Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II

CHAPTER 78

Henry pounded Sarah on the back, and the others looked at her in concern, except for Simon, who merely arched an eyebrow and stared at her intently. She bent over and coughed some more, before sitting up straight again.

“Are you okay?” Henry asked.

Sarah nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. I just choked on my drink.”

“You know the name Leviathan.” Simon’s tone indicated a statement rather than a question.

“I do.”

“May I ask how?”

Sarah closed her eyes and shuddered. Suddenly, she was back in Baltimore again, fleeing through the hallways as the giant, squid-headed monstrosity demolished the hotel, their last safe place of refuge and one of only two buildings not submerged. She could smell the mold and the mildew, hear the sound the creature’s massive tentacles and smaller tendrils made as they lashed through the air, see those huge, baleful eyes looming out of the rain and staring down at them, and hear the sounds her friends made as they died. Only she, Kevin, and Salty had escaped alive.

Now she was the only one left. The weight of it suddenly seemed to press down on her, and Sarah’s thoughts turned once again to Kevin.

“I’ll tell you,” she whispered, opening her eyes again, “but I only want to talk about it once. So how about you get Novak and everyone else down here?”

Simon reached out and gently patted her hand. His palm was warm and dry—a sensation she hadn’t believed could actually exist anymore in this world.

“Of course,” Simon said. “Mylon, would you be so kind as to summon the others? We’ll hear Sarah’s encounter with our foe, and then we’ll talk about what we can do when we face him.”

“Do you really think he’s coming?” Sarah asked.

“Oh, yes. I feel him, even now, getting closer. I am aware of him as he is of us. You see, I’m the one he wants.”