Page 147 of The Chain

“Can we move Pete?” she asks.

“I think we need to,” Marty replies.

Flames engulf the house’s upper story and send the wooden deck crashing to the ground.

Snow and embers mingle in the slaughterhouse, drifting down from the black sky.

“I think I hear them coming,” Rachel says as the sound of sirens comes out of the night.

Kylie smiles and Stuart nods and Rachel tightens the tarpaulin around them. It will be hard to ever let her daughter go again. Impossible. Rachel kisses Kylie on the top of her head.

Pete is glad to see it.

He blinks slowly.

He tries to say something but there are no words now.

He knows he’s going into shock. He has seen it a million times. He’ll need a medic soon if he’s going to survive.

Marty is speaking to him, but he needs the—where is it?

His fingers search the ground until they touch his grandfather’s Colt .45, supposedly fired in anger at a Zero heading for the USSMissouri.

Pete somehow manages to lift it.

His grandfather’s .45…the lucky charm that kept the old man safe through the Pacific and kept Pete himself safe through five combat tours.

Pete hopes there is just one ounce of luck left in it.

74

Ever since he was little, people have called him Red. They’d christened him Daniel, after his father, but the old man is a little too free with his fists to be popular with the boy.

In the service they call him Red. Or Sarge. Or Sergeant Fitzpatrick. Red he likes.

The army is good for him. The army teaches him his letters.

There’s Red in the remedial reading class. Red skimming the funny papers. Red digging the comics. A swollen red Krypton sun. Superman walking the red road.

The army sends him overseas.

Red in the jungle.

Red in the delta.

Red in a whorehouse in Nha Trang.

Red in a whorehouse in Saigon.

He knows the whores are scared of him. The whores don’t like his eyes or the fish-scale birthmark on his neck. The whores don’t call him Red or Daniel or Sergeant. Behind his back they call himông ma quy,which means “sea demon.”

Red in a chopper.

Red in a firefight in the Ia Drang Valley. Red keeping cool as mortars come in. Red getting recommended for the Silver Star.

Red back in America being presented with a baby boy by his Southie girlfriend.

Red joining the Boston PD.