She turned and continued toward the foyer where she laid the pile by the door.
"Is Henry coming to pick them up?"
She wanted to tell him how sorry she was, but didn't know if she could face him.
Another cold look from Gilda. "Henry is never coming back."
"Then why are you putting his clothes out?"
"They are to be burned."
"Burned?" She didn't get it. "But he was only fired. You talk about him like he's dead."
Gilda turned away and headed in the direction of the kitchen.
"I will make you some lunch."
But Dawn was no longer hungry. She stared at that forlorn pile of clothing, thinking it couldn't be… it totally couldn't be.
Henry was out there in the city, totally alive and looking for another job. He had to be…
But what she'd seen in Gilda's eyes just before she'd turned away said otherwise.
She felt her blood turning to ice.
Dead? But that could only mean that Mr. Osala had…
What have I done? Who are these people? What have I gotten myself into?
Jack entered his apartment with the katana.
The Lady's words had haunted him.
It might now be a weapon only for good, or only for evil. Or, like any blade, it might cut either way, depending on who wields it. But it will be used for something momentous.
She'd wanted him to dump it in the ocean but had not offered a clear reason why.
… something momentous…
Momentous good or momentous evil?
If the latter, then yeah, dump it in the Mariana Trench, where no one, not even Rasalom, could reach it.
But if at some crucial moment in the coming showdown it could tip the scale against the Otherness, Jack didn't want it under seven miles of ocean.
… it might cut either way, depending on who wields it…
O'Day had killed Gerrish with it, and Jack guessed that would be considered an ill use of the weapon. But Glaeken had used it defensively, and nonlethally at that.
Yeah… so it depended on who wielded it.
He'd given it a lot of thought, leaning this way and that. The tipping point had come when he remembered what Veilleur had said about Rasalom being at the Kakureta Kao temple. If so, he could have gone after Dawn or the katana. The fact that he'd chosen Dawn told Jack that the katana wasn't all that important to him.
Jack decided to keep it, figuring he could dispose of it at any time if he changed his mind. But if he ditched it now, there was no going back.
It wouldn't fit in the false back of the secretary with the rest of his goodies, so he found a spot on the top shelf of one of his closets. It was too long to lie flat so he leaned it at an angle.
He stared at it for a moment, wondering if he was doing the right thing.
Don't make me regret this, he thought, then shut the closet door.
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