Bethany moaned and opened her eyes. “What?” she said, blearily.
Marla shook off Rondeau and B, who were still holding her arms, as if afraid she would fall down again. Marla drew her dagger and knelt, shakily, beside Bethany. She felt around in her own mind as if probing at a loose tooth with her tongue, feeling for some shred of the alien intelligence, but it was gone—she was choosing to do this on her own, with her humanity intact, for what that was worth. Marla tried to think of something to say. It took a moment, during which time Bethany’s eyes struggled to focus. “I enjoyed talking with you,” Marla said finally. “Under other circumstances, I think we might have been friends. I understand why you did what you did. I understand the lure of power. But you would have sacrificed your city, would have let Mutex wreck everything and kill everyone in this place you’re supposed to protect, and though I don’t give a shit what happens to San Francisco, you should. It’s your city. I could forgive you for trying to kill me. I’ve forgiven people for worse. But you didn’t just betray me, you betrayed your city, and that can never be forgiven.”
“Marla…” Bethany said, comprehension returning to her face. It was hard to tell if she’d understood the things Marla just said, but it didn’t matter, not really. In a moment, Bethany would never understand anything else again.
Marla struck with her dagger. She made it as quick and clean as possible, but, this being a murder, it wasn’t really quick or clean at all.
14
If you don’t mind me asking,” Rondeau said, “how exactly are we going to get off this train?” He leaned against a locked stainless-steel icebox, and he was actually cleaning his fingernails with his butterfly knife, probably because he knew how cool it made him look. The lights and power were on again. Rondeau had found the main power switch on the control panel.
Marla was sitting at a booth, still wet from a shower in the bath car, gorging herself on a roasted turkey she’d found in the one refrigerator that didn’t contain human parts. She chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, then said, “I’ll think of something.”
“It’s just that there’s this little yellow minefield,” Rondeau said. “Hundreds of frogs hopping around out there between us and the stairs.”
“Mmm,” Marla said. “You know, I was actually aware of that.” She glanced at B, who sat at another booth, his head in his hands. “Hey,” she said. “B. Sorry you had to see that back there, with Bethany. I had to do it. If we’d left her alive, it would have caused us a lot of trouble later. She—”
“I know,” B said. “It’s not that. Don’t get me wrong, seeing you cut her like that, seeing the blood spray, that wasn’t nice, but I’ve seen ugly stuff before. I didn’t like Bethany from the moment I found out she ate people.”
“Then what is it? What’s wrong?”
B looked up at her, and Marla was shocked to see hatred in his eyes. “You’re what’s wrong. I’ve been here, risking my life to help you, and you were prepared to make a deal with Mutex, to let him do whatever he wanted in exchange for a few minutes with the whatever-the-hell-you-call-it, the stone. I knew you had your own reasons for being involved in this, but I didn’t think you’d make a deal with that monster. And after that fucking noble speech you gave Bethany about how some things are unforgivable, of all the hypocritical bullshit—”
“Take it easy, movie star,” Rondeau said. He wasn’t cleaning his fingernails with his knife anymore, but he was still holding it.
“It’s okay,” Marla said. “He’s got every right to be pissed. Why don’t you tell him why he’s wrong, Rondeau.”
“Marla wasn’t really going to make a deal with Mutex,” Rondeau said. “If he’d agreed to take her to the Cornerstone, so much the better, but she wouldn’t have left town after that. See, you’ve made the mistake of thinking Marla tells the truth when she’s dealing with crazy sorcerers who want to destroy the world.”
“I’m not all that honorable at the best of times, to be honest,” Marla said. “And I’m certainly not above lying to my enemies if it helps me get what I want.”
“I’m supposed to believe you?” B said.
“I think, if you really look at me, you’ll be able to tell whether or not I’m lying, B,” she said. “Look at me with those seer’s eyes of yours, look deep, and tell me if I’m telling the truth.”