“Of course not. I'm a living example of the extraordinary. Call it mystical, paranormal, whatever; that doesn't mean the church understands it any better than the rest of us.”
“I'm not speaking for any particular church. Only for the kingdom of light that has reversed my understanding of reality.”
“And you have to throw the
Jesus
element in there? He's the problem, Johnny, not the light.”
Johnny unfolded his legs and stood. He walked to the edge of the canopy and stared out at the trees into which Billy had disappeared.
Darcy approached him from behind, struck by the broadness of his shoulders. No telling what kind of hell he'd been through to make him the man he was today. An intelligent man who understood the wisdom of her words, with or without glasses.
She drew next to him and followed his gaze. No sign of Billy or Kelly.
“We can change the world, Johnny. I know we can. We could probably ban war, stop global conflict, even eradicate poverty or diseaseâif we put our minds to it.”
“The scope of our power is an amazing thing,” he said softly. “I would love to see the Senate stare into my eyes.”
She chuckled. “A sight to behold.”
“We really do have the power to overcome evil, wherever it shows its ugly head.”
“To rid the world of poverty.”
“And disease.” He looked down at her, and she could smell his spicy cologne. “You would use your gift to save the world at any cost, wouldn't you?”
“I must!”
He turned and walked back into the tent.“And so must I. Which is why I have to lift up the Light of the World by which
all
men can be saved. Doing anything less would be like walking away from a dying leper.”
He'd set her up.
Darcy decided then, as rage washed through her, that she would not let this man manipulate her again. Not ever.
He bit deeply into an apple and sat back down.
“You're assuming that the world has a disease, Johnny,” she said, fuming. “You're also assuming you have the cure. And that, my friend, is the deadliest sickness to face humanity. Arrogance.”
“You're forgetting again, Darcy,” he said without a hint of reconsideration, “I have seen that disease with my own eyes, before I went blind. I've battled that disease. I've watched how this disease ravages life. And I've seen the cure to this disease. I would be a coward not to warn the world of the disease or to withhold the cure from the afflicted.”
“So then that's that. You're flat refusing to listen to sense.”
“I'm doing the only thing that makes any real sense.”
“By defying this nation's laws? And make no mistake, the law will be held up and what you're doing will be judged by the courts as strictly illegal. Is that what your precious faith has taught you?”
“I'm simply refusing to dim the light that showed us both the way.”
“Whatever happened to tolerance?”
“Tolerance of evil
is
evil. That's Black's new game.”He faced her. “And I do believe that you, Darcy, have your tongue down his throat.”
Her fingers shook.
He took another bite.
“This is going to end very,
very
badly, Johnny Drake.”
UNTIL JOHNNY spoke, Billy wasn't sure why the idea of returning to Paradise had struck such a deep chord of horror in his mind or why the chorus rising out of that chord had refused to be silenced.
He long ago assumed he'd pretty much put his childhood to rest. Darcy was the one who still struggled. Sure, he had his bouts with nightmares, his flashbacks, his days of regret, his flogging sessions, but who didn't? Had he ever met a man or woman who did not have mistakes they wished they could take back?
How did it go? To err is to be human, be it a bite out of an apple, or a spilled cup of coffee. Error was a quintessentially human quality. Right?
He'd told himself that his fears were only of the unknown, and that once he returned to Paradise, he would put them to rest. The whole experience could be healing to them both. Put a lid on the past once and for all.
Seeing Paradise from the air had only made the fears perfectly real.
But not until Johnny recounted exactly what had happened in the monastery did Billy realize what that fear actually was.
Himself. He feared himself, because Johnny was right; he had been the one to first take a bite out of that apple. He'd been the one to drag Darcy down into the dungeons to join him.
He was the first sinner.
And he still was, wasn't he? He was afraid he would return to the vomit, like a hungry dog. That he, having once tasted, would want to taste again.
He wouldn't, of course, he'd learned his lesson. But the fear that he might, just maybe might, crushed him with more weight than he'd borne in many years.
The meeting with Johnny was a bust, he knew that already. All their efforts were coming down around them. They would have to enforce the law here in Paradise. Johnny had come here to make his stand, because he knew that more than poetic justice awaited them all here. A confrontation in Paradise would end it all for good.
But Johnny didn't realize that it was he who was going down this time.
Billy walked into a small clearing among the aspens, trying to clear his head. He'd walked away because he didn't trust himself to contain the rage that had welled up in him as Johnny reminded them all who had written Marsuvees Black into existence.
Which only confirmed how much Billy despised Black. He'd never doubted that.
Wanna trip, baby?
Billy shuddered.
“Billy?”
He spun, surprised to see that Kelly had followed him into the trees.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.” She glanced back the way she'd come. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I'm fine.” But it was just one of those meaningless rote statements. They both knew he wasn't within a radar's distance of fine.
“Billy . . .” She turned back to him and studied his eyes. “You sure you're okay?”
It was an awkward moment, he thought. Standing in a clearing with a friend of Johnny's while Johnny spoke to Darcy in dead-end negotiations.
“I think you should go back,” he said.
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
But she didn't leave. She stood there staring into his eyes with her blue ones. They misted and he realized that she was fighting back tears.
He hadn't considered what those surrounding Johnny must feel like, caught up in his predicament. Kelly realized that things couldn't turn out well here in Paradise, and she'd come to plead on Johnny's behalf. He hardly blamed her.
“Johnny's the one you should talk to,” Billy said. “You realize that our hands are tied. We're here out of respect for an old friendship. But if we can't talk Johnny down, the authorities will step in. Laws that aren't enforced are worse than no laws at all.”
A tear slipped from her right eye and broke down her cheek. At first glance he'd assumed Kelly was a confident woman, the way her blonde hair framed strong cheekbones. There was a firmness to her eyes suggesting anything but weakness.
