Then they moved again.
Not a single step forward or back like before, but a fast shuffle—some moved to their left, others to their right.
Forward, backward, diagonal. Nearly a dozen more came from the woods and through the gully near the railroad tracks to join the others as they shuffled again. Although they moved in multiple directions, absolutely none of what was happening appeared to be random. They moved at the exact same speed. Nobody looked up or down at their feet, to the side or behind, yet nobody collided.
They all continued to face forward. Like a flock of birds shifting position while in flight. A well-coordinated shell game.
When they finally stopped, at least twenty new people in white stood among the already large crowd. Heads covered, burning candles in hand.
David called out from below, somewhere to my left.
I hit my transmit button. “Headphones on!”
All around us, Dunk’s people placed the noise-canceling headphones on their heads, powered them up, and plugged in their radios.
Stella and I did the same.
The sounds of the outside world disappeared.
A moment later, I heard Dunk through my headphones.“Keep radio chatter to a minimum, or we’ll all end up talking over each other.”
I gripped both of Stella’s shoulders and mouthed the words, “Are you okay?”
She nodded and tried to force a smile.
Over the radio, I heard my father’s voice.“Jack? You’re not in the bunk room. Where are you?”
Stella heard him, too. Her eyes went wide.
I looked up and down the catwalk where we sat and only saw Dunk’s people.
To Stella, I gestured toward the stairs.
She nodded.
I stood and helped her to her feet.
At first, I thought she might collapse, but she drew in a deep breath and somehow found the strength to remain upright. I put her arm over my shoulder and led her down the catwalk, down a series of steps, and into the large space where I had met with Dunk ten days earlier, Blast Furnace #7.
My father again, over the radio.“Jack. They gave me no other choice. I had to let them experiment. It was part of the deal. That was the only way I could keep you and your mother safe. If I would have said no, they would have killed her, killed me, taken you. That was never an option.”
I pressed the transmit button. “So you let them try to kill me, instead? Over and over again? I was just a baby!”
Another thought came into my head, and I wished it hadn’t, because I didn’t want it to be true. Couldn’t possibly be true. I said it aloud anyway. “My God, they paid you, didn’t they? That’s how you afforded those houses. That’s why you didn’t have to run all these years, like the others. They were never chasing you. Charter paid you, didn’t they?”
My father said nothing.
Another realization came into my head. “The money I received every month, that came from you, didn’t it? Out of what? Guilt? Some misguided sense of responsibility? Some kind of bullshit child support?”
My father didn’t reply.
Not at first.
Not for nearly a minute.
“I knew I could use some of the money to get you a better life. To help keep you safe. I hired Preacher to deliver it. I couldn’t risk returning to Pittsburgh.”
I led Stella toward the back of the large, open space, toward a hallway leading off into the dark. From there, we turned right. We kept going until we found a room with a window overlooking the front of the steel mill, someplace where we could see what was happening outside.
