MacDonald, John D – Travis McGee 18 – The Green Ripper

“People in the Church have no need of money.”

‘Tm not in the Church yet.” our money is safe.”

“You give me a list of the regular camps where my Kathy might be, and I’ll go check them out, and then I’ll come back here whether I find her or not.”

“Would you try to take her away from the camp?”

“No. I just want to see how she looks grown up, and tell her that her ma is dead. That’s all. I want to make sure she’s alive.”

‘we’re trying to locate her for you.”

“You keep telling me that.”

“What need would you have for money here? Ies safe. Now go back and sit down, Brother. You’re doing fine here. Don’t spoil it.”

“Suppose I decided to leave anyway.”

They looked up at me. Brother Alvor had eyes like dry pebbles. Brother Persival said, ‘`Then we’ll bury you beside Brother Nicholas and say a prayer over you. And make do without you.”

I know the truth when I hear it. I went back to the other table. The others were finishing. They looked at me with curiosity, but asked no questions.

They resumed their conversation. Chuck was being the instructor again. Topic, thermite pencils. “Remember, they maintain a temperature of twelve hundred degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes. They aren’t like the older ones we had. Those were too complicated. You twist this end one full turn, and that breaks the seal so that the acid starts to eat through the barner. It will take two hours to eat through, plus or minus ten minutes. Remember, the secret is saturation. A team of four can start at a designated point in the heart of a city, and each head out in a different direction like the spokes of a wheel, on foot. The cover story is the distribution of pamphlets. Each team member can carry and distribute two hundred pencils. You’ve read the list of preferred types of locations. You walk ten blocks out from the primary target area and fLen, a half hour later, walk the circumference of an imaginary wheel, building a circle of future fire around the heart of the city. In that way you can trap most of the fire fighting organizations between the two ilres, and also we’re told that this dispersion is the most effective way of creating a fire storm.”

He was still talking when I walked out.

218

13

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, the last three days of the year, I tried to find out everything I could about the area. I located everyone’s quarters and realized there was room for twice as many. Haris told me there had been more travel trailers, and what was now the warehouse had been a bunkhouse, capable of accommodating a hundred and fifty.

The one time I had looked into the warehouse, I had seen, in the light of the small bulb near the door, towering stacks of crates and boxes. It seemed to be much more than these few people could use or carry.

On Monday I learned by accident of one deadly item they were warehousing. It was obvious I had no chance to get in there. I happened upon Ahman out behind the small mess hall, where the grass grew tan and coarse. He was backing away, looking intently at the grass. I did not see what he was looking at for a few moments, and then I saw it, a cylinder about three feet high, three inches in circumference.

“Hard to see it?” he asked. “I’ve been trying different ways of painting it. The damn things came through all shiny. I striped this one green and brown, vertically. It seems to work the best. Kind of wavy lines, like the grass.”

I wallred toward it with him. ‘what is it?”

“It’s a little rocket.” Vhat does it do?”

‘It does what rockets do, Brother. It goes whoosh-b~m.”

Thanks a lot.”

He hesitated, then said, ‘It’s on a spike, see? You shove it into the ground at a little slant. You find a good place, a half mile from the end of a runway. Then you pull this top cap off and throw it away. Then you unscrew this little cap down here near the base. Then you push this little switch, and from then on you make no loud noises, Brother. It is an acoustic trigger. A loud noise, like a jet going over low, closes the circuit, and that ignites the propellant and it comes out fast. Little vanes snap open. It’s a heat-finder. Little heat-sensitive guidance sys

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