“This ring.” She pointed to her phone. “It ring most seldom. But it ring five minutes ago. I listen—”

It rang again. I stared, and I think she did, too. Then she picked it up.

When she put it down, she said, “I answered. This you hear. I say I am Naala and give my number.”