Then they were in the air, and speeding towards the west.
* * * * *
Ron Carver watched the back of the young boy's neck for twenty minutes,
while he steered the ancient copter expertly across the skies. He
figured that the boy might have been fourteen or fifteen, but there
was a competence in the way his hands moved over the controls, and a
steeliness in the way his head sat on his thin neck.
They didn't make much conversation, but Ron gathered that the boy was a
member of something called the Red Rockets, an organization with some
inexplicable purpose.
It was only after the copter had landed on the roof of a half-decayed
slum in the worst part of town, that Ron realized who the Red Rockets
were. They were kids, all of them, banded together for mutual defense
and in common antagonism toward the world. When he clambered out of the
copter, his rescuer grinned and said:
"This is it, pal. This is where the gang meets."
"The Red Rockets?"
"Yeah. This is Shock's house. He's the leader."
They had to descend by stairs; there was no building elevator. When
they reached the second floor, the boy put a finger to his lips, and
rapped one-two, two-two on the apartment door.
A boy no older than Ron's new body opened it. His dark pinched face
grew smaller and darker when he saw the stranger. He looked back into
the room before letting them in.
The room was a study in decay. Someone had once wallpapered it in an
optimistic pink pattern that was now sardonic in the surroundings. The
furniture was rudimentary, and there were no working light fixtures. A
battery lamp was sitting in the middle of a wooden table, and three
youngsters were playing with a ragged deck of cards.
The tallest of them arose when the newcomers entered. He was the only
one wearing a jacket; the others were in shirtsleeves. His hair was
black, and unruly to the point of being ludicrous. His wide mouth
twisted when he spoke.
"Who's this?" he said. "What's the idea?"
"He's okay," Ron's protector said. "He's an okay kid. I spotted him on
a rooftop down on Park. A million cops after him. I dropped down in the
copter and picked him up."