Sirens, page 53
would not give and he leaped out of the window. Gunfire followed him. He
was about to bound off- into the underbrush when Heather stepped out
from behind the hedge where she and Rachel had lain. She stood
spread-legged, holding the gun in both hands.
She was stiff-armed. ' where you arep she called. El-Kalaarn whirled
around. He saw who it was, began to laugh. ',' he said, ''s you. I
thought you dead in all this fighting. I sent Rita after you.' ' killed
Rita.' The smile on his face slackened. ' and Fessi, too.' '.' El-Kalaam
frowned. ' you. Not the rabbit killer.
You don't know when to shoot.' He shook his head. ' don't frighten me.
I'm leaving now. It's time to fi(Ot another day.' ' you move, I'll kill
you.' His arms spread. '? You'd shoot a defenceless man?' Sre not
defenceless, El-Kalaam. You're dangerous. Too s to be allowed to go on
living. You once told me I -'senselessly and you did not.' She shook her
head. ' re wrong. It's you who kill senselessly. There can be no -1
recdomphe cried. recdom's just a word you use to justify what you do.
It no other meaning for you. It, too, has its role to play for Nothing
more. But that won't save you now. Nothing will you. You twist the
fabric of life around until it's so warped e can recognize it.' She was
walking towards him as she e. ''ou've taken civilization by the throat
and you're g its head off.' smile broke out again across his face.
"Words,' he said. ire only words. They mean nothing to me.' He lifted
and. ',' he called and began to move. ather squeezed the trigger of the
-45. It roared in her the muzzle came up in recoil. Through the haze,
she saw alaam reel back against the side of the house. He stumbled, a
step, fell to one knee. He clutched at his chest. Blood coming through
his clenched fingers. His eyes were wide Staring. A look of disbelief
suffused his face. He watched ather advanced towards him.
don't -' he began. ' don't ...' Blood poured out of his and mouth and he
choked. He coughed, slid down the side e villa. His head came back.
His sightless eyes stared up e bright blue sky. eather stood over him,
the muzzle of the pistol aimed at head. Rachel came out of her hiding
place, raced across grass to where Heather stood. She came against
Heather's put her face into her stomach. She gripped her with both her
hands clasped together. c hawk-nosed Israeli commander poked his head
through large window. For what seemed a long time, he stared at scene in
mute wonder. Then his head whipped away and could hear him calling
rapid-fire orders to his men. a moment, a dozen commandos came around
the side of villa. The commander came through the open window. ed to the
ground. 464 465 'Are you all right?' He looked at the both of them.
"It's over now.' The men came up, surrounding El-Kalaam. The fixed look
in Heather's eyes faded and she glanced frorn El-Kalaam's fallen body to
the hawk-nosed commander. One of the commandos kicked El-Kalaam's
corpse, cursed. Heather dropped the gun on to the lawn. She bent, lifted
Rachel up into her arms. She turned from all the commotion, taking the
girl quickly away through the hedges. Eleven 466 fade to black. t the
applause was already welling up, rising to a torrent red-lettered crawl
began to seep down on the screen. they began to stand. It began
somewhere in the middle enormous, packed house, spreading itself until
everyone p and applauding wildly. Here and there were bright g whistles.
The house was rocking. was, as Rubens had predicted, the week before
Christmas. n had brought the film in on time and Heather Duell open here
at the Ziegfeld on 54th Street just west of Avenue in New York, for a
week-long reserved-seat ment. was the VIP screening for the New York and
national Rubens had Twentieth fly in a select corps of Holly- ' most
influential critics and columnists for the screening e subsequent party.
But, cannily, he had held on to one d tickets himself. The studio brass
had screamed for for their executives, who never showed up anyway, ing
to give the tickets to their secretaries. He had had come into town two
weeks early to set up a local tion on the top three AM radio stations in
a ticket Y. he was reaping the rewards. An industry audience was ousiy
unresponsive but Rubens had gambled on the cts of the public. It bad
been an appallingly risky throw dice because everyone knew what he was
up to. He and and Beryl had had a summit on just this subject almost
onth ago to the day. When he had proposed the plan, on had at first
balked. But then again he was the closest to the project and, as Rubens
bad persuasively pointed the one least likely to view the situation
objectively. last Marion had unhappily relented. ''m putting my mned
life in your hands,' he had said, getting up. ' 467 I know how Marie
Antoinette felt on her way up the steps to the guillotine.' Rubens had
clapped Marion on the back, embraced hit" ' that how you think of us, my
friend? As a revolutionary council? And after the marvellous job you've
just turned in? My God, man, you're - we're all going to make this film
into the biggest grosser of all timev He squeezed Marion's shoulders. '
me. We haven't let each other down yet, have we? And we're not going to.
You have my word on it.' Even with all that, perhaps it was safe to say
that Marion had not been totally convinced, Daina thought now, as she
watched the audience erupt into wild applause.
