The Last Handful of Clover - Book 3: The Stone in the Stream

3.06 The Disruptor's Promise

June 16, 3:11 am

Billy had watched ghosts fall under the sway of the Wanderer before, and he had even come perilously close himself once, many years ago. And when he realized Richard was talking directly to their enemy, he feared that any hope they had was being ripped away. If Richard Pratt's strength had failed and he was giving himself to Drouillard's dark purposes, then there truly was no chance of escape for any of them. Not for the ghosts of the Hereafter, and not for the living of the Salt Lake Valley.

As Billy listened to the one-sided conversation unfold, he became more and more frantic. At first he tried shaking Richard, and even slapping his face to bring him around, but nothing affected the man. His voice was still audible in Liberty Park, where his ghostly body sat, still holding the hand of the dead boy. But it was clear his mind was somewhere else, and nothing Billy did could bring him back. As Richard fell further and further into the abyss of Drouillard's mind, Billy waited to see if his friend could survive yet another battle. The Disruptor had triumphed when the battlefield was the mind of his friend Pil. Could he survive when the enemy was the very source of the evil engulfing the city?

Thankfully, he did not have long to wait to find out. And when Richard's body suddenly stiffened and his cries of despair changed into something else, Billy thought his heart would pound out of his chest.

"Eat shit, motherfucker!" Richard hissed, his eyes now rolled back in his head, but his body as stiff as a poker. "I'm... going... to... kill... you... you son of a... bitch!"

Billy fell back on his haunches, unsure of what was happening. Was Richard pushing Drouillard back? Or was he witnessing the last gasp of a conquered mind?

Billy looked at Richard's hand, which was now squeezing the hand of the dead boy so fiercely that it seemed his own fingers might snap. Then with a shudder, Richard whispered something so quietly that Billy had to lean in to hear.

"I'll find you," Richard hissed.

Billy felt his body shiver, as if a chill wind had invaded the park. Then, in what Billy swore was a flash of light that illuminated the hillside on which they sat, Richard cried out and released the boy's hand. With a violent exhalation of breath, he fell onto his back in the grass.

Richard was silent and trembling for perhaps two minutes. And when he opened his eyes, the look he gave Billy could not have been in greater contrast to his own feeling of hopelessness.

Richard's eyes were not full of defeat. This was not the broken man who had fallen into a trance just moments before, and Billy had to wonder if Richard had ever really been broken at all. What Billy now saw was someone far stronger, far more resolved, and much more defiant, than anything Billy had seen in the brief span of days the two ghosts had spent together.

Richard Pratt looked like a warrior, ready for battle.

Billy wanted to hug Richard in relief and gratitude, but as he looked into the man's eyes, he saw a twinkle there that actually made him burst into laughter.

"Oh, Richard! Thank God," Billy gushed. "I thought I'd lost you. I thought he had you..."

Richard reached out and grasped Billy's forearm. "Not even close, my friend."

"You scared the hell out of me!" Billy said, getting his trembling slowly under control. "You sounded like it was all over. Like you had given up."

"I did. Or, at least, I allowed myself to feel all that despair. I don't know how, but I sensed that it was necessary. I knew I needed to feel it and accept it if I hoped to move past it and survive. And somehow the despair was able to open up a pathway between me and Drouillard."

"Do you mean, you went to him? He didn't summon you?"

"I think it surprised him. My guess is that he's never had someone appear in his mind, the way he is so used to appearing in the minds of others. It threw him off balance, and maybe that's how I was able to survive it. But in any case, he's now had a taste of who I am, and what I can accomplish. And most important, I've now seen where he is."

Billy looked at him with eyes that almost sparkled in the starlight. He knew he was looking at Richard worshipfully, but he couldn't stop himself. He was seeing in the man the power and strength that Tuilla had sensed in him from the beginning.

She had known. She had always known...

"So you know how to find him?" he asked, hopefully.

"No," Richard sighed. "Billy, I was kneeling right in front of him. He was standing on a rock when I got there. It looked like we were somewhere in the desert. But I couldn't see anything that I recognized. Nothing to confirm where we can find him."

"Could you see any mountains?"

"No. It's a moonless night. The stars were brilliant, but unfortunately, I couldn't see anything beyond a few feet around me. I think it was some kind of dry stream bed. Maybe the bottom of a gulch, or maybe just a depression. It was only a few feet deep, but it stopped me from seeing anything beyond where I was kneeling. It could have been any stretch of desert, anywhere west of Salt Lake City, from the Salt Flats to somewhere further south. I didn't want to look too obvious by trying to study the details."

Billy's shoulders sank. "So we still don't know how to find him."

"No, but we've narrowed it down," Richard said, his grip firm and reassuring on Billy's arm. "And I learned something else very interesting."

"What?"

"I learned that he's terrified of me. He's weaker than we thought. He's an old man, and I could sense the failing in him. I think he might even be dying. He wasn't at all sure that he could defeat me, once I was in his mind. When he thought I was broken, I could sense the relief. Then at the end, when he realized I had been playing him for a fool, the panic in him was so strong for an instant that I could almost taste it." Richard was getting more agitated, like he could spring out of his own skin. "Billy, I don't know where he is, but it felt like I could almost find him! He masked that place from me, but I felt that part of his terror was in knowing that I was so close to sensing where he was."

Billy was breathless now, but with excitement rather than fear.

"Richard, while you were gone, I almost gave up hope. It was a terrible feeling. I'm... I'm so grateful you're back."

For several minutes Richard just stared at Billy, and then at the brilliant stars of the moonless night sky, as if he was trying to decode some puzzle that lay in those points of light. Finally, he rose to his feet.

"I think we can find him. But I don't think I can do it alone." He offered his hand to Billy. "We have to find Tuilla. It will be dawn soon. Let's hope she's still where I left her. And let's hope there is something more she has to teach me."