Breathless

her—and, yes, the time has come.
    To Cammy, Puzzle says, “You are clear, so clear, and good and beautiful. You are a strong, strong light.”

P ART T HREE

Life in Death

Sixty-four

A turning point in the history of science and of humanity, the passing of one great theory and eventually the devising of another: That was one thing, that was a major event, but the moment Puzzle spoke,
major event
became an inadequate description, and even the word
singularity
, used as scientists used it, would not suffice.
    Cammy was no less shaken by what Puzzle said to her than by the fact that Puzzle spoke in the first place. The creature’s voice was mellifluous, the sweet voice of a child, and with her strange eyes, she seemed to see to the heart of Cammy, as a child sometimes can see a truth to which adults have willfully blinded themselves.
    When Riddle spoke to Grady in the equally musical voice of a young boy—” Please don’t be afraid. We would never devour you in your sleep”—the clock began ticking and their course was set. No discussion was necessary between her, Grady, and Lamar; they knew in the instant that they could not allow Paul Jardine and Homeland Security to keep these creatures secret from the world.
    This was not merely the event of the century. This was perhapsthe most significant event of a millennium. The future of humanity, the paths that mankind followed and the choices it made, would be affected by this event in more ways than she could imagine. No one, no bureaucrat or king, no institution, no government, had the right to deny this news to the world.
    They couldn’t hide the two anywhere here and hope to ride out the search, for the search would not end until Puzzle and Riddle were found. Jardine had considerable manpower at his disposal, and he had as well the laser polygraph.
    “The scientific team’s at dinner in the mess tent,” Lamar said. “Then they’re scheduled to stay there for at least an hour to blue-sky this as a group. As long as the guard at the tent doesn’t glance inside and see the cage empty, we’ve got a couple hours before the alarm bells.”
    “We can’t drive out, no way,” Grady said. “Two guards at every house on Cracker’s Drive, to see us going past. And then an entire contingent, a roadblock most likely, at the intersection with the state route. If we didn’t stop, if we tried to run it, I think they’d shoot the tires out,
at least
the tires. If we use four-wheel drive, go overland, they’ll hear us, even see us in this moon, and cut us off.”
    No phones, no text-messaging devices, no computers with Internet access were available to get a message out. Besides, there was no way to describe Puzzle and Riddle that would convince and energize anyone who hadn’t seen them.
    “Going overland in any direction, I mean on foot,” Cammy said, “where’s the nearest house? The MacDermotts’?”
    Grady shook his head. “That’s over two miles through some rough territory, ravines and rockslides.”
    Sitting prairie-dog style, Puzzle and Riddle flanked Merlin, eachwith an arm across his back. The three of them listened to the big furless folks, heads cocked one way and then the other.
    Grady said, “The Carlyle place is a mile and a half, and that way is all deer paths through easy woods and a meadow or two, before you come to their open fields.”
    “Jim and Nora Carlyle? I take care of their horses. They’re good people, and they’re smart. When they see Puzzle and Riddle, they’ll understand what’s at stake, they’ll let us use one of their vehicles. Then we drive out from there, and we’re past all the guards, the roadblocks.”
    Lamar said, “I should stay here, do what I can to delay them from discovering you’ve gone, then confuse and misdirect them. Chaos is what I do.”
    “No,” Grady said. “Jardine knows about me in the army, so he knows about me and Marcus, so he probably knows about the connection between you and me by now. You’ll grow old and die in the slammer. Your best hope is to stay with us all the way until we can present Puzzle and Riddle to the TV cameras, when and wherever we’re able to do that.”
    “What about these shoes? Will I make it in these shoes, maybe slow you down?”
    “Aren’t those Rockports? Sure, you’ll be fine. We aren’t rock climbing, just walking in the woods.”
    “I’ve never been a walking-in-the-woods kind of guy, but I’ll do my best, I’ll keep up with you.”
    “Will