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Schreck opened his bleary eyes and saw her standing over him. He let out a wail and tried to scoot away. Allyson seized a handful of his black shirt and lifted him a few inches off the floor. Then she adjusted her grip on the pistol, raised her hand, and brought it around, smashing the nickel-plated butt against the side of his head. Shreck shrieked and bucked on the floor, but Allyson held on to him with ease, galvanized now by the most righteous sense of rage that had ever possessed her. She raised her hand again and whipped the pistol across Schreck’s face another time. Then another and another. Again and again. Mashing flesh and pulverizing bone. The man barely looked human by the time she stopped swinging the pistol back and forth. He sagged in her grip, unable to resist, barely alive.

She let him go and stood up straight. Schreck’s blood-filled eyes looked up at her. Whether he could see her or not she didn’t know. She hoped so. She hoped he saw an avenging angel about to hand down judgment.

She hoped he was afraid. Of her and his impending rendezvous with the denizens of hell. She switched the 9mm’s safety off and aimed the barrel at the center of Schreck’s ruined face. His lips twitched, seemed to curl upward. A last, mocking smile of the damned.

Allyson pulled the trigger and Schreck died.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Back outside, now.

It wasn’t yet noon, which didn’t seem possible. Allyson felt as if a lifetime had passed since they’d gone charging into the strange house. So much had happened. So many people had died. It didn’t seem right that a space of little more than an hour could encompass the extinguishing of all those lives. But it had. The sun was obscured by clouds and the air was tinged with winter’s chill. But Allyson didn’t mind that. It was a clean chill. Natural. She remembered her glimpse of that black room and shuddered.

The girl called Giselle had been loaded into the minivan parked behind the package truck. She was in the rear, her wrist stumps bound with a thick layering of silver duct tape. The girl looked numb, her eyes staring at something beyond this place. The young Asian man was sitting beside her. He sensed Allyson’s scrutiny and his head swiveled slowly in her direction. A very small smile darkened the edges of his cruel mouth. Allyson turned away and moved to the Jeep.

Chad and Jim were there, arguing in low voices. Chad was doing most of the arguing, though. Jim kept his head down and stared at the ground as he listened to his friend rant.

“Jim, you just can’t do this. You can’t go with them. It’s insane.”

Jim sighed-an immensely tired sound-and at last lifted his head to look Chad in the eye. “Perhaps. Regardless, I am going.” He looked at Allyson and managed a tired smile. “Hello, Allyson. I want you to know how proud I am of you.”

Allyson flushed with embarrassment. She smiled and abruptly threw her arms around the old singer. He laughed and after a moment returned the embrace. Then she broke the embrace and stepped back, saw that he was smiling, too. It transformed his haggard features, making him look decades younger. For a flickering moment, she glimpsed the rock god of old, the impossibly good-looking and intelligent young lion who had taken the world by storm.

She swiped tears from her eyes with the base of a palm. “Chad’s right, you know. You should go with us. There’s nothing you can do for that girl.”

Jim’s smile slipped some, but didn’t fade entirely. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” He glanced at the minivan and the last of his smile evaporated as he looked at the frail form of the girl huddled against the door. “Giselle has made mistakes. She’s done bad things. Unforgivable things. But there was a time when she did amazing things. A time when we worked toward a common goal. She was incredibly brave then, and her actions ultimately saved the lives of thousands. Including-” He indicated Chad with a tilt of his chin. “-your man here. For that alone, I owe her my company for what’s left of her journey. I owe her whatever comfort I can give her, meager though that may be.”

Chad made an exasperated sound and shook his head. “Look, I get what you’re saying, okay? I understand it. But you’re putting your life on the line here.”

Jim’s smile this time was smaller, sadder. “It won’t be the first time.”

Chad opened his mouth to respond to this, but hesitated at the sound of the minivan’s front passenger door slamming shut. The old Asian man was ensconced in the shotgun seat now. Bai was standing outside the open side door, watching them expectantly.

“Leaving now!” she called to them.

Jim shuffled a few steps in that direction. Then he turned toward Chad and Allyson, addressing them one last time as he walked backward. “I wish you both the best of luck with whatever the future holds. You can be happy, but you should stay underground.”

He reached the minivan and turned away from them.

He slipped into the rear compartment and settled into the space between the younger Asian man and Giselle. Bai threw the door shut and moved to the other side of the van. She slipped behind the wheel and pulled the driver’s-side door shut. She didn’t so much as glance Chad’s way. There was something dismissive about this. He was already a part of the past for her. A toy she’d amused herself with for a time and was now discarding. The lack of even token acknowledgment made Allyson hate the bitch more than ever.

The minivan’s brake lights came on and the engine purred to life. It was a well-maintained car, easily the best-running vehicle in their meager fleet, so of course Bai had commandeered it for the drive up here. But Allyson’s resentment on that count faded as she watched Bai quickly execute a three-point turn and start down the hill. The sooner the Order people were gone from her sight the better.

Chad sighed and slumped against the side of the Jeep, watching with numb resignation as the minivan quickly made its way down the winding dirt path. “I can’t believe he’s going with them. How could-”

The explosion made Allyson stagger backward. Chad dropped to his knees and screamed. The minivan’s interior was on fire. The roof had been blown out, its mangled remains a soot-gray mess. A column of black smoke rose into the air. Allyson’s mind reeled. She couldn’t begin to process what had happened. And then the fire ignited the gas tank and a second explosion demolished much of what was left of the minivan. Allyson’s knees went weak and she clutched the Jeep’s side mirror to remain upright.

Chad got to his feet and rushed down the hill. He was screaming something. Useless words of denial. Allyson watched him stumble and fall, banging his knees on the hard ground. And then he was on his feet again, charging full-out toward the smoldering wreck of the minivan. Allyson regained her composure and shoved herself away from the Jeep, hurrying down the hill after him.

Chad stopped a dozen yards from the burning van. The heat was too intense to get any closer. He was on his knees again and sobbing by the time Allyson reached him. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around him, forcing his head away from the awful sight. He buried his face against her breasts and wailed. Allyson stroked his back and cooed to him. Nonsensical things. The things a mother might whisper in a baby’s ear. She felt useless and stupid. She looked over his shoulder and was able to make out smoking remains in the minivan’s seats. A scent of burning meat permeated the air. Allyson’s stomach did a slow roll.

She gripped Chad by the hand and stood up, pulling him upright against his will. He looked at the minivan again, a stricken look contorting his features. Allyson turned him away from it and they began a grim march back up the hill. They reached the Jeep and Allyson helped Chad into the passenger seat. He was pliant, now, acquiescing to her every instruction without resisting.