Plague

up. Make sure you bring that little lacy black thing. I like you in that. Bug. Go tell Penny we’re leaving.”
    Bug faded into view. He’d seen and heard it all. From behind Caine’s back he gave Diana the finger.
    • • •
    “We’re going to figure something out, Dekka,” Sam said.
    She sat perfectly still in the back of the boat. Sam sat beside her. Toto had been banished to the bow—Sam didn’t want him pointing out every soothing lie.
    “I’m not scared,” Dekka said. “I mean, look, I don’t know if any of us are ever getting out of the FAYZ alive.”
    Sam didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded.
    “I mean, you think about all the kids,” Dekka said. “Bette. The twins. Duck, poor old Duck. Harry. E.Z. Hunter.” After a pause, “Mary.”
    “Lots of others,” Sam said.
    “Yeah. We should remember all their names, shouldn’t we?”
    “I try to. So if this ever does end, and I ever get out, I can talk to all their parents and say, ‘This is how it happened. This is how your kid died.’”
    “I know you worry about that.” Dekka put a comforting hand on his. He took her hand and held it in both of his.
    “A little bit, yeah. I see, like, a trial, kind of. Old dudes and old ladies all looking harsh and asking me to justify . . . You know: what did you do to save E.Z., Mr. Temple?” He shook his head. “In my imagination they always call me Mr. Temple.”
    “What did you do, Mr. Temple, to save Dekka Talent?” she said.
    “That’s your last name? I didn’t think you had a last name. I thought you were like Iman or Madonna or Beyoncé. You just needed the one name.”
    “Yeah, me and Beyoncé,” Dekka said with a wry laugh.
    They sat silent together for a while.
    “Sam, we don’t know how well those things see in the dark.”
    He nodded. “I’ve been wondering. I have a plan. It’s fairly crazy.”
    “Wouldn’t be any fun if it wasn’t crazy.”
    “You can swim, right?”
    “No, because black folk can’t swim,” Dekka said, sounding like the old Dekka. “Of course I can swim.”
    He called to Jack and Toto, asking them to join him. “Can both of you swim?”
    They both nodded apprehensively. “But it’s dark,” Jack said.
    “The water doesn’t get any deeper at night,” Sam said.
    “Who knows what’s in the water?” Jack argued.
    “Trout and bass,” Sam said. “They don’t eat people.”
    “Yeah, and snakes don’t fly and coyotes don’t talk,” Jack shot back.
    “Fair enough,” Sam said. “But I think we’d better take our chances. Here’s what I’m thinking: you all go quietly into the water. I’ll get the boat started, then I’ll lash the wheel down and jump. If it works, Drake and his buggy friends will hear the boat and chase it. We’ll go ashore and run like crazy.”
    “They’ll follow us,” Jack objected.
    “They’ll try,” Sam admitted. “But they’re insects, not bloodhounds. I doubt they can see tracks at night.”
    “He’s not sure,” Toto said.
    “No, he’s not,” Sam admitted.
    “True,” Toto said. Then, to his imaginary friend, “He’s confusing.”
    “Which way do we run?” Dekka asked.
    “Drake will expect us to head straight for town. We don’t want to fight him out in the open. So, toward the train.” He nudged Jack. “You want another laptop, right?”
    Jack squirmed. “Well, at least some more of the batteries.”
    “Okay, then. Into the water. Swim for the marina. If they don’t chase me, I’ll come back before you can reach the dock and we’ll think of some other plan.”
    “Could we think of that other plan before this one?” Jack asked.
    Caine stood in the bow of Quinn’s boat as it plowed through the very light chop toward Perdido Beach.
    Quinn had warned him to sit down, but Caine wasn’t worried about falling in the water: he would not fall. He used his power to support most of his weight so that his feet barely touched the deck.
    He was not going to arrive hunched over. He was going to Perdido Beach like George Washington crossing the Delaware: standing tall.
    He was floating. Almost flying. Physically, yes, but mentally as well. He was filled with a warm sense of perfect well-being.
    They needed him. They had sent for him. They had found they could not survive without him. Him, not Sam. Him.
    Penny lay crumpled in blankets in the back of the boat. Diana sat staring at empty space. Bug kept starting to whistle and then stopped himself, only to start all over again.
    Quinn