The Burning Men: A Nathaniel Cade Story (7 page)

He’d be the trigger. He’d be the catalyst. He’d be the spark that ignited the real fire. People would run and scream and they would be afraid, and the world would change because of him.

He wouldn’t see any of it. But that was all right. That was just fine.

He saw something else.

A group of cops. All in their taxpayer-funded body armor, guns out, looking like an invading army. They came through a side door marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

They were alert, and moving fast, looking for something in the crowd.

Looking for him, he realized.

Too late. They were too late.

It was time. Everyone would burn.

He felt it rise inside him, filling him, and he wondered how something so filled with light and heat could be so cold and dark at the same time.

He prepared to let it loose. It was almost time. He opened his mouth to breathe fire, to burn it all down to the ground.

The little girl was still looking at him. But she was no longer smiling.

He smiled big enough for them both.



Then Cade stepped from the crowd, and with his good hand, grabbed Adam by the neck and squeezed.

His fingers met and Thompson’s spine turned to bonemeal and pulp.

There wasn’t even a flash of fire this time. It had nowhere to go, no way to get out.

Z
ach watched the whole thing on the screen. From his vantage point, it looked as if Cade had simply yanked the young man out of the crowd and then hustled him over to the waiting squad of police. If anyone else noticed, they quickly looked away. None of their business. Everyone kept going on with their days and their lives, either going places or coming home.

Zach sagged into his chair, the tension draining from him.

That was how it ended. Without so much as a whimper.

Acknowledgements

For Lucas Foster, Greg Veeser, and Jesse Alexander, who co-created Carolina Ramos.

And with thanks to
Robert “Rev. Bob” Hood, who got me thinking in this direction with a conversation on Twitter.

About the author

Christopher Farnsworth is the author of three previous novels about Nathaniel Cade:
Blood Oath
,
The President’s Vampire
, and
Red, White, and Blood
, all available from G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
His next novel, about the Fountain of Youth, will be released in 2015 by William Morrow. A former journalist and screenwriter, he lives in Los Angeles with his family. You can find out more at
www.chrisfarnsworth.com
or follow him on Twitter: @chrisfarnsworth.

Copyright © 2014 by Christopher Farnsworth

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