Page 116 of The Chain

Kylie’s nightmares. Rachel’s nightmares. Kylie crying behind the bathroom door. Pete sneaking off in the Dodge Ram to be by himself. Rachel’s hair coming out in clumps. Kylie refusing sleepovers because she doesn’t want anyone to find out. They have all sipped from the Drink Me bottle. They have all unwound the clew of red thread. They have all fallen through the looking glass.

Rachel and Pete sit on the cold deck behind the house.

Atlantic breakers. A sickle moon. The chilly, indifferent winter constellations.

Pete is waiting for her decision.

She finishes her Scotch and hugs herself.

“We have to do it,” she says.

Pete shakes his head. “We don’t have to do a goddamn thing.”

“Erik is—”

“He can do it. He can take the risk.”

“He can’t do it without us, without me—you know that.”

“We’re out. We escaped by the skin of our teeth. We were lucky. This thing nearly got all of us,” Pete says.

She looks at him. This doesn’t sound like the Marine Corps officer who’s done five combat tours. Doubt is crippling him. Or maybe now that he has something to lose—a family—he has become more cautious. He doesn’t realize that the family will be lost if they do nothing.

“It’s not athing,Pete. The Chain isn’t mythology. It isn’t self-perpetuating. It’s human. It’s made up of humans. It’s fallible, vulnerable, just like we all are. What we do is find the human heart at the center of it and break it.”

Pete thinks for a long time and then nods. “OK,” he says quietly.

“Good.”

Rachel calls Erik’snumber. “We’re in,” she says.

“When?”

“I want my daughter away. Safe.”

“So when? It must be soon, before they change the protocols.”

Marty and his girlfriend can probably take Kylie on the weekend,Rachel thinks. “Saturday,” she says.

“I’ll call you at ten in the morning. You’re going to have to provoke them. You’ve got to make them call you back.”

“I know.”

“It’s going to be dangerous.”

“I know.”

“Until Saturday comes.”

59

Marty laughs with pleasure. “I would love to have Kylie. Actually, it’s perfect. Ginger suggested we go meet her grandfather this weekend. I’ll take the Kylester.”

Rachel’s heart skips a beat or two. “Wow, you’re at that stage already? Meeting the parents?” she says, trying to be jocular and lighthearted, but she doesn’t feelthatjocular. Marty would never have married someone like Tammy. But a whip-smart FBI agent who is still young enough to give him the couple of boys he’s always wanted?

“It’s nothing like that. I’m not going to ask for her hand in marriage. And it’s her grandfather, not her dad. Nothing serious. Just a meet-and-greet. Her twin brother’s going to be there too. But I’d like Kylie to come. And you’re welcome too. And Pete. They’ve got a big old tumbledown house by a river, apparently, lots of swings and woods to play in if the weather stays mild.”

“That sounds lovely but I’m just going to take it easy this weekend.”