Lightning

Stefan put two bullets in Volkaw’s back.

Januskaya reacted with confusion and shock as Volkaw flew forward into the table, driven by the impact of the nearly silent gunfire.

Stefan shot Januskaya in the face, then turned and left the room, closing the door behind him. Not trusting himself to speak to one of his colleagues with any degree of self-control or coherence, he tried to appear to be lost in thought, hoping that would dissuade them from approaching him. He went to the elevators as quickly as possible without running, went to his third-floor office, reached behind the file cabinet, and twisted the dial on the timer as far as it would go, giving himself just five minutes to get to the gate and away before the institute was reduced to burning rubble.

By the time the school year began, Laura had won approval for Chris to receive his education at home, from a state-accredited tutor. Her name was Ida Palomar, and she reminded Laura of Marjorie Main, the late actress in the Ma and Pa Kettle movies. Ida was a big woman, a bit gruff, but with a generous heart, and she was a good teacher.

By the Thanksgiving school break, instead of feeling as if they were imprisoned, both she and Chris had accommodated to the relative isolation in which they lived. In fact they had actually come to enjoy the special closeness that developed between them as a result of having so few other people in their lives.

On Thanksgiving Day Thelma called from Beverly Hills to wish them a happy holiday. Laura took the call in the kitchen, which was full of the aroma of roasting turkey. Chris was in the family room, reading Shel Silverstein.

“Besides wishing you a happy holiday,” Thelma said, “I’m calling to invite you down here to spend Christmas week with me and Jason.”

“Jason?” Laura said.

“Jason Gaines, the director,” Thelma said. “He’s the guy who’s directing this film I’m making. I’ve moved in with him.”

“Does he know it yet?”

“Listen, Shane, I make the wisecracks.”

“Sorry.”

“He says he loves me. Is that crazy or what? I mean, Jeez, here’s this decent-looking guy, only five years older than me, with no visible mutations, who’s a hugely successful film director, worth many millions, who could just about have any stacked little starlet he wanted, and the only one he wants is me. Now obviously he’s brain-damaged, but you wouldn’t know it to talk to him, he could pass for normal. He says what he loves about me is I’ve got a brain—”

“Does he know how diseased it is?”

“There you go again, Shane. He says he loves my brain and sense of humor, and he’s even excited by my body—or if he isn’t excited then he’s the first guy in history who could fake an erection.”

“You’ve got a perfectly lovely body.”

“Well, I’m beginning to consider the possibility that it’s not as bad as I always thought. That is, if you consider boniness to be the sine qua non of feminine beauty. But even if I am able to look at my bod in a mirror now, it’s still got this face perched atop it.”

“You’ve got a perfectly lovely face—especially now that it’s not surrounded by green and purple hair.”

“It’s not your face, Shane. Which means I’m mad for inviting you here for Christmas week. Jason will see you, and the next thing I’ll be sitting in a Glad trash bag at the curb. But what about it? Will you come? We’re shooting the film in and around LA, and we’ll finish principal photography December tenth. Then Jason’s got a lot of work to do, what with the editing, the whole schmear, but Christmas week we’re just stopping. We’d like you to be here. Say you will.”

“I’d sure like to meet the man smart enough to fall for you, Thelma, but I don’t know. I feel . . . safe here.”

“What do you think—we’re dangerous?”

“You know what I mean.”

“You can bring an Uzi.”

“What will Jason think of that?”

“I’ll tell him you’re a radical leftist, save-the-sperm-whale, get-toxic-preservatives-out-of-Spam, parakeet liberationist and that you keep an Uzi with you at all times in case the revolution comes without warning. He’ll buy it. This is Hollywood, kid. Most of the actors he works with are politically crazier than that.”

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