Swayed, yes, Definitely swayed enough to give Rubens his consent. But
until now, Daina knew, doubts had churned in Marion's heart gnawing at
him. After all, this was America; his big shot. If it turned out a bust
... Tonight he was wreathed in smiles. Daina stood between them, Marion
and Rubens. She felt their presence only as if it were some ghostly
contact, as if she stood in a haunted house, shaking hands with wraiths.
All that truly existed for her was the wall of noise building like a
tidal wave in the theatre, echoing on and on until she walked the length
of the place and, going down the long aisle, turned to face them. She
heard her name being called and turned her head. But it came not from
one mouth, nor two or three. It was as if the multitude was calling to
her and in that massed sound her name, so terribly familiar to her for
all of her life, took on a new meaning, new form and shape, gaining
substance until it seemed to hang in the air. She watched their eyes,
seeing an expression that was unique. From face to face, in the light
and in the shadows, she saw the same thing. On long faces, round faces,
pimply faces, and perfect faces there was a common point that bound them
together here, some banner that covered them all, fused them into one
entity with one mind, one heart, one dream. And with a thrill greater
than any she had ever before experienced, she knew she was that dream.
Daina turned up the high collar of the full-length Canadian lynx coat
Rubens had bought her. She pursed her lips, blew a reath. Condensing in
the frigid air, its mist hung in her face before dissipating in the
night. in New York, it really felt like Christmastime. Strings s lit up
Sixth Avenue and, to the north, the pale spare s of the trees in Central
Park looked like spectral s angrily trying to sweep away the darkness -
or the T-shirts and sneakers parading down Sunset in r here; no open
sports cars; no surfboards carried to Laguna. December meant winter and,
although there was no to speak of - just the dirty ren-mants turned to
mottled and black ice by the traffic - it was as chill as she mbered it.
Taxis, their cheery for-hire lights ablaze, d up the avenue and, down
the block at 53rd, a sidewalk rang his bells for the Salvation Army or
some other ty. Just a few short blocks away, on Fifth Avenue, Saks d
still be open to accommodate the holiday rush and trick's would be
festively floodlit. bens stood next to her on the sidewalk, waiting
patiently. held the back door of the limo open for them. Marion moments
before, climbed into the warm, plush backseat. bens put his arm around
her, ' are you ing?' e continued to stare up Sixth Avenue towards the
park. ' think you'd believe me if I told you.' d believe anything you
told me..' He shivered a little, drew pigskin gloves. at a foolish thing
to say. That's not like you.' shrugged. ', it's perfectly true. You are
the person in my life who has not lied to me at one time or t perhaps I
have not always told you the entire truth.' at's not,' he said slowly, '
all the same thing. Now' - her closer to him as if needing her warmth -
' me is on your mind.' was thinking of this city.. e city?' He seemed
puzzled. ' don't understand.' t's been almost five years since I've been
back, Rubens. 468 469 A lifetime. But now I'm here, it's like I've
never left. P m a junkie And here's where I get my fix.' ' don't
understand,'he said again. ' should.
You're from New York. You should understand what this city means.' '
city's a city, Daina. It's there to be used. I neither love New York nor
hate it. I come back here when there is work for me here. I left it
years ago because LA was where the filnni business was. I'm glad it's
there. I like the sun and the climate. I never got used to playing
tennis indoors or living twenty-five storeys in the sky or,
alternatively, taking the Long Island Railroad in from the Island. I
come back here often enough., ' what do you see here, Rubens? Is it just
concrete and glass)' ',' he said, the frown still on his face.
"That's all. just that and nothing more. I go where I have to and I
don't miss any other place while I'm there! Daina said something so
softly he was not certain what it was. It sounded like '. Then she had
ducked her head and climbed into the limo. Rubens soon followed her.
Alex went around'the front of the car, got in behind the wheel. He
started up. ' don't,' Daina said, ' to go to the party just yet.
Too early! ''s set up that TV thing with Eyewitness News,' Rubens
pointed out. ' know. Fine. She told me four times before she left for
the party! ''s only because she went to a lot of trouble -2 ''ll wait.'
Daina shot him a glance. ''t they?' Rubens looked at Marion out of the
comer of his eye. don't imagine they'll leave.' ',' Daina said. ''ll
handle it. That's what she's being paid for.' ' d'you want Alex to take
us?' Rubens said quietly. ' don't know. Into the park, okay? You like
the park, too.' Alex made a left on to Sixth, shooting out across
Central Park South and into the stony hissing darkness. The nighttime
glitter of the city seemed to recede by miles instead of blocks. 470 of
the silence in the car, Daina said, ' think it's ing, don't you? That
it's all catching up to me.' Her was back against the velvet seat, the
light from the lamps silvering her profile as, one by one, the limo up
on them, came abreast and quickly shot away.
