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  He could see what was coming as clearly as he'd seen the porno film that had unspooled at Sutherlin's last weekend. All their planning and careful preparation was going to go down the drain. The dynamite and blasting caps and expensive Uzis would be confiscated. Just when they were ready to do something and wake the country up a little, this had to happen.

  How had they found out? Who'd given them away? He slumped. Maybe no one had given them away. Most likely this was just a routine roundup. The government men probably knew nothing of the plans or guns. But they'd sure as hell find out when they searched the truck. And they would search the truck, Vandorm had no doubt of that. Of all the dumb, stinking, rotten luck!

  Across the way he could see two of them going through Sutherlin's Cadillac already. Sutherlin stood nearby looking stiff and uncomfortable in his neatly pressed whites. Probably wondering what this would do to his lucrative accounting practice when the word got out, Vandorm mused. The Cadillac contained a duplicate set of plans. About the best he and Conroy could hope for was that, having found one set of plans, they wouldn't search the pickup and find the guns. His spirits lifted slightly. There was a chance the rest of them might get off light unless Sutherlin talked. He didn't know if they could count on the accountant's silence.

  "You fellers are making a big mistake," he told the pair of agents who'd confronted him. "We weren't doing anyone any harm. Just exercising our Constitutional right of assembly." It seemed as though hundreds of agents were prowling through the woods, though in reality there were fewer than two dozen. Men in whites, his friends and drinking buddies, the neighbors he shot pool with, were being hustled into the waiting vans. Some of them were too far gone to know what was happening to them. Soon he and BJ were being marched across the clearing to join them.

  "Don't you people have anything better to do?" BJ said angrily.

  Vandorm was surprised. BJ didn't volunteer much in the way of conversation. He reacted instead of initiating. Apparently the actual arrest had triggered something within him. Vandorm was glad because it took the agent's eyes off him; those accusing, disgusted-looking eyes.

  BJ wasn't finished. "Why ain't you out bustin' the Mafia or runnin' down burglars instead of harassin' regular folks who ain't doin' anyone any harm."

  "Just keep moving," said the man in the jeans. His companion no longer held the pistol pointed at Vandorm. Luther gazed longingly at the shielding darkness of the woods nearby, but he didn't feel his legs were in shape for anything longer than a ten-yard sprint. What would've been the point? They had his name, had identified him at the beginning. Running would solve nothing.

  It occurred to him suddenly that their chapter must have been under surveillance for some time. In addition to being embarrassed, he now felt like a fool.

  The rear doors of the van gaped wide. BJ was still talking.

  "It's damn wrong, that's what it is. Y'all ought to be out doin' some decent work instead of troublin' honest folks."

  "Just get in, BJ," Luther told him. "You don't have to say anything to these people. Wait till Sutherlin's lawyer talks to you." He was starting to regain a smidgen of his former self-confidence. A backward glance revealed the big pickup squatting alone and uninspected on the far side of the clearing. Maybe they'd even miss the papers in Sutherlin's Caddy. They might get out of this yet!

  "You guys are making a big mistake, you'll see. What did you go to all this trouble for? So you could stick us with a drunk and disorderly? A little cross burning on National Forest land? It's our damn forest! What's that gonna get us, a warning and a fifty-dollar fine? Damn waste of taxpayers' money is what it is."

  "Just find a seat," said the man in the jeans. His companion gestured casually with the pistol.

  "Come on, hurry it up."

  BJ stopped, turned, and took a step toward him. He was smiling that silly, sappy grin Vandorm and the others had come to know so well these past several months.

  "I don't 'preciate being rushed, mister—especially by ugly people. And you're just about the ugliest people I ever did see."

  The agent's gun whipped up fast to crack BJ across the face and send him staggering backward. He sat down hard near the right rear tires. The first agent stepped between BJ and his colleague and grabbed the latter's arm. The agent was breathing hard, glaring down at the man on the ground. A thin stream of blood dripped from the corner of BJ's mouth.

