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I said, "And then when those all-A turn into monsters, what happens then?"

Aain err on the side of not letting people be murdered You take the choice in front of you And then you keep picking the non- as you can"

I said, "And that is why I wanted you to stay home"

John said, "We have to shut down their cell phone jammer Twenty-thousand cell phones and cameras and Internet connections will suddenly blink to life Then people can call and e-mail and upload videos and that’ll be that, the lid will be off their whole charade"

It took ure out what John had said because he pronounced it "sha-rod"

Amy said, "Then the president will realize he can’t bo a bunch of votes next election"

I said, "Setting aside the fact thathave less than an hour to accounned down the , do you have any way to find out where the jammer even is?"

"Well, I think there’s only one place it can be It needs line of sight, right?"

"Okay"

"So it needs to be soet it"

"Where’s that?"

"Well it’d be soht? For the saht?"

"It needs to be at the highest point"

"Oh"

"Because the gravity pushes the water down and that’s what ht I absolutely knew that before right now"

John said, "Shit,it That big-ass black semi they had parked out there They had it in place the first day So, fine, let’s go fuck that shit up"

To Carlos, Amy said, "Can you lead us out of here? We don’t have a flashlight"

45 Minutes Until the Aerial Bo of Undisclosed

We spilled out of the elevator onto the first floor Carlos and Anna stayed behind, Carlos holding the door open

I said, "I don’t want this to coht consider trying to get out of town Just, you know, on the tiny chance that the three of us are unable to thwart the plans of theforce on the planet"

Carlos shook his head "Got people I can’t leave behind We’re all counting on you now Including little Anna here"

Goddamnit

We turned and headed for the front door I noticed that Molly stayed behind with Anna I wondered if she hadn’t chosen the better team

In the lobby, John said, "Stop" To Amy, he said, "We need you to open the box for us"

I said, "No Oh, no"

"We got no choice, Dave"

"Absolutely not, John I thought ere toting this around just to et it It would be irresponsible to--"

"To what? Risk da to blow all this to hell If there was ever a tireen mystery box on the floor

Outside, thunder rumbled