"He can take it to the race tomorrow night, and I'll make sure everybody sees me supervising, " Regina said, her mood a bit lighter. "That will impress everybody, even Andy!"

"What a coincidence, " Barbie marveled as she thought of her magic rainbow and how it was making connections in her otherwise vacant life. "You know, it just so happens I'm going to the race, too. Why don't I do a makeover of you before you go, and maybe you'll meet some handsome race-car driver. "

"Oh please, sit with us in Papa's box!" Regina got excited and even showed a little appreciation. "That would be perfect. But I don't want to wear a skirt. I refuse to unless you really think it would impress people. Maybe the horse and I could ride in your van. Those Seeing Eye horses aren't any bigger than Frisky. "

"I don't know why not," Barbie considered, assuming Frisky was a cat, and therefore a minihorse could easily fit inside a pet-carrying case in the back of the minivan. "Just make sure you tell me where to meet you. "

"Meet me at the mansion tomorrow at noon," Regina said, happily. "And I'll let you do the makeover."

Unique, too, was considering a makeover as she sat in her dreary apartment, which was paid for by her wealthy, important doctor-father, whom she accepted help from but hated. Unique was nude on her black bedspread, sorting through Polaroid photographs of various people she had savagely murdered over the years. She wasn't getting the usual excitement and sexual arousal from reliving her crimes, because she was a bit anxious. When she and Smoke had fled from the 7-Eleven last night, they had noticed a Mexican kid in a beat-up Grand Prix, and Unique had ordered Smoke to chase him. Unique had not bothered rearranging her molecules when she went inside the convenience store because it was very late and although she had noticed the Grand Prix, she didn't realize that its driver was nearby because the lights were out inside the pay phone booth. So Unique wasn't invisible when she blew out the clerk's brains and ran out of the store at the same moment the

Mexican bolted out of the phone booth and sped off in his car.

Smoke had not been able to catch the Grand Prix, and now Unique had to consider the possibility that there was someone out there who could describe her to the police. She stared at the gory photograph of T. T. and fantasized about straddling the body and slashing away with the box cutter while T. T. 's warm flesh and blood were consummated by Unique's Purpose and became part of her insatiable Darkness. Every one of Unique's victims became part of her being. The Nazi inside her had directed Unique long ago that this violently sexual transubstantiation, or her Purpose, was essential if the Nazi were to live, and if the Nazi died, then so would Unique.

Unique's frightening eyes roamed around her bedroom, taking in the cheap black furniture, black candles and incense, and the Nazi memorabilia she had begun acquiring through the Internet when she had pledged herself to destroy and consume people who did not deserve human existence according to her Purpose. She picked up another Polaroid and fantasized about the blond undercover cop whose identity she still did not know. But her Purpose would unite him with her soon enough, and although she had been invisible when she had first seen him inside the convenience store and then followed him home, she couldn't take a chance that he might somehow recognize her. What if the Mexican boy gave her description to him?

Unique got up from the bed and looked at herself in the full-length mirror. Her naked skin shimmered, and she shook her long raven-black hair before she began hacking it off with a box cutter. Hair fell all around her bare feet and the Nazi directed her to dye what was left a pale blond that was almost white and change her plan about refusing to go with Smoke to the race tomorrow night. Unique had intended to consummate her Purpose with the blond cop while the road dogs were pretending to be a pit crew, but now things had changed. If only she could find that Mexican boy and slash him into eternal silence. But maybe it was too late. Maybe he had already given her description to the police.

"Show me, " she softly said to her Darkness. "Show me the Purpose. "

"You will find your Purpose, " she answered herself in a different voice that was deep and unearthly.

"Yes. " She smiled at herself in the mirror as her craving became intense. "Soon. Soon, " she said to the blond cop. "Soon you will have a unique experience. "

Twenty-six

I feel right qualmish, " Fonny Boy told the pilots through his headset as he and Dr. Faux shivered and felt airsick in the back of the Jayhawk. "I'm of a mind when I scudded along on my losipe and went ass-over-tin-cup and fell in my own spew. "

The sad childhood story about Fonny Boy flying along on his tricycle and taking a spill and throwing up on himself was lost on the Coast Guard crew, who had been smart enough to radio NCIC for a record check and had discovered that the dentist they had just rescued was wanted for health-care fraud, money laundering, and racketeering. As for the strange-talking Tangier boy, he was in clear violation of maritime law and also wanted for kidnapping.

Of course, Andy had seen to it that warrants were taken out on Dr. Faux and Fonny Boy after Andy had visited Tangier Island disguised as a journalist and had gone through Fonny Boy's dental chart and later realized that when Fonny Boy had stated that the dentist was tied up, he had meant it literally. Recognizing that the two people the Coast Guard had just rescued were wanted by the state police, the pilot switched to the emergency frequency and radioed for any state police aircraft that might be up.

Macovich, having dumped Regina an hour earlier, happened to be giving Cat a helicopter lesson when the call came over the radio.

"Helicopter four-three-zero-Sierra-Papa," Macovich tensely replied as Cat jerked the twin-engine helicopter into a hover. "I didn't say lift the pedal, I said left pedal, " Macovich admonished him through their headsets, and in Macovich's confusion, he pressed the transmit button on his cyclic and his instruction was heard by hundreds of area pilots, including the Coast Guard. "If you lift the left pedal, it's the same thing as pushing the right pedal, and how many times I gotta tell you that? And see what happens? The chopper noses 'round to the right, 'cause what you just did was give it right pedal since you lifted the left pedal. Don't you remember what I told you about torque?"

Cat was sweating and not at all interested in aerodynamics. He just wanted to learn whatever was necessary to fly the helicopter himself. He didn't give a damn about getting his license or abiding by any FAA regulations, because he was fairly sure that once he and the road dogs escaped to Tangier Island, they would sell the Bell 430 to pirates in Canada and never have another worry. Six million dollars, he thought as he overcontrolled and caused the helicopter to oscillate precariously over the tarmac.

"Helicopter zero-Sierra-Papa." A voice came back to Macovich. "You're on one-twenty-four-point-five, " which was the emergency frequency. "Switch to one-twenty-five-nothing. "

Macovich switched as he struggled with the controls and yelled at Cat while unwittingly pressing the transmit button again. "Set it back down. Easy, easy! Don't hunt for the ground. Just let it settle. Jesus Christ, don't jerk the collective up at the last second!"

The helicopter popped back up into the air and then set down again hard, bouncing on its wheels as the tail boom swung around and almost hit a power cart. Macovich yelled for Cat to take his hands and feet off the controls.

"It's my ship!" Macovich fought to steady the aircraft. "It's my ship! Let go of the fucking controls, you son of a bitch! That's it! I ain't giving you another lesson ever! It ain't worth it!"