  "Jesus, Bill, take it easy!" the first agent muttered. The other agent made a visible effort to calm himself. His reply was low, barely under control.

  "Easy. Yeah, right. Look, you take care of these two."

  "Sure. Go and help Dave with the paperwork."

  The agent nodded, staring at BJ as Luther helped his friend to his feet. The hatred between the two men poisoned what little fresh air remained in the clearing.

  "You listen to me, cracker," growled the agent. "You better hope I never meet you on the street when I'm off duty, man."

  "That'll be up to me," BJ replied easily, "because I'll be able to smell you comin', nigger."

  Vandorm's eyes got as big as light bulbs. "Holy—Get in the damn van, BJ, come on, get in the van!" He was pushing and shoving at his friend.

  "Yeah, get in," said the first agent. "Look, we're all highly trained here but we're human, too. You better get your friend inside," he told Luther sharply, "before he opens his mouth one time too many and we have a serious situation on our hands."

  "Right, yeah, sure." Vandorm practically dragged the grimacing BJ into the vehicle, making sure they got seats away from the doors.

  "Christ, BJ! I always knew you were slow, but I didn't think you were crazy. That guy could've killed you."

  "Hell, I ain't afraid of him." BJ's brows drew together. "Are you afraid of him, Luther? You once told me you weren't afraid o' no gov'mint men." Another brace of celebrants was shoved in before the doors were closed and locked from the outside.

  One trailing the other, the two vans rumbled off into the night, following the access road that led out of the forest. After a while other vehicles began to follow, emerging from concealing brush. Most of them were four-wheel drives.

  Eventually only two remained. Their occupants began a thorough examination of the cars the cross burners had left behind. A couple of them started spraying the collapsing fire with extinguishers to make sure the blaze wouldn't spread to the nearby woods. They would all be there long into the morning hours and then they too would drive off, leaving the clearing ringed with a ghostly semicircle of abandoned vehicles, all facing a pile of smoldering ashes.

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  2

  Seattle, Washington—9 June

  Merry Sharrow was taking her final order of the morning and almost enjoying it. Almost enjoying it because Mrs. Gustafson the supervisor wasn't peering over her shoulder to make sure every little box and line were properly filled out. Their shift ended simultaneously, but Gustafson had enough seniority to depart nine minutes early. Merry and her co-workers were left to carry on alone until Fred Travers and the rest of the day shift punched in.

  So she was able to relax as she took the order from the young man from Missoula. He was buying his first real sleeping bag and was full of questions about loft and rip-stop nylon and the technical differences between goose and duck down. She was happy to supply the information (that was part of her job) but not to the point of staying one second beyond quitting time.

  She didn't try to hurry his decision. Never rush a customer, she'd been told while training for the job. A rushed customer is an irritated customer, and an irritated customer is one lost forever.

  At two minutes to eight he finally made up his mind and bought a pair of Himalayan goose down bags, comfort level forty below, five-year guarantee. He put it on his VISA card and bid her a pleasant farewell, explaining that he was already late for work. The refrain was familiar to Merry. The majority of the country was on its way to work just as she was getting off.

  Merry worked the grave
yard shift at Eddie Bauer. Midnight to eight in the morning. For her the rising sun signified the arrival of early evening. It wasn't as bad as people usually thought. She'd trained herself to sleep from six in the evening until eleven at night. She was free every day of her life. All pretty backwards, but her friends understood. Because of necessity most of her friends were the women she worked with. They shared the same problems, the same time-shifted lifestyles.

  She totalled the night's calls and receipts, made sure all the orders had been entered into the central computer, and prepared to check out. There was no hurry. You didn't hit a lot of rush hour traffic going east out of Seattle at eight in the morning. What traffic there was was coming into the city, not going out.

  Yes, she had most of her life free, even if she didn't do anything with it. Shop and sleep and watch soap operas and take it easy and if she wanted a semblance of a normal social life, there was always the weekends.

