Nodding and coughing, Robert reached for it. Reluctantly, I let him take it. I figured if it was a trick, if he could use it as a weapon against me, my talisman should stop the attack.
He grabbed it and held it to his chest in relief. He rubbed it on the bloody holes in his shirt. The blood didn’t stick to the photo. It was impossible to stain it. The sight was an odd one.
“Better,” he said, breathing less shallowly.
I shook my head. “The photo has the power of healing? Does it dissolve bullets or what?”
“No,” he said. “Don’t you know what your own stuff does? God, what a number Meng did on your head. That’s your trademark object, Draith. Fast healing. Remember now?”
I did, in a way. I recalled being known for fast healing. I’d been sure I could leave the hospital despite all my injuries. I’d confidently removed my cast. I nodded.
“It doesn’t exactly heal you, it’s more that it stabilizes you—moving you to what you once were,” Robert explained. He sounded hurt and tired, but no longer on death’s door.
“What if I shoot you in the head?” I asked. “Will it heal that?”
Robert looked up at me with narrowed eyes. “I’d rather not find out,” he said.
“Then tell me who you work for.”
“Already did. Rostok—the Community.”
“Maybe we should go have a chat with him then,” I said.
Robert laughed, but the laughter quickly shifted into a nasty coughing fit. “You’re as crazy as ever,” he said. “Help me up and into the rip. It goes back to the Lucky Seven.”
I didn’t move. “What is this place, exactly?”
“I don’t know that. I’m not sure anyone does. But it is an existence that connects others. You can go through it to other places, if you live. Some worlds are like that. Small, but tightly interconnected. Our world is bigger.”
“And the world of the Gray Men?”
“Big, like ours.”
I nodded, believing what he said. It added up with what McKesson had told me days ago. He’d talked about getting lost in a place full of bright light and radiation. He’d talked about getting into and out of that world of white glare. Maybe this place was similar.
I helped Robert get to his feet, not knowing what else to ask. I figured that even with my photo, he wasn’t immortal. He was still bleeding and turning paler as the seconds ticked by.
More importantly, the rip looked like it was going to fade soon. I didn’t want to be left here hoping I could figure out how to create a new one. I took my photo back from his rubbery fingers, and we stepped into the rip.
We appeared on rich carpets of burgundy framed with green. It had to be the Lucky Seven. I looked around and recognized the lobby area outside Rostok’s office. Apparently not everything Robert had told me was a lie. I let him flop in a chair, barely conscious.
I tapped on Rostok’s door. The door swung quietly open, just as it had before. The interior was dark, as always. A dim light ran along the bottom of every piece of furniture, limning it with a ghostly nimbus. I entered, leaving Robert in the chair outside. The door swung shut behind me.
“Your boy Robert is in pretty bad shape.”
“He’ll be…taken care of,” Rostok said.
I glanced toward the shadow I knew was Rostok. He sat like a hulking cave bear in his overstuffed, leather-upholstered chair. I got up and poured myself a drink at his bar, dropping in three cubes of ice.
“Such impudence,” Rostok said behind me.
“Sorry. I’m hot and thirsty. It’s been a long day.”
Rostok laughed. “Apparently! I’m more than impressed, Draith. You bring me back my chief agent, unarmed and barely alive. Not only have you defeated my best, but you have the balls to come here and flaunt it. I’m beginning to like you.”
“Wish I could say the same,” I said, swigging my drink. “Do you want one?”
“I’ll get my own, if you don’t mind.”
“Suit yourself,” I said, taking a chair and sighing as I sat back and took another big swallow. The best part of these visits was the smooth alcohol. This man spared no expense when it came to booze.
“You must tell me why you’ve come here…yet again.”
I told him then of my adventures in the desert and my struggles with Robert and the Gray Men. I finished by describing my plans to take out whatever means the enemy used to step through into our territory with such impunity.
“And if I don’t approve of your plans?”
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t. We are on the same side, here. Humanity must unite, if only to fight off an inhuman invader.”
“Quaint thoughts.”
“You don’t agree?”
“I do, to some extent. Always, it has been postulated that all men would stand together given the need. Unfortunately, this has not been my experience.”
I sipped my drink in the dark. I didn’t like the way that sounded. “So, the Community is divided on what to do about the Gray Men?”
“Absolutely. They are also divided concerning your fate.”
I swirled the ice cubes around my glass. It was disappointingly empty. “Mind if I freshen this?”