Summary

In Chapter 18, Frank and Emmett dismiss Grady's suggestion, then react “as if I had somehow given them permission” (194). Frank says they cannot tell anyone, and that they cannot get out of the car regardless of what happens. The boys agree. Emmett seems worried, but does not object. Frank takes them off the main road. They encounter a military group that refuses to let them pass, even after Frank shows his Thunderbird patch. Frank curses and drives away fast, though Emmett urges him to slow down because of the boys in the car. Frank makes a derogatory remark about the National Guard, but Emmett says the boys do not need to hear that. Much later in life, Grady would do research about Frank's time in the military. His division liberated 30,000 people in a prison camp, finding hundreds of corpses piled up. The Thunderbirds had...