Prodigal Son | Page 6

couldn't see me either.
The line broke for a second and one man stepped through. He was short, with the hard stringy muscles of an athlete, sandy hair and long sideburns.
"Sloane," he said.
"Hello, Andy."
He fired a kick at my head and I dropped out of the way, swinging both feet at him as I went over. One of them caught him in the thigh and he yelled "Shit!" and wobbled for a second.
I was struggling onto my stomach when a foot came from behind and caught me in the ribs. The air flashed white in front of me and I couldn't find anything to breathe. Another boot landed and another and I could tell, just barely, that I was moving with the blows and that the circle of men was following.
I rolled up against something metal and found myself in the clear. It took me a second or two to see that I'd hit the blue-painted barricade around the Tilt-A-Whirl. I twisted under it and got up into an unsteady crouch.
Somewhere in my mind I knew I only had to hold out a few minutes longer, that Burlenbach was on his way with the cops. So I got all the way up, swaying a little, wondering why they weren't coming at me anymore.
Then an engine fired noisily and I knew the answer.
I turned and saw Andy at the controls of the Tilt-A-Whirl, and as my eyes took it in, the first metal car sailed up toward my face.
I ducked, lost my balance, went down on my knees again. Somebody behind me let out a gasp and I almost turned to look. If I had the next car would have killed me, but instead I threw myself over the top of it as it went by.
The machine was picking up speed now and I didn't have time to get clear, even if the crowd and the barricades hadn't been in the way. The next car shot past high above me while I was still lying on my face, fighting for breath.
The next one would be low. I pushed myself flat onto the asphalt of the lot and felt the bottom of the car slap my back as it passed, hard enough to stun me and let me know I couldn't take much more.
I got to my knees. If I just lay there I was going to be dead anyway. The next. one went high and gave me time to get my legs under me and say about half a prayer. Then the red blur of another car rushed at my knees and I jumped across it, my fingers scrabbling at the metal for a hold. One hand caught the safety bar and I felt myself being lifted up and away.
I rolled into the seat of the car, arms and legs all twisted wrong, but with breathing space for a few seconds. The wind roared past my face as the machine kept picking up speed. My lunch tried to crawl out my throat but I held it down, crouching next to the seat, trying to see what was happening.
Andy still worked the controls from the hub of the ride. I was moving too fast to see him clearly, but the expression on his face was not pretty. It had just occurred to me that I wasn't as safe as I'd thought, that he could still probably push the speed up high enough to throw me loose, when I heard a voice.
It carried even over the noise of the wind, and it said, "Stop it! Leave him alone!"
It was the kid, and suddenly he was fighting Andy for the controls. The metal seat under me lurched and the spinning began to slow.
I could still hear the kid's voice as I crawled back onto solid ground, my eyes closed, telling myself I wasn't going to throw up. "Give it over, Andy," the kid said. "It's finished."
Burlenbach helped me to my feet and kept hold of one arm while I looked around. The cops had cleared everyone away from the ride except Andy, and two of them were holding tim by the shoulders. Georgia Burlenbach handed me a clean handkerchief I didn't really know what to do with it so I just clenched it hard in my fist.
"Thank God Tommy is safe," she said. "Thank God he's all right."
"He's ..." I wasn't getting the air I needed and I had to start again. "He's not Tommy," I said.
"What!" Frank Burlenbach shouted. "What do you mean?"
"Your boy is dead," I told him. "I'm sorry. But I don't think Andy would ever have given your real son back to you. This one, Buddy, is a substitute. Something he came up with later on."
"Dead?" Burlenbach said. He looked stunned. His wife reached our and took his hand, but he