"No, I'm not. Really." Ray dug his hands into his pockets and stared at a spot on the discolored linoleum. That c.r.a.p about an F-911 had almost brought a laugh out, and he struggled not to smile.

"Forget it."

"Forget what? " Robby asked, fired up by the idea that a secret was being kept. "Come on, X-Ray!

Let's hear it!"

It was so close to being told. In one more minute, he might be the most sought-after kid in Inferno. All kinds of smash foxes would be crowding around to hear. But no, he couldn't do it! It wasn't right! Still, his mouth was starting to open, and what would come out of it he didn't know. He was forming the words in his mind: Let's just say I know it wasn't any d.a.m.ned F-9- "Looky here, looky here! Where's your girlfriend, f.u.c.kmeat?"

Ray knew that slurred, dark-toned voice. He whirled toward the doorway. Three of them were standing there: Paco LeGrande, a plastic splint along the bridge of his nose and bandages stuck to his cheeks and forehead to secure it; Ruben Hermosa, grinning and damp-faced, his eyes bloodshot on weed; and Juan Diegas, another husky Rattlesnake. Paco limped just a little as he took two steps forward, his combat boots clunking on the floor. All conversations within the Warp Room had ceased, all attention riveted to the invaders. "I asked you where your girlfriend was," Paco repeated, smiling thinly, his face swollen and purple circles ringing his eyes. He cracked his knuckles. "She's not around to save your skinny a.s.s, is she?"

"Attention, Earthlings!" the Star Hunter's speaker boomed. "Do you dare do battle with Star Hunter?

Prepare for action! Prepare to be destroyed!"

"Oh, s.h.i.t," Mike Ledbetter whispered, and quickly backpedaled from Ray's side. Robby stood his ground a few seconds longer before he, too, abandoned Ray to his fate.

"You'd better get out, man!" It was Stoplight. "You're on 'Gade territory!"

"Was I talkin' to you? Shut your hole, you f.u.c.kin' freak!"

Stoplight wasn't nearly as big as the boys who blocked the door, and he knew he had no chance against them. "We don't want any trou-"

"Shut up! " Juan Diegas roared. "Your a.s.s is mine, f.u.c.ker!"

Kennishaw was on his feet. "Listen here! I won't have that kind of language in-"

With one quick, enraged motion, Paco turned and grasped a pinball machine. Muscles twitched in his forearms, and he threw the entire thing over on its side. Tilt bells rang madly, gla.s.s shattered, and sparks shot from the machine's innards.

The other kids trembled like live wires in a high wind. Kennishaw's face reddened, and he reached for the pay phone on the wall, his hand digging for a quarter.

"You want to keep that hand, you sonofab.i.t.c.h?" Paco asked him-not loudly, just matter-of-factly. Kennishaw saw the fury in the boy's eyes, and fear lanced him; he blinked, his mouth working but making no noise. The red cast of his face was fading to gray. He pulled his hand out of his pocket, quarterless.

"Muchas gracias." Paco sneered. His gaze jerked back to Ray Hammond. "You had a real good laugh at me today, didn't you?"

Ray shook his head. Paco's eyes were inflamed, and Ray knew all three Rattlers had to be in the stratosphere on maryjane or they wouldn't have dared come to the Warp Room.

"You callin' me a liar, you li'l fruit?" Two more strides, and Paco was within strike range.

"No."

Juan and Ruben laughed. Ruben leapt up, grabbed a papier-mache model of Saturn and yanked it off its wire. Juan slammed into the Aqua Marines machine like a mad bull and crashed it to the floor.

"Please... don't..." Kennishaw begged, plastered against the wall like a b.u.t.terfly.

"I say you are," Paco prodded. "I say I heard you laughin' at me, and now you're callin' me a liar."

If his heart beat any harder, Ray figured he was going to sound like a human drum. He almost retreated from Paco, but what was the point? There was nowhere to run. He had to stand and deal with it, and hope that some 'Gades would walk through the door real soon.

"n.o.body wants to fight, man!" Stoplight said. "Why don't you take off?"

Paco grinned. "I want to fight." And there was a crash and sizzle of sparks as Juan threw over another machine. Paco stared fixedly at Ray. "I told you, didn't I? I told you to stay out of my way."

Ray swallowed. Laurie Rainey was watching, and Robby, and Mike, and all the others. He knew he was about to be beaten; that was a fact. But there were worse things, and one of them was cringing. He felt a tight grin ripple across his mouth, saw that it puzzled even Paco for a second. Ray stepped forward to meet him, and said, "f.u.c.k you."

The blow was so fast he didn't even see it coming. It hit him in the jaw, lifted him off his feet, and knocked him into the Neutron machine. He went down on his knees, his gla.s.ses hanging from one ear and the taste of blood in his mouth. Paco's fist closed on his shirt, began to reel him to his feet. Stoplight ran for the door, but Juan Diegas was quick; he aimed a kick that hit Stoplight in the shoulder and brought a yell of pain from him. Stoplight fell, and at once Juan was on him, flailing with his fists.

