Opening
The concert crowd glows like a galaxy of phones as joy, fear, and fate collide at the Mingo Auditorium. While a mother and daughter sway to the music, three unlikely allies race the clock to stop a killer hidden in plain sight. These chapters tighten the noose around the climax and shift the story’s center of gravity toward the most unexpected hero.
What Happens
Chapter 136: The Concert Begins
The 'Round Here show kicks off late, and the Mingo Auditorium thrums with teenage anticipation. Tanya Robinson and her daughter, Barbara, ride the wave of noise as the emcee promises the opener and the headliner, Cam Knowles. When the lights drop, thousands of screens lift, casting a “pallid moonglow” that replaces the lighters of Tanya’s youth.
The opening band storms the stage, and Barbara ignores a buzzing call, swept up in the roar. Phones sway. Parents and kids become a single, ecstatic sea—none of them sensing the threat already seated among them. The innocence of the moment deepens the danger, turning an ordinary rite of adolescence into a powder keg.
Chapter 137: The Unlikely Associates Arrive
K. William Hodges, Jerome Robinson, and Holly Gibney bluff past a service entrance with Jerome posing as police. The thump of bass confirms Hodges’s worst fear: Brady Hartsfield is inside, and no one has stopped the show. Head custodian Jamie Gallison meets them. Holly flashes on Taxi Driver and says Brady might have shaved his head to change his look; Hodges remembers the hair in Deborah Hartsfield’s sink.
A simple haircut won’t carry a bomb through security, though—and Hodges spots a deeper vulnerability. The event’s reliance on radios, useless with the cell networks jammed, exposes a fatal flaw tied to Technology and Modern Crime. When Gallison offers to radio security chief Larry Windom, Hodges and Holly shut it down—if Brady senses a panic, he’ll detonate. Hodges suddenly sees the path Brady must have taken and where he must be. He lowers himself onto a crate, knowing official channels can’t help now. It’s on them.
Chapter 138: The Wolf in the Fold
The narrative shifts to Brady, locked into his plan. He sits in the handicapped section in a wheelchair, hiding in the open and positioned for maximum casualties. He waits for the headliner’s big reveal to trigger “Thing Two.” His disguise crystalizes The Banality of Evil: he weaponizes pity to become invisible.
Brady scans his surroundings constantly. He notes a young Black girl—Barbara Robinson—and briefly tries to place her. A girl in a wheelchair at his side attempts small talk, and Brady silently mocks her. The arena revels around him, but he remains cold and solitary, a solitary spark ready to set the celebration on fire.
Chapter 139: The Detective’s Last Stand
Backstage, Hodges crumples onto a crate as pain tears through his chest and arm. He’s having a heart attack, the physical culmination of The Psychological Toll of Retirement and the cost of his obsession. He presses his father’s .38 into Jerome’s hand and sends his “team” forward—an act that terrifies him not just because Jerome is young, but because Jerome’s family sits out there in the line of fire.
Helpless, Hodges thinks of his pursuit of Brady and of Janelle "Janey" Patterson, whom he loved and lost. Mrs. Melbourne was right: monsters wear ordinary faces. With no time for cops or protocols, he chooses Vigilantism and Justice Outside the Law, trusting a teenager and a fragile-seeming woman to stop a mass murder. He can only wait—and hope.
Chapter 140: Jibba-Jibba’s Resolve
Holly’s past unfurls. In high school, during a stimming episode, a golden-boy senior, Mike Sturdevant, christens her “Jibba-Jibba,” a cruelty that triggers bullying and, eventually, hospitalization. Years later, a predatory boss sparks another collapse. A life of humiliation presses her to the margins, sealing a pattern of Loneliness and Isolation.
Now, as she and Jerome hurry behind Gallison through the service corridors, Holly connects Brady to her tormentors—not with panic but with focus. Pay you back, she thinks, the words cooling into purpose. When Gallison hesitates, she steps forward, voice steady: “Mister, we’re all you’ve got.” Her pain becomes armor. Gallison relents and leads them to a staircase that opens directly into the roaring auditorium.
Character Development
The spotlight shifts. With Hodges sidelined, agency flows to those who’ve been underestimated: a terrified teen and a woman reshaped by trauma. Brady’s mask hardens; Tanya and Barbara embody what’s at stake.
- Holly: Trauma reframed as fuel. She pivots from target to protector, embracing leadership and clarity under pressure.
- Hodges: From commander to witness. Forced to trust others, he confronts mortality and relinquishes control.
- Jerome: Fear collides with duty. Armed and trembling, he accepts responsibility with his family in harm’s way.
- Brady: Disguise equals strategy. Detached, watchful, and hateful, he readies himself to turn spectacle into slaughter.
Themes & Symbols
The chapters marshal a classic battle between ordinary goodness and predatory malice, yet the “good” isn’t institutional power. It’s flawed, frightened civilians. That reframing sharpens Good vs. Evil into a moral test of courage rather than authority, pulling heroism out of people who never expected to claim it.
Brady’s wheelchair disguise distills the banality of evil: harm cloaked in harmlessness. The jammed communications and backstage scramble underline how modern systems—so efficient in daily life—become brittle under stress, echoing earlier concerns about technology and crime. Holly’s history shows how isolation can both wound and fortify; her invisibility becomes tactical advantage. Vigilantism, born of urgency and failure of systems, carries risk and necessity in equal measure.
Key Quotes
“pallid moonglow”
- The phone-lit arena captures the concert’s collective innocence while foreshadowing disaster. It’s a sterile light—pretty, but cold—hinting that joy can be extinguished in an instant.
“Thing Two”
- Brady’s nickname for the bomb strips the device of humanity and stakes. By turning mass murder into a pet label, he reveals his childishness and moral vacancy.
“Jibba-Jibba”
- The slur that once crushed Holly becomes a touchstone for transformation. Naming the wound clarifies how her survival, not the insult, defines her.
“Mister, we’re all you’ve got.”
- Holly seizes authority in a crisis, converting private suffering into public courage. It’s the moment she steps from liability to leader.
“Pay you back.”
- Holly’s interior vow threads personal history into the mission. Stopping Brady isn’t just about saving strangers; it’s reclaiming herself from a lifetime of bullies.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters align every storyline at one volatile point: a packed arena on the verge of catastrophe. Hodges’s heart attack yanks the genre away from the lone-wolf savior and centers Holly, whose trauma-forged resolve becomes the book’s emotional engine. The authorities stand neutralized; improvisation rules. By the time Holly and Jerome reach the staircase, the novel has transformed from a hunt to a reckoning—where resilience, not rank, decides who lives.