"Wireman, are you there?" After a moment long...
"Wireman, are you there?"
After a moment long enough to first seed four
kinds of fear and then start them growing, he
answered: "Yeah, muchacho
"All right?"
1077
"One of em scratched me and it ought to be
disinfected, but otherwise, yeahBasically I
think we both are
"Jack, can you come down here? I need a hand And
then, sitting there crooked among the bones with
the water-filled shell of the flashlight held up
like the Statue of Liberty's torch, I began to
laugh
Some things are just so true you have to
xii
My eyes had adjusted enough for me to make out a
dark shape seeming to float down the side of the
cistern - Jack, descending the ladderThe small chanel purse sleeve
of the flashlight was thrumming in my hand - weak,
but definitely thrummingI pictured a woman
drowning in a narrow steel tank and pushed the
image awayIt was too much like what had happened
to Ilse, and the monster I had imprisoned was
nothing like Ilse
"There's a rung missing," I said"If you don't
want to die down here, you want to be careful as
hell
1078
"I can't die tonight," he said in a thin and
shaking voice I never would have identified as his
"I have a date tomorrow
"Thank y-"
He missed the rungFor a
moment I was sure he was going to come down on top
of me, on top of the upheld flashlightThe water
would spill out, she would spill out, and it omega watch replica all
would have been for nothing
"What's happening?" Wireman shouted from above us
"What the fuck's happening?"
Jack settled back against the wall, one hand
gripping a lucky chunk of coral that he happened
to find at the last crucial secondI could see
one of his legs plunged down like a piston to the
next intact rung, and there was a healthy ripping
sound"Man oh man oh fucking
man
"What's happening?" Wireman nearly roared
"Jack Cantori ripped out the seat of his pants," I
said"Now shut up a minuteJack, you're almost
thereShe's in the flashlight, but I've only got
the one hand and I can't pick up the capYou have
1079
to come down and find itI don't care if most wanted chloe bag you step
on me, just don't bump the flashlightJesus, Edgar, I thought I was gonna go
ass over teapot
He came down, first stepping on my thigh - it hurt
- and then putting his foot on one of the empty
Evian bottlesThen he stepped on
something that broke with a damp pop, like a
defective noisemaker
"Edgar, what was that?" He sounded on the verge of
tears I was pretty sure it had been Adie's
skullHis hip thumped the flashlightCold water
slopped over my wristInside the metal sleeve,
something bumped and turnedInside my head, a
terrible black-green eye - the color of water at
the depth just before all light fails - also
turnedIt looked at my most secret ladies vintage cartier watches thoughts, at
the place where anger surpasses rage and becomes
homicideThe way a woman
would bite into a plumI will never forget the
sensation
1080
"Watch it, Jack - close quartersLike a midget
submarine
"I'm freaking out, bossLittle touch of
claustrophobia
"Take a deep breathDo you have matches?"
He didn'tJack might not be averse
to six beers on a Saturday night, but his lungs
were smoke-freeThus there ensued a long,
nightmarish space of minutes - Wireman says no
more than four, but to me it seemed thirty, thirty
at least - during which Jack knelt, felt among the
bones, stood, moved a little, knelt again, felt
againMy arm was getting tiredMy hand was chanel leather bag going
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