Ray saw Paco's leering face above him. He raised his fist to strike that face, but his arm was caught and pinned. Behind Paco, Ruben was leaping up, whooping with glee every time he plucked a planet off its wire.

Paco's fist lifted. It looked giant-sized, the knuckles scarred and rough. Ray thrashed to escape, balanced on the toes of his sneakers. He could find no traction. The fist reared back, hesitated-then whammed forward.

His mouth bleeding, Ray skidded backward under a pinball machine.

20 Wreckage

"Safe and sound," Cody said as he pulled the cycle to the curb in front of Rick Jurado's house. Miranda got off, clutching her suitcase, her hair wild and windblown.

"Anybody ever tell you you drive too fast?"

"Nope." He glanced around; no Rattlers on the street, not yet at least. The sound of hammers rang from Cade's junkyard.

"Well, I'm telling you. You could've gotten us killed."

"You can get killed by breathin' around here," he answered. "Better get on inside." He nodded toward the house; the yellow porch light was on. In the air he could smell onions and beans. "I'll wait till you make it in."

"You don't have to."

"No sweat," he said, but he was sweating under his arms.

"Thanks for the ride. And for saving me from the Mumbler too." She smiled faintly, then started for the house.

"Anytime." Cody revved the engine, watching as she climbed the steps and knocked at the door. She was okay, he decided. Too bad that... well, just too bad.

The door opened. Cody saw Rick Jurado's face in the yellow light. "Brought you a present, Ricky!" he shouted, and as Rick stared, bewildered and shocked, Cody spun the Honda around in a tight circle and rocketed away along Second Street.

"d.a.m.ned crazy fool!" Rick raged, in Spanish-and then he looked at the girl who stood at his front door with a suitcase in her hand.

"Hi," she said.

He answered, "Hi," not recognizing her; but in the next second the bottom dropped out of his composure. The last picture she'd sent him had been over two years ago, and in those two years she had changed from a little girl to a woman. "Miranda? "

Her suitcase thumped to the porch's boards, and she reached for her brother. He put his arms around her, lifted her off her feet, and squeezed; he heard her make a small sob, and his eyes were burning too.

"Miranda... Miranda, I can't believe this! How'd you get here? I just can't-" And then it hit him: Cody Lockett, with his sister. He almost dropped her, and as he set her down his eyes had gone maniacal.

"What were you doin' with Lockett?"

"Nothing. He just gave me a ride."

"Did he touch you? I swear to G.o.d, if he touched you-"

"No, no!" His expression was scaring her. It was not the face of the gentle brother who wrote her letters with a graceful, precise hand. "He didn't do anything except bring me from the bus stop!"

"You stay away from him! He's trash! You understand?"

"No, I don't!" But she did, in that moment; she saw Rick's metal-studded bracelets-the macho fashion of many of the boys who ran with the gangs in Fort Worth-and she remembered how Cody had reacted when she'd mentioned Rick's name. Bad blood, she thought. "It's all right. I'm fine."

He was trembling with anger. How dare that b.a.s.t.a.r.d touch Miranda! It was yet another score that must be settled. But he forced the rage off his face and coiled it up inside, to wait. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get hot. Come inside!" He picked up her suitcase and took her hand. Once inside the house, he closed and bolted the door. "Sit down, please!" He started bustling around, trying to straighten up the dusty room.

"Where's Paloma?"

"Sleeping." His street inflections were gone. He brushed off the sofa's pillows and plumped them up.

"I'll go wake her-"

"No, not yet. First I have to talk to you alone."

He frowned. That sounded serious. "What is it?"

Miranda walked across the room to Paloma's shelf of ceramic birds. She picked up a cardinal and ran her fingers over its wings. "I'm not going back to Fort Worth," she said finally. "Not ever."

"Bash him!" Ruben shouted merrily. "Bash the li'l f.u.c.ker!"

Paco had hold of Ray's ankles and was trying to pull him out from underneath the pinball machine, but Ray grasped one of its legs and wasn't about to let go. His gla.s.ses had spun away, and blood drooled from his mouth. Still, his mind was clear; he thought he knew what it must be like to be a wounded animal set upon by vultures.

Robby Falkner screwed up his guts and charged, but Paco whirled upon him and smashed him in the face-one, two, three quick blows. Robby's nose burst open, and the boy gave a small weak cry as he fell.

On the floor Stoplight scrabbled away from Juan Diegas, who began to attack the arcade machines again. "Stop it! Please stop it!" Kennishaw hollered, crouching in a corner. Stoplight saw the open door in front of him and, one eye swollen shut and a gash across his cheek from a signet ring, he got up and ran onto the street. Behind him, Juan roared, "Wreckage!" and threw over the Gunfighter machine, which shot blue sparks and began to vomit forth its quarters.

