Krishna
We have reviewed a great man books by this author earlier. See Finders Keepers or Fairy Tale for just two examples.
Like many of this other books, this one mixes some supernatural abilities with taut storytelling of a thriller.
Let us dive straight into the story.
A man and a girl child called Charlie are running in New York City, away from a green car. Two men are following him. Last minute, the man, named Andy, finds a taxi. He pushes and makes the cab driver ignore calls saying ‘Police’ and then hands him a one dollar note, ‘pushing’ the cab driver into believing that it is a five hundred dollar note and asking him to take them to Albany.
He had pulled Charlie out of class and had run off. He seems to have escaped now. But the push results in searing pain, nausea and a lasting headache.
He reminisces about ‘foolishly’ joining an experiment for the sake of $200 but meeting Vicky there – and falls in love and marries her.
Meanwhile they go to the airport but the ‘bad men’ follow them there and so they have to run away. With his weakened state and crushing headache, Charlie is vulnerable.
They manage to get a taxi (and move away) and find a hotel to sleep that night.
When a kindhearted man takes them to his house and questions Andy, Andy tries to tell him the truth but he does not believe Andy. Charlie comes back and predicts that they are closing in. Andy asks her to defend them as Charlie knows that they want to kill Andy and take her away.
What follows is a devastating scene and they are forced to withdraw. A chastened driver, now fully believing, gives him his Jeep and asks them to get out. He goes to his father’s house which is empty and isolated to rest.
He remembers the time when he had a premonition that his family was in danger and ran to the house, to find Vicky killed and Charlie abducted.
He then gets through his hunch to the gas station and meets Charlie with two of the kidnappers. One of them drops the gun when Andy ‘pushes’ him that the gun was red hot – he even gets blisters on the hand. The other one is told that he is blind. Then Andy drives away.
Old story, but equally interesting. When he gets the bright idea to write all to the newspapers etc and post it in the next village, a ‘village idiot’ phones in and the post is ‘taken away’ to the man who is in control of the experiment: Cap, short for Captain.
John Rain meets the Cap and tells Cap that he has all the dirty secrets of The Shop with him. If anything happened, they will all be released. Cap knows he is trapped. John Rain wants the two captured and wants to make Charlie perform her feat and then kill her slowly. Cap agrees. They tranquilize both Andy and Charlie and keep them both drugged and powerless until they need them to do experiments. However, John tries to gain Charlie’s friendship so that ‘he can crack open her secrets in the brain’ before he kills her.
She trusts him after a power failure but also notices short strange things about him that she does not pay much attention to. In the same night, the power failure makes Andy miss his ‘happiness medication’ and that night, he subconsciously ‘pushes’ himself to stay off them. He realizes that he has got his ‘push’ back and first uses it on his trainer. That man commits suicide and then Andy pushes Cap himself. Successfully. And hatches a plan.
Meanwhile the incredibly clever John Rain realizes that Charlie is not warm enough “to the janitor” and wonders why. He unravels Andy’s plan and then he inserts himself into the scene to meet them both when they least expect it. Andy had warned Charlie (through a culpable Captain and a note) about the ‘friendly one eyed janitor’ who is the mastermind of the entire operation to capture them and bring them over to The Shop.
So John Rain hides in the stable at the time he knew Charlie and Andy were to meet there under a Captain under Andy’s influence and decides to poop the party.
He almost succeeds but the story goes on towards its brilliant and action packed end. It is pure exhilaration to read.
Another good book from the master storyteller.
8/10
— Krishna