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These summer sons, few as they were, were not entirely noiseless

Declan Lynch’s dors, but it was still handsome with money It was a remnant from the seventies, a technicolor decade the Gray Man had enormous fondness for The front door was meant to be accessible only with key code, but someone had propped it open with a rubber door stopper The Gray Man clucked in disapproval A locked door wouldn’t have kept hiht that counted

Actually, the Gray Man wasn’t certain he believed that It was the deed that counted

Inside, the dorm offered the neutral-toned welcome of a decent hotel From behind one of the closed doors, a Colu seductive and violent It wasn’t the Gray Man’s sort of lanced at the door The dorlionby were not numbered Instead, each door bore an attribute the administration hoped its students would walk aith This door was labeled Mercy It was not the one the Gray Man was looking for

The Gray Man headed in the opposite direction, reading doors (Diligence, Generosity, Piety) until he got to Declan Lynch’s Effervescence

The Gray Man had been called effervescent, once, in an article He was fairly certain it was because he had very straight teeth Even teeth seemed to be a prerequisite for effervescence

He wondered if Declan Lynch had good teeth

There was no sound co from behind the door He tried the doorknob, softly Locked Good boy, he thought

Down the hall, the music pounded like the apocalypse The Gray Man checked his watch The rental car place closed in an hour and if he despised anything, it was public transportation This would have to be brief

He kicked in the door

Declan Lynch sat on one of the two beds inside He was very handsouished roman nose

He had excellent teeth

"What’s this?" he said

By way of answer, the Gray Man picked Declan up off his bed and slaainst the adjacentThe sound was curiouslyfroainst the sill But then he was back up and fighting He wasn’t a shoddy boxer, and the Gray Man could tell that he expected this surprise to give hie

But the Gray Man had known before he arrived that Niall Lynch had taught his sons to box The only thing the Gray Man’s father had taught hiht Declan was skilled, but the Gray Man was more so He tossed the boy about his dorm room and used Declan’s shoulder to sweep awards and credit cards and car keys froainst a draas indistinguishable fro, s from beneath him, hurled him to the wall by the piece of furniture, and then approached for another round, pausing only to pick up a motorcycle helmet that had rolled into the middle of the floor

With a sudden burst of speed, Declan used the dresser to haul hiun from a drawer

He pointed it at the Gray Man

"Stop," he said simply He flicked off the safety

The Gray Man had not expected this

He stopped

Several different emotions battled for precedence on Declan’s face, but shock was not one of theun was not for the possibility of an attack; it was for the eventuality of one

The Gray Man considered what itfor your door to be kicked in Not pleasant, he thought Probably not pleasant at all

He didn’t think Declan Lynch would balk at shooting him There was no hesitation in his stance His hand treht that was from injury, not fear

The Gray Man considered for a moment, then he hurled the hel but noise The helers, and while he was still stunned, the Gray Man stepped forward and plucked the gun from his numb hand He took a moment to put the safety back on

Then the Gray Man sainst Declan’s cheek He did it a few tiet his point across

Finally, he allowed Declan to sink to his knees The boy was holding on to consciousness quite valiantly With his shoe, the Gray Man pressed hiround, and then eased hi fan Blood ran out of his nose

The Gray Man knelt and pressed the barrel of the gun to Declan’s stoasped for air Tracing the gun over the boy’s right kidney, he said conversationally, "If I shot you here, it would take you twenty minutes to die, and you’d be done no matter what the medics did for you Where is the Greywaren?"