Stoplight kept going past the sheriff's office. This was Renegade business, and he knew exactly what to do.

"It's her, isn't it?" Rick's eyes were black and fierce. "What's she done to you?"

"It's not that. I just had to get-"

He took her right hand. The palm was dry and cracked, the fingernails broken-she had the hands of a laborer instead of a Fort Worth high school junior. "I see," he said tautly. "She's had you scrubbing floors."

Miranda shrugged. "I did some work for a few people, after school. It wasn't much. Just sweeping, washing dishes, and-"

"Carting some fat gringo's garbage to the street?"

"It was a job." She pulled her hand away from his. "It wasn't her idea. It was mine."

"Yeah." Rick smiled bitterly. "And there you were being a maid while she sat around waiting for her pimp to call, huh?"

"Stop." Her gaze met his. "Just stop. You don't know, so you can't say."

"I do know! h.e.l.l, I read your letters! I kept them all! Maybe you never spelled it out, but I can read between the lines pretty good! She's a worthless puta, and I don't know why you stayed with her this long!"

Miranda was silent. She returned the cardinal to its place on the shelf. "No one's worthless. That's why I stayed."

"Yeah, well thank Mother Mary you got away before she could turn you into a wh.o.r.e too!"

She pressed a finger to his lips. "Please," she implored. "Let's talk nice, all right?"

He kissed her finger, but his eyes remained brooding.

"Look what I still have!" Miranda went to her suitcase, unlatched it, and dug through clothes until she found a many-times-folded piece of paper. She began carefully unfolding it, and Rick saw where it had been taped at the seams to keep it from falling apart. He knew what it was, but he let her open it and display it to him. "See? It looks almost new."

On the paper was a self-portrait, done in pastel crayons about three years ago. His face-a lot younger then, he thought-was drawn with thick and aggressive lines, lots of black shadow, and red highlights. It looked d.a.m.ned amateurish to him now. He'd done it in about an hour or so, while staring into a mirror in his room.

"Do you still draw?" Miranda asked him.

"A little." In his room, in a box under the bed, were dozens of pastel studies, most of them on lined notebook paper, of Bordertown, the desert, Rocking Chair Ridge, and the face of his grandmother. But it was a private thing he did, and no one but Miranda and Paloma knew about it. He refused to put any of his drawings up in the house for fear that the other Rattlers might see.

"You should do something with your talent," Miranda persisted. "You should go to art school or-"

"No more school. Tomorrow's my last day, and then I'm through."

"What are you going to do, then?"

"I've already got a good job, at the hardware store." He hadn't mentioned in any of his letters that he was a lowly stockboy. "I'm... uh... in inventory control. I figure maybe I can start painting houses on weekends. A fast house painter can make a lot of money."

"You can do better than that, and you know it. This says you can." She held up the self-portrait.

"No more school," he said firmly.

"Mama always said you were-" She stopped, knowing she was treading near a minefield, and then continued: "As hard to move as a mule train."

"She was right. For once." He watched as Miranda gently refolded the drawing and put it away. "So what happened?" he asked her, and waited to hear the whole story, even though he knew it was going to tear him apart.

"Cody! Cody!"

He looked up from putting the tools away in the garage stall. Stoplight was staggering toward him, nearly falling, his face a mask of blood. "They're killin' him, Cody!" Stoplight said, struggling for breath. He bent over, about to puke, and drops of blood spattered on the concrete. "Mr. Hammond's kid. X Ray. The Rattlers. They're at the Warp Room, and they're killin' him, man!"

"How many?" Ice water had flooded his veins, but a hard hot pulse beat in his skull.

"I don't know." He thought his brains must be knocked loose. "Five or six. Seven, maybe." Mendoza had been counting money from the register, and now he came out and saw the boy's b.l.o.o.d.y face; he stopped short, his mouth gaping.

Cody had no hesitation. He reached for the wall and lifted off a leather tool belt that held an array of wrenches, drawing it tight around his waist and buckling it. "Go find Tank, Bobby Clay, Davy, anybody and everybody you can. Move it!" Stoplight nodded, mustered his strength, and ran away, an obedient soldier. At once Cody was astride his motorcycle, and Mendoza's cry of "Cody! Wait!" was drowned out by the engine firing. Cody sped off into the darkness.

"Dammit!" Mendoza ran for the telephone in his office and hurriedly dialed the sheriff. One of the night deputies, Leland Teal, answered and Mendoza started telling him there was going to be a gang fight but Teal spent precious seconds fumbling for a pencil and paper to take down the information. Cody skidded to a stop in front of the Warp Room. His insides cold and his eyes aflame, he strode through the doorway and saw the carnage.

Arcade machines had been overturned, spitting sparks across the floor. Ruben Hermosa was kicking the gla.s.s out of one of them, and from the back old Kennishaw was in a corner moaning "No... please...no..."