Part 18 (2/2)

Suddenly there was an explosion The e flames reared up Another explosion followed on the heels of the first, then another If you're going to heat a ht to keep an eye on it The explosions sent the scu fro toward the brewery's ornate iron gates

Sirens sounded First from the north, then froreen Lincoln peeled out an instant before the first hook and ladder screeched to a halt Every fire truck in the city was going to be needed for thisfifty feet into the air and the ten-story grain elevators on the brewery's east side were glowing When those elevators went up, this fire was going to be visible clear across Lake Michigan

This was not a good place for a girl and her dog By the time the third fire truck careened to a halt, muffin and I had squeezed beneath a fence and ood lord gave you

I'd reached a neas stealing from ten-year-olds

Half a dozen kids slouched in front of a srocery store on the corner of Buffu off to the north, where the sky was lit by the glow of the burning brewery Business was brisk, with people popping down to the store for last-ingly at the Popsicles My throat felt as though I'd been gargling with hot sand, my slashed hand throbbed, and I could feel the skin onfro side streets, ju every time a vehicle ca me As darkness fell their job would be easier A lone woet for every creep on the streets Even the hookers usually banded together for protection after dark

his stu up the sweet icy Popsicle spatters on the steps While the kids fussed over muffin, I eyed their bikes, left sprawled in untidy heaps on the sidewalk Choosing a purple bike with a white wicker basket that looked as though it ht, scooped up muffin, plopped him in the basket, straddled the bike, and pushed off

”That'sto her feet

”I need to borrow it,” I called back overon the sidewalk

”Hey!” A s Popsicle pulp in his exciteuire!”

”That escaped killer!” another kid shouted ”The one that busted down the walls of the state prison with a tank-”

”And stole a helicopter-”

”And bo up alongside, thrusting a pen at raph my shi+rt, Mazie!”

Word spread at the speed of Twitter Customers poured out of the store, cell cauht, just like on TV! The hell it's her-she looks like a bag lady!

”Yo, Mazie!” A boy on a skateboard lobbed a bottle of lemonade into the bike basket

I outdistanced the kids, but now a largea barbecue apron ran out of a backyard and halted in front ofthe sidewalk like a defensive linerinned, and I could see the dollar signs gleale rooht because of a fence

What else could I do? I balanced the bike with uire don't need no stinkin' bra! Eat your heart out, Pauy's eyes locked onto my boobs, his mouth fell open, and in that nanosecond I-ahehborhood before the police showed up But, funny thing- around Maybe the cops figured it was just another crackpot Mazie Maguire sighting and weren't going to be suckered into investigating it

No one tried to stop rateful for the shot-out streetlamps that left the streets dark and shadowy Finally I stopped to catchdown onto an old abandoned tire I broke open the le it intoat the sour taste, he looked up at me: What is this stuff?

”I know,” I said ”buot, buddy” I pulled off a strip of duct tape still clinging topalht It could cure warts It could repair broken fan belts It could tape people to es of my knife wound so I wouldn't need stitches

What was I thinking? I wasn't going to live long enough to require stitches It was only dumb luck that I wasn't already a mass of blackened carbon Poor Luis hadn't been so lucky He'd died of a heart attack after Bad and Badder got going with the knives and the lighters

I feltinto shutdown mode I could have lain back on that filthy tire and slept until the crack of doom Instead, I forced myself to my feet

”C'gsville”

If you want to get a good bar arguot its nahterhouse that once stood there, for a foundry that produced pig iron, or- who once ran a whorehouse on the site A ssville was a pocket-sized patch of city tucked beneath the thundering ceiling of the I-94 viaduct, cut off by the Kinnickinnick Canal on one side and by the Thirty-fifth Street Viaduct on the other

I hid the bike in a clued ahead on foot hted to be out of his basket I had no idea where the pickle factory was, but figured it had to be sosville's industrial area We crept cautiously past a tent and awning warehouse, a snow facility I was about to give up on the pickle factory when a prickly-sour aroma reached sville Pickle Products

Its buildings were painted a hideous shade of olive probably intended to be gherkin green, but which instead made the place look like an army base Hidden in the shadows, I watched as a truck pulled out of the co pickle with big, bugged-out eyes and stick aruess Mr Pickle was supposed to be a knockoff on Mr Peanut, but he looked sort of like a giant green turd This was definitely a coe ht shi+ft and the plant began closing down soon after I arrived, e lot The prospect of entering a dark factory after nearly being grilled alive in another was unappealing It was probably a coer had Luis's locker key and-even assued to find the locker-ere the chances that anything of Luis's would still be left in it?

But I'd exhausted all ive it a shot Getting into the building wouldn't be difficult Security was so spongy you could have driven a tank through it Pickle factories apparently weren't high on terrorists' hit lists The guard in the booth out front showed no signs ofrounds He sat comfortably ensconced in his shack, and I could see the flicker froh the e lot and into the coh square, ater towers and vinegar silos in the center and the processing buildings ranged along the sides Enormous vats of fresh cucuarlic, and s, which had been left unlocked, I noticed how clunky and old-fashi+oned the machinery looked The wooden floors creaked, the work surfaces were caked with grit, the forty-watt lightbulbs threwfros were studded with dead flies like furry raisins Making a ain, I crept through three buildings, jule locker

One more and out, I promised myself And after that? I didn't knohat happened after that Possibly death by exhaustion

I slipped into the fourth building Cider vinegar fumes slappedroouessed, where enorree of sourness Eyes stinging fro theto start pickling Double doors at one end of the building led to the employee lunchroom Why would you stick the lunchroom in here where the workers would be forced to eat a fulanced inside The room was unlit, but I could di ns, and restrooered a powerful Pavlovian response If I didn't get to a toilet this instant the factory was going to suffer amy way to the women's room, I found a stall and peed for what felt like a half hour muffin trotted into the next stall and lapped thirstily out of the toilet Another first for Vanessa's paed froed and I could pick out shapes in the dark Which hy I was able to see, directly across from the restrooms, a row of battered steel lockers Adrenaline washed away fatigue ”We found them!” I yelled to muffin, then clappedhere in the shadows, I didn't want to disturb it

”Ten nineteen,” I whispered, creeping along the row of lockers The locker numbers were too sht switch here someplace?

As I fu roorowled The door to the lunchroo in terror as it slowly opened So ing by the size, it was a ht in my eyes

”Gotcha!”

Escape tip 27: If you can't use your head, use your feet

canine curses The rip on the flashlight

”Get hih my heart cha here?”

”Rescuing you, what's it look like?”

I hurried over and peeledhirowl deep in his throat, warning Labeck that if he put a single foot wrong, his intestines were going to be muffin's bedtiht, shone it on ave a visible start ”What happened to your hair?”

”Ki Zippoed it”

Labeck's look of bewildered, buried alive, and kidnapped by giant sausages had th betweento burn me up”