Page 120 of The Chain

He makes more coffee, showers, and preps the pancake batter. He thinks about the guns and for the third time goes to check that they’re still locked in his truck. They are. He examines the hunting rifle, the .45, Rachel’s shotgun, and the nine-millimeter.

He took all four to the range yesterday and he’d gotten some good practice in. He’d been an engineering officer in the Corps, but no matter the job, every Marine is an infantryman first.

Rachel wakes up next.

She hasn’t really slept.

She’d vomited in the middle of the night.

Eleven days since her last chemo treatment, but it happened like that sometimes. Or it could just be the fear.

The Boy Called Theseus will be phoning the Girl Called Ariadne at ten o’clock sharp.

She comes out of the bedroom and sits at the living-room table.

Pete kisses her on the top of the head. “You didn’t sleep?”

“I did. A little. I had another dream.”

Pete doesn’t need to ask what about.

Another nightmare.

Another glimpse into the future.

Kylie finally wakes at eight and Stuart comes over promptly at eight thirty.

“Pancakes, anyone?” Pete asks.

He has just poured the batter into the frying pan when Marty and Ginger arrive in Marty’s big white boat of a Mercedes.

Pete turns down the gas on the stove and he, Rachel, and Kylie go out to greet them.

“Well, if it isn’t Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts,” Marty says, slapping Pete on the back and kissing Rachel and Kylie.

“And if it isn’t…” Pete says, but he can’t think of a good response.

Marty’s definitely the one who got the family’s gift of the gab.

They’re an attractive couple,Rachel thinks. Ginger’s hair has grown some and she has washed out all the dye, so that now it’s a pretty copper color, which suits her much better. Marty’s eyes are somehow greener.

“Pete’s made pancakes and I’ll fry up some bacon,” Rachel says.

They sit at the living-room table and eat breakfast.

“These are good, big brother—did you make them from a mix?” Marty asks.

Pete shakes his head. “I’m with Mark Bittman. Pancake mixes are the sign of a decadent civilization.”

“My childhood was exactly like that,” Marty tells Ginger and Kylie. “You ask an innocent question and you get some lecture about everything that’s wrong with the world.”

“He’s lying. He was the spoiled one in the family,” Pete says.

“What was your childhood like, Ginger?” Rachel wonders.

“Wow. Crazy. Don’t get me started. I don’t even remember the commune years. We lived all over before coming back to Boston,” Ginger says.

“Is that why you were attracted to the FBI? For stability?” Rachel asks.