Page 130 of The Chain

“What the hell are you doing?” Pete says, turning her to face him.

She struggles violently to break free of his grip. “They’ve got Kylie! They’ve got her! I saw her on the balcony,” Rachel says breathlessly.

Pete looks up over the tree stump toward the balcony. There’s no one there. “You’re mistaken.”

“It was her! I saw her!”

Pete shakes his head. There’s no way they’ve gotten Kylie. She’s with Marty and they’ve been careful.

Rachel is hyperventilating.

“It’s not Kylie,” Pete whispers. “And I can prove it. We put the GPS tracker in her shoes, remember? I can show you exactly where she is, and I promise you it’s not here.”

“Show me on the GPS,” Rachel demands. “I know what I saw.”

Pete opens the GPS app and shows Rachel that Kylie is nowhere near them. “She’s in Boston.”

Rachel looks at the phone. Sure enough, Kylie’s GPS is beeping from downtown Boston, not here. “I was sure that was her,” she says, confused.

“Come on, let’s get back to the cover of those bushes before we’re seen,” Pete says.

65

Innsmouth High. Ginger at her tenth-grade career day.

“So what do you want to do with your life, Margaret?”

“I want to be an FBI agent like my father.”

“This is very laudable, sweetie, but you’ll need to improve some of your grades.”

“Which ones?”

“Your English is great, but your math and science need a little work. Your brother can help you, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, he loves that stuff.”

Oliver helping Ginger with her homework in their grandfather’s big ramshackle house by the InnRiver. Screens and ant traps and bugs in the summer. Woodstoves and cold and kerosene heaters in the winter.

Daniel teaching the twins how to hunt in the dark places of the Miskatonic Valley. Daniel teaching the twins how to skin and smoke and preserve the meat.

Daniel telling the kids old cop stories. Old war stories.

Ginger and Oliver work hard and they both get into BU, which makes Daniel proud. Olly studies software engineering. Ginger studies psychology.

Both of them do very well indeed. The only fly in the ointment is the amount of money they have to borrow for student loans. Daniel is not a wealthy man and they have grown up poor.

But after graduation, Oliver is headhunted by half a dozen Silicon Valley start-ups and Ginger is headhunted by the FBI, the CIA, and the ATF.

Ginger joins the Bureau.

There’s a lot of affection in the FBI for Ginger and her father.Shame what happened to your pop, real shame…

Ginger works hard and gets fast-tracked. She makes connections.I knew your old man. He was a hell of an agent. He and me, we used to—

Ginger burning the midnight oil.

Ginger slowly rising up the chain of command.