Part 8 (1/2)

10.

'Once we left the city, I didn't see anyone anyone with a gun,' Clay said. 'At first I wasn't really looking, and then I was.' with a gun,' Clay said. 'At first I wasn't really looking, and then I was.'

'You know why, don't you? Except maybe for California, Ma.s.sachusetts has got the toughest gun law in the country.'

Clay remembered seeing billboards proclaiming that at the state line a few years ago. Then they'd been replaced by ones saying that if you got picked up for driving under the influence, you'd have to spend a night in jail.

Tom said, 'If the cops find a concealed handgun in your car-meaning like in the glove compartment with your registration and insurance card-they can put you away for I think seven years. Get stopped with a loaded rifle in your pickup, even in hunting season, and you could get slapped with a ten-thousand-dollar fine and two years of community service.' He picked up the remains of his sandwich, inspected it, put it back down again. 'You can own a handgun and keep it in your home if you're not a felon, but a license to carry? Maybe if you've got Father O'Malley of the Boys' Club to cosign, but maybe not even then.'

'No guns might have saved some lives, coming out of the city.'

'I agree with you completely,' Tom said. 'Those two guys fighting over the keg of beer? Thank G.o.d G.o.d neither of them had a.38.' neither of them had a.38.'

Clay nodded.

Tom rocked back in his chair, crossed his arms on his narrow chest, and looked around. His gla.s.ses glinted. The circle of light thrown by the Coleman lantern was brilliant but small. 'Right now, however, I wouldn't mind having a pistol. Even after seeing the mess they make. And I consider myself a pacifist.'

'How long have you lived here, Tom?'

'Almost twelve years. Long enough to see Malden go a long way down the road to s.h.i.+tsville. It's not there yet, but boy, it's going.'

'Okay, so think about it. Which of your neighbors is apt to have a gun or guns in their house?'

Tom answered promptly. 'Arnie Nickerson, across the street and three houses up. NRA b.u.mper sticker on his Camry-along with a couple of yellow ribbon decals and an old Bush-Cheney sticker-'

'Goes without saying-'

'And two two NRA stickers on his pickup, which he equips with a camper cap in November and takes hunting up in your part of the world.' NRA stickers on his pickup, which he equips with a camper cap in November and takes hunting up in your part of the world.'

'And we're happy to have the revenue his out-of-state hunting license provides,' Clay said. 'Let's break into his house tomorrow and take his guns.'

Tom McCourt looked at him as though he were mad. 'The man isn't as paranoid as some of those militia types out in Utah-I mean, he does does live in Taxachusetts-but he's got one of those burglar alarm signs on his lawn that basically says DO YOU FEEL LUCKY, PUNK, and I'm sure you must be familiar with the NRA's stated policy as to just when their guns will be taken away from them.' live in Taxachusetts-but he's got one of those burglar alarm signs on his lawn that basically says DO YOU FEEL LUCKY, PUNK, and I'm sure you must be familiar with the NRA's stated policy as to just when their guns will be taken away from them.'

'I think it has something to do with prying their cold dead fingers-'

'That's the one.'

Clay leaned forward and stated what to him had been obvious from the moment they'd come down the ramp from Route One: Malden was now just one more f.u.c.ked-up town in the Unicel States of America, and that country was now out of service, off the hook, so sorry, please try your call again later. Salem Street was deserted. He had felt that as they approached* hadn't he?

No. Bulls.h.i.+t. You felt watched.

Really? And even if he had, was that the sort of intuition that could be relied upon, acted upon, acted upon, after a day like this one? The idea was ridiculous. after a day like this one? The idea was ridiculous.

'Tom, listen. One of us'll walk up to this guy Nackleson's house tomorrow, after it's full daylight-'

'It's Nickerson, and I don't think that's a very smart idea, especially since Swami McCourt sees him kneeling inside his living room window with a fully automatic rifle he's been saving for the end of the world. Which seems to have rolled around.'

'I'll do it,' Clay said. 'And I won't won't do it if we hear any gunshots from the Nickerson place tonight or tomorrow morning. I do it if we hear any gunshots from the Nickerson place tonight or tomorrow morning. I certainly certainly won't do it if I see any bodies on the guy's lawn, with or without gunshot wounds. I watched all those old won't do it if I see any bodies on the guy's lawn, with or without gunshot wounds. I watched all those old Twilight Zone Twilight Zone episodes, too-the ones where civilization turns out to be nothing more than a thin layer of sh.e.l.lac.' episodes, too-the ones where civilization turns out to be nothing more than a thin layer of sh.e.l.lac.'

'If that,' Tom said gloomily. 'Idi Amin, Pol Pot, the prosecution rests.'

'I'll go with my hands raised. Ring the doorbell. If someone answers, I'll say I just want to talk. What's the worst that can happen? He tells me to get lost.'

'No, the worst that can happen is he can shoot you dead on his f.u.c.king welcome mat and leave me with a motherless teenage girl,' Tom said sharply. 'Smart off about old Twilight Zone Twilight Zone episodes all you want, just don't forget those people you saw today, fighting outside the T station in Boston.' episodes all you want, just don't forget those people you saw today, fighting outside the T station in Boston.'

'That was* I don't know what what it was, but those people were clinically insane. You can't doubt that, Tom.' it was, but those people were clinically insane. You can't doubt that, Tom.'

'What about Bible-Thumping Bertha? And the two men fighting over the keg? Were they insane?'

No, of course they hadn't been, but if there was a gun in that house across the street, he still wanted it. And if there was more than one, he wanted Tom and Alice each to have one, too.

'I'm thinking about going north over a hundred miles,' Clay said. 'We might be able to boost a car and drive some of it, but we might have to walk the whole way. Do you want to go with just knives for protection? I'm asking you as one serious man to another, because some of the people we run into are are going to have guns. I mean, you going to have guns. I mean, you know know that.' that.'

'Yes,' Tom said. He ran his hands through his neatly trimmed hair, giving it a comic ruffle. 'And I know that Arnie and Beth are probably not home. They were gadget-nuts as well as gun-nuts. He was always gabbing on his cell phone when he went by in that big Dodge Ram Detroit phallus of his.'

'See? There you go.'

Tom sighed. 'All right. Depending on how things look in the morning. Okay?'

'Okay.' Clay picked up his sandwich again. He felt a little more like eating now.

'Where did they go?' Tom asked. 'The ones you call the phone-crazies. Where did they go?'

'I don't know.'

'I'll tell you what I think,' Tom said. 'I think they crawled into the houses and the buildings around sundown and died.'

Clay looked at him doubtfully.

'Look at it reasonably and you'll see I'm right,' Tom said. 'This was almost certainly some sort of terrorist act, would you agree?'

'That seems the most likely explanation, although I'll be d.a.m.ned if I know how any signal, no matter how subversive, could have been programmed to do what this one did.'

'Are you a scientist?'

'You know I'm not. I'm an artist.'

'So when the government tells you they can guide computerized smart-bombs through bunker doors in the floor of the desert from aircraft carriers that are maybe two thousand miles away, all you can do is look at the photos and accept that the technology exists.'