But seeing her cry, he wondered if he'd misjudged her. Maybe she was fragile, vulnerable.
She looked away and wiped her cheek dry.
Billy didn't know what to say. “I'm sorry, really. This just isn'tâ”
“I love him so dearly, you know,” she said.
“I'm sure you do. Unfortunately, there really is nothing I can do.”
Kelly looked at him again. A slight grin crossed her face. She stepped closer. “You know that's not true, Billy.” The grin flattened. “If there's anyone who can do something here, it's you.”
“I'm not sure you understand.”
“I understand better than you.” Kelly lifted her hand and touched his face with a gentle finger, tracing his chin. “I understand him. We've been through hell together, Johnny and I. Do you know how many tears I've wept on his account?”
She walked slowly around him, brushing Billy's shoulder with her fingers.
“I know Johnny better than he knows himself, because in so many ways, I helped him become the man he is today. And I know how far he will go.”
“Ma'am, I'm sureâ”
“Call me Kelly.” She looked into his face again. Tears rose to the rims of her eyes. “Johnny won't stop. I've seen him suffer through torture that would have even you screaming like a babyâhe suffers without so much as flinching a muscle.He's a very, very powerful man, Billy. Did you know he was once known as the world's most dangerous assassin? They called him Saint.”
He hadn't known, but then he knew very little about Johnny. An assassin named Saint. Go figure.
“What would that make me, Sinner?”
“My Johnny was put on this planet for a very special purpose.”
Tears spilled from both eyes now. For a brief moment her resolve to keep from breaking down waned and her lips quivered. But then she drew air through her nostrils and regained what composure she could control.
“You can't stand in his way, Billy.”
He wasn't sure what she was asking of him, but the conviction in her voice cut to his heart.
“And I mean that literally,” she said. “You can't, because you, too, were put on this planet for a very special purpose.”
“Forgive me for notâ”
“Shh, shh.” She placed a finger on his lips. Traced his mouth. “Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Don't try to say you don't believe in the power that swims all around us. Do you think your gift came from monkeys?”
What was he supposed to say to that?
“You're very special, Billy. Very,
very
special. Even more special than Johnny.”
He was now at a complete loss. She knew something he did not, and it appealed to him like water to a fish.
Kelly leaned forward and kissed him lightly on his lips. “Promise me you'll remember that, Billy. For his sake, remember that.”
Then Kelly turned and left him alone in the clearing.
THE TOWN'S inner circle gathered inside of Smither's Barbeque for their first ad hoc meeting as dusk grayed the western sky, twenty-two men and women by Kat's count, including Joseph Houde, who wasn't really an insider. But then neither was she.
Then again, Steve and Claude and Paula, all of them had a way of making even total strangers feel like insiders within minutes of arriving. Her understanding of friendship had been formed through cliques and alliances forged by kids of similar race and beliefs, and then only after a formal invitation to join the group.
Someone had forgotten to tell Paradise that the customs of society had become more complicated than theirs, which was simply:
Hello there,
friend, how you doing this afternoon? Have a seat. Have a bite of my pie?
The informal meeting had come about for two reasons: One, Johnny had headed out of town with Kelly for a meeting at ten o'clock this morning, and no one had heard a word from him since.
Two, people were coming.
Ben Ringwald, who had to be ninety if he was a day, chuckled. “Well, if we'd a'known this day was coming, we might have built us a few hotels with all that loot everyone's holdin' on to.”
“I don't see it being a problem,” Claude said. “We have over two hundred homes in this valley. And another hundred barns.”
They hung around the bar and two round tables, half of them nursing drinks or popping the peanuts Steve had put out. The restaurant was once a proper bar before they'd converted it, and the old lights behind the counter still advertised Bud Light.
“We aren't putting visitors in barns,”Paula said.“Not if I have anything to say about it.We can use the church if we have to, but we have plenty of room to house a hundred guests.”
“A hundred? And what if no one turns this tap off? I'd say we already have fifty. Give it a couple of more days and we could have five hundred. You ready for that?”
“Well, it's not the housing I'd worry about.We can put ten to a house if we have to. It's food.”
“Got ya covered there,” Ben rattled with a twinkle in his eye.“Me and Charlie got us a few extras.”
They looked at the old geezer. Richest in the valley on account he owned seven fields, Paula had told Kat. He glanced at their questioning gazes.
He shrugged. “You know Charlie. He's a bit of a survivalist. Trust me, food won't be a problem. Could prob'ly feed five thousand for a week out of that basement.”
Kat spoke up. “Umm, excuse me?” They glanced at her. “I'm not sure you guys are getting the whole picture here.” She thought Joseph Houde did, judging by his smile. “Any of you been on the Net in the last couple of hours?”
“Sure,” Claude said.
“This thing's blowing up out there. I mean really,
actually
blowing up.”
“That's just the Net, honey,” Paula said.
“Just the Net? The Net is America. People live on the Net. And it's not just Johnny's blog, it's thousands of blogs. It's news stories. It's dialogue centers, chat rooms . . . Half the country is talking about Paradise.”
They just looked at her, still not comprehending. To them, life was about getting a kick out of what junior did last night during supper. To the rest of the country, life was quick exchange over the Net about what Johnny did last night.
“Tell them, Joseph.”
The reporter chuckled. “She's right. As of a half hour ago, Johnny's blog had over two hundred million hits worldwide and has been referenced over fifty thousand times on the news feeds. Today alone, his name has been viewed over a billion times if you include public chat rooms, unrestricted e-mail, and the rest of it.”
“A billion?” Katie Bowers asked, as if she hadn't heard right. “How is that possible?”