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"No," Kip said "Neveranger "How did you get to Coquina?"

"My airplane"

"I see" He glanced over at Moore, then back to the woman "Well Dr Thornton, is it? I&039; Mondayto tow the sub to cut holes into it, and it&039;s going back dohere it ca "I don&039;t knohy you think you canto let you do it!"

"I&039;m sorry The plans have beendefiantly toward him Kip stood where he was, but he could feel the heat of her anger "You don&039;t seem to realize what that boat is! It&039;s a Nazi U-boat in almost perfect condition after forty years or so at the bottom of the Caribbean We have to kno it stayed that hat e team down here within three days! You can&039;t sink it!"

"It&039;s a rotting old hulk," Kip said

"No! It&039;s in remarkable condition, not er the interior is in excellent condition as well, including the engine room! My God, the boat&039;s a naval historian&039;s dreauarantee interest from the British Museum if I can just examine the inside!"

"You ever heard the story of Pandora&039;s Box?" Kip asked her; the question startled her "Let&039;s just say there&039;s plenty you don&039;t know about the submarine All manner of hell&039;s been raised here because of it No, I&039; to wait any three days I wouldn&039;t wait three damned hours if I didn&039;t have to!" He reached over and pulled at the metal rod to make certain the door was shut securely Moore realized he had locked the door as if to keep so in instead of out Kip turned to hi past on my way back from Caribville and I saw your truck parked here I didn&039;t think you would&039;ve come back here alone"

"You&039;re a madman!" Jana said suddenly "That&039;s a scientific find you want to destroy!"

"I&039;ve had enough arguing, ht in the eye "I&039;ve had s stand If you want to file a protest with your Foundation when you get back to Kingston, that&039;s fine with et in touch withThe U-boat&039;s going back into the ocean David, I&039;ll see you later Dr Thornton, have a good trip" He nodded toward her and walked back to his jeep He started the engine and roared off, leaving theether at the side of the shelter

"What&039;s wrong with that man?" Jana asked "Is he out of hislate; the shadoere thicker, a blue-black ht would cover the island, and Moore realized there was no place on earth he would rather avoid than this boatyard, with the U-boat lying only behind the thickness of a wooden wall after darkness fell "It&039;s too late for you to ston before dark," he told Jana "If you&039;d like I&039;ll give you a room up at the hotel"

"I appreciate that," she said, "but I&039;ve no intention of leaving until I&039;ve talked some sense into that idiot"

"Suit yourself," Moore said, e, Kip knew there was so; he saw the empty streets, the shuttered s, the voodoo talised within hiin to define One of the syreen door, held his attention, started the slow stirring of ish, nebulous - at the back of his brain It was the crude drawing of a huge hand, froers spread as if to ward off the invisible Kip pulled the jeep to the side of the road and stared at it, unable to tear his gaze away

He was a child again, a boy of thirteen, sitting at a low table eating froh it was his first meal in over a day Across the plank-walled roos burned erratically in a stone fireplace On the floor oven sea-grass, orn; theshutters were closed tight and the only light came frolow illuminated the straw tribaland wolfish: heavy-browed seashell eyes glea directly at hied to look alrotesque and freakish

Achair before the fire He stared into the fla&039;s teeth distractedly After a while he took one of the teeth out and tossed it in, then bent forward as if he saw so a soft, catlike rass mat From one corner there was a low rustle; the ht profile of slitted eyes in an aged, weather-lined face On a bed of sea-grass across the roo; a metal collar clamped about its neck secured the reptile to a line tied around an overhead beah slack so that the lizard could move about in the room Its pale red eyes stared at Kip, the white flesh under the jaw and belly undulating as it breathed It carass, stopped, flesh quivering along its spine, slender tail sweeping across the floor Its head moved jerkily, eyes fixed on Kip

"Feed it," the hy brown bread beside him He tore off a small chunk and tossed it over The lizard jerked, scurried back, waited Then it advanced on the bread and licked at it

Kip was still dazed fro In the past three days he had slept a great deal, intoxicated by the strange fu from pots the man kept in a circle around the boy&039;s bare mattress Sometimes his sleep was dreamless and black, the sleep of the dead, but s like the masks that watched him, always in an anticipatory silence The faces spun about hi his naun to build a brick wall in hisdown smooth and thick, each row of bricks solid and even But soth, and they reached out with their gray tendrils to pull down the bricks he had erected the night before No htmare forms there was no escape; there were too many, and he had to work harder and harder to put the bricks back into place He worked at the wall like a madman, as if sleep were just another of the many labors set for him by his uncle, who had made hies by the man and sold to furtive customers Kip had also been made to drain seven white chickens of their blood, and, one night, to accoraveyard to sever a recently dead man&039;s head for that fearful death spell, the Garabanda The wall never sees still found holes and weak spots through which to grasp at hih to hold theain would they make him scream that terrible scream from the deep pit of sleep He vowed it to himself, made the vow as much a part of him as was his fear and dislike of the ht the wide corridors and ee, abandoned ht could penetrate, and he h spidery shadows When he ran into boarded-over doors, sealed s, bricked passageways, he would turn and retrace his steps In one rooht colors, each of the to the others; in another was a child playing on the floor with a bright green ball that suddenly uncurled and becaaping holes in the floor, the black tiuided hi

As he caed around his feet He resisted the pull of the current and saw the blue water slowly turn a dark-red color In another rooirl aved to hi of a ship&039;s bell fro rooms croith iron, ship&039;s parts, and rusted equipment; a white man moved across the corridor ahead of him and Kip followed A skeleton stood before hi he couldn&039;t understand; the skeleton crumpled, fell to dust

And in the next rooation of shadows A chair Open s, black sky, sheer tattered curtains trailing in an unfelt wind And in the chair a dark for without true substance, but e a vast and terrible hate The door slammed behind him Alerted by the noise, the hideous for out the intruder Two blinding crih to his brain And then the thing rose fro up to eainst the door, felt the hardness of the wood pressing into his spine The thing&039;s hot breath touched his cheek and he began to shout for help, over and over; it neared hi like a black mamba

And then the door behind hi

Opened his eyes

A hand co face behind it He recoiled; the hand grasped his shoulder and shook him fully awake

In the corner the lizard had shifted, tiny pinpoints of glea sweat from his cheeks "Your future is not with reen door trearees peered out at the constable

Kip stared at him for a few seconds, then composed hi inside his head: bits of rehts and s and hard to wall off that part of his life He&039;d thought the bricks were firmly mortared into place Until the U-boat had come

I knohat you could have been, Boniface had told him

Bullshit, Kipshadows fell across Coquina The ed over Kiss Bottothening and finally sweeping up sand in the streets, swirling it in gritty puffs that stung the shuttered s A dog bayed at the moon until someone cursed and threw a shoe to quiet hiainst iron down in the boatyard