Chapters (79)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Praise for Destroy All Monsters
- Books by Sam J. Miller
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
“You know you saved my ass,” he said. “By telling Child Protective Services where I was.”
“How so?”
“They would have turned my case over to the cops by the end of that day, if they hadn’t gotten information on my whereabouts. As far as the cops could tell, I didn’t have an open CPS case when they arrested me. Otherwise they wouldn’t have let me go so easily.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I called them,” Solomon said. “Spoke with a case worker.”
“Are you serious? That’s amazing!”
He shrugged, then nodded.
“Are you going to go in and talk to them?”
“Maybe,” he said.
My phone rang. Somehow we’d ended up under the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. I pulled over to answer it.
“Ash,” Connor said, and his voice had a hitch in it.
“Hey!” I said. “Everything okay?”
“No,” he said. “Absolutely nothing is okay. I need your help. Can you come over to my house?”
I looked at Solomon. Watched the happy leak out of his face. My mouth would not make words.
“I’m getting my stuff,” Connor said. “I bought a train ticket to Poughkeepsie, to stay with my aunt. But I don’t want to go back to my house alone. I’m sorry. I really need your help, Ash.”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m on my way.”
Overhead, the bridge was lit up so bright it felt like a brand-new constellation. Snowflakes began to patter down around us. I put the car in drive, and took a deep, deep breath.
Sixty-Four
Solomon
We made a circuit of the theater, and found that security was far too tight for anything we might have tried. No dozing guard at the door to the backstage; no unattended uniforms we could suit up into and pretend we were a couple of the bad guys.
“I can try to destabilize them,” I said, when we reached the last possible access point that could have gotten us behind the scenes—and found five armed men and women standing in front of it. “You could show me something horrific, and then when they’re incapacitated by the emotions I project, we can rush in.”
“Too risky. We have no idea if it will work,” Ash said.
And still, somewhere behind one of those doors, up or down a staircase, Niv and Connor were being held.
“The only way out is through,” Ash said, and headed into the theater, so swiftly all I could do was follow.
The seats had been removed. People were packed together—thousands of them, easily. At the front, before a massive movie screen, a bonfire blazed. A smaller version of the Great Fire that would be burning across town, at Darkside Park, at the official Unmasking Day celebration, with half of the city in attendance.