Page 31 (1/2)
Amy had not heard the woh the cheap speaker on the call post, the voice was throaty yet strong, and unco open, and they passed through, and as the barrier swung shut again, Nickie growled
The dog stood behind theht, and then forward through the windshield The groas low but not brief She held it in her throat, then let it deepen, as though warning soh to suit her
Braking to a stop, Brian said, "Maybe the fog spooks her"
"Maybe," Amy said "Where are the security people Vanessa said would sweep the car, us, and Nickie?"
"She said it’s still a uardhouse somewhere ahead"
The car drifted forward Aain
Amy turned in her seat, said "Move" to Nickie, and snatched her carryall from the back She opened a zipper, withdrew the SIG P245
"If it’s feeling funky to you," he said, "we can turn around, drive past the gate The open ground’s rough but passable"
"I don’t kno it feels I have to trust furface here"
At the sight of the pistol, the golden stopped growling
Amy said, "We know Vanessa’s sick How sick, do you think?"
"She’s too in love with herself to do anything too stupid"
"That’s the calculation I un I decided I didn’t need it Yet here it is in o back"
"No"
"You just said-"
"Here’s the thing There’s a pattern I lost a girl, and you lost a girl Mine is gone forever Yours isn’t, but she ency and to add emphasis to Amy’s use of the word soon
"But they want us to take her," Brian said
"The pattern includes things unseen That night, Michael wasn’t in Argentina, he was right there, I didn’t know The alared, a secret override disar shaped all thewith docu unseen, reed her story made sense"
"The pattern is clearer now In Connecticut, I thought I olden If I’d had one, it would have warned ain
"We have a golden now," Aolden"
"For sure, not just any She’s…so"
"I had a phone call froisn’t blind I told myself Just a dreairl, how I lost her"
"Okay, that’s it, we go back to the county road, call the cops"
"No Vanessa expects us in a fewone I’ve got a bad feeling, Brian"
"Yeah It’s infectious"
"Truth is, I’ve had a bad feeling the whole way here"
"You didn’t say"
"Because it was o a little farther"
The a as if to the thrust of a blade, healing at once behind, enfolding on every side things unseen…
A about this does stink, and she thinks we set that from?"
"Intuition Pattern What Theresa said"
"Theresa?"
"She told her ’s na, half-seen trees, bearded and strange, prehistoric and insectile, looone…
Amy said, "You and me forever, Brian Isn’t that where we are?"
"God, I hope it is It’s what I want"
"So if it’s you and hter I couldn’t save ht, didn’t break "But two nights ago I saved her"
"A us save Hope"
He coasted toward a stop "A" She held the pistol in both hands, palms dry, ready "Whatever I mean, this is a second chance for both of us If we fail to take it, the levels of Hell don’t go deep enough to give us e’ll deserve"
Into the last white-blind ht, when the ain"
"This?"
"Tagging after you into crazy-violent, tire-iron, ju-on-the-table places"
Chapter 62
L ike ten thousand people whispering in the distance
Standing with his back to the fissured trunk of a pine, Billy strove to silence the sea, but the sea had no respect for Billy
Not only had the stupid sied how he perceived the sound of the surf, but it also led him to the further conviction that those ten thousand people hispering his name
Everybody liked Billy Likability had always been his most valuable asset But the ten thousand people out there in the fog, down on the shore, were not whispering his nary, hostile, and eager
He didn’t knohat they were eager for, and he refused to think further about it, because they weren’t people, damn it, just waves
What he needed to do was come up with a sie
Muffled by fog, the breaking surf sounded like…
Muffled by fog, the breaking surf sounded like…