Firestarter

“No,” Cap said.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

They left the apartment and walked to the elevator. A few people moved up and down the hall on their own errands. They glanced cautiously at Cap and then looked away. The elevator took them up to the ballroom and Cap led the way down a long front hall.

Josie, the redhead who had been on the door the day Cap had ordered A1 Steinowitz to Hastings Glen, had gone on to bigger and better things. Now a young, prematurely balding man sat there, frowning over a computer-programming text. He had a yellow felt-tip pen in one hand. He glanced up as they approached.

“Hello, Richard,” Cap said. “Hitting the books?” Richard laughed. “They’re hitting me is more like it.” He glanced at Andy curiously. Andy looked back noncommittally. Cap slipped his thumb into a slot and something thumped. A green light shone on Richard’s console. “Destination?” Richard asked. He exchanged his felt-tip for a ball-point. It hovered over a small bound book. “Stable,” Cap said briskly. “We’re going to pick up Andy’s daughter and they are. going to escape.” “Andrews Air Force Base,” Andy countered, and pushed. Pain settled immediately into his head like a dull meat cleaver. “Andrews AFB,” Richard agreed, and jotted it into the book, along with the time. “Have a good day, gentlemen.”

They went out into breezy October sunshine. Cap’s Vega was drawn up on the clean white crushed stone of the circular driveway. “Give me your keys,” Andy said. Cap handed them over, Andy opened the trunk, and they stowed the luggage. Andy slammed the trunk and handed the keys back. “Let’s go.”

Cap drove them on a loop around the duckpond to the stables. As they went, Andy noticed a man in a baseball warmup jacket ru

He reached for the keys and Andy slapped his hand lightly. “No. Leave it ru

Cap got out, then stood, irresolute. “I don’t want to go in there,” he said. His eyes shifted back and forth wildly in their sockets. “Too much dark. They like the dark. They hide. They bite.”

“There are no snakes,” Andy said, and pushed out lightly. It was enough to get Cap moving, but he didn’t look very convinced. They walked into the stable.

For one wild, terrible moment Andy thought she wasn’t there. The change from the light to shadow left his eyes momentarily helpless. It was hot and stuffy in here, and something had upset the horses; they were whi

“Charlie?” he called, his voice cracked and urgent. “Charlie?”

“Daddy!” she called, and gladness shot through him-gladness that turned to dread when he heard the shrill fear in her voice. “Daddy, don’t come in! Don’t come-”

“I think it’s a little late for that,” a voice said from somewhere overhead.

10

“Charlie,” the voice had called down softly. It was somewhere overhead, but where? It seemed to come from everywhere.

The anger had gusted through her-anger that was fa

Already she could feel the heat gathering inside her and begi

“I wouldn’t, Charlie.'.” His voice was a little louder now, but still calm. It cut through the fog of rage and confusion. “You ought to come down here!” Charlie cried loudly. She was trembling. “You ought to come down before I decide to set everything on fire! I can do it!” “I know you can,” the soft voice responded. It floated down from nowhere, everywhere. “But if you do, you’re going to burn up a lot of horses, Charlie. Can’t you hear them?”

She could. Once he had called it to her attention, she could. They were nearly mad with fear, whi

Her breath caught in her throat. Again she saw the trench of fire ru

(back off!)

it was going to blow loose

(!BACK OFF)

and just go sky high.

(!!BACK OFF, BACK OFF, DO YOU HEAR ME, BACK OFF!!)

This time the half-full bucket did not just steam; it came to an instant, furious boil. A moment later the chrome faucet just over the bucket twisted twice, spun like a propeller, and then blew off the pipe jutting from the wall. The fixture flew the length of the stable like a rocket payload and caromed off the far wall. Water gushed from the pipe. Cold water; she could feel its coldness. But moments after the water spurted out it turned to steam and a hazy mist filled the corridor between the stalls. A coiled green hose that hung on a peg next to the pipe had fused its plastic loops.

(BACK OFF!)

She began to get control of it again and pulled it down. A year ago she would have been incapable of that; the thing would have had to run its own destructive course. She was able to hold on better now… ah, but there was so much more to control!

She stood there, shivering.

“What more do you want?” she asked in a low voice. “Why can’t you just let us go?”

A horse whi

“No one thinks you can just be let go,” Rainbird’s quiet voice answered. “I don’t think even your father thinks so. You’re dangerous, Charlie. And you know it. We could let you go and the next men that grabbed you might be Russians, or North Koreans, maybe even the Heathen Chinese. You may think I’m kidding, but I’m not.”

“That’s not my fault!” she cried. “No,” Rainbird said meditatively. “Of course it isn’t. But it’s all bullshit anyway. I don’t care about the Z factor, Charlie. I never did. I only care about you.” “Oh, you liar!” Charlie screamed shrilly. “You tricked me, pretended to be something you weren’t-”

She stopped. Rainbird climbed easily over a low pile of bales, then sat down on the edge of the loft with his feet dangling down. The pistol was in his lap. His face was like a ruined moon above her.

“Lied to you? No. I mixed up the truth, Charlie, that’s all I ever did. And I did it to keep you alive.”

“Dirty liar,” she whispered, but was dismayed to find that she wanted to believe him; the sting of tears began behind her eyes. She was so tired and she wanted to believe him, wanted to believe he had liked her.

“You weren’t testing,” Rainbird said. “Your old man wasn’t testing, either. What were they going to do? Say ‘Oh, sorry, we made a mistake” and put you back on the street? You’ve seen these guys at work, Charlie. You saw them shoot that guy Manders in Hastings Glen. They pulled out your own mother’s fingernails and then k-”

“Stop it!” she screamed in agony, and the power stirred again, restlessly close to the surface.

“No, I won’t,” he said. “Time you had the truth, Charlie. I got you going. I made you important to them. You think I did it because it’s my job? The fuck I did. They’re assholes. Cap, Hockstetter, Pynchot, that guy Jules who brought you over here-they’re all assholes.”