Firestarter(73)

"You're mad," Cap whispered. "How right you are," Rainbird said, and laughed. "So are you. Mad as a hatter. You sit here and make your plans for controlling a force beyond your comprehension. A force that belongs only to the gods themselves... and to this one little girl." "And what's to stop me from having you erased? Right here and now?"

"My word," Rainbird said, "that if I disappear, such a shockwave of revulsion and indignation will run through this country within the month that Watergate will look like the filching of penny candy in comparison. My word that if I disappear, the Shop will ceased to exist within six weeks, and that within six months you will stand before a judge for sentencing on crimes serious enough to keep you behind bars for the rest of your life." He smiled again, showing crooked tombstone teeth. "Do not doubt me, Cap. My days in this reeking, putrescent vineyard have been long, and the vintage would be a bitter one indeed."

Cap tried to laugh. What came out was a choked snarl.

"For over ten years I have been putting my nuts and forage by," Rainbird said serenely, "like any animal that has known winter and remembers it. I have such a potpourri, Cap-photos, tapes, Xerox copies of documents that would make the blood of our good friend John Q. Public run cold."

"None of that is possible," Cap said, but he knew Rainbird was not bluffing, and he felt as if a cold, invisible hand were pressing down on his chest.

"Oh, very possible," Rainbird said. "For the last three years I've been in a state of information passing-gear, because for the last three years I've been able to tap into your computer whenever I liked. On a time-sharing basis, of course, which makes it expensive, but I have been able to pay. My wages have been very fine, and with investment they have grown. I stand before you, Cap-or sit, which is the truth, but less poetic-as a triumphant example of American free enterprise in action."

"No," Cap said.

"Yes," Rainbird replied. "I am John Rainbird, but I am also the U.S. Bureau for Geological Understudies. Check, if you like. My computer code is AXON. Check the time-sharing codes in your main terminal. Take the elevator. I'll wait." Rainbird crossed his legs and the cuff" of his right pantsleg pulled up, revealing a rip and a bulge in a seam of one of his boots. He looked like a man who could wait out the age, if that were necessary.

Cap's mind was whirling. "Access to the computer on a time-sharing basis, perhaps. That still doesn't tap you into-"

"Go see Dr. Noftzieger," Rainbird said kindly. "Ask him how many ways there are to tap into a computer once you have access on a time-sharing basis. Two years ago, a bright twelve-year-old tapped into the USC computer. And by the way, I know your access code, Cap. It's BROW this year. Last year it was RASP. I thought that was much more appropriate."

Cap sat and looked at Rainbird. His mind had divided, it seemed, had become a three-ring circus. Part of it was marveling that he had never heard John Rainbird say so much at one time. Part of it was trying to grapple with the idea that this maniac knew all of the Shop's business. A third part was remembering a Chinese curse, a curse that sounded deceptively pleasant until you sat down and really thought about it. May you live in interesting times. For the last year and a half he had lived in extremely interesting times. He felt that just one more interesting thing would drive him totally insane.

And then he thought of Wanless again-with dragging, dawning, horror. He felt almost as if... as if... he were turning into Wanless. Beset with demons on every side but helpless to fight them off or even to enlist help.

"What do you want, Rainbird?"

"I've told you already, Cap. I want nothing but your word that my involvement with this girl Charlene McGee will not end with the rifle but begin there. I want to"-Rainbird's eye darkened and became thoughtful, moody, introspective-"I want to know her intimately."

Cap looked at him, horror-struck.

Rainbird understood suddenly, and he shook his head at Cap contemptuously. "Not that intimately. Not in the biblical sense. But I'll know her. She and I are going to be friends, Cap. If she is as powerful as all things indicate, she and I are going to be great friends."

Cap made a sound of humor: not a laugh, exactly; more of a shrill giggle.

The expression of contempt on Rainbird's face did not change. "No, of course you don't think that is possible. You look at my face and you see a monster. You look at my hands and see them covered with the blood you ordered me to spill. But I tell you, Cap, it will happen. The girl has had no friend for going on two years. She has had her father and that is all. You see her as you see me, Cap. It is your great failing. You look, you see a monster. Only in the girl's case, you see a useful monster. Perhaps this is because you are a white man. White men see monsters everywhere. White men look at their own pricks and see monsters." Rainbird laughed again.

Cap had at last begun to calm down and to think reasonably. "Why should I allow it, even if all you say is true? Your days are numbered and we both know it. You've been hunting your own death for twenty years. Anything else has been incidental, only a hobby. You'll find it soon enough. And then it ends for all of us. So why should I give you the pleasure of having what you want?"

"Perhaps it's as you say. Perhaps I have been hunting my own death-a more colorful phrase than I would have expected from you, Cap. Maybe you should have the fear of God put into you more often."