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I had no idea what the question or answer meant, but noasn’t the time to ask

"Did the wolves enter the campsite from the same direction each time?" Kem shook his head no "Can you track both trails?" Ke his shoulder blades "One trail is going to be harder to follow?" Kem nodded "The older one," Rick said Kem nodded "Now?"

This tile sinuous swirl, leaped over his own shoulder in a motion that appeared to defy the physical laws, and headed into the laurel thicket I looked at Grizzard "Co?"

"Not this time" He turned hard eyes at Rick "You’re that cop from New Orleans, the one PsyLed called esture oddly like Ke For now, I have a cri, call I’ll find you" Grizzard turned his back and staue

"PsyLed called him?" I asked

"First I heard about it Come on We have a cat to chase"

By four pry, and probably permanently deaf The constant rain was a white noise that drowned out every other sound, a steady, deadening, deafening roar that only got louder e had to cross swollen strea round like heavy gauze, hiding puddles, runnels, holes, roots, protruding rocks, and ruts Laurel and rhodo thickets hadbent over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and my palms were torn and blistered and wrinkled up like raisins The as traitorous, delicate and war us with cold the next

Not even Gortex is designed to resist a hurricane, andtest Even ht several pounds of raw steaks in his backpack for Keh-cal trail mix for us If not for the nuts, coconut, and dried tropical fruit, I’d have been teross and stupid

To make the experience more wretched, as far as I could tell, ere lost I had no idea what the leopard had discovered We hadn’t seen a real road--one paved in the last century--in hours, and we had crawled up and down steep slopes until east and ere alien concepts, even for me If Kem wanted to lead us out into unknown territory and leave us to die, he couldn’t have found a better place for it Gru fro Once ere upon them, they resolved into our vehicles I lay across the hood and panted, , bad va mass of feave him shut him up and he backed away, pal The first ti about the way he backed off, with a confident swagger I hadn’t seen before, suggested that now I ht not have it so easy

I crawled into the SUV and turned the seat warh, the heater on max, and the windshield warmer on I sat in a miserable heap and shivered until the interior was toasty and my core temp started to warht keep ed fleece blanket, and a pair of cargo pants left balled in a corner by God-knoho The scent wasn’t fa been used as a towel to wipe a reasy hands, but I stripped and pulled theet body lice or worse The blanket, I ripped a head hole in with a screwdriver and tore a ribbon off one end to use as a belt I was just barely presentable when a huot into the vehicle with er seat, his feet ondry clothes, looked -sized Snickers bar After the laugh, I should have refused on principle but I took it and started chewing

Keh he accepted a Snickers as well, and ate it in huge, half-chewed bites He opened another, gesturing with it in what sounded like a non sequitur in his elegant African accent "The grindylow no longer function according to its previous and proper purpose It should be able to track the olves once it has taken their hu before now It isn’t, it hasn’t Its scent pattern has change in hich I awhat appears to be"--he stopped, as if unable to find the right word--"nothing Perhaps it isresting"

The en to the little green-skinned grindy "They don’t rest?"

"No Never Not as long as huer Perhaps it isill" But he didn’t look fearful, Kerindylow had killed Ke to infect Rick Kem hoped he’d die

I frowned, adjusted the blower atunder rindy didn’t stop the weres in New Orleans fro him" Rick went utterly still, and I could suddenly s fro