Echo Burning

it?”
    “I think so,” she said.
    “Thinking so isn’t enough. You’ve got to know so. You’ve got to be prepared to get real close, jam it into his gut, and fire ten times. If you don’t, or if you hesitate, he’ll take it away from you, maybe turn it on you, maybe fire wildly and hit Ellie running in from her room.”
    She nodded, quietly. “Last resort.”
    “Believe it. You pull the gun, from that point on, it’s all or nothing.”
    She nodded again.
    “Your decision,” he said. “But I suggest you leave it there.”
    She stood still for a long, long time. Then she bent down and picked up the gun. Slipped it back into her bag. He walked over and retrieved his shirt and slipped it over his head. Neither bullet hole showed. One was under his arm, and the other tucked in below the waistband of his pants. Then he tracked around the gulch and picked up all eightspent shell cases. It was an old habit, and good housekeeping. He jingled them together in his hand like small change and put them in his trouser pocket.

    They talked about fear on the ride home. Carmen was quiet on the way back up the rise, and she stopped again at the peak. The Red House compound stretched below them in the distant haze, and she just sat and looked down at it, both hands clasped on the horn of her saddle, saying nothing, a faraway look in her eyes. Reacher’s horse stopped as usual slightly behind hers, so he got the same view, but framed by the curve of her neck and her shoulder.
    “Do you ever get afraid?” she asked.
    “No,” he said.
    She was quiet again for a spell.
    “But how is that possible?” she asked.
    He looked at the sky. “It’s something I learned, when I was a little boy.”
    “How?”
    He looked at the ground. “I had a brother, older than me. So he was always ahead. But I wanted to be doing the same stuff as him. He had scary comics, and anywhere we had American television he’d be watching it. So I looked at the same comics and watched the same shows. There was one show about space adventures. I don’t remember what it was called. We watched it in black-and-white somewhere. Maybe in Europe. They had a spaceship that looked like a little submarine with spider legs. They would land it somewhere and get out and go exploring. I remember one night they got chased by this scary creature. It was hairy, like an ape. Like Bigfoot. Long hairy arms and a big snarl. It chased them back to the spaceship, and they jumped in and slammed the hatch shut just as it was climbing in after them.”
    “And you were scared?”
    He nodded, even though he was behind her. “I was about four, I think. I was terrified. That night I was certain the thing was under my bed. I had this high old bed, and I knew the thing was living under it. It was going to come out and getme. I could just about feel its paw reaching up for me. I couldn’t sleep. If I went to sleep, it would come out and get me for sure. So I stayed awake for hours. I would call for my dad, but when he came in, I was too ashamed to tell him. It went on like that for days and days.”
    “And what happened?”
    “I got mad. Not at myself for being afraid, because as far as I was concerned the thing was totally real and I should be afraid. I got mad at the thing for making me afraid. For threatening me. One night I just kind of exploded with fury. I yelled O.K., come out and try it! Just damn well try it! I’ll beat the shit right out of you! I faced it down. I turned the fear into aggression.”
    “And that worked?”
    “I’ve never been scared since. It’s a habit. Those space explorers shouldn’t have turned and run, Carmen. They should have stood there and faced the creature down. They should have stood and fought. You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.”
    “Is that what you do?”
    “Always.”
    “Is it what I should do? With Sloop?”
    “I think it’s what everybody should do.”
    She was quiet for a moment. Just staring down at the house, and then lifting her eyes to the horizon beyond it. She clicked her tongue, and both horses moved off together, down the long slow slope toward the road. She shifted in the saddle to keep her balance. Reacher imitated her posture and stayed safely aboard. But not comfortably. He figured horseback riding would be one of the things he tried once and didn’t repeat.
    “So what did Bobby say?” she asked. “About