Firestarter(75)

He hadn't mentioned his find to Charlie. The suitcases were packed. Her continued silence forced him into nervous speech, as if by not talking she was accusing him.

"We're going to hitch a ride into Berlin," he said, "and then we'll get a Greyhound back to New York City. We're going to the offices of the New York Times-"

"But, Daddy, you sent them a letter."

"Honey, they might not have gotten it."

She looked at him in silence for a moment and then said, "Do you think they took it?"

"Of course n-"He shook his head and started again. "Charlie, I just don't know."

Charlie didn't reply. She knelt, closed one of the suitcases, and began fumbling ineffectually with the clasps.

"Let me help you, hon."

"I can do it!" She screamed at him, and then began to cry.

"Charlie, don't," he said. "Please, hon. It's almost over."

"No, it's not," she said, crying harder. "It's never going to be over."

2

There were an even dozen agents round Granther McGee's cabin. They had taken up their postions the night before. They all wore mottled white and green clothing. None of them had been at the Manders farm, and none of them was armed except for John Rainbird, who had the rifle, and Don Jules, who carried a.22 pistol.

"I am taking no chances of having someone panic because of what happened back in New York," Rainbird had told Cap. "That Jamieson still looks as if his balls are hanging around his knees.

Similarly, he would not hear of the agents going armed. Things had a way of happening, and he didn't want to come out of the operation with two corpses. He had handpicked all of the agents, and the one he had chosen to take Andy McGee was Don Jules. Jules was small, thirtyish, silent, morose. He was good at his job. Rainbird knew, because Jules was the only man he had chosen to work with more than once. He was quick and practical. He did not get in the way at critical moments.

"McGee will be out at some point during the day," Rainbird had told him at the briefing. "The girl usually comes out, but McGee always does. If the man comes out alone, I'll take him and Jules will get him out of sight quickly and quietly. If the girl should come out alone, same thing. If they come out together, I'll take the girl and Jules will take McGee. The rest of you are just spear carriers-do you understand that?" Rainbird's eye glared over them. "You're there in case something goes drastically wrong, and that is all. Of course, if something does go drastically wrong, most of you will be running for the lake with your pants on fire. You're along in case that one chance in a hundred turns up where you can do something. Of course, it's understood that you're also along as observers and witnesses in case I f**k up."

This had earned a thin and nervous chuckle.

Rainbird raised one finger. "If any one of you miscues and puts their wind up somehow, I'll personally see that you end up in the lousiest jungle valley of South America I can find-with a cored ass**le. Believe that, gentlemen. You are spear carriers in my show. Remember it."

Later, at their "staging area"-an abandoned motel in St. Johnsbury-Rainbird had taken Don Jules aside.

"You have read the file on this man," Rainbird said.

Jules was smoking a Camel. "Yeah."

"You understand the concept of mental domination?"

"Yeah."

"You understand what happened to the two men in Ohio? The men that tried to take his daughter away?" "I worked with George Waring," Jules said evenly. "That guy could burn water making tea." "In this man's outfit, that it not so unusual. I only need us to be clear. You'll need to be very quick." "Yeah, okay."

"He's had a whole winter to rest, this guy. If he gets time to give you a shot, you're a good candidate to spend the next three years of your life in a padded room, thinking you're a bird or a turnip or something."

"All right."

"All right what?"

"I'll be quick. Give it a rest, John."

"There's a good chance that they will come out together," Rainbird said, ignoring him.

"You'll be around the corner of the porch, out of sight of the door where they'll come out. You wait for me to take the girl. Her father will go to her. You'll be behind him. Get him in the neck."

"Sure."

"Don't screw this up, Don."

Jules smiled briefly and smoked. "No," he said.

3

The suitcases were packed. Charlie had put on her coat and her snowpants. Andy shrugged into his own jacket, zipped it, and picked up the suitcases. He didn't feel good, not at all good. He had the jumps. One of his hunches.

"You feel it, too, don't you?" Charlie asked. Her small face was pale and expressionless.

Andy nodded reluctantly.

"What do we do?"

"We hope the feeling's a little early," he said, although in his heart he didn't think it was so. "What else can we do?" "What else can we do?" she echoed. She came to him then and lifted her arms to be picked up, something he could not remember her doing for a long time-maybe two years. It was amazing how time got by, how quickly a child could change, change in front of your eyes with an unobtrusiveness that was nearly terrible.