Prayers For Rain Part 103

Angie watched Bubba's taillights turn off onto the smaller road.

"How do you know he won't go back to Congress Street?"

"Because if Wesley's stashed anywhere, he's stashed here. Pea.r.s.e is feeling his control slip. He'll come back here to see his trump card, to feel that control again."

"Wow," she said. "You almost sound like you believe that."

"Ain't got much," I said, "but I got hope."

We drove past the clearing and down another four hundred yards, buried our cars in the trees, and walked back up the access road.

For the first time in at least ten years, Bubba wasn't wearing his trench coat. He wore all black. Black jeans, black combat boots, a black long-sleeved T-s.h.i.+rt, black gloves, and a black knit hat over his head. We had, per his command, stopped at my apartment on the way out to intercept Christopher Dawe and grabbed black clothes as well, and we donned them before we left the cars behind in the trees.

As we walked back up the road, Bubba said, "Once we locate the house, I walk point. Point is very simple. You stay ten paces behind me." He looked back at us and held up a finger. "Exactly behind me. Where I step, you step. If I blow up or trip a wire, you run back the same way you came in. You don't f.u.c.king think about carrying me out. Clear?" behind me. Where I step, you step. If I blow up or trip a wire, you run back the same way you came in. You don't f.u.c.king think about carrying me out. Clear?"

This was not a Bubba I'd ever seen before. All traces of psychosis seemed to have vanished. Along with the disappearance of the loose-cannon aspect, his voice had changed, deepened slightly, and the aura of otherness and loneliness that usually hovered around him had disappeared, given way to a total confidence and ease with his surroundings.

He was, I realized, home. He was as in his element as he ever could be. He was a warrior, and he'd been called to battle, and he knew he was born to it.

As we followed him up the road, I saw what men in Beirut must have seen-that if it came to battle, no matter who your commanding officer was, it was Bubba you'd follow, Bubba you'd listen to, Bubba you'd depend on to lead you through the fire and back to safety.

He was a born sergeant; next to him, John Wayne was a p.u.s.s.y.

He unslung the duffel bag from his back and brought it around under his arm. He unzipped it as he walked, pulled an M-16 out, and looked back at us.

"You sure you don't want one of these?"

Both of us shook our heads. An M-16. I'd probably fire it once, break my shoulder.

"Pistols are fine," I said.

"You got extra clips?"

I nodded. "Four."

He looked at Angie. "Speed-loaders?"

She nodded. "Three."

Angie looked at me. She swallowed. I knew how she felt. My mouth was getting kind of dry, too.

We crossed the planks and pa.s.sed the pump shed.

Bubba said, "We find this house, and get inside? Anything moves, shoot it. Don't question. If it's not chained down, it's not a hostage. If it's not a hostage, it ain't friendly. Clear?"

"Uh, yeah," I said.

"Ange?" He looked back at her.

"Yeah. Clear."

Bubba paused and stared at Angie, her pale face and large eyes.

"You up for this?" he asked her softly.

She nodded several times.

"Because-"

"Don't be a s.e.xist, Bubba. This isn't hand-to-hand combat. All I have to do is point and shoot, and I'm a better shot than either of you guys."

Bubba looked at me. "You, on the other hand..."

"You're right," I said. "I'll go back home."

He smiled. Angie smiled. I smiled. In the still of the bog and the dark of night, I had the feeling it was the last time any of us would smile for a while.

"All right," Bubba said. "It's all three of us, then. Just remember, the only sin in combat is hesitation. So don't f.u.c.king hesitate."

We stopped at the tree line and Bubba unslung the bag from his shoulder and lay it softly on the ground. He opened it and removed three square objects with head straps tied to the back and lenses protruding from the front. He handed two of them to us.

"Put 'em on."

We did, and the world turned green. The dark bushes and trees were the color of mint, the moss was emerald, the air was a light kelly hue.

"Take your time," Bubba said. "Get used to it."

He removed a huge pair of infrared binoculars and raised them to his eyes, panned across the woods in quarter-inch increments.

The green felt a.s.saultive, nauseating. My .45 felt like a hot poker against the small of my back. The drought in my mouth had worked its way down my throat, seemed to be closing off my respiratory pa.s.sages. And, quite honestly, with the bulky infrared gla.s.ses attached to my face, I also felt really silly. I felt like a Power Ranger.

"Got it," Bubba said.

"What?"

"Follow my finger."

He raised his arm and pointed and I sighted down the tip and followed the seaweed world through bushes and brambles and around trees until I saw the windows.

There were two of them. They suddenly stared back at us from the forest floor like oblong periscopes. They were only a foot and a half tall, but seeing them appear out of the green it was nearly impossible to imagine how we'd missed them.

"No way you could have seen them in daylight," Bubba said, "unless you caught a reflection off the panes. Everything but the gla.s.s is painted green, even the trim."

"Well, thanks for-"

He silenced me with a raised finger and c.o.c.ked his head. About thirty seconds later, I heard it, too, a car engine and tires rolling up the access road toward us. The tires squished the soft earth in the clearing to the north, and Bubba whacked our shoulders and picked up his duffel bag, walked in a crouch to our left along the tree line. We followed as the car door opened and closed, and then shoes crunched down the path to the bog embankment.

Bubba disappeared into the trees at the far edge, and we ducked back in there with him.