Forests of the Night Read Online Free PDF

them.
    â€œWhat’re you, sexually challenged?”
    â€œI’m on a tight schedule,” he said.
    The scorpions on her shoulders were blue and green and they seemed to be moving, a slow dance across her tan flesh. Maybe it came from breathing the cloud of dope, or maybe it was some leftover trace of his old self warming to this twisted woman, making his eyes play tricks. A year ago Jacob Panther would’ve seized the chance. Happy to test his stamina against this she-devil, fly to whatever planet she was from, plant his flag in that ground. But not now. That Jacob was gone. Only some last stray molecules left.
    â€œJust the cone venom.”
    â€œAll right, all right. Christ, you don’t like girls, whatever, fine.”
    She got up and marched into the house and when she returned, the vial she handed him was full to the brim. Jacob peered at the liquid, tipped the tube to the side. The fluid was oily and thick, with the tint of weak tea.
    Shirlee lit her pipe again and said, “Stab a needle through the membrane, leave it a second or two, pull it back out. Whatever traces are left on the point should do the job, unless you’re trying to kill an elephant, then maybe you’ll need two jabs.”
    Jacob jiggled the tube. A faint coppery vapor hung in the air.
    â€œThere’s enough in that vial, you could put a dent in the Hundred and First Airborne.”
    Jacob slipped the ampoule in his shirt pocket and reached into his jeans and pulled out the envelope. A bank in South Carolina had provided the funds. Five thousand, Jacob told the terrified teller. No more, no less.
    â€œWhat’re you, anyway?” Shirlee said. “Hit man, terrorist, or just some guy gonna whack your wife’s boyfriend? My bet is terrorist.”
    â€œYou lose.”
    â€œAw, come on. You think I’m going to the cops?”
    â€œNone of those,” Jacob said. “I’m just trying to stay alive.”
    â€œWhat’s that mean? This is for self-defense? Give me a break.”
    â€œWhat’s that thing in the pool?” Jacob nodded toward the water.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThat fish.”
    â€œIt’s not a fish, it’s a mammal,” Shirlee said. “It’s a goddamn dolphin. You never saw a dolphin before? Jesus, you must live in a mine shaft.”
    â€œSo that’s a dolphin.”
    â€œYeah, yeah. Big brain. Smart as you and me, maybe smarter, that’s what they say.”
    â€œIf it’s so smart,” Jacob said, “what’s it doing in your pool?”
    Â 
    At Miami International Airport, Jacob Panther found a bank of TV monitors and checked the arrival time of the US Airways flight from Charlotte. On time, arriving in forty-five minutes. He located a Burger King and bought a large Coke and got a plastic lid. At the first trash can, he dumped out the Coke and ice, then snapped the lid back into place. In the men’s room he locked himself in a stall. He pricked the rubber membrane with the dart, and swished the fluid over the point. After a moment more, he withdrew the needle tip and slid the dart, point first, into the white tube. He drew a pipe cleaner from his pocket and poked the projectile down the barrel of the blowgun until a speck of the shiny tip was exposed and the fletching was secure. When he had it positioned correctly, Jacob inserted the white tube through the plastic lid of his empty Coke cup.
    He flushed the pipe cleaner, then walked out of the bathroom to the head of Concourse H and eased in alongside the chauffeurs with their signs.
    Jacob held the cup, and every few minutes he touched his lips to the white straw that poked through the lid and moved his cheeks as if he were swallowing. The arriving passengers streamed out of the concourse exit, some of them stopping to hug loved ones. Most in a hurry, on cell phones, jostling toward the waiting cabs.
    Jacob watched the crowd and sucked on his straw that was not a