Ritual by Graham Masterton

Author:Graham Masterton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-01-08T10:21:33.980000+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

They drew up outside a plain 19305 house with maroon-painted shutters and a scruffy front yard and Bob Garrett appeared almost immediately on the front porch in a blue Sears suit with a fawn raincoat folded over his arm. He walked quickly towards them with his free arm swinging. Charlie climbed out of the Cobra and folded the front seat forward so that Bob could climb into the back seat.

Robyn pulled away from the side of the road and headed north toward Hotchkissville. Bob leaned forward from the back seat and introduced himself. 'You're early,' he said, with a nervous laugh. He had a simple, uncomplicated face with pale blue eyes and a cow's-lick fringe combed back from his forehead and a neatly-clipped moustache.

'I'm real glad you decided to come,' Charlie told him.

'I knew I was going to, the second you asked me. I just had to think about it, was all. I had to think whether I wanted all those memories brought back. It's the memories that hurt the most.'

'I'm sorry,' said Charlie. 'Maybe this is your moment to get your own back.'

'Do you have a gun?' asked Bob.

Charlie reached forward to the glove compartment and produced it. A hefty weapon for a newspaper editor: a Colt .45 automatic, capable of blowing a hole through five men standing in a line.

'Do you know how to use it?' asked Bob.

'I think so,' Charlie told him. 'You point it at anybody who happens to be annoying you, and you pull the trigger. Every American kid knows that.'

'Well, you've just about got it,' said Bob. 'The question is, will you have the courage to pull the trigger?'

He sat back, and watched the Connecticut countryside flashing past the window. Charlie looked at Robyn and made a face. 'Rambo the Second,' she whispered.

Charlie gave her a philosophical smile. 'Maybe that's what we need.'

'Have you worked out how we're going to get into Le Reposoir?' asked Bob.

'We're going to walk in,' said Charlie.

'Walk in? You think they're going to let you?'

'They're not going to let me break my way in, are they?'

'Well, I guess not,' said Bob, in that deep, hesitant voice. 'I guess if you can swing it, walking in is the best way. That's the way I did it, anyhow.'

'The most important thing is to take them by surprise,' said Charlie. 'It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to get hold of Martin and drag him out of the house, but we have to be fast and we have to work together.'

'So tell me what you're planning to do,' said Bob.'

'I'm going to walk straight in there and tell them that I've seen the light, and that I want to join the Celestines, too.'

'You think they're going to buy that?' asked Bob, leaning his elbows on the front seats.

'Is there any reason why they shouldn't? They have two major weaknesses — their fanaticism and their over-confidence. Fanatics always find it hard to believe that other people don't agree with their point of view.

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