In those ts of illumination, like tiny intense spotlights, her eyes to
be glittering amethysts, deep and stark and wholly al. ' down.' she
whispered, staring out the window. us down, Alex.' e bodyguard braked
around a stone-lined turning and came upon the Tavern on the Green, its
surrounding trees with tiny lights like spun gold. ' I was a child," she
Cwhen I was sad, I'd go to the Planetarium and watch stars come out.
Day slid into night but not before, in the , the silhouettes of the city
were outlined all around circumference of the dome. Then the night. And
only the But she was remembering some other time, was telling this story
now because she could not bear to talk about other one. don't think
anything of the sort,' Rubens said as if there been no time in between.
ike one of those old movies, it'll all disintegrate in the fire. y scrap
burned inward from the comers until all that's is ashes that blow away
in the slightest hint of a breeze.' turned her head to the side, smiled
a ghostly smile at him. t's what happens to all of us, Rubens, isn't
it?' She smiled n, this time with great luminosity. ', you know what? is
all a crock, dreamed up by some Hollywood hack writer, driven half drunk
by turning out a dozen scripts .' She pursed her lips. ' that matters is
now.' But her ding heart told her otherwise. at's why we go from one
project to the next without nd thought.'Marion said. put her arms
through his, kissed him on the cheek. ' he is, Rubens? He's really sweet
under all that barking. smart, too.' h, yes. A bloody genius.' Marion
sighed. ' you missed '. Somehow we all seem to miss the human factor ...
one element that should make everything work.
But we 471 never seem to learn how to handle the excesses of fame. We
become distanced from the majority of people, and this only makes us
feel more superior. It feeds on itself, d'you see? We're all spiteful
babies at heart_ always rebelling, asserting an independence we never
had as children-' He eyed them both, a peculiar expression on his face.
"Psychiatric blather, don't you think?' But clearly he did not. ' why
we're all such bastards in the end - as my ex-wife so artfully pointed
out to me over and over. But then she was no different so she had to
give it up in the encl.' He laughed. ''s so very amusing, in a way, I'm
such a bloody lazy sod at home. But at work that's just not on.
"The theatre is perfectly exhilarating - there is absolutely nothing
like the live performance - but, in time, it becomes extremely
self-serving in a way. It's so tightly knit, so monstrously structural,
you see, by its very nature, so insulated. It was becoming far too
comfortable, a kind of niche, and I yself a slothfulness which I came to
despise. began to see m m C. I began to see that I was no longer working
full throttle, although for the longest time, it seemed, I had been
hoodwinking myself into believing that all was well. ' me, the film
world has always been a kind of gigantic entity that, by its size alone,
was scary.' He grunted.
"And coming to Hollywood as opposed to New York was another wrench. I
grew up in the darkness of theatres, watching the fabled labours. To go
there to work was like ascending Mount Olympus.' ' now I suppose 3'
Rubens said, ''re going to tell us you long for a return to the bucolic
days when you were a director in the theatre, making, what, a hundred
pounds a week. Good, honest work.' Sarcasm hung heavy in his voice now.
'. Back to the land, old boy, isn't that it? To bathe your hands once
more in those footlights.' ' no!' Marion laughed.
"I wouldn't go back now for all the tea in China or, to be a bit more up
to date, all the coal in Newcastle.' He shook his head. ', I think one
only finds bucolics in children's books like The Wizard of Oz. And, you
notice, that's written by an American. None of that "0 , Auntie Em,
there's no place like home!" in our Alice in 472 and, none of that stem
Protestant morality there. of course.' Rubens laughed. ' English are far
too r that sort of straight and narrow.' oo bloody right 1' ina sat
forward as they came out of the north side of the ',' she said a little
breathlessly, ''t turn around here to, Miss. Whitney?' He watched her in
the rearview . his eyes very dark and perfectly unreadable. north.' she
said, ' 116th and then come back down Avenue.' hat are you up to?'
Rubens asked. o ing,' she said, not turning around. She gripped the edge
of the pulled-back glass partition. ' leave it e was silence in the car
as they swung up then turned for a short time; slid to a stop at a light
and she watched assing black fa ces. They seemed part of another world,
ote from her as Pluto was from the Earth - and with as much to offer. e
light blinked green and they slid forward, turning right Fifth. She saw
it from more than a block away. It stood their right, high and far less
blocky than many of the ler buildings around it. It still had that odd
quasi- ean air, the detailed curlicues, the ornamental cornices, ows of
peering gargoyles, and she did not see what was g until they were almost
abreast, and she saw the boardedindows, the broken doorway, littered
with shards of beer pint wine bottles. Sheet metal, smeared with black
aerosol ti: ' 2 GONE DOWN ZEE RAKHEEN MBY S.' was nailed across all the