  Her social life pretty much consisted of her relationship with Donald. He was a junior designer with Boeing. They'd been going together (a convenient euphemism for sleeping together) for four years. Merry was twenty-eight and getting edgy. Admittedly, it was difficult to sustain anything like a normal relationship with another human being when you only saw him on weekends. Or in the evening, when he was lively and full of energy and all she wanted to do was go to bed. Correction: go to sleep.

  They managed somehow. Donald was bright, cheerful, attractive, all-in-all a nice catch. There was just one drawback. She was beginning to suspect he didn't want to be caught.

  All her life she'd done what she was told, been the good girl, the complaisant woman. Maybe it was time to make some changes. No—no maybe about it. Twenty-eight. Nobody was going to change things for her. Her friend Amy was always telling her that. She was going to have to take charge of her life herself, going to have to force any changes herself.

  Easy to say. Change a life. Take charge. Change your world. How? Where do you start?

  Maybe by going home. Eddie Bauer's phone lines were open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There were sixteen operator stations designed to take incoming orders. During the graveyard shift only three were occupied. By Merry, her friend Amy, and Nikki the Cat, as the part-time dancer preferred to be called. After 1:30 business usually dropped off, picking up again at 5:00 when it turned 8:00 on the East Coast. That's when people in places like New York and Boston and Washington, D.C., began waking up and spending money.

  Washington, D.C. Here she'd lived most of her life in Washington state and had never seen the other. Well, why not? She had a vacation coming, they owed her a vacation. For some reason the nation's capital felt like the right place to visit. By God, why not? Do it, do something for yourself for a change. Don't even ask Donald if he wants to go.

  She felt better than she had in months. She'd made a decision.

  "You okay?" Amy was eyeing her fellow, operator uncertainly. "You look funny."

  "Just preoccupied." She reached under her table, recovered her purse. "Ready?"

  "Sure." Amy rose. "You're sure you're okay?"

  Merry joined her and the two women headed for the exit. "Fine. I just had a great idea."

  "Going to tell me about it?"

  "Later." They were in the cloakroom now, checking out their raincoats and umbrellas preparatory to making the usual mad dash through the rain to their cars. This close to the parking lot you could hear the water drumming on the asphalt. It was coming down hard and steady outside and had been doing so off and on for over a week, with no clearing in sight. The delights of living in Seattle.

  Amy popped her umbrella open. "Maybe it's let up a little." She opened the back door.

  Sky full of lightning, night full of thunder: black steady rain falling straight down. No wind, no nonsense, no surprises: just water.

  "Terrific," Amy groused. "You know, I worry about you living so far out of town and having to drive through stuff like this all the time. You ought to move into the city. Matt and I could put you up until you found a place."

  "The rain doesn't bother me since I got the Wagoneer. I just throw it into four-wheel drive, set the cruise control, and mosey on home. Besides, all the traffic's going the other way and I've got both eastbound lanes to myself. Now what you guys ought to do is move out next to me. I spend my free time with deer and birds and squirrels instead of junkies and bums."

  "That's it, put me in my place, no quarter given." Amy assumed a fencer's pose and jabbed the sky with her umbrella. "And as she ends the refrain—thrust home!" She charged out into the storm with Merry close on her heels.

  "You haven't got the nose for that line."

  "Thank God. See ya tomorrow." Amy veered off toward a solitary Subaru while Merry struggled to unlock her Jeep. Once inside the dry steel cocoon she was able to relax. The pungent odor of spruce filled the car. The back end was full of firewood.

  It started up instantly. She put it into four-wheel drive, honked twice at Amy, and turned right out of the parking lot. Thanks to the dense cloud cover it was black as midnight. She cruised up empty Stockton Road, heading for the I-90 onramp. Despite what she'd told Amy, she was tired and not looking forward to the long drive ahead.

  But she loved her little house in the forest. The privacy and greenery made the commute well worth while. The house was just big enough for her, and for Donald when he could make the time to come out for a visit. She had two acres instead of two bedrooms and liked it that way. She didn't see how Matt and Amy managed to sleep in the city in the early evening and late afternoon. Peace and quiet was worth a little driving.

