Devoted(114)

“If it doesn’t go the way you expect, we bear responsibility for whatever they do,” Megan said.

“We do, we will,” Ben agreed. “The only way to avoid that is to kill them now and bury them here.”

After a long mutual silence, Rosa said, “I think Ben has them figured out. There aren’t any easy answers. We can’t start a better future with four murders.”

Carson went out into the storm to search the black Suburban in which the killers had come, to make sure it contained no weapons.

Ben went first to talk with Verbotski, who was restrained with Knacker and Speer in the living room. And then he went upstairs to speak with Rodchenko.





126



In the second guest bedroom, Ben removed the straight-backed chair from under the doorknob and opened the closet door. Rodchenko waited with his hands zip tied behind him.



Ben directed him to sit on the edge of the bed. Rodchenko sat.

“We’re letting you go.”

The killer looked surprised. “Why me?”

“Not just you. All four of you.”

This alarmed Rodchenko. “That makes no sense. Why are you doing this?”

“You don’t have to understand. You just have to go and not come back. I’ve discussed it with Verbotski.”

Rodchenko shook his head. “No. You can’t do this. They know I ratted them out. They’ll kill me.”

“You didn’t rat them out. We used the thiopental and the other crap. You had no choice but to talk.”

“Yeah, well, they know the dogs scared the piss out of me. They know that I’d have talked without the drugs, and they don’t know for sure you ever used them on me.”

Ben sat beside him and patted his knee. “I understand, amigo. I’ve dealt with a lot of murderous assholes in my life. No offense. There isn’t much loyalty among you folks. So because you cooperated, I’ll give you a little something for self-defense.”

Rodchenko looked hopeful. “A gun?”

“Not a chance. Verbotski and the others are already being taken out to the Suburban. After I free you from that zip tie, I’ll walk you downstairs. Just before you go out the door, I’ll provide you with Speer’s nasty switchblade and one of those pressurized cans of chloroform you were going to use on us.”



“But there’s three of them.”

“Sorry, that’s the best I can do.”

“What have you given them?”

“Nothing. They didn’t cooperate.”

“I hope that’s true.”

“Don’t call me a liar, amigo.”

“Will the dogs be downstairs?”

“I’ll walk you through them.”

“There’s something weird about those dogs.”

“Look who’s talking.”

“And who’re all those people down there?”

“Friends. We’re all in the same kennel club.”





127



Megan, Rosa, and Ben had been cooking most of the day, so there was enough food for an army.

Kipp thought all these people were an army of sorts. An army of the just.

People were mingling, laughing, eating.

Making new friends.

They all smelled nice. None smelled like a Hater.

Not now that the four from Atropos were gone.



Of course, Shacket was still out there somewhere.

Maybe he would come back, maybe not.

Kipp would smell that one from a long way off.

The dogs were mingling, laughing telepathically, eating what had been specially prepared for them.

Hamburgers. Chicken breasts. Rice and carrots cooked in chicken broth. Potatoes.

The gathering was very nice.

It would have been so much nicer if Dorothy had been here.

And if Jason Bookman had been here.

In a way, they were here. In the hearts of those who had loved them.

What an amazing two days these had been. From a deathbed to the birth of a new world.

It was like a story in a book.

But the real world was more fantastic than fiction.

Everyone here this night knew how fantastic the world was.

There was a growing expectation in the house. They were aware of how the evening would end.

Some of the people were a little afraid. But only a little.

Kipp could smell how small their fear was.

As an hour passed and then another, people looked more and more often to the boy who once could not talk.

He was so small, but the future was on his shoulders.



He could carry it. Even if he did still eat each kind of food in its separate dish, he could carry the future.

At last a silence came upon those gathered, a mutual sense that the moment had come.

Megan took Woody by the hand. “Sweetie, are you ready?”

“I am if everyone else is.”

“They are,” she said. “We are.”

Ben Hawkins went to Megan and held her hand.

Rosa Leon went to Ben and took his hand.

Carson Conroy took Rosa’s hand.

Although there was no need for them to link hands, though it could be done with them standing apart, they joined hands anyway.