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"Have you ever wondered what’s so special about the people you save? I mean-why them and not others?" "Yeah I’ve wondered about it I see stories on the news every week about innocent people being ht here in southern California, and I wonder why He didn’t choose to save theure the boy in Boston-the devil was conspiring to take him before his time, and God used "

"I’ve noticed that"

"But you don’t knohy?" "Not a clue"

The kitchen was redolent of cooking eggs, onions,o to cut it in half when it was done

While Holly ress of the whole-wheat bread in the toaster, she said, "Why would God want you to save Susie and her irl’s father?" "I don’t know"

"The father wasn’t a bad man, was he?" "No Didn’t seem to be"

"So why not save them all?" "If He wants me to know, He’ll tell race and under His guidance, and his easy acceptance that God wanted some people to die and not others, made Holly uneasy

On the other hand, how could he react to his extraordinary experience in any other way? No point in arguing with God

She recalled an old saying, a real chestnut that had becorant s I can’t accept, to accept those things I can’t change, and the wisdom to know the difference Cliche or not, that was an eminently sane attitude

When the two pieces of bread popped up, she plucked them from the toaster As she toasted two more, she said, "If God wanted to save Nicholas O’Conner fro fried when that power-company vault went up, why didn’t He just prevent it fro in the first place?" "I don’t know"

"Doesn’t it seem odd to you that God has to use you, run you clear across the country, throw you at the O’Conner boy an instant before that 17,000-volt line blows up? Why couldn’t He justoh, I don’t know

just spit on the cable or so, fix it up with a little divine saliva before it went blooey? Or instead of sending you all the way to Atlanta to kill Norman Rink in that convenience store, why didn’t God just tweak Norive him a timely stroke?" Jim artfully tilted the pan to turn over the omelette "Why did He make mice to torment people and cats to kill the s to eat the aphids? And why didn’t He give us eyes in the back of our head-when He gave us so htly buttering the first two slices of toast "I see what you’re saying God works in mysterious ways"

"Very"

They ate at the breakfast table In addition to toast, they had sliced tomatoes and cold bottles of Corona with the oht slid across the world outside, and the undraped foran to reveal itself Holly said, "You aren’t entirely a puppet in these situations"

"Yes, I am"

"You have some power to deterht Two forty-six to save just the Dubroveks"

"That’s right"

"But then you took matters into your own hands and saved more than just Christine and Casey How many were supposed to die?" "A hundred and fifty-one"

"And how many actually died?" "Forty-seven"

"Okay, so you saved a hundred and two more lives than He sent you to save"

"A hundred and three, counting yours-but only because He allowedGod wanted you to save just the Dubroveks, but then He changed His uess so"

"God isn’t sure what He wants?" "I don’t know"

"God is sometimes confused?" "I don’t know"

"God is a waffler?" "Holly, I just don’t know"

"Good o why God would ever change His ht? So He can’t havedecision the first time"

"I don’t concern myself with questions like that I just don’t think about it"

"Obviously," she said

He glared at her, and she felt the full effect of his eyes in their arcticon his food and beer, he refused to respond to Holly’s next few conversational ga his trust than she had been when he had reluctantly invited her in fro her, and on points she was probably losing What she needed was a solid knockout punch, and she thought she knehat it was, but she didn’t want to use it until the right , he looked up from his empty plate and said, "Okay, I’ve listened to your pitch, I’ve fed you, and noant you to go"

"No, you don’t"

He blinked "Miss Thorne-" "You called me Holly before"

"Miss Thorne, please don’t o," Holly said, striving to sound more confident than she felt "At all the scenes of these rescues, you’ve given only your first na more about you

Except me You told me you lived in southern California You told me your last name was Ironheart"

"I never said you were a bad reporter You’re good at prying inforave it And if it wasn’t so degree and crowhar couldn’t pry it out of you I want another beer"

"I asked you to go"

"Don’t stir yourself I knohere you keep the suds"

She got up, stepped to the refrigerator, and withdrew another bottle of Corona She alking on the wild side now, at least for her, but a third beer gave her an excuse-even if a fliue with hiht, at the e in Dubuque But then she had still been saturated with adrenaline, as superalert and edgy as a Siamese cat on Benzedrine, which canceled out the alcohol as fast as it entered her bloodstream

Even so, she had hit the bed as hard as a lumberjack who’d downed a dozen boilermakers If she passed out on Ironheart, she’d no doubt wake up in her car, out in the street, and she would never get inside his house again She opened the beer and returned to the table with it

"You wanted arded her with all the waruin frozen to an ice flow "I did, huh?" "Absolutely That’s why you told me your last na

"And you remember your last words to me at the airport in Portland?" "No"