Yes, it was all so simple and even serene if you accepted what was offered. The alternative was too horrible to contemplate. By the time he realized this, he was in his suit and the winch, which he had set on auto with a five-minute delay, was activated. It swung over and grasped his hardsuit, slowly swinging it over the moon pool and releasing it below.

The comm on the suit was picking up the crackling, static-filled transmissions of the divers, those of Javy in Main Lock, and Orr up in the LSB.

By the time they realized that he alone had figured out the secret of the city, he would be gone. They couldn’t stop him. He was being delivered to the city and what waited for him there.

30
HALLOWEEN GIRL

In the control room of the Neptune’s Main Lock, Javonivic felt the tension run through her like blood. She sighed and then sighed again. Though she was not a drinker, she could have handled a good stiff belt just about then. And although she was supposed to stay at the command console at all times—at least someone was supposed to, not like you could count on Hubbs to do much but brood these days—she snuck away and made for the head. Had to. Her bladder had gotten so full listening, or not listening, to what was going on in the city, that she thought it was going to burst. She jogged over to the head and did what had to be done.

When she got back, the video was still showing the tunnel, lights splashing around. No life whatsoever. Magnetometers were showing magnetism still spiking. God, they were close. So very close now. Bell and Murphy were nervous. Their life signs had stabilized, but she could hear the nervous undercurrent to their voices even over the microwave link.

She thought: Sure, they’re nervous. I’m nervous just listening to them. That city isn’t dead. It’s alive. It’s sentient, just like Hubbs said. Five minutes in there and you feel it.

Javonivic was a practicing Christian, a Methodist. She believed in God and his Son and the Holy Ghost. But until she had gone into the city, she had not truly believed in ghosts. Ghosts as malignant survivals, that was. But that place was alive with spirits, absolutely crawling with them. Evil was not a word she used lightly, but the city was evil, pregnant with malevolent energy and when you went inside it, you crossed the threshold and pierced the barrier between the physical world and the psychic—you plugged yourself into the oppressive and harrowing current of that place. You saw things, you felt things, you knew things that you had no business knowing.