Red Rain

“Hey, what the hell. What the hell are you doing?”

Samuel aimed a glowing scarlet beam of light. And Pavano felt a burst of pain, just above his eyes, like a searing hot knife blade in the middle of his forehead. Then he heard a tearing sound-like fabric ripping-and felt hot blood spurt down his face.

With a cry of pain, he ducked his head, tried to elude the scorching beam from the kid’s eyes. He cried out again as another beam seared his hair.

Too dizzy to stand, he dropped to the floor and rolled between the desks. Ira and Elena, still pinned against the wall, cried out.

A red beam shot over Pavano, made a sizzling sound as it slanted over the floor behind him.

I’m not going to fail this time. I’m not going to die. I’m not going to fail.

Head reeling, blood trickling into his eyes, Pavano tightened his muscles, readied himself. With an animal roar, he leaped to his feet, tried to dodge the blast of light, but the roar turned into a scream of pain as his shoulder exploded.

The blast knocked him back to the floor. He writhed on his back, unable to shake away the scorching waves of pain, tasting the hot blood flowing from the gash that split his head.

With an agonized moan, he managed to pull himself onto his side. Through the wash of blood, he glimpsed the classroom doorway. Saw the figure move quickly into the room. And gasped: “What are you doing here?”

71

Mark didn’t answer as he burst into the room at full speed. He saw Ira and Elena huddled in terror in the middle of the room and he knew he had to move fast. He knew he had surprise on his side.

A jumbled text message from Lea had made him think the kids were being held in the school. It read: Kids school help. Her second text was just as frantic: Twins evil dangruss.

When Mark sneaked in through the basement entrance, he nearly fell over the charred body of Mrs. Maloney. The sight of her corpse, burned black and tossed on the basement floor near the furnace room, sent him into a breathless panic. Ira? Elena? Are the kids being burned, too?

Now he tore into the classroom, intent on saving his children. He had seen the cop go down. Saw the tear in the cop’s scalp and the blood flowing down both sides of his face. Saw the cop thrashing on his back in pain.

Mark roared down the aisle and heaved himself over the teacher’s desk. Eggs and potatoes went flying, and the plates crashed to the floor.

Startled, the twins froze.

Sliding over the desk on his stomach, Mark shot out both arms in a desperate grab for the two boys. He tightened his fingers in their hair and smacked their heads together as hard as he could.

The collision made a clonnnk sound like wood smashing against wood.

Samuel grunted in pain, as the fire in his eyes dimmed like a car cigarette lighter dying.

Cursing, Daniel squirmed and tried to spin away.

Hold on. Hold on. You can do it.

Mark squeezed his fingers into their hair, and with a grunt of effort, smashed their heads together again with all his strength.

Without even a groan, their jaws went slack and their eyes rolled up. Mark loosened his grip on their heads, and they slumped to the floor behind the desk.

Gasping for breath, he lowered himself to the floor, then turned and motioned frantically to Elena and Ira, frozen in the aisle, gaping at him in shock. “Dad! How did you get in here?” Ira cried.

“Hurry! Out of here!” He hurried over to them and wrapped them in a tight hug. “You’re okay? You’re not hurt?” They nodded. Mark glanced at the twins, still unconscious, piled on top of each other on the floor. He knew they wouldn’t be out for long.

“No time! No time! I have to get everyone out.” He guided them urgently toward the open window and watched as they eased their legs over the ledge and disappeared over the side.

“I’ll be back!” he called to the cop thrashing in pain on the floor. “I’ll come back for you.”

He sucked in a deep breath, coughing from the smoke-filled air, and took off running down the long hall to the front doors, shoes skidding on the tiles. He grabbed the door handles, fumbled with the bolt that held them locked, shoved it aside, and flung the doors open wide.

Then he turned and tore back down the hall-all a blur of shadows, the walls, the rows of dark lockers, the classroom doors.

You can do this. Keep going. You can do this.

“Out! Everybody out!” His hoarse screams rang off the walls. “Everybody outside!”

Flinging open doors, he shouted at the kids sitting at the tables, on the floor, on window ledges. “Out the front door! Your parents are waiting! Out! Get moving!”

The halls were suddenly alive with jubilant shouts and excited kids stampeding to the doors. Whatever hold the twins had over these kids had ended, and they rushed to celebrate their freedom.

Heart pounding, Mark remembered the wounded cop. He dove into a classroom, careened off a wooden table, bounced to the window, and threw it open. Through billowing curtains of black smoke, he saw cops and feds in several windows down the row.

“Cop down!” he screamed. “There’s a cop down inside! He needs help.”

FBI agents and uniform cops swarmed to the window, and then black jackets were everywhere, in his window and at the door. They didn’t seem to recognize him or remember that he was a fugitive.

“It’s the twins! I knocked them out. But the cop was hurt. The twins did it. You have to take them.” Mark realized he must sound crazy.

A stern-faced cop grabbed Mark’s arm. “Just take us to the cop, okay?”

He led them into the hall, nearly silent and empty now. Trotted toward the classroom. Was this the right room? Yes. He saw the poster of the president with the blue arrow on his cheek. Black smoke billowed into the room from outside.

Pavano had pulled himself to a sitting position and was gripping his head with both hands to stanch the flow of blood. Two cops rushed to his side, one of them shouting into a radio-phone for help.

Mark waved the FBI agents to the front of the room. “The twins. It’s the twins. They’re the killers! I’ll explain later. Just grab the twins!”

He saw their skeptical looks. They hesitated, then moved toward him, suspicious. “Who are you, mister? How’d you get in here?”

Mark shook his head. “I’ll explain everything. But you’ve got to get these twins. I knocked them out. Get them. Behind the desk. Watch out. . Watch out for the eyes.”

The agents drew their weapons and he stood back. He watched them go into a stalking stance as they approached the desk.

“The twins. They’re on the floor. I. . I knocked them out. We got them. We got them!”

Two agents lurched behind the desk. They appeared to freeze, as if someone had pushed a pause button. Slowly, one of them raised his gaze to Mark. “No one here. No one.” He glanced at the open window. “We’re too late, I think. They got away.”

72

Mark saw Lea walking determinedly down the middle of the Sag Harbor pier, eyes