“We’ll be landing in a few minutes, ” Andy announced. “Now it’s very important you follow instructions, for reasons of safety. When we set down, just keep your seats and the ground crew will get you out. ”
Smoke was staring out his window. When the helipad came in sight, he noticed dozens of cops crowding onto it. Smoke also detected that there was something odd about the pilot’s ponytail. It seemed to him that a minute ago, the ponytail had been centered, and now it was cock-eyed.
“What are all those cops doing?” Smoke said into his mike.
“Don’t know, but they’ll clear out of the way as I get closer, ” Andy replied, and Hammer tensed up and wanted desperately to turn around and check on Popeye.
“Oh yeah?” Smoke countered as meanness crept into his voice. “Well, maybe something stinks about this. ”
“Man! Look at all them people down there, ” Cuda marveled. “And look how all of ’em are pointing up at us and pumping their fists! They must think we’re Donny Brett!”
“Bullshit, ” Smoke’s voice filled Andy’s headset, and suddenly the ponytail wig was yanked off from behind and the Ray Bans were knocked askew.
Andy remembered what Macovich had drilled into him when Andy was learning to fly: Just fly the helicopter. No matter what happened or how desperate the situation, Andy must simply fly the helicopter, and he held it in a steady descent as he felt the hard, cold barrel of a gun at the back of his neck and Smoke yelled obscenities at him and threatened to kill the dog.
“Calm down. ” It was Hammer who spoke. “Do you want us to crash, you idiots? Now shut up back there so we can handle this huge machine because none of you knows how to fly, and that means you’re going to have to depend on us!”
“… Fucking cops!” Smoke was ranting and raving. “I know who you are, you motherfuckers! And I’ve got your fucking dog back here, you bitch, and if you don’t do what I say, I’m gonna pump her full of rat poison!”
Hammer assumed and sincerely hoped Smoke was bluffing, but Possum saw the syringe Smoke had just pulled out of a pocket. Possum held Popeye and could feel her shaking through the flag as Unique sat very still, as if in a trance, her eyes filled with an eerie light.
“Don’t do nothing like that right now, ” Possum told Smoke. “You stick the dog and she’s gonna start having cavulshuns and jumping everywhere, and if she dead, you ain’t got nothing to threaten them with no more. ”
Smoke fell silent for a moment, and decided Possum was probably right, as Hammer’s heart was seized by fear, because she realized Smoke might really have a syringe full of rat poison back there. The bastard. If they ever got back on the ground alive, she might just kill Smoke even if it was a bad shooting and she ended up professionally ruined or charged with manslaughter.
Unique slid a box cutter out of a pocket, her surreal stare fixed on the back of the blond cop’s neck. The Nazi had directed that she would find her Purpose, and she had. She rearranged her molecules and then arranged them back to normal as she realized that the cop she had been stalking, who had turned out to be Andy Brazil, had already seen her when he picked them up in the helicopter. So there was no point in being invisible, and he wasn’t going to recognize her, anyway. Her groin throbbed as she anticipated cutting his throat from ear to ear. Then the copilot would take over, and after they landed, Unique would cut her throat, too, and spend some alone time with the body.
“Get us out of here!” Smoke ordered Andy. “Now! Take us to Tangier Island! And don’t you say anything I can’t hear in the back!”
Thirty-two
Macovich spotted the white minivan with the rainbow bumper sticker two cars ahead, and he recalled the rainbow sticker on Hooter’s toll-booth. Just as Hooter entered his mind, he realized with surprise that she was sitting in the front passenger’s seat of the minivan and turning around to talk to people in back, none of whom Macovich could see.