"Real enough," Grandpa replied. "Now, do me a favor and take some deep breaths."
“You’re real. Oh my God. You’re real, and that means that this is real, and you’re really telling me what to do and…”
“Boy, shut the hell up and breathe! Christ, boy, ain’t your balls dropped yet? You shouldn’t be worrying about what’s real and what ain’t real. You should be worrying about who’s next.”
“Who’s… next? But there were only three.”
“There were a lot more than three, boy,” Grandpa replied. “You just don’t remember them all because the three we done for already were bad enough to drown out those memories. But there are others. And we got to do for them, too.”
“But… the police are finding them. They’ll find me eventually.”
“They’re not gonna find you, boy,” Grandpa said with the exasperated patience of a mother talking to a toddler. “You’re being careful. You ain’t leaving anything behind. You’re showing them.”
“Showing them what?”
“What happens to traitors.”
Grandpa leaned forward, and he could see that Grandpa’s eyes weren’t gray after all but smoldering black pits. “They abandoned you, boy,” he said. “They betrayed you. You needed them, and they left you. Now, are you gonna be a sheep and let them get away with it, or are you gonna make them pay.”
“I’m gonna make them pay,” he said. His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “I’m gonna make them all pay.”
“Good. You can start with that whore, Shirley.”
He gasped. “I forgot about Shirley!”
Shirley worked with him. He had taken a liking to her, but when he asked her out, she said she wasn't ready for a new relationship so soon after her divorce. Then, a week later, he caught her and one of the forklift operators going at it behind a pile of tailings. She had said she wasn't ready to get in a new relationship, and then when she was ready, she ended up with one of thedrivers.
She had betrayed him too.
He pulled calmly to the left shoulder and drove slowly, looking for a spot where the ground was relatively flat. When he found it, he turned carefully across the highway and headed back the opposite direction. At this time of night, there weren't any other vehicles on the road, and no one saw the illegal U-turn.
Shirley lived in Cedar Springs, about ten minutes south of Sioux City. He looked in on her from time to time. She was still with that forklift operator.
He frowned. “What if the driver is with her? I’m not strong. I don’t think I could beat him in a fight.”
“We ain’t gonna fight no one, boy,” Grandpa said, once more exasperated. We’re going to wait until she’s alone, then we’re going to choke her out like we did the others.”
“Well, what if he’s spending the night?”
“What if you have any goddamned sense?” Grandpa snapped. “Then we’ll wait until the morning! Even if they’re shacked up, they’ll be separated at some damned point in time.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, boy. Just stay focused.” Grandpa turned his charcoal-pit eyes forward and settled into his seat. “We’ll get ‘em, boy. We’ll get all of ‘em.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Egypt? Why Egypt?”
“Why not Egypt? It’s beautiful, Mediterranean weather, the people there are extraordinarily friendly, the cuisine is… an acquired taste, but once you acquire it, it’s absolutely delightful. And it’s the birthplace of human civilization.”
Dr. West’s eyes blazed with excitement. Faith couldn’t resist a smile. She hadn’t seen this side of the good doctor before.
“Well, I suppose the common belief is that Sumeria arose first, but now isn’t a good time to visit Syria, unfortunately. Egypt is nearly as old. Some believe older. Some of those ruins, some of those artifacts, they’re the oldest surviving examples of human society, the very beginning of the transition from nomadic pastoralists to sedentary specialized states. The history is absolutely unmatched.”
“I take it you’re not much of a cocktail on the beach kind of a guy,” she said.
He looked frankly at her. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’re a cocktail on the beach kind of a girl.”
