The pizza guy shook his head. “I got a rush order for two larges, both with anchovies. For 345 EvergreenLawn Supplies Way.”
“Don’t know what to tell you,” Linc said, boredom replaced now with annoyance. “You got the wrong address, buddy.”
“Sure?”
“Positive. EvergreenLawn is on the other side of town.”
“Nuts.” The guy looked at the pizza, then at Linc. “Won’t be good by the time I get there. Why don’t you take it?”
“Okay. Here,” Linc said, fishing a tip out of his pocket and handing it to the guy.
Ford’s vision had dimmed as soon as the pizza guy spoke and became slightly blurry, as though the edges of the scene didn’t match up.
Sadie sensed it too, but she couldn’t pinpoint it until red and white and black dots in Ford’s mind arranged themselves into a pizza box and she heard Ford think, There’s a pizza missing. The delivery man had said the order was for two pizzas, but he’d only had one in his hands.
Could still be in the car, Ford thought. But instead of continuing to follow the delivery van, he decided to stay where he was, and five minutes later Linc came down the front stairs of his house with a briefcase, dressed like a guy going to an office job. He bypassed the car in the driveway and the bike on the porch and headed for the bus stop.
Ford trailed the bus, the sky tossing out occasional big drops but nothing serious, and forty minutes later he was propping his bike next to a fence around the corner from 345 EvergreenLawn Supplies Way. He’d gotten tangled in traffic and lost Linc’s bus, but he’d taken a chance on the destination and was just in time to see Linc leaving the house. Whatever his errand, it hadn’t taken long. Now he was strolling down the street toward Ford but on the opposite side, briefcase swinging.
Lightning tore across the sky, followed by a jolting crash of thunder. Linc bent to pat a tiny terrier on the head, offered to carry the groceries of a woman in a purple shirt, and had just turned the corner onto Hump Burgers Highway when a scream pierced the air. The woman in purple ran out of 345 EvergreenLawn shrieking, “Call Serenity! They’ve been shot! Someone shot my boys!”
Ford’s mind convulsed and his ears rang, as though refusing to let that in, refusing to hear, to believe—
“Dead! My boys are dead!”
Impossible, impossible, impossible, Ford’s mind repeated, but he took off running after Linc, every step echoing with another denial in his head. No way, not Linc, impossible, not him.
The storm opened up as Ford rounded the corner. Ford had to struggle to keep Linc in sight, weaving through patches of umbrellas that had sprung up like stalky mushrooms on the crowded street. He saw Linc stop walking, and at the same moment a black Range Rover pulled up alongside him. The door opened from the inside. As he stepped toward it, Linc turned to glance behind him, and his expression chilled Ford. It was serene. He could almost have been smiling.
Ford was halfway home when it hit him. The Pharmacist, Sadie heard him think. That had to be the explanation. Bucky had been right about Royal Pizza and he was right about this. Somehow the Pharmacist had changed Linc from the guy he’d grown up with to this… monster.
Which meant the Pharmacist was real.
And dangerous, Sadie added.
CHAPTER 20
The apartment was quiet and dark except for the flickering of the muted television when Ford got home.
The ride had been harrowing. For the first fifteen minutes the rain had sluiced down in sheets, making it nearly impossible to see. When it had slowed to a drizzle, the gutters lining the streets were so flooded that there were waves and currents dragging on the tires of his bike.
He left his soaked shoes and jacket in the hall outside the apartment door and was stripping off his sodden pants when a strained voice from the darkness said, “It’s time for our talk,” and the light next to the armchair clicked on. His mother was there in a faded oatmeal-color sweater and jeans. She looked frail like always, but also determined.
“Not now, Mom,” Ford told her, shivering uncontrollably, only partially from being wet. “I really—”
“Sit down.”
The shaking had started when he’d started thinking about the Pharmacist, and he didn’t seem able to stop it. It was as though there was some internal battle between how he’d believed the world worked and what he now had to acknowledge was true. “I really need a shower,” he said, teeth chattering. “My clothes are soaked. Can this wait until later? Tomorrow? Does it have to be now?”
“Yes. Now. Put on dry clothes and sit down.”
Sadie was astonished at the steel in her voice. She’d never seen Mrs. Winter like that, and she wondered what it meant. But Ford was too cold, too shell-shocked to give it more than a cursory thought.
He put on a sweatshirt and dry boxers from his closet, leaving his jeans and T-shirt in a wet pile on the floor, and sank into the couch. “Mom, look, I just saw the most horrifying, unbelievable—”
He stopped because she had set a folder on the trunk and was pushing it toward him. There was a handprint along the edge from where she’d clearly been clutching it, waiting for him, for a long time. On its cover it had the
“I’ve been trying to protect you,” his mother said, shielding her eyes from the light and avoiding his gaze. “All this time. All I ever wanted was to protect you.”
Ford stared at the folder, hearing “All I ever wanted was to protect you,” over and over. His mind filled with dark dots, black, green, yellow, a little boy saying, “Why did you let him stay?” the female figure with a blank face answering, “He’s your father. He didn’t mean to hurt you.” It vanished as quickly as it had appeared, just a flash. Ford said to his mother, “What is this?”
“Read it,” she said nervously.
Sadie wasn’t sure what to expect, but both she and Ford were slightly disappointed when all it contained was a contract.
She started reading it, and her heart caught in her throat.
Contract between Vera Winter, hereafter PARENT, and HEALTH HARVEST (hereafter HH), a division of Roque Community Health Evaluators (hereafter RCHE) concerning health insurance and care for Ford Winter (newborn), hereafter CHILD 1, one of 3 members of the Winter family (include all relatives who live at same address), hereafter FAMILY.
RCHE agrees to provide comprehensive medical and dental care including regular checkups and all immunizations to CHILD 1 from the date of the contract until his twenty-first birthday. In exchange PARENT agrees to periodic scheduled visits from RCHE to interview FAMILY (not more than once per quarter except in special cases SEE BELOW) and one unscheduled visit per year (except in special cases SEE BELOW).
FAMILY has opted IN to inclusion in periodic opportunities to assist with high-level scientific research; all such opportunities are voluntary.
FAMILY has opted IN to Interperception.
Interperception is a risk-free procedure that allows members of your community between the ages of 19 and 25 to shape its future. If selected to participate in Interperception, your CHILD will serve as a HOST for a researcher GUEST who will chart his or her movements and thoughts for six to twelve weeks, using the collected data to improve social service and lifestyle programs in your community. GUESTS will undergo a rigorous selection and training process and may range from top scholars in their fields to artists, journalists, designers, intellectuals, and students.