59 pages • 1 hour read
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Katie and Libby wrap their weapons in some clothes from Nonna Giana’s house and then make their way through the streets of the town back to the Range Rover, avoiding detection by locals or police. They find the fox waiting for them, and Katie is struck by his beauty, which seems like an important truth in the world. They drive slowly out of the town, which is starting to wake up to the aftermath of the nearby bomb.
A flashback reveals Katie, only three days after losing Avi, welcoming a visitor. Sudi is a former Marine whom Avi entrusted with important information to be delivered to Katie in the case of his death. Sudi gives Katie a package of materials that Avi collected, instructing Katie on how to best disappear and claim a new identity if she ever needs to. Sudi tells Katie that a lion is not a coward if it backs away from crocodiles. Katie memorizes the packet of information and burns it.
Katie and Libby talk about their strategy for disappearing and agree to become mother and daughter, which makes Libby happy. A man at a truck stop interrogates them about Michael J., whom they claim is a dog. Farther down the road, they switch the plates on the Range Rover to keep the man from sending authorities after them.
They finally hear news about the explosion, which claims that it was an accident caused by a natural gas pipeline. Libby wonders how anyone will believe this when there is so much evidence to the contrary, but Katie is cynical about how much dedication people have to the truth and says that anything on the internet can be erased or falsified.
They head toward Nevada to a contact that Avi gave Katie where they can get forged documents. They discuss where they would like to live after this. At a big box store, Katie is accidentally filmed while walking through a crowd of protesters. She finds clothing and supplies for Libby and herself and leaves the store without more attention, but she feels anxious and unhappy about the state of human rationality. The fact that people took videos of her to post online makes her feel as though she’s in the jaws of an invisible vise.
Katie gives Libby several paper maps, saying that they are not going to use Google to navigate anymore. They find a cheap hotel and stop for the night. Libby tells Katie that she loves her as she falls asleep, and Katie is stunned by the gift of love and a new daughter. She has terrible nightmares about her own daughters and their murderers and wakes up to hear Libby crying. She comforts Libby in the night and falls asleep again, thinking about the mysteries of loss and hope and grace.
At a diner the next day, Katie and Libby make friends with the owner, feeling connected to humankind and hopeful about their future even as they lie about their identities. However, as they are checking out, Katie sees footage of herself on the television screen behind the cashier. She is being framed in the media as a suspect in the murder of Rice and Zenon.
Back in the car, Libby gives Katie a pep talk. They decide to go directly to Kentucky, to a place that Avi set up for Katie to receive help, instead of driving all the way to Nevada. Katie asks Libby to be the navigator and tells her about the people who will shelter them, Spencer and Marion, the parents of one of Avi’s fellow Marines. They have just over 500 miles to go, and Katie feels anxious about that distance but decides to remain optimistic for Libby’s sake.
Things go smoothly on their drive, but Katie is racked with anxiety every time she sees a police car or a drone. They finally stop for gas at an out-of-the-way service station run by a kindly old man. Libby and Katie are getting supplies and bantering with the man when two other men enter the store. They bear an atmosphere of menace, and Katie knows instantly that they are there hunting her. The old man senses their danger, too, and tries to put the men off, but they shoot him in the head.
The men threaten Katie and Libby, asking them where they are heading. Katie tells them that they haven’t decided that yet, but the men don’t accept this lie. They press her, saying that they need to know what she’s told other people and claim that they want to take Katie and Libby in themselves to claim all the glory. They threaten to rape Libby, and Katie realizes that she has something they don’t know about: grit, courage, and, most importantly, a weapon. She decides to pretend to be scared and weak, agreeing to help them, but pulls out her holstered gun and shoots both men. Katie and Libby escape the store and take the old man’s Ford. They drive it away. Katie runs through many scenarios in her mind but reasons that no one may know about their location if the two agents didn’t call for backup in their attempt to claim the credit. She calls Spencer, who urges her to come to his house right away. When they enter the property, they are greeted by the tranquil beauty and safety of a Kentucky horse farm.
Katie and Libby are safe and have taken new names and identities. Spencer and Marion have taken them in under the pretense that Katie was the lover of their deceased son and that Libby is their heretofore-unknown grandchild. The two enjoy a vibrant, loving country life with this family. Katie continues painting but prefers to paint animals now, with her favorite subject being Michael J. Two years after the events at Ringrock, Katie marries Spencer and Marion’s other son, James, and Libby finally has two parents who love her. Katie often walks around the farm with Michael J. at her heels, talking to the fox about good and evil, loss and love. She sees the fox as an intermediary between her and the universe. She tells him that her new life is not an ending but a beginning and that her old house on Jacob’s Ladder has become this new house where she enjoys her life.
In “Part 9: Aftermath,” Katie and Libby are fully back in the human world. Koontz juxtaposes this setting with the isolation of Jacob’s Ladder. Goodness exists here; the first evidence of that is the fox, whose beauty seems to Katie to be “the truth of the world” (353). Koontz mobilizes the trope of pioneers going west to create a new life when the three of them head west toward a new future. However, the focus is not on spatial exploration but on human connection. Katie and Libby share their love for each other, and more moments of human connection—with a woman at a diner and a man at a convenience store—are further evidence for Katie that not all people are bad and that life can be simple and good again. The number of secondary characters contrasts with the limited number of characters and perspectives on Jacob’s Ladder at the beginning, reflecting Katie’s desire to live among people again.
However, there is other evidence that a latent impulse to control is still present in human nature. A man who questions Katie and Libby intently about why they have a fox makes Katie feel too observed. Later, Katie encounters protestors at a big box store and sees, in them, an impulse toward bullying and intimidation. The novel’s final conflict, a stand-off between Katie and Libby and two men who want to turn them in to the government for a reward, reveals the same violence and evil that pervades the novel. When they threaten Libby sexually and make jokes about younger girls, Koontz draws comparisons between them and Lupo, Hamal, and Parker, as well as Moloch itself, which consumes without remorse. These characters embody The Irrationality of Evil. When Katie kills them, she sees herself as “the embodiment of justice” (398), a change from the woman she was at the beginning of the novel who did not believe in justice.
The final chapter of the novel shows Katie and Libby obtaining the good, simple life that they have fought to build together. Katie, connected to other people through love and family bonds, no longer mistrusts everyone or seeks impossible answers about the problem of evil. Instead, she finds fulfillment in the study of beauty, which is found in animals like Michael J. and also “in those people who have not chosen darkness” (405). The novel hence ends by presenting The Role of Beauty in the Search for Meaning.
By Dean Koontz