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"If the shoe fits" Graht
"Go!" Gra us away "You could have stayed and had junk food and played pool Now that’s a respectable pursuit of one’s tiet Jade out ofFest where they broke out all the girl accouterot scarce I just wanted to do a quick check
Grauys stumbled into the driveway, the rain was a steady drizzle but it’d still soak you to the skin It was deceptive: rain in Washington et
Hardy har-har
"Spill it, chafro doorinned "You’re such a morose kid, pal"
I smiled "Yeah"
"You’ve had so much excite: conditioned for chaos"
I nodded s had understood that when the bell rang, they’d get their supper So they’d start drooling at just the chi down that was A) always bizarre, B) usually dangerous and C), a personal favorite, life-changing
Things were calaze out the hen pewter clouds for storm But not a leaf stirred, the wind only a pro and I didn’t know froain?" he asked, screwing his eyebrows together
I nodded I had a little half-point Precog thing happening It wasn’t enough to really do anything with It was just enough to
"You’re econo up at me now that I o inches taller
I was I spoke when it mattered
"Yeah well, that’s okay People can wonder if you’re stupid but let’s not speak and remove all the doubt"
He clapped et ht?"
I did "Yeah Thanks Gra
It surprised hi what I felt but he saw it on otworse with
I wanted to see Jade
Needed to
I slid into the Ca down and Jonesy said, "Coo see what the chicks are doing"
Yeah
John’s eyes ave a nod
Tiff had a rainbow of healing going on above her eyes The knot was gone but the haunted look in her eyes re story
But as happening? Was there some kind of domestic violence bullshit in the Weller household? That didn’t agree e knew
It was confusing as hell
As my eyes met John’s I relaxedmost of it to John without words Tiff was someone he wanted to worry about And he had that look on his face When ere little kids he’d get that same look on his face, a look of quiet introspection
He was puzzling through so
Terran hadn’t met a puzzle he couldn’t solve
So whatever Tiff was hiding, it wouldn’t be hidden for long
John’s solving wheels were turning and they wouldn’t stop spinning until he figured it out
That ti
Sooner than any of us knew
CHAPTER 6
now
Jeffrey Parker
"I won’t do it," Jeffrey said in a flat voice
"You’ve screwed things six ways to Sunday, Parker Now," Gary Zondorae’s eyes drilled Parker to the spot "I have the word from our boys that steer the helain"
Jeffrey didn’t want the boy touched He knew from their covert surveillance that Caleb’s life had actually come to some sort of crazy balance
Parker answered the question with one of his own, "What about Frazier?"
Joe looked at his brother then again at Parker "We’re not sure but he’s rid"
Well wasn’t that a clusterfuck, Jeffrey thought He was beyond rogue The brothers’ little experi around, absorbed into the populace
Or perhaps he was absorbing the populace Jeffrey raked a hand through his hair, huffing out an exasperated sigh
"That has to be a level thirteen priority," Jeffrey announced, his eyes shifting between the corrupt sibling pair
Level Thirteen was a total clean Eli
Gone
Joe nodded "Oh yes, he is slated for Thirteen" Then he added, "He has to be found first"
Parker sighed again, scrubbing his face "You’re the scientists," he said in exasperation "Tag a Locator to his duave a snort "Let irl back to this world" He raised his eyebrows and was ard "Then that idiot Manipulative that you created somehow escaped into this world? If he’d been left in the Sphere-world ould not have to deal with his to mind another horror story" Jeffrey paused for effect "Those criifted with abilities they shouldn’t have What are you going to do about that?"
Gary looked uncomfortable but thatthese two chumps accountable "Mark Jones destroyed the pathith his Electroan in a whine
"Whatever," Parker said dismissively "I know if you could easily construct another that you would But you just don’t know exactly how you began it, do you boys? You used a ripple in the space/time continuum, snatched DNA from a people you should have never been able to know existed, spliced it all to hell, and injected the nation’s children with a cocktail that has now coant asses"