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Not that she was legally considered human anymore
The voice seely close "Hey, sugar, where you goin’?"
Bryn spun, gun in a firing stance, just as soed at her fro halt, the ar," she said "Sit your ass down on the floor, cross-legged, hands behind your head Now"
He sank down and couessed, and definitely high, froht bea faded surplus military khakis under layers of coats and dirt-stiff scarves ‘"Sup?" he mumbled "Just tryin’ to be friendly"
"Yeah, I can see how friendly you want to be by the bulge in your pants Just your way of saying hi? Stay down" Bryn took three giant steps back, and then paused She was leaving a hundred thousand in cash sitting there with a homeless would-be rapist If she turned her back, he and it would surely be gone "Okay, I’ to take a walk"
"A walk?" He went fro to pathetic in the blink of an eye, and raised his hands over his head "Please don’t killto kill you Stand up I can’t leave you here"
"It’s ets took"
"Get up, now, or I proain"
He scrambled up, aith fear, and she knew this wasn’t the first tiun pointed at hi, and his posture was totally submissive
"Walk," she said, and circled around so that his path was clear and not within grabbing distance of her
Her captive shambled out, hands raised, and she followed, careful not to close the distance as he slowed down "Move Head for the fence" He glanced back, and she noticed soht Still dilated, but …
Contacts He earing some kind of costu the reat disguise, and she’d almost completely fallen for it
"Wait," she said, but that tipped hily fast, out of the beaht off--had to, to use the starlight effectively--but it took tie, and in the second or two required, he just … vanished
Bryn backed up toward the building, then plunged inside and turned the penlight on to illuain, raw and aar You can handle yourself"
"Show yourself!" she yelled "I don’t do business with jackasses in clownin reply but echoes, but she heard a scrape fro in her head, and she knew the sroup, wait for backup … but he was going to get away clean if she did I had hiun in his face
She also knew that she’d never be able to identify hily hair, the clothes, the contacts hiding his real eye color First rule of disguise was to distract, and he’d done it brilliantly, right down to the sube
There was another scrape, behind her, and she whirled with her gun ready and braced She wasn’t going to take another chance, not this ti a bullet center mass in Joe Fideli’s chest
He held his hands out to the sides, his gun pointed up, until she ca stance She started to speak, but he shook his head, and she fell back into one He pointed at the penlight, and she clicked it off, and for a moment she felt claustrophobic, swarh to make out shadows and shapes
Then Fideli went in the direction she’d indicated He moved like the very best combat soldiers she’d worked with, or watched--smooth, calm, no wasted , whether it was Arers or Navy SEALs or Marine Recon… Bryn felt unavoidably cluh the hallway, stepping over and around obstacles and trash as best she could There was a faint clink fro? Fideli held up a clenched fist, and she stopped, nerves crawling After a few seconds, he indicated for her to wait, and he glided a fewthe exposed point where the hallway elassy silence Fideli hit the floor, return-firing from a prone position, and Bryn decked it, too, to avoid any ricochets It was over in a couple of seconds Her ears were still ringing fro feet so position, but he keyed a throatfor the north fence--" He coughed, and rolled over on his back "And I took one," he added "Call nine-one-one, Bryn"
She saw the dark stain of blood on the filthy floor, and for a second she couldn’t react at all--and then it all snapped together, and she flung herself across to him and pulled his jacket back, then ripped open his shirt