Firestarter(44)

"You liar! You're s'posed to kill him! I know it!"

Andy spoke and was a little surprised to find that his voice was completely steady. "I advise you to do as my daughter says. You've surely been briefed enough to know why she's wanted. You know about the soldier at the airport."

OJ and Norville Bates exchanged a sudden uneasy look.

"If you'll just get in the car, we can discuss all of this," A1 said. "Honest to gosh, there's nothing going on here except-"

"We know what's going on," Andy said.

The men who had been in the last two or three cars were beginning to fan out and stroll, almost casually toward the porch. "Please," Charlie said to the man with the strangely yellow face. "Don't make me do anything." "It's no good, Charlie," Andy said. Irv Manders came out onto the porch. "You men are trespassing," he said. "I want you to get the hell off my property."

Three of the Shop men had come up the front steps of the porch and were now standing less than ten yards away from Andy and Charlie, to their left. Charlie threw them a warning, desperate glance and they stopped-for the moment.

"We're government agents, sir," A1 Steinowitz said to Irv in a low, courteous voice. "These two folks are wanted for questioning. Nothing more." "I don't care if they're wanted for assassinating the President," Irv said. His voice was high, cracking. "Show me your warrant or get the Christ off my property." "We don't need a warrant," Al said. His voice was edged with steel now. "You do unless I woke up in Russia this morning," Irv said. "I'm telling you to get off, and you better get high-steppin, mister. That's my last word on it."

"Irv, come inside!" Norma cried.

Andy could feel something building in the air, building up around Charlie like an electric charge. The hair on his arms suddenly began to stir and move, like kelp in an invisible tide. He looked down at her and saw her face, so small, now so strange. It's coming, he thought helplessly. It's coming, oh my God it really is. "Get out!" he shouted at Al. "Don't you understand what she's going to do? Can't you feel it? Don't be a fool, man!" "Please," Al said. He looked at the three men standing at the far end of the porch and nodded to them imperceptibly. He looked back at Andy. "If we can only discuss this-""Watch it, Frank!" Irv Manders screamed. The three men at the end of the porch suddenly charged at them, pulling their guns as they came. "Hold it, hold it!" one of them yelled. "Just stand still! Hands over your-"Charlie turned toward them. As she did so, half a dozen other men, John Mayo and Ray Knowles among them, broke for the porch's back steps with their guns drawn. Charlie's eyes widened a little, and Andy felt something hot pass by him in a warm puff of air. The three men at the front end of the porch had got halfway toward them when their hair caught on fire.

A gun boomed, deafeningly loud, and a splinter of wood perhaps eight inches long jumped from one of the porch's supporting posts. Norma Manders screamed, and Andy flinched. But Charlie seemed not to notice. Her face was dreamy and thoughtful. A small Mona Lisa smile had touched the corners of her mouth.

She's enjoying this, Andy thought with something like horror. Is that why she's so afraid of it? Because she likes it?

Charlie was turning back toward Al Steinowitz again. The three men he had sent running down toward Andy and Charlie from the front end of the porch had forgotten their duty to God, country, and the Shop. They were beating at the flames on their heads and yelling. The pungent smell of fried hair suddenly filled the afternoon.

Another gun went off. A window shattered.

"Not the girl!" A1 shouted. "Not the girl!"

Andy was seized roughly. The porch swirled with a confusion of men. He was dragged toward the railing through the chaos. Then someone tried to pull him a different way. He felt like a tug-of-war rope.

"Let him go!" Irv Manders shouted, bull throated. "Let him-"Another gun went off and suddenly Norma was screaming again, screaming her husband's name over and over. Charlie was looking down at Al Steinowitz, and suddenly the cold, confident look was gone from Al's face and he was in terror. His yellow complexion grew positively cheesy. "No, don't," he said in an almost conversational tone of voice. "Don't-"

It was impossible to tell where the flames began Suddenly his pants and his sportcoat were blazing. His hair was a burning bush. He backed up, screaming, bounced off the side of his car, and half turned to Norville Bates, his arms stretched out.

Andy felt that soft rush of heat again, a displacement of air, as if a hot slug thrown at rocket speed had just passed his nose.

Al Steinowitz's face caught on fire.

For a moment he was all there, screaming silently under a transparent caul of flame, and then his features were blending, merging, running like tallow. Norville shrank away from him. Al Steinowitz was a flaming scarecrow. He staggered blindly down the driveway, waving his arms, and then collapsed facedown beside the third car. He didn't look like a man at all; he looked like a burning bundle of rags.

The people on the porch had frozen, staring dumbly at this unexpected blazing development. The three men whose hair Charlie had fired had all managed to put themselves out. They were all going to look decidedly strange in the future (however short that might be); their hair, short by regulation, now looked like blackened, tangled clots of ash on top of their heads.