[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

what they were talking about is this great bomb George built. He
packed the fridge with C-4 and nails, turned the temp control to
its coldest setting, coated the door gasket with Vaseline and wired
it to go up four different ways.
 Oh Lord, Jane said,  What havoc does man cause upon
himself!
 What are the possible ramifications of that going off? Kate
asked.
 They were laughing about it flattening two square blocks.
 You two kids get acquainted; I ll be right back.
 Shouldn t I . . .
 You re fine right here. If I don t play right, you might be the
only agent left in this county.
They watched Jane leave, then Stix asked,  How come she left
you here?
 I don t know . . . other than when we first entered the
house on the bomb search, I tripped on the top step and fell flat
on the porch. She sighed,  One of the agents jumped over the
railing.
 I see.
 And then I ran over a street sign with her car, and almost hit
a kid on a bike.
 That s it?
 There are a couple of other things . . . nothing major.
286 DAVE MEAD
 You ever consider another line of work?
 Don t get me started.
They stopped talking to watch Sam back into the outer office
carrying a pizza box.
 What s that? Kate asked.
 That s mine.
 The pizza?
 That I ll share.
 Fair enough.
 Hey, you should have been with me, he said as he came
across the office,  Some dumb broad whipped a U turn in the
middle of the street, ran down a no-parking sign, damn near hit a
car, and drove off going the wrong way on a one-way.
He walked into the office, still smiling.  Oh, hello. I didn t see
you. I m Sam.
 I m -- a -- Kate.
 Does that mean that you are Kate, or maybe Kate?
 Sam, she s one of Jane s. After working with her for awhile
she probably doesn t know who she is.
 Oh, yeah. Sorry. He looked around,  where is your FGM.
Kate looked to Stix for translation.
 Fairy Godmother. Then to Sam,  The rental s refrigerator is a
bomb. A big one.
 I d better get over there. They re gonna need all the crowd
control they can get. He started off, turned and came back,  You
be all right?
 Yeah.
 How d they figure out that the fridge was a bomb?
 I did what you said to do.
He nodded, tipped an imaginary hat and left.
 What was that all about? Kate asked.
STIX 287
 Oh, Sam tried to help me do a recall thing; he even got a
bottle of the cleaner they use in the lot where Kingston s people
bought their cars. He wanted to cram me into the back of his car
and squirt the cleaner around.
 And?
 I told him to get the fuck out, she shrugged,  and not to
come back without pizza.
 At least he minds, Kate gestured at the pizza.
 Hungry?
 Sure.
 What do you think they ll do? Kate asked through a
mouthful.
 Over-react. Evacuate half the town.
 I hope you remembered right.
Stix stopped, pizza poised,  I remembered right.
 Okay. Let me rephrase, I hope the men in the car weren t
just trying to set you up.
 To what end? They were taking me out to their hideout to
torture me to obtain information as to the location of another
bandit s hidden wealth. My reward was to be a quick death.
 Oh.
 It s all in the report, a copy of which you must have read.
 Part of it anyway.
 Too busy? Stix asked, a bit curtly.
 It s not all there.
Stix didn t say anything more about it; she knew it was just
another sign that the FBI was pulling back.
The phone rang; the call was for Kate. She hung up and left
the office after saying she was to be picked up by another agent
to become part of a door-to-door evacuation for a 20- by 10-block
area.
Dad,
288 DAVE MEAD
You always said that you did your best thinking when we were
walking through the woods.
Well, I don t walk so well, and you re sitting on a bench, but I
need some more help.
The FBI is pulling out. I don t know why, and I m not sure that
Jane does either. When the FBI is gone -- except for a part-time
presence from the Portland office (Jane s words) -- Sam will be sent
back to his uniform division and I ll be on my own.
Right now, though, Hillsboro is crawling with Feds. A landlord
came by after he found his rental left -- shall we say  suspect. (Of
course he wasn t suspicious when two men he thought were
probably drug dealers rented it for cash.)
I know I told you about being kidnapped, but I may have
forgotten to mention to you that Kingston choked me until I passed
out ((I know, I know, I don t like him either.)) Anyway, after Jane
determined that it was their safe house, I started having flashbacks --
which Sam said was just PMS (((sometimes))). Then when we drove
through an intersection he was talking about a wreck that he d
investigated there and said it looked like a bomb had gone off.
That s when I knew.
So I chased Sam off and tried to remember what those bastards
had been talking about. Anyway, the refrigerator is the bomb. It s
filled with C-4, turned to its coldest setting, and the door seal was
smeared with Vaseline so dogs and machines couldn t detect the
explosives. They were hoping that some (stinkin Fed) would open
the door.
I remember them laughing about how it would level two square
blocks and twenty Feds.
Anyway, what should I do when they all leave? I guess I could
hire a bodyguard. ((Ugh))
Or I could call Spruce.
Oh my God!
That s it, isn t it, Dad.
Kingston is waiting for me to call Spruce to come help. Then
he ll kill us both for Spruce s money.
So, I won t call Spruce.
STIX 289
And while Kingston waits
I ll hunt him down
Alone.
I ve done it before.
I ll do it again. And this time, he dies.
Thanks, Dad. Thanks.
You ve always been there for me and you always will.
I love you.
Keep the bench warm. It ll be awhile but I ll be there.
Stix
Chapter Eleven
Even though Stix could probably have pulled enough rank to
get inside the outermost perimeter, that was the last place she
wanted to be -- unless it was inside the innermost perimeter. She
and most of the rest of the nation watched from the comfort of
their living rooms as the FBI and the ATF, second-guessed by
every alleged expert any radio or TV affiliate could dredge up,
teamed up to try and deactivate the  Rental s Rage (the leading
candidate for the cutest name).
After two days they had exhausted all possible scenarios for
deactivating the bomb, and had begun carefully surrounding the
house with sandbags. Another two days passed, during which
seven irate homeowners were arrested trying to get back into
their homes, and two looters were shot dead by a possibly too-
diligent small-town police force.
After still another day, the Army Corps of Engineers laid out
plans for a ten-day project to cover the roof of the house with a
 coat of mail supported by steel towers, using robots to run the
support cables. At this point, a logger from up toward Vernonia
reached the end of his patience. He was fed up with coming
home from work and finding his favorite Mash rerun replaced by
still another evening of watching orange-helmeted engineers
squatting behind sandbagged bunkers waving pencils in the air.
At six a.m. the next morning, four log trucks, polished for the
occasion, dragged 4 low-boy trailers into Hillsboro, each carrying a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]