The Memorist

Chapter 101

Thursday, May 1^st-8:25 p.m.

The symphony had been hijacked and so had David’s plan. But there was still time if he acted fast. Except his head felt like it was exploding and there was too much pain. And so much sadness. He thought about the woman with dark hair and almond-shaped green eyes…about Ohana…and her father…and…impossibly…his own death. Tears streaming down his face, he reached for the det cord. He needed to activate it and apply the current to the wire.

Fumbling, he struggled to get control of his trembling. He had to stop thinking about the past, except he could still smell the flowers from the sacred ashoka tree and feel the agony of the blows. Could see the older man coming at him with the rock again. Could feel Devadas’s horrible pain.

David willed his fingers to pick up the cord but they didn’t move. He was lying on the ground, blinded by pain, and then, somehow, surprisingly through the pain, he experienced the joy that Devadas had experienced as he lay dying, knowing he’d saved the life of someone he’d loved.

David’s wife had told him once his news stories saved lives. If Lisle was here now, she’d tell him it had never been his karma to cause violence.

Except he couldn’t give up now. He had to do this for her, for them. Reaching once more for the det cord, he picked it up, held it and tried to remember what he was supposed to do next. Two steps. There were only two steps left.

The old man brought the rock down again.

No! There were only two steps left, create the short circuit and force the explosion. He stared at the science project and felt a sadness so heavy descend on him he thought he might never be able to get up again. Maybe he could just stay down in the catacombs forever, become part of the rock, part of the ancient burial ground.

Do this, he silently screamed at himself. Do it now. Get it over with. He held the wires in his hands. Felt the heavy strands of Lisle’s hair.

Who had he been kidding? He’d never been capable of killing anyone. Not even the rats down in the caves with him. But if he didn’t do this now, the rest of his life would be an endless loop of loss. If he stayed on and lived out all his days missing them, his family would be gone from him in a more final and aching way than at any time in the last eighteen months.

The rock came down on Devadas’s head for the last time.

His hands fell open and dropped to his sides. He saw endless blackness. No matter how many people he’d loved and lost, could he really do to others what had been done to him? Could he be the one to disturb the fragile threads that tied people to each other over time and through time?

Do it. Do it now.

With a burst of resolve, he picked up the wires and the Semtex and the det cap but instead of connecting them to each other, with one great last effort he heaved them all into the shaft, into the same empty channel he’d forced the rats to crawl through, the same hollow that the music had traveled through.

He had to hurry. His computer was set to automatically send his articles to the newspaper in less than an hour. He had fifty-four minutes to get out of there, up to the surface and back to his hotel if he intended to save his own life tonight. The last life he ever would have guessed he’d care about saving.