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from going where she was headed.
"Well, as long as copies of those pictures are being traded back and forth
along the pedophile networks, either through the mails or zapped through the
Internet as GIFs and JPEGs, as long as I know that a single picture of me is
circulating, it will never be over. Sure, easy to say 'get over it' or 'get
past it' or 'let it go'& but how can I do that when I know that even as we
speak some slimy pervert could be ogling images of me doing& those things? How
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can I leave the events in the past when the pictures remain in the present?"
Jack could only nod. She was right. Those images were an ongoing violation
that would continue even after she was dead.
"He still has power over me, damn him!" she said, her voice rising. "How do I
break that?How ?"
That was a problem Jack had no idea how to fix.
"Speaking of him," Jack said, hoping to steer the subject back to the purpose
of their trip, "why do you think he left the technology to you? Could he have
been trying to"& how did he say this?& "make it up to you in some way?"
A soft bark of a laugh, then: "Not a chance. That would require remorse.
Ronald Clayton didn't know the meaning of the word. No, leaving me the house
and the clue to the technology was as self-serving as everything else he did
in his life. He knew that Thomas would bury it, and he didn't want that. So he
put it in my hands, absolutely certain that I wouldn't go along with Thomas."
She slammed her fist on the dashboard. "You see? He's still doing it. Still
using me, damn him!Damn him !"
3.
"What's wrong?" Alicia said. "Why are we stopping?"
They'd cruised north on the thruway with no problems, and no sign at least so
far as she could tell of anyone following them. Most of the trip since they'd
left the city had passed in silence.
My doing, she thought. She'd awakened this morning feeling tired and drained,
and didn't feel much better now. She didn't feel like talking anymore, and she
was pretty sure that was okay by Jack.
So now they'd just paid the toll at the New Paltz exit, and Jack was pulling
over to one of the phones in the plaza past the toll booths.
"Want to get my bearings," he said. "And I want to make sure no one's on our
tail."
Alicia sat in the car while Jack faked a phone call and scratched hurried
notes on a small spiral pad as he watched the cars pulling away from the toll
booths. Not much traffic this time of day on a Thursday in December.
Finally, after a good fifteen minutes, Jack hung up and returned to the car.
He nodded with satisfaction as he stuck his head in the door.
"All right. Didn't see anyone I know. How about you?"
"No one. What are you writing?"
"Makes, models, color, license plates. I see one of those cars again, I'm
going to want to know why. Now& one more thing and we'll get rolling again."
He reached into the backseat and came up with the Land Rover fully
reassembled now with its black plastic body snapped into place. He took it out
to the shoulder and watched it run along the pavement. His dark eyes were
bright with excitement when he returned to the car.
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"You know, the thing's running almost due west now. I think we're close."
Low gray clouds slid across the sky, obscuring the timid winter sun as Jack
drove on into the hills of Ulster County. From a distance the denuded trees
lent the surrounding hills a hazy look, a light brown fuzz broken here and
there by dark green patches of pines.
At every major fork in the road, Jack would stop and watch the traffic for a
while, then he'd take out the truck, see which way it ran, and choose their
path accordingly.
The Rover led them farther and farther into the hills. As the pavement gave
way to a hard-packed dirt road, Alicia felt a growing sense of anticipation
seeping through her. She fought it for a while she didn't want to look forward
to anything connected to that man but finally she gave in. Up ahead, perhaps
over the next rise or around the next bend in the road, on one of these
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