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in a big transport truck filled
with explosives. The Iraq capital was in shambles. Huge craters
pockmarked the streets, the windows of the buildings were
shattered, and hollow-eyed citizens stared suspiciously from the
shadows.
    Abdul didn't seem to care, however. "You get
used to it, Billy," he said, smoking a Turkish cigarette.
"Sometimes I forget the peace my people once had. Of course, it was
under the bloody regime of an arrogant dictator. We're all happy to
be rid of the old bastard, but that's beside the point."
    "Where are we going, Abdul?" asked Billy.
    "To perform a holy mission," smiled the
terrorist. "In other words, to kick some ass for Allah."
    Billy saw their destination a moment later.
It was a large building surrounded by reinforced concrete walls. An
American flag flapped from a pole in the inner compound and two
soldiers holding rifles stood on guard at the gateway.
    Abdul laughed heartily. "Peace-keeping fools!
They're not even real soldiers... just weekend warriors caught up in
a foolish war. This is going to be fun." He eyed the boy with a
grin. "How about it, little man? Let us both meet Allah
together."
    "Sorry, Abdul," said Billy. He got out of the
truck and slammed the door. "Sure, the explosions are pretty cool...
but I draw the line at suicide."
    "Suit yourself," shrugged Abdul. A fanatical
smile split his dark face as he floored the accelerator and sent
the truck roaring toward the front gate.
    Billy watched as Abdul crashed the gates,
then slammed headfirst into the front of the makeshift
headquarters. Instantly, the world turned into flame. Billy
shielded his eyes as the air filled with a hail of stone, shrapnel,
and body parts.
    After the dust had settled, Billy picked up a
bloody combat helmet and wandered through the devastation. It was
kind of like an Easter egg hunt, trying to see how many dog tags he
could find glittering amid the rubble.
    "Let's play doctor," suggested Billy with a
mischievous grin.
    Mary Sue Thompson from next door sat in the
clubhouse with him, still looking a little sad over her
disemboweled poodle, Pierre. "I don't want to."
    "Come on. I'll show you mine if you'll show
me yours. Aren't you the least bit curious?"
    Mary Sue eyed him shyly. She wondered if what
her girlfriends at school said was true, that boys had something
down there that girls didn't. "Well, okay. But you're next."
    "Sure," said Billy, flashing a charming smile
of boyish innocence. He closed the shutters of the clubhouse
windows, until the interior was cloaked in warm shadows.
    He watched as Mary Sue turned her back to him
and bashfully began to undress. Billy felt a strange giddiness
overcome him; the same feeling he had experienced with the dogs,
only stronger. His heart pounded in his chest as he reached into
his back pocket and withdrew the linoleum knife he had liberated
from Dad's toolbox in the garage.
    "You know," he said, "some people thought
Jack the Ripper was a doctor."
    Mary Sue was too engrossed in undoing the
buttons of her blouse to pay him much attention. "Jack who ?"
    Billy smiled. He would have liked for the
statement to have sparked some sort of horrified response from the
girl just before he put the blade in. But real life was not like a
horror movie and he took her ignorance with a grain of salt.
    John Wayne Gacy hid twenty-nine bodies
beneath his Chicago home.
    Billy Brooks wondered how many he could bury
beneath the clubhouse before anyone noticed the smell.
     

PINS AND
NEEDLES
     
    "There you go, kids," said Stephen Zachary.
He tossed the last pieces of candy into the bags of the
trick-or-treaters and smiled down at them. They were a cute pair,
brother and sister. The girl was dressed up like a Tennessee Titans
cheerleader, while the boy was decked out in an Incredible Hulk
costume.
    "Thanks, mister," they said in unison. Then
they headed back down the sidewalk to where their parents' car
waited on the Nashville street.
    Zachary stared down at the empty bowl in his
hands and