Play with Fire

chapter Forty-Two

SEVERAL HUNDRED AUSTIN police officers and sheriff’s deputies, along with administrative staff, knew that the church burners might strike in their town that night. A secret like that is difficult to keep when so many are privy to it.

At about the time that Morris’s meeting was breaking up, the following item appeared online in “The Branch Report”:

Word has it that ghostbuster Quincey Morris (who managed to evade numerous federal felony charges following antics at last year’s RNC convention) is telling authorities in Austin, TX that the infamous “church burners” will strike there next. Is it any coincidence that Austin is where the occult cowboy calls home? Maybe his witch girlfriend Libby Chastain did his horoscope and says it’s a bad time to travel.

It’s easy to set up a Google Alert for any term or phrase that interests you. At least two people had established a Google Alert using the phrase “Quincey Morris.” One was Morris himself, although today he was too preoccupied to read any email that didn’t appear urgent.

The other was someone who called himself Theron Ware. Although, like Morris, he had plans for the evening, he monitored his email regularly throughout the day. The Branch Report item on Quincey Morris had been live for only twenty-four minutes when Ware read it.

He called to his acolytes and showed them what was on his laptop’s monitor. “That motherf*cker,” Elektra growled. “I figured he’d be dead by now – and the bitch, too.”

Mark had to read the item twice to make sense of it. “Geez, boss, I guess that means we hafta cancel tonight, huh?”

But Jeremy had seen what his master had seen, although not as clearly, of course. “We can use this, right Theron?

“Indeed we can,” Theron Ware told them. “But I need to do some research, first.”

“Whatcha gonna look up, boss?” Mark asked.

“I want to see if we have any kindred spirits in the Austin area. In a city that size, I’m sure we must.”

“You gonna have them take out Morris for us? And his bitch?” Elektra wanted to know.

“No,” Ware said, “I have something more... subtle in mind. Now leave me be, for a while.”