  The muscles surrounding her left eye itched and she rubbed at it with her left hand. Have to wash it out when I get home, she told herself. The wipers threw water left and right, keeping the road ahead halfway visible. The fog lights stayed off. Because of the dearth of traffic in the oncoming lanes due to the storm she could make the drive with her high beams on.

  After pushing the Wagoneer up to fifty-five she set the cruise control and crossed her legs. The all-weather tires and four-wheel drive would keep her going straight. The lights of metropolitan Seattle vanished from the rear-view mirror.

  Busy night. She thought back to her last order on which she'd spent nearly fifteen minutes of phone time. Perhaps she could have closed the sale sooner, been a little more formal and less chatty with the nice man from Missoula, but she'd enjoyed talking to him. Merry appreciated nice voices. The sleeping bag buyer's had been particularly rich and resonant.

  Wonder how old he was? You could never tell just from the sound of someone's voice. He could've been anything from eighteen to fifty. If she'd had to hazard a guess, she would've bet he was in his thirties. Early thirties, close to her age. She wondered what he looked like. A voice was no key. Someone could sound like Burt Reynolds over the phone and look like W. C. Fields in person. Same thing held true for women.

  She knew she had a fine speaking voice or she wouldn't have been hired. Was the man from Missoula on his way to work wondering what she looked like? She glanced up at her reflection in the rear-view mirror. Amy had called her pretty, but Amy was prejudiced in favor of anything that would help to hype her best friend's self-confidence.

  Her skin was white, chinalike, and she hated that. Nothing she could do about it except curse her ancestors. "Tan" was not a word that existed in the Sharrow family vocabulary, though "sunburn" loomed prominently. Pale-blue eyes and white-gold hair so fine the frayed ends tended to vanish under a bright light. A very few lingering, fading freckles marring an unlined face that was narrow without being gaunt. Small mouth, lips that seemed to double in size with the addition of lipstick, no dimples. All right, not beautiful but pretty, yes. Definitely pretty. She could live with that opinion.

  Now Amy—Amy with her long red hair and electric smile—Amy was beautiful. That's what Donald called Merry. As far as he was concerned she was the most beautiful woman in the Northwest. Even though she never believed him, she never ti
red of hearing it. Donald's middle name should have been Charmer. Smooth, sharp, intelligent, quick-witted, he was a young man on his way up.

  Trouble was, Merry wasn't sure he wanted to take someone like herself up with him. If Amy was right, someday Merry would find herself left by the wayside while Donald—good old affectionate, loving, handsome Donald—decided to give someone else a lift up life's ladder. She thought about that a lot, far more than she let on to Amy. Because in spite of the fact that she was pretty and owned her own home and had a good job and was moderately well educated and could handle herself in general conversation without taking charge of it, in spite of all that she was terrified of losing Donald. She was all of those things, but one thing she was not was confident. Donald was the only long-term relationship she'd ever had and she was terrified of losing that emotional anchor. She was much better at establishing relationships with people over the phone than she was in person.

  It was one reason she liked the graveyard shift at work. She loved the night. There was none of the intensity and crowding a daytime position would have forced her to deal with.

  Donald hadn't even asked her to move in with him.

  So what? How much longer was she going to let other people pull her strings, push her buttons? Maybe it was time she started making some of the important decisions. Like taking her overdue vacation and going to Washington. She sat up a little straighter in the seat. Funny how just taking charge, even in your mind, can make you feel better. The feeling of exhilaration that raced through her was utterly unexpected. It was as though she'd crossed some unsuspected, invisible threshold. All that merely by deciding to take some time off. This decision-making was fun. And she hadn't even had to buy one of those interchangeable $4.95 self-help paperbacks to tell her how to do it. She'd done it on her own.

  She was feeling so good she almost missed her exit. Be home soon. The mental planning, the thought of taking a trip that she'd planned and not Donald, had completely preoccupied her. She headed down the offramp, the Wagoneer's wheels hugging the road despite the rain.