Part 16 (2/2)

'Yes. For now.' Tommy sat on the wicker chair beside Sam. 'But after we're done I'm afraid you'll just move on. I'd like to work with you on the next thing, whatever it is.'

'I'd like to work with you too.'

'Maybe it could be something about making money so I could have some sort of life. But whatever, Sam, you're not telling me what it is.'

'I'm still thinking.'

Tommy rushed to add his own air quotes as Sam said 'thinking.'

'But you'll be in on it,' Sam said. 'I want you to feel important.'

'I am am important.' Tommy moved his large head back and forth, wispy long hair dancing around his eyes. 'But I'm a grown man and I've never been to bed with...slept with...anybody, a woman. I suppose that isn't so important, but you seem to think it is.' important.' Tommy moved his large head back and forth, wispy long hair dancing around his eyes. 'But I'm a grown man and I've never been to bed with...slept with...anybody, a woman. I suppose that isn't so important, but you seem to think it is.'

'Do you want to sleep with a woman?'

Tommy snickered. 'I'd like to do more than just ”sleep”, Sam.'

'Of course,' Sam said.

Tommy's face went from puzzled to smooth. 'Tell me how noisy it is out there, everybody arguing. We'll make it quiet again, won't we, Sam?'

'We'll sure try.'

'So tell me again. Tell me the story.'

Sam took a small breath, keeping his face neutral. 'It's a deeply troubled time we're living in, filled with lies,' Sam began. 'Everybody's stuck in history.'

'Like elephants in a tar pit,' Tommy said, following the formula.

'Exactly. n.o.body knows how to escape because lies and hatred are like tar. You understand that, Tommy.'

'You hate and you lie and you get stuck.'

'Right. And n.o.body knows how to pull themselves out. They're all stuck.'

'They lie about G.o.d. G.o.d is like tar.'

Sam nodded. 'For these people, G.o.d is hatred. G.o.d used to be about love.'

'Lizard Mommy and Daddy used to be about love,' Tommy said, almost crooning. 'Trouble made them hate and lie.'

'So many people need doctors to cut out the hate. We're the doctors.'

'We're performing surgery. We'll cut out the hate.'

'Surgery is delicate and loving, even when you have to cut. Surgery preserves life.'

Tommy's shoulders shook. 'If you had come earlier, you could have saved Lizard Mommy and Daddy.'

'You did what you had to do, Tommy. But together we're going to make a change.'

Tommy wiped his eyes and the wicker chair on the porch creaked under his enthusiasm. Sam watched Tommy until the man-boy's motion had slowed and he perched on the edge of the wicker chair with eyes half-closed, sated by their ritual. 'I like to hear about what we're doing,' Tommy said. 'We're doctors.'

'Right, Tommy,' Sam said. 'You and me, we're going to cure the planet.'

'I love you, Sam,' Tommy said. 'You saved me. I hope I can return the favor.'

'You're the man, Tommy. You're the one we're all going to owe favors to someday.'

Blissful Tommy.

Sam leaned back and folded his hands behind his neck.

Tommy did the same. 'It feels right, doing it here in the winery, doesn't it?'

'Trampling out the vintage,' Sam said. 'Real grapes of wrath, Tommy.'

Part two

PILLAR OF FIRE.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

The Patriarch's Farm Snohomish County.

The air over the farm was as still as a sucked-in breath.

The blast region was cluttered with ripped and dented plastic barrels, big gas cylinders, chunks of concrete, blownout wooden walls, and debris of every size, including splinters fine as toothpicks. Trees behind the barn had been set on fire and a thin haze still lay over the farm.

The farmhouse nearest to the barn had been pushed from its foundation and leaned to one side, boards s.h.i.+vered from its walls, windows blown out. The farther house, s.h.i.+elded by the main house and some trees, had survived, but its windows, too, were gone. Someone had taped blue plastic over them.

William walked past stacked piles of debris to the big hole in the ground where the barn had once stood and stooped to peer down. The central pit-the middle of the barn's bas.e.m.e.nt-was a maze of concrete-crusted rebar. Reflective tape had been laid over the barn's rectangular outline in a grid, staked on all sides, large coordinate numbers glued where the tape crossed.

Rebecca stayed a few steps back, giving William his s.p.a.ce, his time.

William looked for, and found, the two red flags poking out of the rubble that marked where two agents had been found-one dead, one alive.

A man spoke with Rebecca. He was middle-aged and pale, with mousy brown hair combed back from a broad forehead. His suit was black and his tie was red. They walked to a marked-out square where the bomb truck had been. The man pointed to a blast s.h.i.+eld still on the ground and marked by an evidence sticker. Rebecca pointed to William. They approached.

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